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Reappointment Keeps Florida Parole Panel All-White

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The Associated Press

Published: August 13, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Parole Commission will remain all-white with the reappointment of an existing member Tuesday after a move to seek a more diverse slate of finalists failed.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet unanimously agreed to give Commissioner Frederick Dunphy a third six-year term and then voted 3-1 to make him chairman.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the only Cabinet Democrat, voted against elevating Dunphy to chairman.

Earlier, she wanted the panel to reject all three finalists and ask a screening committee to submit a new list, but she couldn't get a second from Crist or either of his two fellow Republicans.

Sink said the commission should have racial and gender diversity, noting that more than half of those who go before the panel are members of minority groups. The Parole Commission's other two members are white women.

Appointing another finalist, Lotta Vinson, deputy director of Santa Rosa County's Probation Department, would have given the commission racial diversity because she is black, but then it would have had no male representation.

The only black male among the finalists, state Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, withdrew his name earlier because he lacked the law enforcement background Crist and the Cabinet wanted.

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