Otto: Heavy hands in Tallahassee manhandle Fasano

Column

Last week the biggest debate in the Florida Senate centered on a plan to privatize 26 prisons and work camps in South Florida. Proponents say such an outsourcing could save $16 million to $30 million a year.

Critics say the number not only is less, but that privatization will displace more than 3,500 correctional workers. They add that the cost of paying off those workers will offset potential savings.

At the center of this is Sen. Mike Fasano, a Republican from New Port Richey who until last week was chairman of the budget subcommittee overseeing prisons. Senate President Mike Haridopolos stripped Fasano of the chairmanship, saying he was "not rowing in the same direction'' as his fellow senators.

You can understand that, can't you? I mean heaven forbid there be any discussion or debate about an issue. Let's just get rid of any dissent from the beginning.

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The move, by the way, means Fasano's spot will be taken by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale, who happens to be leading the pack to get resort casinos in Florida.

Fasano issued a news release saying, among other things, "No matter how big the bully in the schoolyard may be, if the loss of a chairmanship is the result of taking a stand for what is right, I wear that loss as a badge of honor.''

Fasano has been around. He first was elected to the House in 1994 and to the Senate in 2002. Although a Republican, he often goes his own way and doesn't mind taking the heat. He is scheduled to be term-limited out of office this year.

Indeed if you go back a little, it was his question about the Tallahassee federal courthouse that spurred the first "Taj Mahal'' investigation and reportedly got him in hot water with Haridopolos.

I caught up with Fasano as he was leaving Tallahassee to get back to New Port Richey for the weekend. "It concerns me," he said, "that the rules are changed and then bent and then circumvented, especially on a major policy decision like this. It is not the way government should work.

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"This is something that needs to be out in the open. Taxpayers need to know that they have spent half a billion dollars and are still paying off bonds and now a few politicians and their friends want to turn these facilities over to private interests who will make a profit at the expense of those same taxpayers.

"You hear a lot of numbers getting tossed around, but whatever numbers they come up with, it is significant that it is happening without a debate or public testimony and that the chairman can be fired. That's just immature leadership at best.''

Fasano is dead-on. It's not enough that this Legislature has been marked by a lack of leadership. But to see what passes for leaders acting like heavy-handed goons, not interested in open debate, is pathetic.