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1 STATE OF FLORIDA
CONSTITUTION REVISION COMMISSION
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COMMISSION MEETING
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DATE: November 12, 1997
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TIME: Commenced at 9:00 a.m.
11 Concluded at 9:30 a.m.
12 PLACE: The Senate Chamber
The Capitol
13 Tallahassee, Florida
14 REPORTED BY: MONA L. WHIDDON
KRISTEN L. BENTLEY
15 Court Reporters
Division of Administrative Hearings
16 The DeSoto Building
1230 Apalachee Parkway
17 Tallahassee, Florida
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1 APPEARANCES
2 W. DEXTER DOUGLASS, CHAIRMAN
3 CARLOS ALFONSO
CLARENCE E. ANTHONY
4 ANTONIO L. ARGIZ
JUDGE THOMAS H. BARKDULL, JR.
5 MARTHA WALTERS BARNETT
ROBERT M. BROCHIN
6 THE HONORABLE ROBERT A. BUTTERWORTH
KEN CONNOR
7 CHRIS CORR
SENATOR ANDER CRENSHAW (ABSENT)
8 VALERIE EVANS
MARILYN EVANS-JONES
9 BARBARA WILLIAMS FORD-COATES
ELLEN CATSMAN FREIDIN
10 PAUL HAWKES (EXCUSED)
WILLIAM CLAY HENDERSON (ABSENT)
11 THE HONORABLE TONI JENNINGS (ABSENT)
THE HONORABLE GERALD KOGAN
12 DICK LANGLEY
JOHN F. LOWNDES
13 STANLEY MARSHALL
JACINTA MATHIS
14 JON LESTER MILLS
FRANK MORSANI
15 ROBERT LOWRY NABORS (ABSENT)
CARLOS PLANAS
16 JUDITH BYRNE RILEY
KATHERINE FERNANDEZ RUNDLE
17 SENATOR JIM SCOTT (ABSENT)
H. T. SMITH
18 CHRIS T. SULLIVAN (ABSENT)
ALAN C. SUNDBERG
19 JAMES HAROLD THOMPSON
PAUL WEST
20 JUDGE GERALD T. WETHERINGTON
STEPHEN NEAL ZACK (ABSENT)
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PAT BARTON (ABSENT)
22 IRA H. LEESFIELD (ABSENT)
LYRA BLIZZARD LOGAN (ABSENT)
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1 PROCEEDINGS
2 (Quorum taken and recorded electronically.)
3 SECRETARY BLANTON: Quorum present, Mr. Chairman.
4 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: All right. I would like to ask
5 you to rise while the Rabbi Stanley Garfein from
6 Tallahassee will give the invocation. Would you all
7 please rise in the gallery and in the chamber.
8 RABBI GARFEIN: Dear God, with awe and deep humility
9 do I invoke your presence in the bright light of your
10 wisdom for the deliberations of this august and widely
11 respected Constitutional Revision Commission of our State
12 of Florida. For I know that in praying under governmental
13 auspices, I walk through a twilight zone of
14 constitutionality.
15 Let not my awkward efforts be used as any kind of
16 proof, neither as proof of the legal acceptability of
17 public prayer, nor as proof of your divine existence, nor
18 as proof of the righteousness of any controversial cause
19 whose advocates have pleaded before this Commission. For
20 who am I, what is my goodness and what is my power that I
21 should dare impose my words on the silence of these
22 special moments.
23 O thou who hearest prayer, receive my utterance as a
24 heartfelt supplication for the health and wholeness of the
25 members of this Commission and their families. Let them
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1 know, oh God, the gratitude of an appreciative public for
2 the time and energies they have devoted to the re-working
3 of our Florida Constitution.
4 And may we keep close to our hearts the memories of
5 two who labored in the vineyard of constitutional law,
6 Patricia Dore and Steven Goldstein, whose journeys ended
7 much too soon and whose influence should transcend the
8 grave.
9 Establish thou upon us the work of our hands, ye the
10 work of our hands established thou it. And if you will
11 please say amen.
12 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: I would like to call on
13 Commissioner Butterworth to come forward and lead us in
14 the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
15 (Pledge of Allegiance was had.)
16 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: We'll proceed now to the daily
17 order of business. Any communications?
18 READING CLERK: None on the desk, Mr. Chairman.
19 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Any introduction of proposals?
20 READING CLERK: None on the desk, Mr. Chairman.
21 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Reports of committees, I
22 recognize Commissioner Barkdull, chairman of the committee
23 on rules and administration.
24 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
25 Commissioners, you have on your desk a calendar for the
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1 three days that we are going to be here. And you will see
2 that, as you have been previously advised, that most of
3 today, or all of today really, is devoted to committee
4 meetings. There will be one group this morning and one
5 group this afternoon.
6 And the rules and calendar committee will meet at
7 5:00 to confirm the calendar for the session tomorrow
8 morning and tomorrow afternoon.
9 Tomorrow will be a full day of -- full session on
10 voting on issues, except we will adjourn by 4:00 at
11 special request of the Declaration of Rights committee to
12 have a committee meeting. The rules committee will, if
13 necessary, meet also at 5:00 tomorrow to establish a
14 calendar for a session on Friday. And on Friday we will
15 convene at 9:00 in the morning, and we will continue until
16 we have concluded the session business before it.
17 At this point in time, some of you have asked me, I
18 cannot tell you at what time we should conclude because I
19 do not know what the calendar will be until we take a look
20 at it both this afternoon and probably tomorrow afternoon.
21 Hopefully we will be able to get into substantial
22 substantive issues tomorrow and the next day and begin to
23 determine some issues preliminarily on the merits. Are
24 there any questions?
25 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Commissioner Barkdull, do you
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1 yield to Commissioner Kogan?
2 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: Yes, sir.
3 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: What do you mean --
4 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Speak in the mike, please,
5 Commissioner Kogan.
6 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: What do you mean by
7 preliminarily deciding on issues?
8 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: The rules indicate that until
9 a rule matter gets a full 22 votes it's not finally going
10 to go to the public.
11 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: Okay.
12 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: And the votes that are being
13 taken at this time are majority votes. If it doesn't
14 receive a majority, I assume, unless it's revised some
15 way, it will not further proceed. If it receives a
16 majority, it is a preliminary vote until such time it gets
17 the final 22 votes.
18 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: That's all I wanted to know,
19 thanks.
20 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: That clarifies that. Any further
21 questions to Commissioner Barkdull? All right, we have
22 some pleasant duties to perform today. Would former
23 Commissioner, now Judge Ben Overton, please accompany Jo
24 Dowling to the front of the platform here.
25 I'll tell you what, Judge, come up here so we can see
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1 you. Jo, you don't have to be embarrassed because you
2 have done such a great job for us. I would like to --
3 well, this is Jo Dowling and she made quite an
4 accomplishment for us and for the people of Florida, and
5 we are going to move a resolution which we would like to
6 present to her today, and I would call on the clerk to
7 read the resolution which is on the desk.
8 READING CLERK: A resolution by the Florida
9 Constitution Revision Commission recognizing Jo Dowling
10 for her exemplary services and dedication to the people of
11 the State of Florida.
12 WHEREAS, the Florida Constitution Revision Commission
13 recognizes the dedicated and extraordinary services of Jo
14 Dowling in creating a permanent record for the State of
15 Florida of each of the state constitutions, all amendments
16 adopted or proposed to the constitutions, including each
17 citizen initiative adopted or proposed, and
18 WHEREAS, this project consumed approximately three
19 years of Ms. Dowling's time to research, compile, and
20 record; this project being in addition to the regular
21 duties of Ms. Dowling's employment as assistant librarian
22 for the Florida Supreme Court, and
23 WHEREAS, this permanent record of the Constitution of
24 Florida is housed at the Florida Supreme Court, and
25 accessible through the Internet, and
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1 WHEREAS, this permanent constitutional record is of
2 great importance to the Constitution Revision Commission
3 and to the citizens of Florida participating in this
4 unique process, as well as to generations of Floridians to
5 come, now, therefore
6 Be it resolved by the Florida Constitution Revision
7 Commission of 1997-98 that Jo Dowling is commended for her
8 exemplary services and dedication to the people of the
9 State of Florida.
10 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Commissioner Kogan moves the
11 adoption of this resolution. All of those in favor, say
12 aye.
13 (Vote taken.)
14 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: The resolution carries
15 unanimously. I would like to call on Commissioner Kogan,
16 who also happens to be the Chief Justice in his spare
17 time, to make a presentation to Ms. Dowling.
18 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: Jo, on behalf of the Commission,
19 we would like to present you as they do to the outstanding
20 opera stars and the great ballerinas of the world, our
21 flowers, which means that you are our star. Thank you,
22 Jo.
23 (Applause.)
24 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: And Jo, while you are sitting
25 and acquiring those flowers, we don't want you to be
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1 alone, so we have this bottle of Korbel champagne for you,
2 and we want you to enjoy it also.
3 MS. DOWLING: Thank you.
4 COMMISSIONER KOGAN: And again, thanks from all of
5 us.
6 MS. DOWLING: Thank you. This is sweet.
7 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Mr. Justice, former Commissioner
8 Overton, I would like to call on you to present a formal
9 copy of that resolution to Ms. Dowling. And you might say
10 a few remarks.
11 COMMISSIONER JUSTICE OVERTON: Let me say one thing
12 about this. We started this project because we thought it
13 would be helpful to this commission, and particularly that
14 it was difficult to get into all of the prior wording of
15 all of the constitutions. We thought we were going to be
16 able to use new technology and that we were going to be
17 able to scan a lot of the information from a lot of the
18 documents.
19 There's only one problem, in some instances, and
20 particularly 100 years ago, they didn't spell words the
21 same way as they do now. So what you see there in those
22 five volumes have been hand-typed and input into the
23 computer and proofed by this lady. And on behalf of the
24 Court, this is one individual of one -- but we have all
25 kinds of other employees over there also that give
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1 dedicated service -- but this is a service that's going
2 to, as the resolution said, out-live us all. Because it's
3 going to be there; it's out there now. Any citizen in
4 this state can bring up this information on the Internet.
5 And I'm happy to be able to present this resolution for a
6 very monumental task completed.
7 MS. DOWLING: Thank you very much.
8 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Is that all you are going to say?
9 MS. DOWLING: I know.
10 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: We all genuinely appreciate your
11 effort on this. And it's amazing what this makes
12 available to all of us that we never had. And if anybody
13 gets the chance to scan this, it just is extraordinary to
14 go back and pick up in 1835 and see everything that's
15 happened in relation to the Constitution, failed
16 amendments, the whole works. It is just a great resource.
17 And it proves, Ms. Dowling, that you can have all of
18 the technology in the world and you can, you know, do
19 everything, but you have to have somebody that has talent,
20 that has the ability to sit and work and apply themselves
21 to get this into the form that it's in. And we all
22 genuinely thank you, every member of the Commission.
23 Let's rise and give her a round of applause.
24 (Applause.)
25 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Commissioner Evans, I believe you
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1 have a guest this morning that you would like to
2 introduce.
3 COMMISSIONER EVANS: Yes, I do. Someone very special
4 in my life, my daughter Susan. She's nine years old and
5 in 4th grade, as you know, a home schooler, and this is
6 quite a home schooling experience today. She'll be here
7 the whole time.
8 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Welcome Susan. And we know that
9 you are not missing school, because I am sure your mother
10 will see to that; is that right?
11 COMMISSIONER EVANS: That's right.
12 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: That's correct. Does anybody
13 have anything further, any other introductions?
14 Commissioner Langley.
15 COMMISSIONER LANGLEY: No introduction, Mr. Chairman,
16 I just, you know, in trying to digest the question asked
17 by Commissioner Kogan to Rules Chairman, what happens
18 tomorrow if one of these proposals gets 22 votes?
19 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: It's on -- it stays on the
20 agenda, and at the time that it's drafted along in March
21 or whenever by the style and drafting committee, it will
22 then come back in final form before the Commission, at
23 which time it must receive 22 votes. So receiving 37
24 votes at this time does not guarantee that these will go
25 on. Because what we are trying to accomplish, which I
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1 think you apprehend, is that we may have quite a few
2 proposals that receive more than 22 votes at this stage.
3 When we get through and we look at the overall of
4 what we are proposing, we may have to weed or eliminate
5 some in order to have a more presentable revision. And I
6 think that's the purpose of the rules. If I'm not
7 correct, I'm sure Commissioner Barkdull will correct me.
8 COMMISSIONER LANGLEY: So, we are not choosing
9 amongst our children, right?
10 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Well, you sort of are because if
11 they don't get a majority vote, they will go to the bottom
12 of the class and we won't be bothering with them anymore,
13 so -- unless somebody can revive them in another form. I
14 would be the last to say that there's not some
15 enterprising people that couldn't keep some of these
16 going, but we'll find all of that out tomorrow,
17 Commissioner Langley.
18 Anybody else have any questions to address to the
19 Chair or to Commissioner Barkdull? I assume that our
20 absent members that are -- some of them are out in the
21 courtyard and it hasn't rained yet or they would be in
22 here. Commissioner Barkdull.
23 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: If there's nothing else to
24 come before the body at this time, I move we recess until
25 the hour of 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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1 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: All right. And we have the
2 committee meetings that are listed here.
3 COMMISSIONER BARKDULL: Immediately following this
4 recess.
5 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Correct. So, if they are all in
6 favor of -- wait a minute, hold on. Let's let these
7 people who just came in designate their presence, Madam
8 Secretary.
9 SECRETARY BLANTON: We have them.
10 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Do you have them? Commissioner
11 Alfonso, your name is upside down; does that mean
12 anything? And Commissioner Argiz, Commissioner Planas.
13 Are there any others that have come in late that were not
14 recorded as present? Commissioner Morsani, okay.
15 With that being the case, there's been a motion that
16 we adjourn until tomorrow morning and that we go
17 immediately to committee meetings. All in favor say aye.
18 (Verbal vote taken.)
19 CHAIRMAN DOUGLASS: Motion passes. Please rise.
20 Thank you very much.
21 (Session concluded at 9:30 a.m.)
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1 CERTIFICATE
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STATE OF FLORIDA:
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COUNTY OF LEON:
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I, MONA L. WHIDDON, Court Reporter, certify that I
5 was authorized to and did stenographically report the foregoing
proceedings and that the transcript is a true and complete
6 record of my stenographic notes.
7 DATED this ______ day of ____________, 1997.
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10 MONA L. WHIDDON
Court Reporter
11 Division of Administrative Hearings
1230 Apalachee Parkway
12 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060
(904) 488-9675 Suncom 278-9675
13 Fax Filing (904) 921-6847
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