The Florida Roundup - Federal job cuts felt in Florida, Senate President Albritton on legislative priorities, ‘Your Florida’ Project and weekly news briefs 

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we looked at how mass layoffs are impacting Florida’s federal workers with WLRN’s Jenny Staletovich (08:15). Then, we spoke with Sen. Ben Albritton, Florida’s Senate President, about his priorities for this legislative session (30:00). And later, we heard about some of the bills being considered with WUSF’s state government reporter Douglas Soule (31:03). And later, we bring you the latest from around the state including a proposal to repeal the pushback of school start times (37:22), an update on Milton recovery efforts in Polk County (40:33) and sounds from Key West’s annual “Conch Honk” competition (47:05).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along. The federal government group that manages Florida's largest lake, works to reduce the threat of flooding and manage wetlands, was going to have to look for a new home. The Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Jacksonville was on a list to have its lease cancelled. It was going to have to be out of its space by the end of this August. About 800 people work out of the office. They help oversee the largest environmental restoration effort in the world restoring Florida's Everglades. Now the lease cancellation was one of hundreds planned by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, which is not a formal government department. But now the Corps of Engineers will not have to look for a new

home here in Florida. The Trump administration canceled its cancellation and the Corps will stay put through at least the end of its current lease, which is near the end of 2027. Now this back and forth, the up and down, the fired or rehired, all of it has been the case for federal workers and their families since President Donald Trump launched his effort to the fired or rehired, all of it has been the case for federal workers and their families since President Donald Trump launched his effort to downsize the federal government. Have you been impacted?

Do you or someone you know work for the federal government? What do you make of the efforts to slim down the federal workforce? Call us now, taking your phone calls live on this Friday, 305-995-1800, 305-995-1800 305-995-1800 or send a quick email to this address radio at the Florida roundup.org. Now Florida may be more vulnerable than most states to cuts in the federal workforce from the work they do and the number of people who count on the federal government for their paycheck here. We're a big-time defense spending recipient.

Howard Frank is the director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. We're punching above our weight class in terms of getting money out of Washington relative to our earnings. Florida receives more federal tax money than it sends to Washington. This includes social security checks to more than a half million Floridians. Now, the highest concentration of federal jobs in the state are centered around military installations

in the Panhandle, Jacksonville, and the Tampa areas. There's also a large number in the Space Coast thanks to NASA's presence. And then there are the federal employees working in weather and climate. If we're reducing the staffing and the information that affects the weather and the forecast that all of us receive. Michael Lowry is a former meteorologist with the storm surge unit at the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricanes are over water primarily for their entire life. And we don't have we don't have humans I mean we're lucky if it goes over a buoy just sort of fortuitously but otherwise we have to go sniff it out and right now at least we're making some strides in terms of getting unbrewed aircraft in their drones and that's really awesome but it's we're still five or ten years away from from having that technology, at least in a regular capacity.

305-995-1800. Our phone lines are open now live across the state on this Friday. 305-995-1800. Our inbox also open radio at thefloorderoundup.org. Now, federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of federal workers nationwide who had been laid off. That decision just adds to all the uncertainty faced by Florida and its federal workers on this Friday. Jenny Stoledovich is with us, the environment editor at our partner station, WLRN in Miami.

Welcome back to the program, Jenny. Thanks, Tom. What jobs have been eliminated here in Florida that are involved in weather and climate especially? So that I know of, there are hurricane modeling jobs and hurricane hunter jobs that were in probationary status, so they were laid off. So what kind of work won't get done with those people who are not in those positions that presumably were open jobs? Right, so these are jobs that either support the forecast like the modelers, those models are crucial to building out

the forecast that tell us when and where hurricanes gonna hit and how strong it's gonna be and then the hurricane hunter, you know, guys fly literally into the hurricanes. Those are the eyes on the storms. They provide critical information. Sometimes the Hurricane Forecast Office will wait until they get word from the Hurricane Hunter planes until they hear what they're seeing. They, because what they learn is so critical to a forecast and as Michael Lowry told me, you know, gives them confidence in making a forecast. Why were these jobs targeted or these jobs affected by these layoffs?

Well, that first round were probationary positions. So they were either people who were newly hired to NOAA or they were promotions. And so with all this back and forth with the federal lawsuits that have happened some in California some in Maryland I believe with judges ordering the reinstatement of these probationary workers do we know the status of any of those workers who were affected just a few weeks ago by these layoffs? Well so those lawsuits in Maryland and in California as you said the judges ordered the federal

government to rehire those workers, but the White House has said they're going to fight that ruling. There are some positions down here where universities, University of Miami is looking to hire some of the NOAA folks who were stationed at Virginia Key. These are very specialized jobs. Yeah, so what is kind of the appetite or environment in the private sector for some of these trained folks? You know, Hurricane Hunter is obviously flying for the United States government, the federal government. Is there some other job with, you know, some

other airline also deciding to fly? Well, and these are some of the research folks who are based on the planes too. I mean, there are private companies that need weather information that will hire meteorologists. But again, that's highly specialized. I don't know enough about the landscape of that industry and job hirings. But again, these are folks who you're not going to become a zillionaire being a meteorologist and forecasting hurricanes. It's really like a calling. I've said this about the National Park Service.

These folks get into these jobs because they feel the need to serve their country and do a public service. And it is some of the best forecasters in the world are in our federal government. Indeed. And it underlies and underpins all weather forecasting, certainly in the United States, as well as emergency management planning, and so much comes from the basis of the weather forecasting that the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, under the umbrella of the Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

Michael Lowery, who you spoke with, the former National Hurricane Center employee, spoke about even simpler technology that's involved with hurricane forecasting, that's not 21st century, you know, bits and bytes and ones and zeros, but really old school technology that really still has a value that may be impacted by some of these layoff announcements. With a hurricane, sometimes the satellites can completely miss a hurricane. We've seen that we've seen it recent years. Hurricane Oscar last year that struck eastern Cuba and Grand Turk was one that snuck up on us. The computer models completely whiffed on it. They missed it. The satellites didn't see it. We didn't know it was there. I mean, we knew there was something there, but we didn't know it was as strong of a hurricane

as it was until the hurricane hunters got in there. It's kind of like trying to see the details of the moon by using binoculars. Yeah. Well, what a picture that Michael paints there. Is this kind of equipment, this kind of work, how is this affected by what is happening with the federal government and its push toward efficiency? So if they are scaling back on the staff of the Hurricane Hunter Plains, they are already bare bones during hurricane season. They are flying shifts. You don't want overworked,

understaffed Hurricane Hunter Plains, and again, who provide that kind of immediate information to the hurricane center that issues our forecast. Another thing that he brought up is the balloons that are released across the country. He said a hundred go up every day, twice a day and they provide a three-dimensional view of the atmosphere. So it's not just hurricanes but it's tornadoes, it's other kinds of severe weather. When there is a hurricane, sometimes they will go up four times a day. So if they are closing local weather offices that handle the balloon launches, they're scaling back on the data that these forecasters rely on. And

that data, like you said, it goes into everything. So when you open up the app on your phone, that's using that data. And I was talking like you said, it goes into everything. So when you open up the app on your phone, Yeah, yeah. that's using that data. And I was talking to some former longtime sources of mine in the Midwestern United States, in the agriculture community, talking about weather forecasting. It's not just hurricanes and of course,

storm surge here in Florida. It's about soil moisture in the Midwest or for the peanut growers and the panhandle, for instance, all of those forecasts really go into those decisions. We're talking about the federal government efforts toward what it calls efficiency and the impact here in florida 305-995-1800. Pete has been listening in from New Port Richey. Go ahead Pete thanks for calling you're on the radio. Hi yeah so my son graduated from the University of Florida last spring with a degree in forestry

and his dream had always been to work in Alaska. He took a job with the US Forest Service in Alaska and so he's a new employee probationary and he got laid off when shortly after this, you know, started being announced. He was laid off for five days. He told me that I think the number is 300 probationary employees in the Forest Service in Alaska were laid off and three of them were rehired. He was fortunately one of them. Five days later they rehired him and I think, I don't know, I'm talking with him is because he's in timber sale. Well, one of his

duties is overseeing the sale of timber from some of the forests. Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, Pete, thanks for sharing the story, and best of luck to your son. Please pass along our good wishes from the other side of the continent here in the Sunshine State. We have a listener here who sent us this email. Many are afraid to go on record to avoid reprisal. However, I've spent lots of time answering questions to vague guidance about executive orders from various installations, quelling concerns. Many of us are military spouses and veterans. To me, this is inefficient and counterintuitive to what they're trying to do. I'm wasting my time to figure out these released executive orders and directives

and getting whiplash from the constant changes. Pete just talked about the whiplash. His son experienced in Alaska. What are those federal workers, the sources you've been able to talk to, who are willing to talk to you, Jenny, experiencing in terms of do I go to work today? Do I not go to work? Do I send that email with the five things I did this week?

How do I respond? How do I operate in this environment? Right, so the? Do I not go to work? Do I send that email with the five things I did this week? How do I respond? How do I operate in this environment? Right, so the folks that I've talked to are telling me they're not getting a lot of information locally. Their local supervisors don't know about some of these things. At the National Park Service, one of the rangers who was laid off said the day before, she was assured that she would not be among the cuts.

The bosses don't know that these cuts are happening. They will be told, I think one of the park service workers, they were given until the end of the week to close out there, to clean out their desk and came in on a Monday and were told that they instead had to clean out their desk that day. It's just a lot of back and forth. One of the things I heard yesterday, the National Weather

Service had an all-staff meeting because they were, NOAA had cuts, a deadline for more cuts yesterday. And they were told now there's a two-week pause on that reduction in force. But be prepared because the cuts are coming. There was a plan to consolidate local weather offices into regional offices that was supposed to happen over 10 years. They were told now be prepared because the cuts are coming. There was a plan to consolidate local weather offices into regional offices that was supposed to happen over 10 years. They were told now they're under orders to make that happen in a year.

And again, I keep harping on the local weather. But part of it is I think that everyone needs to understand these aren't just people's jobs. The services they provide affect all of us. Well, and to that point, particularly when it comes to the National Hurricane Center, those jobs are highly concentrated in terms of the time of year. Yes, they're on watch and on guard 12 months a year, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but

it's really that six-month period, of course, when we're in hurricane season where, you know, tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and trillions of dollars of property rely on a mostly accurate forecast. Right, right, right. There was a study done recently that tried to assess the economic impact of improved hurricane forecasting. And it looked at like 2002 to 2021 or something and found that the savings was about $5 billion per major hurricane with those improvements. Now that includes property and lives, you know,

which is difficult to put a value on. But it's a huge impact. So the focus here is you and I have been talking, Jenny Stilettovich is with us here on the Florida Roundup Environment Editor at our partner station WLRN in South Florida talking about the federal workforce here in the state of Florida. About one out of every 20 federal jobs in the United States is held by a Floridian. So it's a significant workforce here, about 100,000 to 150,000 households in Florida rely in the federal government for a paycheck. And that does not include uniformed military or

federal contractors. Those are folks like those with the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the National Park Service, for instance, and other environmental projects and the Army Corps of Engineers, for instance. Talk to us a little bit about the impact that these job decisions have made on those who are working in Florida's environment on behalf of the federal government. Right. In addition to the weather stuff, there were also cuts in fisheries. Here in Miami, there were 17 cuts at the fisheries office on Virginia Key. In addition to the cuts, there are office leases that are being terminated. You mentioned the Army Corps Jacksonville office. Their headquarters

in Jacksonville, a 200,000 square foot plus office was on the list of leases to be terminated. 800 workers go to work there and there's over a thousand workers as part of the Army Corps division here in Florida. Yes, and the government has since reversed that cancellation. They've canceled the cancellation is what they've done. Right, right, right. Do you know why they did that by the way before we get to the larger point? You know when I saw that list, that whole list included more than 20 offices statewide and some of them I was like that doesn't make sense and why leases were up for termination. There was no explanation given.

Was it a matter of when the lease ran out, or was it the services being provided? When I saw the Army Corps, I was like, somebody just doesn't know what that lease entails. I would have been shocked to see the Army Corps headquarters in Jacksonville, Columbus. Yeah, there were some reports that the lease agreement that it has with the landlord does not

have a termination clause. And so they would have to pay that the lease agreement that it has with the landlord does not have a termination clause And so they would have to pay out the lease even if they weren't actually going to use this space But to the bigger point of some of the environmental positions here in Florida that have been impacted by these efforts, right? So the fisheries office that in over here Overseas the data and the research that supports fisheries management decisions that are made over in Tampa So if we decide to set a size limit on a fish to protect it because it's valuable like mahi and we want to protect the stock and keep it healthy, the data that the guys over here collect supports that decision.

And fisheries management is super complicated and it changes all the time. So you need that data. Other things that were at least the least terminations, the US Fish and Wildlife Services DERAL office was going to be terminated or is still on the list. That's the hub for law enforcement. So lobster season, we love lobster season. We want to protect our lobster. There's plenty of illegal harvests and law enforcement goes after those illegal pistons. Jenny, let me squeeze in one call here. Candice has been listening from Delray Beach. Candice, thanks for your patience.

You're on the radio. Hi. Yeah, I wanted to call and say that this whole firing thing is affecting a lot of us veterans. You know, I'm a disabled veteran and it is increasing my disability, just the thought about being fired. And I have patients that come in every day asking me, are you, is your job okay? Are you gonna be here next week?

It's a lot, it's a lot to deal with. And I have had people around me get fired. Luckily, I haven't had any notice, but we are sending in our five bullet points every week, even though this week they didn't ask for it. We sent it in because last week they said do it every week. Yeah. Speaks to that volatility. Candice, thank you for sharing your story. Best of luck to you. I want to get to Julie in Jacksonville.

Julie, go ahead. You're on the radio. Yes, sir. I'm a mental health provider at the VA in Jacksonville. And I have to say, I'm taking retirement a couple of years early just because this is really too stressful for me. I feel like I'm not doing it as good a job with my patients as I had been before because of the uncertainty. I'm just in general I just feel like

what DOJ has been doing kind of shows that they do not really understand the function of people working in the government. They seem to be just making a hatchet job. They saw the word probationary. And I guess they're thinking it's like being on probation in the legal sense. So they figured those are good people to get rid of.

And they didn't realize a lot of them are people that have been, the agencies have been waiting and waiting and waiting to hire new people because they needed the staff. And now they just cut them. Julie, we got to leave it there. But thank you so much for your years of service to our veterans here in the United States and best of luck to you in retirement. Jenny Stoledovich, Environment Editor at WLR. And thank you for sharing your reporting with us. Thanks, Tom. We have more to come here on The Florida Roundup. Be sure to stick with us. You're listening to The Florida Roundup

from your Florida Public Radio station. This is The Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along this week. You know, I've been a financial and economics reporter for a lot of years. And one of the first adages you learn is there is no free lunch. You've heard that before, right? Well, we're having a free lunch, a free lunch April 4 in Jacksonville at

our partner station WJCT. Now it'll cost you a radio show. This program, this program will be broadcasting live from WJCT in Jacksonville April 4th. We'll have some live music and we just confirmed the superintendent of schools in St. Johns County. He'll be with us. St. Johns is one of the fastest growing counties in the state and we'll be talking about building schools and the state of public education. And yes, lunch. Join us live April 4 in Jacksonville lunch is free but space is limited you can register at w j c t.org slash events. We hope to see you

April 4 in Jacksonville. Next week on this program property taxes lawmakers are considering a bill that would study the impact if the state eliminated property taxes. Now the money paid by property owners is money that's used by local governments and school districts, local police, teachers, fire departments are all paid with property taxes. If you own a home or a condominium, would you like to see your property tax bill disappear?

If it does, how would you pay for local parks and public schools? Email us now radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We may use your comments next week. Now, the president of the Florida State Senate, Ben Albrecht. President Albrecht, thank you for your time. Do you support this proposal to study the elimination of property Florida State Senate, Ben Albrecht. President Albrecht, and thank you for your time. Do you support this proposal to study the elimination of property taxes in Florida? Sure. When you talk about getting rid of property taxes, that is a huge swing in the way that

the money moves around in the state. Every tax reduction or tax relief proposal that the Florida legislature has ever proposed, I have voted for and supported. So we're looking closely at it. It is, I've used the terminology in the past Tom, it is calculus. It is not simple math. So you know those taxes are used locally to do a lot of things and we just need to make sure that you know we approach this with both eyes open. So as you are going into this with eyes wide open, what is the end game potentially for those

that wanna even put this on the table to study? Is it to shrink the size of local government or school districts? My goal is to make Florida more affordable for Floridians. And we're doing lots of things fiscally in our budget development process. My goal would be to look for continue to look for meaningful opportunities to make florida more affordable. In the tax base for our residence we also have to be really really careful as well because you know we have thirty one fiscally constrained counties rural counties i live in one of those and. Understand the economics there pretty, pretty well.

And we have to be really careful too, because this funds, you know, a lot of the operations in a substantial way in rural Florida, but look, I'm, I, yeah, I'm, I'm open to it and that's my goal. One of your biggest priorities is what you call a rural Renaissance. And I do want to ask you about that in a moment, at least one county in the state of Florida has put a hiring freeze in place. Miami-Dade County has announced one within the last couple of weeks and is actually asking its departments to look at what a 10% budget cut would look like if there's a potential for that.

The President, Donald Trump, has talked about a little economic disturbance nationally. You've called for a focus on government spending and the fiscal side. How prepared is Florida for a potential economic recession? Well, you know, it all depends on how big of a recession you're talking about, right? The question is, how prepared do I think Florida is for a recession? And here's the great news. The great news is we've got really robust reserves at the state government level. I think when you look at Florida relative to other states, we've done a really good

job. And the big blessing is we have a balanced budget amendment. So we have to respond when revenues change. And that's good for Floridians too. You have been putting state spending under a microscope as part of your leadership tenure here. Where should that focus be when it comes to the parts of the state budget

that the state government really has a handle on? We have not specifically looked at any particular budget category. What we're looking at is kind of a hybrid or a different approach to, to the spending. The goal is to understand instead of just what outputs we're getting. My goal is, is to imagineer re-imagineer this so that we're yes, looking at, at, at outputs, but more importantly, outcomes. At every agency, every program, every piece of government, what is

a clearly defined goal, clearly defined strategy, are there best practices we should use, those things. As you are kind of beginning this examination during your tenure, are you finding that agencies are having to kind of rewrite their playbook to some degree so that they have an explicit outcome goal in mind as they are looking through their own budgetary requests? Well, ultimately, that's the goal. So here's the way I'll answer that. And I'm honest to goodness. I'm not trying to dodge the question, but when you start really trying to apply.

A, an outcome driven approach, it gets really complex when you start looking at just the diversity, the types of programs and that Florida is a part of. So the overarching goal is to begin to bend the curve, if you will, or adapt, a bit of a different approach to budgeting. And some places we're finding these things really exist. I know that there are some in the DCF children and families that do a pretty darn good job of tracking outcomes and and they really have their heart and their minds in the right place. And the department of transportation does a great job with future planning and

and those types of things. The legislature over the past several sessions has passed many different types of tax cuts, sales tax holidays, for instance, deducting taxes of insurance premiums, reducing the tax on commercial real estate leases. Do you support any tax cuts this year in this session for the budget that will begin in July? So I view that as an absolute yes. Do I support it? Yes sir. Are we working to build in a number in our budget that we can give a meaningful amount of tax relief back to Floridians? Yes

sir. Where do you see some of the options that tax cuts may come to reality for Floridians? I don't know. I just really don't. We haven't, we haven't really began putting together the tax package yet cause we're trying to see what the end numbers look like. Beginning this year, older condominium buildings throughout the state need to start saving money for regular repairs. There's lots of

anecdotal stories, Mr. President, about the owners seeing big increases in monthly fees or special assessments. You were against holding a special session to look at these condominium reforms put in place after the surfside collapse. How about now? Do you have the appetite to review these reforms? Yeah. The answer is yes. I don't want there to be any question whatsoever. Condo life in Florida is, is a big deal.

It's a big deal. And I have heard that loud and clear. And so have my colleagues. What we're seeing today is an end result of a catastrophe that is almost unimaginable surfside. result of a catastrophe that is almost unimaginable. Surfside. Our goal when we enacted these laws was that how do we get to a place that Florida condo owners are safe?

I mean, functionally that's number one, right? How do we make sure that the milestones, the inspections, you know, all these things were all a goal of keeping condo owners safe. Now, can you can you build a one size fits all for every type of condo, every type of condo owner, every situation, not in a million years, because Florida is so diverse. Your big priority is rural renaissance, economic development efforts for rural communities, a big focus here of your tenure, sir. There is a bill that's been making its way through, I believe it's destined now for the full floor of the Senate

that will boost spending for rural community infrastructure, roads, law enforcement, by tens of millions of dollars. In your announcement of this, you said that Florida needs to update laws to quote reflect what a rural community can look like in modern Florida. What is your vision of a modern rural community here in the Sunshine State? Here's the great news about what we put together in the rural renaissance package. There are health care supports, there are transportation supports, there are education supports. There were eight counties that lost population in the last census. That in itself can be very catastrophic. It obviously doesn't bode well for the future for those counties.

So there are options for them for that, but there is no mandate in this. We are offering a toolbox to rural communities to grow the way they want to grow. Now there may be some rural communities that say, you know what, we like things the way they are. It's slow. We'd rather not participate. And you know what, that's fine. You know, I'm thinking of history here, sir, where Dade County used to be what today is

Palm Beach Broward and Miami Dade County. We're going back, you know back many, many years here. I'm wondering, ought there be perhaps a look at maybe merging some of these rural counties so that perhaps their land mass is larger, their populations become larger, and they may become more economically. Stimulative.

That's very fascinating. I have not thought about that. So anything that comes out of my mouth at this point is predicated on like a quote, you know, a question nine seconds ago, but I'm not sure consolidation could produce what you think that is a messaging for the answers. No, I just, I'm not sure I'd have to think about it because if you take two side-by-side rural counties, so you've got impoverished populations, you've got critical infrastructure that needs to be upgraded, you've got education, dot, dot, dot, right?

I don't know what synergy you'd be producing to produce economic development or produce savings. I mean, I guess in theory you could say, well, if you have two governments, right, if it's two counties that only have one county seat, and one government, I don't know that it would produce the kind of synergies that we would hope for. But but I will tell you, I mean, I'll think about it for sure. Well, I'm not proposing it just posing it as a thought

experiment. And I appreciate you playing along with that. Sure. Ben Albrecht is the president of the Florida State Senate. Mr. President, thanks again for your time. Much appreciated. Thanks, Tom. Pleasure to spend time with you.

I hope to do it again. I'm Tom Hudson and you're listening to the Florida Ronda from your Florida Public Radio Station. The annual state law writing session is underway and as legislators meet to debate and decide laws on your behalf, each week we will be talking about some of the issues you have told us that matter. It's all part of the Your Florida Project connecting you with state government and policies that

affect your life. Douglas Soll is the state government reporter covering Tallahassee for us. Douglas, welcome to the program lawmakers are considering a few gun proposals. What's behind the effort for this session. So it has to be mentioned that at the start of the legislative session, Governor Ron DeSantis urged lawmakers to loosen gun laws. For example, he wants to reverse some of the gun restrictions that were passed after the Parkland school

massacre. Now that call was definitely heard by lawmakers, it's still up in the air whether they all heed it. One proposal would return the legal buying age for a firearm here in Florida back down to 18 years old. Michael Fussella from Tampa shared his thoughts with us. So I'm 20. I know the law was passed after the tragic Parkland shooting to make it you have to be 21 to buy any firearm. But I like I don't think you know, you're 21. And you know,

suddenly you you gain all your rights, you know what I mean? I think I think the standard should be at 18. So Douglas, what are the specifics of this proposal to return the age back to where it was before the Parkland tragedy? So as you'll recall, the Parkland shooter who killed 17 people in 2018 was 19 at the time and he used an AR-15 style rifle. After that, the state raised the age to buy a shotgun or rifle to 21, though that didn't apply to law enforcement officers, correctional officers, or active duty military members. DeSantis and at least some Republican lawmakers want to lower that back down to 18, and a House panel approved a bill doing that on Wednesday, though that bill has a distance to go. Now, there were several changes after the Parkland shooting, not just age, but also instituting red flag laws. Jim Serena from Sarasota told us what he thought about all these efforts. I thought that the bills that passed after

Parkland were a good first step. Rolling them back is about as counter safety as possible. It goes against every sense that we're trying to do something positive. So Douglas, what are opponents of these efforts to reverse some of the gun measures put in after Parkland saying about the efforts? So one of the laws that was passed after the Parkland shooting was the red flag law that allows courts to temporarily take away guns from people deemed a threat. Now it's important to emphasize even with that that Senate President Ben Alperton has already spoken out against it, at least against undoing the law. He says it helps

law enforcement and says it prevents shootings. You know a lot of opponents of changing the laws that were implemented after the shooting say similar things. Now with the red flag law, Governor Ron DeSantis says it's a due process violation, says that it infringes on the rights of Floridians who have their guns taken away. One of Governor DeSantis' priorities is to change the rules for how voters can amend the state constitution, Douglas. This of course comes after the abortion and recreational marijuana questions received a majority of support by voters back in November, but not the 60% needed to pass. John Schussler is from Sarasota.

The legislature has, for many years, increased the requirements for citizen led initiatives. They require more signatures, they require signatures from more counties in Florida. They try to keep it just out of reach. And so the Citizen Val initiative has become very expensive in Florida. Nancy Hughes from Lakewood Ranch shared this thought. If limited government and the rights of voters are paramount to an effective government in Florida, explain to me why unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles for constitutional amendments is necessary. So Douglas, what are the changes the governor is pushing for when it comes to these citizen-led ballot questions? Yeah, so probably the most

significant thing DeSantis wants here is to block third party groups from gathering signatures in the petition process. Now you need nearly a million signatures to get a measure on the ballot, so not having access to those groups would significantly stymie many amendment campaigns. It's important to note that House and Senate bills that have passed committees this session do not have that provision, though they have other restrictions on the citizen initiative process that worries voting rights advocates. Douglas Soll is the state government reporter for Your Florida.

Community engagement reporter Megan Bowman contributes to our reporting as well, and you can help by adding your voice to the Your Florida reporting project by visiting w usf dot o RG slash your dash Florida. And of course, you can always get in touch with us. Our email address is radio at the Florida roundup dot o RG. Is there a piece of legislation, a policy you'd like us to look at? Well, just send us a quick note. The inbox is always open. Radio at the Florida Roundup dot o RG. Now if you have a smartphone, you can use your voice memo app, for instance, record yourself and send that to us as well. Radio at the Florida Roundup dot o RG.

Still to come on this program, we will get you updated on a few other pieces of legislation making their way through the state legislature in Tallahassee. It's also five years since the pandemic began, we'll take a listen back and you will hear the conch honk. It's still to come. I'm Tom Hudson, you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. Let's get you caught up on a few other items out of the state legislature in Tallahassee this week. We'll start with school start times. Lawmakers passed a law a few years ago that says middle

schools cannot start before 8am and high schools cannot start until 830am or later. The goal is to address the lack of sleep by teenage students. The way it stands right now, school districts in Florida have to make the change for the next school year, but there's a push to repeal the effort before then. Republican Senator Jennifer Bradley says a lot of school districts have raised concerns. The feedback is overwhelming. A state mandate on school start times would present incredible challenges financially and otherwise.

A bill to repeal the pushback of school start times passed out of its second Senate committee this week. Another effort to get students off their cell phones during the day is moving forward as well. A House committee passed a bill that would ban students from using their phones throughout the school day. Now the current law bans them during class time unless it's part of a lesson. Some districts have gone further to ban devices during the school day.

Demi Bushada is a representative from Coral Gables and is the bill's sponsor. Cell phones not only cause constant distractions to a student's focus during the school day, which impedes their ability to learn, but it also has shown to increase bullying throughout the school day. The legislation would allow school administrators to give a student permission to use a phone in designated areas on campus. Some lawmakers on the committee worry that a bill would make it harder for kids to reach out for help during emergencies, but the measure passed unanimously out of the committee. We are a state here in Florida surrounded and shaped by water, so it

makes sense that the Sunshine State has more boats registered than any other state. There's an effort underway to impose stricter penalties on reckless boaters that's been moving forward in the legislature. Committees in the House and Senate passed bills this week known as Lucy's Law. The proposals were named for Lucy Fernandez. She was killed in 2022 when she was 17 years old. The boat she was in hit a channel marker in Miami-Dade County. 13 others were hurt in the crash. Her mother, Melissa Fernandez, was in Tallahassee this week. The only real way to prevent these tragedies is to make boater education and safety the priority

across all ages and all groups. Florida requires boat operators born after 1988 to take a boating safety course. Under this legislation, people born before 1988 would have to take the courseating safety course. Under this legislation people born before 1988 would have to take the course if they are charged with reckless boating or if they receive two non-criminal boating violations within a 12-month period. The legislation would also increase penalties for boat operators that leave the scene of a crash or make false statements to law enforcement.

Three House and Senate panels have given initial approval to bills aimed at carrying out President Donald Trump's move to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Republican State Senator Nick DeSigli from Pinellas County sponsors one of the bills. He calls the effort patriotic. Why didn't we do this a long time ago? You know obviously National Hurricane Center has made the change. Google Maps have made the change. Apple Maps have made the change. So I'm already getting used to saying Gulf of America. The proposal would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in 52 sections of state laws. It's been five months now since

Hurricane Milton made landfall along the Gulf Coast. It destroyed a lot of homes along the coastline. It also brought a lot of rain and flooding to areas far from the shore. People living in a Polk County neighborhood close to Lakeland are still reeling from Milton's floodwaters. Here's Skye LeBron from our partner station WUSF. Well this used to be our formal dining room, used to be. And then here was our pantry. Tracy Boyette is giving me a tour of her house, or what's left of it. Everything was damaged. Oh my god, I've never seen mold grow so fast and so far up the walls and how wet it... I mean, mold was in places I didn't even assume they could get in there.

Her walls had to be completely removed. Along went most of the floors. After the storm passed, the Boyettes thought they had made it out okay. But in the days after, the basin next to their home kept rising with floodwater. After a couple days, Tracy and her husband Danny woke up to water in their bedroom. Because of that, Tracy is giving me a very different tour. And separate toilet, which makes it nice, you know, because you have your shower and everything. Then in closet.

Then this is the other bedroom. I mean, that's it. For months now, they've been staying in an RV parked in the front yard. You gotta learn how to really pare down, you know, you don't have everything there like you're used to. You gotta think, oh, I can't do that, or I can't have that. And the fact that Tracy was recently diagnosed with early onset dementia has made the ordeal that much more stressful. Dementia people, like I said, they have to have safety. They have to have that schedule,

and I have had none of that. Across the street, Jared Smith's house also sustained a lot of damage. They came up into, flooded the entire patio, flooded up into the back porch, the interior, inside the sliding glass doors. He's a firefighter in Hillsborough County and had to work during the brunt of the storm. When he came back, the water from the basin was rising fast. Smith and his family were able to move

much of the furniture out before the water came inside, but it would be a few weeks before a temporary pump was put in place to bring down that flooding. It was like you had to scream and jump on your rooftop and go on social media and post pictures and images and videos and you know just to try and get help. Smith has been staying at a rental home nearby with his wife and kids. Months later, he says he still hasn't gotten any money from his home and flood insurance. And he only received $750 from FEMA.

And even if he gets the money to make repairs and maybe sell their home, he doesn't know if it's worth it. Not until he gets a guarantee from the county that something like this won't happen again. Smith, the Boyettes, and other neighbors want a permanent pump installed in the basin. Paul Womble, Polk County's Emergency Management Director, says that's easier said than done. When you pump water, you got to make sure wherever that water goes, it's not a flood anybody else. You hate it that somebody's flooded, but you can't pump water to get water out of a neighborhood or in this case out of, you know, home and then send that water downstream. And then

you put it in somebody else's home. Womble says he understands that people throughout Polk County are still struggling with Milton's after effects and are asking for help. But he says the local government primarily assists with short-term solutions like temporary housing, not long-term fixes. People expect government of some level to come in and make them whole, put their house and their lives back together

the day it was before the disaster. And the programs just don't work that way. For Tracy Boyette, she's trying to get help from any organization she can. But even starting that process is difficult. All this paperwork I had to attach, you know how that is to find all that stuff during a flood? And I mean, FEMA thinks it's right now, right now, right now, right now, Red Cross, same way. It's hard pulling all that stuff up. Coming from this big house to a flood. The Boiettes had a beautiful garden before the storm. But Milton washed away Tracy's plants and

greenhouses and decayed the ones still standing. The thing that could give her comfort through this is gone. I can't even go out to my sheds. It's hard to stay happy. It's very, very hard. And you feel very, very lonely. She used to put up an extravagant Christmas display during the holidays, too. If she gets the chance to again, she says she'll keep the lights on all year long. I'm Sky Lebron in Tampa.

And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. It was five years ago this week that the world changed for a lot of us. What had been a mysterious virus just a few weeks earlier was declared a global pandemic. Schools shut down, lockdown orders were issued, offices closed. And this is how it sounded on this program five years ago. The state of Florida and several counties are in states of emergency on this Friday. They were declared that this week as more Floridians test positive for COVID-19 coronavirus. So it's important that we, you know, remain vigilant here in the state of Florida. I think taking proactive measures will help us flatten the curve of this.

There has been some confusion and some frustration. Confusion around guidelines and direction for some, and frustration over slow testing and the release of information. We have been working closely with our nursing homes, our assisted living facilities, our hospitals. We are putting all precautions in place. We're in a critical juncture at this moment. We are prepared at least as medical professionals to handle what comes our way.

But just being prepared is an equivalent to saying it's going to be easy or it's going to be straightforward. At the moment, my friend who gave me this illness went to the hospital for mild flu symptoms. He tested negative for the flu, but he was sent home. What I'm concerned about is by the time we get more confirmed cases in Florida, it would have already gripped our state. Almost 100,000 people in Florida have died from COVID-19 in the five years since the pandemic began.

Finally, in the roundup this week, something more joyful and uniquely Florida West in hopes of becoming a conch honk winner. A conch shell is one of those big shells you have to hold with two hands, puck her up, and well, kind of like that famous movie quote. Just put your lips together and vibrate those lips. It's a lot of fun. This is Jewel Jones. She was a Conk Conk winner last weekend in the Keys. I've practiced on the Conk Horn for a long, long time. It's an instrument that's tough to pick up right away for beginners. So what counts for a good conk? Conk, quality, duration, loudness, and the sheer novelty

of what comes out the other side of the shell. It's a chorus of conks for you as we head into the weekend. That's our program for today. The Florida Rundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Doctor with assistance from Denise Royle, WLRN's Vice President of Radio's Peter Merz, the program's technical director is MJ Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J and Jackson Hart. Katie Munoz answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Put it on your calendar, it's a free lunch with the radio program April 4th live in Jacksonville at partner station WJCT. Yeah,

there's going to be lunch. It's free but you have to register. Space is limited and it is going quick. Go to wjct.org events, look for the live Florida Roundup and be sure to sign up. We are looking forward to seeing you there April 4th live in Jacksonville. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening and above all supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.