Bonita dog track snubbed in Seminole gambling agreement

The gaming deal Gov. Rick Scott signed earlier this month with the Seminole Tribe — largely regulating what kinds of gambling will be allowed where  — had one big omission that left Southwest Florida lawmakers and businesses puzzled and angry.

There was nothing about the Naples-Fort Myers greyhound track, which has tried for years to add slot machines. Local voters even OK'd slots at the dog track in a 2012 referendum.

Scott’s deal adds slots elsewhere, but not at the Bonita Springs track.

If the deal gains legislative approval as it is, “we’ll be out of business in two or three years,” said Izzy Havenick, the track’s vice president for public affairs. “That’ll be about 300 jobs lost, and some of those people had those jobs 20 to 30 years.”

Dog racing popularity has diminished over the years, and track owners want to add slots to increase their revenues.

Havenick said he didn’t know the deal was being done, and he has no idea why Bonita was left out. “I’m very disappointed we were not included,” he said. “I’ve talked to all the local legislators and anybody else who’ll listen, but they don’t know any more than I do.”

The referendum providing local support for adding slots passed with about 65 percent of the vote, Havenick said, the highest margin of approval received in a half-dozen such votes around the state.

Rep. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral, is on the related committees. He points out the Legislature has final say-so on the deal, and changes are likely as members debate the details.

In addition to the Bonita matter — or lack there of — the wide-ranging deal includes regulations on other types of gambling such as horse racing and different card games throughout the state, but mostly in Southeast Florida.

Scott’s deal allows slots to expand in some other areas, Eagle said, “so why not us? I think there’s going to be other members with similar concerns, in other places.”

The whole issue will almost certainly be a major point of debate in the upcoming session, he said.

Legislators talk legislative session

Southwest Florida legislators talked with the Chamber of Southwest Florida this week about their personal priorities and the big issues ahead when Florida’s legislative session starts Jan. 12.

Starting the two-month session in January of a non-redistricting year is unusual; lawmakers moved it up from the traditional March kick-off for several reasons, including less conflict with Florida’s March 15 presidential primary, an earlier finish in a hot election year down the ballot, and allowing families more “together time” during schools’ spring breaks.

Some members’ priorities involve bills carried over from last year, including Rep. Kathleen Passidomo’s bicycle safety bill; Rep. Ray Rodrigues’ fracking bill; Rep. Dane Eagle’s work on building codes to “reduce red tape and get government out of the way” for homebuilders; and Rep. Matt Caldwell’s water policy bill.

Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, meanwhile, cited funding to process 11,000 untested rape kits as essential to help bring criminals to justice, and a bill that would allow young victims of sexual assault to testify by video, instead of having to face their attacker in court.

Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, wants to cut taxes on commercial leases, saying Florida is the only state that charges such fees, and has also taken on the long-standing “cancer presumption” issue for firemen and first responders, which involves greater presumption that cancer cases stem from their work environment.

While the all-Republican delegation usually votes together, one split shows in support for a “campus carry” gun bill. The measure that would allow more people to carry guns on state campuses failed last year, but supporters are trying again and the measure has passed several early committees already.

Eagle said he supports the bill, citing the “good guys with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun” argument. Criminals will have a gun regardless, he said, and an armed good guy might prevent a worse tragedy.

But Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, said he was more worried about having more guns on campus where young people often get emotional and sometimes over imbibe. “College students are still maturing and they party quite a bit,” he said. “If we have campus security issues, let’s beef up campus security.”

Fitzenhagen also said she worries about guns in the hands of so many students, and about insufficient training and instruction. “I’d like to see increased campus security,” she said.

Some in the audience asked about reports that state parks are being opened to hunting and cattle grazing, questioning whether that’s good use of park land.

But Caldwell said that situation is widely misunderstood. The lands up for such uses are not widely used parks “with campgrounds and ball fields and play areas,” he said. The park system also manages “massive tracts of empty land with few visitors” that are appropriate for other uses, and he thinks much of the controversy is manufactured by the governor’s opponents.

Others in the audience asked if students would be allowed to opt out of testing in schools.

Lawmakers agreed that while there may have been too much emphasis on high-stakes testing, they are far less certain about allowing students to opt out of tests.

“We need to know where students stand and how individual students and schools are doing,” Benacquisto said.

“Opting out is not the answer,” said Passidomo. “The answer is to have testing that’s appropriate.”

 Another sheriff's candidate

A new candidate joined the Lee County sheriff’s race this week.

Ernest George Colby of Fort Myers is running NPA — no party affiliation — to be the county’s top lawman, according to election records.

Colby, 47, is the fourth challenger for Sheriff Mike Scott’s re-election. He and Mike Zaleski are running NPA and will be on the November ballot.

Colby did not respond to calls and emails for comment.

Republican challengers who’ll take on Scott in the GOP primary are James Didio and Stephanie Eller.

Scott, meanwhile, is breaking local fundraising records for his re-election, reporting almost $420,900 so far in donations.

Eller has raised about $14,400; Didio, about $10,900, and Zaleski, about $1,200.

Hefren criticizes elections supervisor

James “Hef” Hefren, a candidate for Lee County’s Supervisor of Elections, made his disdain for Lee County’s current supervisor Sharon Harrington, very clear at this week’s BUPAC meeting.

The office needs better budgeting and purchasing policies, and those policies should be written and reviewed regularly, he said.

Hefren, 58, works for American Airlines and has lived in Lee County since 2005. He hasn’t been politically active, he said, but he votes, and the long lines at the 2012 election inspired his candidacy.

After he complained so much about the waits, he said friends told him he should do something about it — hence the run for office. If he won the election, he said he’d likely retire.

No other job has the same requirements as an elections supervisor, he said, and there are few other ways to get direct job training. But the job requires knowledge of logistics, customer service, accounting and “most importantly, common sense,” he said, and he has those.

He said the elections office should do more competitive bidding. Harrington has said so few vendors — perhaps two or three — provide the specialized services and proprietary equipment used for elections that a formal bid process serves little purpose, but Hefren disagreed. “The law may not require bids, but to me it’s common sense,” he said.

He also thinks it’s wasteful to send sample ballots to every voter. Sending by households, printing in the newspapers, or on request would be more financially prudent, he said. “If someone wants one, they should get it,” he said. “I just don’t understand why they are sent to everybody” without being requested.

Better analysis of each precinct’s voting habits and performance could mean more efficient allocation of equipment and staff on election days, he said.

Hefren also questioned whether the office needs four locations. In addition to the main office in downtown Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Cape Coral have their own branch offices, and there’s another center, which includes warehouse and storage space, in south Fort Myers.

Harrington is seeking re-election; other candidates are Victor Dotres, Tommy Doyle, Sharon Harrington, Carmen Salome, and Dan Sinclair. The race is nonpartisan.

Latest reports show Doyle has far outdistanced the competition in fundraising, collecting almost $65,000.  Sinclair has raised about $16,000, but already spent  about $11,000 of that; Salome has about $11,000; and Harrington, $3,700, and Dotres, almost $400.

Clawson talks presidential politics

Southwest Florida’s U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Bonita Springs, said Republicans have some challenging — and strategic — decisions ahead in choosing the party’s nominee for president.

If a full-fledged GOP establishment candidate wins the nomination and conservatives stay home, “we will not win,” Clawson told a Republican club this week in Fort Myers. “But if we have a conservative candidate who turns off the establishment and everyone else, we lose again.”

“I’m hoping for a conservative candidate who can attract some independents so we can win the White House and not have Hillary” Clinton as president, he said. “But if we eat each other up, we will have a hard time….we have to be together to win the White House. I hope it’s a conservative, but most importantly, I hope it’s a Republican” who can win the presidency.

.Betty Parker is a freelance writer specializing in politics. Her column appears in Saturday's The News-Press and at news-press.com.