Florida's cabinet system Y2K and beyond.

• Author: Perez, Kent J.

This article explains the historically unique and often mysterious function of the executive branch of Florida's state government.

The idea for this article began before voters of the State of Florida chose to amend Florida's Cabinet in response to the recommendations made by the 1998 Constitution Revision Commission. Consequently, the structure of the Cabinet will significantly change in the year 2003 when it is reduced from a Governor and six Cabinet officers to a Governor and three Cabinet officers. In the interim, the legislature will wrestle with fleshing out the constitutional provisions that will go into effect in order to address the myriad statutes that delegate duties to the Cabinet. What remains certain is that most of what the Cabinet does at this time no doubt will continue and most likely will be addressed in the same fashion and manner.

The Cabinet

Florida's executive branch of government is unique among the 50 states because of its Cabinet. Although the state constitution vests "supreme executive power" in the Governor, it also provides that "[t]here shall be a Cabinet composed of a secretary of state, an attorney general, a comptroller, a treasurer, a commissioner of agriculture and a commissioner of education."(1) This unique form of government is a carryover from the reconstruction era, when concerns about the concentration of too much power in the Governor prompted what some historians would refer to as an enlightened document, "the best that Florida would have in the century," the Constitution of 1868.(2)

The officers who form the Cabinet not only have specific powers and duties under the constitution, but they also "shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as may be prescribed by law."(3) The legislature has made extensive use of this constitutional provision, haying assigned literally hundreds of such powers and duties to this body.

Before the late Governor Lawton Chiles directed the elimination of a vast number of state government rules,(4) almost all of the agencies, boards, or commissions constituting the Cabinet had some specific rule reference to meetings of the Governor and Cabinet. While there are no uniform rules of procedure per se, a good example of the Cabinet process can be found in Ch. 19-3 of the Florida Administrative Code, entitled Rules and Regulations Governing the Organization, Meetings, and Procedures of the State Board of Administration.(5) For those practitioners who may have the occasion to come before the Governor and Cabinet, this primer might be helpful.

Cabinet Meetings

The Governor and Cabinet meet as a collegial body every two weeks in the Cabinet meeting room located in the lower level of the state capitol. These meetings are usually held on Tuesdays, unless a Wednesday or Thursday meeting has been scheduled ahead of time due to circumstance or conflict for a Cabinet member.(6) One can find notice of all meetings published in the Florida Administrative Law Weekly; however, there is also a process by which items can be placed on the agenda at a later period in time if they are known to merit "good cause."

Good cause items may be added to agendas at very late moments if approved by the Governor's office. There is an attempt to notice these "good cause" items by at least directing them to all known parties that may have a concern. Members of the Cabinet are given notice and may respond if they have any concerns with timing or substance. Individual members of the Cabinet and the Governor are almost always considerate of each other's concerns and will usually submit to a request for deferral of an item at least once.

With a meeting every two weeks, the Cabinet typically meets at least 20 times a year. There are occasional open weeks and each year members vote on a proposed Cabinet schedule for the following year, selecting one month during the summer in which it will not meet. In the last five years, this month typically has shifted between July and August. There appear to be no rules other than a general consensus of the Governor and Cabinet as to what their next year's schedule will be.

The Florida Cabinet in the past has on rare occasion conducted Cabinet meetings outside of Tallahassee, depending on the issues involved. However, upon taking office, Governor Jeb Bush initiated a program called "Capital for a Day," which literally takes the Cabinet meetings to the people on a regular basis. As part of this program, approximately once every quarter the Cabinet will meet in different Florida cities. Meetings have been held in Jacksonville, Ft. Lauderdale, Bartow, Sarasota, and Panama City.

Cabinet meetings are chaired by the Governor or, in his absence, by the Secretary of State. Should the Secretary be absent, the Attorney General would chair. This protocol follows the order in which the offices are listed in the Florida Constitution.(7) Unless there is specific statutory or rule procedure that must be followed, Robert's Rules of Order is relied upon as basic rule of parliamentary procedure to conduct a fair, orderly meeting.(8)

The meetings begin with an invocation performed by an invited guest of faith, followed by the pledge of allegiance. The business then opens with preliminary matters such as the reading of resolutions offered by individual members or by two or more members together. Resolutions typically are awards of praise and recognition to deserving individuals and groups, but they may occasionally also address substantive issues such as the 1996 resolution by the Governor and Cabinet supporting the legislature's consideration of a bill prohibiting Cruises to Nowhere in Florida.

There may also be status reports or announcements. Items taken up before the agendas have been dubbed by staff and practitioners alike as "pre-cab." Typically, a day or two before the meeting the Governor's Cabinet staff will make available a one-page meeting agenda showing the resolutions, pre-cab, and order of agendas.(9) The order can vary based on which agenda might...