James Kotas is leaving FCCI Insurance Group to lobby for Darden Concepts Inc., a national restaurant chain with brands that include The Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Olive Garden.
The League of Women Voters of Florida has hired Marty Monroe as its lobbyist for the 2018 Legislative Session. Monroe has worked in the Florida Department of Education as a regional coordinator, and was a part-time lobbyist for the Florida Association on Aging/Florida Council on Aging, a press release said.
The Florida House approved tough new ethics legislation Thursday barring members of the Legislature and statewide elected officials from lobbying their former colleagues for six years after leaving office. The measure also would prevent officials from leveraging their authority to seek jobs from or going into business with lobbyists. CS/SB 7083 passed on a vote of 118-0, even though House Speaker Richard Corcoran has conceded the Senate has little interest in boosting ethics laws this year, and with the scheduled…
Donovan Brown has added Employers Insurance Group to his roster of lobbying clients. Brown registered to represent Employers as of December. 6. He canceled his registration to represent a dozen or so insurance and other clients when he left Colodny Fass during the summer to strike out on his own. He now operates GDB Group in Tallahassee. His other clients include AmTrust Financial Services Inc., which sells property and casualty insurance to small businesses. Employers specializes in workers’ compensation insurance,…
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has chosen the Capitol Alliance Group of Tallahassee to be the city’s lobbyist in the state capitol. Although Kriseman has made the choice, details of the contract have not been ironed out, spokesman Ben Kirby said. Capitol Alliance will replace the city’s current lobbyist, Peebles and Smith, also based in Tallahassee, in the upcoming Legislative Session. St. Petersburg’s contract will Peebles expired Sept. 30. The contract was worth $50,000 last year. Capitol Alliance has a…
Six firms are in the running to be St. Petersburg’s lobbyist in Tallahassee. The contract, worth $50,000 last year, belonged to Peebles and Smith from Tallahassee. Its contract with the city expired Sept. 30 and the group has submitted a proposal to continue representing St. Pete. The five other firms who have responded to the city’s request for proposal are: Ballard Partners of Tallahassee — Amazon.com, American Traffic Solutions, and the cities of Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Jacksonville…
On one of my earliest days covering the Florida Legislature, I was walking along the main hall a few feet behind Jack Lee, the lobbyist for Associated Industries, when a document dropped out of his portfolio. He didn’t seem to notice, so I picked it up, intending to return it to him. I barely had time to realize that it was an amendment form for a Senate bill, neatly typed in the proper places, when he turned and snatched it…
