Does Rick Scott Have a Blind Trust

Columnist Stephen Goldstein sent me a tweet. Goldstein has asked Gov. Rick Scott's office for the fourth time, if the governor has set up a blind trust. Goldstein has still not received a response.

Update: For the fourth time in over a month, I asked Gov. Scott's office if his vast financial holdings had been placed in a blind trust - if yes, the trustee's name; if no, if and when there would be a trust and who would manage it. I still have not received an answer.

But surely, all Floridians need to know if there any conflicts of interest from the governor's public policy decisions, especially in light of his tainted past.

For example: Does he still personally control his $62 million share in Solantic urgent care walk-in centers, his single largest investment - and is his opposition to Obama's health reform a way of protecting or increasing its value? As CEO, Scott might have thought he could stonewall such a question, but Gov. Scott owes the public an answer!

Scott's stake in Solantic in not managed by a blind trust. Scott's wife now manages the governor's Solantioc assets. Frances Scott can not be considered a neutral third party.

The problem is Scott's family still financial benefits on health care decisions as governor. For instance: Scott signed an executive order having state employees randomly drug tested. Scott supports legislation making mandatory for welfare recipients to be drug tested. Solantic provides drug testing as a service.

Another question is what did Scott's transition team lawyers, Enu Mainigi, James Fuller, and Richard Coates discuss with the Florida Commission on Ethics. There are no records of the meeting that took place on Dec. 7, 10 and 16.

Mainigi is an old friend of Scott. She has defended money launderers, and security fraud. Fuller worked on the Clintons tax returns. Fuller has represented accused tax criminals. Richard Coates has represented former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom. Why is Scott having white collar criminal lawyers visit the ethics commission? These attorneys usually don't appear unless the client thinks he is about to be indicted.

The question remains if Scott has a blind trust? Judging by his stonewalling and the legal team he has put togeter; I am skeptical.

Exactly what transpired between Mainigi, Fuller, Coates and the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Does Scott talk to his wife about business matters relating to Solantic? I don't see how it is not possible.

Rick Scott's Transition Epic Fail

There was a reason Rick Scott avoided talking about Florida policy when he was running for governor. Scott has a contempt but no understanding of how state government actually works. Scott came into Tallahassee and fired everyone from all the state agencies. Scott never accounted for not having enough time to hire qualified people.
Scott is now forced to eat crow.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott is revoking the pink slips for at least five of Gov. Charlie Crist's department heads and at least 400 other mid to upper-level managers while he takes his time to staff up for his new administration, according to a list released by the Scott transition team Monday. Download Scott staff list 121810

Among those asked to stay on board for 60 to 90 days is Department of Children and Families secretary George Sheldon, Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil, Agency for Workforce Innovation director Cynthia Lorenzo, Department of Business & Professional Regulation Secretary Charlie Liem and Agency for Persons with Disabilities Secretary Jim DeBeaugrine.

Enu Mainigi has been criticized for the manner in which she handled the transition process. Mainigi is running the transition from Fort Lauderdale. She is a Washington-based attorney. Common sense would dictate that Mainigi handle the transition in Tallahassee. Mainigi dismissed such notions in a Miami Herald interview.

"It is a game," Mainigi said. "One of the reasons we've primarily run the transition outside of Tallahassee is because we don't really want to be distracted by the rumors and the buzz."

Actually, Scott and Mainigi are creating much of the "rumors and buzz" by operating the transition inside a star chamber. Rick Scott got elected because he bought a lot of TV ads and Alex Sink ran her disastrous Panhandle strategy. Scott didn't get elected because he shares the most charismatic traits of JFK, Reagan, Clinton and Obama. Most people find the guy creepy. Scott and Mainigi can only intimidate the GOP establishment and the media for so long.

Peter Schorsch details how Scott and Mainigi have no problem promising two different people the same job.

No one — and I mean no one — in the legislative branch has a clue about what to expect from Rick Scott’s administration. Members and staffers, new and veteran alike, simply don’t know what to make of Scott…they don’t know, beyond what they read in the media, who he’ll rely on in the Legislature, in the bureaucracy or the lobby corps. People who think they are going to work in the administration are literally talking to other people who were promised the same job. It’s all very Kaiser Soze: lots of incomplete information, none of which adds up to a full portrait.

This is going to be a long four years.