Arth supporter booted from Sink-Smith event

by Michael C. Bender | August 19th, 2010

A few days after independent gubernatorial candidate Michael E. Arth snuck into a photo with Republican Rick Scott, one of Arth’s supporters was removed today from Democrat Alex Sink’s event in West Palm Beach.

Melinda Clark, 58, of West Palm Beach, attend the event after receiving an e-mail from the Palm Beach County Democratic Club. She said was wearing an Arth button but minding her own business when she was asked to leave by John Kazanjian, president of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, which was hosting the event. She said she was slightly pushed while she was escorted out of the hall.

“I was asking to be noticed, for sure. But this just confirmed that the corporate monolith has taken over anything resembling a democracy. This is now about the wealthy and the well-connected,” said Clark, who compared the situation to former President George W. Bush packing his town hall events with supporters.

“It’s incredible to me that the police, as benevolent as they are, escorted a little 58-year-old grandmother out of the meeting instead of protecting my democratic rights to be there.”

The details of Clark’s story are disputed by Sink’s campaign and Kazanjian, who do a little finger-pointing of their own.
Kazanjian, wearing the peach shirt in this video, said the PBA hall is private property, but was adamant that Clark was not pushed or shoved. “She was making a scene. I almost called the West Palm police, but I didn’t have to,” he said.

“The campaign was afraid she was going to do something else,” Kazanjian said. “They asked me to ask her to leave.”

But Sink’s campaign said it was the PBA’s decision to remove Clark.

“It is up to the members of the Palm Beach County PBA who to have in their hall,” Sink spokeswoman Kyra Jennings said. “They made the decision that they did not want this particular woman, who was supporting an opposing candidate, at the event and respectfully asked her to leave.”

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SB 1902; HB 1319; SB 2022; HB 5701 - FRS/Govt'l retirement systems

Two additional bills have surfaced related to FRS and retirement contributions and benefits.  The Senate is now considering SB 2022 related to FRS in addition to SB 1902 (see email below).  SB 2022 requires all FRS employees to contribute ¼ of 1 percent of gross salary to fund retirement benefits starting January 1, 2011.  SB 2022 was recommended favorably by the Senate Ways & Means Committee today.  A link to SB 2022 and the staff analysis are included below.

On the House side, the House has introduced HB 5701, which eliminates the retiree health insurance subsidy which equals $5 per month for every year of service up to a maximum of $150 a month. 

About Your Health Insurance

Now last week, the Florida PBA sent out a Red Alert to inform all of you about potential changes to your retirement benefits (see article And There’s More on the Pensions too). We have received a solid response from the membership and judging by the comments from some of the Legislators on the list, you are making the phone calls. Please keep those phone calls and emails going (see the last page for details).

Sadly, changes to your pensions are not the only major reform issues related to your benefits being discussed. Health Insurance is probably at the top of the list. Last week, we wrote in the Capitol Report about the four bills concerning major changes to your health insurance, but we did not make a key connection for you – the changes in HB 1025 and SB 1710 for retiree premiums are designed to apply to retirees from every level of government not just state retirees. If you are retired from a city, or a county, these changes could impact your premiums, too.

This legislation will increase the premium costs for retirees and those close to retirement at every level of government.