From Tampa Bay Times:
Never delete anything, that’s my motto. As a digital hoarder, I have a modest 279 unread text messages and 158,960 emails. I know precisely where I was on this day a decade ago (First Watch for breakfast, per photo evidence). Usually this tic just slows down my devices, but sometimes it comes in handy.
Like now. I can tell you about, nay, show you the interior of the plush West Palm Beach digs where two of Florida’s utility regulators soaked up an all-expenses paid industry retreat in July. Mike La Rosa and Bobby Payne, members of the Florida Public Service Commission, mingled with representatives from the very industries they regulate.
No, do not glaze over. This is ethically dubious and important! While we hang our heads over stacks of bills, beads of sweat trailing down our spines, these regulators hold power to approve or deny rate hikes that wallop our lives.
The whole energy ecosystem is as clear as a spa mud mask, so let’s dive in. Playing host at this swanky lodge was a nonprofit called the Regulators Roundtable Institute, which claims to be nonpartisan but openly advocates for conservative leadership.
Through a convoluted game of telephone no one will prove, we’re supposed to believe the nonprofit doesn’t accept money from Florida utilities. But it is enmeshed with a Republican recruiting and training organization that has received donations from Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy and Anthropic. And a rash of grid-gobbling data centers are whirring over Florida’s horizon.
A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission offered threadbare reasons why the free ride fell within state ethics rules, including that the commissioners were featured speakers. The plush event, mind you, was closed to the public and full of corporate types with power-hungry projects on the line.
“There’s no way in hell I would’ve done that,” former commission chairperson Nancy Argenziano told the Tampa Bay Times’ Emily L. Mahoney. “It would be like if you were getting divorced from your husband and you went to the judge, and you found out the judge was buying him things.”
Clarifying, Nancy, thank you.
Now, about that hotel. Five years ago, my husband and I journeyed to West Palm Beach for our anniversary. We decided to bring an anxious but sweet third wheel, our rescue Pomeranian, Rocket. We chose the Ben Hotel because not only does it accept dogs, it regards canines like the second coming of Gilgamesh. And that’s saying nothing of the accommodations for humans.
The hotel is located on — you can’t make this up — Narcissus Avenue. At check-in, we were gifted a dog bowl and poo bag holder. The room service menu included a section for pooches, which at that time featured a “fur baby filet mignon.” Rocket, who looked like a fleck of fireplace soot when we adopted him, lounged near a leather-like headboard as if he just met Daddy Warbucks. In the nearby town square, illuminated water fountains danced to the dulcet sounds of Katy Perry.
Let’s go to the files! Gaze upon this golden statue of a dog in the hallway!
No shade to The Ben. The Marriott hotel provided a delightful escape for two private citizens paying their own way. It’s not so charming when the turndown service is for public servants appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. These officials are supposed to protect the interests of millions of Floridians trapped in a soul-crushing affordability crisis, not be wined and dined by industry insiders at a resort that offers sunrise rooftop yoga, book butlers and dog bathrobes (really).
f the trip fell within some crevice of allowable behavior, the Florida Legislature needs to fill it in. There should be no reality in which this blatant conflict of interest is allowed to unfold at any hotel ranking above two stars. All unscrupulous officials should have the decency to gladhand their way into dark dealings the old-fashioned way, at a place off the highway where it’s wise to leave your socks on at all times, where the finest meal is a bag of pizza-flavored Combos from the vending machine, where the only dogs on site are a one-eyed boiler room guy named Tank. Don’t worry, though. I’ve got pictures of that place, too.
Get Stephanie’s newsletter
For weekly bonus content and a look inside columns by Stephanie Hayes, sign up for the free Stephinitely newsletter.
No comments:
Post a Comment