- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Rob] Coming up next, the state Senate passes a version of redistricted, congressional and legislative maps, while the governor tries to inject himself into the process, major league baseball rejects the plan to split the rays season with Montreal.

We'll have the latest on the move by Tallahassee to take away more power from cities and counties.

Orange county's health director is placed on leave for sending an email to employees about their low COVID vaccination rates and the bucks play the Rams this Sunday.

We'll get some straight talk about the game all coming up next on Florida this week.

(upbeat music) Welcome back this week, a Florida Senate committee passed bills to create a new Florida congressional map and redraw state Senate districts with bipartisan support.

Only four Democrats have posed the congressional map and three Democrats voted against the Senate districts.

The congressional map creates a new 28th district in central Florida that should favor Republicans, but most Democrats still supported the plan.

And approving the plan the Senate ignored a proposed congressional map from governor DeSantis that would be even more favorable to Republicans Cecile Scoon is the president of the league of women, voters of Florida.

She's an attorney and was a major in the air force serving as a JAG in military courts.

The league successfully challenged the legislature's 2010 redistrict of maps.

And Cecile welcome back to the shs to the show.

- It's great to be here.

- So as we speak, the house house committee has just passed its version of maps, a Senate committee has also done so.

Tell me, in your opinion, do the maps meet the requirements of the Florida constitution?

- We think that they do not.

What is shared a problem with both sets of maps is that the legislators have not done their homework fully.

What they have done is they've taken the benchmarks that were established based on 2010 census, and they have done limited data analysis on a few of those maps that showed minority districts, which should be protected.

And what we're saying is they should look for around the entire state because of the population growth and look and base what districts are going to do the data analysis on based on the 2020 census, they're only using the districts that were determined to be a minority districts based on 2010 census was our gap.

There's a gap there.

- So they're using older, the older data, not the newer data.

- Exactly - The governor at the last minute had some ideas for congressional maps.

Did the Senate committee or the house committee take a look at what the governor suggested?

Did he play a role in the maps that were passed this week?

- I'm sure they looked at the governor's maps because he is in a position of authority and they would want to know what our governor is thinking, but they did not seem to adopt them in the maps that they were voting on yesterday and today.

- One of the things that legislators must do, is have no retrogression that is no loss of minority seats in either the state the state legislature or Congress.

I believe that's correct, and correct me if I'm wrong.

- Yes - Is there a retrogression problem in the maps that were okay this week in committee?

- On that narrow question about retrogression in some aspects, there does not seem to be because the number of minority districts has remained the same and with the number of benchmarks.

But what we are saying is there should be more, there's almost 1.5 I heard estimate of more Hispanics and there's been growth with African-Americans in the state.

And so how can you end up with the exact same number of minority districts?

That's just not logical aside from the process of not looking at the growth, it doesn't make sense that they would be exactly the same.

So the other part of fair districts on the voting rights act that they are not dealing with, is that the need to provide opportunities for minorities districts and for racial and language minorities, to select a representative of their choice.

And you have to do that by looking around the state, to see where the populations are.

And that is why we're saying, they need to look beyond the old benchmarks that were established based on 2010.

And they also need to use a more deeper data analysis called a racially polarized voting analysis, because in order to be sure that the lines that you've drawn will give an opportunity for minorities to be successful, really choose a representative, you have to see how do the non-minorities vote in that area.

And they have not done that deeper analysis.

- The League challenged the redistricting maps last time, about 10 years ago, would you expect that the league has ground this time to challenge the maps as being proposed in the house committee and Senate committee?

- The league keeps all of our options on the table, we have spent a lot of energy and time and I'm right here, actually in the Capitol.

I was at the hearing today and I gave testimony again.

We believe in transparency, we believe in talking and letting everybody know how things can be fixed, giving them the opportunity to address the problems.

So the review of everything is not over, the final maps from the legislative side, have not been voted on and then the Senate and the house needs to go back and forth, and we still need to see whether the governor's map will have any impact.

So we're not in a position to say what we're gonna do or not do.

We wanna be a part of the process, we wanna point out the areas that need remedies and then at the end of the process, we will assess what is the next step for us.

- Here in the Tampa bay area there are a lot of people looking at a Senate district that spans the bay from south St. Petersburg over to Hillsborough county, it's now a representative by his state Senator, Darrell Ourso.

Did his district survive?

Because there has been some suggestion that there'd be two districts created, one in St. Petersburg and one in Hillsborough county.

- We are not focused on individuals districts, or whether individual representatives or senators are impacted.

In fact, we are told with the districts that we don't consider that, we are looking at the impact on the citizens.

Are they in a position to select a representative of their choice?

So we'll have to see how the final maps work out to make that determination of whether the citizens rights are protected.

- And the house and Senate, to these maps go to the floor, the next week?

- With congressional mats, they are going to go to, I believe their next step is to the floor for all of the representatives to review and debate and possible there may be some amendments.

So I think that is their next step, and then after that, there will be conversation and debate and negotiation I imagine between the Senate and the house.

- Well, Cecile Scoon thanks a lot for coming on Floida This Week.

Good to see you again.

- Thank you.

Pleasure.

(upbeat music) - Joining us now in the studio, Alex Sink, the former chief financial officer for the state of Florida.

She was a democratic candidate for governor in 2010, and she's active in promoting Florida in financial and business circles.

And Travis Horn is the president and CEO of Bullhorn communications, he's a native Floridian and attorney and army veteran, and is active in republican politics.

So great to have you both here, nice to see you.

- Great to be back in studio, Rob.

- So let's start with major league baseball.

They have rejected the Tampa bay rays plan to split the season between the bay area and Montreal.

The idea of playing in both west central Florida and Montreal has been discussed over the past several years, after attempts to build a new full-time ballpark locally failed.

Raise lease a Tropicana field in St. Pete, where the team has played since its inaugural season in 1998, expires after the 2027 season.

In recent years, the Rays team has been a success on the field, but not when it comes to attendance.

And Alex, let me start with you, were you surprised by this decision and shouldn't the Rays build their own stadium and build it here?

(laughs) - Oh, wow.

I was surprised by the decision, although I'm glad that they have announced, I put the quiet assignment like immediately, and let's not waste any more time talking about the possibilities, I had the opportunity to hear Matt Silverman and Brian Auld make their case, they've been talking to the community about the reasoning and how it could work.

And I found it a very intriguing solution because at the end of the day, MLB is going to require us to have a covered stadium, and let's look at that monstrosity they built in Miami for billions of dollars and the people still aren't coming.

And we don't need to repeat that here in Tampa.

So how in the world we finance a covered stadium, it's just beyond me.

So there's gotta be some more creative thinking going on.

I wanna keep the race here for sure, but - Do you want to give them money to build that stadium?

- I don't think the public is in a mood to give private owners of professional teams money to build stadiums.

And so I think the Rays had said they would be willing to come up to 350 as much as $350 million.

And we could build maybe a smaller open air stadium for that amount plus some that the city and the county would put in.

And it's gonna be interesting to see what financial maneuvering go on from now.

I think a good thing is that Ken Welch, the new mayor of St Petersburg does seem to be very amenable to talking to the Rays, to exploring possibilities, right?

Under property of Tropicana field.

I would be willing to bet they might end up back and the side of a Tropicana field and in much smaller environment - Travis what do you think of it?

- I'll be a MLB decision.

So funny to be in this predicament to be agreeing with Mrs Sink right off the bat here Well I do agree with her analysis that the Senate, whether it be Democrat on the left or Republican folks in the middle, they're not really probably in a mood to dish out tons of public moneys and I had this idea, maybe like the Packers, we could get a little bit of a public investment in it.

Maybe they carve out a piece of that, that outside of the, the bargaining sort of units with the league, but just maybe make the public, help us feel invested in it.

And maybe they would be a little more amenable to giving out some money.

Now, as someone who has a business and is opening another new business in Ybor city, I love Ybor city.

I think it's the right place, I feel like we could really have a great Wrigley village type experience that you see in Chicago and places like Baltimore.

I'm excited about that, I was on the raise 100.

I was a chairman of the chamber when this idea originally came up, I think it's a great spot, all the roads seem to seem to converge there for us, right?

But the question remains funding, will the public be willing to dish out a considerable amount of money for some fellow from out-of-state?

I don't really think so, so I really agree with Alex on this - Okay.

Let's go to our next topic.

In Orlando a health official who has helped lead central Florida's response to the pandemic has been put on administrative leave while state officials investigate whether he tried to compel employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in violation of state law.

Dr. Paul Pino was put on leave after he sent an email earlier this month, that orange county department, of health staff about their low COVID 19 vaccination rates.

He wrote that he had an An analyst run vaccination data for employees and found less than half of his employees had been fully vaccinated.

He called that irresponsible still the Florida Department of Health issued a statement saying that as the decision to get vaccinated as a personal medical choice, that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers.

The employee in question has been placed on administrative leave and the Florida department of health is conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken in this case.

So Travis, do you think laws were broken here?

- I don't know.

I'm not familiar with this set of facts as it relates to whether there were some sort of peanut measures that he was suggesting be put in place because of it.

If there were then that that could potentially be a problem, I'm someone who's vaccinated, so when I encourage my friends and family, if especially if they're like me, and they have had some issues that they feel like could make them at risk for a more severe illness when it comes to contracting COVID, I think that they should take care of themselves.

I've seen private entities sending out emails, like we talked about earlier, also that mandate that their employees take the vaccine that they get the vaccine.

I know again, we've talked about this before on previous episodes.

It's the question of mandate, are we really are we gonna say, "Hey, you have to do it," I get it, I was in the military.

They didn't ask me if we had to take a certain vaccine, "Hey, you're going to Africa, you gonna go get five vaccines tomorrow."

That was just kind of what they said.

- So Alex, do you think that this official cross the law?

I mean, we have a law that says you can't mandate.

- Well fortunately they in the interest of transparency, they did release the email that was sent, and I read it this afternoon and the guy's frustrated, he's the public health official of orange county and less than 50% of his own employees have been vaccinated.

But I saw nothing in there that said, you have to go get a max, I'm mandating it, or I'm requiring it, or I'm co coercing you, he was just blowing off steam that the health official, who's trying to get everybody else vaccinated, Can't convinced his own employees to get vaccinated.

So I think it's much ado about nothing and then I'm even more concerned that the state of Florida would even be taking this kind of action, that's how crazy this world.

- It's a big story.

The New York times covered it on Friday.

Well, Tallahassee is taking another step toward weakening the power of cities and counties.

The Senate committee this week passed a bill, that could put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in damages, when nuisance businesses face local regulations, the Senate appropriations committee voted 11 to seven for SB six 20, which would allow businesses ranging from pill mills to puppy mills, to sue local governments, if they lose up to 15% of their profits or revenues, if the government limits their operations, the next stop for the preemption measure will be the full Senate and along with the companion bill SP2, 80, that bill would require local governments to do an economic impact statement for ordinances before they adopt them and give any resulting legal challenges by an effective business, fast track priority in the courts.

and we only have a minute, Alex, what do you think?

preemption?

- Oh my gosh, it's not a new problem, this been going on for the last 10 plus years, Rob, that Tallahassee has been trying to make decisions on behalf of local government.

When I'm a citizen, I wanna be able to go to talk to my mayor, my city council member, my county commission, public hearing.

They pass these ordinances as a result of response to citizens, whereas these Tallahassee people, they're in the control of lobbyist and that's why it comes up - Travis you get the last word on this.

- I expect some version of this to pass, but I also expect some continuing conversation to delineate whether we're talking about puppy mills and pill mills, or talking about restaurants and masking and things like that in between, because we saw a lot of those that were shut down, that significantly impacted those businesses and continue to within the way of fines and things like that, or attempted to fine and regulate.

So I think you're gonna look at the bill, I think you're going to see a far different version probably from the original version, but if it's the Senate president's priority, it probably will make it through to the signing day.

- Well that's all the time we have for this segment.

So great to see you in person.

- Thanks Rob.

- Thanks.

(upbeat music) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are hosting the Los Angeles Rams and the NFC divisional playoff on Sunday.

The Rams beat the bucks earlier this year at home in LA 34 to 24 and a game in which the Rams scored first and never lost the lead.

Can the bucks keep their repeat hopes alive this weekend.

Here to talk about it is Tom krasniqi, he's the co-host of the Ronnie and T crowds show on WDA radio in Tampa.

It's also a co-host of the countdown to kickoff an overtime shows for Buccaneers games and as a contributor to bay news nine and spectrum sports and Michael Clayton is a former first round pick of the Buccaneers.

He won a super bowl ring playing for the New York Giants in 2012.

He's now a co-host of the pre and post-game shows, for the bucs with T CRAs on WTAE, Michael and Tom thanks for joining us.

I really enjoy your radio programs.

- Thanks, Rob.

Appreciate it.

- All right.

So let's talk about the matchup and let's talk about the bucs offensive line and the defense of the Rams.

We've got a lot of injuries on the offense.

How would you match up?

And Michael, let's start with you, how would you match up the our offense versus their defense?

- Well, as it, as it goes right now, Rob, we're a little banged up.

We saw Tristen Wirst go out of the game last week did not return, but we saw Ryan Jensen go out of the game, but he did return.

but the reality from my experience, is when a guy doesn't return, he's really, really injured.

There's a lot of tough guys on the football field.

So I'm a little bit concerned about the injury due to Tristen Worst, we do not match up.

As we saw Tom Brady go down four times when Tristen Worst, went out of the game, we do not match up well.

If those guys are injured, we have to be creative offensively to kind of stifle that defensive front.

They have a great push, they got three guys who are monsters who can get after the quarterback and our game changers.

So we have to do everything in our willpower to get the ball out fast.

You'd all utilize all of our weapons in order for us to be, moving the right direction offensively.

- T CRAs said that defensive line for LA, that's a monster line.

- Sure is, Aaron Donald is gonna go down as one of the great defensive players in the history of the league.

And he's very tough to block because he's not very big and tall at six one, but he's incredibly fast and powerful.

Low man wins, as Mike knows, he gets his pad level under yours and he's explosive, when it's past rush and they move all up and down the line, they've got Bond Baylor, they traded for him, obviously coming off the edge, he looks about as good as he did a few years ago with the Broncos, and you know, they got Leonard Florida as well, three butterfly pass rushers to throw at Tom Brady.

Now the good news here is the bucs so line, is still put together attack the left side of their lines, been very good this season, if Trista Worst can't go, then Josh Wells will go, and the game plan's going to be short, intermediate passes, and the return of leonard fornette for that potential on Sunday could obviously be a big bet, a big benefit for the bucs too.

- So do guys expect this to be a high scoring game?

- Well, definitely the bucs average over 30 points in Raymond James stadium, they have a lot of energy.

The fans really bring it, they're scoring a lot of points in their own stadium, so obviously we're going against a good team who beat us earlier in the season.

There's no doubt will be a shootout in order for us to win the game.

- I think last time we played the Rams, we lost the momentum and Brady's famous for being able to come from behind, If we lose the momentum this time, can Brady come from behind?

- He can.

I wouldn't bet against them, he's certainly been in the situation many times before the bucs are at home, there are very good team at home, and at home this season, Brady, the bucs are eight and one, and he's got 27 touchdowns.

So I think they can come from behind me, but you can't bet against him, but it would certainly be who have the bucs to get off to a good start like they did last week against the Eagles and make Matthew Stafford who's on the road in the playoffs, give him some pressure obviously to deal with Todd Bowles in that defense will get after him.

- Rob.

- Go ahead, - Rob, I feel, I feel totally different about that.

Los Angeles took over the game last time we played them, they never looked back, we didn't regain any scoring.

So therefore I believe we have to keep up with this team in order to win this game.

Is gonna be very difficult to come from behind.

They have offensive weapons who can move the ball and can score points as well.

So that's not gonna be good for the bucs if they get behind.

- Michael you've been there, is there a sense of revenge if you lost the first round and you come back for a second game with the same team, are you trying to even up even things up?

Are you more fired up for the second game?

If you lost the first game?

- I don't think that comes into play because you lost the first game, you're trying to just play your best football.

It doesn't matter what the situation is in the past, we lost to the saints last year and beat them in the playoffs.

it's about playing your best football in the playoffs and as long as the books can do that, they should be fine.

- T CRAs there have been so many distractions this year with Antonio Brown and everything else that coach, some of the coaches are being groomed or maybe looked at for other positions, the coach got a fine this week.

So many distractions, do those play into a big game like this one on Sunday?

- I don't think so, look, this team is filled with a lot of experience.

It starts with Tom Brady on the offensive side, defensively you got guys like Ndamukong Suh and Mike's old buddy, Jason Pierre Paul there's strong leadership here.

And they wanted all last year under the most adverse of circumstances, obviously having to go on the road, they had to deal with the pandemic, they conquered that.

So I don't think anything that took place this week or the last several weeks will affect them at all.

- Michael, what about Antonio brown leaving?

Did that pull the team apart or bring it together?

How did that affect team cohesion?

- Well, it definitely takes a lot of talent off the field, but in terms of the players that we have, I really think that it's a situation that's gonna bring this to team closer.

There's young players, who've been waiting and itching for the opportunity to get their fair share, at catching some balls, and they've shown that they can do that.

So when one guy moves, it's been the next man up mentality here for, for the culture of the books for the past couple of years, I have no reason to believe that this team isn't coming together even more so in the light of Antonio brown are being dismissed.

- T CRAs before we go, I got to ask you about the decision by major league baseball to say no to the split season for the raise in Montreal.

Did you see that coming?

Was that in the works all along?

What's your take on what happened there when they made that announcement?

- Rob I did see a coming and I don't think the Rays can sit there and be all that surprised by it because so many people were against it.

It really didn't have a shot logistically of happening too complex of an issue, the players union was never gonna sign off on it.

And I think it's part of the race master plan in order to get the kind of deal that they want.

I think they were surprised that they pulled the plug on it so quick, but now it will advance the story even further to say, okay, now what is the future like, are we still looking here or are we still looking beyond the market?

I can tell you that the rays have been looking beyond this market now for a couple of years, and that's something that we need to keep an eye on over the next 12 to 14 months.

- But do they wanna lose the TV revenue?

- Well, that's a big question because the other cities that are reportedly willing to raise like Nashville, and that was up in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, and there's some buzz about wanting to get major league baseball there.

Their market TV wise is not as big as the Tampa bay market.

I think in a perfect world, the Rays want to stay here, but Stuart Sternberg doesn't want to reach too deep into his pocket to put a whole lot of money on the table and he's gonna try and get the best deal possible.

I tell fans all the time, Rob, you wanna know where the rays to get to be in about five or six year you follow the money.

That's where it's going to end up being.

- Well T CRAs and Michael Clayton.

So great to see you, thanks for coming on.

- Thanks, Rob.

- Thanks Rob, appreciate it.

- Thanks for watching, send your comments to us at FTW@Wedu.org.

You can view this and past shows online@wedu.org or on the PBS app.

Florida this week is now available as a podcast, you can find it on our website or wherever you download your podcasts.

From all of us here at WEDU, have great weekend go bucs.

(upbeat music) - Florida this Week, it's a production of WEDU who was solely responsible for its content.

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