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

- Coming up next and historic election in St. Petersburg claims that academic freedom is at risk at the University of Florida and how the debate over the Build Back Better Bill in Congress will affect Florida's seniors.

All this and more, next on Florida This Week.

( intense music ) - Welcome back.

History was made this week in St. Petersburg as voters elected the city's first black mayor, Ken Welch.

- What does progress look like?

And the answer from the community is clear, across a spectrum of age, race, gender orientation, faith, or neighborhood.

The response from the people of St. Petersburg is consistent with our vision of inclusive progress for all, and our guiding principles.

- Voters also chose the first Hispanic City Council Member, Lisset Hanewicz and the first democratic socialist, Richie Floyd.

It's also the first time there will be three black members on city council.

- Colleen Wright is the St Petersburg reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

She's been covering the election.

She joins us now, Colleen good to see you again.

- Good be back.

- So Ken Welch won 60% of the vote in a city that is 70% white.

Talk about what this means for the St. Petersburg, which once was, you know, had all sorts of remnants of segregation from the green benches that people weren't allowed to sit on, if they were African-American, so many cases.

Black police officer is not allowed to patrol white neighborhoods.

This is a major breakthrough for the African-American community.

- It is.

And that was kind of the theme of Ken Welch's victory party, on Tuesday night.

The woman who introduced them to the stage was the granddaughter Freddie Crawford, who was one of the courageous 12 black police officers who sued the city of St. Petersburg over not being able to patrol white neighborhoods, and one, it is a huge election.

It is historic.

We have never had a black mayor here in St. Petersburg and his father, David Welch, Ken Welch's father, David Welch was the first black male city council member.

So the Welch's have already had quite a history right now.

And this election is really interesting.

I think the intro summed it up perfectly.

First, black mayor, first Hispanic city council member, first democratic socialist, and also a black city council member elected North of Central Avenue.

That's also our first, and I think I know this is a predominantly white city, but I think it has more to do with partisanship.

Democrats vote for Democrats, Republicans vote for Republicans.

There was a little bit of crossover, you know, we do have a lot of independence.

In fact, just as many independents as Republicans, but votes really tended to fall along party lines, not so much racial lines.

- So is the mayor elect promising to do anything that's much different from the current mayor?

- You know that's come up a lot leading up to the election, you know, critics say this would just be a third term of mayor Rick Kriseman.

Mayor elect Ken Welch says that's not true.

He would not do even though they're both Democrats, he would not do everything the same as Kriseman particularly when it comes down to partisan politics.

And you see that in Ken Welch's endorsements, he had a lot of bipartisan endorsements of sheriff Bob Gualtieri is a Republican is a Trump supporter, has stood with governor DeSantis, former St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster, who is a Republican endorsed Ken Welch.

I think the big focus for Ken Welch's campaign is progress, especially when it comes to the Rays.

Ken Welch's family actually lived in the gas plant neighborhood, it was a predominantly black neighborhood that was raised for Tropicana field.

And he said kind of what happens to the Rays is secondary, he wants to make things right for families like his, who were displaced and truly bring equity back to, you know, the city of St. Petersburg, especially in the south side of St. Petersburg.

So we'll see what happens with that.

It is interesting as well, that this is the first time there's been three black city council members all serving at once.

And of course, a black mayor as well.

So, you know, we'll see kind of what that star power, what effect that has on those areas that have for a long time been unequal.

- A much more diverse leadership at city government.

So Richie Floyd is a democratic socialist.

He's newly elected to the St. Pete city council.

What can a democratic socialists do as a member of the city council?

What does he promised to do?

And how would he differ from maybe, you know, the other members of the city council?

- So he would love to tell you that he's a democrat socialist, but he is a Democrat.

But when you talk about Democrats socialists, we had a long conversation about this, he's for a $15 minimum wage.

He is for strong unions.

He is kind of for centering working class people, also a huge emphasis on climate change and, you know.

Readying our communities here in south St. Pete to withstand a storm because it's been a hundred years, but one will be coming soon.

So the focus of this campaign as I tell you is more working class people and focusing on those dollars, focusing on affordable housing.

So he's not as concerned with development dollars, he's not as concerned for example with the Trop, he would like to see, for example, affordable housing done at the Trop and kind of view city council items through that lens.

- So there was a move with the charter amendment, one in St. Petersburg that would have replaced the citywide voting for council races with single member districts that failed.

What would have been the results?

I mean, would have been all single member districts in St. Pete?

And why do you think it was rejected?

- Yeah.

So how the current system works is there's eight seats, there's a primary and only voters from that district can vote in the primary.

And then the top two vote getters go to the, at large, you know, the whole city votes on the council member even though it's only for eight or four six.

Everyone gets to vote in the general election for all the city council races.

It's actually a pretty unique system to St. Petersburg.

What this amendment would have done, is make it a single member district.

So basically only people who go in district eight can vote for the district eight representative and district six, only those for district six and so on and so forth.

The Whoruze we're big proponents of this, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union issued a joint study that found that every time a black candidate goes up against a white candidate citywide, the black candidate loses.

And that's a study for the best.

- Except in this case where Richie Floyd one citywide.

- Yes.

- Alright.

- And Richie Floyd.

- We're out of time, but Colleen thanks for being on the program.

- Thanks for having me.

(upbeat music) - As the New York times and all of Florida's major newspapers have been reporting this week in Gainesville, a decision by the University of Florida to bar three professors from testifying in a lawsuit against governor Ron DeSantis has ballooned into a political and public relations firestorm, but on Friday, the school reversed that decision, allowing the professors to testify.

- [ Announcer] Since the story broke last week, five more Florida professors have come forward with similar complaints.

The body that accredits the university has opened an inquiry into whether the orders violate long established principles of academic freedom or involve undue political influence.

A spokeswoman for the governors said he had not played any role in the university's actions saying this is an internal UF issue and not the sort of thing that the executive branch would be involved in.

- Joining us now are Tara Newsome, a professor of political science at St. Petersburg college and Darryl Paulson, the Meredith professor of government and politics at USF St. Petersburg.

Tara and Daryl good to see you.

Thanks for joining us.

- Glad to be here.

- Okay.

- Thanks for having me.

- So this was a controversy that raged all week, Darryl, you wrote an editorial or an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times about it.

So does the president of UF reversing the decision to prevent his professors from testifying in cases that may have an adverse effect on the university?

Does that end the controversy?

- Well, it doesn't add that.

And the big question to me is why did he do it?

And the answer to that I think is quite simple.

He didn't have any choice.

This was probably one of the worst decisions at the University of Florida has made in its history.

And one that had the opportunity to completely embarrass and really destroy the university's reputation.

I haven't seen any editorial in favor of what the university of Florida did.

I am seeing hundreds and hundreds of editorials from newspapers.

I've seen hundreds and hundreds of statements from academicians of both conservative and liberal persuasion, that it was a terrible decision.

I don't think he had any choice.

And that's what was relayed to stop the blood flow from the University of Florida.

It was a horrendous decision.

It was a bad decision.

And you can't describe the damage that this would have done to the university's reputation.

They would have had tremendous difficulty retaining faculty members.

If in fact, this provision had stayed in place, they would have tremendous difficulty in recruiting new faculty members who'd want to come to an institute that doesn't allow you to use your expertise.

And in fact, in the past I've been an expert witness in many occasions in court cases, I've been hired as a TV analyst by two different stations for five or six year period of time.

I served as an expert witness for the St. Pete charter review commission in 2000.

So there are many different ways in which you can serve as an expert witness and to suddenly say, you know, that was no longer desirable.

When I was an expert witness in 1992, and a major voting rights case involving the NAACP, who was seeking to get the first black elected to Congress since 1890.

Even though during that 110 year period of time, blacks constituted as much as 45% of the state's population.

I only received praise from USF administrators.

I have several notes from USF administrators that some of them probably would like to burn as this situation was going on, but they were highly laudatory and thanking me both for the exposure that it gave to USF for, you know, the fact that I was recognized as an expert witness for the fact that my testimony was carried in every newspaper in the state of Florida and many national newspapers, like the New York Times.

So nothing but praise and all of a sudden, the university of Florida was saying, you know, this is damaging to the university.

You can't do it.

- Tara these three professors are some of the top elections experts in the state.

And they were asked to give testimony in a case that's challenging Florida's new voting law.

So have you heard of anything like this before where the university comes out and says, no, you are our elections experts can't testify.

I mean, of course the voting law is something that's supported by the governor, the legislature, and the university gets funding from the governor and the legislature.

So talk about the academic freedom here.

- Absolutely academic freedom is at the basis of why we have academic institutions to be shepherds of critical thought for pluralism.

The essence of a healthy democracy.

You know, there was actually a case in, in April of 2021.

It's called the Merryweather versus Hertruck case.

And that case made it clear that in your capacity, as a professor, you have a first amendment right.

So the university of Florida really didn't have any choice, not just from a public relations point of view, but also from a legal point of view, they had no legal standard to do this.

And I think what's really at stake is that if they continue to squash the kind of thought and academic freedom that faculty have, it would go to a narrative that's already growing in Florida.

That the current administration needs to squash any critics of the policies that come out of the governor's office in order to avoid criticism and perhaps healthy debate.

And so this chilling effect on academicians is really an example of a chilling effect on all thought in Florida, right now, if it goes against the somewhat authoritarian regime of the DeSantis office.

So I think it's very dangerous.

It's dangerous to academicians, it's dangerous to democracy.

And it just goes to point out that it's a growing tsunami of decisions in Florida, that any kind of criticism of the current administration will be squashed.

- And Darryl, when professors testify, do they always testify on behalf of liberal causes or progressive causes, or, you know, I mean talk about, cause I'm sure we've got viewers who are watching this saying, well, all professors are liberal.

Therefore their testimony is going to skew liberal.

What would you say to that?

- Well, I would say I was a Republican for 45 years until 2016.

When I dropped my republican allegiance, I was not only Republican, I was a fellow at the heritage foundation, the most conservative think in the country.

But even though I was a Republican and a conservative during that time period, I was hired by the state NAACP and the national NAACP, I think five or six times to represent them in voting rights cases.

And they did testify in that 1992 case that ended up with African-Americans getting the first three black members of Congress and the congressional delegation in 110 years.

So that's a very proud moment for me.

I never saw that as a liberal effort.

I saw that as an effort to create political equality, that was denied to blacks.

Even though, as I said, they had 45% of the state's population, clearly they didn't hold any seats in Congress because of, you know, the voting rights laws that have been passed in Florida, which denied them the right to vote.

- And didn't Republicans also pick up seats at the same time.

- Oh, absolutely.

They picked up a lot.

In fact, Tom Delay the former head of the Republican party who was effective in many credit him revitalizing the Republican party in Florida and giving them a majority once, slapped me on the backs at that back and said, thank you for your testimony.

I mean, he said, yeah, he may have gotten three African-Americans in there, but it gave us a Republican majority and he was right to create those three districts.

You had to move blacks into majority minority districts and it meant outline districts were much more Republican in composition.

- Well, let me switch gears a little bit, Tara, and ask you this question.

Governor Ron DeSantis vowed this week to create a statewide law enforcement office whose sole job would be to crack down on election crimes.

Here's the governor.

- First, we are gonna create a separate office at the state level, solely dedicated to investigating and prosecuting election crimes in the state of Florida.

(audience applauding) - So I want to toss this to both of you, but Tara first.

How widespread is the problem of illegal voting here in Florida?

- Well, according to governor DeSantis, who came out after the last presidential election, we had a seamless and beautiful election and he was very proud of our election results.

There was only a handful, less than two I believe, voter irregularity.

And so his proposal would be a $5.7 million financial impact in one year to the state of Florida, 52 employees and 20 sworn officers.

You gotta remember contextualize all this with the fact that of 50 states, not one of the 50 states have really indicated any overt voter irregularity that needed to be addressed.

So this is complete political grand standing and isn't really stage in any meritorious.

Listen, 45 states in America have secretary of state's, five have a variety of ways of lieutenant governor certifying elections.

20 of them are Democrats 25 are Republicans.

None of them said including Florida, that we had any real voter integrity issue.

So this is $5.7 million of spending Floridians money on something that is completely politically motivated at a time when republicans we thought were trying to pursue a smaller government, this sure does look like growing governments.

- Darryl, what do you think the governor's reasons are for doing this?

If we've only have a few examples of election fraud or election crimes.

- He either wants to be reelected as governor or elected as the Republican nominee in 2024.

So whichever is the best position available at that time.

I mean, his policy positions quite frankly, has much do about nothing.

If you have a problem, everyone agrees you ought to solve it, but even he himself said it was the one of the most, same less fair elections in the nation's history.

And certainly in Florida's history.

Why do you need to spend $5 million of the public money on a problem that doesn't exist?

So the Republicans are acting very on Republican in many respects.

I mean, they're using the financial cloud of government to threaten individuals who don't toe the party line, so to speak.

And so imposing these fines on school board members and businesses that don't comply with what the Republicans want them to do.

That's a very on Republican thing.

I mean, they've always complained about intrusive government and get government off our backs here.

Here they are I think putting government on your backs.

It's one of the reasons I left the Republican party.

They forgot who they're supposed to be.

- Tara, it is an election year, and I think people are gonna pay attention closely to what comes out of Tallahassee in the spring.

And so what... you think though that the, I mean, the governor is going to have to prove that there's a problem that needs a $6 million address, right?

- I think his bigger problem is what all of these policy efforts are really saying about him.

It's creating a narrative right?

Last year, he signed into law, a criminalizing protesting.

He also signed into law, a registry for faculty and students to register their ideological bent saying that academic institutions may lose funding depending on what those ideologies are.

Incentivizing K through 12 teachers to not teach about race in history.

So this, you know, creation of an office of election and crimes and security is part of a greater narrative that he's gonna have to face in January.

When we talk about redistricting and abortion laws and all sorts of controversies.

He's creating a narrative that I think is very disingenuous and that Florida voters are gonna see.

- Well, Tara Newson and Darryl Paulson.

Thanks a lot for coming on the program.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - In Washington, as Democrats are still wrangling over the Build Back Better Bill.

They say they've reached agreement on a plan to lower prescription drug costs for most older people capping out of pocket medicare costs $2,000 and reducing the price of insulin that fulfills a campaign promise, part of president Biden's $1.75 trillion domestic policy proposal.

Nearly nine and 10 or 89% of adults 65 and older report they are taking prescription medication with seniors making up more than one fifth of Florida's population.

It's a big issue here joining us now to talk about it is Diane Archer, the founder and president of Just Case USA.

An independent digital hub covering health and financial issues facing baby boomers and promoting social policy solutions.

Diane, welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thanks for having me.

- Let me put up a graphic on the screen, across the board, democrats, republicans, independents, all support, some sort of negotiation between Medicare and drug companies to reduce the prices of medication.

We've seen the price of insulin skyrocket.

How confident are you that in the reconciliation bill, there will be something to fix the high cost of drugs here in the US.

- I'm fairly confident that the Democrats are going to reach agreement on three fronts.

Two of what you mentioned, a lower insulin costs and a cap on out of pocket costs for people with Medicare at $2,000 a year.

And then thirdly, the reconciliation package should include a prohibition on drug companies from gouging Americans and spiking prices significantly.

So they're only gonna be allowed to raise prices on drugs to the rate of inflation, which will cap the prices people are paying for their drugs in a really meaningful way.

- Diane, as you know, across the country, the drug companies are spending millions of dollars on ads, arguing that if you negotiate the price of drugs of politicians, you're gonna pick the drugs for you.

Let me play part of this ad.

- Sure.

- [Reporter] Politicians say they want to negotiate medicine prices and Medicare, but make no mistake.

What politicians mean is that they'll decide which medicines you can and can't get.

Regardless of what your doctor prescribes, regardless of which medicine has been working, regardless of what new treatments become available.

- So Diane, what would you say back to the drug companies who are running that ad?

- This is a lie.

Right now it's actually the insurance companies, that are to some extent dictating the drugs that are covered but Medicare actually ensures that they cover the full range of drugs that people need and Medicare will continue to do so.

- So the politicians aren't gonna be picking your drugs.

- The politicians are not gonna be picking your drugs no.

- As you know, Joe Manchin the Senator from West Virginia is one of the people who has not, I guess, bonded with the reconciliation package.

He said this on Monday, he said, how can I in good conscience vote for a bill that proposes massive expansion of social programs, when vital programs like social security and Medicare face insolvency and benefits can start being reduced as soon as 2026 in Medicare and 2033 for social security.

The words of Senator Joe Manchin, what would you say back?

- I'd say a couple of things back.

Number one, right now literally thousands of people are dying each year for lack of medicines.

They're not able to pay even the low copays on their medicines, and as a result, they're having heart attacks and strokes and dying prematurely.

And that has to stop.

We can't have people dying because they can't afford their medicines in the wealthiest country, in the world.

Secondly, I'd say that the money is there.

It's just a question of using it appropriately.

For example, senator Manchin is responsible in part for the fact that Medicare advantage plans are being overpaid to the tune of literally tens of billions of dollars a year.

We need to get that money back and put it towards the social programs that deserve to be funded like Medicare and social security.

- And is there a connection between the trust funds running out of money and this bill that's being considered in Washington?

- The I'm not sure what you're asking, but yes the bill in Washington is going to, it has provisions in it that will bring us a $1.5 trillion to pay for these drug benefits.

- All right.

So it's not gonna deplete the trust funds at a more rapid rate is what I was getting at.

- No actually, I'm sorry.

- It's not gonna harm me.

- Yes, absolutely.

The trust funds, it's going to save money for Medicare lowering Medicare's pricing yes and spending.

- Diane Archer thanks a lot for coming on the program.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for watching.

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