>>This week on NewsNight, Hurricane Ian's aftermath highlights inequalities in disaster recovery and infrastructure preparedness.

>>Just the amount of funding that goes into the lower income communities is almost negligible.

>>Plus, concerns over transparency in the process for hiring leaders at Florida state universities following criticism over the search for a new president at the University of Florida.

NewsNight starts now.

[music] >>Hello, I'm Steve Mort.

Welcome to NewsNight, where we take a closer look at the big stories impacting central Florida and how they affect all of us.

Joining us this week in the studio, Talia Blake, 90.7 WMFE News, Steve Lemongello covers politics for the Orlando Sentinel.

And Alexa Lorenzo from WFTV Channel 9.

Thank you all so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time.

All right.

First tonight, more controversy at the University of Florida.

The decision by the school's presidential search committee to name outgoing Republican U.S.

Senator Ben Sasse as the only finalist has sparked anger from some students and faculty.

That comes after Governor DeSantis signed a law earlier this year exempting university presidential searches from the state's sunshine laws, allowing the process to take place without public scrutiny.

I spoke this week with the state Senate sponsor of that legislation.

Jeff Brandes, a Republican whose term ends next month.

He told me this wasn't the outcome he intended.

>>I think the University of Florida made a significant mistake probably when they started the process.

They should have let all of their candidates know that were applying, that they were going to release the names of at least the two or three finalists that made the cut.

To me, that was the appropriate way to do it.

The goal of this legislation was to ensure that we have the broadest list of applicants available.

We were hearing stories that universities were having a difficult time finding two people to apply because they didn't want have to tell their current employer they were looking for a new job.

And I think everybody understands that.

>>The critics would say that these are very important, highly paid, publicly financed jobs, and that should be done in the sunshine.

>>Absolutely.

It should be done in the sunshine.

And that was the key to getting it done in the sunshine was that there would be a final groups of applicants.

I mean, if we had 700 applicants, do we really care who the 695th applicant was?

No.

We want to know who made the top five.

And to me, that was - that's the important opportunity here, was the university had the opportunity to show the right way for this to be done.

And they dropped the ball.

>>Senator Jeff Brandes there.

Steve, let me start with you on this one.

Brandes seem to be blaming UF there for this, not his legislation.

For those who are not familiar, though, with Ben Sasse out of Nebraska.

Tell us a bit about him.

>>Sure.

Well, he sort of made a name for himself, or he wanted to make a name for himself as a principled anti-Trump conservative, you know, wrote a book, you know, really was out there on the on the scene, you know, the talk shows, you know, talking about like I'm a conservative who's against Trump.

But, you know, as as Trump won and Trump came to serve, he sort of decided to keep his head down a little bit instead.

And really, you haven't heard from him in the last few years until just now.

>>For the students protesting, Sasse Is this more about process or is it about Sasse himself?

And if it is about him, what are they like about him?

>>It's more about Sasse himself.

They take issue with the process, as we just discussed about it.

But it's mostly with him.

Going to the University of Florida, when you see the pictures and images of students, faculty, staff filling up these halls.

>>Pretty bonkers, right?

>>Right.

In protest and outrage, those are massive halls showing you that is a huge crowd, more than a thousand people gathered and interrupted one of the most recent forums when he was on his campus visit.

And they continue to have the same message that they believe he does not reflect their values, doesn't reflect the message that the campus community has created.

They take issue with some of his stances, primarily his stance against LGBTQ marriage.

He was very vocal about that back in 2015, giving his objection to that Supreme Court legalization.

So they want something to be done, but it doesn't seem they're going to get their way.

>>Yeah.

And Talia, this isn't the first controversy in the last year or so at the University of Florida.

There's been a couple of others.

>>Yeah.

So within this last year they came under scrutiny for prohibiting three professors from giving expert testimony and a voting rights case that was against the state.

They said that the professor is doing that testimony was going to go against the school's interests by conflicting with the DeSantis administration, basically.

Then about a week later, they reversed that because they got a lot of backlash.

People were criticizing them, saying that they were infringing on the professors' First Right Amendments.

Then they came under scrutiny for hiring the new surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo.

They basically said that they fast-tracked that whole process.

Faculty that would normally give input on hiring processes like this didn't get to give their input and that the start date was moved up to coincide with the governor's announcement of the new surgeon general.

So, you know, they've received a lot of backlash.

>>Yeah they've been on the back foot for sure, and in the last few months.

I mean, Steve, broadly the DeSantis administration says it's trying to eliminate what some conservatives say has been a progressive bias or progressive lean in higher education.

But the governor's critics say he's the one that's politicizing state colleges in Florida, right?

What kinds of examples do they cite for that?

>>Yeah, he and the Republican legislature have done a few things.

They've attacked the accreditation process.

They said they want a new way of doing that.

They've attacked the tenure process, which is how basically you know, professors, you know, feel that they're safe to talk about things and do things because they have tenure.

You know, you talk about the poll or the survey they're doing about you know, quote unquote, "intellectual freedom" that a lot of people are saying is essentially it's voluntary, you know, supposedly.

But whether or not, you know, people will be, you know, targeted for what they put in that survey is yet to be seen.

>>And there hasn't been a massive uptake on that, right?

I think about 10% of faculty and staff and much lower numbers for students.

>>Yeah, it is voluntary for now.

And so people have decided just do not do it.

>>And it's not just UF, right, Alexa, that sort of face questions in the current political environment?

I mean, there's been controversies elsewhere, including UCF.

>>Yeah, it was a few months back.

UCF removed some anti-racist statements from some department websites and a lot of people asked, OK, why is this happening?

What was the catalyst in all this?

And everyone was pointing to the recently passed so term, so coined by Governor Ron DeSantis, Stop Woke Act, which prohibits how race or dictates how race is discussed in classrooms and training sessions at work.

And the whole goal of it is to not make students, workers feel a certain way about what happened in the past for historic wrongs because of their race or ethnicity.

So that was why people thought UCF removed those statements.

UCF just gave us a blanket statement saying, we did this because some of those statements seemed inconsistent with their goal of providing a nurturing and welcoming environment for everyone.

>>Certainly an interesting time in higher education in our state and has been a priority for the governor.

You can join this conversation on social media we're @WUCFTV on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

All right.

Next tonight, we stick with politics and the one and only debate between Senator Marco Rubio and his challenger, Congresswoman Val Demings, which was held this week.

The two candidates discussed issues including immigration, homeowner's insurance, inflation, gun control, and abortion, including Senator Rubio's decision to support a bill that would impose a federal 15-month abortion ban.

>>Every bill I've ever sponsored on abortion every bill I've ever voted for has exceptions.

Every one of them does, because that's what can pass.

And that's what the majority of people support.

Now, what was before us today in Congress that you talk about Lindsey Graham's bill.

That's a four month ban.

That is more lenient than every country in Europe except for two.

The extremist on abortion in this campaign is Congresswoman Demings.

She supports no restrictions, no limitations of any kind.

She voted against a form.

She's against a four month ban.

She voted against a five month ban.

She supports taxpayer funded abortion on demand for any reason at any time up until the moment of birth.

That's what she supports.

That's the extreme position here.

I have shown a willingness to work with people to save unborn, innocent human life.

She opposes any limitation of any kind and no one ever asks them about that.

>>Congresswoman Demings.

>>Senator, how gullible do you really think Florida voters are?

Number one, you have been clear that you support no exceptions, even including rape and incest.

Now as a police detective who investigated cases of rape and incest.

No, Senator, I don't think it's OK for a ten year old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist.

No, I don't think it's OK for you to make decisions for women and girls.

As a senator, I think those decisions are made between the woman, her family, her doctor and her faith.

>>Very contentious debate there.

And one of the most contentious parts is what we just heard.

And that was on on abortion.

Certainly seems to be one of the big issues for progressives in the midterms.

>>Yeah, and a lot of people talking about that exchange.

And we saw almost immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, Senator Marco Rubio came out in support of that decision, saying that he would back abortion restricting statutes.

And the congresswoman has continued to poke and pry, saying whether or not he would extend that to any exceptions.

He says he is 100% pro-life.

But as we heard in that debate, he continues to say that what he's voted on, what he supported, has allowed for exceptions.

And he believes that is what the majority of the American people would want.

So he thinks a bill without exceptions is not politically feasible.

>>Yeah.

Flipping the coin and basically saying that that Congresswoman Demings is the one with the with the extreme views.

Steve, as we heard, heated debate, what were your takeaways?

>>Yeah, Demings just went after Rubio and a lot of things.

That's pretty much what she needs to do as the underdog in this, not only abortion, but also his history on guns.

You know, his pledging things after polls that he didn't do.

He sort of seemed defensive.

As you know, Demings sort of went after him on a lot of things, including also the fact that, you know, in his first term, he really didn't want to be there and decided to run for president instead.

And only at the last minute after polls decided to run for Senate again.

>>Inflation, you're an economy reporter, right, Talia?

Inflation was a key priority for Republicans in the midterms.

Certainly polls that way.

What do we hear about the candidates positions on that?

>>Yeah.

So Rubio first said that.

I mean, they both said that inflation is a problem, but Rubio was saying that we need to stop begging for oil from other countries and we need to start producing it here in America.

But it really got spicy when they started talking about pandemic relief money.

So Rubio was saying that we need to stop spending on pandemic relief money.

And then Demings just immediately pushed back on that.

She said, you know, the pandemic was unexpected and this money was needed for people.

And the result of that is kind of the result of that.

And we need to figure out where we need to move from here now.

So, you know, they both said it was an issue, but got spicy there at the end.

>>Yeah, just the government is spending too much money and that's causing inflation.

And that, in a way, is a very traditional left versus right argument.

>>Poke the bear and we will continue to see those contentious exchanges.

And now with that being their final debate, sure, that's where we saw them in person, but doesn't prohibit them from going back and forth at each other online and have the voters see where they stand on abortion, gun laws, inflation and so many other hot button issues.

>>Yeah, certainly an interesting debate.

Well, we'll talk much more about the midterms on the program next week.

In the meantime, you can find a link to the full debate hosted by WPBF on our website.

It's at WUCF.org/NewsNIght OK. Next tonight, we continue our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan with a look at some of the issues around equity in disaster recovery.

Vice President Kamala Harris, sparked Republican ire recently when she said the distribution of assistance after natural disasters should be, quote, based on equity.

The White House said she wasn't referring to Hurricane Ian specifically, though, but the storm has revealed inequities in both the impacts and the response.

I spoke this week with Chauncia Willis, Co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management.

>>Our country has created a construct that pits the wealthy, more affluent individuals and families in a position where they're able to prepare more adequately and have more access to resources before a disaster.

And for those that do not have adequate resources and those that do not have the socioeconomic status of others, they essentially don't do well in disasters and they face disproportionate impact.

>>What about those agencies that distribute aid?

Do we see systemic issues in organizations like FEMA, for example, that might contribute to this issue?

>>Well, you know, FEMA has done a great job in terms of really focusing on equity.

However, the reason they're focusing on equity is because there are so many pervasive, inequitable policies that are systemic that have negatively impacted communities of color and marginalized communities throughout our country.

And those policies include everything from individual assistance after disaster, public assistance even before a disaster.

Just the amount of funding that goes into lower income communities is almost negligible.

And so the infrastructure support, the mitigation in lower income communities is not there.

And so after a disaster or when a disaster strikes, they are not in a position to adequately be able to respond to a disaster such as major flooding because they just don't have the infrastructure.

There's been a lack of investment.

>>Chauncia WIllis there.

Steve, let me start with you on Vice President Harris's comments about equity.

I mean, what has the Republican focus been from Senator Scott, Governor DeSantis and others in their attacks on her remarks?

>>Yeah, Republicans just don't like the word equity.

That's one of their sort of things that they've sort of been railing against.

And yeah, they've said that they should, equity shouldn't be the focus.

Whoever has the damage should be should be the people who get, you know, the the money from relief efforts and things like that.

>>Should be passed out regardless of who the person is.

Alexa, the fact checkers have been looking into what the vice president said about equity in disaster recovery.

Do they find the criticism of her comments fair?

>>They don't.

This was a context issue.

What was shared so many times online was 40 seconds of a more than five minute answer.

And to paint the picture, it was a forum.

She was asked a very lengthy multipart question.

She addressed the beginning, according to the fact checkers.

And I watched the video myself and then moved on.

What she was talking about was long term climate resilience investment.

So pre-hurricane, pre-hurricane season, just day to day life, not opposed to recovery efforts.

She was continuing to say that there's long term goals before a storm.

It wasn't the recovery that she was talking about.

And she was referring to vulnerable infrastructures and lack of infrastructure, lack of resources in some of our more minority based, less affluent areas.

>>Yeah.

When I talked to the Seminole County emergency manager, you know, he said that this is an issue that is ongoing.

It's an ongoing discussion in emergency management.

I mean, Talia, what's the FEMA administrator have to say about this issue specifically with regard to Hurricane Ian?

>>Yeah.

So FEMA admin Deanne Criswell got asked to respond to Harris's comments, and she kind of indicated that she agrees with Harris.

You know, through her own experiences, she's seen this disproportionate efforts towards recovery.

But she kind of stressed that it didn't mean that the agency will stop Non-minorities from receiving assistance or anything like that.

They plan to support everyone in Florida, no matter what you look like.

>>Yeah.

Steve, we've been seeing some of these poor outcomes actually playing out here in central Florida in our own communities.

I'm thinking particularly Orlovista in Orange County.

I mean, residents have been pressuring local political leaders about the outcome that they saw after Hurricane Ian.

I mean, what are residents there saying?

>>Well, there is major flooding there in Hurricane Irma five years ago.

And, you know, there's all sorts of talk afterwards about, you know, this is a you know, a for a working class area, you know, and there's a sense of you know, why are we being taken care of out here?

You know, what should there be?

Should the county buy up, you know, sections near the lake and sort of, you know, move people back?

But really, you know, there have been some efforts, some efforts to sort of come up with a solution to this over the last few years, even earlier this year.

But nothing really happened since then.

And, you know, surprise surprise, another major storm, another major flood there.

>>And you guys at Channel 9 have been covering the situation in Orlovista extensively.

>>Yeah.

And it's just so much outrage and so much anger for them.

You go there to hear their stories and they just are so frustrated.

And they packed a recent meeting with Orange County commissioners, and they just want a timeline because they just continue to be pushed back and they truly feel forgotten about in the grand scheme of things.

>>They feel like their complaints are not being heard and their infrastructure just doesn't improve.

And of course, Mayor Demings is saying things is a very complex issue.

>>Right.

And they lay out the plan, but OK, we have the plan.

Now, when is the plan going to be put in action?

>>Going to get executed?

I mean, there seem to be two issues down there, Alexa, here.

I mean, infrastructure investment that we just mentioned in underserved communities, but also disparities in sort of the quality of response after disaster strikes.

Is there a history there in communities of color not getting the aid they need?

>>Nothing paints that picture more than a recent report that was just put out a few weeks back and it was by the US Commission on Civil Rights and it compared the response from Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Harvey.

Remember, those happened in the same year and they laid everything out and said within nine days after the storm, those in Harvey got 100 million.

Those in Maria, which was a more powerful, more destructive storm, got 6 million.

So they talk about that financially and they also talk about the response, and they saw significant issues with the lack of translation services, the lack of people speaking Spanish down in Puerto Rico.

Those that they were sending there.

Wrong information was put out for centers, for food drives, and it was just a lot of learning.

And they did acknowledge that they dropped the ball and they need to be better staffed and better equipped to help minority communities who speak different languages.

>>Well, talking about speaking different languages, Alexa just mentioned, I mean, Talia, in the agriculture industry WMFE has done some some reporting on this.

Agriculture industry in central Florida got hit pretty hard and particularly migrant farm workers and immigrant communities sort of seem to have been hit and suffered pretty bad outcomes.

They find it tougher to get FEMA aid.

I mean, what are the issues at play here?

>>Yeah, so I mean, preliminary estimates put losses in agriculture between 787 million and 1.6 billion dollars.

And that's not just major crop damage, but that's also damage to a farm workers home.

You know, there was a lot of flooding.

The Farm Workers Association of Florida said that even farm workers that are eligible for FEMA aid are kind of reluctant to go and get it.

And then on top of that, with the discovery or the disaster recovery centers that she was mentioning earlier, you know, there have been reports of long lines that people can't wait.

And because >> They don't have time.

>> They don't have time, they need to get to work.

There's a lack of transportation for some people they can't get there or they still don't have the best Internet access right now.

So there's still a lot of issues surrounding this.

And those language barriers that Alexa mentioned as well.

Certainly a lot of issues at play.

You can find a link to FEMA's plans to address issues around equity.

It's on our website, WUCF.org/NewsNight.

I want to talk about some of the inequities in the housing situation that have been laid bare by Ian.

Let me play you this clip from Robin Lockett from Florida Rising, which is one of a number of grassroots organizations pressing the Biden administration to ensure equity in storm response.

>>The big question is where those individuals that decide not to rebuild in Fort Myers that have been displaced, that they have an apartment or they just are fed up because they moved near the water and they no longer want that property, where are they going to go?

Housing market has changed, right?

Or it is changing.

The supply and demand is a big issue.

The affordability is a big issue.

And with individuals coming this way or in Tampa, close to Tampa or surrounding in Tampa, it's going to be a big issue.

>>That's Robin Lockett there from Florida Rising in Tampa.

Talia, let me start with you.

You cover economic issues.

We're experiencing already, as we know and we've talked about on the show, all of us, I think many times the severe affordable housing crisis that impacts minority communities disproportionately as we know that was before.

Ian, right?

What do those who track this part of the economy expect to happen now?

>>Yeah, experts are definitely expecting it to get worse.

Affordable housing is something that always diminishes or usually diminishes after a big disaster like this.

So they're looking at what happened after Hurricane Katrina or Ida, where a lot of people were unhoused.

Rental prices surged because of demand and a lot of people had to permanently relocate because they just couldn't afford to live in that same area anymore.

>>We saw that playing out really starkly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans, where a city that had been traditionally fairly affordable to live in, a lot of people, low income people in that city just couldn't afford to live anymore.

>>I could see a lot of people maybe relocating out of southwest Florida.

I don't know where they're going to go right now, but I could see that happening.

And that is one of the key problems which we'll talk about in a moment.

Steve, I mean, one of the things that makes Florida difficult to afford, of course, is homeowner's insurance.

That's only likely to increase.

Now that market is in crisis and there's plenty of blame to go around on that.

>>Yeah.

Interesting comments from Senator Rick Scott, the former governor who sort of said that, you know, homeowner's insurance is just skyrocketing over the last four years.

Which is, you know, sort of a obviously a shot to his successor, Ron DeSantis, from his own party.

You know, there was a special session earlier this year after they really didn't do anything during the regular session.

So they brought back special session called by this governor.

And, you know, there was a few things done some more money put into the hurricane funds and things like that.

But really no immediate relief for homeowners.

>>And we heard from Senator Jeff Brandes just now on a different issue.

But he's been he was at the forefront of that, that previous special session.

He's pressuring the governor to call a special session immediately after the midterms to try to address this.

Again, Alexa, we've seen some renewed discussion, and we hear this every now and again in Florida about retreat.

We heard Robin Lockett now just mention issues that can arise if people leave those areas for inland places where people are already struggling to afford properties, right?

That's got a name, right?

>>Yeah.

>>It's called climate gentrification.

>>Yeah.

And it's something that we've talked a lot about because we see it playing out already in our state.

So essentially some properties become more valuable because of climate change.

They're at, let's say, higher ground.

So you have the lower income communities living in those more elevated areas.

They're being pushed out by people who, let's say, live along the coast.

Those areas are now less desirable because of climate change.

So you have landlords increasing rent and you have developers moving into those traditionally lower income areas that are higher ground.

So you lose the culture in that area with people just wanting to be lifted up to higher ground.

Harvard researchers named that climate gentrification back in 2018 and it's playing out in Miami.

We're seeing people leave some of those lower lying areas for the more elevated areas like Little Haiti and Liberty City.

And those property values in those higher areas have just been going up and up and up.

>>The idea of manage retreat I guess in Florida hasn't been sort of necessarily embraced by political leaders, has it, Steve?

Because there does seem to be an effort still to rebuild these places like Sanibel Island, which was so hard hit.

>>Yeah, you hear immediately after the storm, like where, you know, people standing and you destroy sections of, you know, wealthy, you know, shore communities saying you know, we're going to rebuild.

We're not going to let this stop us.

We're going to rebuild and rebuild here.

And, you know, the idea of doing this sort of, you know, OK, let's you know, let's leave these areas, you know, to you know, and then move, move people, you know, further and that sort of thing really does not it seems like the people there don't want to hear that in the politicians seeing that, don't want to see that.

So it seems that we're just going to keep rebuilding and rebuilding after these hurricanes until pretty much we can't anymore.

>>It might be just something that happens organically.

Mother Nature will decide it for us.

Well, we'll be talking a lot more, in a lot more depth about this issue and others in a special hour long edition of NewsNight: Hurricane Ian - In the Wake of the Storm.

Be sure to tune in for that Friday, November 4th at 8:30 p.m. here on WUCF.

Well, that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Talia Blake, Steve Lemongello and Alexa Lorenzo.

Thank you all for coming in, guys, really appreciate it.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NEWSNIGHT, take care and have a great week.