The final Political Yearbook Profile is for the lawmaker who’s been targeted by activists and out of town political operations. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs has a very challenging year ahead of her. She has to continue her successful operations that have the county moving in a positive direction, with political operatives already playing election year politics and standing in the way. There are also the many personalities on the County Commission that don’t always makes things easy for the Mayor.
Video Transcript:
Florida Politics with Frank Torres and this is your 2013 Political Yearbook Profile on Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. Teresa Jacobs actually got a lot done in 2012. She worked with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on a deal to renovate the Citrus Bowl, in a deal that would allow the venue to be competitive for prime national bowl games in the future and potentially pump millions into the county. There is the Orange County Convention Center, the real money maker in the district, it was the number one center in the country last year and will probably be again this year. That also drives millions and millions into local businesses. Along with a list of other things that kept Orange County moving in the right direction.
Unfortunately for Mayor Jacobs, that might not have been what you heard in 2012. There was the Orange County Sick Time initiative that would force employers to pay their workers for sick time after a certain amount of hours had been worked. Sounds very innocent but get this, they could not be held accountable for taking the sick time, even if they haven’t earned the hours. It didn’t matter if it was a legitimate trip to the emergency room or a 4 alarm hangover that kept them from coming to work, they could not be held accountable for that. This initiative would have scared away job creators, hurt current hiring, and resulted in countless frivolous lawsuits. It was toxic and looked down on, on many sides. Anyways, this thing went down the wire to get on the ballot, the activists had problems getting signatures for petitions, it went down to the wire and there was some legal wrangling involved. Between business leaders, between the activists, the commission ultimately ended up coming out on top. They sort of hustled the activists, they were a little more legally savvy. It went before a judge and the judge said no to putting it on the ballot. The activists went nuts. They had a fake funeral at a commission meeting, they threw roses at the commission dressed in black, like some sort of Goth Bullfight and they have not been silent ever since.
There is something you must remember about these activists. Yes, there are some genuinley concerned, true-blue citizens working for the process at hand, but these activists have leaders, well compensated leaders and it’s all about power and access. Power and Access guys, if you don’t have it, if you can’t effect legislation, if you don’t have things go your way, the you are going to throw as much money at the problem to get that access and that’s what you’re seeing here.
Even if the initiative had passed, they would have found something else to after Teresa Jacobs on because she’s been targeted by these activists, and it’s not about the issues at hand it very seldom is. It’s about flipping seats and putting people in power that will do what you want them to do, I urge you to do research and come up with your own conclusions. In a year when Teresa Jacobs got a lot done, this unfortunately was the highlight of her year and this is going to be the future for 2013. These activists that have targeted her because they want their Mayor that will do whatever they want done, will continue this message war, moving forward into 2013 and 2014 in an election year.
There have been text concerns brought up. Deleted texts during the meetings, between the commissioners and lobbyists. Today, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs coming up with guidelines to crack down on these text messages. We’ll see if it passes or not, but even if it passes, these group of activists will come up with another reason to go after her because it’s not about the issues. It’s about putting people in positions of power that will do whatever you say.
You know, it’s unfortunate that this is the last political yearbook piece that I’m putting out this year. It’s unfortunate that it had to be about this but, this in reality is really what the whole game is about, the fact that they’re disguised as concerned citizens that care what the issues are about, when it’s all about just getting people to do what you want them to do and if they don’t do it, you find someone that will. But, I’m sure Mayor Jacobs will work whenever not faced with these issues, to move the county forward, we’ll see what else is planned. A lot of exciting things going on and we’ll cover it all here. For Florida Politics with Frank Torres, I’ll see you next time.
Jacobs could be perfect in 2013 but the activists involved would still attack her
