1 2 State of Florida 3 Constitution Revision
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Page 1 1 2 STATE OF FLORIDA 3 CONSTITUTION REVISION COMMISSION 4 FEBRUARY 6, 2018 5 6 RICK CASE ARENA @ DON TAFT 7 UNIVERSITY CENTER 8 3301 COLLEGE AVENUE 9 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA 10 12:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. 11 12 13 ATTENDEES: 14 15 16 CARLOS BERUFF LISA CARLTON 17 TIMOTHY CERIO JOSE FELIX DIAZ 18 ERIKA DONALDS ANNA MARIE HERNANDEZ GAMEZ 19 ARTHENIA JOYNER FRED KARLINSKY 20 BELINDA KEISER WILLIAM SCHIFINO 21 CHRIS SMITH BOB SOLARI 22 JOHN STEMBERGER JACQUI THURLOW-LIPPISCH 23 CAROLYN TIMMANN NICOLE WASHINGTON 24 25 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 2 1 (Thereupon, the following meeting is had:) 2 CHAIR: Good afternoon, everyone. I would 3 like to welcome all of you to the Constitution 4 Revision Commission meeting, the first one 5 since we had our commission meetings. If you 6 would kindly set your cell phones to vibrate or 7 turn them off. 8 Before we begin we'd like to thank our 9 host, Nova Southeastern University for allowing 10 us to use the Rick Case Arena, having the 11 assistance of their amazing staff. I can tell 12 you we've traveled all over the state, and this 13 is one of the best set-ups we've seen, so thank 14 you very much, Eddie. 15 My name is Carlos Beruff, and I was 16 appointed by Governor Rick Scott as the 17 chairman of the Constitutional Revision 18 Committee Commission, which is called CRC for 19 short. We live in a world of acronyms, so you 20 might as well get used to that one, too. Today 21 I am joined by my fellow commissioners. To my 22 right is Commissioner Gamez, Commissioner 23 Karlinsky, Commissioner Washington. Mr. 24 Stemberger is not here yet. To my left is 25 Commission Keiser and Commissioner Joyner. Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 3 1 Above me to my left is Commissioner Solari, 2 Commission Carlton immediately behind me, 3 Commissioner Schifino, who is famous, 4 Commissioner Thurlow-Lippisch, Commissioner 5 Timmann. We are pleased to be here. 6 If you will all stand the invocation will 7 be led by Commissioner Belinda Keiser. 8 (Thereupon, the invocation is conducted.) 9 CHAIR: The pledge of allegiance will be 10 led by Allie and Spencer Karlinsky, the 11 children of Fred Karlinsky and his wife Autumn. 12 Thank you. 13 (Thereupon, the pledge of allegiance is conducted.) 14 CHAIR: Thank you, you may sit. That's 15 the reason we're doing what we're doing. Today 16 is the first stop on the road to the ballot, of 17 the public hearing tour, that we promised last 18 Spring after we would take all of the proposals 19 and get them through the Committees, so that we 20 can start getting serious deliberations on 21 what's left. We'd like to get feedback from 22 the thirty-seven remaining proposals that will 23 go before the full commission in March and 24 April. 25 You can read the full text of each of Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 4 1 these proposals in FLCRC.gov. We respectfully 2 request that you keep your remarks focused on 3 the proposals under active consideration. If 4 you would like to speak to the CRC today, you 5 would have filled out a card. The cards will 6 be heard in the order they were filled out. We 7 will call on speakers to appear. If there's 8 any materials you'd like to have -- to leave 9 with us, we will enter then into the record. 10 The record is digitally maintained, so 11 everything you give us will get put on the 12 website, and available for everyone to see. 13 This is a long meeting. We have noticed 14 until 7:00 p.m. All Floridians who sign up to 15 speak by 7:00 p.m. will be given an opportunity 16 to be heard. We would ask each speaker to 17 limit their remarks to two minutes. We will be 18 calling up multiple people at a time, so please 19 listen for your name. Today's meetings, as all 20 our meetings, are recorded, and the full 21 transcript is also available at FLCRC.gov. 22 At some point, as soon as I finish with 23 these announcements probably, I will be handing 24 the gavel to someone from the local area who is 25 better familiar with some of the area, some of Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 5 1 the things that you deal with here. Thank you, 2 and I am passing the gavel to Commissioner 3 Gamez. 4 COMMISSIONER GAMEZ: Good afternoon, 5 everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call up 6 speakers three at a time so that you'll be 7 lined up and ready to make your remarks, that 8 way we can keep this moving. Just a reminder, 9 everyone is limited to two minutes. If you've 10 submitted multiple speaker requests, 11 unfortunately, you can only speak once, so if 12 you're going to address multiple proposals, 13 please do so during the two minutes that you're 14 allotted. And as a courtesy to everyone here, 15 we are going to be very strict with our time 16 because there are many who have already signed 17 up to speak, and we want to make sure that 18 everyone is heard. So please keep that in 19 mind, be courteous to those that are coming 20 after you. 21 So, at this time we will call up Joseph 22 Landy, Peggy Pettit, and Donna Borland. Mr. 23 Landy. 24 MR. LANDY: Thank you. I've been handling 25 nursing home abuse cases for over twenty-five Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 6 1 years on both sides of the aisle, and I want to 2 give you one of many, many horrific examples of 3 why Proposal 88 must go forward. When I was 4 retained by these folks, the George Dahmer 5 family, to represent them, the patriarch of 6 their family had been to a recent stay, a brief 7 stay at a nursing home, and ended up in the ICU 8 at JFK Medical Center. 9 He was lethargic and unable to get out of 10 bed. He was dehydrated to the point of acute 11 renal failure. He was malnourished, had 12 recently lost thirty pounds. He had sores on 13 his heels and his coccyx. Folks, he looked 14 like he was eaten by a dog. He had wounds 15 infected. He was suffering from septic shock. 16 Patricia, his wife, was told that his legs were 17 going to have to be amputated, and he died a 18 short time later before that happened. 19 Prior to that brief admission to the 20 nursing home, Patricia was his sole caregiver. 21 She had no medical training, and no medical 22 experience, but you know what, he didn't have 23 any skin breakdown with her, he had no 24 malnourishment, he had no dehydration, he had 25 no issues other than his dementia. So how did Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 7 1 this occur? Reckless indifference to human life 2 for the sole sake of money. They were 3 incredibly short staffed. They over medicated 4 him, so he sat there and rotted, and this was 5 allowed to occur. They tried to get away with 6 it by not having any real insurance, and by 7 putting everything into shell corporations so 8 they couldn't be collectable; come sue us, 9 we'll just file for bankruptcy, open up under 10 another name, and it will be business as usual. 11 Just so you understand what these type of 12 cases involve, that case took seven years of my 13 life, and over $100,000 in costs I had to 14 expend, and I only did it because they came 15 into my office and looked me in my eyes, and I 16 talked to my partners, and I couldn't say no, 17 but we never expected to receive a dime, we 18 were hell bent on putting this place out of 19 business. 20 While I was handling that case, I got call 21 after call, please accept my case against this 22 facility, but no one can afford to do that when 23 there's no insurance and no assets. 24 COMMISSIONER GAMEZ: Thank you, Mr. 25 Landry. Ms. Petit. Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 8 1 MS. PETIT: Yes. I'll use my notes to be 2 timely. Chairman and Commissioners, I oppose 3 the elimination of the Hospice CON because it 4 will lower the quality of care provide to dying 5 patients and their families during their time 6 of need. I ask that you pass an amendment now 7 to take hospice out of proposal number 54. An 8 amendment to remove hospice will not impact the 9 ability to address CON changes for other 10 healthcare providers in the proposal. 11 Florida Certificate of Need regulations 12 were formed through legislation, and changes 13 should be addressed through legislation, not by 14 changing the constitution of the State, which 15 if passed, and included in the general election 16 ballot would remain in effect for the next 17 twenty years.