THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA: Elections Commission director stepping down
Mar 18, 2009
By GARY FINEOUT
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE, March 17, 2009 — The executive director of the state panel that enforces election laws is resigning, ending an 11-year tenure that was marked by clashes with state legislators and her own bosses.
Barbara Linthicum, 62, said she decided to step down as executive director of the Florida Elections Commission to spend time traveling to Europe and across the country.
“I wanted to do other things while I had the time,” said Linthicum, who is ending more than 30 years in state government, including 16 years at the commission and a stint as the 2nd Circuit Public Defender.
But Jorge Cruz-Bustillo, a Miami attorney and chairman of the Florida Elections Commission, said one of the reasons that Linthicum may have decided to resign was that she was frustrated with the fact that the nine member panel didn’t follow her recommendations regularly anymore.
Cruz-Bustillo took over as chairman in November 2007 and during several public meetings cut off Linthicum from talking about pending cases.
“The commission used to rubber stamp whatever the director said, which I believed was not the right way to do its job,” said Cruz-Bustillo. “I believe she became frustrated with it and it is one of the reasons that drove her to resign.”
Linthicum first began with the commission, which has the power to assess fines against election law violators, back in 1993. But after taking over as executive director in 1998, the commission came under fire for its handling of high profile cases involving Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride and State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
The commission – whose members are appointed by the governor – imposed a $311,000 fine against Diaz de la Portilla for election law violations stemming from his first run for state Senate.
The case dragged on for years as the Miami Republican accused Linthicum and the commission of being biased against him. Diaz de la Portilla, who had large portions of the fines struck down, finally agreed to pay nearly $9,000 in early 2007 to resolve the case.
Lawmakers, including Diaz de la Portilla, struck back against the commission. Diaz de la Portilla led the charge to ban lobbyists from the panel, while other changes limited the ability of the commission to investigate complaints. The most recent change came in 2007 when legislators required all complaints filed with the commission to be based upon “personal information.”
Linthicum, who earns $111,589 a year, said she was not leaving her job because of the recent changes. But she acknowledged frustration with Florida’s election laws saying some of them were a “farce.” She said the number of complaints before the commission has decreased “significantly” leaving only minor cases.
“The election laws need to be rewritten,” said Linthicum. “They are too complicated, they are too convoluted, the language is not explicit.”
Linthicum’s resignation doesn’t take effect until May 14, but she will no longer be on the job after the end of March. Cruz-Bustillo said the commission has already decided to appoint commission attorney Charles Finkel as acting director until a successor is named. The job has already been posted with the state of Florida, with a salary range anticipated to end up somewhere between $80,000 and $112,000. The commission is also requiring all applicants to have been Florida attorneys for at least five years.