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Bush Administration: Land Mines
In just eight months on the job, Cynthia Henderson, the Tampa attorney Gov. Jeb Bush appointed department secretary, has managed to step on quite a few -- becoming one of the few visible blemishes on Bush's administration.
Among the explosions:
• She halted the department's investigation of a politically well-connected homebuilder, Edwin Henry, president of the Florida Homebuilders Association, then reconsidered the decision after a Pensacola court ordered Henry to buy back one of the homes the agency had investigated for shoddy construction.
• She went against the advice of the agency's local auditors who claimed Malio's Steak House, a Tampa restaurant, owed a $104,000 tax debt. After an inconclusive internal investigation, she ordered a tax credit instead.
• She posted the jobs of several top officials who had worked under former Secretary Richard Farrell before notifying the employees they would be replaced.
• She bought exclusive tickets to the Kentucky Derby from an association of racing regulators that wants DBPR to rejoin the organization. Then, Henderson traveled to the horse race on the jet of Outback Steakhouse owner Chris Sullivan, whose restaurants her department regulates.
To be fair, the Henry and Malio's cases had long histories with the department before Henderson took over. "They try to make it sound as if all these decisions happened after I came." She complains of media spin she says has been influenced by malcontented former or current employees.
But other decisions, like the Derby trip and premature job postings, are harder to rationalize. In defending the flight to Kentucky, Henderson reveals what may be her biggest liability: naiveté. She says she never expected fallout when she agreed to fly with Sullivan, a long-time friend. "Never in a million years would I have had that thought go through my head until I had that experience," she says.
Henderson's claim that it's unfair to hold her responsible for problems held over from the previous administration also rings hollow. Any new manager's job involves dealing with such messes. She says the agency's old, rigid chain-of-command structure kept crucial information from reaching her. But she can say little about what she's done to shore up communication and beef up accountability, aside from hosting doughnut sessions with staff, setting up an anonymous e-mail hotline for complaints and working alongside employees during her so-called "work days."
Henderson's crisis-management tactics also haven't served her well. As each controversy has erupted, she and her deputies have been quick to distance her from problems -- and slow to accept any responsibility. As pressure mounted, she took a page from the Bush playbook and responded to each charge with opinion pieces on newspaper op-ed pages, in which she blames subordinates.
Part of the problem is lack of administrative experience. Her only previous management experience is as a partner in Tampa law firm Rudnick and Wolfe. Her ties to Bush go back to his first gubernatorial campaign, when she wrote position papers for him on land use and the environment. Henderson, 39, also served as corporate counsel for Gulfstream Land and Development Corp. while the governor's brother, Neil Bush, was on its board. The DBPR job wasn't even her first choice: As a member of Bush's transition team, she expressed interest in becoming head of the Department of Community Affairs. She had to be talked into the $105,000-a-year DBPR job.
Those regulated by DBPR say they don't know a lot about Henderson, but are happy with her so far. She says she's emphasizing education about rules and laws over "crackdown" enforcement: The department's Bureau of Enforcement has been renamed the Bureau of Compliance. And indeed, disciplinary actions are down compared to the last six months of 1998. Carol Dover, former director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants in Gov. Bob Martinez's administration and now head of the Florida Restaurant Association, complains that the industry was targeted for heavy enforcement under the previous secretary. Henderson, she says, "recognizes you can regulate an industry fairly and be friends."
Henderson is not the first DBPR secretary to have ample political connections and little industry knowledge. Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Farrell, his former chief of staff in the U.S. Senate, in his second term. In his first term, he gave it to a former state senator who had bowed out of the governor's race against him. Before that, Martinez gave it to political consultant Van Poole, then to the ubiquitous Tom Gallagher, now education secretary.
Nonetheless, it's unclear how many more explosions Henderson can weather. For the moment, Bush is standing by Henderson, but he appears to be watching her closely. As the controversies simmered this summer, the governor met with her for two hours.
Democrats, meanwhile, will be sure to keep the heat on. Sen. Tom Rossin, D-West Palm Beach, has asked for an auditor general's investigation of the Malio's case. Says the party's Tony Welch: "She's the weakest link in the Bush administration. Either she doesn't know what's going on right there in her own department, or she's playing us for fools."
In Tallahassee, you only get to step on so many land mines.
