Monday's Daily Pulse
Florida's Best Companies To Work For 2011
To identify Florida's best employers, Florida Trend partnered with the Best Companies Group, which surveyed firms that chose to participate. Any firm with at least 15 employees in Florida, including firms based outside the state, could participate at no cost. The first part of the survey involved a questionnaire about company policies, practices and demographics. The second part went to a sample group of each firm's employees, who responded — anonymously — to 72 statements on a five-point agreement scale. The survey also included two open-ended questions and seven demographic questions. The questions focused on eight themes: Leadership and planning; corporate culture and communications; role satisfaction; work environment; relationship with supervisor; training and development; pay and benefits; and overall engagement. Firms were divided into three groups — large companies of 250 or more U.S. employees, midsized companies of 50 to 249 U.S. employees and small companies of fewer than 50 U.S. workers. See the lists:
 Bouchard Insurance Clearwater - No. 32 / Midsized Company - Insurance agency [Photo: Mark Wemple] |
Domestic Partner Benefits are Catching on
More than half of the companies on the Best Companies to Work For list offer medical insurance and other benefits to employees' domestic partners. Those 54 companies are mostly small and midsized firms — only six have more than 250 employees. Although cohabitating unmarried opposite-sex couples can use domestic partner benefits, usually same-sex couples are the intended users. For that reason, offering such coverage was once a controversial move. Most companies report a positive response to the benefit, although some companies that offer the benefit say no employee has enrolled a domestic partner. Companies cited a variety of reasons for offering the benefits — from "it's just the right thing to do" to client requirements to the competitive advantage it gives them. Read more...
 "We're thought of as a progressive employer," says Laura M. Sapp, director of human resources at Leesburg-based Restor Telecom. The company began offering the option in 2009, when its research showed how many employers were offering it. Restor had a number of employees in domestic partner relationships. [Photo: Jeffrey Camp] |
State fights $60M in public rebates
Floridians could miss out on an estimated $60 million in health-insurance rebates next year if state officials successfully block enforcement of spending rules in the year-old reform law. About 340,000 Floridians would likely qualify for the rebates, if they go through, based on data from last year. But Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation has sought a waiver of the rebates for companies operating in this state. After attempts at a total waiver went nowhere, OIR sent a revised request for a phase-in of the spending limits over four years for companies selling individual policies. Consumer groups are angry, accusing OIR of protecting insurers at the expense of the public. [Source: Health News Florida]
Back-to-school shopping messages have peppered apparel chain ads since the July 4 fireworks. Office Depot, Staples and Walgreens set up Back to School aisles two weeks ago. Already, Toys "R" Us staged a "Pack to School" sale offering deals on backpacks. Spooked by a marathon jobless recovery, high gas prices and slumping home prices, families with school-age children are promising to spend no more than in last year's lackluster back-to-school season. Surveys show more people don't plan to start shopping until a week or two before school resumes in late August. And Florida's popular school sales tax holiday this year has been pared to a weekend affair, Aug. 12 through 14. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
In big hurricane, huge risk for some insurers
Records kept secret by Florida regulators show more than a dozen property insurers — carriers that cover almost one in three insured homes — risk financial ruin in the wake of a catastrophic hurricane.
The endangered list includes Universal Property and Casualty, a former sports memorabilia vendor poised to surpass State Farm as Florida's largest property insurer.
In June, the Fort Lauderdale company filed regulatory reports indicating it would fall $220 million short of the money needed to pay claims for a 100-year loss, the standard measurement of a property insurer's strength.
Reports also show that State Farm's and Allstate's Florida carriers would not be able to cover losses caused by such an extreme hurricane and remain in business without bailouts by their national parents.
[Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› When gasoline prices go up, so do scooter sales [Florida Times-Union]
Many motorists only notice scooters when they're stuck behind them as they putter along local streets and force them to keep to 35 mph speed limits.
But for their owners, the inexpensive little vehicles are a great way to travel, providing them with everything they need for their commutes and other travels. And their operating cost is a small fraction of the gasoline and other expenses of a car or even a full-size motorcycle. Some models are rated for 100 miles per gallon or more.
› Red-light cameras aren't the bonanza cities expected [Miami Herald]
Twenty-six municipalities use red-light cameras across Miami-Dade and Broward counties. In the future, the cameras' fate in these cities and towns will likely hinge on a question that has already proven easy to debate but might be hard to answer definitively: Are the safety benefits the cameras may deliver worth the cost to towns in money and resources?
Last July, when a state law gave cities explicit authority to operate the cameras, fines from the cameras were projected to bring in millions to cities at a time when the tough economic climate was drying up other revenue sources.
But cities aren't getting the windfall they anticipated.
› Even in tough times, top St. Petersburg administrators cling to car perk [St. Petersburg Times]
As Mayor Bill Foster ponders cuts in these times of shrinking budgets, he describes his approach as one that chooses between "needs vs. wants."
Yet Foster's decision to leave intact a perk for top administrators and managers has some City Council members doubting he's that frugal.
The city spends $201,852 a year on car allowances to 141 of city's best-paid employees who are mostly administrators, directors and managers. It's a fringe benefit for upper- and middle-management that larger governments in Tampa Bay don't come close to offering.
› Marlins' new stadium brings jobs, new business opportunities
[Miami Herald]
Construction of the Marlins' dazzling new palace has entered the late innings now, a smidgen over three-quarters complete.
The 8,300-ton retractable roof is secured. Most of the seats, nearly all painted blue, are firmly in place. The 51-foot tall Jumbotron scoreboard towers over right field.
When the project is done, the ballpark in Little Havana, on the site of the old Orange Bowl, will be more than just a playpen for our Major League Baseball team and an entertainment destination for fans.
It will also a business hub, directly or indirectly creating more than 2,000 jobs and generating tens of millions in annual revenue for the team.
› Lakewood Ranch company building a future in disease detection [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Operating below the radar, a Lakewood Ranch-based biotech company with two dozen employees has positioned itself to become a leader in the fast-growing field of instant disease diagnosis.
During the next three to five years, Rapid Pathogen Screening Inc. expects to raise its payroll to 200 as it develops test kits aimed at spotting the flu and sexually transmitted diseases. In each case, the company is using its own proprietary technology to create simple boxed kits that provide results without waiting for lab work.
In addition to those tests for well-recognized maladies, the company has a second iron in the fire. It is developing a kit that will test for exposure to four nerve agents, including Sarin and VX.
› Charters get $55 million for upkeep, other schools get zero [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Traditional public schools in Florida will get no money from the state this year for additions or needed repairs to thousands of aging buildings, but charter schools will score big.
All of the state cash budgeted for school construction and maintenance is going to the independent, tax-financed charters favored by the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott. School district officials across Florida are bemoaning the Legislature's decision to cut traditional public schools out of PECO — the Public Education Capital Outlay program. The state's 350 charter schools will share $55 million, while the approximately 3,000 traditional schools will go without.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Physicians, gun advocates tangle over new 'Docs vs. Glocks' law
[Miami Herald]
Four years ago, an experienced gun owner in Pembroke Pines named Reynaldo Gonzalez made an exception he will forever regret.
His 15-year-old daughter, Yamel Trigo, begged to show off his guns, usually locked away except when Gonzalez went to the range, to a visiting teenage cousin. Out came the guns and a camera, Yamel recalls. The cousin posed with a .22-caliber rifle, which Yamel's dad thought was unloaded.
The cousin put her finger on the trigger — something safety-minded gun owners know never to do unless you mean to fire. The rifle went off. The bullet hit Yamel in the neck and left her a quadriplegic.
Cases like Yamel's in which kids are shot accidentally are hardly new, but now they're at the core of an unusual legal battle pitting a portion of the medical profession against some powerful gun-rights advocates and the state of Florida.
› Changes slow to appear at Disney's Pleasure Island [Orlando Sentinel]
At the end of summer in 2008, Walt Disney World shut down the nightclubs that once made Pleasure Island an after-dark destination for more than a million people a year, saying it wanted to transform the adult-oriented district into a new venue more suitable for families with children.
Three years later, Disney has yet to realize that vision.
Five Pleasure Island clubs are still standing, but they are sealed up and dark, little more than elaborately themed, empty storefronts. Two others have been demolished, replaced only by a grass field walled off from pedestrians. Just one new restaurant has been added, though Disney says a clothing boutique will open later this summer.
› Law firm's strategy raises ethical issues [St. Petersburg Times]
David E. Ramba is a Tallahassee lobbyist and lawyer who has prospered representing well-heeled clients such as AT&T, the Seminole Tribe and the Florida Chiropractic Association. But these days, he flies his six-seat Piper Malibu around Florida championing the cause of the little guy.
His target: the big, bad banks.
Ramba, 40, has joined forces with a California attorney and opened offices in Pinellas Park and Boca Raton where employees ask struggling homeowners to join an innovative legal action against their lenders.
Prospective plaintiffs are told that nearly 6,000 people have joined the effort and six lawsuits have been filed so far.
But there are several hitches.
› Brazilian furniture maker Artefacto mines the international market
[Miami Herald]
About 1,000 people circulated around Artefacto's Merrick Park showroom one night last week, sipping cocktails and tiny glasses of malanga soup, perching on designer chairs and chatting about their next decorating or redecorating projects.
The after-hours event at the Brazilian furniture retailer and manufacturer's Coral Gables store was the launch of a designer showcase that will run for the next 11 months. The company has held a similar marketing event in Brazil for the past 15 years, but this is the first time it has staged a Design House in the United States.
With the U.S. real estate market still in a funk, this isn't the best of times for furniture stores. And events such as Design House are becoming more important in getting customers across the threshold.
› Empty space haunts Orlando as big stores close doors [Orlando Sentinel]
Borders began liquidation sales for the last of its bookstores Friday, adding even more vacant retail space to a region already struggling to fill its empty storefronts.
The shells of other empty Borders bookstores still litter the landscape, along with old Pier 1 Imports, Belk, Blockbuster Video and Circuit City stores that were victims of the economic downturn.
Orlando's retail real-estate market has been sluggish, according CB Richard Ellis, losing more than 200,000 square feet of occupancy since the end of last year. While big spaces in the best spots have gotten filled, the company said in a report released this week, those in older centers or less-desirable parts of town often remain empty.
› Top officials cash in on the way out
[Miami Herald]
Four years into one of the longest economic slumps in memory, local governments have cut salaries, jobs, and even unilaterally reworked negotiated union contracts. Yet big payouts for top officials leaving public-sector jobs, a practice that sparks outrage from taxpayers, continue essentially unabated. Even in these brutally tough budgetary times, top administrators seldom leave without a golden handshake. Here's a look at some.
› Study shows people are pressed for time, eager to relax [Orlando Sentinel]
The latest snapshot of U.S. travelers reveals them to be a stressed-out bunch who remain sensitive to price and continue to suffer from a syndrome known as "time poverty."
That could prove to be a challenge for Central Florida's tourism industry, but there is good news as well in the newest research by the Maitland travel research-and-marketing firm Ypartnership. For one thing, the number of people who say they are planning to take a leisure trip in the near future is rising, a sign that demand is returning.
› Celebrity Cruises CEO discusses new ship [Miami Herald]
Dan Hanrahan, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, has been busy lately introducing the company's newest ship.
The only catch: The 2,886-passenger Celebrity Silhouette is the fourth of five in the Solstice class, which debuted its first ship in 2008. So how to keep interest high when the product is already familiar to loyal customers?