A legal dispute over the privatization of health care services in Florida’s prisons is far from over. A Leon Circuit Judge says he does not have all the information he needs to make a ruling yet. But, his ultimate decision will not only affect thousands of public employees in jeopardy of losing their jobs, it could also become a precedent in deciding what kind of authority a Florida legislative budget panel has in making future budgetary decisions.
It’s the latest suit filed by several unions on behalf of three-thousand state health care workers, who are close to losing their jobs within Florida’s prison system to private companies.
At issue is the state’s Joint Legislative Budget Commission giving approval to the Florida Department of Corrections in the form of millions of dollars to contract with private vendors, to manage inmate health care services.
But, lawyer Tom Brooks says that’s illegal. He’s the lawyer for AFSCME, or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the unions who challenged the department.
Brooks says a small budgetary panel of 14 lawmakers does not have that kind of authority, and the decision should have been left up to the full Florida Legislature.
“There’s a line between amending budgets and creating new appropriations,” said Brooks.
Lawyer Jonathan Sanford, who represents the department, disagrees. He says the Legislative Budget Commission was within its right to transfer nearly $57 million that would have gone to fund public employee positions and move it over to pay for the privatization.
Sanford also asked the Judge to consider that the Legislature budgeted for the effort.
“If we don’t go into these contracts this year, we’ll have a current year deficit for health care, your honor. It’s actually based on the bid process,” said Sanford.
After hours of arguments Monday, all sides involved said they did not know much about how the Legislative Budget Commission works. So, Leon Circuit Judge John Cooper says he wants more information about the budget panel, before he rules on whether the panel had the legal authority to approve the privatization.
He says any ruling he makes could set the standard for future cases.
“There’s not many cases, if any, that talk about this, and we may be trying to plow some unplowed ground at this point,” said Judge Cooper.
And, Alma Gonzalez, another lawyer for AFSCME, agrees.
“Well, it [the ruling] will be interesting in that, as he [Judge John Cooper] pointed out, there’s not a lot of law here, so he may be absolutely setting a precedent here and he understands and is sensitive to the fact that we could be looking at an appellate decision on this,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says if the judge rules in the unions’ favor, it will be a lesson to the Florida Legislature to not abuse the authority of the Legislative Budget Commission in the future.
“The Judge recognizes that the LBC [Legislative Budget Commission] is a stop gap., and that it is not an opportunity for the Legislature to play it fast and loose with the lives of state employees or what happens in programming in the state. They are not some dictator subcommittee of the Legislature," Gonzalez remarked. "They are, in fact, a limited power to do housekeeping, and make sure the trains continue to run on time.”
Judge Cooper says he wants all sides to give him information about the Legislative Budget Commission before Thursday, November 29th, and has further arguments scheduled for earlier that morning, before he makes his ruling.
For now, the jobs of thousands of employees hang in the balance as they await the judge’s decision. The department has confirmed that it has at least advised Corizon Healthcare, the vendor expected to take over the health care services of north and central Florida, to hold off on offering positions until a decision is reached.
The other vendor is Wexford Health Sources Incorporated, which has not yet signed a contract with the department. But, the company is slated to take over the South Florida region.
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