Don Gaetz's lasting political tenure included bolstering education, securing BP money

Don Gaetz, a former Republican member of the Florida State Senate and father to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, made headlines this week when he announced plans to run for the state’s District 1 seat.

Fellow Republican Frank White, who many believed would take over the outgoing state Sen. Doug Broxson’s District 1 seat, referred to Gaetz as a “living legend” and said he would withdraw from the race.

Gaetz’s political tenure in the state Senate spans from 2006-2016 and he served as the body’s president from 2012-14. Before running for state office, Gaetz served on the Okaloosa County School Board from 1994-2000 before becoming the Okaloosa County superintendent of schools from 2000-2006.

Gaetz helped Okaloosa County become the best-performing school district in Florida

Gaetz’s accomplishments during his tenure with the Okaloosa County School Board and later superintendent of schools helped spread name recognition among voters more than a decade before he would go on to run for state Senate.

Gaetz ran for the Okaloosa County School Board in 1994, beating incumbent school board member Jean Long. In 1995, he campaigned for a one-cent sales tax that would fund school construction and renovation, which passed in a 1995 special election.

Don Gaetz returning to office: Rep. Matt Gaetz's father, former State Senator Don Gaetz, seeking a return to office

More notably, Gaetz called for an investigation in 1997 over the conduct of Charles Woolwine, the vice-principal at Niceville High School at the time. It was reported that Woolwine was promoting his religious beliefs in his professional capacity, claiming that being Christian is a “24-hour-a-day thing” in a 1997 interview with the Associated Press.

Gaetz, a Lutheran, said Woolwine was attempting "to make people who didn't share his views feel as though they were somehow second-class Christians or that they were in danger of damnation."

In 1998, Gaetz ran for reelection and retained his seat on the school board before running for Okaloosa County superintendent of schools in 2000. During his tenure as superintendent, he helped the Okaloosa County school district become the highest-performing school in the state, going from 27th to first in student performance.

Gaetz elected to state Senate District 4 seat

In 2006, Gaetz succeeded incumbent state senator Charlie Clary in District 4, which at the time encompassed everything from Pensacola to Panama City. During his first term, he served as the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee where he gained a reputation as being critical of the Florida Department of Education’s focus on bureaucracy over results.

“I can tell you as a school advisory council member and as a school board member, then as a superintendent, I ground my teeth many times over what I considered to be the unnecessary micromanaging by the Florida Department of Education,” Gaetz told the St. Petersburg Times in a 2007 interview.

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“I found many of the process-oriented initiatives of the Department of Education to be somewhat useful,” he said. “But as we began to get our footing, I found that there was … almost without exception, better analysis, better diagnosis, more customized and useful methods of determining what’s wrong with learning or what can be done to help a student at the local level.”

Gaetz was reelected in 2010 after running unopposed. In 2012, he became the state Senator over the newly reconfigured District 1, which includes only a swath of his original territory, stretching between Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

The redistricting allowed Gaetz to serve in office until 2016. Two of those years, 2012-14, were spent as Senate President.

Gaetz helped secure 75% of Florida’s BP settlement money for Northwest Florida

One of Gaetz's most important, and lasting, Senate achievements came in 2011 when he convinced fellow lawmakers to go along with legislation that would secure 75% of all Florida BP settlement dollars for the eight Northwest Florida counties disproportionately impacted by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

In 2012-13, the Oil Spill Economic Development Act, sponsored by then-Senate President Gaetz, made the Triumph Gulf Coast Board the ultimate arbiter of project spending. That bill was signed into law in 2017 and funds, restricted to use for economic development, continue to flow into Northwest Florida.

Bills sponsored by Don Gaetz

• FL S0184 Military and veterans affairs — Requiring a landlord, a condominium association, a cooperative association, or a homeowners' association to complete the processing of a rental application submitted by a servicemember within a specified timeframe; requiring the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to report monthly to the Department of Veterans' Affairs the names and mailing or e-mail addresses of veterans who request information; directing the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to provide a method by which honorably discharged veterans may apply for construction, electrical or alarm system contracting licensure, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-242 (on 04/15/2016)

• FL S0966 Unclaimed property — ****Revising a presumption of when funds held or owing under a matured or terminated life or endowment insurance policy or annuity contract are unclaimed; requiring an insurer to compare records of certain insurance policies, annuity contracts, and retained asset accounts against the United States Social Security Administration Death Master File or a certain database or service to determine whether a death is indicated and to update certain records; providing the circumstances under which a policy, a contract, or an account is deemed to be in force, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-219 (on 04/12/2016)

• FL S7012 Death benefits under the Florida retirement system — Authorizing payment of death benefits to the surviving spouse or children of a Special Risk Class member killed in the line of duty under specified circumstances; authorizing payment of death benefits to the surviving spouse or surviving children of a Special Risk Class member in the investment plan; requiring the State Board of Administration to transfer moneys to fund survivor benefit payments under specified circumstances, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-213 (on 04/08/2016)

• FL S0218 Offenses involving electronic benefits transfer cards — Specifying acts that constitute trafficking in food assistance benefits cards and are subject to criminal penalties; providing criminal penalties, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-185 (on 04/06/2016)

• FL S0626 Consumer credit — Authorizing the Office of Financial Regulation to deny a license or take disciplinary action against a person who violates the Military Lending Act or the regulations adopted under that act in connection with a consumer finance loan under the Florida Consumer Finance Act, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-160 (on 03/31/2016)

• FL S0340 Vision care plans — Providing that a health insurer, a prepaid limited health service organization, and a health maintenance organization, respectively, may not require a licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist to join a network solely for the purpose of credentialing the licensee for another vision network; providing that such insurers and organizations may not restrict a licensed ophthalmologist, optometrist, or optician to specific suppliers of materials or optical laboratories, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-69 (on 03/23/2016)

• FL S0590 Adoption — Redefining the terms "abandoned" or "abandonment" and "parent"; revising the circumstances under which an adoption consent is valid, binding, and enforceable; requiring a court to determine, under certain circumstances, whether a change of placement of a child is in the child's best interests, rather than whether the change of placement is appropriate, etc.

  • Last action: Chapter No. 2016-71 (on 03/23/2016)

• FL S0132 Direct primary care — Specifying that a direct primary care agreement does not constitute insurance and is not subject to provisions relating to prepaid limited health service organizations and discount medical plan organizations, or any other chapter of the Florida Insurance Code; providing that certain certificates of authority and licenses are not required to market, sell, or offer to sell a direct primary care agreement, etc.

  • Last action: Died on calendar (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0216 Tuition and fee exemptions — Exempting certain students who were adopted from the Department of Children and Families or who are or were in the custody of the department under specified circumstances from paying tuition and fees to workforce education programs, Florida College System institutions, and state universities, etc.Exempting certain students who were adopted from the Department of Children and Families or who are or were in the custody of the department under specified circumstances from paying tuition and fees to workforce education programs, Florida College System institutions, and state universities, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations Subcommittee on Education (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0322 Term limits for appellate courts — Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to create term limits for Supreme Court justices and judges of the district courts of appeal, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Judiciary (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0248 Medical assistance funding for lawfully residing children — Defining the term "lawfully residing child"; revising eligibility for the Florida Kidcare program to conform to changes made by the act; clarifying that undocumented immigrants are excluded from eligibility; providing eligibility for optional payments for medical assistance and related services for certain lawfully residing children; clarifying that undocumented immigrants are excluded from eligibility for optional Medicaid payments or related services, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations, companion bill(s) passed, see HB 5101 (Ch. 2016-65) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0178 Quality health care services — Requiring the Office of Economic and Demographic Research and the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to complete a periodic analysis of the medical tourism marketing plan; requiring Enterprise Florida, Inc., to market this state as a health care destination in collaboration with the Department of Economic Opportunity; extending sovereign immunity to include employees or agents of a health care provider that executes a contract with a governmental contractor, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations, companion bill(s) passed, see HB 423 (Ch. 2016-224) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0236 Certificates of need for rural hospitals — Revising the criteria for exempting a rural hospital or the not-for-profit operator of rural hospitals from the requirement to obtain a certificate of need for the construction of a new or replacement facility within the primary service area, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Fiscal Policy (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0562 Consumer debt collection — Specifying methods by which a debtor, represented by an attorney, may notify a creditor of such representation; specifying methods by which an attorney representing a debtor may notify a creditor of such representation; requiring a creditor to identify the manner by which a debtor may communicate notice of representation; providing that a creditor must cease direct communication with the debtor under certain circumstances, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Messages (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0884 Youth suicide awareness and prevention — Requiring the Department of Education to incorporate training in youth suicide awareness and prevention into certain instructional personnel continuing education or inservice training requirements; requiring the department, in consultation with the Statewide Office for Suicide Prevention and suicide prevention experts, to develop a list of approved materials for the training, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/HB 7029 (Ch. 2016-237) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0524 Education — Creating a Florida College System Performance-Based Incentive for Florida College System institutions; establishing a collaboration between the state board and the Legislature to designate certain Florida College System institutions as distinguished colleges; requiring performance-based metrics to include specified wage thresholds; revising eligibility for the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program; creating the Principal Autonomy Pilot Program Initiative; establishing the Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program, etc.

  • Last action: Died on Calendar, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/CS/HB 287 (Ch. 2016-223), CS/CS/HB 719 (Ch. 2016-58), CS/CS/HB 1365 (Ch. 2016-149), HB 5003 (Ch. 2016-62), CS/CS/HB 7029 (Ch. 2016-237) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0300 Weapons and firearms — Providing for construction of statutes that implicate the right to bear arms or engage in self-defense; specifying that a law enforcement officer may arrest a person for the unlicensed carrying of a concealed weapon only upon probable cause that such a violation is being committed; providing that a person licensed to carry a concealed firearm or weapon may also openly carry such firearm or weapon as long as such person is in compliance with specified provisions; providing that a person or entity who infringes on specified rights of an individual may be subject to liability under specified provisions, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Judiciary (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0516 Special districts — Requiring each special district to operate an official website; requiring each special district's official website to include specified budget information; requiring certain independent special districts to be subject to ch. 120, F.S., etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/HB 479 (Ch. 2016-22) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0146 Federal student loan default rates — Requiring certain institutions to maintain a federal student loan cohort default rate below a specified percentage; revising the minimum standards the Commission for Independent Education must use to evaluate an institution for licensure to include the institution's federal student loan cohort default rate; requiring Florida College System institution performance funding for industry certifications to take into consideration an institution's federal student loan cohort default rate, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S0208 Insurance coverage for state officers — Restricting participation of state officers in certain state group insurance programs that provide benefits in excess of those offered to Medicaid recipients, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Governmental Oversight and Accountability (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S1074 Property tax assessments — Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to allow the Legislature to limit growth in the assessed value of homestead and specified nonhomestead property to the growth rate in just value, to prohibit increases in the assessed value of homestead and specified nonhomestead property if the just value of the property decreases, and to provide an effective date, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S1084 Health care protocols — Citing this act as the "Right Medicine Right Time Act"; requiring a managed care plan, an insurer, and a health maintenance organization to establish a process by which a prescribing physician may request an override of certain restrictions in certain circumstances; providing the circumstances under which an override must be granted; defining the term "fail-first protocol"; prohibiting a health maintenance organization from requiring that a health care provider use a clinical decision support system or a laboratory benefits management program in certain circumstances, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S1520 tourist development taxes — Specifying additional uses for revenues received from tourist development taxes for certain coastal counties, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development, companion bill(s) passed, see HB 7099 (Ch. 2016-220) (on 03/11/2016)

• FL S1144 Certificates of need for health care-related projects — Providing an exemption from certificate of need review for certain health care-related projects; specifying conditions and requirements for the exemption; requiring a certain agreement between the project applicant and the Agency for Health Care Administration; providing penalties for failure to comply with certain requirements for an exemption to a certificate of need review, etc.

  • Last action: Died in Appropriations (on 03/11/2016)

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Don Gaetz re-entering politics reminds us of his lasting legacy