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COVER FEATURE
FLC HOLDS VIRTUAL LEGISLATIVE ACTION WEEK The Florida League of Cities held its first-ever Virtual Legislative Action Week during week three of the 2021 Legislative Session, March 15-19. While this week looked different than previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the League had a full schedule of events.
Virtual Legislative Action Week concluded with a live webinar version of On Tap at the Cap with the FLC lobbying team. The webinar provided an update on bills that moved that week at the Capitol, what to look out for the rest of session and where to focus advocacy efforts.
The week kicked off with a Monday morning Legislative Briefing. Members heard from the FLC lobbying team about major bills and messages that needed to be shared with legislators. That afternoon, a virtual welcome for newly elected officials and staff provided an overview of FLC services and advocacy training. On Tuesday evening, League members from around the state met online for a networking social hour.
All of the week’s events had significant turnout and great discussion. Thank you for participating in Virtual Legislative Action Week and for your ongoing advocacy efforts.
Wednesday and Thursday were centered around advocacy. While the FLC Advocacy Committee meets regularly during session to bolster the League’s advocacy efforts, registrants of Legislative Action Week were invited to join in the discussion and learn how meetings with legislators were going and what steps were needed to assist the FLC lobbying team. Building Stronger Cities Through Effective Advocacy was a two-part webinar focused on
President Tony Ortiz’s Building Stronger Cities priority, followed by a discussion with Second Vice President Jolien Caraballo on how to hold an ef-
fective meeting with your legislator. (For more on Ortiz’s priority, see p. 38.)
WHAT’S NEXT
To continue our success with protecting Home Rule, I encourage you to keep up your advocacy post-session. Have candid conversations with legislators to discuss how they voted, and publicly thank the legislators who helped your city. Invite legislators to speak at council meetings and regional league events, attend local budget hearings and tour essential facilities such as your community redevelopment agency or wastewater plant. These advocacy efforts will be crucial as we prepare for the next session and face many of the same issues, particularly with an early session ahead. The 2022 Legislative Session will start on January 11. The FLC Legislative Policy Committees will begin meeting in June to set the legislative agenda for the League and Florida’s 411 municipalities. Education is one of our best tools for ensuring local voices continue to make local choices. Many individuals in the legislative process have never served locally, so they don’t understand 34 QUALITY CITIES | SECOND QUARTER 2021
Steven J. Vancore, President at VancoreJones Communications (clockwise from upper left), League Second Vice President Jolien Caraballo and League President Tony Ortiz spoke to participants.
or appreciate the role of local government. Part of our job is to educate our local legislators on this role and the concept of local decision-making, and summertime is the best time to do that. Establish credibility and build relationships with your state leaders to help them better understand local government and potentially prevent preemption before it’s even proposed. These relationships with your state lawmakers are critical to our cause. This is all about building a base of supporters and defenders of Home Rule, but to do this, they must understand what we’re fighting for. Casey Cook is the director of legislative affairs for the Florida League of Cities. QC