PLAY BALL? COVER STORY
Fernandez
Arza
Targeted public records requests could signal POLITICAL HARDBALL for three Duval school board members FOLIO WEEKLY HAS LEARNED THAT THREE OF Duval County’s seven sitting board members have been targeted for public records requests by Robert H. Fernandez, a litigation attorney who once served as Deputy General Counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush. Fernandez, a partner in the Coral Gablesbased Zumpano Castro Law Firm, has issued two separate public records requests to Duval County School Board members Becki Couch, Dr. Connie Hall, and Paula Wright.
WHO IS ROBERT H. FERNANDEZ?
As Deputy General Counsel in the thenGovernor’s office, Fernandez served as a top lieutenant in Bush-brand education reform, particularly on school privatization efforts. Fernandez and one other attorney represented Jeb Bush in Florida’s landmark school voucher case, Bush v. Holmes. The Holmes case ended Bush’s plan for tax dollars to be used for private school vouchers. (Now, pre-treasury, “tax-credit” dollars are used for private school vouchers through the 501c3 organization, Step Up For Students.) According to his firm’s website, Fernandez “… is considered one of the leading lawyers in South Florida on representation of elected officials and candidates on election and ethics law issues.” Fernandez also once served as a reference for the cousin of charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza. Hugo Arza listed Fernandez and one other Bush-affiliated attorney when he applied to serve on the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission in 2007. The 12 | FOLIOWEEKLY.com | DECEMBER 9-15, 2015
commission, which was designed to take charter school decisions out of the hands of local school districts, became defunct in 2008, when the First District Court of Appeals found it unconstitutional. Folio Weekly left a message for Fernandez on his office voicemail, but the call was not returned in time for our publication deadline.
WHO IS RALPH ARZA?
Ralph Arza resigned his seat in the Florida House of Representatives in 2006, before turning himself into the police for witnesstampering charges. He admitted to leaving an obscenity-laced voicemail message for fellow lawmaker Gus Barreiro, and to using a racial slur in that recording. Barreiro had previously filed a complaint against Arza for using a racial slur against a sitting schools superintendent. Arza pled guilty in the criminal matter, served probation and community service, enrolled in angermanagement classes, and apologized publicly for his actions. Prior to the scandal, Arza was regarded as an important point-person in the Florida House for implementing Bush’s education reform initiatives. Arza, quoted often in the media as a longtime friend and adviser to presidential candidate Marco Rubio, now lobbies for the Florida Charter School Alliance. FSCA is one of several schoolprivatization advocacy organizations that are organized under the umbrella “Florida Alliance for Choice in Education,” or FACE. A vocal champion of school privatization, Arza told CBS affiliate
WPEC-TV Channel 12 in South Florida, “The parents decide where the money goes, not the school district.” Charter schools have become more controversial in Palm Beach County recently, where, on Nov. 9, the school board voted 6-0 against opening a new CharterSchoolsUSA operation, citing a lack of innovative programming, which state statutes require. Charter schools are privately run, publicly funded organizations. Charter schools operate in privately held real estate assets, which receive public dollars for capital improvements. Palm Beach County is also challenging an appeal of its previous denial of a charter school application. The Florida Board of Education reversed the PBC board’s December 2014 decision to deny a charter application — Palm Beach County fired back in September 2015 by appealing to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The Palm Beach County board says that it, not the state Board of Education, has the final say when it comes to regulating local PBC schools. Republican lawmaker Manny Diaz (District 103) has all but acknowledged that the Palm Beach County School Board is right, by filing a proposed amendment to change the constitution. Diaz’s amendment would hand over local control of charter school approval to the state. In an interview with The Palm Beach Post, Arza dubbed Palm Beach County as “ground zero” for what he calls an “open war” on charter schools. In a story run on WPEC-TV Channel 12, Arza said that his group will file an ethics complaint with the state regarding how the board handled the charter school applications. Arza did not specify in that interview how a vote against a charter school application could be construed as unethical. Folio Weekly tried contacting Arza through his consulting firm, but Arza was unavailable for comment.