What was introduced initially as a committee bill, has now been filed by Representative Stone and the Civil Justice Subcommittee, now designated HB7033.
The full text of the bill is here.
This will amend Fla. Stat. §43.291 and Fla. Stat. §440.45.
The changes to Fla. Stat. §43.291 would clarify that all commissioners appointed by the Governor would serve “at the pleasure of the Governor.” The statute would specifically exclude “those selected from a list of nominees provided by . . . The Florida Bar” from this authority. Essentially, each Governor would be free to appoint five members to each commission, and to remove and replace those five members at will.
The changes to Fla. Stat. §440.45 are multifaceted.
Currently, each judge of compensation claims is appointed by the Governor, from a list of three nominees. The nominations are made by the Statewide Judicial Nominating Commission for Judges of Compensation Claims, or SJNCJCC. Judges who seek reappointment are interviewed by the SJNCJCC every four years, and the SJNCJCC may recommend reappointment or not. If the SJNCJCC recommends reappointment, the reappointment decision ultimately remains with the Governor, who is not bound by the SJNCJCC reappointment recommendation. If the SJNCJCC does not recommend reappointment, however, the Governor does not currently have discretion to reappoint, and therefore a judicial vacancy results from any SJNCJCC vote that does not recommend reappointment.
HB7033 would remove the nominating commission requirement from the process for appointment of the Deputy Chief Judge. Fla. Stat. §440.45(1)(a).
The bill would eliminate the SJNCJCC completely. The nominations for Judges of Compensation Claims would be made by the “nominating commission for the First District Court of Appeal.” The provisions of Fla. Stat. §440.45(2)(c) remain. Therefore each JCC would be reviewed by the “nominating commission” (now the First DCA Commission) prior to the expiration of their term. Arguably, this reappointment requirement would apply equally to the Deputy Chief Judge; potentially the Deputy Chief would be appointed without commission nomination, but would require commission review and nomination for reappointment.
The bill also eliminates from Fla. Stat. §440.45(2)(c) the phrase “the statewide nominating commission does not find the judge’s performance is satisfactory” from the circumstances in which the “Governor shall appoint a successor.” Arguably, this deletion gives the Governor greater discretion to reappoint a JCC, regardless of the Commission (first DCA commission) conclusions regarding the Judge’s performance.
The bill eliminates the requirement for the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims to provide an annual report to the “statewide nominating commission,” which is consistent with the bill’s elimination of that body corporate. However, the bill does not require that the OJCC annual report would be provided to the First District Court of Appeal Commission that is substituted into the performance review role by the bill. It is unclear if this deletion is simply ancillary to the removal of the SJNCJCC from the law, or if it is intended to shift the focus of the First District Commission away from the analyses of that report, which would still be required by the amended law, but which would be issued hereafter only to the Governor, House, Senate, The Florida Bar, but not the Commission (First DCA Commission).
An interesting bill.