FIU violates Lobbyist Laws

Florida International University has paid a high-powered lobbyist as a full-time employee for six years, even as he was representing 30 additional clients, including two other local universities, in front of the Legislature.
The arrangement appears to violate a 1974 law that forbids universities from using taxpayer dollars to pay outside lobbyists. FIU officials said they discovered the problem involving longtime lobbyist Fausto B. Gomez last month and are researching how to fix it.

The state ethics commission could subject both the school and the lobbyist to a two-year ban on lobbying the governor and the Legislature, which would be a crippling blow at a time when FIU attempts to build a new medical school. ''We're talking about an error here,'' said FIU Provost Ron Berkman. "We're not talking about any attempt to deceive.'' FIU has spent $517,820.88 in taxpayer dollars since 2000 on Gomez, according to FIU records.

Most of the time, Gomez was officially listed as a ''practitioner in residence,'' according to a letter that served as his contract. Gomez's responsibilities included ''guest lectures in political science and/or public administration courses, possible seminars and workshops for students, faculty or staff,'' the contract said. His primary job, though, was advising FIU's administration on dealing with state and local government issues.
Gomez's contracts were signed by former Provost Mark Rosenberg and authorized by President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique, according to a 2001 letter written by Rosenberg. In October 2005, Rosenberg left to be the chancellor of the entire state university system, which includes 11 universities.

''Clearly, I didn't know the rules and I'm very unhappy about this,'' Rosenberg said this week. Rosenberg said he didn't know if Gomez ever lectured during his time as provost. His successor, Berkman, says Gomez may have given some lectures, and perhaps even taught a class, but FIU officials could not find records to indicate when or where. Gomez, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science from FIU in 1977, declined to comment, referring all questions to university administrators.

His clients include Miami-Dade County, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, Barry University and Carlos Albizu University, according to a recent compensation report filed with the state. The report says Gomez and his partner, Manuel Reyes, earned between $250,000 and $499,999 from their lobbying clients during the first three months of 2006.

Marcos Perez, FIU's vice president for administration, discovered that the arrangement ''may not be in compliance'' with the state law, according to a draft of a July 14 letter addressed to Gomez. The letter has not yet been sent because Perez is on vacation. The law -- passed in 1974 and toughened in 1993 -- prohibits state agencies, including universities, from using tax money on outside contracts to lobby the Legislature or the governor. Universities can legally pay lobbyists with money from their charitable foundations, though.

They also can use full-time employees to lobby, but Perez determined that Gomez should not have been considered a full-time employee because he has so many other lobbying clients. ''Your list of clients makes me believe that it is unlikely that you are fulfilling your duties as a full-time practitioner in residence,'' Perez wrote.

As Perez reviewed arrangements with six other school lobbyists, he found the school had paid $24,500 to the consulting firm of former FIU provost James Mau, also a registered lobbyist. Mau could not be reached for comment. The issues with Gomez were discovered just as he began making plans for what he deemed ''one of the most significant legislative sessions in FIU's history,'' according to a July 10 e-mail he sent to Perez. He wrote that the meeting should be held soon ``to afford us time to impact and influence executive and legislative contests.'' It is illegal in Florida for state employees to participate in elections while they are on the job.