Days 10-13 - Hardest Working Governor

Days 10 - 13 - Hardest Working Governor

Monday morning I went from vacation mode to work mode.  I put on a suit and headed downstairs for the welcome reception luncheon.  From that point forward the days were pretty much the same:

Morning - Breakfast Meeting
Mid-Morning - 2 hours free time
1:30 ish - Luncheon (tons of food and plenty of wine)
3-7 - Free time
7 to 9 - Pre-Dinner Reception (with tons of food and wine)
9 on - Free time,,, we would go out with friends from Enterprise Florida and do dinner, drinks, etc.

It was great to reconnect with friends on the board as well as to have met some new ones.  This blog, thus far, has been all about our travels but now I'm going to get a bit political on you.

The only upsetting part of the trip were the news stories.  I read a few reports that suggested Governor Scott was taking a free vacation for him and his staff on the tax payer's dime.  This is a guy who is worth over 200 million, he takes $1 a year salary, he flies himself and his staff around Florida on his own private plane paying 100% of the expenses, etc etc.  The media really does a number on him.  I knew folks that worked for Charlie Crist and they would mock him behind his back.  In this case, it was the exact opposite.  Here are a few comments from his staff:

"I will always tell the Governor; here is the right thing to do, here is the political thing to do and here is a middle of the road solution.  He always chooses the right thing to do."

"He is the hardest working Governor I've ever worked for.  I have trouble keeping up."

"He hasn't taken a day off since starting the job."

"He is out the door by 7 AM on some days,, 6 AM most other days,,, and he is home no sooner then 8 PM but most of the times after that."

Before being on the board of Enterprise Florida I didn't have much of an opinion of Rick Scott.  I knew the media hated him but that was about it.  After attending the meetings and paying more attention, it became clear to me that his biggest problem is communicating to the media.  He isn't a politician, he's a CEO and he is running Florida like a business.  He doesn't spend his days pandering to the media, he works on making Florida the best place to live and do business.  The people he has put in charge of the various departments aren't there because he owed them a favor (as is the case with most politicians), they are there because they are the best at what they do.  He has recruited the best people from around the country to come work for Florida just as any CEO recruits the best employees to come make their business succeed.

I will also tell you he is all about jobs.  He has cut taxes for corporations, cut regulations, balanced our budget and, because of his leadership and that of the good people in the house and senate, Florida has added almost 100,000 private sector jobs while losing 12,000 government jobs.  A small efficient government is what's best for small business and small business is what's best for our state and our country.

In Madrid the Governor meet with us three times a day but, during our free time, he was meeting with other heads of state, heads of corporations and even the King of Spain.  He didn't have a free minute to stop and smell the roses.  At every meeting he went over the reasons why Florida is THE best state for them do business in.  Anyone who suggests he's here for a free vacation is very ignorant of his schedule.  I could go on and on but, to sum it up, we have the hardest working Governor in the country,,, no doubt.

Katie and I are back on the plane getting ready to head to Philadelphia on our way to Tampa.  This has been an amazing second honeymoon, we couldn't have had a better time.  Thank you all for reading and be sure to subscribe to the blog,,, we'll try to keep updating it throughout the summer as we head to the Bahamas on the boat trip, Colorado for July, Paris in August, the National Convention in late August and then Ireland in early September.  Stay tuned!

--J