County changes lobbyist

After working with the Fiorentino Group to advance its legislative agenda in Tallahassee over the past six years, Clay County Commissioners voted to begin negotiations with the Southern Group.

Administrative and Contractual Services Director Karen Thomas told the board that an evaluation committee assigned to rank the lobbying firms graded the top two firms in a tie and forwarded the ranking to the board.

The four firms that made presentations to commissioners, in addition to the Fiorentino Group and Southern Group, were Capital City Consulting and Public Affairs Consultants.

The Southern Group’s Mercer Fearington Jr. emphasized the firm’s size, claiming it was the largest in Florida with 32 lobbyists.

“We pride ourselves on taking people out of state government that have had key roles in various positions,” he said. “We have former secretaries of DOT, former secretaries of the Department of Management Services and various healthcare agencies as well.”

Joe Mobley of the Fiorentino Group highlighted some of his firm’s accomplishments over the past six years working for the county.

“We had the Blanding Boulevard improvements from (County Road) 220 to Allie Murray Road,” he said. “We worked on the south bridge rehab on Blanding, the Keystone Heights Fire Station (and) the improvements at Camp Chow.”

Mobley also recounted what he said were his firm’s innovative solutions to the county’s challenges and opportunities, including securing support for Moody Avenue Park and working with judges to create the SWEAT program for juvenile offenders, which reduced the county’s cost to house juvenile offenders in pre-trial detainment.

Commissioners Kristen Burke, Betsy Condon and Mike Cella ranked Southern and Fiorentino one and two, respectively. Wayne Bolla and Jim Renninger ranked Public Affairs Consulting one and Fiorentino Group two.