Commissioners to Jettison County's Longtime Federal Lobbyist

BRADENTON – During Wednesday's Manatee County Commission work session/special meeting, the board voted unanimously to instruct the county's procurement department to move forward with engaging a new lobbying firm for its interests in Washington. The item was passed quickly and with surprisingly little conversation among commissioners.

Jocelyn Hong & Associates has been the county's federal lobbyist for more than two decades. In January, Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh spearheaded a move to replace Hong & Associates with a firm called Ballard Partners, gaining strong support from Commissioner Mike Rahn.

According to text messages obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, however, the move to get rid of Hong & Associates also had early support from commission chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge.

As TBT reported in January, unflattering text messages between Van Ostenbridge and former deputy county administrator Rob Reinshuttle show that Van Ostenbridge favored switching firms earlier last year, but that he and former Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes had favored a strategy of waiting until the new board was seated in November.

Ballard Partners has offices in both Florida and Washington, and some commissioners mentioned that as an advantage. However, whether hiring a firm that also represents other Florida municipalities, some of whom have larger contracts, for a role that essentially involves lobbying for a limited amount of federal resources could be a disadvantage was not discussed.

During its tenure as the county's lobbyist, Hong & Associates has helped the county secure around $400 million in federal dollars, including $33 million in the last Congress.

When County Attorney Bill Clague advised commissioners at the January work session, he noted that should they wish to open a Request for Proposals to explore other options, there are things commissioners should keep in mind when considering firms such as Ballard Partners.

"I think the board should understand, those firms have a lot of really high dollar clients. Some of the clients have a huge amount of money that they are spending,“ advised Clague. "So the firm will prioritize way in advance as they go into Congress."

However, commissioners decided not to put the contract out for bid and instead use a "non-competitive" single-source procurement, which, according to the county's ordinance on procurement, can be used as an exception to "otherwise applicable solicitation requirements" but only when contractual services are only available from a "single source." Given that Hong & Associates has an existing contract and had expressed eager interest in continuing to serve the county, the non-competitive award seemed curious.

Ballard Partners' lobbyists include some big names in Florida politics, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former CFO Jeff Atwater, and there were also comments from several commissioners suggesting that although both firms advertise their bipartisan contacts, Ballard might be better positioned to lobby Republicans in Congress.