Miami Herald Logo

Florida speaker’s mystery job | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Carl Hiaasen

Florida speaker’s mystery job

Carl Hiaasen

    ORDER REPRINT →

August 10, 2013 12:00 AM

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford is now struggling to answer a simple question that has bedeviled many politicians: What exactly do you do for a living?

In Weatherford’s case, the answers are riddles within riddles.

During his six years in the Legislature, the young Wesley Chapel Republican has filed reports stating his major source of his personal income as a company called Breckenridge Enterprises. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Breckenridge hasn’t been registered in the state of Florida since 2007.

When the newspaper recently asked about the speaker’s role with Breckenridge, he said he isn’t actually employed by that firm. The company he really works for is a Texas construction outfit called Diamond K Corp., he said, for which Breckenridge handles the payroll duties.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Except it doesn’t use the name Diamond K in Florida. Here it goes by T. King Construction, Inc.

Got all that?

Whatever the company is calling itself, it paid Weatherford $52,000 last year for unspecified consulting services. The speaker’s uncle, an investor in Diamond K, said Weatherford works on an unsupervised schedule, doing . . . well, something.

Weatherford also reported $31,500 in income from Red Eagle Group, which he said he founded in 2011 because he aspired to own a small business. However, Red Eagle’s money actually comes from a corporation called Simpson Environmental Services, which specializes in asbestos removal.

Simpson Environmental is owned by state Sen. Wilton Simpson of Trilby, who said Weatherford works diligently for the company but “doesn’t punch a time clock.” The speaker’s duties are somewhat fuzzy, but apparently they do not include personally peeling the dangerous asbestos from buildings.

Serving in the state Legislature is theoretically a part-time commitment, so most lawmakers list their regular occupations. For those with real day jobs, this isn’t a problem.

Yet for those who spend almost all their time in Tallahassee, income disclosure can be tricky. To appear credibly employed is a challenge.

Being speaker of the House is a big-time gig. but it pays a relatively modest $41,000 a year. Still, House speakers typically get richer in that job because they’re offered well-paying outside positions with clout-seeking companies or universities where they seldom have to show up.

By the time Marco Rubio finished his profitable tenure as House speaker, he was pulling down more than $400,000 a year. He definitely wasn’t putting in 40-hour weeks with all the folks who were paying him, or he would have had no time to run the House. Rubio’s successor, Ray Sansom , didn’t fare so well. Sansom quit as speaker in 2009 after it was revealed that he’d helped steer $25 million in questionable funding to Northwest Florida State College, which was paying him a $110,000 salary for . . . well, something.

Weatherford, one of the rising stars in the state GOP, clearly needs emergency assistance in polishing his financial disclosure forms.

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting recently revealed that the speaker is a founding member and ex-director of a Texas firm that has received $826,676 from Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s beleaguered state-run insurance company.

Weatherford has never made public his connection to U.S. Cat Adjusters, which is a contractor for Citizens. As House speaker he’s in a position to control legislation that affects homeowners and windstorm insurance, and for many Floridians Citizens remains the only affordable (though barely) choice.

Records show that Weatherford’s wife, Courtney, replaced him on the board of U.S. Cat Adjusters in 2010. He said in a written statement a few days ago that neither he nor Courtney have received “a single dollar of income” from the company.

According to the speaker, his wife owns 2.8 percent of U.S. Cat Adjusters but he has no role in the company. “This is not my investment,” he said.

And of course the two of them have never ever talked about U.S. Cat’s financial reliance on Citizens, which exists at the whim of the Legislature. They’ve never, ever discussed what would happen to Mrs. Weatherford’s investment if Citizens’ market-share dried up.

In the House, Weatherford has opposed a movement to shrink Citizens by driving policy holders to private insurance firms. However, he did support a new law that might reduce the amount of money paid out by Citizens to firms such as U.S. Cat.

Weatherford said the law doesn’t require him to name the corporations in which his spouse holds an ownership interest. Maybe not, but the fact remains that he’d benefit if her stock shares were sold at a profit.

And, in the case of U.S. Cat, it’s a flagrant conflict of interest.

Even if Floridian’s aren’t sure what work the speaker does to earn paychecks from Breckenridge/Diamond K/T.King Construction and Red Eagle/Simpson Environmental/Whatever, they deserve to know his true stake in companies that do business with the state.

Weatherford’s role in starting U.S. Cat Adjusters wasn’t philanthropic. In return, he undoubtedly expected . . . well, something.

  Comments  

Videos

How the Republican Health Care Bill would change Medicaid

Interview with Senator Marco Rubio on humanitarian aid for Venezuela

View More Video

Trending Stories

Military planes carrying 180 tons of aid for Venezuelans fly from Miami to Colombia

February 16, 2019 08:00 AM

Panic at the Orlando airport when a man alarms passengers at security checkpoint

February 16, 2019 02:52 PM

Dolphins hire ex-Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie, the league’s 2016 executive of year

February 16, 2019 04:27 PM

One dead in shooting near South Beach’s Ocean Drive

February 17, 2019 06:47 AM

‘Youngest customer to date.’ Baby boy born aboard a JetBlue flight to Fort Lauderdale

February 16, 2019 04:08 PM

Read Next

It’s 2019, not 1919. Ditch the blackface —  it’s racist and offensive.

Carl Hiaasen

It’s 2019, not 1919. Ditch the blackface — it’s racist and offensive.

By Carl Hiaasen

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 08, 2019 03:22 PM

Some of these folks are decent people who did something racist and insensitive, thinking it was funny and harmless. Some are racists who did something racist and insensitive, thinking only it was funny.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE CARL HIAASEN

Why don’t you just call me President Pete? My last name? Never mind . . .

Carl Hiaasen

Why don’t you just call me President Pete? My last name? Never mind . . .

February 01, 2019 07:13 PM
Stop acting as if mass shootings are about the body count. They’re not.

Carl Hiaasen

Stop acting as if mass shootings are about the body count. They’re not.

January 25, 2019 05:42 PM
When it comes to saving Florida’s environment, DeSantis gets it —   so far

Carl Hiaasen

When it comes to saving Florida’s environment, DeSantis gets it — so far

January 11, 2019 06:45 PM
A ‘big, beautiful wall?’ Yeah, right . . .

Carl Hiaasen

A ‘big, beautiful wall?’ Yeah, right . . .

January 04, 2019 04:23 PM
The “War on Christmas” is as big a fiction as Santa Claus (Sorry, kids . . .)

Carl Hiaasen

The “War on Christmas” is as big a fiction as Santa Claus (Sorry, kids . . .)

December 21, 2018 05:34 PM
Former ally David Pecker flips, and Trump probably flips out

Carl Hiaasen

Former ally David Pecker flips, and Trump probably flips out

December 14, 2018 01:55 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story