>> Hello and welcome again to Florida Internet and Television's FiTV.
We are joined by CFO Jimmy Patronis on today's episode. Jimmy, welcome.
You're here to talk to us about your run for the CFO for the next four years.
>> I am, and thank you for having me.
The opportunity to serve the citizens of the state of Florida has been a humbling one,
and I'm profoundly just honored to have this role.
Governor Scott's been really good to me, but not just to me.
He's been good to this entire state.
And the opportunity to the spend the next 15 months, and hopefully,
four years on top of that afterwards is what I'm hoping to accomplish.
>> Alright, before we jump into the issues, the why-you're-running,
I think that the people of Florida need to know about Jimmy Patronis.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about what you did
before you were appointed to the CFO's slot.
>> Sure. Thanks. For the last 35 years prior to June 25, I clocked in and clocked out.
Along with my brothers, we did clock in and clock out at Captain Anderson's restaurant.
We operated (they still do) a restaurant of 200-plus employees, 700 seats, and it was our way of life.
Got involved with politics. Served eight years in the Florida House.
At the same time, carrying the real-life experiences of northwest Florida,
the needs of the citizens of northwest Florida back to the policy-making process of the legislature.
Was coming home. Governor Scott and his team thought well maybe you ought to
consider this Public Service Commission. And I love policy. Always have.
Spent two years on the Public Service Commission.
Got then appointed to the Constitution Revision Commission, which is something I've always dreamed of.
And here we go. I got a call on June 25 seeing if I wanted to be CFO.
The first person I asked was my wife.>> Right, right.
>> Katie, are you good with this? >> I was going to say, family impacts. Right?
>> Yeah, and Katie and the boys were all in.
>> So, the "CEO" gave the greenlight to the CFO.
>> Absolutely. Well, she's not only the CEO, she's also the chairman of the board.
She keeps the trains running on time.
>> Alright. So, you got appointed, but now that you've been in the office, you've decided to run.
Tell us why. I mean, why run for a statewide office?
Why get back into the game, and you know, go after this marketplace called Florida
(political marketplace) that runs from northwest Florida all the way down to Miami,
and it couldn't be more diverse?
>> Sure. So, and it is a big state. And I tell people affectionately it's not one state,
it's about three different countries, because we've got some incredibly diverse economies in our state.
What I get excited about-it's the same things I get excited about at the restaurant:
seeing a healthy bottom line at the restaurant; and running a family business;
being able to grow, prosper and give raises to my employees; expand the business;
change opportunities; expand opportunities.
That's no different than what I have the opportunity at the state to do.
I tell people I'm the state business manager.
>> So, let's go beyond that. What does the Chief Financial Officer do for the citizens of Florida?
It's a big office. >> It is.
>> There's a lot more to it than just managing the books.
>> As we consolidated back in the '90's, we consolidated three cabinet positions into one,
and the Chief Financial Officer has taken all the old roles of the Insurance Commissioner,
and the Comptroller, and the State Treasurer, and we got the State Fire Marshal,
and we brought all those together. And now I get to serve on the Cabinet.
So, what do I do? I reconcile the state's checking accounts. I pay all the state's bills.
Every payable that we've got, every contract the state engages-
we put them online, transparent for everybody to see them. I pay all the state employees.
If it deals with money, it goes through our office.
At the same time, I sit on the State Board of Administration.
That's the part that kind of gets me really excited, that I get giddy about,
because that's our state creditworthiness.
Anybody who has gone out and applied for a mortgage for their home-
this is what we do, day in and day out.
I sit down and I look at our state's assets. I look at our state's liabilities.
I ensure that we have a good, healthy budget and reserves,
and I work with the legislature and the governor on.
And as we have got a good, healthy reserve in place, we go out with an environment
where we're the most sought-after state to do business with.
We're the number-one state in the union for fiscal health.
>> It makes our costs for money cheaper. >> Exactly. >> For the citizens of Florida.
>> And the state of Florida, our citizens per capita have about a little over $1,000 debt per citizen.
And people are moving here every day. We have prosperity.
You go to New Jersey, there's over $4,000 per citizen,
and their pension plan, for example, 44 percent funded. Ours is 90 percent funded.
So, there are states right now that we're the envy of, and we're growing.
So, it's kind of hard not to get excited about what we're doing.
>> Well let's talk a little bit about, should you win this election,
and you've never gotten anything not to win, but say you're in the seat of CFO,
day one, now that you've been elected.
But you've been in the office, so you've seen it. You work there.
What are going to be your top priorities that you'll either continue or start anew?
>> So, we'll continue to turn the volume up on the things that I think are the core missions of our office,
and that is protecting our consumers from fraud.
And it is really a sensitive issue for me.
Hurricane Irma gave our team at the CFO's office an opportunity to work together and expand.
Look, the storm is a terrible series of potential tragedies that we were trying to keep from happening.
And one, I want to remind people is, don't get damaged by the storm twice.
Your home has experienced a claim-damage.
And then what you don't want to do is get damaged a second time by the fraudster.
We would tell folks, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
So, as we would engage those policyholders, those homeowners, those citizens of our state,
that potentially have claim or have damage, call us.
Work with us. Let us get you what you deserve to get, so you're made whole.
So, we'll continue to turn up on that and try to close the loopholes that those fraudsters exploit.
And that's the things like Assignment of Benefits.
Legislation has been filed this year, which will help.
>> You talk about it a lot. >> Sure. >> Tell us about that.
>> Assignment of Benefits-it's not a statewide problem, but it will become a statewide epidemic
if we don't catch hold of it.
But it's primarily focused on Broward, Palm Beach and Dade counties,
where folks are allowing these third-party contractors to come in to their home,
exploit the purpose of what their insurance policy is for, and then, you know,
bill the insurance company or then, ultimately sue the insurance company.
The ripple effect that's going to have is a spike in insurance rates,
so let's make sure the insurance carriers, by gosh, are doing exactly what they should do.
If you have a claim, you should be paid, but let's don't create an artificial claim environment.
>> Right. OK. So, you're the chief fire marshal. You're the chief fraud investigator.
You pay the bills. So, if you're protecting Floridians, and that's your mission,
where else do you go beyond the fraud to look out for Floridians in this role?
>> So, I feel like I'm also the chief advocate for our first responders.
So as the state fire marshal (which, we've got a fantastic team with Julius and all,
down at the state fire marshal's office), but we're going to get out there aggressively
looking out for those first responders, who, to me, once I took this job
(and both my sons want to be firemen now), those individuals-
>> A lot of firetruck rides for the chief fire marshal.
>> Exactly. It's great for those kids, but you realize these guys
when I was in the Public Service Commission, I knew when I turned the faucet on, water came out.
When I turned the switch on, the lights turned on, and we take that for granted.
Every time we dial 911, these guys come running, no matter what the circumstances are,
no matter what your need is, what your emergency is.
So, we need to be an advocate for those, and that's exactly what I'm doing.
So, whether it be dealing with the cancer presumption issue/legislation,
the post-traumatic stress that these first responders face day in and day out,
because they see terrible images that can never be erased.
So, as we-that's just another role that we've got is to make sure we have a good,
capable pipeline of individuals that like to save lives.
>> Yeah. Certainly, we all need to pay attention to the first responders, make sure they're on point.
So, let's talk a little bit about your business, your family business
and how that experience translates into running an enormous agency.
Your family business may have started at one size, but under your leadership, it's grown.
So, how big is running that business, and how does that translate into running the CFO office?
>> Sure, well Captain Anderson's Restaurant-we celebrated our 50-year this year.
My dad and uncle started off as a 90-seat breakfast house, and now we're 700 seats, 200 employees,
and it's an operation. It's a destination operation.
The same problems I dealt with at Captain Anderson's-the same workers comp claims,
the same competitive bid of insurance, the same payroll issues-all those challenges I had,
it comes down to managing people.
The State of Florida, at the Department of Financial Services, we've got 2,000 employees.
So, all those same problems I had there, it's just multiplied by 10.
We go in, and we've got a team that has to be inspired. They need a leader.
They need somebody that goes-and hey, I love, you know, one of my little games I play,
when I go make the walks through the halls, and ask all my team for their business cards,
and I love it when I find a card that still has Jeff Atwater's name on it.
And they get embarrassed. And I said, no, you know what this tells me?
This tells me you're saving money. I said, because you know what?
You didn't change your name, you didn't change your email, you didn't change your phone number,
all that numbers the same. You're just still using a card that says Jeff Atwater.
And I said, I'm flattered. I'm flattered you want to save money of the citizens of the state of Florida,
to use those cards up and not replace it with a new one.
So, you just keep on doing what you're doing, because that's the type of people
I want running our agency.
>> Well, you know, I've seen it. I'm a former employee of the state,
and so, I've seen the effectiveness of the agency, but when we talk about where the agency goes from here,
and as the leadership play, you're a member of the Florida Cabinet, right?
And so, the small business experience, leading this gigantic agency,
but yet your reach will go well beyond just the agency role on the cabinet.
Tell us about how your leadership style plays out at the cabinet right now
and what sort of impacts do you want to make on the broader state of Florida?
>> I'm hard wired to be a customer servant. I know no different.
For the last 35 years, my job has been to make the customer happy and to take care of the customer.
And I can't de-program it, so I do that with everything I've got.
And I do the same thing in the Cabinet, whether it be through clemency or any of our agenda items.
We've got all the big horsepower agencies that are the Cabinet agencies.
I'm just a guy who likes to do his homework and go full speed, all the time.
The Cabinet right now is a fantastic cabinet, whether it be Pam Bondi and what she did in
leadership through the storm on fraud and price gauging,
and then you've got the governor who's got probably the biggest shoulders of any man
I've ever met in my life.
What he did to lead and take the burden of those decisions and
evacuate five million people off the peninsula.
Or you've got Adam Putnam that has been out there championing the recovery of our citrus industry.
You got these great, fantastic individuals that all have their silos of contribution,
and then here I am, doing the best I can to make sure our citizens aren't taken advantage of
by fraud in the financial process they could have.
So, we all come together, and I think as, at least I hope that's happened, I get along well with them.
I think the citizens of the state of Florida appreciate a cabinet that likes each other.
>> Well, so, from Captain Anderson's restaurant, full-time gig, in the legislature full-time,
PSC full-time, appointed to CFO, and now you're going to run for this office.
That's a busy plate. You got two boys and then you got a wife, full family.
So, some would say you have no time on your hands, right?
>> I changed the oil on my truck twice in the last 45 days.
I've never done that before in my life.
It's a big state, but what we do, is, you know, coming up,
Florida State is going to have me as their grand marshal for (I'm a Seminole. Go Noles.),
so Florida State's going to have me as grand marshal of the homecoming parade.
My boys are more excited about that than anything else.
So, I mean, this is a family affair.
And I told Katie, I said, I'm not running unless you're running too.
And that's the way we roll in our household.
>> Alright, so on behalf of the Florida internet and television industry,
when you're not doing all of that and you have time to stream something on your TV
to take your mind off of what you're doing, what does Jimmy Patronis like to stream?
>> I don't want to creep your listeners out, but I'm a Walking Dead fanatic.
>> No, that's great! That's one of the biggest ones out there! That's perfect.
>> Walking Dead. And you know, thank God everybody still likes to store online
all the various series of Star Trek, whether it be Voyager or what not.
So, yeah, maybe I live in a little bit of a utopia. A little bit.
>> A little sci-fi action? Little zombie action?
>> I'm a "Trekker," not a "Trekkie." >>Trekker. >> Trekker, yeah.
>> Thanks for the correction. That's very good.
Well, CFO Jimmy Patronis, thanks so much for stopping by our studios,
and we'll look for more on your campaign. Thank you, sir.
For more stories and interviews about Florida politics
or for the latest innovations in your home or wherever you connect,
make sure you connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn,
and also, on behalf of Florida's internet and television companies
and the over 100,000 people that make it possible across Florida, just remember...
we are the industry that connects and entertains.
No comments:
Post a Comment