Usually I'm on the other side of media attacks against Gov. Rick Scott. Not this time.
I can't defend forcing Barton Bibler, a longtime, valued employee at the Department of Environmental Protection, to take a leave of absence and seek a mental health evaluation ... for what? For writing a report he was asked to write. Mostly, his crime was using the phrases climate change and global warming in the report.
OK, it's a little more complicated than that. Bibler circled the words "Keystone XL pipeline" and put a line through them. And he was obviouslyglad to hear discussion of climate change at the Coastal Managers Forum.
Big deal.
The fact is, climate change, rising sea levels and the possible environmental impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline all were discussed at the meeting.
Bibler has an opinion, for heaven's sake. He's not a slug. Is that a firing offense? It's not as if the report he turned in was a treatise on global warming; not as if it was going to be distributed to the press (though now it might be). It was inside baseball. As a longtime employee, he probably should have learned by now that color commentary from rank-and-file bureaucrats is frowned upon.
Raise your hand if you think Bibler would have been accused of violating policy, reprimanded and sent to a shrink if he had written in a similar vein, say, about how great the Florida economy is doing, how many jobs the governor had created, what a great place Florida is to start a business, raise a family, plan a future. How bad would his editorializing have been then?
A leave of absence and -- come on --a mental evaluation? Really? One more crazy stunt like that, Mr. Bibler, and you're Baker Acted.
This sounds like the old Soviet Union, not the government of the third largest state in the country.
Scott can swear up and down he hasn't put a ban on climate change discussion -- but the reprimand did call Bibler "unprofessional" and "disrespectful" for little more than relating a conversation at the meeting.
For me, this isn't about global warming, I'm not jumping up and down about what the governor believes or doesn't believe. For me, it's all about human dignity, about gagging free expression, about carrying on election-campaign rancor long after it's game-over-game-won.
The unhappy truth is, whether by his own design or his department heads' interpretation of his wishes, the governor has created a culture of fear and intimidation in the whole of state government in Tallahassee. It runs like a cold shiver through every office, and it's a big part of the reason it's so hard to get answers to questions without submitting them in writing and first going through at least one office flack. No official just picks up the phone when it rings, listens to your question and deals with it, no matter how well they know the issue or their job.
Now we can see why.
What happened to Barton Bibler is beyond embarrassing. It's shameful.
He is the canary who died in the mine shaft. What happened to him sounds an alarm.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
