As the aides to Gov. Rick Scott and his colleagues on theCabinet revived the debate today over crafting a new policy about how to evaluate the performance of agency heads who report to them in the wake of the governors botched firing of former FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey, some history:

If they had asked their predecessors, they would have learned that the practice had been in place for years and, on occasion used by this governor and Cabinet.

Records and transcripts ofCabinetmeetings reviewed by the Herald/Times show that the governor andCabinethad a record of requiring a performance review of officials who reported to them.

The practice continued for the first year Scott and the threeCabinetofficials came to office but then waned. DOR Secretary Lisa Echeverri did not have one in 2012 and her replacement, Marshall Stranburg, has never had one.

The Cabinet discussed Baileys performance on Sept, 23, 2014, and it was glowing.The transcript from theCabinetmeeting shows that Bailey noted that Floridas crime was trending downward "across the board."

At that meeting, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam noted that this crime trend is unusual for large, populated states like Florida. Bailey agreed, noting that in other big states crime is rising. Putnam asks if Florida is an oasis in the sea of rising crime, and Bailey signals it is.

Scott then added to the kudos, noting "there's a high regard for FDLE" among Florida's law enforcement agencies. He added a caveat, however, there is also high regard for other law enforcement saying everyone works together well."

Attorney General Pam Bondi added her praise, calling out the FDLE crime lab for its quality work an.

Not only are they a great investigative agency but all of our sheriffs and chiefs rely on that data, she said.

Link:
Cabinet performance reviews: Not really a new idea

MEXICO CITY: Mexican ruling party lawmakers fear President Enrique Pena Nieto's lurch into scandal, weak economic record and struggle to tame corruption could hurt them in upcoming elections, raising pressure on him to take bold steps or shake up the cabinet.

Pena Nieto's approval rating has slumped to as low as 25 percent since events began to spiral out of control with the September abduction and apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers by corrupt police and a drug gang in southwest Mexico.

Slow to respond to the crisis, Pena Nieto never visited the scene. He was then caught in a separate row over conflicts of interest when it emerged that he, his wife, and his finance minister had all bought or used homes built by a firm that has won millions of dollars in government contracts on his watch.

"It shouldn't have happened," Patricio Flores, a lawmaker in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said tersely of the homes scandal even as he tried to deflect blame from Pena Nieto. "It's a fact that it's helped other parties."

In public, PRI officials are reluctant to criticise their president, who insists he has broken no laws.

But privately, many are exasperated at his handling of the crisis, which has hit support for the party ahead of mid-term legislative elections in June.

Around two dozen PRI lawmakers and government officials consulted by Reuters said Pena Nieto needs to make a move to reassert his leadership, if necessary by removing trusted aides from his cabinet.

Pena Nieto and his PRI lawmakers in Congress started well, working with the opposition to pass a string of reforms to overhaul the economy, culminating in an energy overhaul that ended Mexico's 75-year-old oil and gas monopoly.

But Pena Nieto's ability to implement those reforms and make Mexico's economy more competitive will suffer if he cannot restore his credibility.

"We can't carry on as before or we're going to lose the presidency," said one PRI federal lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, with an eye on the next presidential election in 2018.

The rest is here:
Mexican ruling party insiders fear embattled president a liability

Labor Secretary Tom Perez was the name bouncing around Latino political circles as a candidate who could replace Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Mikulski said Monday she would not run for re-election to the seat she has held since she was elected to it in 1986. Her current term runs through January 2017 and she plans to serve out the term.

It's early and would mean departing his Cabinet job, but Perez was the first name that came to mind for a few Latino political leaders asked about Latinos who could run for her seat. Others said a bid for the Maryland governor's office in 2018 was a greater possibility for him.

"Secretary Perez has an exceptional record of serving the people of Maryland, as a member of the Montgomery County Council and as (Maryland) Secretary of Labor," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of National Association of Latino and Elected Officials. "He has continued that service to the American people at the federal level, at the U.S. Department of Justice and now as (U.S.) Secretary of Labor."

Perez also taught law at University of Maryland and lives in the state.

Perez's office praised Mikulski in a statement but was not ready to talk about his interest in the seat.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also recently announced her retirement, leading Latino groups to push for a Latino candidate to be considered by Democratic party officials for her seat. But the leading potential candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor, has said he won't run.

IN-DEPTH:

Labor Secretary Tom Perez: How To Fix Inequality in America

Latino Group Blasts Withdrawal of Mexico Ambassador Nominee

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Could Tom Perez Be Mikulski Replacement?

Florida Cabinet members have said they were blindsided by Gov. Rick Scott's decision to oust former FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey on Dec. 16. "(It) caught a lot of us by surprise," Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater told Capitol reporters last month.

Really? It wasn't a complete surprise to Atwater, whose office began lobbying for a top aide to get the FDLE job before the ink was dry on Bailey's letter of "departure" (he refused to use the word resignation).

Emails show that Atwater's chief Cabinet affairs aide, Robert Tornillo, began promoting deputy CFO Jay Etheridge as Bailey's replacement even before Bailey's ouster was publicly known. Bailey has said he got a surprise visit from Scott's former general counsel, Pete Antonacci, at about 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 16. Within minutes, Tornillo had hand-delivered Etheridge's resume to two of Attorney General Pam Bondi's aides on the first floor of the Capitol in Tallahassee -- Kent Perez and Rob Johnson.

Asked to explain the timing, a spokeswoman for Atwater, Ashley Carr, said: "At that time, it was known that the Governor's Office wished to make leadership changes at several agencies, including at FDLE. We offered the credentials of an individual who would make a candidate for consideration when the selection process was to begin."

It was nearly four hours later before Scott's office announced that he had appointed Rick Swearingen as interim FDLE commissioner. Atwater later called for a re-opening of the FDLE appointment, but neither his two Cabinet colleagues nor Scott would agree with him.

Here's Tornillo's email:

From: Tornillo, Robert To: "Kent Perez"; Rob Johnson Subject: FDLE Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 11:52:39 AM

I dropped off two folders to Emery containing cover letter/resume for Jay Etheridge. Please call me if you have any questions.

Thanks, rt

Robert Tornillo Director, Cabinet Affairs Office of Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater 850-413-2820

Read the original here:
Surprise? CFO Jeff Atwater's office knew FDLE chief was doomed

Mexico's embattled attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, is leaving the post to take a new cabinet-level job as head of urban and rural development.

The outgoing attorney general has weathered scathing criticism over his handling of the Sept. 26 disappearance of 43 students in southern Guerrero state.

He had also been criticized for being slow to investigate evidence that soldiers killed about 15 criminal suspects after they surrendered in June at a warehouse near the Guerrero border.

President Enrique Pena Nieto's office announced Friday that Murrillo Karam would be sworn in as head of the Department of Rural and Urban Development.

An official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said his replacement as attorney general will be a former senator and electoral-law prosecutor, Arely Gomez.

Murillo Karam, a former governor and legislator, became famous for an off-the-cuff comment at a news conference in November about the case of the 43 students.

He abruptly signaled an end to questions, turning away from reporters and saying, "Ya me canse," which means "Enough, I'm tired."

The phrase was deemed offensive for parents of the missing students who, five months later, still have no concrete information on what happened to their sons.

Police in the Guerrero city of Iguala detained the 43 and allegedly turned them over to a drug gang known as Guerreros Unidos. Murrillo Karam claimed his investigations indicated the gang had killed the young men, burned their bodies and dumped the charred bone fragments and teeth into a nearby river.

However, a DNA match has been found among the fragments for only one of the 43; a final round of tests is still being carried out by a lab in Innsbruck, Austria, but is likely to destroy the remainder of the fragments.

Read the rest here:
Mexico to Replace Embattled Attorney General

An entirely new kitchen is possible with Cabinet Refinishing by Kenneth C Lewis. Kitchen cabinets can be dressed up, revitalizing an older kitchen, or giving a newer kitchen the look and feel you dreamed of. Better yet, your kitchen project can be relatively easy and painless due to the process we have developed over the last 25 years.

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Refacing Cabinets - An alternative to refinishing is refacing. Although cabinet refacing is cheaper than all new cabinets, it is still considerably more expensive than cabinet refinishing. Cabinet refacing involves the replacement of the door and drawer fronts (with new) plus installing a veneer of new wood over the existing cabinets. This is usually done with your existing countertops in place if they are in good shape.

Higher Quality - Reface your cabinets without using veneers. You can get a brand-new kitchen in an affordable price, when you reface your cabinets by replacing doors and drawers that are custom-built with soft close slides and high-end quality lacquer finish moldings.

Replacing Cabinets and Countertops - This type of work is a kitchen remodel and involves the replacement of the cabinets and countertops. Since the amount of work is extensive, this is your most expensive option. If your cabinets and countertops are in very bad shape, a full replacement is best.

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Cabinets - Refinishing, Refacing, Replacing - MA, RI ...

A day after Avinash Chander was sacked as chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said Wednesday that he recommended the removal and that the organization should be headed by a younger person.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the termination of Chander's contract with effect from Jan 31, 15 months ahead of schedule. Chander, 64, retired Nov 30 but was given a contract for 18 months till May 31, 2016 as head of DRDO.

"I recommended that a person on contract should not be occupying such a senior position. This senior position should be filled by other eligible senior persons. There is no controversy here," Parrikar said.

"I believe DRDO should be headed by a younger man... I had proposed for his removal and they have agreed to it."

Government sources said nuclear scientist Sekhar Basu was likely to be named the new DRDO chief.

Basu, who heads the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, was behind the nuclear system that is driving the Arihant-class submarines of the Indian Navy.

A search panel headed by the cabinet secretary will pick Chander's replacement from among top DRDO scientists.

Chander's sack notification was put up on the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) web site Tuesday but removed later.

DRDO officials said they did not receive any official information on Chander's removal.

Chander is widely known as the man behind the Agni series of missiles.

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Manohar Parrikar justifies sacking, says younger man must lead DRDO

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appoints former farm minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to the post as Nishikawa's replacement

KOYA NISHIKAWA. Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA

TOKYO, Japan Japan's farm minister resigned on Monday after being accused of accepting illegal political funds, in a first blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new cabinet.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Koya Nishikawa submitted a letter of resignation to Abe, which was accepted.

"Minister Nishikawa's intention is firm. As he said, parliamentary time, which should be used for policy deliberation, should not be wasted on his particular problems," Abe told reporters.

Abe added he had appointed former farm minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to the post as Nishikawa's replacement.

Nishikawa has admitted receiving a one million yen ($8,400) donation from a company run by a sugar manufacturers' group months after the farm ministry decided to grant a 1.3 billion yen subsidy to the group.

The donation has been seen as particularly controversial as sugar is one of the items being hardest fought over in negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that includes the United States and Japan.

Nishikawa is also accused of taking a similar donation from a timber processing firm after it received a government subsidy.

It is the first resignation of a minister from Abe's newly-appointed cabinet, which took office in December.

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Japan farm minister resigns over money scandal

A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members.

During the First World War, lengthy Cabinet discussions came to be seen as a source of vacillation in Britain's war effort. In December 1916 it was proposed that the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith should delegate decision-making to a small, three-man committee chaired by the Secretary of State for War David Lloyd George. Asquith initially agreed (provided he retained the right to chair the committee if he chose) before changing his mind after being infuriated by an article in The Times which portrayed the proposed change as a defeat for him. The political crisis grew from this point until Asquith was forced to resign as Prime Minister; he was succeeded by David Lloyd George who thereupon formed a small War Cabinet. The original members of the War Cabinet were:

Lloyd George, Curzon and Bonar Law served throughout the life of the war cabinet. Later members include:

Unlike a normal peacetime Cabinet, few of these men had departmental responsibilities - Bonar Law, and then Chamberlain, served as Chancellors of the Exchequer, but the rest had no specific portfolio. Among others, the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, was never a member of the War Cabinet, nor were the service ministers Lord Derby and Sir Edward Carson.

From the northern spring of 1917, the Imperial War Cabinet was formed. It had representation from the Dominions. Its members were:

Germany invaded Poland early on 1 September 1939, and after to-ing and fro-ing with French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, an ultimatum was presented to the Germans and on its expiry war was declared at 11am on 3 September 1939.

On 3 September 1939, Neville Chamberlain announced his War Cabinet.

Dominated largely by Conservative ministers who served under Chamberlain's National Government between 1937 and 1939, the additions of Lord Hankey (a former Cabinet Secretary from the First World War) and Winston Churchill (strong anti-appeaser) seemed to give the Cabinet more balance. Unlike Lloyd George's War Cabinet, the members of this one were also heads of Government Departments.

In January 1940, after disagreements with the Chiefs of Staff, Hore-Belisha resigned from the National Government, refusing a move to the post of President of the Board of Trade. He was succeeded by Oliver Stanley.

It was originally the practice for the Chiefs of Staff to attend all military discussions of the Chamberlain War Cabinet. Churchill became uneasy with this, as he felt that when they attended they did not confine their comments to purely military issues. To overcome this, a Military Coordination Committee was set up, consisting of the three Service ministers normally chaired by Lord Chatfield. This together with the Service chiefs would co-ordinate the strategic ideas of 'top hats' and 'brass' and agree strategic proposals to put forward to the War Cabinet. Unfortunately, except when chaired by the Prime Minister, the Military Co-ordinating Committee lacked sufficient authority to override a Minister "fighting his corner". When Churchill took over from Chatfield, whilst continuing to represent the Admiralty, this introduced additional problems, and did little to improve the pre-existing ones. Chamberlain announced a further change in arrangements in the Norway debate, but this (and the Military Co-ordination Committee) was overtaken by events, the Churchill War Cabinet being run on rather different principles.[1]

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War Cabinet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Feb. 17, 2015, 12:30 p.m.

NEWCASTLE: Cabinet document shows government rejected advice about Newcastle light rail.

ROLES: Tim Crakanthorp, left, found the document, and Jeff McCloy, right, says he did not have much influence.

Read the cabinet papers here

A CABINET document that shows the government rejected advice from Transport for NSW about the best light rail route in Newcastle was found in former Liberal MP Tim Owens office, it has been revealed.

It raises questions about how the citys former backbencher came into possession of the confidential information and why Labor did not tell the public sooner of the discovery made after it won the citys byelection.

Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp, who inherited Mr Owens Hunter Street office, said on Tuesday that he had found the copy of the cabinet minute late last year in the back of a filing cabinet after he had given evidence to a November hearing for a parliamentary inquiry into the governments planning decisions.

He referred it to the office of the opposition leader.

During a visit to the region on Tuesday, Premier Mike Baird was forced to defend the selected light rail route as one chosen with the citys revitalisation needs in mind, and labelled as conspiracies claims the route was selected to favour the interests of developers.

Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday that Transport for NSW advised the cabinet infrastructure committee in December 2013 that its preferred light rail route was along the corridor for the heavy rail line that was to be ripped up as part of a Newcastle revitalisation plan.

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Rail document found in Owen office: Labor