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TALLAHASSEE-Florida's former attorney general has been tapped by Republican Governor elect Charlie Crist to head Florida's social services agency, the Department of Children and Families.
On Tuesday, Crist announced that Democrat Bob Butterworth would be the new DCF secretary to replace Luci Hadi who resigned earlier this month after Sixth Circuit Court Judge Crockett Farnell charged her with seven counts of indirect criminal contempt and fined her $80,000 because mentally inmates at the Pinellas County Jail had not been placed in secure state hospitals within 15 days after being declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/121206JudgeRecusal.html
Butterworth, 64, who previously served as a county and circuit court judge as well as sheriff of Broward County, is currently the dean of St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami. He served four terms as Florida's Attorney General and is Crist's predecessor in that position, forced out of office in 2002 by term limits.
He lost his 2002 bid for the State Senate to Republican Jeff Atwater.
Butterworth is known for taking challenging positions where there is political unrest or problems within the agency. He said that his new role won't be easy. "It probably is perhaps the most rewarding job, the most demanding job that you know when you're going into it you're probably not going to do all you want to do but you want to move the ball as far forward as you can for the children and the people", he said.
"What greater role is there for government than to protect the people of the state, especially the children?" 12-19-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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