Gubernatorial candidates Bill McCollum and Alex Sink badly need a crash course in what Floridians want and deserve in a governor. Their eagerness over the past few days to blame the other for Florida’s unchecked predatory debt-collection problem suggests they haven’t a clue.
Floridians need a mature leader; one grounded enough to admit his or her shortcomings, and responsible enough to put the public’s interest above any political calculation. Instead, Floridians got a load of bunk from McCollum and Sink in the wake of disclosures about their departments’ inept response to an outbreak of rogue debt collectors.
A report by Orlando Sentinel reporter Jim Stratton on Sunday revealed that more than 5,300 complaints from Floridians flooded Attorney General McCollum’s office in 2008, claiming collectors bullied or sometimes threatened them with arrest or violence. The number could reach 5,900 this year.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink’s department is responsible for taking in complaints and sending them to the Office of Financial Regulation, which can fine and punish debt collectors.
Making matters worse for those complaining, however, was the response they got from the state.
It amounts to this: nothing.
This year, for example, McCollum’s office hasn’t opened a single predatory collections case. And Sink’s hasn’t pressed the issue. Not one company has been penalized.
Now, instead of admitting their failures in not pursuing collection bullies, they’re both pathetically saying they couldn’t possibly have done anything differently. And, of course, each is accusing the other of not doing enough. Meanwhile, Floridians in need of help are getting ... nothing.
McCollum’s office says if people have problems with debt collection, the state’s chief financial officer and the departments she supervises need to take action. But Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and Florida’s Consumer Collection Practices Act, bring some of the outrageous debt collection practices being alleged under the attorney general’s reach.
Sink’s office says McCollum, like several other state attorneys general, has the latitude to investigate unscrupulous debt collectors. But Sink could use her bully pulpit to more aggressively pursue violators.
Instead, Sink suggests she has no responsibility. That, she says, rests with the Financial Services Commission.
That may be correct, but under Florida’s confusing state bureaucracy the commission is made up of four people: Gov. Charlie Crist, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, McCollum and Sink. And we know from this painful experience that two of the four — those running for governor — want nothing to do with it. And we doubt this is a priority for Crist and Bronson. How difficult would it have been for McCollum and Sink, upon hearing of the extent of the state’s failure to deal with predatory debt collectors, to instead have said this:
“Unfortunately, state government, including the portion of it that I control, hasn’t lived up to the people’s rightful expectation that it protect them from unscrupulous debt collectors. I apologize for that. But I’m announcing that will change.”
That would take leadership. Statesmanship. What Floridians should be able to expect from anyone wanting to be governor, but aren’t getting from this pair.
Email Story
Printer Friendly 
Quick Job Search
@Nyx.replyAnswerText@