FLORIDIANS FOR RESPONSIBLE POLICY, INC.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA

MISSION STATEMENT Floridians for Responsible Policy (FFRP) is a 501c4 research and advocacy organization committed to educating the citizens of our state about the impact and/or opportunity of important public policy issues. In particular, FFRP will focus on issues that while extremely significant, have not garnered the appropriate level of public attention or debate. In an open and civil manner, FFRP will seek to facilitate education and outreach to elected officials, opinion leaders and other community stakeholders to elevate these issues in the public discourse. FFRP is not a political organization nor are we involved in electioneering. We are an advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that Floridians have their interests protected and they have an opportunity to voice their concerns to their elected leaders and community representatives. Roger Chapin, Co-Founder, Floridians for Responsible Policy From a public policy perspective, Roger currently serves on the Downtown Development Board and CRA for the City of Orlando. Prior to that appointment, he was one of the longest serving members on Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board with appointments from Republican Mayor Glenda Hood and Democratic Mayor Buddy Dyer. He was appointed by Republican Orange County Mayor (then Commissioner) Teresa Jacobs to the Orange County Charter Review Commission in 2007 to which he served as Vice Chairman and fought successfully to implement sweeping ethics reforms that voters overwhelming approved in 2008. He also served as Co-Chairman, with State Senator Andy Gardiner, of Let Us Vote, a successful grassroots campaign to create an elected Orange County School Board Chairman. Let Us Vote collected over 51,000 signatures in Orange County to place language on the ballot that voters overwhelming passed in 2008. He also serves as an appointee to the Florida Auto Joint Underwriting Association (FLJUA), originally appointed by former CFO Alex Sink and recently re-appointed by current CFO Jeff Atwater. Recently, Roger was selected to serve on the Orlando Community Construction Corporation (OCCC), an entity created to oversee construction and make recommendations to move the new Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center forward in Downtown Orlando. Professionally, Roger is Vice President of Public Affairs for Mears Transportation Group, a private and family owned business since 1939. In that capacity, his responsibilities include public relations, community representation, directing charitable giving, real estate acquisition and coordination of governmental affairs on the local, state and federal levels. Roger also serves as a member of the company’s executive committee with direct input on the overall health and growth of the company. Mears Transportation Group is one of the largest private transportation and destination management providers in the U.S. with nearly 2,000 employees and over 1,000 vehicles. Prior to joining Mears Transportation Group, Roger held similar responsibilities as Director of Public Affairs for Fortune 500 Darden Restaurants Inc., from 1993 to 1998. He is a co-founder of the Orlando Film Festival, serves on the Orlando Regional Healthcare Foundation Board and is Chairman of the Florida Wildlife Commission’s “Florida Wildlife Magazine”. He has been named by Orlando Magazine and the Orlando Business Journal as one of “40 under 40”, recognition for executives under the age of forty. Roger also co-produced an award winning independent short film titled STUCK. Joe Kefauver, Co-Founder, Floridians for Responsible Policy Professionally, Joe is the Managing Partner of Parquet Public Affairs, a public affairs and communications consulting firm specializing in multi-state issue and political management. The firm has a wide range of clients and manages a large issue portfolio working closely with Democrats and Republicans throughout the country. Prior to starting Parquet Public Affairs, Joe was Vice President of Public Affairs for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. where he oversaw all state and local government matters for the world’s largest corporation. In his capacity there, Joe was responsible for prioritizing and developing the company’s legislative and political agenda, their interaction with Governors, Attorneys General, Mayors and legislative leaders, as well as executing the company’s aggressive store expansion program. Additionally, Joe played a leadership role in many of the company’s major strategic initiatives such as environmental sustainability and expansion of healthcare programs and led a team of 50 professionals. Joe also served as the Director of Government Affairs for Darden Restaurants, Inc. based in Orlando, Florida. At Darden, Joe oversaw the company’s federal and state government relations programs as well as their political involvement including managing their Political Action Committee. Those having the most success usually bring something to table, primarily in the form of additional revenue (i.e. recommending that higher sales taxes be levied on their customers or products), to achieve their goal, thus creating a revenue stream for their objectives. Elected officials have a much easier time supporting higher taxes when citizens, special interests or industries request a tax on themselves. For example, lottery dollars support education, gas taxes build more roads, certain impact fees can only be spent on wastewater, documentary stamps may help purchase environmentally sensitive land, CRAs only invest in certain geographical boundaries and so on. One downside of a dedicated funding source is that it can also become a de facto limit of how revenue is spent on specific programs, as elected officials cease allocating general tax dollars to that purpose. This is the risk most of those seeking dedicated funding are willing to take in order to be able to plan and fund the future. The Orange County Tourist Development Tax (TDT) is an example of this conundrum. The TDT is an additional tax added to hotel rooms, originated by the Florida Legislature and with the support of the Central Florida tourism, convention and hotel communities. It was designed to generate additional revenue to help build and maintain the Orange County Convention Center, bolster marketing for the tourism industry and invest in “community venues” such as stadiums and performing arts centers.