Shareholders approve sale of U.S. Century Bank

A majority of U.S. Century Bank’s shareholders approved the Doral bank’s proposed sale to C1 Bank of St. Petersburg late Tuesday during a meeting at Florida International University despite dissension from some stockholders, including those who have filed suit against the bank and some of its directors and officers.

According to the terms of the deal, the bank’s 441 shareholders will receive $2.5 million from the sale, or about 1.7 cents on the dollar, from $150.1 million U.S. Century raised from multiple offerings since it was founded 10 years ago.

The sale agreement, which required approval from holders of 51 percent of the shares, still requires approval from federal banking regulators. Seventy-four shareholders attended Tuesday evening’s meeting.

The deal to sell U.S. Century to C1, reached Aug. 30, includes a proposed, renegotiated $6.27 million repayment to the federal government of $50.2 million in TARP funds. The U.S. Treasury Department must approve the proposed TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) repayment. According to documents, the deal also includes up to $400,000 to be paid by C1 to regulators should U.S. Century be fined over Bank Secrecy Act violations found in its recent regulatory examination.

The bank has said the sale is expected to be completed by year-end.

A group of shareholders has filed a “derivative action” suit, which seeks to recover money from the bank that allegedly resulted from the wrongdoing of the bank’s directors and officers.

The suit was filed Nov. 13 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by brothers Carlos R. Silva and Jorge E. Silva, both Coral Gables attorneys and founding shareholders, and last week was amended to include several additional shareholders — including Shoma Group head Masoud Shojaee — totaling more than $10 million in original investments, said Coral Gables attorney Gonzalo Dorta who represents the shareholders who filed the suit against the bank and some of its current and former officers and directors. Among the defendants are Telemundo executive Jose Cancela, homebuilder Sergio Pino — who formerly owned U.S. Century’s headquarters building, and public affairs businessman and lobbyist Rodney Barreto.

“I feel terrible,” Carlos Silva said after the meeting. He estimated the losses that he and his brother sustained at $400,000. “We all lost a lot of money.”

“This bank was basically run by a group of individuals like it was their personal bank to finance their speculative real estate construction activity at the expense of others,” Dorta said before Tuesday’s meeting.

U.S. Century said in a statement that the bank is in the process of reviewing the suit and is “not at liberty to discuss it further until we have completed the review process and consulted with our legal counsel.”

U.S. Century was founded by a group of prominent, largely Cuban-American investors, many of whom are local business leaders, real estate developers and attorneys.

Among the issues raised in the lawsuit, the bank acknowledges that it has made loans to current and former directors, and a third of its 24 branches are leased from current or former directors.

Current and former directors of the bank hold a significant portion of the bank’s shares, several sources said.

U.S. Century has been struggling since the real estate downturn and recession. Founded in 2002, U.S. Century is operating under a June 2011 regulatory consent order mandating it to boost capital, reduce its bad loans and return to profitability, among other requirements. Last year, it hired Japanese investment bank Nomura Securities to try to raise at least $150 million in private equity funds.

C1, privately owned by four investors, including two Brazilians, is proposing to inject $100 million of fresh capital into the combined bank.

The deal would give the growing C1 Bank 24 branches in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and nearly $1.2 billion in assets.

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South Miami-Dade woman adopts five siblings

Not once has Katrina Deshazior doubted her decision to adopt five of her older sister’s children. Not after she had to quit her job as a certified nursing assistant. Not when she had to move from her home to a rented townhouse. Not even after her husband, overwhelmed by the responsibility, walked out last Thanksgiving.

“I wanted to give them shelter,” says Deshazior, 32, of Cutler Bay. “I wanted to give them love. All those things they didn’t have with their mother.”

A laudable intent, to be sure, but not an easy feat. Deshazior is now a single mother to six. The brood consists of her biological daughter, Deanna Cohoon, 17, Celeste and Kieyah Cohoon, both 15, and Leanne, 4, Christopher, 2, and Faith Cohoon, 1. (Deshazior, who goes by her married name, decided to give her children her maiden surname, which she shares with their mother.)

It would be an understatement to say she doesn’t get much sleep.

And a social life?

“I don’t go out and party or have a girl’s night out,” she says. “Now it’s all about the kids.”

Oren Wunderman, executive director of the Family Resource Center of South Florida, a child welfare and advocacy agency that helped arrange the Cohoon adoption, says case managers always try to do kinship placements first. “Kids tend to do better with family members they know than with a family they don’t know,” he says.

But multi-sibling adoptions, he adds, are “very unusual. You don’t see many.”

Michael Hill, the children’s case worker, has been working on finding permanent placement for the children for the past year, though keeping these five together was never part of the plan. When Celeste and Kieyah showed up at Deshazior’s doorstep, however, “she just didn’t hesitate. She immediately moved to a larger apartment in order to have enough room for everyone. She knew it was going to be a lot of work, but felt like keeping all five of the kids together would be the best thing for the family. She really is an amazing woman.”

How Deshazior ended up with a houseful is a long, complicated story that began years ago and is an all-too-familiar tale for child advocates. When Deshazior’s older sister, a drug addict, had the first of 10 children, a set of twins, Deshazior quickly stepped in to help her mother care for the boy and girl. This turned out to be just the beginning of a long-term commitment.

After that, her nieces and nephews came quickly, at a pace of almost one a year, all by different fathers. Eventually the mother’s parental rights were terminated by the state, and the siblings ended up living, at least temporarily, with assorted relatives.

In September 2011, Deshazior was awarded custody of Leanne, Christopher and Faith. The adjustment was difficult. “At first we didn’t sleep,” she recalls. “They’d cry at night, all night.”

The children had assorted health problems — not surprisingly since they had been born with drugs in their system. Deshazior persisted, however, dutifully going to doctors’ appointments and making sure the children had both a schedule and stability.

In the meantime, Celeste and Kieyah were living with their great grandmother. When representatives of the Department of Children and Family Services visited, they found the elderly woman senile and mostly bedridden. The house was a mess: human feces in a corner, nails jutting from the floor, electrical wiring exposed. The only food in the refrigerator were rotten eggs, bread and peanut butter.

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Gabriel Aubry Files For Restraining Order Against Halle Berry's Boyfriend Olivier Martinez

Days after his holiday brawl with Olivier Martinez, Halle Berry's ex Gabriel Aubry has been granted a temporary restraining order against the actress's fiancé, ET has learned.

According to documents filed Monday in Los Angeles, Aubry has requested that, out of fear for his safety, Martinez stay at least 100 yards away from him. Additionally, Martinez is not to contact Aubry in any way until a judge hears the case on December 17, 2012.

Related: Martinez, Aubry Involved in Serious Brawl

Included in the documents, Aubry details that the Thanksgiving fight escalated from a confrontation the day before where Martinez allegedly threatened him while he was lunching with his daughter Nahla, 4, for visiting the child without authorization.

Citing a prolonged custody dispute as Martinez's trigger, Aubry claims his ex's fiancé approached him "to talk" when he arrived to pick up his daughter for the holiday on Thursday, November 22.

Rather than talk, Aubry declares that Martinez began to physically assault him and threaten him with death unless he agreed to agree to his and Berry's custody terms with Nahla and move to Paris as well as proclaim that he, not Martinez, started the fight.

Related: Halle Berry & Gabriel Aubry's Custody Battle Heats Up

"At no time during the altercation with Mr. Martinez was I the aggressor," Aubry writes. "I fear for my physical safety if I am in the presence of Mr. Martinez."

Last Thursday, Aubry was arrested and later booked by police for misdemeanor battery after being transported to the hospital for injuries obtained in the brawl.

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Queens baby in serious condition after traffic accident

A Queens baby was fighting for her life tonight after being tossed from the back seat of a minivan as it slammed into a car owned by a local driving school, relatives and cops said.

The child — wearing a pink snowsuit and wrapped in a blanket — was not in a car seat and flew into the front dashboard when the two cars collided near the intersection of 102nd Street and 91st Avenue in Woodhaven, witnesses said.

The child, identified by an aunt as 14-month old Gianna Gonzalez, was in serious condition at Long Island Jewish Hospital.

Gianna had been in the van with her grandmother and the driver, family friend Jose Santiago, 67, her relatives said.

“I heard the impact. I saw the baby on the ground, and the grandmother was shaking her and screaming in Spanish, `The baby! The baby!’ ” said witness Kim Minerva.

“The baby was limp. She wasn’t moving or crying. There was no car seat.”

Cops arrived, put the child in the back of a squad car and started CPR.

“They were working pretty hard on her, trying to keep her alive,” Minvera said.

Using their own car, police rushed little Gianna to Jamaica Hospital in serious condition. She was later transferred to North Shore LIJ.

Santiago’s green minivan had crashed into the side of a black Honda, owned by D & E Driving School, shortly before 2 p.m., officials said.

The impact shattered the smaller car’s passenger window and pinned driving instructor Jahirul Islam inside, according to bystanders.

Driving-school owner Injoy Islam, no relation to the driver, ran to the crash site.

“Once I saw the child did not have a [car] seat, I just knew the child had to be very injured,” Islam said. “Those injuries are very bad. We are just hoping the baby is OK. ”

It was not immediately clear who had the right of way.

“I had the green light,” said Jahirul Islam, who has been a certified New York state driving instructor for 23 years.

“I’ve never hit anybody. I’ve never had a speeding ticket or a ticket from running a red light. I’m a safe driver,” Islam said. “I just hope the baby is OK. They had no baby seat, no nothing.”

Santiago claims Islam ran the light.

“He ran the red light. He drove so slow through it, that’s why I didn’t think he was going to run it,” said Santiago. “If he was speeding, I would have stopped.

“I was just doing them a favor” by driving, Santiago said of his tiny passenger and her grandmother. “The baby was unconscious. I just want to know if the baby is OK.”

Sources said Islam passed a Breathalyzer test; it was unclear whether Santiago was tested.

Santiago was issued a summons for not having a child in a car seat.

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Shoppers welcome holiday sales by buying early, often — and online

Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.

And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.

Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”

South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.

“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.

“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.

Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.

“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.

Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.

Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.

Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.

Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.

However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.

Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.

She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.

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More toll express lanes coming to South Florida

Motorists will find it more expensive to drive around South Florida roadways in coming years, as a new network of toll lanes takes shape.

The network would extend from Florida City in southernmost Miami-Dade County to Interstate 595 in central Broward, and from Interstate 75 in western Broward to Interstate 95 in east Broward.

“One of the main projects we foresee are the managed lanes project,” said Harold Desdunes, the Florida Department of Transportation’s district director of transportation development in Miami, using the formal designation for toll express lanes.

Ananth Prasad, FDOT’s secretary, announced the outlines of the project in 2011.

The toll lanes project builds on existing express lanes on I-95 in Miami-Dade that operate between just south of State Road 112 and the Golden Glades Interchange. The system now is being extended from the Golden Glades to Broward Boulevard.

But according to maps and other information provided by FDOT and other transportation officials at a recent meeting, express lanes may be added to several area roadways – including the South Miami-Dade Busway, the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, the entire Palmetto Expressway, parts of I-75 and I-595. And the I-95 toll system now under construction eventually could reach Palm Beach County.

The wider scope of the express lane network recently became clearer when FDOT officials detailed the agency’s five-year work plan.

A central component of the Miami-Dade portion of the network is express lanes on the Palmetto Expressway from 836 to I-75, where they would link up with planned express lanes on I-75 to I-595.

There, the lanes would intersect with reversible toll express lanes now being built in the median of I-595 from I-75 east to I-95.

The I-75 planned express lanes also would be built in the median, said Judy Solaun-Gonzalez, senior project manager in Miami-Dade.

“The [826] express lanes would connect to the median of I-75,” said Solaun-Gonzalez. “And we would have a new bridge connecting Palmetto express lanes to I-75 express lanes.”

An FDOT map shows express lanes eventually running along the entire length of 826 from Dadeland in the south to the Golden Glades in the north.

Express lanes on the network would charge variable toll rates, depending on congestion.

At a public meeting Nov. 14 at Pinecrest Gardens, Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) officials detailed their plan to add possible express lanes to the Busway, which runs parallel to U.S. 1.

MDX is conducting a study on possible alternatives to ease traffic congestion along the U.S. 1 corridor, one of which includes express lanes plus construction of overpasses or underpasses at intersections so Busway vehicles can bypass traffic lights.

The Busway plan has drawn criticism from some quarters in Pinecrest Gardens – though at the meeting, some people backed the idea of adding express lanes.

“This is a good idea,” said John Pell, who attended. “The east-west traffic will flow more quickly because currently it has to wait a long time for Busway and U.S. 1 traffic to clear the intersections.”

Pell said some residents oppose it because they don’t want commuters driving through.

Neighborhood leader Holly White said she is concerned that the new toll lanes would bring cut-through traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It could be very dangerous for our children and disruptive to our neighborhood,” she said.

More details on the I-75 express lanes project are expected to be discussed during three additional meetings in Broward:

Here is the schedule for the three meetings, which will be held in the board room of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) at the Trade Centre South Building, 100 W. Cypress Creek Rd., Suite 850, Fort Lauderdale:

• 2:15 p.m. Monday, the technical coordinating committee meets.

• 6 p.m. Tuesday, community roundtable.

• 9:30 a.m. Dec. 13, open debate among members of the MPO.

Miami Herald staff writer Ashley Lopez contributed to this report

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Barbara Eden Mourns Death of I Dream of Jeannie Co Star Larry Hagman

"I still cannot completely express the shock and impact from the news that Larry Hagman has passed," grieved the TV veteran's I Dream of Jeannie co-star Barbara Eden.

Video: Larry Hagman Charms in Final ET Interview

Hagman's untimely death on Friday hit Eden especially hard, and in an open letter via Facebook the 78-year-old star mourned the loss of her dear friend and fellow icon.

As I received the news this evening and as you read this I still cannot completely express the shock and impact from the news that Larry Hagman has passed. I can still remember, that first day on Zuma Beach with him, in the frigid cold. From that day for five more years, Larry was the center of so many fun, wild, shocking… and in retrospect, memorable moments that will remain in my heart forever.

He was such a key element in my life for so long and even, years after I Dream of Jeannie; our paths crossed many times. Throughout various productions I had the pleasure of watching the Texas Tornado that was Larry Hagman. Amidst a whirlwind of big laughs, big smiles and unrestrained personality Larry was always, simply Larry. You couldn't fault him for it, it was just who he was. I am so thankful that this past year I was able to spend time with him and experience yet again ‘Larry’ in all his Big Texas bravado.

I, like many others believed he had beat Cancer and yet we are reminded that life is never guaranteed. My deepest condolences go out to his wife Maj, his son and daughter and his grandchildren, as well as his friends in this time of his passing. I can honestly say that we've lost not just a great actor, not just a television icon, but an element of pure Americana.

Goodbye Larry, there was no one like you before and there will never be anyone like you again.

-Barbara

Larry Hagman died Friday morning from complications stemming from his recent battle with cancer. He was 81.

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No way out: 112 killed in fire at Bangladesh garment factory — it had no emergency exits

AP

Bangladeshis and firefighters battle a fire at a garment factory in the Savar neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh,where more than 100 workers were killed Saturday.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Fire raced through a garment factory that supplies major retailers in the West, killing at least 112 people, many of whom were trapped by the flames because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits, an official said Sunday.

The blaze broke out late Saturday at a factory operated just outside Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which makes products for Wal-Mart and other companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory, Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, told The Associated Press. He said 12 other people who were injured after they jumped from the building to escape died at hospitals.

Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities ordered an investigation.

Army soldiers and border guards were sent to help police keep order as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered, Mahbub said.

Tazreen was given a "high risk" safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an "ethical sourcing" assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group's website. It did not specify what led to the rating.

AP

Smoke billows out of the building as firefighters try and bring equipment to bear.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating an orange or "high risk" assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or "medium risk" report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire broke out. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.

Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.

If a factory is rated "orange" three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won't place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.

Neither Tazreen's owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.

The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients also include Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the U.S. and Europe.

In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said that "fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh." Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.

At the factory, relatives of the workers frantically looked for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, but had seen no trace of her son, who also worked there.

"Oh, Allah, where's my soul? Where's my son?" wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. "I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone."

AP

A Bangladeshi woman cries as she claims the body of her relative killed in the fire.

Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. Many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, he said. But he said that with no emergency exits leading outside the building, many victims were trapped, and firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.

"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."

"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.

Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families.

REUTERS

A firefighter walks amid the wreckage of the burned-out building where more than 100 factory workers lost their lives. The company, which supplies American retail powerhouses like Wal-Mart, had been cited for safety risks.

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For Miami, new cruise ships a cause for celebration

Miami’s ship has come in. And it looks more like a fleet.

The Carnival Breeze, which starts regular sailings from its new year-round home Saturday, will be joined Thursday by Oceania Cruises’ Riviera and Dec. 1 by Celebrity Reflection. All three launched earlier this year in Europe and make their U.S. debut in Miami.

After a three-year dry stretch that saw no shiny new vessels mooring in Miami’s waters — and years of efforts to draw new operators coupled with millions spent on upgrades — the port is touting its biggest expansion ever with the three new ships as well as three new cruise lines signing on for this season and next.

“You want your newest ships to have the newest facilities, and that’s what Miami has done,” said Miami cruise expert Stewart Chiron, CEO of CruiseGuy.com.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises moved its ships from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale to Miami, and Disney Cruise Line will sail for the first time from Miami starting in late December. Next year, MSC will bring its newest ship, Divina, to Miami after previously sailing from Fort Lauderdale.

And Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line, which reignited the parade of new ships in 2010 with the Norwegian Epic, is bringing the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Getaway in January 2014 to Miami, where it will sail year-round.

“I never, ever would have considered going anywhere else, because we are a Miami company and we really believe that means something,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian’s president and CEO.

That hasn’t always been the universal sentiment. Nearly six years ago, the port was under fire for a history of inefficiency and sub-par facilities. In late 2007, Royal Caribbean chose Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale as homeport for Oasis and Allure of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ships — despite having a Miami headquarters.

The presence of those giant ships has meant some other cruise lines felt the squeeze, and a couple, like Regent Seven Seas Cruises and MSC Cruises, have opted to move south.

“Once upon a time, Port Everglades was known as the boutique cruise ship port,” said Frank Del Rio, chairman and CEO of Prestige Cruise Holdings, parent company of Oceania and the luxury Regent Seven Seas. “Now Port Everglades is the megaship port. We’re the antithesis of megaships.”

But Chiron said the moves aren’t necessarily a negative for Fort Lauderdale’s port.

“These ship movements and repositionings, all it’s really doing is opening up both ports for really bright future opportunities,” he said.

Port Everglades has grown its multiday cruise passenger numbers from about 2.6 million in fiscal 2008 to an expected more than 3.6 million on 45 ships in fiscal year 2012. By comparison, PortMiami’s passenger numbers have grown from about 3.8 million in 2008 to what is expected to be more than 4 million with 26 ships at the peak for the current fiscal year.

For its part, Port Everglades continues to invest in upgrades, recently finishing the $54 million reconstruction of four cruise terminals under a 2010 agreement with Carnival Corp. for brands including Holland America Line, Seabourn and Princess Cruises.

The investments go on at PortMiami as well, where director Bill Johnson, who took the job in 2006, listened to criticism that Miami hadn’t done enough to support the cruise industry. In the last few years, the port built a pair of terminals for Carnival for about $100 million. Since those terminals opened about four years ago, the port will have spent and continues to spend $70 million more in improvements, Johnson said.

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Lawmakers heard the voters on Election Day: They say they’ll work together — at least for now

TALLAHASSEE --
They come from big cities and small towns across this sprawling state, and from vastly different backgrounds. Some are new and some are seasoned. Some Democrats. Even more Republicans.

But members of the Florida Legislature heard largely the same message from voters on Election Day, and they agree on how that will influence their work in the upcoming legislative session, according to a Herald/Times survey of more than 40 state lawmakers.

After years of increasingly intense hyper-partisan warfare, Republicans and Democrats sound serious — so far, anyway — about working in harmony for the common good of Floridians.

“They want us to work together, they’re not going to reward acrimony, they’re going to reward results,” said Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon. “I’m a conservative, I have a conservative view of the world, but the notion of representative democracy is that we respect one another and recognize we don’t have the market cornered on good ideas and are willing to compromise to advance the ball.”

The Herald/Times surveyed 42 legislators, including equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, about the message voters sent in the election and how it would shape their approach to the upcoming session. The majority said the same thing: work across the aisle to produce results.

In Tallahassee, Republicans set the tone because they are firmly in control. However, they seem chastened by what happened in Florida: Their party’s presidential candidate lost, as did most of the constitutional amendments they placed on the November ballot. They lost seats in the House and Senate, and voters grew angry standing in line for hours to cast ballots.

It will be months before we’ll know if lawmakers mean what they say, and it’s justified to be at least a little cynical.

But if there was a theme in Tallahassee during last Tuesday’s organizational session and swearing-in ceremonies, it was bipartisanship.

Both Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, talked about working with Democrats.

Rep. Darryl Rouson, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, said voters sent more Democrats to the Legislature for a reason. The minority party’s gains were modest but significant because Republicans no longer have a supermajority that allows them to dictate the speed at which they pass bills.

Democrats picked up five seats in the 120-seat House, which now has 76 Republicans and 44 Democrats. Republicans needed 80 seats to hold a supermajority and completely control the legislative agenda.

In the Senate, Democrats picked up two seats, and while they are still outnumbered by Republicans 26-14, they did break the GOP’s supermajority.

“The election resonated this year for the middle class,” Rouson said. “People want to be valued. We broke the supermajority because of it, and we can do meaningful things here in Tallahassee as Democrats. We have momentum again. We just need to keep it up.”

Rep. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican, is returning to the House after having spent the past decade in the Florida Senate. He said that lawmakers must work together.

“We cannot be partisan, as the Florida Legislature has been over the past few years. I think that message was heard,” Fasano said. “This garbage that goes on — not only in Tallahassee but in Washington — has all got to come to an end. There are people suffering out there, and we hear from them every day.”

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