Gov. Ron DeSantis and elected Cabinet members considered cases for clemency during an executive clemency board meeting Jan. 18, 2023. (Photo by Issac Morgan/Florida Phoenix)
The Florida Cabinet, sitting as the State Board of Administration, convened and adjourned in less than four minutes Tuesday.
The Cabinet, an independent statewide-elected three-member body that controls many elements of state government with Gov. Ron DeSantis, met over the phone to vote on five items, including an update to the state’s list of companies doing business with disfavored governments.
DeSantis said Florida has “really led the charge nationwide” on refusing to do business with such “scrutinized companies.”
The State Board of Administration — one of a number of Cabinet agencies, including the Board of Executive Clemency — oversees the state’s pension and other investments. Chris Spencer, its director, presented the quarterly report on scrutinized companies with activities in Sudan, Iran, Northern Ireland, Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela.
Ten companies related to Iran were reclassified from “continued examination” to being named as “scrutinized companies” as a result of guidelines that took effect this year following a 2023 law. Those companies are incorporated in France, Russia, China, Japan, India, and the Netherlands.
The 2023 law broadened the state’s ban on investing pension funds beyond companies doing business with the Iranian energy and petroleum industries to additional sectors. Now the state is prohibited from investing in companies dealing with the Iranian financial, construction, manufacturing, textile, mining, metals, shipping, shipbuilding, and port sectors.
Companies with more than 10% of revenues or assets in those sectors are sanctioned.
Spencer noted that Morningstar, a corporate governance research firm, remains on the continued examination list while it continues corrective action plan after being sanctioned for allegedly being anti-Israel.
The Cabinet members present — Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody — offered no discussion. Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson doesn’t sit on this particular board.
Minutes after the meeting, DeSantis briefed the public on the state of Tropical Storm Helene from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.
The Cabinet will next convene on Dec. 17.
Parts of the Capitol are under construction, and the speed of that work will determine the location of that meeting, the last scheduled this year. During a June meeting, also conducted over the phone, DeSantis said he hopes to be back in the Cabinet chamber in the Capitol before the end of the year.
Florida’s post-Reconstruction constitution created the independent Cabinet to prevent governors from holding too much power. After assuming office in 2019, DeSantis made clear that he wasn’t interested in spending too much time meeting with the Cabinet members. The panel formerly convened about one per month. DeSantis and the Cabinet have met about one fourth as often as previous Cabinets.
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