Higher pay considered for financial regulator job

September 24, 2019

Jim Turner

TALLAHASSEE --- The state might offer more money to lure applicants to become Florida’s top financial regulator, as a deadline to apply has been set for Sunday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday suggested increasing the salary for the Office of Financial Regulation commissioner, a position that has been open since July when Ronald Rubin was fired over allegations of sexual harassment.

As of Tuesday, the job had attracted seven applicants.

“People that are very qualified in this realm, you know, sometimes it’s a tough lift to want them to do that (apply without higher pay),” DeSantis said. “I’m open to discussing that (offering higher pay), as well, if that could help potentially attract some more qualified candidates.”

Rubin, who was fired less than five months after being hired, was paid an annual salary of $166,000. DeSantis and state Cabinet members did not discuss the amount of a potential increase during a meeting Tuesday.

Aides to DeSantis and the Cabinet are expected to put forward finalists for the job Oct. 2, with the governor and Cabinet members conducting interviews Oct. 8.

After the firing of Rubin, the hiring process also is expected to include more law-enforcement reviews of candidates.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said rather than each office doing their own vetting of the finalists, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement should conduct background checks, with the findings presented before the interviews.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried supported Moody, saying the Cabinet needs to be “consistent” in the review process.

Questions about the state’s background checks were raised after Bloomberg Law published a report detailing allegations of inappropriate behavior by Rubin toward female colleagues at prior jobs and inconsistencies in his self-reported employment history.

State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who championed the hiring of Rubin and later led the effort to fire him, supported the idea of boosting the job’s salary and called DeSantis the “best advocate to get the candidates out here.”

“To ask somebody to take a leave from a private sector opportunity, where they’re managing a team of financial professionals, to come work for the state, sometimes is a challenge to find somebody that is willing to answer that call,” Patronis said.

Rubin has disputed the accusations that led to his firing. In a lawsuit filed against Tallahassee lobbyist Paul Mitchell, a Patronis ally, Rubin has alleged he was a victim of “pay to play --- or else” politics.

Among those who have applied to replace him are Linda Charity, a two-time former interim commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation, and Bryan A. Schneider, who was secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation from 2015 until early this year.

Other applicants are Kevin Rosen, of Boca Raton, whose resume said he is a senior manager of cyber risk services with Deloitte & Touche LLP; Mike Hogan, of Gainesville, who cited 20 years of experience as a community-bank chief financial officer and interim president and chief executive officer in a pair of bank start-ups; Russell Weigel, a securities lawyer from Coral Gables; Joseph Hudgins, a senior executive vice president and chief credit officer for First Florida Integrity Bank in Naples; and David Weintraub, a Plantation attorney who represents investors in cases against broker dealers and who since 2016 has chaired or co-chaired the Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Committee of The Florida Bar’s Elder Law Section.