P: Just at an airport hotel?

R: Usually a one day [arrangement]; come in on Wednesday night and visit at dinner
 and then meet all day the next day and go home. We got to know each other. We
 got to anticipate what we had to deal with in the next session and then decided
 where our priorities were. [We asked] what did we want, more funding for vo-tech,
 more funding for something else, more funding for salaries, can we all agree
 together? Can we move in the same direction?

 Sometimes we had disagreements, as you can imagine. But it was a way for us to
 really try and present a common front. There are always a few guys who did not
 much bother to come, did not pay any attention, but I was not one of those. The
 other thing I did for a long time, Sam, was to be one of the principal spokespersons
 for the system.

P: Does this mean as a lobbyist in Tallahassee?

R: Yes. They would call me from Tallahassee and say, "Can you be here in the
 morning to speak to this before this committee?" That was a terrible chore, but I
 did it. I felt it was so important. A lot of the guys would not do it.

P: Did you have to meet regularly, or as regularly as possible, with the governor?

R: That came only occasionally. That was if we were getting down toward the end and
 it was a veto matter or some terrible misunderstanding. Most of the time, it
 [consisted of] trying to talk to the key legislator. Hopefully, you always had the
 president from that district, but sometimes that was a guy who did not care as long
 as he got paid, so he did not do anything. I did a lot of that for a long time.

P: You worked well with [George] Kirkpatrick [state senator, District six]?

R: Yes. I really did, as strange as George can be, we got along pretty good.

P: What about the governors? Were all of those supportive during the time? When
 you start in, I guess Reubin Askew was the governor [1971-1979], maybe even Claude
 Kirk [Jr., 1967-1971] before that.

R: Yes.

P: And then Bob Graham [1979-1987], and then you have [Bob] Martinez [1987-1991].

R: I do not recall any governor being really anti-community college. I do not.

P: Well, Bob Graham always considered himself to be the educational governor.

R: Yes.


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