CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2002 WL 1926551
...reasonably believed that it could not receive a fair and impartial hearing from the agency head on its exceptions to the recommended order. When the motion was denied, the county filed a petition for writ of prohibition which we now have for review. Section 120.665, Florida Statutes, provides for the disqualification of an agency head for bias, prejudice, or interest....
...The question is, rather, whether this is one of those rare instances where a court should intervene in the workings of the administrative process within the executive branch of government. Nothing in the press release expresses a bias or prejudice against the petitioner. I. The statute upon which disqualification is based, section 120.665(1), Florida Statutes (2001), does not set forth the same standard as that applicable to judges in Florida....
...This is the test generally applicable to trial judges, and under both Ridgewood Properties and Bay Bank, not the test applicable to an agency head. A reading of Department of Agriculture will not reveal any citation to, or reliance upon, the statute we apply today, namely, section 120.665(1), Florida Statutes (2001)....
CopyCited 3 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2003 Fla. App. LEXIS 11784, 2003 WL 21817929
...On appeal, Florida Water argues Florida's Administrative Procedure Act (APA) mandates recusal of the Board and thus it was entitled to a writ prohibiting the Board from taking any further action on its well applications. The APA provides for the disqualification of an "agency" head for bias, prejudice or interest. § 120.665, Fla....
...l). AFFIRMED. PLEUS and PALMER, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] Appellees Hannah M. "Nancy" Robinson, Chair of the Board of Commissioners of Hernando County, and Board members Mary C. Aiken, Christopher A. Kingsley, Diane B. Rowden, and Betty Whitehouse. [2] 120.665....
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 18904, 2014 WL 6460773
... policy issue related to the dispute, in the absence of a showing that he is
not ‘capable of judging a particular controversy fairly on the basis of its
own circumstances.’” Hortonville,
426 U.S. at 493 (quoting United States
v. Morgan,
313 U.S. 409, 421 (1941)).
Section
120.665, Florida Statutes (2013), sets the legal parameters for
the Board members’ participation in the hearing requested by an employee
pursuant to section
1012.33(6)(a)....
...That section provides that an
individual “may be disqualified from serving in an agency proceeding for
bias, prejudice, or interest when any party to the agency proceeding shows
just cause by a suggestion filed within a reasonable period of time prior to
the agency proceeding.” § 120.665(1), Fla....
...y of the Board members. Seiden did
not move to recuse any Board members for what was said at the hearing,
so he failed to preserve the bias issue for appellate review. See Allen v.
State,
137 So. 3d 946, 958 (Fla. 2013).
Even were we to reach the section
120.665 recusal issue, we do not find
that type of egregious conduct identified by courts as requiring recusal;
there was no prejudgment, personal, or pecuniary bias....
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2015 WL 6852195
...es Pilots
Association v. Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association,
170 So. 3d 952 (Fla. 1st DCA
2015). There, FCCA filed an application for a reduction in pilotage rates charged to
passenger vessels calling on Port Everglades. Id. at 954. Pursuant to section
120.665, Florida Statutes, Port Everglades Pilots Association (“PEPA”) filed a
motion to disqualify Commissioners Burke and Miguez from serving on the
Committee in the proceedings on FCCA’s application because they were senior
executives of two of the largest member cruise lines of FCCA....
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 11894, 2015 WL 4731413
...llions of dollars each year in pilotage fees for calls on Port Everglades, it is directly affected by the pilotage rates; and that “references to ‘Applicant [the FCCA]’ shall mean all member entities of Applicant.” The PEPA filed pursuant to section 120.665, Florida Statutes, a motion to disqualify Commissioners Burke and Miguez, two of the Committee members; from the proceedings on the FCCA’s application....
...1st DCA 2002) (reviewing de novo the decision on a motion to disqualify); see also, e.g., Bundy v. Rudd,
366 So.2d 440, 442 (Fla.1978) (“Once a basis for disqualification has been established, prohibition is both an appropriate and necessary remedy.”). Section
120.665, Florida Statutes (2014), provides as follows: (1)Notwithstanding the provisions of s....
...120.52(3), Fla. Stat. (2014) (“‘Agency head’ means the person or collegial body in a department or other governmental unit statutorily responsible for final agency action.”). The question presented by a motion to disqualify filed pursuant to section 120.665 is whether the facts alleged would prompt a reasonably prudent person to fear that he or she will not obtain a fair and impartial hearing....
...Inc.,
160 So.3d at 562 n. 5 (noting that the test for legal sufficiency of the petitioner’s motion to disqualify the Commissioners *956 from participating in the proceeding on the FCCA’s application for pilotage rate reduction, filed pursuant to section
120.665, is the one set forth in IMC-Phosphates Co.); Seiden v. Adams,
150 So.3d 1215, 1219-20 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014) (“Under [section
120.665], disqualification is required where ‘the facts alleged would prompt a reasonably prudent person to fear that they will not obtain a fair and impartial hearing.’ Put differently, the ‘test for disqualification has been succinctl...
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2015 WL 1546085
...2
Prior to the public hearing, the Pilots filed a motion to disqualify Commissioners
Burke and Miguez from participating in the proceeding on the Cruise Association’s
application for a rate reduction. The legal basis for the motion was section 120.665,
Florida Statutes, which provides in pertinent part:
any individual serving alone or with others as an agency head may be
disqualified from serving in an agency proceeding for bias, prejudice, or
interest when any...
...If the disqualified individual was appointed, the appointing
power may appoint a substitute to serve in the matter from which the
individual is disqualified. . . . However, if a quorum remains after the
individual is disqualified, it shall not be necessary to appoint a substitute.
§ 120.665(1), Fla....
...y
to compel . . . a person to recuse themselves?” The Committee’s legal counsel
responded:
No, sir. I don’t believe you do. I’ve looked at the statutes. I don’t
see anything that gives you that authority. I have reviewed
120.665....
...Analysis
The Pilots contend that the Committee denied the motion to disqualify on the
merits and that the Committee’s ruling was erroneous because the motion made a
legally sufficient 5 showing of bias and prejudice under section 120.665....
...r research located any case addressing who
has the authority to rule on a motion to disqualify an individual serving on a collegial
agency head: the agency head or the individual that is the subject of the motion. The
only reported cases applying section 120.665 to agency heads involve motions to
disqualify an individual agency head, see Charlotte Cnty., 824 So....
...7
body serving as the agency head, see Seiden v. Adams,
150 So. 3d 1215 (Fla. 4th DCA
2014) (school board). We did locate one case that involved a motion to disqualify
individual members of a school board under the predecessor to section
120.665
(section 120.09, Florida Statutes (1967)), but the issue in that case was whether the
school board was an “agency” subject to the APA, not whether the motion should be
ruled on by the school board or the individual members whose disqualification was
being sought. See State ex rel. Allen v. Bd. of Public Instruction of Broward Cnty.,
214 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 4th DCA 1968), approved by
219 So. 2d 430 (Fla. 1969).
Section
120.665 does not provide any guidance on the issue presented in this
case....
...Code R.
28-106.101(2) (stating that rule chapter 28-106 “applies to all proceedings under
Chapter 120 except . . . [a]gency investigations . . . preliminary to agency action”)
(emphasis added); however, it is appropriate to consider these rules in our analysis
because section 120.665 prescribes the substantive grounds for disqualifying an agency
head or member thereof from “an agency proceeding” (not just the proceedings that
take place after preliminary agency action) and we see no reason that the procedure f...
