Lauren Book has conflict of interest as Republicans quietly shower taxpayer millions on her charity
Lauren Book, the newly anointed leader of Florida’s Senate Democrats, has a financial conflict of interest that’s raising questions about her loyalties… For the past two years, House and Senate Republicans decisively showered the Senate Minority Leader’s charity – Lauren’s Kids – with $4 million in taxpayer dollars.
The appropriations, including $2 million awarded in the regular session that ended April 30, were camouflaged to make it difficult for the public to spot them.
Since 2011, the Republican-controlled Legislature has lavished $19.69-million in grants on the sexual abuse prevention charity founded and led by the Plantation Democrat. In addition, Lauren’s Kids has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from other Republican OK’d funding mechanisms, notably a specialty license plate.
According to the latest available federal tax records, Lauren’s Kids paid Sen. Book an annual salary of $200,000 plus an incentive bonus of $15,000 in 2019. The bonus was not further explained. The compensation Book received from Lauren’s Kids rose 49.1 percent between 2016, when she first took office, and 2019.
Tallahassee insiders Florida Bulldog spoke with were unaware of the millions earmarked to Lauren’s Kids in 2020 and 2021, nor did any Florida media outlet report on those large payouts last year, or while covering this year’s record $101.5-billion state budget. Why? The House and Senate legislators who sponsored the Lauren’s Kids grants modified the name of those appropriations. Underlying documentation clearly identifies Lauren’s Kids as the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity that requested the twin $2-million grants to be funneled through the Department of Education. But unlike past years when “Lauren’s Kids” identified the recipient, the grant’s name was changed to “Safer, Smarter Schools” – the name of the Lauren’s Kids curriculum.
The result: the annual list of state-funded charities in the final appropriations bill no longer mentions Lauren’s Kids as receiving any funds. (See page 30 of this year’s SB 2500.)
We could really use some support on this article. Please comment in the comment section of this article. You do not need any type of account to do so. You can use a fictitious name. An email address does have to be given, but it is not published. A section for a website is included, but many news sources do not require that section to be filled in.
Just facts — no name calling, which would only hurt our cause.
Thank you all. We have all seen this year the power in numbers.
Just a suggestion:
The FAC Speaks comment on the Bulldog page is excellent.
I wanted to comment but decided not to so that the FAC Speaks comment would stay on the top of the list for as long as possible.
Please also refrain from commenting so that the FAC Speaks comment stays on top as long as possible. (More people will read it, perhaps.)
Just a suggestion.
Florida Bulldog posts are always posted in order so the oldest comment stays on top. You need not worry about it being bumped from first billing, it isn’t facebook.
Once again we see how corrupt Floriduh politicians are. Once again, nothing will come of it. How many times have the Bookends been exposed and faced no consequences?
You can go about your business. move along, move along.
Yes….and bless her heart she is a quick learner. Daddy taught her well. Just another corrupt politician getting rich, being a hypocrite, and goodness getting her plaque in heaven for all the good work……yea right. Too bad Lauren is not a critical thinker or have decent reading comprehension skills. Oh, and a democrat? Only to be elected..she is a republican. Though neither party is blameless for ANYTHING.
Sen Broxton, one of two sponsors of this years quid pro quo donation to Sen Books charity, represents this part of Florida. I decided to write his office an email expressing my concern and provide a link to the article, which I am sure they have read while hoping none of their constituents have.
Isn’t this called money laundering, for which several have gone to jail for. If she goes to jail it would sure be ironic if she ended up in the same cell as the biggest and badest sex offender in the prison.
Sounds rather illegal to me. Besides, government shouldn’t be financially sponsoring charities.
So, let me get this straight. Lauren Book has been the recipient of public monies that were concealed so the public didn’t know about it? The Books=Corruption.
Both Book’s are nothing but corrupt personal agenda types, like virtually all politicians. This is not a surprise for me.
Even if she stepped away at this time during her rise in stature by others, she’d still be most likely pulling strings well behind the scenes as she could to ensure her organization was run the way she sees it, regardless of who the puppet is they place upfront. Daddy would ensure that.
I looked it up.
Can a government entity donate money to a 501c3?
Answer. Yes.
“The Internal Revenue Service recognizes charitable organizations as tax-exempt nonprofits under Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. … Even small or new nonprofit businesses qualify for grant funding through federal, state and local governments as well as private charitable foundations.”
I think the real question should be, when will pfr’s realize that politicians will do what ever they can to get votes up to and including what we have seen time and time again by piling on as many punishments as inhumanely possible while obviously lying by stating they are not punishments knowing this obvious lie wont be questioned and funding organizations that perpetuate the big lie all while feeding the revenge monster living inside voters that want justification for punishments to anyone not themselves.
Aka: The great vote getter.
Also see, Ceaser and the Coliseum.
Thank you for your time
While it is true that a government entity can donate tax dollars to a property registered charity, the public dollars must still be properly appropriated.
I have been harassed by Senator Lauren Book and her lobbyist father for years. (“Val Parkworst” is the Book family’s paid troll, BTW; he also posts here as Barry Williams or “Lucky Larry” Lynch at times.)
She filed a SLAPP suit against me that was recently overturned by the Florida 4th Appeals Court and upheld by the FL Supreme Court. She also assisted in having me falsely accused of a crime.
Now that I’ve gotten victories on both counts, I want to sue the shit out of Lauren Book and her DUI daddy, Ronald “Stagger” Lee Book. Maybe Florida Bulldog could write about it.
The day her name is no longer mentioned will be a glorious day indeed.
Comments to the article are open. Post your comments there. FAC Speaks will remain at top.
That is one of several slanders of FAC and Gail contained in the comments section to this article, as posted under the pseudonym Val Parkworst.
FAC please stand up for yourself. This has gone beyond a Media Committee issue (thanks, Media Committee!) and might better be addressed by Legal Committee input at this point.
Val Parkworst seems to troll us everywhere. We should be flattered to have a following.
“Val Parkworst” is the same tired troll that has been stalking me, Gail Colletta, and Vicki Henry for years. He’s also the one that comes here on occasion to leave his/her little droppings.
Considering his/her/its obsession is generally limited to just three folks in particular, and since Gail runs FAC and that Vicki and I put together that protest in Tallahassee, our troll has a peculiar smell of crashed Lambo coming from it.
I have responded to trolls in the past. It accomplishes nothing. Some people need to be ignored.
This “Val Parkworst” has really gone off the deep end. There is one very good reason I suspect that this person is directly tied to the Book family. It has in part to do with this person’s antics in the comment sections.
Whoever it is obviously has an unhealthy obsession with us. Those who try blaming it on my peaceful protest in 2015 doesn’t get that the Books have also hated this movement since before there was an FAC.
The Books take it far too personal. In the interview they had with the BBC Ron Book had made a statement that shows that he sees every registered person as abusing his daughter.
Within hours of Lauren Book filing her initial SLAPP suit on me, this same troll contacted me through Twitter about the suit. They wanted me to know they did it long before anything came in the mail.
I would be shocked if the troll was anything but either a member of the Book Ceime Family, or someone paid by the Booksto harass us.
@ Derek, if anything you have an unintended fan as a result. This person has basically shown that your actions, as well as others who are being trolled, have been noticed. If anything I’d take that as a sign that your (FAC’s, others) works are garnering attention, for good or bad, as a result.
https://youtu.be/ZP3vChLvXTQ
I hope FAC posts my link. This is the interview Ron Book had with American’s Reality Check, the old SOSEN Talkshoe online radio show from 2009.
Pay particular attention to the segment at 1:34:35 , that is the part where I take him over the proverbial coals. You can actually hear him pounding the desk multiple times!
I think he is still smarting from that. But the point is I have been on his radar for far longer than folks realize. He was unhappy with my JTC page on my website.
Oh, and for a real blast from the past, the next caller after me was the infamous Valigator in all her anti- immigration glory. Even ol’ Ronnie was trying to distance himself from her.
My internet was down most of the past few days, so I had time to listen to videos I had saved, and I borrowed a copy of Untouchable from WAR, and I spent a few days typing out some choice quotes from Ron and Lauren Book. Feel free to use them.
Quotes from Ron & Lauren Book from “Untouchable”
Ron Book Quotes
Ron Book: “Hate? Vengeance? You bet, you bet. Do I want to ever keep that from happening to anybody else ever again? To the last gasp of air in my body. To the last breath of air in my body. I couldn’t possibly do enough. I just couldn’t. I just couldn’t. There are bad people out there.
Ron Book: “I believe there is an absolute certainty that pedophiles will reoffend. Sentence them to having their fingernails pulled out of their hands, pulling their hair out one at a time. Sentence them to waterboarding every day. Throw the keys away. I used to be a liberal democrat and then a crime hit my family and I realized just how conservative I was.”
Ron Book: “The day that I learned that the nanny urinated and defecated on her as a control mechanism, you have to be a pretty crappy human being as a parent not to be driven, not to just fix your selfish family thing, but I’m a guy with access and I’m a guy with resources. I will do anything I can. Anything I can. Anything I can. Driven by my daughter, you bet.”
Ron Book: “At a time when we were in the middle of the development and expansion of residency restrictions for pedophiles, our department of corrections was simply telling people, ‘Hey there’s a bridge, you can go live under the bridge!’ So they had a little sex colony under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami-Dade County, which became internationally recognized as a sex colony.”
Ron Book: “Wake up every day thinking about it, thinking about how you’d just as soon line them up and shoot them.” (Clip from NBC 6 as Ron Book testifies before the City of Miami Beach Commission)
Ron Book: “There are people who will come and march on my capital on the last day of my daughter’s walk with people from across the country who have either been convicted of being a pedophile or a predator and their family members. Our last mile of our walk is about kids coming together. I don’t want them anywhere near those kids. It terrifies me. I can tell you that every law enforcement agency that’s in this town will be on a high alert. We have already met with them. We are deeply concerned about it. Remember what these people are.”
Ron Book: “On the issue of whether or not residency restrictions are working and they’re protecting kids, much like I can’t necessarily produce statistics that say that our communities are safer as a result, I do have some level of common sense. If you’re keeping them away from kids, you’re reducing some of the risk. And this notion that we’ve rendered them homeless, that we’ve put them out on the street, that’s a bunch of bullshit. At the end of the day, their sexually deviant criminal behaviors are what caused them their problems.”
Ron Book: “You have an automatic right to go live wherever you want, and you lost some of your rights because we as the citizens of the United States of America determined that the public policy was you commit a crime against a child, we’re treating you differently. Forever. Forever.”
Ron Book: (Texting while driving, to cameraman) “No, you can’t turn this stuff over to the law enforcement people… making a citizen’s arrest for bad driving. I think I’m a pretty good driver myself.” (Honking horn as Ron Book barely misses another driver) “Aah. Sorry about that.”
Ron Book: (Watching L&O:SVU, a show he say he “loves”): “I hate the bad guys. Yeah, I’m harder today. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. Those people who came to march on Tallahassee, they probably wish they could put that back in the bottle, all 12 of them. They ought to have figured that out, that all they’re doing is recommitting me, refocusing me, and refocusing my daughter on our agenda to make this place safer for others. They don’t believe there should be registries. They don’t believe there should be notification of people where predators and pedophiles live. They think they should be restored all of their rights and go out and infiltrate our communities.”
Ron Book: “Don’t tell anyone I have a fish tank. They would say, ‘Oh, if he’s got a fish tank, he’s got a shark in it.’ I did have a shark in my tank, actually.”
Ron Book: Do I want to continue to have materialistic things? Drive nice cars? Eat fancy meals? Yeah, I’m a capitalistic pig. But I give back and I put back exponentially… You know what I like? I come through the gate. I’m left alone. I like getting home and watching my crime shows. I love the Law and Orders, I love the CSIs, I love Blue Bloods. I love them all.”
Ron Book: “While I may have this, like, deep-seeded ‘stab you in the heart and kill you’ for committing crime against the kid, I find sexual abuse as a whole abhorrent, unacceptable, punishable, I’m sorry, I put them away.”
Ron Book: “Look, I don’t care what the critics say, because what they say is, ‘I don’t have any statistics.’ I suggest to you, their statistics are made up, and they’re phony baloney. They make it look like something other than it is. It’s underreported because people don’t report sex crimes because they’re embarrassed, they’re ashamed, they’re intimidated, their threatened, their lives have been threatened, just like my daughter’s life was threatened”
Ron Book: “If you’re not a victim of sexual abuse, you just don’t have a clue. And if you aren’t a parent of a child who’s been sexually abused, don’t tell me about leniency. Don’t tell me about compassion. Don’t tell me about what rights your kids should have or shouldn’t have. Get out of my face. Get out of my world. Get out of my everything. Because at the end of the day, walk in my shoes.”
Ron Book: “Senate Bill 1666 automatically upon conviction as a sexual predator you lose your parental rights to your kids. See you later, adios, have a good life on your own. Go live out in the middle of nowhere, because you’re not going to have any relationships with your kids, nor should you. Whether your crime was against your kids or not, you shouldn’t have that right to be that close to your kids. Because they have a hardwire problem. A pedophile sees that picture of that three-month-old, or that 5-year-old, or that 12-year-old, and they get stimulated, and they want to go have sex. They want to go have sex with that little child.”
Ron Book: “My daughter’s favorite issue this year. Now on your driver’s license there’ll be a notation you are a sexual predator.”
Ron Book: (On Lauren’s ALLEGED abuser) “I’ll be 74 when that bitch gets out of prison. I’ll be waiting for her and when they put her on the plane to Honduras, I’ll be right behind her, I’ll be right behind her—with an army of other people. I’ve had people on my payroll for 13 years in Honduras. I know where every family member lives.”
Ron Book: “These people need to be put away till they’re too old to walk. I told you before, I don’t try to be what I’m not. I don’t try to be anything other than who I am.”
Lauren Book Quotes
Lauren Book: “It goes back to control. We need to have different pieces in place that make it much easier for law enforcement officers to put these individuals back in prison, because it’s not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of WHEN. It’s not IF they reoffend, it’s WHEN will they reoffend. And I don’t want to take that chance.”
Lauren Book: “I have spoken to family members who have to give up children because they cannot live in a home with a sex offender father or they have to sell their home, they have to move, they’re living in cars and are very, very, very angry. So there is a place for anger. There is a place where that has to fire you along to get something done. And the only reason that we’re sitting here today is because a young lady who had no voice and felt invisible for so long was tired and pissed.”
Lauren Book: “People are afraid of predators; people are scared, and they should be. The aftermath is catastrophic and cataclysmic. Unless we’re putting them in prison and throwing away the key, we’re getting out. They’re going to live in your neighborhoods. They will be there. We need to be smart. We need to be strategic about the way we do things to create a more effective system than what we currently have. But we can’t be driven by fear.”
Lauren Book: “One of the things that no survivor ever talks about, none of us, every survivor that I’ve ever talked to, has this little deep, dark hole inside of us that we feel that that monster exists; That there is a Waldi in me, that if I’m not careful, she’s going to come out and she’s going to hurt another kid.”
Lauren Book: “He’s an angry dad who had to watch his kid endure a tremendous amount. But I’m that kid who had to endure a tremendous amount who doesn’t want that to happen to other kids.
Exchanges Between People
(Discussing the Rally in Tally 2015)
RON BOOK: You know, it’s going to be a big crowd tomorrow. You know there’s a counter demonstration tomorrow, right?
UNKNOWN: No way.
RON BOOK: Group of pedophiles and predators coming from across the country. Oh yeah. You can’t make it up. They have been organizing for four months. We’ve intercepted loads of their emails.”
(Exchange between Ron and Untouchable interviewer)
Ron Book: “In my role as chairman of the Homeless Trust, I didn’t go under the Julia Tuttle Causeway once to meet the enemy, I was there dozens of times. Different hat that I wore.”
Interviewer: “I was gonna say, that seems…”
Ron Book: “A lot of people found it that way, but I don’t support homelessness. But I don’t want them near kids, either.”
(Exchange between Ron and interviewer)
INTERVIEWER: Which of these laws would have been most effective in protecting your daughter?
RON: You know, most of the laws that we have passed would likely have done nothing to protect my daughter. But I believe had we properly educated my daughter on how to be safe, had we properly trained her on safe touch and unsafe touch, had we properly trained her about secrets, and that no secret is forever, I am absolutely convinced that the abuse would have been short lived. It may not have prevented that first act or that second act, but my daughter would have told, my daughter would have figured it out, my daughter would have told, my daughter would have told, she would have told, she would have told.”
(Exchange between Lauren and Interviewer)
Lauren Book: “You cannot broad brush this issue. And the minute that you do so, you will create policies that are dangerous that cannot be enforced. That’s where I try to temper some of where dad comes from. What can we do to create smart policy to again, do what? Not be punitive; to keep kids in our communities safe.
Interviewer: And what does your dad say to that?
Lauren Book: I don’t know what he would say to that. He would probably tell me to lock ‘em up and throw away the key and there’s no use for them back out here in the community… But we don’t always agree on policy. He believes that we need to do all that we can to restrict predators, and when we started, that’s what I was doing too. When I went back and got my Master’s degree, I realized, if you don’t work to prevent sexual abuse through education and awareness, then you can’t be effective. To be able to educate, you have to understand. So I will still interact with predators, where dad will not.
Statement About Ron Book
Val Jonas, FL Civil Rights Attorney: “You know, the perfect paradigm of what’s wrong with lobbying, where people with a motive, whether it’s a financial motive or a psychological, emotional level get to write the laws. It’s not really a stretch to say that he’s one of the few most powerful people in the state, has been for many, many years. I cannot count the number of successful professional people who have refused to go on record saying anything critical about Mr. Book, because they feel it is dangerous to their professional standing in Florida. So, it’s a real problem, and I won’t pretend that I’m not frightened. There you have it.”
QUOTE FROM RON AND LAUREN FROM OTHER SOURCES
Lauren Book: “These monsters can be put away for the rest of their lives, they murder children’s childhood, my childhood was taken from me.” (“Petition gains support for ‘Cherish Law’”. WXTL, Sep. 3, 2013)
Lauren Book: “In so many instances these individuals should never ever be allowed out for a second chance. They’re ticking time bombs, it is not a question of if they reoffend, it’s a question of when they reoffend.” (“Petition gains support for ‘Cherish Law’” WXTL, Sep. 3, 2013)
Ron Book: “Look, um, I’ve not been bashful about my feelings about people who commit offenses against children. I have referred to them as monsters. Everybody under the bridge knows that.” (ABC News.com 2009)
Ron Book: “No matter what, you commit a crime against a kid, we’re treating you different. You committed a crime, a heinous crime. You stole a – you stole MY daughter’s childhood. Go to hell, you son of a bitch! And that is why we require you to be registered, because we want the public to know you are a potential problem.” (BBC, Stacey Dooley Investigates: Second Chance Sex Offenders)
Ron Book: “I think it’s fair to have that discussion and that debate. Yes, it’s difficult. Nobody said that someone exiting the prison system after committing a sexually deviant act on a child has a right to dictate where they live… I have a daughter who was 12 years old when she was molested and raped. I have a different perspective than many people. I sleep very comfortably knowing that we have made our communities safer.” (ABC News.com, 2009)
Ron Book: “I wear these two hats. In this particular case, they have run into one another, I don’t want to use the word ‘colliding’, but they’re run into one another. (ABC News.com 2009)
Ron Book: “Are they monsters? You bet they are. You bet they are! And it only takes one unfortunate bad circumstance that affects your family for you to realize what monsters they are. They are monsters.” (Nick Ahlmack “Monsters of Miami” 2008)
Ron Book: “The ACLU is wrong on this one. They know they’re wrong on this one. And some of these cases are winding their ways through our- through our courts here in the United States. And the courts so far have said the public’s right to have their health, safety, and welfare protected is – is as fundamental a right as anybody has, and those rights, I’m sorry, come ahead of the criminal’s right in this particular set of circumstances. You just don’t get all your rights back overnight, or sometimes ever, when you’ve broken the law. You chose to break the law.” (Nick Ahlmack “Monsters of Miami” 2008)
Exchange between Books and interviewers from BBC)
Ron Book: (Asked about guilt over letting Lauren be abused) “I’m not sure I’ve ever felt guilty…”
Interviewer: But Lauren, you thought he did, didn’t you?
Ron Book: She does.
Lauren Book: I don’t know how a parent couldn’t. Our job is to keep them in ways that we – that I wasn’t able to be kept safe…
Interviewer: So you think your dad struggles with it still?”
Lauren Book: “Yeah. Of course he does.”
Interviewer: “And you think that’s why he is so militant in comparison to you?”
Lauren Book: “I think that’s a piece of it, but I would murder somebody who hurt my kids. I would. I would. As would you.”
Lauren Book: Today you see somebody that’s pretty put together. Um, but, you know, I still suffer night terrors, um, where I wake up beating my husband in the middle of the night. I still have to be sedated when I go to the dentist because I can’t be laying down with people putting things in my mouth. So I get very angry when I hear, you know, we’ve served our time, you know, we’re still being punished… We take away their civil rights, that is something that is very serious, that is not something that should be taken lightly, but if you commit a crime against a child if-if that is the kind of-of-of thing that turns you on no you shouldn’t have a second chance. Why? Because I – I Lauren Book is not willing to allow you to have a second chance, because if you make a mistake if you ever backslide, who are you hurting? Not yourself? (BBC 2018)
Interviewer: So you two don’t always agree, you two don’t always see eye to eye? What do you disagree on?
Ron: We have a different set of thoughts on residency restrictions.
Lauren: I don’t want people that are desperate, that will lash out and harm a child. I don’t want the excuse to be well I couldn’t shower and I didn’t have a place to live– and so this is what happened.
Ron: And I don’t buy that bullshit as excuses. (Speaking over Lauren)
Interviewer: I’m repulsed by what they’ve done. It disgusts me in the same way that it disgusts you. But I don’t think that leaving them out on the streets is the solution.
Ron: I agree with that, but…
Interviewer: But your law that you campaigned for, isn’t that a direct result of…
Ron With all due respect, No! Their actions, their rapes of children, put them in that class of people that are subject to certain restrictions. (Grabs a paper and pen) I want to live in this box, where my mother is, where my daddy is, but there’s a child here and a child here, oh, and a bus stop here and a school here and a daycare. I’m sorry! You don’t get to do that! Your bad behavior put an X on you.”
Interviewer: Are you saying they can’t be rehabilitated?
Ron: No, I don’t believe they can. I don’t lie awake at night thinking about how I can stick it to these bastards, these dirtbags, these scumbuckets. But, man, when we think of them, we’re going after them.”
(BBC video, 2018)
Lauren Book: The residency restrictions were something that came up, um, a little bit after the abuse had started. Um, my father and I advocated for the residency restrictions, where there were 2500—that sexual offenders and predators cannot live within 2500 square feet of any school, park, day care center, or wherever children congregate. Um, that number came about because you can’t have a bar, a tavern, or an adult entertainment facility 2500 square feet around any school, park, or day care center. So why would we want a sex offender living within those perimeters? So we went ahead and we were advocating for these laws, um, there was some unintended consequences of those ordinances which are the people who take up residence under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)
Lauren Book: “Me and my family are working really hard to get these predators put in jail where they belong and they can’t hurt our children. I don’t have any sympathy for any of the predators who are down there.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)
Lauren Book: We’re gonna close that colony down and we’re gonna fence off the area so that those people can’t go back.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)
Lauren Book: We still believe in residency restrictions, I still do believe, um, that they work. I don’t want sex offenders living around our children. These people are really not easily rehabilitated, if at all rehabilitateable. Um, which is why we at Lauren’s Kids and me and my family are working very hard to get these predators put in jail where they belong. And they can’t hurt our children. It was a real difficult thing for me to reconcile in my brain—we don’t want homelessness, we need to end homelessness, but what do we gonna do with these sex offenders? (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)
Ron Book: “I don’t want them living across the street from the park where my children are-are playing on the playground. I’m sorry! And-and you know what? I’m not really sorry because it does not bother me at all I have nothing to apologize for–for advocating for the adoption of these ordinances and these laws to protect our kids.” (Nick Ahlmack “Monsters of Miami” 2008)
This is a work in progress. MUCH more to come!