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NENS CONFERENCE
GOVERNOR PARRIS BRYANT
TALLAHASSEE
NOVEMBER 1. 1963
NEWSMEN PARTICIPATING: Bill Bowen, WCTV; Vernon Bradford, TAMPA
TRIBUNE} Robert N. Delaney, ORLANDO SENTINEL; Barbara Frye, UNITED
PRESS INTERNATIONAL; Jim Hagan, FLORIDA BROADCAST NEWS; David
Oretsch. FREELANCE; John Hayes, NTVU, WFOA; Jerry Mock, JOHN R.
PERRY PAPERS; Allen Morris. CRACKER POLITICS; Steve Prentice,
FLORIDA BROADCAST NEWS: Doug Starr, ASSOCIATED PRESS; Ray Starr,
ABC RADIO; George Thurston, NFLA, VENT; Martin Waldron, ST.
PETERSBURG TIMES-MIAMI HERALD SERVICE.
GOVERNOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Do you have any
questions?
BRADFORD: Governor, have you had any requests from persons in Polk
County asking you to take some action regarding the liquor licenses
which recently were authorized by the Beverage Department?
GOVERNOR: No. I have been hearing through Mr. Kynes a few moments
ago that there is considerable turbulence down there about it, but
I understand that this is inevitable. Whenever you have some 300
or more applicants for liquor licenses and 80 or 90 to dispense,
there are going to be 210 or 220 dissatisfied people and they each
have their coterie or friends and neighbors and you can get up to
a thousand dissidents in a big hurry. One or the problems that you
have, as I have learned from listening to what has gone on here and
what went on in Gainesville, is that everybody who applies for a
liquor license establishes his own criteria and, or course, those
criteria are such that he ought to get one. He says "Well, I have
been in the beer business for 20 years. I ought to have one." Or
he says "My precinct was one of the ten highest in the county in the
wet election and certainly I ought to have one." Or "I contributed
more money than anybody else in my block, and I ought to have one."
Or "I have been operating a restaurant for 18 years, and I ought to
have one."
ERIE: More money into what?
GOVERNOR: To an election campaign. They had an election campaign
down there and had signs and campaign expenses, and so forth. So
everybody establishes their own criteria and honestly convinces
themselves that these are the ones that the Director ought to be
following and that if he didn't follow them there must be something
wrong up in Tallahassee. It has been my policy to stay as far removed
from these controversies as possible to do. The people or Polk County
follow. (laughter)
THURSTON: Have you had any overtures from the Republican Party?
GOVERNOR: No. No, I haven't.
FRYE: But you can conceive of circumstances under which you might
run again?
common: I have a fertile imagination. (laughter)
MORRIS: You mean if there was some possibility that the office
would go by default?
GOVERNOR: That would be one circumstance. (laughter)
FR ': Was that serious or facetious?
THURSTON: Are you saying that you might yield to a draft?
GOVERNOR: No, I didn't say that. I said I could conceive of
circumstances and Mr. Morris has very ingeniously suggested one of
them. Others of like quality could move me. (laughter)
DELANEY: I have a feeling that we are being collectively leg pulled.
(laughter)
GOVERNOR: Somebody's leg is being pulled, I don't know whose it is.
(laughter) Are there other questions?
FRYE: Has anybody discussed a resignation with you lately in your
staff?
GOVERNOR: YOu mean since last week?
FRYE: Yes.
Governor: Yes. Any further questions?
FRYE: Thank you. (laughter)
GOVERNOR: Thank you.
voted fer liquor. I took no part in the election. If they had asked
me, I would probably have given them my opinion on it. But whenever
you bring liquor into a county or gambling into a county, you get this
kind of reaction and result and it is Just inevitable. We have tried
to do this Mr. Keating has discharged his responsibility in this
regard, but after listening to Mr. Kyncs relate the conversations
that have gone on, or the representations, I want to repeat what we
have earlier done: the State Attorney in Polk County has requested
anybody who knows anything wrong that has or does go on to relate
those circumstances to him. He has reported to Mr. Kynes that up
until this time those incidents about which he has heard, those
rumors and so forth, turned out to be baseless. Is that correct, Mr.
Kynes? Is that the correct representation of what he said?
KYNES: I got that from a newspaper.
GOVERNOR: Oh, you didn't get that direct from him. Then I retract
that much of it. But if there is anyone who knows anything improper
by way of facts that has gone on if they will let the State Attorney
in Polk County know or let this office know, we will undertake such
an investigation or he will do so that will ascertain whether or not
in fact this something has been going on that is improper.
MORRIS: Governor, do you feel that the Legislature might consider
imposing some limitations on the re-sale of liquor licenses?
GOVERNOR: I have always felt that this business of giving a man a
vested interest in a liquor license is a bad thing. I dont think
a man ought to be able to get a license and then when he, for what-
ever reason, is ready to sell a privilege granted to him for nothing
by the state to anzther.
CHRIS: Well, doesn't it make something of a mockery of the
investigative process that goes into the original issuing of these
licenses?
CQVERNOR: It does in a degree, because new I am not as conversant
with it as I had ought to be -'but I urderstand that the people that
make application have to recite teat e"0ryhady that is interested
in it directiy or indirectly can I believe they hays to reflect
an intention under oath to operate. 13 that correct Mr. Kynes?
KYNES: I am not familiar with that. They have to sign affidavits
which they require in the applications of all persons who are
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interested in the license. directly or indirectly. Along those lines.
Mr. Keating informed me yesterday that he was going to instruct his
staff to make additional investigations to see that those affidavits
were in fact true and representations or the facts as they existed.
And if he finds any violations in those, that he will make an immediate
revocation of those licensee it such facts are true.
DELANEY: Governor, doesn't the law require that the purchaser of
such a license has to meet the same qualifications that the original
buyer has to meet?
GOVERNOR: Yes. Well, I say yes. I don't really know. This is not
in a field of study by me and I really don't know.
FRYE: Doesn't the Beverage Director have to approve the re-sale?
Or can he just go out and sell it to anyone?
GOVERNOR: I understand that he can sell it to anyone. Now, I think
that he can sell it to anyone who meets certain criteria. Now
whether those criteria are identical with the original, I am not sure,
but I think that if his purchaser can establish that he meets certain
criteria the director is mandatorialy required to approve the transfer.
That is Just my impression. I haven't studied that.
D. STARR: Doesn't that put the purchaser of the original license in
the business of issuing licenses himself in competition with the State?
GOVERROR: well. the state once it has issued its license is not in
competition with anybody it has no more to issue.
D. STARR: But it does maintain control over the licenses it has
already issued, does it not? Or does it Just throw it out?
GOVERNOR: But it cannot transfer it. It has no issuance authority
at all. The State of Florida at this time can issue no licenses.
We don't have any.
D. STARR: Polk County?
GOVERNOR: We can issue no licenses in Polk County. I assume they
have all been issued, therefore, we can issue none. We are not in
competition with anybody and vice versa.
D. STARR: Well, what I meant was the government gives a man a
license to sell liquor and then he turns around and he authorises
somebody else to sell liquor. How can he do that within the law?
GOVERNOR: Because. so I understand it, and please qualify me on that
because I haven't read the law and I have Just picked up sketchy
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notions of it. but as I understand it the law provides that a man can
sell his license or secure its transfer with the approval of the
Director if the transferee he has selected meets statutory established
qualifications.
FRYB: And there is no limitation on the amount of money he can sell
it for?
GOVERNOR: If there is, I don't know of it. I don't think there is
anything with reference to that at all. I don't know of it.
BRADFORD: Mr. Kynes reports to you that Mr. Kestings office is
conducting some sort of investigation now regarding these affidavits.
Do you have any of your investigators down there?
GOVERNOR: No, we do not at the present time. Mr. Kesting has
established or is in the process of establishing please forgive me
I Just got into the office at one o'clock either has or is in the
process of establishing a procedure for investigating any evidence
that the data given on the original affidavit is not accurate. And
if he finds that it was not accurate. revocation will ensue.
FRYE: well, isn't that suppose to be investigated before the license
is issued?
GOVERNOR: Yes, but, fur instance, suppose a man comes up and says I
am the sole applicant and the sole owner of these premises and then
it later becomes apparent in a few days after he gets his license
that this was not true, this would be a situation to which Mr.
Keating's activities ~-
FRYE: I Just wondered how much investigation I thought that they
were supposed to investigate the affidavits as to truth before they
got the license?
GOVERNOR: They are, but they are not infallible. They are not like
newspapers. (laughter)
BRADFORD: You said that everyone seems to have his or her own
criteria, do you know what the Beverage Department's criteria is
generally on -
GOVERNOR: I think the primary criteria are the characters of the
persons involved. I think Mr. Keating takes the approach that given
the right character the rest of it can be worked out, but if you
don't have the right character none of it can be satisfactorily
worked out. After all once these licenses are issued you have to live
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with the people and if they are the right kind you can do it. If
they are the wrong kind you have got trouble regardless of their
premises or other physical factors.
BRADFORD: Have there been allegations of wrongdoing on the part of
the Beverage Department on the issuance of these licenses?
GOVERNOR: I don't Know anything other than the representations to
me that there was a lot of turbulence in the Polk County area
concerning this issuance.
DELsNEY: Have you had a letter from the Mayor of Bartow, Governor,
directed to your attention complaining about the licenses that were
issued in Bartow?
GOVERNOR: I have not seen such a letter. Have we gotten a letter
from the mayor or Bartow, that you know of?
,KYNES: No, sir, I haven't seen it. I heard we had one coming.
GOVERNOR: I haven't read my papers yet so I don't know.
FRYE: Well, Governor, is issuing these licenses kind of a picking
names out of a hat sort or thing, all things being equal?
GOVERNOR: I would rather you follow-up this conversation by
interrogating Mr. Keating, but it is not that kind of a process.
FREE: I mean supposing you have 250 fine reputable citizens and
only 80 licenses, how is it -- does political patronage come into
this or is there a -
GOVERNOR: Well, our political friends in Lake County and Polk County
are complaining that politics wasn't in it enough. We are getting
a good deal or complaints that people who were our enemies politically
have gotten licenses and this may or may not be true. I really don't
know. I don't know who got licenses and who didn't. First or all,
an investigation to determine all the factors that the Director under
the law requires us to know the first thing he wants to know is
the character of the people. In the course of this investigation,
I do know that when he has certain tentative lists of when the list
or names was completed or about completed. he submitted these names
to various officials in the area to ask them if they knew anything
wrong about any of the applicants and if they came up with any
significant reasons about any or them they were stricken from the
list. And then it was whittled down in this fashion character and
then premises and whatever the circumstances were that motivate him
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until it was boiled down to the maximum permitted by law.
D. STARR: Why is the number of licenses restricted?
GOVERNOR: I think the law provides one for every so many hundred
or thousand people.
D. STARR: What difference does it make?
GOVERNOR: It doesn't to me. The only thing I know of the Legislature
said do it that way.
D. STARR: I thought maybe there was a reason.
GOVERNOR: I assume they have a reason.
BRADFORD: Has there been any consideration given by you or the
Beverage Department of holding the effective date of these licenses
pending this investigation?
GOVERNOR: By me, no. So far as I am concerned at this moment
nothing wrong has been done. Now, obviously, Mr. Keating is not
infallible, obviously. he made Judgmenttsthat other people can
disagree with, but not only do I know of nothing that has been done
wrong but nobody up until this moment has given us any evidence of
any wrongdoing. And, therefore, until we have something from our
own investigations or from allegations other than uI should have
had one instead of him," there is nothing to correct.
DELANEY: Mr. Kynes may have looked up that law. No he had that
I Just looked at the law book look on his face, but I guess he
didn't.
FRYE: Governor, has anything ever Jelled or been dune on the
resignation of Fred Kent from the Junior College Board?
GOVERNOR: Yes. Mr. Rent is not going to persist in his resignation.
FRYE: Did you.aak him not to resign?
GOVERNOR: I talked with him on the telephone and he agreed to
continue on in his capacity as Chairman. I think he has done a good
Job and has been a dedicated member. The other members of the Board
- my recollection is and certainly all those I talked with were
unanimous in asking that he stay.
FRYE: Res anything been done about the allegations that he made when
he resigned or are you going to make any kind of an investigation or o
GOVERNOR: He didn't make any allegations or call for an investigation.
I do know that Dr. "attenberger and Superintendent Tom Bailey
together haVe been working very closely with the Junior College
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Advisory Board to develop improved procedures, which, or course,
they are constantly doing anyway.
D. STARR: Hhet will be your role in the Presidents visit?
GOVERNOR: As or the moment I plan to go to Tampa on Monday to speak
to the State Chamber of Commerce luncheon there, Join President
Kennedy's party immediately thereafter to go with him to the Armory,
I believe it is, to go from there with him to Miami and I will be in
attendance at the dinner at which he speaks on Monday night.
D. STARR: Will you introduce him?
GOVERNOR: Some mention of this was made by someone calling me, but
it was a general sort of thing and whether that is the way it's
worked out or not I don't know. Somebody said we want you to present
him, but whether or not in fact that has been worked out I have not
yet been advised.
D. STARR: Do you plan to support him next time?
GOVERNOR: If they ask me to introduce him, I certainly shall be
honored to do so.
FRYE: Is that your answer to his question?
GOVERNOR: Well, he is not a candidate. I always reserve (laughter)
RRYE: In the same way that Bud Dickinson and Rayden Burns are not
candidates?
TRURSTON: Governor, would you care to comment on the change of heart
that Tom Slade has exhibited this week?
GOVERNOR: Well, I think it should be an occasion for general
rejoicing in both the Democratic and Republican Parties. (Laughter)
It seems to me that it lifts the political quotient of both or them.
THURSTON: Do you agree that this might be the first or a series of
such instances?
GOVERNOR: If they are all or the same quality I can only say that
I would hope so. (Laughter)
D. STARR: You don't know of any, though, do you, Governor?
GOVERNOR: NO.
D. STARR: or any quality?
GOVERNOR: No.
D. STARR: On another subJect there have been several charges and
statements and accusations regarding politics in the Blind
Commission. Now I can't figure out what the politics are, nobody
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has said. Do you know?
GOVERNOR: Oh, I am so glad you pointed that out. The politics in--
D. STARR: I asked a good question?
GOVERNOR: You asked a good one. (Laughter) So glad you asked me
that question. Actually, I have been appointing good dedicated
citizens to the Blind Commission since this administration began.
There were good dedicated members on the Commission before we came
into office. We have I can't figure out where any politics is
involved. It is my duty to appoint such people. We have done so.
They are Operating the Commission in the fashion they deem is for
the best interest of those most concerned the blind people. I
hear charges about o "I'm trying to put Mr. Youngman in there."
Nothing is further from the truth. as is not going to be an employee
of the Commission, at least during this administration. What happens
in the next administration depends on the next board.
2 : Is that Richard Ybungman? Is he the labor mediator?
GOVERNOR: Richard Youngman. Yes. he himself has a visual dfficulty
and has done a marvelous Job as labor mediator o has done Just a
tremendous Job in that field. And I would hope that he can continue
in that field.
MORRIS: Governor, do you intend to make public the contents of the
investigative report?
GOVERNOR: Only to this extent. Sometime ago, I guess it has been
over a year ago, there were lots of allegations of improper conduct
in the Blind Commission. I became so concerned about it and the
allegations to the contrary were so vehement that I decided to make
an independent investigation. So I sent one of our investigators
down to take a list of the blind people being assisted by the
Commission and virtually to go from door to door and find out from
them, "what are the circumstances of your relationship with the
Commission?" From this I came to the conclusion that no action
by me was required. I don't mean to say that everything was perfect
or that nothing was found wrong. Obviously, in that large an agency
you do. I simply have continued to exercise my Judgment in
appointing Commission members. I think they are doing a good Job.
I believe the Blind Commission is in good hands.
FRYE: Do you think this investigation that you made led to the
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resignations of all the top staff members of the Council?
GOVERNOR: No, I don't. There was never a formal report made. This
information that was brought to me had to to with personal lives of
these people and I simply did nothing. The report stopped with me.
It was for my own advice and conduct of the affairs of the Governor's
office in that relation.
FRYE: You mean there was not any official misconduct involved?
GOVERNOR: No. Are there other questions?
FRYE: You don't have any announcements to make today?
GOVERNOR: Let's see. I should be able to have something -
BRADFORD: Is there anything new on your re-election campaign?
GOVERNOR: Nothing new. (laughter)
D. STERR: Tell him about the taxi driver.
MORELS: Have you been standing in any drafts? (laughter)
GOVERNOR: I have been able to withstand them.
FRYE; What has been the reaction on the balloon?
GOVERKOR: Well, that would assume that there was a balloon.
FRYE: I mean the news reports on it.
GOVERNOR: Very gratifying.
FRYZ: Have you had a lot of people call to urge you to run again?
GOVENOR: I have had a reasonable number of letters and personal
representations from people, but Just what you would expect under
the :zrcumstances.
FRYE. Any calls from candidates saying --
GOVEPVOR: No, there has been a little silence there. (laughter)
MOC;' Gould you set some kind of a deadline to possibly put some
of these minds at ease or --
cove-mos: February first. (laughter)
FRYN; Leave everything dangling until then?
DELANEY: Governor, last week you said you had no intention of
seeking re-election?
GOVERNOR: Yes, sir.
DELANEY: Can you conceive of any circumstances under which you
might have intentions?
GOVERNOR: Oh, sure. (laughter)
FRYE: You are not going to make a Nixon statement?
GOVERNOR: There is another Republican you are trying to get me to
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nd I simply did
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