CWC EP 30 | Andy Cagnetta Sits w/ Rep. Chip LaMarca

In this episode of Coffee with Cagnetta, Andy Cagnetta (CEO of Transworld Business Advisors) interviews Representative Chip LaMarca. Chip shares his journey from running his family’s construction company to chairing the Energy & Utilities Committee. We dive into the "2% vs. 98%" rule of legislation, why Broward County is a global economic powerhouse, and the secret life of the "House of Rock"—a band made up of high-ranking Florida officials.

If you are a business owner or a South Florida resident, Chip’s insights on economic development, bipartisan collaboration, and the importance of a strong work ethic are essential.

📍 Connect with Chip LaMarca:
Website: https://chiplamarca.com

Instagram: @ChipLaMarca
Facebook: @ChipLaMarcaFlorida

☕ More episodes of Coffee with Cagnetta:
   / @coffeewithcagnetta   
📌 Visit TWorld.com for more information about M&A, Leadership, and Business.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And welcome back, everybody, to another great episode with Coffee with Cogneta. And I have Broward County and my dear friend Chip Lamarca, or representative Lamarca. And uh Chip, welcome to Coffee with Cagnetta. Thanks for having me here. This is great. I know. I you know, we run in a lot of the same circles. We keep running into each other. We have a lot of mutual interests in music and things like that. We'll talk about that. But you know, you're are you a lifelong Broward County resident?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Uh the BIOS is lifelong, but basically since I was three. I moved down here from Massachusetts. Uh lost my dad at a very young age. Um being Italian, you know, the heart thing runs in a lot of our families. But uh lost my dad when I was one, and uh my brother and I uh moved down here with my mom when we were three and five, so a couple years later, but this is South Florida's all I've ever really known. Fort Lauderdale, then 30 years, 34 years in Lighthouse Point, and uh, you know. So you you where'd you go to high school? Northeast high school, right down the road.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Okay, right down the road. So you went to high school down the road, and then you went to Boston?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Went to Boston University my first year, got accepted uh the engineering program in the uh Dr. Arthur Metcalfe College of Engineering. And uh it was was a dream of mine to go there. My grandfather had gone to BU after World War II. He served in the United States Navy, never left Boston Harbor. Fun fact. Wow. Uh he boxed for the Navy and then he boxed for Ford Motor. He was a security guard and uh got his uh business degree in 28 months and went back and started a sales career and uh ended up an executive with Ford, but worked in um Waltham and and uh the the the plant, uh the the Ford plant, which is now a mall down down there. Um but uh yeah, so I it was kind of a dream, maybe connection to my father and family being from up there. I wanted to go back up there and realized it was uh it was achievable, but it was very expensive. And I didn't want to graduate with a bunch of debt. So I came back and I worked in the daytime uh in kind of engineering field and design field and uh went to school at night at Broward College and then at Florida Atlantic University and um did it like the non-traditional way, but uh in my time up there, I was able to help re-initiate and restart a fraternity called Capa Sigma, which is a Italian fraternity with origins in Bologna, Italy. So really at fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Cappa Sig? Yeah, I did not know that. So uh we had a Kappa Sig next door to us in Lehigh. So uh so you came back to Fort Lauderdale, you know, Fort Lauderdale, started working Lighthouse Point for 34 years. You're in the construction industry, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Was for many, many years. Yeah, I was in the uh power generation and uh fuel space and construction. We built gas stations, marinas, anything with with fuel tanks, and then I kind of branched out when I finally started LaMarca Construction. Uh La Marca Construction Corporation was my dad's company's name. So I took that and reinitiated it here, and that was primarily uh fuel projects and turnkey generators. So everything from uh Kaplan University, uh, you know, large, large uh corporate type uh buildings, hospitals, hotels, things like that. Um, and the de during the downturn, kind of started uh moving that into more of a consulting business around that. Still kept some service contracts and then ultimately started servicing um in a consulting fashion, really a lot of the people I'd worked with in the past, general contractors, architects, engineers, and that's still kind of what I do today.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Okay. But you do a lot more than that. So 20 years ago, right, you decide to run for office.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Well, Eileen and I decided to run. I asked her and I didn't have that. I don't know that we had to twist her arm in the very beginning because it was Lighthouse Point, City Commission. We had gone to probably a hundred city commission meetings and watched what was going on, understood what was going on in our little city, uh, had served on some volunteer boards like code enforcement. Yeah, that's how it starts, right? Planning and, you know, yeah, all that stuff. So yeah, we started uh in a in a very small city here in northeast Broward County that didn't have a lot of really big issues like there are today, but yeah, that's where it started.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

So you start there and then eventually is it just that you get caught up in it and then you just, well, what's next? You know, is it why go to the Broward County Commission? Why head to the state? Is it always like you're looking to do more? You know, what what drives you?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Well, I mean, back to that first question about like uh education and and past, and my dream was to be an automotive designer. And I remember sending a uh a book report when I was in the might have been eighth grade or now or maybe in high school, because my grandfather was a executive at Ford Motor, yeah, sent it to him, and he sent it to Lee Iacoka, and Lee Iacoka graded it for me.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Um, so I want that's what I wanted to do. And get to the mid-80s and coming out of high school in the automotive industry is not good in the United States. The car, the products were not great, designs were probably even worse. And um better than the K-Car, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

K car and things like that, and you know, the Fairmont, you know, leave that out for Ford. But the, you know, the the desire for political uh public office or political science was not there, obviously. Right. I didn't study political science. I started uh studied engineering, then ultimately uh business information systems at at FAU. Um, so for me it was just getting involved, and you know, we all get involved different ways. I mean, you you cook spaghetti for hundreds of thousands of you know people over the course of the time you've done it, uh your closest friends that to help a great nonprofit. And we all kind of do it in our different ways, whether it's fundraising or volunteering or building houses with habitat. And so we've we kind of found a passion and all right, let's let's go work intricately with uh the future of our little city here. Um and I think at that point, yeah, that it can kind of take you, and it's not not so much from a power standpoint, but from a all right, well, I had this position, how else can I help? And right uh I followed Shane Strum, uh who now runs the two hospital systems here as a chair of the Broward Republican Party. And uh that's when we, you know, we was we met in a room slightly bigger than a phone book, uh booth. If you know what a phone booth is, it's not many people, but we had a actually had a very vibrant party here at the time and um interesting times. I mean, that was when Jeb Bush was considered probably the most conservative person that anybody knew. Right. Um, but so kind of that's like the political side, and then the the public service side is really the city commission, and then you find out all right, well, 2010's coming around. I'm look I'm driving up and down federal highway like like you are, and seeing businesses with with you know plywood on the on the windows, closed and people going out of business that have been in business for many years, not necessarily due to their own uh bad business skills or that type of thing, but the economy you know collapsed around them. And I said, well, let's figure out a way to do to be more productive. And Lighthouse Point was a great place to start, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't uh there was not a lot of diversity in businesses and and areas and things like that. So I took a shot at the county commission and um it was very unlikely that we'd win because we had about 20% of the you know, one-fifth of the money as as our opponent who happened to be the uh mayor of Broward County at the time. Yeah, sure. So we worked real hard for five months, uh announced actually on May 20th, 2010, which was my 15th wedding anniversary to the day. Nothing like telling your wife too. We're gonna make an announcement. We're gonna skip the anniversary part. We're gonna skip dinner after it was nice. Okay. Um, which would what my what Eileen didn't know is that she was gonna be giving a speech, and we waited until that day to tell her. Wow. Um she did a great job, and we we fought in some issues that were important to everybody, and um we were able to win and and uh start getting involved really at a a bigger level. I mean, Broward County's two million people budget at that time was about $3.4 billion. It's over eight now. Um but an airport, a seaport, uh tourism industry, all of those things, and and start working on some things that you know would be productive for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So you skipped being mayor, which I didn't skip it, they skipped it. I was being nice.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

It's all right.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

And just to kind of take the symbolism, the elephant never forgets.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah, of course. Animal, the elephant, not political, but you just never forget. You decide, okay, well, maybe I can't get more done here. I'm gonna go up, I'm gonna go to Tallahassee.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

It was interesting. Uh I remember sitting on the county commission and our good friend Marty Kierr, who doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, you're a friend of Marty's because he's just a good, good guy. He's a good guy. And he's got a piece of paper and he's jotting things down, just slides it over to me. So it wasn't anything political or sunshine violating. He just put the c the average, the annual pay for a county commissioner times four minus the annual pay for a state representative times four. He goes, that's what you're gonna miss out on. Why do you why are you leaving? Um, what had happened really is George Moritz had had uh served us in in Tallahassee from 2010 to 2018 and did a good job for us. And I said, Well, you know, it's it's definitely a sacrifice to try to get to Tallahassee, being that there were no direct flights and it's seven hours away by car. Um, but I think to be able to bring for me at the time, it was leave those last four years at the county commission and go there. Why, you know, a lot of people say, What's the why? Did you want to go there and pass a particular bill? For me, it was uh beach renourishment and coastal management, because that's what we had done here, and I didn't go up there to get into culture wars or disagreements between this side or that side or you know, within the family and those things, but to me it was to get some real good policy done and I think uh I focused on transportation, infrastructure, utilities, and energy policies, and that's the committee I chair now. So I mean I kind of stayed on my my focus, and you know, I didn't end up speaker of the house, but I also didn't get uh unelected, so that so I did something right on both sides, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

No, you're doing you know, you're doing a great job. And obviously, from being from a very blue county, uh you go up there and you're in a very red state house. So you have to play both sides. I mean, I think you're I think you're uh extraordinarily good at that.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

And so I think I I think something that somebody a lot of folks may may or may not know, but I think the hardest thing is really it would be easy to go up there and be when I got there we were uh we were 73 out of 120, so a majority but not a supermajority, which is eighty. Then we were seventy-eight, and then we were eighty-five, I think, and now we're like eighty-six, eighty-seven. And the easiest thing to do would be just go with the flow. You're in the majority, right? Stick with you know, vote party line and things like that. But um, you think about who's back at home and you think about the issues that are important, and like the arts is one of those those key issues for me. You did a great job with that. We can we can say, all right, fine, the governor doesn't, you know. And here's a misconception. I think the governor is very environmentally supportive on uh on issues in the in the environment, and he's also very supportive of many things in the arts, but he's also a person that stands on specific principles if he disagrees with something. And and so unfortunately, the arts and culture budget last year, not this year, but last year, um got wiped out. It was 80, you know, it was it was tens of millions of dollars, but you know, it was it it was unfortunate and heard it from everybody. Might have heard it from you as well. No, you did, you did hear from me. Uh, but so we we we get went back up and said, well, let's come up with a formula where these projects are evaluated as they should be on their own merit, and uh the grant applications they do, and we're able to fully fund uh what was up there this year, um, and uh hope to continue to do that better, you know, as years come because I mean there's a lot of as a as a musician yourself, uh it you know, you don't want to take someone's dream away if they're in a you know small organization and maybe some some state funding is is part of what they do and and and uh it's helpful. But yeah, I mean sometimes it's you know, you kind of look at it and you say, well, this is for this is for the folks back at home. I'm not saying they appreciate it all the time, but I think you did a good job with that.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

I think you did a good job with that. I I think you stepped in as a voice of reason and said, Hey, listen, I can be who I am up in Tallahassee and I could represent everybody else and say, I can get this done, I can make sure it's right, and I can make sure Governor DeSances that this is gonna be okay for you to sign. I think you did a good job with that. I and we appreciate it, and and so do the arts. And but let's talk about the arts. How'd you just start playing drums? Because you play. I want to say one other thing before you before we just leave the bipartisan thing. Uh, you know, I want to give everybody a a kind of snapshot. You you gave a presentation along with some of the other uh Democratic um representatives, and I thought one thing that struck me, uh you said last year when you were talking about the legislative agenda and what you got done. You say 98% of what we do up there, we're all working together. We're all getting really good things done. It's the two percent you hear about.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I mean, the you the numbers are you know different from year to year, but basically 3,000-ish bills get filed, about 10% of those go through the entire process. Of those 300 that you know go through the process in the House and the Senate, they bounce back and forth. And um what's interesting is 92%, I think, you know, are unanimous, like all the all votes. Uh the 90, you know, the high nineties, it's it's uh bipartisan. So you lose a couple on either side. It might be might be a you know, could be a Hillary Casella issue and she di disagrees with her party, I you know, uh or I might with my party, but um but at the end of the day, there's only if there's literally a handful of bills that become the lightning rods for the newspapers to write about and the op-eds to be written and opinions to be shared. But um to be fair, I mean those are a lot of times those few bills are pretty controversial. So uh to your point, a lot of you know, a lot of what we do. I mean, I work with um you know, work with Senator Pizzo, work with Senator Osgood on a lot of projects to bring money home for, you know, Senator Osgood and I work on a lot of stuff in her district. Right. It's important to me because while there's not a uh habitat project, you know, for s uh, for example, specifically in my geographic district, it's right next door. And a lot of the folks that that have that opportunity to have home ownership, um, it changes their lives. I mean, they teach in our schools, they work, you know, work at our airport or seaport or other other economic engines that the fuel our economy. So um we work together on things like that. And you know, sometimes if something is is uh necessary and I can't get I don't think I can get over the line with someone from my delegation here, I'll go find a senator from you know Clearwater or something and and try to get it done. But I mean the goal there is really working together and trying to get some things done.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah. So but you have I mean, I know it's a long way to get up there, and they've had flights, they don't have flights, they have a flight with Jet Blue for what seven months?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Yeah. It was great. It was almost like having a private plane. You went to TSA pre-check, you vet you could valet at FLL, go to pre-check and get on your plane. You're almost you're almost in the air in like 30 minutes, and you land and you get your runner car up there, and that was the best setup. Right. Sometimes it was silver, a little less, they're gone too. Um, and unfortunately, now you have to either go to Miami to fly direct or go to uh Atlanta on Delta or Charlotte on American Airlines to get there. And it takes you hours. I mean, the time you get it done, thinking about training, you know, getting to the airport, getting ready, changing planes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Well, just file the bill to move it from Tallahassee to Orlando and everybody would be.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Take the bright line. Yeah, they won't have any problem with their numbers for sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

So so, but let's talk about some of the other things you do up there, and we'll talk about the arts. I mean, how'd you start playing drums? I mean, I know you're you're a musician.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

That goes back to uh my dad as well. My brother and I both uh played the drums, uh as my dad did. We some of the first records I was able to start listening to were you know, old big band, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, stuff like that. But really, my dad's stuff was like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich and their bands and Count Basie and some other stuff. And um so initially uh he was Alex Van Halen and I was the uh the other brother, but not nearly as good. And uh we we both uh we both played in some different little rock bands in in uh high school. Uh you and I share shared a guitar teacher. I don't I don't have him anymore because I can't play the guitar anymore. Excuse me, but um the drums were it was interesting because we both played and he was kind of like the better drummer, and then uh freshman year, he was a junior at Northeast, and we both uh made the snare drum, you know, the drum line and and uh the percussion section, the snare drum line. And so it was fun to do that for a couple years with him, and then you know, my last two years. And um, when I finished uh high school, it was interesting. I was considering a career in the arts or a career in you know engineering, which is much your or something in that space, uh, which is much more uh left versus right brain decision. But um so one of the things that we that I was applying one of the uh institutions that I was applying to was Berkeley Conservatory Music in in Boston. Um and in my mind was do I want to be per uh a symphonic percussionist? Uh being in a rock band's probably different, but you know, right that was you know that was an option. Right. Um I don't know if I would have made it, but I was I thought in my head, you know, as being this is trans world, I'm thinking to myself, is there a future in playing in a you know a traveling symphony or orchestra? Uh or is it better if you can, you know, go build something and start your own business? So I I went that way, but uh, I think I hadn't touched a uh a set of drumsticks in probably 30 years. And I get uh a buddy of mine gets elected to the Florida House from the Claremont, you know, Lake County, Central Florida area. Um, and he says, Hey, I'm gonna start this band. It's called House of Rock. You want in on this? So it was uh Taylor Yarkowski who plays guitar. Uh there's another former member, uh medical doctor by the name of Joel Rudman and I, and we found some legitimate music musicians around us. Right. Um that's the best. But what's interesting is a lot all all those legitimate instrument uh musicians, uh the doc has moved on and Taylor's still kind of the centerpiece of it. But the the kind of the full-time drummer was a deputy secretary for DBPR, who's now the uh chief of staff to the new lieutenant governor. Wow. Uh the guitar the guitarist who you would we would love um is a guy named David Axelman. Uh he channels Randy Rhodes, Eddie Van Halen, you name it. I mean he's a really good guitarist, but he's also the general counsel to the uh governor. Wow. In the governor's office, who's the general counsel of the Florida House prior to that. But uh it's it's fun. I mean, it's like pick some songs you think you can play, and so some Allison Chains and um Pat Benatar, right? A few with the outfield, some 80s songs.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

You got some good guitar.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Fun stuff. So I you know I sat in on a a little bit of that, and then uh when we can do something uh outside of Tallahassee, that you know, that's fun. But really, when we're up there, we will we'll do a few gigs.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Nice. Fun. Well, I I've seen some videos, so it looked like a lot of fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

It did look like a definitely fun. And you know what? Again, back to the bipartisan thing, then we do a do an event up there called Red Dog, Blue Dog, and that's uh an opportunity for uh members on both sides of the aisle to raise money, uh play bartender to kind of raise money for local uh nonprofits for uh uh animal care facilities and and animal shelters. And um we had uh a member from the the west coast of Florida who who came in and did some singing, uh, Democrat uh House member had some had some uh good pipes for a few songs, and then we had some other other members that came in and and had some fun. And so is it you know, music kind of brings people together, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah, no, absolutely does. So let's talk about bringing people together and coming home to Broward County. It's a great place to live, right? That's why we do it. You know, we we we love living here, we love going out there, and you you're involved with a lot of charities as well. So which you uh you said habitat.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

So you on the habitat side, I'm not on the board or anything. We're just I'm just a big believer in uh we do the CEO build, I do the they do like an elected officials build from time to time, and I've gotten them some some funds for their uh the project they have in Fort Lauderdale, the townhouse project, um, some other other things and believe in what they do. I love the mission. Uh, but but uh actual boards that I take my time and invest in and and uh and you know attend regular meetings are a museum of discovery and science. Sure. Which, you know, the when I was a kid it was the Discovery Center on the River, and you know, we have the we have one of the best children's museums, and I would argue we have probably the best CEO in the country for a children's museum. Joe Cox is doing an amazing job, and we have a good board, Shane Strum's on there. Yeah, uh Caitlin from uh Memorial's on there, Joe DiMaggio, and and so we've got some really good people. Uh that's a that's a fun and rewarding uh board was able to bring some funding back for uh uh program called Eco Explorers, which is a uh young, you know, uh young uh entrepreneurial uh expl uh program for workforce to get uh to help hire some young kids there from the science background. Um I'm also on the Friends of Birch Park or the Birch Taylor Birch uh Park and Estate Park, but the friends groups are the organizations that kind of help. Hey, we need to we want to do this project or that one, redo the seawall, boat dock, rebuild on the trestle bridge where the train used to go over. No train anymore, unfortunately. Um and then uh Eileen is on, you know, uh the uh w uh sorry bonnet house which is which is connected to birch park so we can that's kind of our that's I said that's kind of our uh our investment in the environment and it's important and you know there's certain things you gotta protect and make sure that uh they never go away because you know we can't get them back once they're they're not here. Um and then just some other organizations. I you know the Greater Fort Lauder Alliance created a a position for a legislator and so I've been able to serve there since being on the county commission for eight years and then the last seven in the legislature and uh I think economic development is you know key issue for every community that wants to grow and then sustain itself.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

It's the Broward has grown quite a bit. You said three billion to eight billion dollars right that's that's about it yeah um so that's a we we're gaining a lot of people a lot of people coming down here it I think it's been great. I mean I I think we've done a great job. I I I one of the things that I love about this county and about the nonprofit community and about the business community and about the Broward workshop is we do work together. Yeah I mean it seems like it's when there's issues that we want to deal with whether it be transportation education housing it's kind of everybody's willing to pitch in. So I think we do a good job with that.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Yeah. You know I I when I when I go up and kind of uh translate Broward to some of my folks on the on the right like you know you you would be surprised at how pro-business and and involved in the economy you know some of these organizations are and politics aside I it's you know we sit in a room and try to figure things out and you know whether it's uh like you said whether it's dealing with transportation issues, uh our marine industry, I mean we we're sure we're blessed with some areas of of uh economic opportunities that you know that other areas just don't have and uh you know we've I think we've attracted people from out of state especially over the last you know eight to ten years that uh that see that and bring their you know bring their investment here and uh and eventually some of them sell and that's where you come in.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Yeah that's where I come in.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

But you know before things sell we talk about we we we've been talking about iconic businesses and I was at Mimi's Ravioli yesterday which I mean is an iconic business here we talked about hot dog heaven the Mai Kai I mean what are some of the fun things you like to do in Broward County places like you you and Eileen like to go uh well the Mai Kai coming back was great I mean reinvesting in that's cool I mean it's a it uh I think some of the things they did on the rebuild were better than the original by having the out outdoor bar and uh you know I I grew up here and I valet valet cars at a place called yesterday's and the uh Joseph's and Park Avenue anyway like a lot of a lot of the places that are no longer here I mean there's a great book uh that uh Tom Lafredo sent me uh I'm trying to remember I saw I saw a copy of it at the CVS right by the Galleria Mall uh restaurant you know restaurants that were here in Fort Lauderdale that are no longer in the caves and I mean I I think growing up here the most iconic restaurant uh or dinner and dining experience was Burton Jacks yeah because it sat at the sat at birth 23 in the port you know you had an opportunity not only to see Jack Jackson you know an excellent restaurant tour but Burt Reynolds once in a while and we did see him there from time to time and uh but there's uh there's a great scene here I mean obviously Cagnata LaMarca um I'll go with like you know Casa d'Angelo sure Moderano once in a while for you know just as good a food as any Italian restaurant maybe even better but the entertainment piece of that's always fun uh runway Kitchenetta now turned into to uh uh Zito's which we tried that a couple weeks ago that was great uh Cafe Vico runway uh Gianni's Gianni's you can't you can't forget uh our friend Reno at uh Heritage very interesting spot what he did with that in an old uh auto repair facility but uh he's done a great job and uh we just have we've got lots of options and you know there's lots of new places to to try and I'm a part of part of I think as a as a local uh that's been here a long time you know one of my one of my uh probably things I I should do better on dining is just try a new place yeah because you go to that you can go to places that you know and you know chef angelo is always a welcome face. No he's great so but there's all there are other places and we you know we should try some some new ones.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

One of the things we always talk about uh you know and I definitely want to get this before you leave is if you had a look back and you're and you're and I know you work with some young people as well and guiding some young people what what's your advice to them to like you know getting involved in politics or pursuing a career don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I mean you know building a business what what are some of the thoughts you have for you know one of the most interesting things and I know you probably have some you know business interns here and people that come here to learn like the skills of what you do and your your team does um one of the cool things about being in public office is and a lot of these parents or and and the young people uh or or one or the other or both of them may think hey my my my son or daughter wants a career uh wants to pursue a career in politics or lobbying or whatever it might be uh but more more often than not I mean uh it it's the person that volunteered for example on a campaign I've got a young young guy who I asked him to do a little bit of door knocking and um won't mention his name but uh his his father's my cardiologist and his mom's a dear friend in in business and neither of that was the case really before this kid volunteered for me he's now working uh as an employee a paid employee for Senator Rick Scott up in DC while he gets ready to take the the bar just a really bright young guy and for me why why did I go uh put myself out there and make recommendations and make phone calls for this kid it wasn't because I knew him it wasn't because of a lot of you know his his politics I mean I think we're relatively aligned but it was because of his work work ethic and I think it's whether you know I have a have a an employee uh or a volunteer or an intern someone comes into our world and kind of really puts that effort forward I mean I think work ethic is probably one of the biggest biggest issues and I don't want to be one of those people that complains about the younger generation but sometimes you see a lot of kids might want to be inside more yeah not go out and interact with people the the people's skills and social skills and relationships that type of thing but uh when you have the opportunity to have someone uh you know to mentor and and kind of learn what they're doing. I mean I have a young lady that uh is in my office paid employee and one of the two people that worked for me in the legislative office uh she was a volunteer uh campaign worker for a uh a commissioner in Fort Lauderdale who we're not on the same side of the aisle together and uh and she's not a R or a D she's an independent and she does an amazing job. But it was her again it was her her personality or work ethic. So I think characteristics don't always have to people always think in politics you hire somebody who thinks like you or acts like you or looks like you or whatever. And I think more often than not um when I left the county commission that the the two employees that were working with me every day um are still working for Commissioner Lamar Fisher and neither one of them is a Republican. Right. But I kept them on on board and and thought they did an amazing job and they're wonderful people because they worked hard and they served a constituent. So a lot of times it's whether it's a young person or somebody you hire to to be in the actual office it's it's their it's who they are right. Right. It's how do they handle themselves when someone calls and they've you're in a crisis situation with their life.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Yeah well I think you stole one of my employees. Anyway no no I think she left to work work for you. So uh Kate. So but yeah she was great. I tried to hire Kate three times.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Yeah and she's had a a career in politics not I don't think with you with the with other yeah she's with uh she's with the uh American uh flood coalition now yeah nice environmental policy on water great so i it's great to watch young people yeah start in you know these jobs and then grow up and give them opportunities so speaking of opportunities we'll kind of wind up with this what's next for chip I mean so the the the beauty of term limits is it gives you uh an opportunity to to see when there's an end you know uh if there was no term limits there you know some people there may never be an end right right uh I'm I'm happy uh that there you know there's some definition on the time in in Tallahassee in the house and I'm coming into my last year. Uh there's certainly some options I didn't think I had a year or two years ago and we'll kind of see how that plays out whether it's at uh the state level uh or locally here in a in a few years. So um I've heard some whispers out there that you're gonna maybe run for mayor of something but you're not going to be able to say you're gonna are you going to go to the county commission because I think that's like the move from the Well you were there. Why was that I've already been there I'm not going back there. Right. And I'm not running for mayor of Lighthouse Point. So but there might be something loc in local government. I I still uh I spent those you know this is going on my eighth year those seven years so far in Tallahassee without uh without turning into one of those people that wants to change local government from there. I think there's a value in uh you know being the closest to residents and I think uh you know you have to have good leaders who understand you know the the the value of local government but also the fact that you know our businesses like we the people the folks you represent need to have a voice. I mean I I think the the chambers and the alliances and the economic development uh function of local government is really important. And I think uh you know we've got to use them as partners and because they're gonna you know they're gonna want to have good policy but at the same time want to use them as partners so that we can get some good things done.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

We do need good people in politics. I mean uh if we shout out to the young people we need good people to run for office and we need to support good people like Chip and uh I really appreciate everything you do for our community. I I appreciate being your friend I appreciate you coming on today.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

This is great. It's my you know it's a it's a privilege that I didn't think I was going to have and to have and the only way to do it you know this from all the things you do the only way to be able to do something like this is to have a very supportive energetic uh spouse that you know I would argue would you know got would if we were on a ballot she'd get more votes than I would no doubt and she might. A lot of folks asked if she was going to run for to r uh replace me in my seat and she said absolutely not and I but but there's no doubt that if she wanted to she could do whatever she wants.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah I think my wife could run for office more than I could maybe she'd get more elected. But uh yes Eileen is amazing she does so much in the community as well so she's she as does Allison. Yes and as does Allison and we're both very blessed to have uh amazing partners in our lives like Alison and Eileen yes it is so thank you my friend I really appreciate you coming in today thank you all right that's another great episode with Coffee with Cagneta thank you so much Chip or Representative Chip Lamarca for coming in today