ORANGE PARK – A bit battered but not beaten, Florida Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Reps. Sam Garrison and Judson Sapp recently returned from Tallahassee after four extended sessions while continuing to champion Clay County.

“We’ve said it before: we punch above our weight class,” Garrison told a sold-out audience at the annual Clay Chamber Legislative Roundup on Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Thrasher-Horne Conference Center.

All three said the just-completed session was, at times, messy and difficult, and they expect the next session to be even more difficult as they explore one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ most significant asks – property taxes.

“Normally, we go 60 days. We went 105 days,” Bradley said. “We have a Republican super majority in both the House and the Senate, and we have a Republican governor, and what we saw this year was a real debate, a philosophical debate that went back and forth between the chambers.”

Garrison is set to become the Speaker of the House in 2026. He’s the Chairman of the Rules Committee, so he doesn’t submit bills for legislation. Bradley introduced seven bills that were passed, while Sapp, a freshman in the House, was successful on five bills. Every bill from the Clay County delegation that made it to the governor’s desk was signed.

“We fought like hell to take care of our county and the budget,” Garrison said. “All three of us did. But it's not worth the ink or the paper it's printed on if the governor vetoes it. The governor did not veto our projects. So, I publicly thank the governor for being a great partner for Clay County, and for caring about Clay County.”

All three were pressed on their favorite pieces of legislation from the 2025 session. Here are excerpts:

“The first was the state pays hundreds of millions of dollars to support mental health to keep our kids safe, keep our schools safe, but the metrics aren't there,” Bradley said. “What's working? One, where's the money going, and two, what are the outcomes? Even more importantly, how are we measuring outcomes? What deserves more money? What program should we have more of, fewer of? Should we have different programs in different places anyway? You can't make it better until you know what you have. So, that bill, was a really good bill, and Sam was the absolute champion of that, we got that passed, and that really lays the groundwork for some really good public policy in the next few years.”

Bradley also introduced the “Tristin Murphy Act,” which expands program grants to include training for 911 public safety telecommunicators, emergency medical technicians, law enforcement and court officials to establish misdemeanor or mental health diversion programs.

“The other bill that was very near and dear to my heart that also involved mental health was the Tristan Murphy Act,” Bradley said. “The bill was named after him. He was a schizophrenic, a young father in South Florida. He was off his meds, and he drove his truck into a retention pond. When he was clearly mentally ill, he found himself in the deep end of the criminal justice system.”

The senator said she hopes the bill will help separate people who need mental health care instead of being placed into the Department of Corrections.

Bradley said Murphy committed suicide in prison.

“There is a very real, dangerous intersection between the mentally ill and the criminal justice system, and it is a very important issue in our state,” she said. “We have a lot of folks who are mentally ill, and the state has a duty and a job in determining who needs to get treatment, who needs to be in [DOC].”

Sapp authored the Dangerous Dogs Bill, commonly referred to as the Pam Rock Act, after the Melrose postal carrier who was mauled to death by a pack of pit bulls.

Sapp said he got the idea from former state representative Bobby Payne, who left the House after reaching term limits.

“I'm very proud of this bill for two reasons. One, it was extremely important. We have an epidemic of dog attacks,” Sapp said. “We need to address it, and the law was not helping us do that. It became very personal. During the journey of this bill, my son was almost attacked, so it became personal. From the beginning, it was a slam dunk.”

Sapp also filed a successful bill that allowed for certain insurance benefits for families of law enforcement, corrections, and probation officers if they get injured on the job or during training.

“Clay County had a phenomenal success because of the team,” Sapp said. “That’s why I don't want to highlight anything. I got a Turkey Award, which means that I brought too much money back to the district. I hate that as a fiscal conservative, but when I was interviewed, I said my job is to bring your tax dollars back to the district. However, I try to be clear: it's because we're fighting hard for you, and I couldn't fight as a freshman for you without these two (Bradley and Garrison). We're very lucky.”

Garrison said all will be focused on property taxes in the next session.

“When you hear the governor say things like property tax reform, when you hear him talk about potentially congressional redistricting or any number of things that he's talking about, we pay attention,” Garrison said. “It doesn't mean we're going to agree. It doesn't mean we're going to do it. It means we're going to be dealing with it.”

Which probably means another season of contemptuous sessions ahead.

“You have strong-willed, principled leaders who are trying to be responsive to the issues that they care about,” Garrison said. “When you have a presiding officer in the Senate from the most rural part of the state and a presiding officer in the House from densely populated Miami, a Cuban American kid who came to the United States, it's a different vibe.

“Ron (DeSantis) is not a wallflower. He's got some ideas, and so you kind of put that into the mix. You’re going to have some rough waters, but ultimately, the product that we end up with, I think, will be something everyone's very proud of. I certainly am.”