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Manny Diaz Jr. selected as interim UWF President despite concerns

One critic said it was a 'travesty' and a 'slap in the face.'

Despite two trustees pushing back and raising concerns about a lack of transparency, the University of West Florida trustees have named Manny Diaz Jr. as the school’s interim president.

The UWF Board of Trustees voted to hire Diaz — a Gov. Ron DeSantis ally and the previous Education Commissioner — during a special 90-minute meeting Tuesday morning.

Diaz’s salary has yet to be negotiated, school spokesperson Brittany Sherwood said. His appointment takes effect July 14.

Against the criticism, Trustee Chair Rebecca Matthews argued Diaz is the right man for the job, pointing to his career as a social studies teacher and basketball coach in Miami-Dade County that eventually led to Diaz becoming a nationally-respected leader in education. 

“Commissioner Diaz is high energy,” Matthews said. “He’s a tireless leader and an advocate with endless ideas to brainstorm. His vision, his foresight, his strong ability to implement has been proven time and again, and uniquely, he does all of this with balance and a steady hand.”

Lobbying compensation: Capital City Consulting clears $7.5M in first quarter

The firm is again on pace for a record year.

Capital City Consulting (CCC) hit a new high in the first quarter with $7.55 million in earnings, giving them an iron grip on the No. 3 spot in Florida Politics’ lobby firm rankings.

New lobbying compensation reports show CCC collected $4.05 million for lobbying the Legislature last quarter and an additional $3.5 million lobbying the Governor, Cabinet and state agencies. The firm’s overall total represents a 10% increase over its $6.87 million haul in Q4 2024.

Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms listed on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000.

Even using more conservative revenue estimates, the firm co-founded by Nick Iarossi and Ron LaFace would still have a firm hold on the No. 3 spot in Florida Politics’ Lobby Firm Rankings. CCC more than doubled the next-highest total on the list.

CCC’s legislative compensation report listed more than 260 clients, several of which paid sums exceeding the cap on range reporting, meaning the listed amounts are concrete and not estimates. That set included Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) at $199,000, followed by Advocating for Seniors and Gartner at $63,000 and Neal Land Development Group, CDR Maguire and Lennar Homes at $53,000 apiece.

FSU loses $53 million in research funds in DOGE cuts; it almost was double that

The grants came from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, USAID, and other agencies.

Florida State University has lost over $53 million in DOGE cuts. As of May 23, 54 federal grants and contracts have been canceled, according to university spokesperson Amy Farnum Patronis.

Earlier in the month, the university was facing a loss of almost double the amount of money, $102 million. But an appeal to the National Institutes of Health to reinstate the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS interventions (ATN) at the Scientific Leadership Center at FSU restored over $50 million.

The rest of the federal funds that have been cut come from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, USAID, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education, among others.

The university has submitted more than 10 requests for reconsideration to these various federal agencies, Patronis said.

Power and profit: How special district bonds divided a Sarasota-area neighborhood

A Sarasota-area community’s effort to save its golf course by forming a special-purpose government district and issuing $24 million in public bonds has devolved into a bitter, yearslong feud over cost, governance and transparency.

When luxury builder John Neal sold most of the lots available for new homes inside his gated community of University Park, straddling the Sarasota-Manatee line, he next set his eyes on its renowned 27-hole golf course.

With no need for the links and bunkers to help sell houses anymore, and no private operators willing to step in, Neal and his partner notified residents in 2017 of plans to pave over the pristine fairways to make way for nearly 2,000 new homes and four-story condos that could tower above their backyards.

Fearing they had no other choice, homeowners scrambled for options to buy the course and break their country club free of developer control. Known as the community elders, these residents began organizing a new special-purpose government called a recreation district to finance the deal.