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All The President's Men

When Florida’s political class and well-wishers arrived in Tallahassee to see Governor Ron DeSantis be sworn into office for the second time, they were met with an unprecedented inaugural effort put on by both the legislative office and the political campaign.

Nick Iarossi of Capital City Consulting, who recently told The Floridian that DeSantis's “Free State of Florida” is “the model for the country.”

“Governor DeSantis gave a powerful inaugural speech that contrasted his policies to keep Florida free and prosperous versus the failed lockdown policies of other states and the failed policies of the federal government.  If states are looked at as an incubator for ideas, then Governor DeSantis and Florida should be the model for the country,” stated Iarossi.

Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson names new head of Agricultural Law Enforcement

Newly sworn in Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Wilton Simpson got to work on Wednesday by naming Lee Adams as the new director of his Department’s Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement.

Adams replaces Col. James Wiggins, who served in a law enforcement role at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services since 1998, including the last seven years as director of the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement. Wiggins earned $136,000 per year in that position.

“First, I want to thank Colonel James Wiggins for his more than two decades of service to the state of Florida and his dedicated leadership of the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement,” Simpson said in a released statement.

Gov. DeSantis names interim Secretary at Agency for Health Care Administration

Gov. Ron DeSantis named an interim Secretary and Chief of Staff for the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) hours before the state was scheduled to publicly meet with the managed care plan organizations that want to participate in Florida’s upcoming Medicaid care procurement.

A review of the state’s website shows Jason Weida was named interim Secretary and Brock Juarez Chief of Staff.

AHCA is slated to hold a three-hour meeting to address questions about the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Data Book it released on Nov. 22, 2022.

The data book provides relevant background information that managed care plans will want to have as they decide whether to compete to participate in the Medicaid managed care regions.

Senate resiliency panel considers obstacles to Ian recovery

While state disaster recovery workers have pushed to clean up and rebuild Southwest Florida and other parts of the state hit hard by Hurricane Ian last year, a combination of conflicting local, state and federal rules have meant some aspects of the recovery process will take longer than expected, Florida’s top disaster response official told a Senate panel.

Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie told the Senate Select Committee on Resiliency some local government contracts don’t always spell out every type of debris removal they need, causing the state to step in and prolonging the recovery process.

“At the local level we need to make sure they have every plausible line item in their contract,” Guthrie told the committee.