Gov. Rick Scott under fire for ‘shabby’ personnel decisions

http://www.bradenton.com/2015/01/16/5584644_gov-rick-scott-under-fire-for.html?rh=1

Bailey was ordered to “retire or resign” by Scott’s general counsel, Pete Antonacci, who gave Bailey no reason for the action and, according to Bailey, claimed Scott was acting with the support of all three Cabinet members. FDLE is an independent agency that investigates state-level crime and corruption whose leader reports to Scott and three elected Cabinet members. It was created as a Cabinet agency to prevent undue political pressure or interference from any single elected official. 

“In order to terminate the head of a Cabinet agency, you need the governor or one other person or you need three votes,” Sink said. “The three Cabinet officers are independently elected and they need to start standing up and take responsibility for it. One of them had to agree to it.”

Besides Putnam, the others are Attorney General Pam Bondi, a self-proclaimed supporter of law enforcement, and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who promotes transparency in government.

Sink also questioned the legality of the action and said it should have been discussed at a public meeting. 

“It looks like the governor on his own decided he was going to fire Jerry Bailey, but you can’t do it that way,” Sink said. “The Florida way is, we have never politicized law enforcement. Maybe they do that in Louisiana where all those (Scott) staff people come from. Jerry Bailey had incredible respect and he didn’t have a political bone in his body.”

Relations between Scott’s office and FDLE deteriorated last year after Bailey and FDLE brass resisted what they saw as political interference in the agency by Scott advisers, including former counsel Antonacci and Melissa Sellers, who managed Scott’s re-election campaign and is now his chief of staff.

 

 

 

Filed under: General Problems