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Whistleblower who leaked Florida park plans says he was dealt swift retribution

September 4, 2024 | | Print Article

Blowback came swift for a green-minded Florida state staffer after a leak of “half-baked” proposals found him booted from the Department of Environmental Protection.

While the seriousness of a proposal to install golf courses, hotels, and other amenities in state parks was a matter of dispute, the fate of the cartographer who leaked the plans was without a doubt. Tuesday, James Gaddis confirmed to multiple outlets that he had been fired from the Florida DEP after revealing conceptual plans that would have potentially impacted nine state parks.

“It was the absolute flagrant disregard for the critical, globally imperiled habitat in these parks,” he told the Tampa Bay Times as the outlet reported, “‘This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat,’ Gaddis said. He recalls his hand, hovering over a computer mouse, shaking with anger and frustration as he was told to rush his maps from senior leadership. ‘The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.'”

Claiming his leak was not politically motivated, the former employee shared details of his dismissal letter that read in part, “Recently the Department became aware that you intentionally released unauthorized and inaccurate information to the public.”

“At least one document was created, authored, and disseminated by you without direction or permission,” it stated while indicating his termination resulted from having committed conduct unbecoming a public employee, violation of law or department rules, negligence, and misconduct.

Following the leak that included details of a plan to hold eight public meetings on Aug. 27 without advance publication of the proposal for public review, the DEP released a statement about the Great Outdoors Initiative aimed at increasing public access in state parks.

Gaddis’ leak and the protests that followed prompted the proposals to be put on hold as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had referred to the plans as “half-baked.”

During an event promoting law enforcement at the end of August, the governor was asked about it when he first began fielding questions shortly after the 46-minute mark and he explained, “This is something that was leaked. It was not approved by me, I never saw that.”

“A lot of that stuff was just half-baked and was not ready for prime time, and it was intentionally leaked out to a left-wing group to try to create a narrative,” he contended.

“We’re not getting into the golf course business in the state of Florida,” the governor explicitly stated.

Democratic state Reps. Anna Eskamani and Angie Nixon, frequent critics of the statesman, remained unsatisfied and released a letter calling his announcement to send the proposal “back to the drawing board” “insufficient.”

“The DeSantis administration was days away from holding a series of simultaneously timed hearings on these plans, hearings that were only canceled because the details leaked and sparked a statewide uproar,” read the letter calling for a release of any and all communications between his office, the DEP and those connected to the park plan.

“The intention of our letter is to get clarity,” Eskamani told ABC Action News. “Who was involved, how did this happen, why was it moving so quickly? And what can we do in the legislature to prevent it from happening again?”

Worth noting, in 2020, former Florida Department of Health data manager Rebekah Jones was fired by the state after making false claims about Florida removing data from the coronavirus dashboard.

Currently, a crowdfunding campaign organized by Gaddis helped the man raise over $160,000 from more than 4,000 donors, including several $1,000 contributions from anonymous donors.

Kevin Haggerty
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