Peter Schorsch
David Wilkins, who led the state’s perennially troubled child welfare agency, is now helping new CEO Ken Lawson right the ship at VISIT FLORIDA.
An internal email sent Wednesday and shared with FloridaPolitics.com says Wilkins, secretary of the Department of Children and Families under Gov. Rick Scott in 2011-13, is “assisting VISIT FLORIDA in the review of some of our contracts, processes and procedures.”
The email was sent to staff by Meredith DaSilva, the state tourism agency’s director of executive operations. Wilkins couldn’t be immediately reached Thursday.
Scott also used Wilkins earlier this year to review the budget of Enterprise Florida, the public-private economic development organization, to suggest cuts and savings.
Wilkins resigned from DCF “amid an escalating scandal over the deaths of four small children who had a history of involvement with child-abuse investigators,” the Miami Herald’s Carol Marbin Miller reported in 2013.
Lawson, most recently secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, was brought over after Scott had called on former VISIT FLORIDA CEO Will Seccombe to quit, continuing a shake-up at the organization that saw two other top executives shown the door.
That was from the fallout over how it handled a secret marketing contract worth up to $1 million with Miami rapper superstar Pitbull that was vehemently criticized by House Speaker Richard Corcoran.
Scott then called for an overhaul of how VISIT FLORIDA does business.
