Jesse Scheckner
Gov. Ron DeSantis has named five new members to the Government Efficiency Task Force, a voter-approved panel responsible for devising ways to improve Florida operations and fiscal efficiency.
All are highly qualified. Most have donated to the Governor.
They include:
— Pedro Allende, Secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services.
— Eric Hall, Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
— Jason Weida, Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
— Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Naples-based public policy think tank primarily focused on reducing the welfare state, restrictions on teenage workers and expansions of Medicaid.
— Sal Nuzzo, Senior Vice President of the James Madison Institute, a libertarian free market think tank headquartered in Tallahassee.
Allende, a lawyer by training, is a former federal administrator with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he served as deputy assistant secretary of infrastructure, risk and resiliency policy.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show he donated $2,500 to DeSantis’ campaign between May and September. He also kicked $1,000 to the Governor’s re-election bid last year, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Weida, a past Chief of Staff and Assistant Deputy Secretary for Medicaid policy and quality at the AHCA, is also a financial backer of the Governor’s.
He chipped in nearly $2,000 toward DeSantis’ re-election and another $6,600 — the maximum for individual contributions — to his presidential campaign.
A search of donations to DeSantis from Hall, who also serves on the boards of CareerSource Florida and Special Olympics Florida, yielded no results.
Hall, who holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies, previously worked as Senior Chancellor and the state’s first Chancellor for Innovation at the Florida Department of Education.
Nuzzo, who also serves as the Florida lead for Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform state coalition, also did not donate to DeSantis.
The Government Efficiency Task Force meets every four years. It is composed of 15 members, of whom five are appointed by the Governor, five by the Senate President and five by the House Speaker.
Members serve one-year terms, meet “as necessary” but at least quarterly. After a year of meetings, the task force must submit its recommendations to the Governor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Chair and Vice Chair of the Legislative Budget Commission.
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Editor’s note: A previous version of this report stated that Nuzzo donated $25 to DeSantis. The donation came from another person with a similar name living in Indiana.
