Christine Jordan Sexton
You won’t have to travel to Tallahassee to catch the follow up to the high profile Cabinet meeting in Tampa last week.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has asked the Florida Channel to broadcast the March 4 Cabinet aides meeting so those interested in following the discussions during the Cabinet’s next meeting. The chief issue likely will be a “performance template” that Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Atwater will use to assess the effectiveness of agency heads that report to them, including Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.
The Cabinet agreed at its Feb. 5 meeting that the template would be developed by Cabinet aides at the March 4 meeting and voted on at the full Cabinet meeting, scheduled for March 10.
The template is a direct result of the so-called “Baileygate” incident involving the disputed facts surrounding the departure of former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey. The Cabinet in January affirmed Rick Swearingen as the new commissioner. After that affirmation Bailey told the media that he was forced out potentially for political reasons.
Atwater sent a letter to Scott saying he wanted to conduct a search for a new FDLE commissioner, given the allegations. Scott replied with a terse note saying Swearingen should stay on the job to avoid turmoil and further that he wanted a change in leadership at the Office of Insurance Regulation, Office of Financial Regulation and the Florida Department of Revenue.
