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Florida state parks whistleblower fired after exposing Ron DeSantis’s plans (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by fpslem@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Florida’s department of environmental protection has fired a whistleblower who exposed and sank governor Ron DeSantis’s secretive plan to pave over environmentally sensitive state parks and build lucrative hotels, golf courses and pickleball courts.

James Gaddis, who worked for the agency for two years as a cartographer, was terminated for “conduct unbecoming a public employee”, according to a letter he received on Saturday.

His leaking of the proposals sparked a furious backlash that united Republicans with Democrats and environmental advocates, and forced DeSantis into a humiliating climbdown last week in which he admitted the plans were “half-baked” and were “going back to the drawing board”.

Speaking with the Tampa Bay Times on Monday, Gaddis said preservation of the state parks was more important to him than his position.

“It was the absolute flagrant disregard for the critical, globally imperiled habitat in these parks,” he said. “This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat. The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.”

News of his firing came as two Democratic state representatives pressed the agency about who was involved in drawing up plans that appeared to include no-bid contracts destined for mysteriously pre-chosen developers outside the requirements of Florida law.

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[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Are EPA employees not protected from retaliation? There are tons of laws protecting employees from retaliation for reporting things to agencies like the EPA, DEP, OSHA, etc. Seems really weird the people in those offices wouldnt have the same protections

They would, but the whistle was being blwon against the corrupt AF shitstain governor of the state, so.......

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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