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.
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.
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.
He said the DEP planned to hold short-notice, hour-long meetings at the nine parks simultaneously to announce the plans and minimize public comment.
By Tuesday afternoon, Gaddis’s GoFundMe appeal, entitled “an ethical whistleblower’s new start”, had surpassed $63,000, more than six times its initial target. »
