HEALTH

SFWMD: 3 high-ranking officials resign as new board, executive director take over

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

Three high-ranking people at the South Florida Water Management District have resigned, a day after the agency got a new governing board and new executive director.

Without naming names, district spokesman Randy Smith confirmed the vacated positions:  

  • head of Everglades policy and coordination
  • communications director
  • acting general counsel

According to the district's website and legal documents, those people are Eva Velez, Jerry Eisenband and Carlyn H. Kowalsky, respectively.

Smith said the three submitted "voluntary resignations."

Asked whether the resignations were requested, Smith said, "I don't believe so."

Minutes ahead of his appointment as the executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, Drew Bartlett (center), talks with Gary Goforth (left), an environmental engineer and former district scientist, and Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, on March 14, 2019, at the South Florida Water Management District offices in West Palm Beach. Currently a deputy secretary at Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, Bartlett's reign over the water management district begins April 1.

"I am hard at work establishing a leadership team that will fulfill Gov. Ron DeSantis’ environmental priorities for South Florida and continue the great work and progress being accomplished by this district," Drew Bartlett, the incoming executive director, said in an prepared statement. "I will be assembling a full leadership team to move the district forward."

Bartlett thanked "everyone for their hard work at the district, and together we will get the job done."

Bartlett, a deputy secretary at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, was hired Thursday by the district board — all DeSantis appointees at their first board meeting.

More:SFWMD board hires DEP's Bartlett to lead agency

"I was aware the new executive director was going to make some staff changes, but I didn't know exactly what they would be," Chauncey Goss of Sanibel, who was named board chairman Thursday, said Friday afternoon.

"It's his team," Goss said. "It's up to Drew to put together the team that he feels is best."

More:DeSantis-appointed members take seats on SFWMD board

Velez recently helped lead the team of scientists and engineers that designed the EAA reservoir designed to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

Most environmental groups support the reservoir plan, but several initially criticized the district for not making it larger.

More: Critics say SFWMD didn't explore enough reservoir options

Kowalsky replaced General Counsel and Chief of Staff Brian Accardo, who resigned in early January.

Accardo was criticized by some environmental groups, as had board members at the time, when the district leased land for the EAA reservoir to a sugar grower while the project is being built.

More: SFWMD board member, general counsel resign