Two South Florida water board members resign after DeSantis request
Two South Florida Water Management District board members resigned their posts following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request last week that the entire governing board step down, but others remain defiant of the extraordinary demand.
Eight-year board member and former chairman Daniel O’Keefe, and Carlos Diaz, who was appointed in May, resigned Friday. That came one day after DeSantis traveled to Stuart to ask that the voluntary board immediately relinquish their posts and reiterate his support for quick action to clean up the state’s algae-plagued waterways.
Board members ran afoul of DeSantis and his environmental transition team chairman U.S. House Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, in November when they approved extending a lease that allowed sugarcane farming to temporarily continue on land slated for a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.
Lisa Interlandi, executive director of the Everglades Law Center, said DeSantis’ request may be unprecedented.
“Never in my history have I seen this,” said Interlandi, who has worked on Everglades restoration for 20 years. “The opportunity exists to rebalance the agency from representing primarily agricultural interests to the interests of the general public.”
Diaz, co-founder of a software company, represented Broward County on the nine-member board.
O’Keefe, an attorney whose area included Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties, highlighted in his resignation letter that he did not vote for the lease extension. O’Keefe abstained from the vote because the law firm he works for represents New Hope Sugar, the Florida Crystals affiliate that was awarded the eight-year lease on about 16,000 acres of land in western Palm Beach County.
“I compliment you for the spotlight and urgency you have directed to the issues of blue-green algae, red tide and releases from Lake Okeechobee to the coastal estuaries,” O’Keefe said in his resignation letter. “I understand your desire to have your own appointees on the SFWMD board.”
Three board members have terms that expire in March, leaving those seats open for new appointments. Former board member Melanie Peterson resigned Jan. 1.
Of the board members with longer terms to fulfill, Brandon Tucker and Jaime Weisinger said they won’t resign.
Board Chairman Federico Fernandez did not respond to a request for an interview Monday. All board members were appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott, who was sworn in last week to his new post as the junior U.S. Senator for Florida.
“I made a commitment to Gov. Scott and to the state of Florida to serve on the governing board and I don’t feel like the projects we initiated have been accomplished yet,” Weisinger told The Palm Beach Post on Monday. “In his letter to us, Gov. DeSantis stated that he had a new vision for the district and it’s bold, but he never discussed with me the vision or my own vision.”
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DeSantis signed an executive order last week calling for $2.5 billion over four years to be dedicated to Everglades restoration, the establishment of a blue-green algae task force, the creation of an Office of Environmental Accountability and Transparency, and the appointment of a chief science officer.
Florida Democrats hit back at DeSantis, asking where the money for his initiatives will come from.
“An executive order has to have more than just lofty goals, or admirable pursuits,” Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, said in a statement.
The South Florida Water Management District is the largest in the state, overseeing 16 counties from Orlando through the Keys and billions of dollars in Everglades restoration projects.
But the board has been criticized for being overly friendly to agricultural interests, including sugarcane farmers south of Lake Okeechobee and cattle ranchers north of the lake.
Mark Generales, a member of the district’s Water Resources Analysis Coalition, said the criticism is unfair. He was disappointed by DeSantis’ request that board members resign.
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“I watch these people in action and these are not corrupt people. They are 100 percent volunteers who spend countless hours on this,” Generales said. “My concern is that it’s going to take an inordinately large amount of time for a new group of people to come in and take over.”
Kmiller@pbpost.com
@KmillerWeather
