By JIM TURNER, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Theresa “Cissy” Proctor was promoted by Gov. Rick Scott in December to lead the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, replacing one of the governor’s biggest cheerleaders, Jesse Panuccio.
Proctor’s predecessor as executive director was in the hot seat with some lawmakers about the handling of economic incentives and a website for people applying for unemployment benefits.
A product of the Maclay School in Tallahassee, Proctor received her bachelor’s degree in international affairs at Florida State University and later earned a law degree from the university.
She joined the Department of Economic Opportunity in 2013 after a decade as an attorney and government consultant with the law firm of Bryant Miller Olive in Tallahassee. With the state agency, Proctor served as deputy legislative affairs director and director of the Division of Strategic Business Development before becoming chief of staff in January 2015.
The News Service of Florida has five questions for Cissy Proctor:
Q: Your predecessor had a somewhat-rocky relationship with members of the Florida Senate. What steps or approaches are you taking to restore relations while being part of Scott’s effort to secure $250 million in business-recruitment incentive money for Enterprise Florida?
PROCTOR: I have been at the agency for over three years now and was able to, during that time, establish and create great relationships across the state, not only with House and Senate members, but also with other state agencies, with our public-private partners, as well as organizations like the Ports Council and the Florida Chamber and our universities. So looking at the relationships I’ve been able to create over the last three years, we have great relationships there. And moving forward, since I was appointed, I have been reaching out to members of the House and Senate. During the holiday, I was able to talk to them a lot on the phone right after my appointment. And now that they’re here in session, I’ve had an opportunity to meet with a lot of them and had really positive meetings with both sides of the Legislature, House and Senate.”
(Do you think everything is going well for the incentives?)
Yes, I’m very positive. This morning (Friday) the governor and the Enterprise Florida Board talked a lot about the $250 million Enterprise Fund. And we at the agency are very supportive of the ask, because it’s the right thing for Florida. It’s the right thing to make sure that we have a program that is well-funded so we can be at the table for competitive projects that are not only competitive across the country, but across the globe.”
Q: You’ve taken over an agency that has not gotten positive press for the implementation of Connect, the state’s $63 million unemployment-system website. Your predecessor would deem the media image of the website as unfair. What has it taken and what must still be done to get the system running complaint-free from most users and lawmakers?
PROCTOR: The RA (Reemployment Assistance) program is running well. Right now we are focused on making sure that the individuals across the state who are eligible for reemployment assistance are able to get the benefits that they should receive. We pay thousands of claims every week. And we’re really focused on not only making sure that we meet state and federal requirements, but that we beat them, so we can make payments timely, for instance. We are also focused on keeping the trust fund healthy and keeping criminals out of the system. We’re seeing an incredible amount of identity-theft crime coming into the system, and we are focused, through our anti-fraud measures, to keep those criminals out and to keep the trust fund healthy, to make sure the money is there for those that are eligible for the benefits. Also, it keeps taxes low for businesses across the state that pay the money that goes into the trust fund.”
Q: You’re a Tallahassee kid. What kind of insight does growing up amid the seat of Florida’s government give you in running a state agency?
PROCTOR: Like you said, I grew up here, went to school here. Graduated from FSU for my undergrad as well as my law school degree. And the law school is definitely in the shadow of the Capitol, which is very cool, because during law school we got great opportunities to do things, because the Supreme Court is here and go to the Capitol and see how a bill becomes a law. How it really becomes a law rather than just reading about it. And I’ve been involved in not only (my) personal life, but my professional life in service organizations throughout the city as well as other organizations. Very involved in the business community, the chamber, the economic-development organizations here. So I’m passionate about not only Florida but the city and how we can move forward to make sure we have great economic development. I think just being involved at a personal level throughout my life — my mother owned a small business here in Tallahassee, my father was a doctor here in Tallahassee — so there’s a lot of connections as well, not only with my family, but my husband’s family. So I think that has bolstered me and helped me to have some great insight to what private businesses are thinking about. What their focuses (are) every day. And what hurdles they run into. And why it’s really important that we keep taxes low and keep regulations sensible and a lot of other things that make our environment here in Tallahassee business-friendly, as well as across the state.”
Q: You are still moving into your office. What’s your approach or what changes do you intend to bring at the agency?
PROCTOR: Our mission is very clear, and it has been for years. We are looking to make Florida the best place to live, work, play and do business. And to do that, we run and we’re entrusted with running programs related to economic development, community development and workforce development. And so our mission hasn’t changed. We just are continuing to work on all of those programs, continuing to push for good policies in all of those areas. We’re continuing to reach out to communities to make sure that we’re working at every level of all of those areas to make sure communities have the technical assistance that they need: if there’s infrastructure needed that we can help them; if there’s grants available with that, economic development, not only with the incentive dollars, but there’s also other tax incentives that are available for businesses across the state. We have a strategic plan that’s come out of the state, that’s out of the agency that works toward bringing all of the agencies together. And how we can make Florida a better place to live, play, work and do business. And then, as far as the workforce, it’s important to train our workforce of today and tomorrow. So we are continuing to push and support good policies in that area.”
Q: Do you see it as continuing policies rather than having to make changes?
PROCTOR: Absolutely. At this point, our mission — like I said — hasn’t changed. We are, obviously in the middle of legislative session right now, and so that is a big part of our focus, to make sure that we not only are supporting as well as we can the governor’s priorities, but as well as other priorities that we have for our agency, including the fraud package that Sen. (Kelli) Stargel (R-Lakeland) and Rep. (Mike) La Rosa (R-St. Cloud) are running for us. It’s actually getting its first hearing in the House on Monday. So we’re looking forward to that. As well as, when I mentioned community development, we have an ask to fund a program called Competitive Florida that is targeted technical assistance that focuses on rural areas across the state and provides them the help that they need to make sure they have the strategic planning in place to move their communities forward.”
