While the Pensacola News Journal declared last week that the controversy concerning Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointments to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees had come to “a close,” State Sen. Don Gaetz disagrees.
- As chair of the Ethics and Elections Committee, Gaetz oversaw numerous appointee confirmations, including three controversial nominations to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees—Scott Yenor, Adam Kissel and Gates Garcia.
The Backstory
In a phone interview yesterday morning, Gaetz shared, “There were three to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees who were not confirmed. There were the two that you wrote about a lot (Yenor and Kissel). And then there’s a guy named Gates Garcia.”
He explained why Garcia resigned rather than face the Ethics and Elections Committee.
“And after he saw how the committee hearings were going, he simply sent a message saying, ‘If I have to appear before that committee, meaning my committee, I’ll resign,’“ Gaetz said. “And so he resigned because we told him he had to appear before the committee; if we had to, we would subpoena him. So he said, ‘No, no, no. He’ll resign.’”
The senator added:
“I think the University of West Florida did well in being able to dodge three bullets there. But I don’t think that story is anywhere near ending.”
‘Far From Over’
Gaetz made it clear that this issue is far from resolved: “The governor obviously has the authority to appoint replacement trustees, and he can appoint anybody he wants. Obviously, they would have to go through the same confirmation process, but they would get it if he appointed three new trustees today.:
- He continued, “No matter who they were, they would be able to serve a full term. And so I believe the University of West Florida story is far from over.”
Praise for SAVE UWF: ”The Save UWF grassroots effort that occurred in Pensacola had its desired effect.”
Gaetz revealed he had conversations with the governor’s office about the situation, saying, “I had the opportunity to say to the governor’s staff, ‘Look, these are for the most part conservatives. These are, for the most part, Republicans. These are, for the most part, people who voted for Ron DeSantis. And they don’t understand why this is happening to them.”
He tried to get Gov. DeSantis and his staff to see that the governor could have repaired his relationship with Northwest Florida if he withdrew the nominations.
“This is an opportunity for the governor to get a win. And I tried very hard to persuade the governor to just pull the nominees. He chose to do what he did, and that’s why the process worked, and we were able to get the votes to turn them down.”
Two More Coming
Yesterday, Gov. DeSantis appointed Zach Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He has two more appointments to make.
- I doubt he will choose anyone from my list, which included Dr. Judy Bense, David Bear, Allison Rogers, JT Young and Darrel Goodin.
