The employee’s dismissal letter, shared with the Tampa Bay Times, said he released ‘unauthorized’ information to the public. https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2024/09/03/florida-state-parks-whistleblower-james-gaddis-leaked-plans/A Florida state staffer who admitted to leaking plans about putting golf courses in state parks told local media Tuesday he was fired from the state’s environmental protection agency.Jared Gaddis told the Tampa Bay Times he received a letter from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the weekend informing him he was dismissed from his role as a planning consultant, as of last Friday.The dismissal letter, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, told Gaddis the department “became aware that you intentionally released authorized and inaccurate information to the public.”“At least one document was created, authored, and disseminated by you without direction or permission,” it read.The agency hired Gaddis as a cartographer to make conceptual land use maps for state proposals, he told the Times. The proposals reportedly included golf courses and other developments, including a 350-room hotel at one state park.His leaking of the plans was not intended to be political, Gaddis said, but stemmed from his concern over the rushed timeline of the plans and the environmental harm they would cause if carried out. “It was the absolute flagrant disregard for the critical, globally imperiled habitat in these parks,” Gaddis said in an interview Tuesday.“This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat,” he continued. “The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.”The leaked plans immediately drew scrutiny, with people protesting in parks across the Sunshine State. Petitions against the plans received hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Gaddis claimed he was told to begin the proposals the week of July 29 and, by Aug. 1, he created a document for the first map and started drafting a document of all the park plans by the weekend of Aug. 17, the Times reported.“The office was directed to drop/hold other tasks and compose these amendments as quickly as possible,” Gaddis wrote in his anonymous document, which was eventually shared with the Times last month.The memo revealed that Florida’s DEP intended to schedule eight near-simultaneous public meetings for Aug. 27, the Times reported.Gaddis said the agency was able to track the memo back to him, and he told a Florida DEP attorney last week he created it on a work laptop by himself without the help of others.According to the dismissal letter, the state terminated Gaddis over “conduct unbecoming a public employee, violation of law or department rules, negligence and misconduct.”Gaddis, a single father to an 11-year-old daughter, started a GoFundMe to support his future endeavors, which had raised more than $96,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.“As a state employee and single dad working a weekend side-job, I knew that sounding the alarm was a risky move. However, I saw myself as a public servant first and felt that it was the only ethical thing to do. This issue became far more important than any individual’s employment status with DEP,” he wrote. The shift in plans comes nearly a week after the state first announced the “Great Outdoors Initiative.” The initial release said the initiative would have increased “the number of outdoor recreation opportunities available at Florida’s state parks, including pickleball, disc golf, golf and paddling.”
>>1337921>Leaks something from his employer>Gets firedStupid games, stupid prizes
>>1337923>Expose corruption >Get punished Also firing the whistleblower in retaliation for exposing corruption is a violation of state law.http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0112/Sections/0112.3187.html
Putting a golf course in a state park is like putting an industrial park in a state park except the industrial park at least produces shit and isn't just a waste of land and water so rich people can enjoy their shitty hobby.
>>1337947>He got fired for releasing unauthorized info to the public.So he whistleblew Hmm....
>>1337949>If he had revealed they were doing something criminal, then he would be protected. But he did not, so he is not.Why would you bother entering your opinion about this if you don't know what you're talking about? Whistleblower laws protect disclosure of the violation of any rule, regulation or law, a gross mismanagement of funds, abuse of power or a substantial threat to public safety. It absolutely is not the case that the disclosures have to be criminal. It would've taken you like 20 seconds to read the whistleblower protection act.
>>1337949>Destroying State parks and turning them into golf courses>Keeping this hidden from the publicThe whistleblower exposed the corruption of the Republican party and got fired for putting state and country first.It is a shame.
>>1337947This. Literally this one million percent
>>1337923fpbp
>>1337970>>1337969>>1337949>>1337923Here comes the samefagging
>>1337971Lol.Lmao even.
>>1337974Why the nervous laugh? Because you were caught?
>>1337978I'm laughing at you, idiot
>>1337987So you've been mind broken
>>1337947What do you think whistleblowing is? The state was being shady and not following its own laws about disclosure because it knew there would be backlash to their golf course plans.
>>1338035>What do you think whistleblowing is?Legally, it's reporting one of 16 things, and reporting "potentially unpopular golf course plans" does not constitute whistleblowing https://www.dol.gov/general/topics/whistleblowerHe was in the wrong here, he mishandled his employers confidential information
>>1338035Sounds like you should easily be able to cite those laws. It is telling that you chose not to.
>>1338043>>1338044Read the op article again
>>1338149Just re-read it and he's not even alleging any law was broken. He wrote a fake memo containing privileged information and released it to the public because he disagreed with the environmental impact of an official decision.He wasn't whistleblowing, he was being an activist and got fired for mishandling his employers information
>>1338162>His leaking of the plans was not intended to be political, Gaddis said, but stemmed from his concern over the rushed timeline of the plans and the environmental harm they would cause if carried out. >“It was the absolute flagrant disregard for the critical, globally imperiled habitat in these parks,” Gaddis said in an interview Tuesday.>“This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat,” he continued. “The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.”
>>1338187That's what I said. He wasn't whistleblowing, he was being an activist and got fired for mishandling his employers information
>>1338189Naah he was a whistleblower and his persecution by the Desantis-impared state government proves he was right to disclose their evil misguided plans for a golf course in the critically imperiled wildlife habitat.
>>1338192That's some pretty crazy headcanon anon.
As a whistleblower he should not have named himself. I don't know why the news thinks it's OK to use the name of a whistle blower these days.
>>1338217In retrospect he shouldn't, but he put his name on it to give the whistleblowing credibility and have the Republicans scurry when the public figured out how the DeSantis was going to fuck them over.Sadly because Republicans control everything, it was obvious they'd ignore whistleblowing protections and fire the guy. At least he didn't send armed thugs to his place like the Covid Whistleblower exposing DeSantis covering up deaths.
>>1338192Then you can provide the citations which the whistleblowing criteria were met. That you still haven't is damning to say the least.
>>1338192golf course is literally grass mowed short. the environmental impact is small.
>>1337921This man deserves a medal.
>>1338322>Leveling an entire ecosystem to turn it into a lawn has no impact
>>1338358Quit trooning.
Imagine installing amenities at parks. What a dangerous far right idea.Good thing there are whistle blowers out there who are obviously HIV positive from having gay sex with men, and people who support such HIV positive people with HIV addled brains.
>>1338367only the green and some of the fairway gets smoothed. furthermore there's no standardization and you could build a golf course to be very low impact and need minimal grading or mowing.
>>1338378What a load of shit, they were planning on flattening at least 150 acres of state park for a golf course. Multiply that if they were going to do more.Also we should be converting existing golf courses into low income housing like George Carlin said.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4w7H48tBS8
>>1338423>Which none of the information he revealed entails. Hence why is he is not protected.That wasn't your claim. Your claim was that whistleblower protections don't apply to this guy because his disclosures weren't criminal and that if the disclosures were criminal they would apply to him. That is an incorrect definition of the whistleblower protection. act. You didn't know what the whistleblower protection act was. >Clearly took you about 20 minutes and you don't yet have a full understanding of it, because I'm correct. There was no criminal activity, no violation of any rules regulations or laws, there was no gross mismanagement of funds, and no abuse of power or threat to public safety that was disclosed in the information he leaked.You're moving the goalposts because you got caught having no clue what you were talking about. Your claim was that whistleblower protections don't count unless the disclosure is criminal. You didn't mention anything about abuse of power or public safety until I brought it up to clarify exactly what the whistleblower protection act covers. You were wrong.
>>1337921Sue the shit outta the administration. Fuck these clowns.
ITT Demoturds seethe over better park attractions because they didn't think of it first.Fuck commies struck out being communist on this one.Learn to commie better, Democrap shills.
>>1338464This /pol/ppet bot is breaking down.The Russians must be getting spread thin again.
>>1338468Oh lawd, he's on the "Russians, Russians everywhere" shit again. Take your gay faggot meds, homo.
>>1338500>Vantiks seething that their latest attempt to conspire with Trump got sniffed out.Seethe harder
