Office stable under 'frenetic' governor

TALLAHASSEE --- Gov. Ron DeSantis views his office as a stable work environment, even after several staffers, including one of his top lieutenants, announced exit plans a little more than seven months after the chief executive was sworn in.

Appearing in Fort Myers to discuss federal hurricane reimbursement on Monday, DeSantis deflected a question about the pending departure of Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. Blair’s farewell follows that of several employees who left the governor’s inner circle in June, including external affairs director Justin Caporale and scheduling director Amanda Emmons. Caporale and Emmons worked on DeSantis' gubernatorial campaign, while Blair was a member of the governor's post-election transition team.

“We have great stability,” DeSantis countered. “We have some of the absolute strongest people working in the governor’s office. And it’s been very, very productive. You go in there. You get a lot done. And these things. ... You just want to have the best possible operations, but we’ve got some really, really good people.”

The former congressman and U.S. Navy veteran added that he’s been pleased with the performance of his staff.

“I’ve been very pleased by and large with the folks,” the Republican governor said. “They work very, very hard. I came in and set a very frenetic pace. A lot of people see me bouncing around the state and see I’m doing all this stuff. But they don’t realize sometimes all the run-up that goes into that. If I’m out there 60, 70 hours doing all this stuff, they’re probably doing more than that. And I appreciate that very much.”

From The News Service of Florida