Florida Whistleblower Fired After Leaking State Park Development Plans| STOITM | 9-04-24

uh former former state employee James Gattis was apparently the individual who leaked information about uh plans to build golf courses and hotels in Florida's state parks he's reportedly been fired uh now from his job Gattis described himself as an ethical whistleblower he said that he does not regret making the public aware of the proposals and we are very thankful that he did uh he felt compelled to act as he believed the developments would cause significant harm to some of Florida's most pristine globally rare habitats can we try and get him on a show I would love to that would be great to get him on a show let's reach out to him and see if we can get him on here g a d d i s yes sir uh gtis worked as a choreographer uh no a cartographer choreographer a cartographer very very different things different things work it all the time for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and he was tasked with the conceptual maps for the proposed developments these plans included golf courses pickleball courts and 350 room hotels at nine State Parks from Miami to the Panhandle a Gattis expressed his disgust with the project particularly when mapping out developments in Anastasia State Park in right here in St Augustine MH which he found increasingly egregious in response to his growing concerns Gattis wrote a summary of the proposals on his work computer and shared it which helped spark protests and massive public bash backlash against the plans uh the department has since withdrawn the initiative with uh Governor Dan santis calling it a half-baked and not ready for Prime Time political buzzwords I hate those words right right right Des Sant has just become shot out politically unfortunately honestly not impressed yeah not impressed with this at all um just really since this guy decied to run for president he really was and ever since he decided to run for president I don't know if his campaign's been in his ear too much I don't know what happened sh he lost what we loved about Ronda santz he really did that's very unfortunate atis is a single father of an 11-year-old he's been hailed as a hero on social media by uh opponents of the proposed development which is pretty much everybody in Florida I haven't come across anybody not one person who thinks this is a good idea uh go fundme pig was great to support him he's raised more than $100,000 as of Tuesday afternoon right now 161 good good according to uh the state salary database Gus's annual salary was 49,000 bucks so he's made a few years worth of salary God bless that dude this which I'm very glad to hear yeah man a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection uh did not respond to a request for comment it also you know it's also very very unfortunate we talked about last week that Dan santis is not uh had any conversations with local and state leaders about this apparently um you know asked them last week if any of them up there had talked to the santis and nobody had nobody apparently just not taking calls about this it's really I'm glad he's not uh glad he's not our president glad he's not in the running for our president really am Shady stuff man in his speech he kind of do tried to do a ninja move and said it was a liberal leak right so stupid believes that nobody believes I mean he really has lost his way it's very unfortunate very disappointing very disappointing um which I'm sure he doesn't care about that's very disappointing Ron well no I mean he he's a young guy in politics yeah and I think just this incident because Florida always had his back yeah just this incident swings Florida around like hey we have your back until you attack Florida yeah and this I mean people saw this as an attack on Florida so I think I think the Sanz is career he's going to be a consultant and lawyer he's he's a smart guy he'll figure out life but I mean he's gots he's a young dude still compared to what's what's out there in politics what would have happened if we didn't have the Whistleblower moment like what would have happened then oh it would got further down the road and then it would have got killed I don't see this project making it because it all these parks are in local municipalities the local municipalities had power which would have uh they would have cost out the development to make them go away which happens in a lot of developments like when when the municipality doesn't municipality can't always and like people get on to politicians about oh well you you you voted in this Development A lot of times you're hand you you're I'm using the term again handcuffed again where there's property rights if you don't vote for it they sue you in mediation then you lose three times as much money and they still get the development oh my gosh so it it's making it work to the best of your municipality um you know I and I know the people at the city commission they weren't going to let this slide without them paying through the nose and getting something out of it for the city and it probably would have went away with just those obstacles and hurdles M yeah it's been very interesting to keep up with this man this is but it's it's tough I mean this guy $50,000 job he's got 11year old and and he's he stepped up to the plate I mean he didn't he didn't know he was going to end up with 160,000 and go fund me right um he did the right thing and I like it when people do the right thing yeah and I don't like to see whistleblowers get fired especially over things like this you know the Republican Party talks about it all the time that we want whistleblowers to come forward we're we're going to respect whistleblowers and they're a vital part of government and and then guy just gets canned I you know yeah as a guy who 6 months ago said boy Trump should just move out of the way and let Ronda santis become president I'm glad I'm not right about everything right about most things a lot of people say this a lot of people say this I didn't I would never say this whistleblowers get fired in the public and in in the private sector so they do they do you know and that's always going to happen because they're always going to have a reason separate from the one that you're really getting fired for yeah yeah uh with that said Troy how do you want to do the