(NSF) — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has reiterated a call for Governor Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet to jointly address issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fried, who has complained about a lack of communication between the statewide elected officials, says she’s been requesting weekly briefings from the governor’s office since before an April 7th Cabinet meeting was canceled.
DeSantis and the Cabinet — Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Fried — haven’t held a meeting since February 4th, more than a month before the governor declared a state of emergency as Florida tried to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s important that we do meet so we can have these conversations and discuss it. A lot of the stuff that we may not have to vote on could be one-on-one conversations at the very least, to give us up-to-date information of what is happening in our state.”
This past Monday, DeSantis’ daily schedule included a phone call with Moody to address COVID-19, with a Moody spokeswoman saying the conversation did not involve other issues. That call was the first contact DeSantis had listed on his schedule with any of the Cabinet members since he started issuing emergency orders related to the virus on March 1st.
Source: News Service of Florida