I’ve covered politics and government for more than 30 years and have seen a lot of weird stuff. But last week, I witnessed a first:
A state board voted on an issue and yet refused to disclose what their vote was.
Yes, a public agency conducted public business and refused to tell the public.
A few years ago, if you’d told me such a thing could happen, I would’ve called you a damn liar. This is the United States of America, not North Korea.
But over the last few years, under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has taken a dark turn toward secrecy. This state has tried to keep secrets about what it does with public resources time and again.
This time, the secrecy seems meant to protect an embattled state legislator, Rep. Carolina Amesty, R-Windermere, who was recently indicted on four felony charges and is struggling to keep her seat in next week’s election.
As the Orlando Sentinel’s Annie Martin reported , Florida’s licensing board for private colleges and universities voted last week on whether to renew the license for Orlando’s Central Christian University, a school run by Amesty’s family, after state authorities reported that Amesty “defrauded” the state to get the license in the first place.