Perhaps the best thing Ron DeSantis ever did for Florida’s environment is when, newly elected, he booted the South Florida Water Management District’s Board of Directors and appointed Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch among the new board members. Thurlow-Lippisch is a true environmentalists who understands and cares for the water problems in Florida. She is not a developer, farmer, rancher, or water user as are most of the water district boards members. Among all the five water districts, she may have been the only environmentalist. And that’s a sad thing to say.
That first act got all water advocates excited, wrongly thinking that DeSantis was going to fix our water problems, but after that–nothing.
So now it is totally frustrating that our Senate leaders, for whatever petty reason, have refused to re-confirm her. It sounds like we can blame Kathleen Passidomo (and Big Sugar.)
And this sounds like Florida leadership.
Dirty politics at its worst.
Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch has ties to OSFR advisor John Moran, as her husband provided the aerial platform for his photo essay “Summer of Slime.”
Read the complete article here in TCPalm.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
DeSantis appointee from Treasure Coast slapped in face by Florida Senate, not reconfirmed
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch was as surprised as anyone when she was first appointed to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District.
It was February 2019. Gov. Ron DeSantis was one month into his first term. He was busy after his inauguration, making decisions to bolster his commitment to clean-water policy in the Sunshine State.
His appointment of Thurlow-Lippisch, a longtime clean-water advocate from Martin County, was a win for the St. Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon and the Treasure Coast. She rolled up her sleeves and learned much more than she previously knew about the complex, convoluted and unfair plumbing system managed by her new agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Apparently to all except some Florida senators with a different ― as of now, mysterious ― agenda.
Thurlow-Lippisch was summoned to Tallahassee for required confirmation hearings and a vote. She met with key senators and two Senate subcommittees ― only to be told there was no need for her to be there for a vote by all 40 senators. There wouldn’t be a confirmation vote after all.
On May 5, the record shows, the Senate failed to confirm her by taking no action. Thurlow-Lippisch returned to the Treasure Coast with lots of unanswered questions.
Thurlow-Lippisch told TCPalm columnist Ed Killer she knew something was amiss when Passidomo refused to meet with her one-on-one. A former high school teacher and Sewall’s Point mayor, Thurlow-Lippisch, now a Realtor, compared the awkward process to “an arranged marriage.”
Surely, someone would explain to Thurlow-Lippisch why she wasn’t confirmed? Nope. No one has had the decency to tell her in person, by phone call, email or even text. She was simply ghosted by the state’s senior legislative body.
Thurlow-Lippisch suspects her treatment had something to do with comments she made in 2022 about Senate Bill 2508, a last-minute power grab by the Senate. Thurlow-Lippisch and several fellow governing board members spoke out loudly about the Senate’s attempt to wrest water control power from water management districts, among other things.
How many people don’t get reconfirmed? In the 2023 legislative session that recently ended, the Senate confirmed 317 of 329 DeSantis appointees, including 14 of 16 water management district board appointees.
Here’s why this should matter to you. Not confirming Thurlow-Lippisch sets in motion a series of problems:
- The governing board seat could be left vacant for the next three years. That would be a disservice to Treasure Coast constituents who care about the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem.
- The seat could be filled by someone who does not understand the damages of Lake Okeechobee discharges or St. Lucie County canals like C-23 and C-24 to the St. Lucie River.
- The seat could be filled by someone who does not even live in Martin or St. Lucie counties.
Such Star Chamber-like treatment of a public servant like Thurlow-Lippisch is unprofessional ― at best. The lack of transparency in the Senate is an affront to all Floridians and might dissuade good people from offering to serve the state in the future.
Thurlow-Lippisch’s term expires June 19. DeSantis should do what’s right. Treasure Coast residents deserve her clear-minded leadership on clean water.
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