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DeSantis Names Environmentalists To South Florida Water Board

Lynne Sladky
/
Associated Press
An algae bloom is on the Caloosahatchee River at the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday named four appointees to the nine-member South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, after he called last month for the prior board’s resignation.

DeSantis announced the selections during appearances in Naples and Stuart.

The appointees are Charlette Roman, a retired U.S. Army colonel and a Marco Island resident; Carlos “Charlie” E. Martinez, president of CEM Investments LLC and a member of the Everglades Foundation; Cheryl Anne Meads, an Islamorada Village Council member who worked as a contractor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, a former Sewall’s Point mayor who served on the state Constitution Revision Commission.

Prior members of the board drew DeSantis’ ire after voting in late November to grant Florida Crystals a lease extension for land eyed for the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir. All but two of the board members complied with DeSantis’ call to resign.

Board members James Moran and Sam Accursio, both appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott in 2015, have terms that expire in March.

DeSantis recently also named to the board Chauncey Goss, a Sanibel City Council member who was once a deputy staff director for the U.S. House Budget Committee, and Ron Bergeron, a businessman from Fort Lauderdale and former member of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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