‘TOTAL SECRET’ What fired DEP whistleblower told WPTV about state parks plan

James Gaddis, a former employee of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, has identified himself as the man fired for leaking plans to add several developments to state parks.

Gaddis, who linked the proposals to the governor’s office, told WPTV that he leaked the plans because he felt the maps he drew as a state employee were being made in secret. His actions led to several residents contacting our newsroom with concerns about those plans for days, protesting the plan before it was approved. abruptly put on hold last week.

Gaddis’ termination letter dated Aug. 30 (READ BELOW) said he was fired for behavior unbecoming a public employee and for violating department rules for disclosure of information.

“We got to the point where we were operating in total secrecy all this time. I got tired of that,” Gaddis said. “We were totally surprised. It came out of the blue. We were told not to talk about this to anyone, not even our colleagues who work in other units or in the building.”

Gaddis said his supervisors ordered him to draw several maps showing the location of different developments, such as a golf course or a 350-room hotel. He said those supervisors were receiving instructions from the governor’s office.

“This really destroyed the morale of the park planning office,” Gaddis said. “We started calling each other names.”

Gaddis said the guidelines for the maps began to be implemented in early August. He said the state planned to announce the various projects and then announce public comment meetings on the proposed changes the following day.

“While I was making maps, I was obviously upset,” Gaddis said.

He said he was supposed to host one of the meetings to receive public input. Gaddis said he was ordered to play a pre-recorded PowerPoint presentation, not answer questions, limit capacity to about 100 people and stop the meeting after an hour.

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“We started to get concerned about our personal safety in going and facilitating these meetings,” Gaddis said. “So it got to the point where I decided this needed to be made public and we were working on it.”

Gaddis said he put the documents on two different flash drives and then distributed one internally within the DEP and one externally.

Once those documents reached the media, the DEP made the plans public.

WPTV reached out to the DEP and the governor’s office. Only the DEP responded, saying it does not comment on personnel matters.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a GoFundMe campaign for Gaddis had raised nearly $100,000 so far.

According to pay stubs received by WPTV, he is likely to double his salary from what he has already made this year as a state employee. He has also received job offers from potential employers. He said he may donate the money to charity as he feels more secure about his finances in the near future.

Gaddis also said he is currently working with an attorney on a potential lawsuit and believes he is entitled to some protections.

Read more of WPTV’s coverage of this issue and the protests below:

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