This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

Coming up, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection may reimburse Pinellas County taxpayers more than $100 million in beach nourishment.

Florida DOGE's audits have begun in Tampa Bay.

The Department of Government Efficiency letter sent to St. Pete, Clearwater, Tampa and other municipalities in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

See what local leaders have to say.

And it's a war of geography between Republicans and Democrats.

The governor suggesting new district lines be drawn.

What this could mean for the midterm elections.

These stories and more are next on Florida This Week.

[uptempo music] Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining our panel this week, we have Jennifer Griffith, political and advocacy strategist and a Democrat, Elizabeth Alspach.

Local government reporter with the Tampa Bay Times.

Mark Proctor, political consultant and a Republican.

And Craig Pittman, a columnist with Florida Phoenix and also a podcaster.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We begin with Florida's congressional map.

It could soon change.

Governor Ron DeSantis is floating a mid-decade redistricting.

It's a controversial effort similar to that being legislated in Texas.

The proposal would redraw congressional districts before the usual once a decade update.

The governor calls the redrawing appropriate.

Critics, however, call it political maneuvering.

This geographic tug of war is happening ahead of the 2026 midterm election At a press conference in Bradenton, Governor Ron DeSantis argued that Florida's congressional map does not reflect the massive population growth since the 2020 census.

Traditionally updated every ten years, he believes the state could benefit from a mid-decade redraw.

We got a raw deal in the census.

We only got one seat when some of these other states were getting seats.

When we've obviously had more growth, we should have gotten at least two.

Lawmakers do have discretion to redraw lines in the middle of the decade.

It's illegal, but rarely taken move.

The governor's comments come after the state Supreme Court victory over a congressional map he pushed three years ago.

In 2022, he vetoed the legislature's congressional map and then offered his own plan.

The result?

Republicans gained four U.S. House seats and a black majority district in North Florida was eliminated.

Democrats are reacting sharply to this mid-decade redistricting idea.

They want to cheat in the election.

They want to pick their voters rather than voters picking their representatives.

And so you'll see us do whatever we can in the courts to make sure that the fair district amendments are enforced.

Nationwide, red states like Texas are already considering mid-decade redistricting.

A new map just proposed in the Lone Star State could hand the GOP five more seats in Congress, widening Republicans very slim majority in the House of Representatives and Democrat led states like California are planning to counter Texas with redistricting plans of their own.

It's important to note that Florida voters passed the Fair Districts Amendment back in 2010.

The constitutional provisions are meant to prevent gerrymandering.

They require that the maps not favor political parties or incumbents.

The districts must be compact, adjacent, and follow natural or political boundaries.

The courts have used these rules to strike down perceived partizan maps and could come into play in the future.

Your thoughts on the panel?

Jennifer, I'd like to start with you.

Well, first and foremost, I'd like to say that I mean, as it was stated, this map, the current map that we have was drawn by Ron DeSantis, the same person who wants to bring us back into this just two years in 2022, two and a half, three.

He was redrawing the lines over in Pinellas County and redistricted in the middle of an election to try to ensure that these seats remained under tighter control of the Republicans.

So doing it now is quite telling.

While Texas is doing it, they want more seats in the United States Congress.

Um, then you have California fighting back and New York, potentially.

It's a tit for tat.

It's very clearly laid out how this is supposed to work, the census.

Then the lines are drawn every ten years across the country.

And now this has become another political football.

And it's it's quite obvious a grab at power.

and it will disenfranchize many voters if they go out with it.

While Texas and California are coming out and saying it very clearly that they are doing this for more votes to align with their political their leaders political party, the governor keeps pointing back to the census.

He has said that the reason that the census has changed dramatically was because of Covid, because we had so many new Floridians coming into the area.

And so he's pointing to that on that.

It's kind of hypocritical because he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

He's using he's coming after.

We're going to get into this.

He's coming after municipalities and saying they're overtaxing for the population that they have.

But yet somehow we've managed to explode enough population that we need another congressional seat now.

Mark, so part of his argument makes sense.

We've got we're a gross state.

People are moving to Florida.

People are moving to Texas.

However, the problem is the census constitutionally is every ten years.

Now, this week he called for a change to do a every five year census, which would require constitutional amendment.

I understand the redistricting because if we wait till the 2030 census, it would be two more years before you'd see any change.

So his attitude now is, let's try and get as many seats as we can.

Craig, when you when you look at the state of Florida in your podcast, you focus on so many things about the environment.

The political environment seems to be more and more stressful more and more.

Well, more and more fighting.

Yes, and in this case, I would just mention two things one.

Uh, yes.

We have had a tremendous growth in Florida, but that growth is slowing down right now.

And, uh, I believe the most recent figures show that as many people are moving out of Florida now, as are moving in.

So they're not may not be the big change the governor thinks there will be if they try and do a redistricting now.

The other is the practical problem of when you do a redistricting, that means you're probably going to be redrawing all sorts of political lines.

I feel bad for the poor supervisors of elections who have to try and cope with that and figure out where the new voting booths are going to go and that kind of stuff, because Lord knows those folks are saints.

They just, they they deserve whatever pay they get.

They never win, right?

Voters are never on either side.

Don't seem to be happy with whatever they do.

The redistricting is always a comment.

It's always a topic that brings up a lot of debate.

Um, what are you hearing within your constituents?

The governor's complaining about is we were supposedly entitled to two seats and we only got one congressional seat.

So it's kind of a you know, he's taking the position that we should have a more balanced, uh, legislative or congressional delegation.

I have a question.

When you all hear leaders from Texas and California.

Um, and other states say, um, we need more seats for our party.

Let's do the redistricting.

Um, how does that bode for you?

It sounds like gerrymandering is at the root of what they're after.

There's only 435 seats.

So then you divide it by populations.

And that's one of the arguments that DeSantis has also made is because of the illegal immigrants counting as population that it contributes to the the population numbers, therefore the congressional seat.

But the independents and the non party affiliated voters would say it doesn't make either the Republicans or the Democrats look good or trustworthy.

What would you agree with that, Jennifer?

I would totally agree with that.

Completely.

I mean, to a normal voter, to someone who doesn't pay granular attention, they hear, oh, you might be losing favor.

And you're talking about we're just going to rig the map to make us have more seats.

I mean, that's pretty obvious.

Yes.

Well, thank you for this topic.

We're going to move on to our next topic of the day.

Pinellas County boasts some of the nicest beaches in Florida.

Tourism, the environment, property values, and storm defense all hinge on one thing sand.

Now, a major project to reinforce the county's eroding coastline is moving forward without usual federal funds, and that is pushing county leaders to ask the state for help filling the gap.

Take a look.

Erosion is reshaping the Pinellas County coastline.

Years of storm surge and steady wear and tear means the beaches are in dire need of sand and fast to do it.

Pinellas County will spend $125.7 million on an emergency beach nourishment project.

The plan will pump sand from the Gulf onto roughly 12 miles of shoreline.

It will add roughly 2.5 metric tons of sand to Long Key, Upham Beach, Treasure Island, and Sand Key.

The Army Corps of Engineers helped in the past, covering a majority of the cost.

But this year they pulled out.

Too many beachfront property owners refused to sign permanent agreements giving the general public access to parts of their property.

This was a new requirement in order for the Army Corps of Engineers to pay for the work.

This new county led project is asking for temporary public access agreements to last until 2029.

The county plans to use money from a bed tax to pay for the project, and this week, commissioners unanimously decided to ask for a nearly $49 million reimbursement from Florida's Beach Management Funding Assistance Program.

That request is still pending.

Work is expected to start in September, and the next major information session is scheduled for August the 6th in Indian Shores.

Craig, I'd like to start with you.

How important will it be for the general public to participate in the process?

And how do you see all of this?

Well, I think everybody should participate because obviously your tax dollars are paying for this.

Um, and whether you live at the beach or not, you're paying for this.

Uh, I should mention that whenever, uh, whenever the Army Corps does beach renourishment, as they call it, uh, taxpayers in, say, Oregon are paying for our sand in Florida.

Um, but it's important, you know, Florida without its beaches.

What are we?

You know, uh, somebody once told me that sand is to Florida.

What?

Snow is to Switzerland.

And, uh, but it's crazy because the barrier islands are not supposed to be fixed in place.

They're supposed to move back and forth with the waves.

And so what we call beach erosion just means the beaches are moving the way they're supposed to.

The problem is we've built things on them that can't move, and so we can't move the way we're supposed to.

So the problem is, we built all this stuff and now we're trying to protect it.

Elizabeth, this is a topic that you've covered extensively at the times.

Tell us your perspective.

Um, well, I mean, it's a complex perspective.

I mean, just based on the number of people I've talked about, both of county officials and then residents.

You know, I was at, um, there was a public information meeting, I think, on July 10th and Treasure Island, and it was packed wall to wall like standing room only.

Um, not only because people just want to know a little more about, like, these easements.

They want to know about these agreements.

Like, am I signing on for the US Army Corps of Engineers or am I not?

Or what does this look like in 2 or 3 years?

What is it going to look like after the fall?

Um, so there's a lot of, I think, people that are looking to learn more.

And I think that's one of the biggest things that, um, is coming up with the county as well, is I've talked to county officials and they're like, look, we just want people to know that this is happening.

They held days with a notary, um, in Indian shores asking people, please come.

We'll help you sign your easement.

Um, so it's a lot of people trying to get more information.

At least that's what I've figured from my reporting, especially before the fall, as we head into the height of hurricane season.

And we have.

That next meeting will be in August.

Go ahead Greg.

I was just going to say, and the thing is, you're going to start seeing more and more and more of these situations because with rising sea levels and with the more intense hurricanes we're getting from climate change, that all that new sand that they're putting out there is liable to be wiped away next year.

You know, they're having to I talked to a couple of years ago, I talked to a number of experts who said, yes, we're doing more beach renourishment projects in the last five years than we've done in previous years, because we just have to keep putting the sand back.

So basically, you're throwing money down a rat hole.

I mean, it's it's you're paying to put sand out there that's going to wash away pretty shortly, and then you're going to have to put it back again.

What responsibility do our local leaders have in terms of permitting building houses right up to the beach, right up to the sand.

What is the responsibility there?

That's part of the problem is, uh, the the ocean belongs to everyone.

And the question is, what part of that beach belongs to the property owner?

And if it keeps eroding, the next thing you know, the the property falls into the ocean, potentially.

You know, as a, uh, native Floridian myself, one of the things that we're here for is the beaches.

And I think it's vital that we do whatever we need to do restore.

But I think the couple of issues that have come up, one is the getting the signed easements, the other is the bureaucracy, the Department of Environmental Protection, for instance.

I had to write it down as a strategic planning and coordination, regional coastal monitoring and all these things that they have to study to get the historical data on this.

I think we just need to move forward and and take care of, you know, our, our vital beaches.

Jennifer.

I think we need to incentivize moving off of the beaches at some point, because and this is a beach living person, you know, so I, I watch it and I'm from Florida, third generation.

I've seen it so many times.

I live on Pass-a-Grille, uh, after Idalia, Pass-a-Grille had a $30 million sand renourishment then we got storms and it took all that sand away and it blocked up a pass.

And for a Fort DeSoto and Tierra Verde, which is now causing environmental problems for them.

Then they had to redo the sand and put more sand back.

When they dredge sand.

It has environmental impacts on corals and all kinds of things.

Um, we're fighting a losing battle, and I think we eventually need to get to a point of where we just accept what we're dealing with, that these are barrier islands.

They were meant to move, and we need to incentivize moving.

Manage, retreat.

That's what they call it.

Yeah.

Great points.

And now we move on to Florida's new oversight agency known as DOGE.

It's turning its sights on Tampa Bay.

Government and some local leaders say they support budget reviews.

In recent weeks, Gainesville, Broward and Orange County have been at the center of audits by Florida's Department of Government Efficiency.

There is a new era of accountability in the state of Florida when it comes to fiscal spending.

Everything that we're doing is being overly politicized.

We are entrusted by the people of Orange County that elects us to impartially make decisions in the best interests of the entire county, regardless of one's political affiliation.

Now, the cities of Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater, along with Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, have received letters from DOGE asking for detailed budget data as far back as 2021.

Everything from payroll to contracts, staffing and even spending on diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI.

What I've seen that local governments are usually have the most egregious just patterns of spending money on stuff that, quite frankly, if the voters knew and we shone a light on it, they would probably disagree with.

Some local governments appear to welcome the scrutiny.

Back in April, Pinellas County commissioners voted in favor to collaborate with Dodge.

Hillsborough took a similar step earlier this spring, and Manatee County went so far as to appoint a local DOGE oversight committee.

DOGE officials expect up to 15 municipal audits to be well underway across the state by next week.

They also warn compliance is not optional.

Fines of $1,000 per day for not working with DOGE will be imposed.

Critics have said DOGE is nothing more than a partizan power grab.

Let us have some sensible, common sense conversations about these types of issues, and not just try to mandate and bully and have a one way conversation.

And sadly, that's what's happening in the state of Florida right now.

The agency and the governor have maintained the audits are about eliminating wasteful spending and protecting taxpayers.

Elizabeth, when you are, you all are out.

The reporters are interviewing people about DOGE, the Florida DOGE, which is not to be mistaken for the federal.

What is the mood?

What is the general consensus among the general public, or is there none?

Um, it really depends.

I think a lot of people that I've talked to have kind of welcomed it.

They're like, look, we always want to find a way to be more efficient or, you know, to kind of keep it going.

Other people are like, is that too many hands in one pot?

Are there too many people doing that?

I think county officials like was stated in Pinellas and Hillsborough.

They're very open to this and they're hoping to the state collaboration.

That was something that we covered on Monday.

Um, like we just want to hear another perspective.

But other critics are also just like, hey, like you have a local elections that already do this.

So it really depends on who you talk to.

talk to, but I think it's across the board a little bit.

Mark and Jennifer, I'd like to ask both of you about this.

Well, first of all, I think everybody is basically in favor of government efficiency.

We don't want to see government wasted.

And I think that having said that, we all have friends or family members that have worked for the government.

We don't want to see them lose their jobs.

I think the local governments have reacted, uh, in setting up their own DOGE movement.

But here's my problem Republicans have always believed in home rule, and what's happening is at the state level.

And I have said this to my legislators, the government, uh, state of Florida is doing preemption, and they're telling local governments how to operate.

And I think that's wrong.

I think we need to go back to home rule, let the local governments decide what's efficient and not have some audit at the state level.

Jennifer, I saw you.

I couldn't agree more.

I was like, wait, I can't.

That's amazing.

Yes.

No, I'm right there with you.

I completely believe in home rule.

That's the government closest to home.

Those are the people that we know the best.

We elected them to help us right there at home.

And then to that point, I mean, this is the DOGE, Florida DOGE, really?

I like accountability is one thing that I understand, and I understand transparency and oversight and all those things, but they're looking for the Green New Deal of Alachua County or Gainesville.

There's no Green New Deal in Gainesville.

There's no Green New Deal in Florida.

That would be a national thing put out by, I don't know, AOC.

And the last time I checked, she's not here.

So it's Partizan.

It's a power grab.

It's it's more show.

Is it is it a good idea when counties come out and say with specifics, we already have departments that are looking at line items in our budgets.

Yeah.

I think that reassures the voters.

And, you know, there was already a state agency that was auditing the behavior of local governments.

It has a very long name.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but, um, it you have to be suspicious of the governor's motives when the first place he says he's going to send DOGE is Broward County, which is a Democratic stronghold, Orange County, also a Democratic stronghold.

And then he sends them after one Republican county.

But it's Manatee County where they just said no to one of his supporters, Pat Neal.

They said, no, we're not going to allow you to develop in this flood prone area where you're going to make the flooding worse.

Well, that sure seems suspicious that the governor wants to go after them as well.

So how you behave in one area of government does impact the integrity and the trust that voters may or may not have in other areas as well.

Okay, so we are in the time that we have left.

We always love to do the story, the other big stories of the week, so that it gives our viewers a different taste for things, different perspectives.

Mark, I'd like to start with you.

So the month of August 1st through the end of August is tax free holiday.

You got school supplies, hurricane supplies and other things.

Now, the governor recently has called for doing it Year round, which might be interesting.

But anyway, for the next 30 days you have tax free holiday to go out and buy stuff without having to pay taxes on it.

Jennifer, what's your big story?

My big story is I and its inaccuracies.

Um, because for two, for a few reasons.

Um, one thing for the DOGE, he's using I to go through counties or cities, municipalities, records and all these things.

Meanwhile, last weekend, my oldest daughter, who is an oceanography graduate student, I mean, not a student, she actually has her master's in oceanography now sends me something and tells me there's only 300 or 3000 great whites left.

I didn't believe her.

I go to Google immediately.

The Google I says confirms what she says, maybe 3 to 5000.

And then you continue reading down and there's articles from Australia talking about how they're tending to their population of roughly 12,000 great white sharks.

12,000 does not equal 3000 or 5000.

You know, it's all over the place.

And I think there's a lot going on with AI, and people are putting a lot of credibility into it that it just cannot live up to.

And, um, I think we still need to use our brains, and I think we need to still go double check what we're looking up and thinking about and trying to strategize.

It's a useful tool, but we need to think.

On the job market.

AI is impacting different kinds of jobs, and we've heard from specialists, from subject experts who say that the entry level positions that young professionals would typically do start and learn, for example, the the paralegal or in the health field when they're looking over documents that those positions are going away because so many companies are relying on AI.

I just I mean, what I can see is a lot of, um, quality going down of that type of work.

And, you know, maybe we because it's like turning off the internet, that's not going to happen.

This is not going to go away.

But maybe we utilize it better and we still keep those people to where they can spot if it's really doing its job and help direct it better.

Elizabeth, what is your big story of the week that you're following?

Um, so we recently reported on a St. Petersburg business owner who had sued the city, um, saying that, you know, the St. Petersburg isn't doing enough to enforce HB 1365, which is the law that bans public sleeping and camping.

It just went into effect last October.

So that's something we're continuing to take a look at.

Um, especially in continued conversations of this new program proposal from downtown officials, um, that would make safety ambassadors, sidewalk cleaning, other things like that.

So something to continue to follow.

And, Craig.

Um, well, uh, the annual Florida Python roundup just wrapped up, and, um.

Sorry, I know you don't like snakes.

I'm terrified of snakes.

Um, um, I'm nervous just hearing you say the word.

But there are...

There are at least tens of thousands of of these pythons out there.

And, this, the state's best idea is to send lots of untrained people out into the swamps to try and track them down and kill them.

And usually and offer them tens of thousands of dollars if they catch the longest one or the most.

And sometimes the results are good.

I'm particularly happy a couple of years ago to see a deaf teacher from Jacksonville was one of the winners, and he also got a snakeskin to bring back and show to his students.

But but a lot of this is just for show.

I mean, it just, you know, they're not really they're not really making much of a dent in the population, but it makes people feel like the government's doing something about this problem.

And where is all of this going on so that I can avoid it?

It's mostly in the lower part of the Everglades, but the pythons are spreading out as the world warms.

It's more accommodating to them.

So they are moving northward.

They're showing up in Palm Beach County.

They're showing up down in the keys as well, because it turns out they can swim and, uh, and, uh, some homeowners in Charlotte County were freaking out because they've discovered pythons near where they live as well, and they're nowhere near the Everglades.

So coming soon to a backyard near you.

Oh my gosh.

See, I knew that you would would be a great person to end with.

As someone who has named their book The State you're In Florida men, Florida women and other wildlife, right?

Thanks, everybody, for your input.

And that's it for us.

Thanks to our panel members again this week, Jennifer Griffith, Mark Proctor, Elizabeth Alspach, and Craig Pittman.

This conversation continues on Facebook, so be sure to follow us there.

You can watch all shows on YouTube and our website, and remember to send us your story ideas.

Email us the issues that you want to hear more about.

Send your ideas to ftw@wedu.org.

Thank you so much for watching and have a great weekend.