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Governor Rick Scott and the states three elected Cabinet members today approved new rules for hiring and firing the ten agency heads that report directly to them. But the panel did not reopen the issue of how the states cop was fired without a public vote.

Governor Rick Scott’s office forced long time Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey from office in December. It came to light a month later when  Bailey refuted this statement by Scott:  “He resigned.”

The Governor later admitted his mishandled the situation.

CFO Jeff Atwater told fellow Cabinet members: “We are the Cabinet, this is our responsibility.”

For nearly two hours, the four officials who share authority discussed how the potentially illegal firing could be prevented in the future. “Anybody who would think about applying for a job with the state, who is in one of these jobs for the state knows don’t..if anybody ever says to you this is what I think about how you’re doing, there’s a process for that. It happens in a public meeting.”

The Governor and Cabinet never specifically discussed the allegations in a law suit that their aides conducted business out of the public.

Aides and cabinet members will be required to receive two hours of  training on open government laws. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam made the motion for the open government training.  “More sunshine training is required. In fact I believe that’s the remedy that’s being asked for.”

Rick Scott did not directly address the issue. “I think we have a good process. What’s important to me is that we have a predictable,. transparent process to review what our expectations for our agencies are” said Scott after the meeting ended.

Left for another day is criteria for evaluating how each of the agency appointee performs. It is hoped the criteria will keep decisions from being made on purely political reasons.

Scott and the Cabinet are being used buy by 14 media organizations who allege Cabinet aides conducted illegal behind the scenes conversations prior to the firing of the FDLE Commissioner.