It puzzles me that the liberal media in Florida made little effort to see past their dislike of Gov. Rick Scott, spending the last five years painting virtually every Scott appointee as a liability for the taxpayers of Florida. None of Scott's lieutenants deserve the disdain less than Jesse Panuccio.
Panuccio, 35-year-old executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, has from the beginning been at the administration's nerve center -- one of Scott's most trusted advisers. Scott made Panuccio first his deputy general counsel, snagging him from a law firm in Washington, D.C., where he had been focused on complex federal and constitutional cases in both trial and appellate courts -- then promoting him every chance he got.
Now here he is in Florida. And all of a sudden, Friday is Panuccio's last day at DEO.
Those closest to the department, people who rely on, or who have observed, the considerable work it does, claim Panuccio's resignation represents a genuine loss for the state and its taxpayers.
Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson said, "Jesse’s been a tremendous partner as we’ve focused on making Florida the No. 1 job-creating state in the nation. He’s been a mainstay on the Florida Chamber’s monthly economic outlook calls, and he will be missed.”
Said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, "Jesse is one of smartest people to work in the Capitol building. It is unfortunate he's had to undergo so much demagoguery by a few members of the Senate."
Gaetz was referring primarily to Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who accused Panuccio of "stonewalling" her; and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who last year told the DEO director he didn't like his arrogant attitude.
Arrogant and stonewalling? Really? Is that what's really important? Over the past two years, under Panuccio's leadership, DEO has identified and stopped 135,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims -- that's about 10 percent of all claims filed. Putting a number to it, had full benefits been paid on these claims, $558 million would have been stolen. Data at DEO show the number eclipses the entire amount of legitimate benefits Florida paid during the first 11 months of 2015.
In November, Panuccio exposed the Obama administration's crooked math on its overtime mandate, penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that won Florida national attention. Some 195,000 more Florida workers would qualify under the president's mandate. What Panuccio showed was that the price tag for Florida businesses would be $1.7 billion in 2016 -- or 80 percent of the Labor Department's estimate for the entire country.
Certainly Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, president pro tempore, is more interested in results than Latvala or Detert. He plain doesn't have the same take on Panuccio as they do. In December, Richter told Jim Rosica of Florida Politics he credits Panuccio with being instrumental in the Hertz rental car company’s decision to relocate its headquarters from New Jersey to Southwest Florida.
“I think Jesse did a good job and I think he would have been confirmed by the Senate,” Richter told Rosica.
In an interview Wednesday, Panuccio flat-out denied he was leaving to avoid a confirmation process that many in the media say could have flunked him out of his job during the 2016 legislative session. He agreed with Richter about his chances in a confirmation hearing.
"I've passed nine previous confirmation hearings," he told me. "Every one of them was positive. Some individuals in the Senate have a problem with me, certainly, but not the whole Senate. There was always plenty of support there, in spite of the publicity you're reading."
Panuccio said he never resented anything in the confirmation process, particularly the hard questioning. "We have three branches of government," he said. "Conflict is part of the process, part of the debate. It's totally appropriate to have that debate."
But, he said, "pushing hard for the governor's position was my job and I did it."
Panuccio, at a salary of $141,000 a year, explained he wants to pursue a job in the private sector, though he wouldn't reveal what he has in mind. "This is nothing new, I've been thinking about it for quite a while," he said. "I'd like to go back to private life and see if maybe later there might be some opportunities in public life."
The first thing he's going to do, he says, is "take some time to decompress ... take a vacation or two."
Nationwide, the average stay of a state agency head is 18 months. It's considered one of the quickest and surest burnout jobs of all white-collar positions. But Panuccio -- who believes the key to survival in the job is not to lose focus, to keep your eye on the ball and remember what your goals are and who you work for -- has nothing but praise for the people he's met in Tallahassee.
In fact, Sen. Andy Gardiner is one of those people -- and the feeling was reciprocated. When Gardiner learned Panuccio was leaving, the Senate president issued this statement:
“I wish Director Panuccio well in his next endeavor. Jesse is our neighbor here in Tallahassee, so we have a personal relationship, and I consider him a friend. ... The governor, Director Panuccio and Bill Johnson (chief executive at Enterprise Florida) have done a great job of starting the conversation about ways to improve our job recruiting and retention programs. We are on the same page regarding the need to reform these programs. ..."
Panuccio performed a considerable balancing act every day in his job at DEO. The department was an amalgam of three prior government agencies -- a creation of the governor -- the Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Department of Community Affairs, and the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development.
Besides grooming Cissy Proctor, his chief of staff and successor, Panuccio is leaving behind a litany of accomplishment. A sampling ...
- As mentioned above, DEO developed and implemented the FIRRRE system, which has identified 140,677 fraudulent claims, stopping more than $580 million from being paid out to criminals using stolen Floridians’ identities. ("We won a national award for what we've done to stop fraud," Panuccio said.)
- The agency created the Competitive Florida Partnership program, which provides support and state assistance to rural communities around the state and is invested in their growth and economic development efforts.
- Panuccio ushered in more transparency and accountability in the state’s business incentive programs. Florida now is credited with having one of the most transparent incentives programs in the nation with the creation of the business incentive portal. The portal shares real-time information about business incentives with the public.
- Economic turnaround is a success. Florida’s unemployment rate is down to 5 percent. When Panuccio started at DEO in 2013, the rate was above 7 percent.
- Job creation is another success. Florida businesses have created more than 1 million private-sector jobs. When Panuccio started, businesses across the state had created 200,000 jobs.
- In November, Florida businesses were advertising nearly 300,000 job openings across the state, an all-time high for the Sunshine State.
Remember, too, that in Act 1 of Panuccio's Tallahassee life, when he served as the governor's general counsel, he managed the legal affairs and staff of the governor’s office, helped direct and coordinate litigation and legal policy across state agencies, advised the governor on more than 80 judicial nominations, and served as the governor’s chief ethics officer.
Panuccio looks back on some of his work as Scott's counsel as the most satisfying of all: "I was able to effect dozens and dozens of judicial appointments that will have an impact on the Florida court system for years to come."
Overall, though, Panuccio will tell you he's most proud of the "nuts and bolts work that's been accomplished," things most people don't see. Personnel policies are better, training is better.
But he claims his biggest source of pride is the part he played to make Gov. Scott's "Big Picture" happen. "The governor pledged he was going to turn the economy around and of course we measure that at DEO. Wages are rising again. Every economic measure tells us things are looking better. It's such a privilege to have been a part of an economic turnaround in this state."
Job No. 1, he told me, was always "making sure we're doing everything we can to improve the economy, develop the workforce, attract businesses to the state."
Everything he did, in every area of the DEO, he explained, was to accomplish Job. No. 1.
Good thing Panuccio is a bachelor. A job like his coupled with a normal family life ... it's difficult to imagine.
Department of Management Services Secretary Chad Poppell admits he's a big admirer. "Jesse has been focused on advancing sound policies that promote Florida's economic growth. His achievements, such as strengthening processes to protect the state's economic development dollars and championing innovative ways to eliminate public assistance fraud, will have positive effects long after he's gone. I'm grateful I had the good fortune to work with a man of his caliber and talent."
Ditto, Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch: “Jesse brought incredible energy and passion to this very critical position at a time when Florida’s economy needed strong leadership. He managed to balance his tremendous energy with an analytical approach to everything from encouraging job creation to streamlining the unemployment system. While his departure from public service is a loss for all Floridians, I am confident he will remain a leader and a public servant at heart in the Sunshine State in the future.”
Panuccio is going where he can make more money, that's a given. But how long, I wonder, before he begins to drown in still water and longs for the challenges and dogfights in the Florida capital?
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
