After Florida’s botched response to the flood of unemployment claims due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he has appointed the head of another agency, outside the state department that handles unemployment, to oversee the repair of the website and call centers.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, led by Director Ken Lawson, wasn’t ready for the hundreds of thousands of jobless Floridians unable to work due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
When layoffs statewide began, the DEO website was unable to handle applications and millions of calls went unanswered for help filing, department spending records show.