TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Republican Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis is turning to a lobbyist and former agency secretary to head the state’s child welfare agency.
DeSantis on Thursday also announced that he is appointing the former head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to take over the state’s troubled Department of Corrections.
DeSantis tapped Chad Poppell to serve as Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Poppell led the Department of Management Services under Gov. Rick Scott but recently had been a lobbyist representing IBM. IBM currently has contracts with the agency that Poppell will take over.
DeSantis named Mark Inch to run the state’s prison system. Inch is a former U.S. Army general who ran the federal prisons systems for several months in 2017 and 2018.
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