Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues looking for ways to help the overworked staff members working hard to help people trying to sign up for the reemployment program.
A new executive order signed by DeSantis today will temporarily transfer other government employees to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Reemployment Assistance Program to help with the extra workload.
“I’m directing all agency heads to identify and deploy agency employees to assist DEO with their reemployment assistance efforts, including call center operations and other citizen services,” DeSantis says.
He says there are roughly 25,000 state employees who are telecommuting or being told to stay home right now. He says he’s not suggesting all of those people start assisting the DEO, but they could certainly use some of them.
“We have a lot of state government functions that are generally important but just aren’t as important right now given what we are dealing with,” DeSantis says.
He says heads of different agencies are already working to determine how the transfer of manpower will work, but it’s an “all hands on deck” situation.
The executive order says training will be administered quickly so people can start working as soon as possible.
On top of the added manpower, DeSantis is asking the DEO to come up with more ways to serve people looking to apply. He says on top of the internet and phone applications, new methods like paper applications are being considered.
“We shouldn’t limit how they’re able to apply,” DeSantis says.
