TAMPA, Fla. _ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Tuesday that a Department of Health data manager who was reassigned after objecting to an order to remove data was fired for insubordination, rather than retribution.
By Wednesday, DeSantis said she shouldn't have been working there at all, given an open criminal case.
According to Leon County court records, Rebekah Jones faces an active misdemeanor charge of cyberstalking. Court records also show a misdemeanor charge of sexual cyberharassment.
Records show the charges were filed in July 2019. Jones was appointed geographic information systems manager for the Department of Health in November 2019, according to an article in the Syracuse University alumni magazine.
"I've asked the Department of Health to explain to me how someone would be allowed to be charged with that and continue on, because this was many months ago," DeSantis told reporters at an event in Orlando with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. "I have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment."
DeSantis called her firing as a result of insubordination "valid."
"But she should have been dismissed long before that," he said.
Jones had been the department's geographic information systems manager before she wrote in a public email Friday that she had been taken off duties overseeing the state's COVID-19 dashboard, which lets users view the most recent data on infections, deaths and testing.
In her message, Jones wrote that now that she was no longer maintaining the COVID-19 data, users might expect to see less "accessibility and transparency," she said.
"After all, my commitment to both is largely (arguably entirely) the reason I am no longer managing it," she wrote."
However, in a private email shared by DeSantis on Tuesday, she apologized to her supervisor for her comments.
Jones also told CBS12 in Tallahassee she refused at one point to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."
The comments set off a firestorm of media coverage, raising more questions about the DeSantis' administration's transparency on the COVID-19 outbreak. The governor said in his Tuesday news conference that he did not know Jones. When asked by reporters, he did not bring up an issue of insubordination or address why she was fired, but did say it was all a "non-issue."
But minutes later, DeSantis's spokeswoman, Helen Aguirre Ferre, wrote in an email to reporters that Jones had "exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the Department, including her unilateral decisions to modify the Department's COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiological team or her supervisors."
Emails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times showed that Jones objected to directions to remove data on May 4, the day before she was reassigned. The data that was removed showed Floridians had reported early symptoms or positive tests before the state announced any confirmed cases. The instruction came the same day Miami Herald reporters asked the agency about the data.
"This is the wrong call," Jones told I.T. manager Craig Curry that evening, the email shows.
A few minutes later, she emailed Curry again. "Case line data is down."
The data field was taken down, only to be replaced the next day.
On May 5, Times reporters asked why the data temporarily vanished. Two days later, a department spokesman did not offer an explanation, but said, "This field continues to be represented on the Department's COVID-19 Dashboard."
DeSantis also said Wednesday that Jones "was putting data on the portal which the scientists didn't believe was valid data." It's not clear to which data DeSantis was referring. The data on early onset symptoms or tests is still provided daily.
On May 12, Health Department spokesman explained what the data meant to Tampa Bay Times reporters. "The first date of entry in answer to any question asked of an interviewee during an epidemiological investigation, COVID-related or not, is designated the event date."
Media reports of Jones' public email came out Monday evening. The Tampa Bay Times reported the internal emails Tuesday morning.
Still, neither DeSantis nor the Department of Health have addressed why the data was taken down, nor has either office given specific cases of insubordination by Jones.
A Times reporter asked a spokesman for the Department of Health on Tuesday if Jones had faced any disciplinary action and why she was removed from the dashboard, but have not received a response. Follow-up requests for comment on her firing were also unanswered. The Times also Wednesday morning requested Jones' personnel file, a public record under Florida law.
Although DeSantis said the criminal case against Jones was enough to warrant her termination, it was unrelated to her job at the Department of Health.
Jones did not immediately respond to a phone call or text message seeking comment.
Jones was enrolled in a geography Ph.D. program at Florida State University from fall 2016 through spring 2018, according to a spokesman for the university. The school has not posted any degrees for her, he said.
