Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed three bills, including a proposal that would have placed new restrictions on members of the state university system’s Board of Governors and university boards of trustees.
The bill (HB 1445) would have required members of the Board of Governors to be Florida residents or to have graduated from a state university. Similarly, it would have required members of boards of trustees to be Florida residents or graduates of the universities that they would oversee. The bill, which almost unanimously passed the Legislature in May, came after DeSantis made controversial appointments to at least two university boards.
For example, he appointed Scott Yenor, a professor at Boise State University, to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees. Yenor quickly was elected chairman of the UWF board but resigned in April after criticism for such issues as a 2021 comment calling working women “more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be.” DeSantis’ veto letter said the state Constitution includes criteria for members of the Board of Governors and university trustees and that the bill “attempts to impose additional eligibility criteria.”
DeSantis also vetoed a bill (HB 1133) that would have created residency requirements for members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The bill would have established five regions and required a commission member from each region. Two other commissioners would be at-large members. Currently, for example, the commission does not have a member from Northwest Florida.
–News Service of Florida
