JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Dane Eagle, the new executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said the department is overworked and understaffed, in a First Coast News interview Tuesday.
“There is such a high demand on people here and technology here that I’ve assessed they are quite frankly overworked and understaffed,” Eagle said, “so we are trying to look to ramp up in the appropriate places.”
Eagle mentioned such places to “ramp up” would be the IT and Reemployment Assistance departments.
“Make sure they have the necessary resources so we can address the needs of the people of Florida,” Eagle said.
Hundreds of people continue to tell First Coast News they are missing some or all of their unemployment payments.
Eagle said these claimants are not being left at the bottom of the pile and are the department’s priority.
“Our priority has always been to address the people that come into this system first,” Eagle said, “but our job is to make sure we are expediting that as quickly as possible and that is the number one mission in this department at this point.”
Eagle is the third person to lead DEO in the last six months, but he says being a State Representative during the pandemic is what makes him different.
“My experience with the CONNECT system at the ground level with my constituents and working with my colleagues, we see a unique perspective,” Eagle said.
Eagle said he’ll continue to be in touch with his former colleagues to have a better idea of what’s happening on the ground, and how his department can be adjusted to best serve Floridians.
“Our number one goal, our number one mission at the agency, at DEO right now is to make sure all eligible claimants receive the payments that are owed to them,” Eagle said.
Eagle said the pandemic couldn’t have been predicted, but he is working to make sure another disaster will not cause the system to fail.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” Eagle said. “We’ve seen the problems, we’ve seen the demand on the system, so that is where we are trying to focus our efforts.”
Although it would be easiest to temporarily shut down the system for major repairs, Eagle said there are still a lot of claimants using the system that it will have to be repaired in piecemeal.