Why do we have to rely on a smart college kid to find out where DeSantis goes? | Opinion 

Florida has already gotten a bellyful of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ destructive penchant for secrecy. The most recent example came less than two weeks ago, when he signed into law a measure designed to undercut the state’s strong, open-records tradition and conceal information about his travel.

He claims the law, which exempts records of his travels from public records requests and also allows the administration to hide records of visitors to the governor’s mansion, is about security. That’s hard to believe when the law even applies retroactively. He’s scrubbing his history, too — and it’s all happening, conveniently, as he prepares to announce his run for the Republican nomination this week.

Under the new law, Floridians will know far less about what the governor is doing and who he is meeting with. The possibilities for abuse are vast. The trust of voters is at stake.

But that doesn’t mean the public has to sit still and take this latest assault on our right to know what our governor is up to.

Flight trackers, it turns out, can be used to see where the state plane has been. Media outlets have been using that data and, recently, so has a Twitter account called @DeSantisjet. It’s run by a University of Central Florida student named Jack Sweeney who made headlines when he similarly tracked Elon Musk’s jet. Flight information is publicly and easily available on an online site, ADS-B Exchange.

Musk offered him $5,000 to stop and, as the owner of Twitter, eventually suspended the account. The account then began posting the information with a 24-hour delay to comply with Musk-era privacy rules.

The @DeSantisjet Twitter account started posting last week, saying that it tracks the state plane with tail number N943FL — again, with the requisite 24-hour delay.

Tracking the plane

Politico and The New York Times are among the news organizations that have used flight tracking in their reporting on DeSantis. Of course, knowing where the state plane has been isn’t the same — at all — as knowing with whom the governor meets. Nor do we know if he’s on the plane every time it flies. But seeing what stops the plane has made and when it flies is a place to start.

Which trips are part of his duties and which trips are part of his still-unofficial campaign? Is there overlap that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for? Are there people on board who shouldn’t be? Are there improper or illegal freebies involved? The public has a right to know how its money is being spent. Floridians have a right to know what their governor is doing.

This is not some frivolous cloak-and-dagger game. Florida’s state plane has been the subject of allegations of misuse in the past. Sen. Rick Scott, in fact, campaigned for governor in 2010 on the idea that he would sell off the state’s two planes after allegations of questionable use by then-Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and then-Attorney General Bill McCollum. (Scott did sell the planes and used his own plane instead.)

That we now have to resort to flight trackers to get even an inkling of what the top elected official in the state may be doing is bad. Worse, however, is that the governor is keeping secrets from the public just as he gets ready to pursue the highest public office in the land.

This story was originally published May 23, 2023 at 11:30 AM.