“Mrs. Sears’s position was no longer needed,” Florida Department of State Communications Director Jenny Nash said in the June 10 Tallahassee Democrat. “The reorganization is in its beginning stages now. The approach will be a cross-functional approach.” Nash said the decision to fire Sears came from Florida State Librarian Judith Ring, but spokeswoman Alia Faraj in Gov. Jeb Bush’s office told reporters there had been “a decision on the Secretary of State’s level.”
The firing and reorganization came two months after the state legislature rejected Bush’s plan to move the state library collection to Nova Southeastern University.
Sears declined to speculate in the Democrat on the reasons for her dismissal but added, “I would say that things are more politicized than they were before, and it can be more uncomfortable than it was before. ... People are trying to figure out what they should do.”
Former State Librarian Barratt Wilkins said, “I am concerned about the reorganization and the loss of a very valuable state employee and state manager who had a lot of institutional memory and expertise.” Wilkins credited Sears with developing an online state government database, extending library services to state agencies, and merging the state legislative library with the state library.
Posted June 16, 2003.