Florida DEO chief resigns amid ongoing pandemic unemployment issues

For nearly six months, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has faced scrutiny and backlash because of ongoing problems with its website and unemployment process.

As thousands of Floridians lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they also faced setbacks, hurdles, miscommunication and long wait times to apply for and receive unemployment benefits from the state. 

On Monday, DEO Chief Ken Lawson submitted his resignation letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis. In his letter, Lawson said he is "turning the page and moving forward." 

"Over the last nine years, it has been an honor to serve the people of Florida," Lawson wrote.

His resignation is effective at the end of business on Tuesday.

RELATED: Florida ends contracts with call center companies assisting with unemployment benefits

Lawson was pulled from his spot as executive director of DEO in mid-April when unemployment system failures continued to pile up.

In May, DeSantis and other state leaders called for an investigation into the DEO system as the site CONNECT went down for another weekend to catch up on claims and payments. By June 4, the DEO had received more than two million unemployment claims in Florida.

RELATED: 'I’m not a lazy bum. I’ve worked my whole life!' Florida woman says she hasn't seen a cent since filing for unemployment in March

In early June, 10 Investigates tracked down a memo from Lawson, then the president of Visit Florida, to DeSantis's transition team in December 2018. The memo listed three potential threats the new DEO leadership should consider addressing, including "technological and administrative capabilities of the Reemployment Assistance program."

The memo said the technology "may struggle" if the volume of claims increases.

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