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TALLAHASSEE - State Rep. Gus Barreiro, a Miami Beach Republican and critic of the state's beleaguered juvenile justice agency, is a candidate to run it.
Asked if Barreiro was a likely choice, Gov. Jeb Bush said: "I don't know. We're going to begin that process shortly."
Barreiro, 44, a business consultant, said he has expressed interest in the post. A member of the House since 1998, he earlier ran a group home for wayward boys in Wisconsin for nine years. He is chairman of a House select committee that investigated problems in the agency after the death of a 17-year-old boy from a ruptured appendix while in state care.
Bush called Barreiro's criticisms of the department "justified," and said the lawmaker's intense review of the death of Omar Paisley "is exactly what the Legislature should be doing: in a fair way, to point out problems."
Bill Bankhead, a former state senator who has run the juvenile justice agency since 1999, recently took a five-month medical leave while he battles cancer.