Gov.-elect Rick Scott named a former AHCA secretary to head his health care transition team and the Pasco County sheriff as his “law and order” chief today as time winds down to Scott’s inauguration on Jan. 4.

Scott, who pledged to cut 5 percent from state government spending, tapped Pasco County Sheriff Bob White to head his “law and order” team although White’s budget created a conflict with county commissioners in September.

White refused to cut his $85 million budget as directed by the county commission. Instead, he requested an additional $3.9 million to pay for more deputies to patrol high-crime areas.

The commissioners didn’t budge, and White has appealed his budget to Gov. Charlie Crist.

Alan Levine was the secretary of the Agency of Health Care Administration under Gov. Jeb Bush before going to work for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as his head of Health and Hospitals Agency. Levine was in charge of Florida’s Medicaid reform pilot project now operating in five counties. He’s now a senior VP at Naples-based Health Management Associates, which operates hospitals in Florida and more than a dozen other states.

Read the full list of Scott’s appointees after the jump.
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UPDATE: Haridopolos’ spokesman said the notice announcing the informal meeting was a favor to the media to give the press a heads-up. Look for the list of invited speakers later. Because committees are not yet assigned, the Senate is not required to notice the meetings yet.

Leaders in the Florida Senate will begin Medicaid reform meetings tomorrow while in town for the organizational session/special session to override a smorgasbord of Gov. Charlie Crist’s vetoes.

Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who once owned the state’s first private hospice care chain, will head the day-long meeting.

A press release issued by Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos (who’ll lose the “designate” shortly after 10 a.m. today) says Senate will “receive testimony and hear presentations from invited speakers and the public on the issue of Medicaid.”

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has made a big deal out of being open and transparent and took down the doors to his office’s inner sanctum inside the president’s suite as a symbolic gesture yesterday to demonstrate his availability to his members.

But there’s no list of tomorrow’s invited speakers in the press release.

When asked, Haridopolos’ spokesman David Bishop said in an e-mail the guests will be “stakeholders.”

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