Hope Florida charity paid for hotel rooms, perks for DeSantis officials

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis touted last year’s Governor’s Cup charity golf weekend as a fundraising success for the fledgling Hope Florida Foundation, saying it raised “massive amounts of money.”

Yet few of the attendees — which included officials in the governor’s administration, his former campaign advisers and state contractors — donated to it. Several said they didn’t even know the charity sponsored it, even though the nonprofit gave them custom golf bags and paid for their rooms, meals and drinks.

The two-day event at a private club illustrates not only the overlap between the foundation’s charitable arm and the DeSantis political operation, but messiness with the financial oversight of the nearly 2-year-old organization.

Following questions from the Times/Herald, the charity is scrambling to file paperwork required by Florida law to notify state officials and lawmakers about the value of the gifts it provided as part of the event. The reports were due March 1.

Foundation officials are also correcting the charity’s IRS tax filing to more accurately show how much the event made.

It wasn’t the first time the Hope Florida Foundation, which benefits a program spearheaded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, has failed to file key paperwork. In April, its board president told state lawmakers that the charity had not filed any tax returns, created a budget or conducted audits required by law.

The charity is under investigation after diverting $10 million from a settlement with the state’s largest Medicaid contractor to a pair of nonprofits that then gave millions to a political committee.

Nonprofit experts say the golf fundraiser, held at the Watersound Club near Destin last May, was unusual in multiple ways.

Unlike a typical fundraiser, in which attendees are asked to at least pay for a ticket benefiting the charity, just 14 of the 60 attendees donated, the charity’s records show.

In addition, attendees received free rooms up to $654 per night, food and drinks and other perks on the charity’s dime. Some received custom golf bags.

Many, including Sen. Ed Hooper of Clearwater and Rep. Lawrence McClure of Dover, said they didn’t realize the event was a fundraiser for the Hope Florida Foundation.

“I don’t remember it being mentioned or described,” said Hooper, the chairperson of the Senate budget committee.

Under federal law, a charity’s expenses must further its mission, said Robert Tigner, regulatory council for The Nonprofit Alliance, which advocates for nonprofits.

“Straying wildly outside those bounds, like treating everybody the governor knows to a good time, it’s hard to figure out how that fits in any legitimate mission,” Tigner said.

The Governor’s Cup was the debut fundraiser for the Hope Florida Foundation. The charity was created by the DeSantis administration two years ago to support the state’s Hope Florida program, which uses a hotline to connect people with nonprofit charities and social services.

The foundation is supposed to help the state carry out that mission, at least in part by giving grants to organizations that participate.

It drew scrutiny from House Republicans earlier this year after it was found to have accepted — and quickly given away — $10 million from a $67 million settlement with a Medicaid contractor in October. The state attorney’s office in Leon County said there is an open criminal investigation involving the transactions.

None of the board members attended the Governor’s Cup event, according to room receipts and other records about the fundraiser obtained by the Times/Herald through a public records request.

The Hope Florida Foundation did not answer questions about why dozens of people received free rooms or whether DeSantis was among them. In a statement, the charity’s attorney, Jeff Aaron, said the Governor’s Cup was “an extraordinary success” and had a net profit of nearly $700,000. That’s well above the $425,000 that the foundation’s current tax return says the event raised, an error that the charity is fixing.

“Everyone involved in the event played an important role in making the fundraising possible,” Aaron said.

DeSantis officials received free rooms

The Governor’s Cup cost the charity $95,547, including $36,642 in room fees and charges. The charges and receipts were managed not by the foundation but by a former employee on DeSantis’ campaign for governor.

Some of the guests were associated with companies that hold state contracts, including Tidal Basin, the North Highland Co. and Centene. Centene gave $100,000 to the foundation around the time of the Governor’s Cup event, records show.

Several lobbyists who attended told the Times/Herald that they knew that it was for the Hope Florida Foundation.

“It’s my understanding that golf, dinner and staying overnight were part of the fundraising costs for the event,” said longtime lobbyist and Republican consultant Slater Bayliss. He said he and colleague Chris Chaney represented four clients that donated to the event: Centene, Tampa Electric, Tidal Basin and Simply Healthcare Plans.

“I am a huge supporter of Hope Florida, and I believe in its mission,” Bayliss said.

Records show that three people affiliated with the Hope Florida program attended the first night, including then-Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris and Ginger Faulk, a mom who has been held up by the DeSantises as evidence that the state program works. Faulk couldn’t be reached for comment.

But unlike everyone else on the guest list, they were “on (their) own for room payments,” the records state.

Aaron did not answer when asked why. A spokesperson for the state Agency for Health Care Administration said Harris was there to give a presentation on the program, and the expenses for her and Faulk were paid by the Department of Children and Families.

The rest of the attendees, who did not donate, included 13 members of the DeSantis administration. Among them: then-chief of staff James Uthmeier, who is now the state attorney general; then-Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida, who is now DeSantis’ chief of staff; and Anastasios Kamoutsas, who was then a deputy chief of staff but was named Florida’s education commissioner this month.

A spokesperson for DeSantis said the legislators and staff participated “for the benefit of the fundraiser.”

There were five staffers and advisers from DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign, including deputy campaign manager David Polyansky, adviser Marc Reichelderfer and pollster Ryan Tyson, who each received $169-per-night rooms.

Tyson told the Times/Herald that he did not know that the Hope Florida Foundation paid for his room until a reporter sent him receipts. He also said he didn’t recall whether the reason for the golf tournament was to raise money for the charity.

“There was no reason for them to do that, so I’ll gladly reimburse them the $189.28 they spent on my stay,” he said.

When notified by a reporter, Polyansky also said he was going to pay back the foundation for his room. He said he flew into town primarily to catch up with the governor and didn’t remember the details of the event.

Two executives with Charter Communications, including the recently named Florida A&M University President Marva Johnson, also received rooms, according to the records. The cable company gave $100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in the weeks before and after the event but did not give to the foundation, according to a list of donations through March 24 this year.

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment.

Bennett Weiner, president and CEO of BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a standards-based charity monitoring organization, said he had never heard of a fundraising scenario in which participants weren’t asked to make a donation.

“That’s the purpose of the event,” he said. “Even if it’s not a large amount, it’s something.”

Lawmakers received gifts

Nearly a year after the event, DeSantis touted its success during a news conference in the Panhandle.

At the time, a House committee was scrutinizing the foundation, which was used to divert at least $8.5 million from the Medicaid settlement to a political committee controlled by Uthmeier. Republican Rep. Alex Andrade has called the series of transactions illegal.

At the news conference, DeSantis singled out lawmakers who attended the Governor’s Cup for apparent hypocrisy.

“They were all a part of this,” DeSantis said. “They were all singing the praises.”

Eight Republican lawmakers attended on the second day, golfing with DeSantis and state officials without lobbyists present, several said. But four, including Hooper and McClure, said they didn’t know the event had anything to do with the Hope Florida Foundation until being contacted by a reporter more than a year later.

The others did not return calls from the Times/Herald or could not be reached for comment.

Hooper said past Governor’s Cup events have supported the First Tee Foundation, a charity that helps kids learn to golf. Usually lobbyists pick up the tab, he said, but he recalled an announcement that the St. Joe Co., which owns the resort, paid for the rooms.

The St. Joe Community Foundation donated $200,000 to the charity five weeks later.

State ethics laws require lawmakers and state officials, such as Uthmeier and Weida, to report gifts they receive from state-created charities to the Commission on Ethics. But first, the charity is supposed to inform them of the value of the gifts by March 1.

None said they received such notice. Aaron didn’t answer a question about why those notices were not sent out.

Everyone should have known they were there to support a charity, said Rep. Debra Tendrich, a Democrat from Palm Beach County who runs her own nonprofit. Tendrich is on the House committee that investigated the foundation.

“I would never have allowed my staff, or my team or my board to promote an event and let people leave without knowing what they were supporting,” Tendrich said.

“To me, this is mind-boggling.”

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(Times investigative reporter Justin Garcia contributed to this report.)

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