Scrapped Florida state parks plans came 'directly' from Gov. DeSantis' office, suit says

Max Chesnes and Emily L. Mahoney, Tampa Bay Times on Nov 12, 2025

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Documents filed this week in a wrongful termination lawsuit allege that plans to build hotels and golf courses in nine Florida state parks, later dropped after a public backlash, “came directly from the governor’s office.”

The filings, submitted in Leon County Court by a lawyer for former Florida Department of Environmental Protection employee James Gaddis, add behind-the-scenes details to a scandal that drew bipartisan condemnation. Gaddis, who was fired after leaking the plans, alleged Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office was directly involved in the development proposals despite the governor’s public denials. DeSantis himself has downplayed his role in the affair.

Gaddis is suing the state for whistleblower retaliation, claiming he was fired for writing an anonymous memo that exposed what he called “gross mismanagement” of Florida’s public parks.

The Tampa Bay Times obtained the amended complaint before it was uploaded to the Leon County court docket. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection confirmed it has been served with the document.

Gaddis’ involvement began in late July 2024, when he said he was called into “surprise” Microsoft Teams meetings with top department officials. A bureau chief held up a Post-it note identified as coming from the governor’s office with the “high priority” parks plans, and Gaddis was told to keep them secret, even from coworkers. The existence of the Post-it has been previously reported, but it had been unclear whether it came from DeSantis’ office.

According to the amended complaint, Gaddis grew increasingly concerned by “the level of secrecy surrounding the projects, which involved removal of existing park infrastructure, destruction of scrub and maritime hammock ecosystems, and conversion of protected land for commercial development.”

In mid-August, Gaddis alleges he alerted a senior supervisor on the Florida parks team of what he called “ground zero” for the sweeping plans: Jonathan Dickinson, the largest state park in Southeast Florida, where 1,300 acres were slated to become golf courses. When a park biologist there heard about the plans, the state rushed to schedule eight simultaneous public meetings where staff would be forbidden from answering questions, according to court filings.

Claiming the agency was breaking the law and secretly crafting a plan of environmental destruction, Gaddis uploaded his memo and draft maps onto a flash drive and gave them to his colleague, Doug Alderson, a longtime state employee nearing retirement.

The Tampa Bay Times broke the news of the park plans on Aug. 20 and 21.

The lawsuit alleges that 10 days after the news broke, the department’s human resources director, Jake Vick, brought Gaddis into a conference room with a department attorney and deputy secretary Mara Gambineri. Her involvement was a new detail added in the amended complaint.

“Did you write this?” Gambineri asked Gaddis, according to the court filing, holding up a printed version of his anonymous memo. He said he did “as an act of public service” and was then placed on administrative leave. Gaddis found his dismissal letter waiting on his Tallahassee townhouse’s doorstep that weekend.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Alexandra Kuchta, said the agency can’t comment on active litigation.

Kuchta did, however, question the timing of the complaint filing, issued one day before a Leon County judge was scheduled to hear the agency’s motion to dismiss Gaddis’ case. The agency argued in August court filings that Gaddis’ original complaint failed to prove the agency retaliated against him.

“The amended complaint was not served until late Sunday evening on Nov. 9, less than 18 hours before the hearing. (The agency) is reviewing this last-minute filing in the context of the issues already raised in our original motion,” Kuchta wrote in an email. “We look forward to defending (our) position in court.”

During an Aug. 28 news conference last year, DeSantis tried to distance himself from the state parks plans, claiming he “never saw” any proposals. But a string of public records obtained by the Times revealed that his office had direct involvement.

Records showed that DeSantis’ deputy chief of staff, Cody Farrill, emailed his colleagues examples of golf courses on public land on parks outside of Florida; the governor’s highest-ranking deputies, including now-attorney general James Uthmeier, met with the nonprofit pitching a golf course on Jonathan Dickinson State Park as early as February 2023; and DeSantis himself sat down with that group’s founder in April of last year in a meeting about the proposed golf course.

A spokesperson for DeSantis has not responded to requests for comment. After news spread of Gaddis’ firing, the public donated more than $250,000 to a GoFundMe supporting him. Gaddis is now seeking at least $50,000 in the lawsuit to make up for his economic loss and other damages, according to court records.

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