Tag: Hope Florida Foundation

House unanimously passes bill in response to Hope Florida saga

[ad_1]

Florida State Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier talk during the first day of the legislative session at the Florida State Capitol on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla.

Photo by Matias J. Ocner

mocner@miamiherald.com

Tallahassee

The Florida House on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit the diversion of money to a third party in a state settlement— a direct response to the DeSantis administration’s maneuvering during the 2024 election.

Rep. Alex Andrade, a Republican Pensacola lawyer who runs the House budget committee, filed the bill, HB 593. He used his committee last year to investigate how the DeSantis administration secretly diverted $10 million from a $67 Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation, with most of the money ending up in a political committee run by the governor’s chief of staff.

The Legislature was never notified of the agreement, finalized in September of 2024 as Gov. Ron DeSantis was struggling to raise money for his campaign to defeat ballot initiatives that would have overturned the state’s six-week abortion ban and legalized recreational marijuana. Both failed despite receiving support from a majority of voters.

After receiving the $10 million, the charity split the money between two “dark money” non-profits that aren’t required to disclose their donors. Those groups then gave most of the money to a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, whom the governor later appointed as attorney general. Uthmeier has denied wrongdoing and claimed victory in defeating the amendments. He has defended the ability to coordinate with outside groups while serving in the government.

“The state was victorious,” Uthmeier told reporters earlier this month. “So, at the end of the day, I think it’s a good result.”

Uthmeier has never answered questions directly about his involvement in overseeing the transactions, citing an ongoing grand jury deliberation on whether crimes were committed. In his final committee meeting about Hope Florida last April, Andrade accused Uthmeier and the charity’s attorney, Jeff Aaron, of engaging “in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”

Andrade’s bill would make the diversion of the funds to a third party in a state settlement “an official definitive crime against the state,” he said on Wednesday before its passage. The bill requires the Legislature to get notice of settlements. It would go into effect in July and isn’t retroactive.

“We have public officials who don’t feel obligated to act transparently, and don’t have any concerns about shaving funds owed to the state off the top, and then diverting them to their own intended uses,” Andrade said. “If we don’t know what statewide settlements are happening on a day-to-day basis, I feel like that’s a significant vulnerability.”

The bill would also prohibit someone from using their official capacity to politically fundraise. Andrade said that provision was in a similar bill last year, meaning it wasn’t related to his Hope Florida probe, which began after the Herald/Times reported on issues with the program and charity last March.

Andrade is in his final year in office due to term limits. He acknowledged the Senate doesn’t seem interested in passing the bill in its chamber, where similar legislation has never been heard. The Senate president and DeSantis are political allies while the House speaker is estranged after Andrade’s investigation into the Hope Florida saga and conflicts about how best to cut taxes.

“This legislation is absolutely necessary,” Andrade said. “If it is not passed in both chambers this year, my hope is that it comes back next year, because it’s a concern.”

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, thanked Andrade for his “good bill,” particularly the provision that would require agencies to notify legislative leaders, like her, of a settlement, in writing, 10 days after it is signed.

“When I became aware of Hope Florida, I went back through my records, because actually, as minority leader, I’m entitled to receive notification of settlements with the state,” Driskell said. “But there was none, and there has been no accountability for that.”

[ad_2]

Alexandra Glorioso

Source link

February 25, 2026
DeSantis official says she wouldn’t have approved $67M Hope Florida settlement

[ad_1]

Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris answered questions from House lawmakers on April 9, 2025 about the first lady’s signature welfare initiative, Hope Florida.

The Florida Channel

Tallahassee

A top official in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration said Monday that she would not have approved diverting $10 million from a state legal settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation — and that all of it was ultimately treated as Medicaid money.

Asked whether she would have approved the 2024 settlement, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris told a Senate committee that she wouldn’t have, but not because it was wrong.

“Obviously, looking at how it has been perceived, looking at how many people’s names have been dragged through the mud, the fallout from it? No, I would not,” Harris said.

“Only because there’s been that fallout?” asked Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat. “Or because it’s the wrong thing to do, because this money is owed to Florida taxpayers?”

“Again, every indication, from what I have seen, the conversations that I’ve had, is that no one did anything wrong,” Harris responded.

DeSantis initially said that the $10 million, from a total $67 million legal settlement with the Medicaid contractor Centene, was a “cherry on top” of what the company owed taxpayers over claims of overbilling the state for medications.

Under federal guidance, that would mean that Florida taxpayers would owe the federal government a share of $57 million, not $67 million. But Harris said Monday that the agency paid back the federal government based on the full $67 million, the first such admission by the state. Harris repeatedly ignored questions from the Herald/Times about it after her first confirmation hearing earlier this month. Medicaid is a mostly federally funded health program for the needy.

“In an abundance of caution, we returned the federal share on that money so that we would avoid any future liability with (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) or potential litigation,” Harris said.

Money from Medicaid-related legal settlements belongs to state and federal taxpayers, and diverting it to charities or political committees could amount to theft of federal funds or other crimes, four former federal prosecutors told the Herald/Times last year.

Prosecutors in Leon County convened a grand jury last year to investigate the transactions. It has yet to announce a decision.

Harris said she did not know what the $10 million was ultimately spent on and doesn’t plan on asking for it back.

“If you’re asking, ‘Does the agency intend on trying to recoup those dollars?’ The answer is no,” Harris said.

Harris is the first state official to publicly admit that they would not have approved the 2024 agreement, in which Harris’ predecessor directed the Medicaid contractor Centene to donate $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation, a state-created charity.

The diversion was part of an effort by the DeSantis administration to finance a campaign against two ballot initiatives that year — to legalize recreational marijuana and overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban.

The Hope Florida Foundation quickly gave away all $10 million to two groups that donated nearly all of it to a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff, current Attorney General James Uthmeier. That committee was focused on fighting the pot initiative.

The committee gave $10.5 million to the Republican Party of Florida between October and December, campaign finance records show. Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican whose committee investigated the transfers last year, has said the party should return most of the money.

Harris, whose confirmation was held up because of the controversy last year, oversaw the Hope Florida Foundation as secretary of the Department of Children and Families in 2024.

In addition to the $10 million, Harris oversaw the department’s diversion of millions of other taxpayer dollars to pay for political consultants and ads to defeat the two amendments, the Herald/Times reported last year.

The money included the department diverting $1.1 million from its child protection program and $4 million from the state opioid trust fund.

The ads blanketed airwaves in the weeks leading up to the election and targeted likelier voters. But Harris said Monday that the department was already planning on running ads against opioids and other drugs that fall.

In the end, the department ran ads only against marijuana because the state “had a responsibility to clear up misinformation,” Harris said.

“It was an opportune time for us to release the ones on marijuana,” she said.

She said the department intended to run ads against opioids after the election but never did. She left the department to lead the Agency for Health Care Administration last February.

Polsky argued that Harris didn’t deserve to be confirmed as secretary.

“They were caught stealing this money, using it for political purposes, and someone has to pay the price,” Polsky said. “And maybe it’s people above Secretary Harris. But so far, nobody has, and I just can’t, in good conscience, vote to continue someone running our agencies who was a large part of this theft.”

She noted that lawmakers last year outlawed the state using money to campaign against amendments.

Polsky was the only member of the committee to vote against Harris.

“Certainly there’s smell around the way the money was used and diverted,” said Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat. “But until such time as there’s a state attorney’s decision, I would be loath to use the words ‘stealing’ and ‘theft.’ I’m voting for this confirmation based on personal and professional interaction.”

The committee on Monday also approved reappointing the Hope Florida Foundation’s attorney, Jeff Aaron, to the Public Employees Relations Commission, which handles state employee and labor disputes. Aaron is a DeSantis ally whose law firm, Polsky said, has received more than 25 contracts from the administration worth more than $2 million.

Polsky asked Aaron how the foundation came to accept the $10 million. The foundation’s leader at the time testified in a House committee last year that he learned of the donation from Aaron.

“I very much would like to talk about that,” Aaron said. “But I have to assume that I am not at liberty to discuss anything around that subject matter, so I respectfully cannot answer that question.”

Herald/Times Tallahassee correspondent Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.

[ad_2]

Lawrence Mower,Alexandra Glorioso

Source link

February 23, 2026
Leadership shakeup at Hope Florida Foundation follows scrutiny of $10M grants
[ad_1]
Joshua Hay, the now-former chairman of the Hope Florida Foundation, testifies before the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee on April 15, 2025.

Miami

TALLAHASSEE

Three board members have left the Hope Florida Foundation, including the president and public face of the charity, amid questions over its transfer of $10 million from a Medicaid settlement for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political purposes last year.

The Department of Children and Families chose not to reappoint board president Joshua Hay, the president of a technology company that contracts with the state.

The department also didn’t reappoint board members Stephanie White, a Pensacola adoption attorney, and Tina Vidal-Duart, executive vice president of major state contractor CDR Maguire.

Both had asked for more information on the legality of the $10 million transfer during an April board meeting.

The announcement, made during the organization’s board meeting Monday, came as a surprise to observers and wasn’t mentioned in its agenda. But the foundation’s lawyer, Jeff Aaron, said the board members were originally appointed to serve two-year terms, which recently expired.

“Three of the board members had completed their full two-year term, and they rolled off the board onto other things,” Aaron said.

“They all completed their term, and obviously grateful for their service,” he added.

Hay did not respond to a request for comment from the Herald/Times. White declined to comment.

“My term expired beginning of September,” Vidal-Duart said in a text message.

The Department of Children and Families, which oversees the state-created charity, did not say why the three weren’t reappointed. The organization’s bylaws state board members “may be appointed to successive terms without limit.”

“As is common among non-profit boards, Mr. Hay, Ms. Vidal-Duart and Ms. White left their appointments following their respective two-year terms, and the Department remains grateful for their service to support the mission of the Foundation and the Department,” department spokesperson Morgan Jones said in a statement.

The department chose three replacements:
- Bradford Smithy, a partner at Minneapolis-based wealth management firm Elevation Point
- Elizabeth Butler, who told the board her background was in “engineering and management consulting”
- Yaffa Popack, a DeSantis fundraiser and Miami Beach real estate investor whom he appointed to the Florida International University board of trustees in 2023.
“Hope Florida is an amazing, amazing foundation,” Popack told board members Monday.

Smithy did not attend Monday’s meeting.

The foundation was created by the Legislature in 2023 to help the Department of Children and Families carry out its mission for Hope Florida, a state program championed by first lady Casey DeSantis and intended to steer Floridians off of government assistance and toward aid provided by charities and nonprofits.

The Hope Florida Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is supposed to take in donations and distribute the money to churches and nonprofits that help people.

It fell under scrutiny this year when the Herald/Times began questioning why it held a secret board meeting last year in which it accepted $10 million from a state legal settlement with the Medicaid contractor Centene.

The foundation quickly gave $5 million each to two organizations, one of which was controlled by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The two organizations then gave nearly all of the money to a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff that was dedicated to defeating last year’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative. DeSantis later appointed his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as Florida’s attorney general.

Four former federal prosecutors told the Herald/Times that the use of money from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes could amount to a theft of government funds or other potential crimes. The state attorney in Leon County has an open criminal investigation relating to it.

DeSantis has said the state did nothing wrong.

The $10 million transfer could jeopardize the foundation’s nonprofit status because it could be construed as lobbying under IRS regulations. The foundation’s board has never directly addressed the issue.

Amid the scrutiny over the transfer, the charity was found to have been operating without a budget or approved bylaws in violation of state law, had not filed its taxes and wasn’t holding public meetings or keeping minutes of those meetings.

“Mistakes were made,” Hay told a House committee in April.

On Monday, the board approved the first budget and grant policy in its history, requiring grants of more than $50,000 be approved by a majority of the board. Hay approved one of the $5 million grants on his own.

The budget includes approval to hire a new executive director at up to $175,000 per year and to spend up to $120,000 for a general counsel. Aaron, the current general counsel, told the Herald/Times that his contract is capped at $60,000 and that the additional $60,000 would be for any additional legal work.

It projects to raise $700,000 in donations and give away $250,000 in grants.

The organization’s new president, Bob Schafer, said it was a “conservative” budget that will help the organization move forward.

“This is by no means carved in stone,” Schafer said. Schafer’s background has not been released or mentioned by the organization.

State Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican who has led the House’s probe into the $10 million transfer, watched Monday’s meeting.

“It was bizarre to see board members replaced without notice and for this brand new board to immediately approve a budget that anticipates spending far more on overhead than on issuing grants,” Andrade said.

Herald/Times staff writer Alexandra Glorioso contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 7:23 PM.
[ad_2]

Lawrence Mower

Source link
September 29, 2025