TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Hope Florida Board of Directors meeting ended abruptly on Thursday after the stream was hijacked with pornographic and racist images during public comment.
Despite board members’ efforts to fix the issue, they ended up calling for a recess after several participants in the Zoom meeting began sharing their screens and graphic videos and photos, including a swastika, and used racial slurs.
Recommended Videos
It appears a new meeting was started after the 10-minute recess. However, members of the public were not allowed to enter the Zoom meeting.
Thursday’s meeting began with Board Chairman Joshua Hay acknowledging the resignation of board member Jake Farmer. He will be replaced by Wendy Nissan of Winter Park, who shared some words during the meeting expressing her gratitude for the opportunity.
Farmer is one of two members of the board of Hope Florida to step down from the job amid growing scrutiny over a $10 million donation the foundation received from a Medicaid managed-care company’s $67 million settlement with the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
In an email Wednesday to The News Service of Florida, Executive Director Erik Dellenback, who also serves as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “liaison for faith and community,” said he submitted his resignation to the governor’s office on March 10. His resignation will take effect May 1.
Dellenback said he stepped down to pursue a post as CEO of Florida Family Voice, a Christian nonprofit affiliated with national groups such as the Family Policy Alliance, Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Thursday’s meeting came two days after Hay said under oath that “mistakes were made” with the foundation’s record-keeping, as a skirmish over the group’s finances continued to escalate over the $10 million donation.
After receiving the money from Centene — the state’s largest Medicaid managed-care provider — last fall, the foundation made $5 million grants each to Secure Florida’s Future, a nonprofit organization linked to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Save Our Society from Drugs.
RELATED | Gov. DeSantis defends wife Casey amid scrutiny over $10M payment to Hope Florida Foundation
The groups received the grants while they were making contributions to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee headed by James Uthmeier, who was then Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff and is now state attorney general. Keep Florida Clean fought a proposed constitutional amendment in November that would have allowed recreational use of marijuana.
Tuesday’s hearing was the latest in which House Health Care Budget Chairman Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, has challenged members of the DeSantis administration about the foundation’s alleged lack of transparency about the $10 million settlement and subsequent grants.
“In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made. There are lapses in reporting procedures. The foundation was not provided with the staffing support necessary to ensure all matters were being quickly and appropriately handled,” Hay, who was accompanied by an attorney, told the House panel.
He said his organization is having a board meeting Thursday to address its governance structure and other issues — including missing federal tax reports, known as 990s — highlighted in the House’s inquiry.
Andrade, who took the unusual step of requiring Hay to testify under oath, accused Uthmeier of funneling the money from the Medicaid settlement through the foundation to help pay for the effort to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 3. Andrade said Uthmeier’s actions may have been illegal.
“This is looking more and more like a conspiracy to use Medicaid money to pay for campaign activity,” Andrade told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting.
Andrade said he intends to seek public records — including text messages and emails — from a number of state agency officials, including Uthmeier, and did not rule out issuing a subpoena requiring the attorney general to appear before his panel.
“Give back the money and explain yourself. I mean, how on earth he thought this was legal, moral or ethical. ... And tell us who else was involved,” Andrade said.
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for Uthmeier, lashed back at Andrade, accusing him of being tied to a medical-marijuana company, Trulieve, which spent about $150 million on the ballot initiative.
“This is an unserious probe being driven by an unserious representative who is carrying the water for the very mega-marijuana corporation that spent over $150 million in the effort to allow unrestricted public marijuana use and lost,” Redfern posted on X.
DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as attorney general in February, after former Attorney General Ashley Moody was named to the U.S. Senate.
Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch and Hope Florida Executive Director Erik Dellenback also appeared before the House panel on Tuesday.
As Andrade grilled Hay and the DeSantis administration officials, the governor and first lady held a lengthy appearance in Andrade’s hometown to announce that Hope Florida — a program that operates in numerous state agencies — was expanding to include liaisons at state colleges.
DeSantis, echoing comments he’s made since the probe began, blasted the House and suggested the inquiry was intended to derail a possible gubernatorial run by his wife.
“This is a manufactured hoax, and you have liberal media and liberal Democrats pushing this,” the governor said during an event at Pensacola State College.
Andrade earlier asked Hay whether the foundation’s $10 million in grants were used improperly.
“I had no reason to believe there was anything odd about those grants. … Like all of you, I am eager to understand how these funds were utilized to enhance oversight and accountability,” Hay said.
Hay’s testimony also laid out a web of connections within DeSantis’ inner circle.
Hay said he hired Jeff Aaron, an attorney with close ties to DeSantis, as the foundation’s general counsel after being introduced to him by David Dewhirst, who is Uthmeier’s chief of staff and worked alongside Uthmeier in the governor’s office. Jason Weida, DeSantis’ current chief of staff, was secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration when the settlement with Centene was made in September.
The foundation also has hired attorney Mohammad Jazil, an attorney with the firm Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky and Josefiak who frequently represents the state in federal litigation, to help “cure the deficiencies” with its paperwork, Hay said Tuesday. The foundation also contracted with an accounting group two weeks ago, according to Hay.
The revelation about Jazil, who also represented the Keep Florida Clean committee, appeared to catch Andrade off guard. The representative asked Hay to consider using a lawyer who works for the Department of Children and Families, the state agency affiliated with the foundation.
“I have serious concerns about what might be occurring in the post-dating of documentation in the attempt to justify and cover up what actually happened,” Andrade said.
Hay, the founder and CEO of Indelible, also was questioned about his company’s business with the state. Indelible has inked more than 30 contracts totaling more than $119 million with state agencies, including the Department of Children and Families, since 2021, according to the state chief financial officer’s website. The bulk of the contracts deal with emergency-management preparedness or response.
Hay said his company, founded in 2018, “achieved success” before his appointment as chairman of the foundation in 2023.
“We are friends of the administration. We are friends of the Legislature. We know people. We do good work,” Hay said.
Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, asked Hay if there was a conflict-of-interest policy for foundation board members. Two lobbyists — Jake Farmer and Fatima Perez — serve on the foundation’s five-member board.
Hay said that was a “deficiency” that would be addressed at Thursday’s board meeting.
Andrade also asked Hatch who dropped the ball on ensuring the requisite paperwork was filed.
“It’s clear that there were responsibilities of the department and responsibilities of the DSO (the direct-service organization, or foundation), from what I’ve been able to gather, the DSO thought DCF was handling some things, DCF thought the DSO was handling things. And so we are absolutely committed to making sure those necessary documents are, in fact, delivered,” in advance of Thursday’s foundation meeting, Hatch said.