Ron DeSantis tried to help a developer pass a bill making it easier to turn affordable housing into high-priced apartments

The DeSantis administration has so far refused to release public records that might reveal the full extent of the help it gave to The Vestcor Companies, which has been a major donor to the governor.

Photo credit: Matt Johnson

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Top aides to Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to help an apartment company run by a big campaign contributor pass legislation that could have forced thousands of Floridians living in affordable apartments out of their homes.

The emails show that senior staffers to DeSantis worked with lobbyists for The Vestcor Companies on a proposal during the 2022 legislative session that would have made it easier for apartment developers like Vestcor to convert rent-controlled, affordable-housing units that were built with public subsidies into higher-priced, market-rate apartments and condos.

DeSantis aides also met to discuss the proposal with John Rood, the founder and chairman of Vestcor, according to the Florida Times-Union.

Rood, who was once made ambassador to The Bahamas by former President George W. Bush, is one of the biggest Republican donors in Florida. Campaign-finance records show that Rood and his companies have given nearly $400,000 to DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida in the four years DeSantis has served as governor. (DeSantis has also called Rood a personal friend.)

Vestcor’s proposal drew angry condemnation from advocates for affordable and attainable housing, who said the company and its supporters were trying to carve out a loophole that would have led to the loss of as many as 40,000 affordable apartments across Florida — at a time when skyrocketing rents and home prices have left the state with a critical shortage of attainable housing.

After scathing headlines from Jacksonville to Key West, Vestcor backed down somewhat and lawmakers ultimately passed a more benign version of the bill.  

The full extent of the support DeSantis gave to Vestcor is still unclear. That’s because his office has so far refused to release public records that would reveal more details about his administration’s work with the company.

Seeking Rents submitted a public-records request to the governor’s office on Feb. 21. The request sought copies of emails between five DeSantis staffers and various Vestcor lobbyists and executives over a seven-week period before and during the legislative session.  

It’s now been more than six months since that request was made. The DeSantis administration has yet to turn over any of the emails.

But emails obtained from other public agencies show that DeSantis’ staff was helping Vestcor.

At issue was an amendment that was attached to an otherwise-mundane affordable-housing bill in the Florida Senate (SB 196) midway through the 2022 legislative session.

The amendment — which records showed was written by Vestcor lobbyists — attempted to rewrite the rules around something known as the “qualified contract” process. Developers of affordable housing projects often try to use this process to get out of the rent-control restrictions they initially agreed to in exchange for tax breaks when they first built their projects. (Click here for a more detailed explanation.)

One string of emails — obtained from the Florida Housing Finance Corp., which runs the state’s affordable-housing program — shows that a lobbyist for Vestcor sent the proposed amendment to Alex Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to DeSantis.   

“Call me once you have reviewed,” the Vesctor lobbyist, Oscar Anderson, wrote to Kelly.

It’s not clear if or how Kelly responded. Neither Kelly nor Anderson would discuss their communications with each other.

But Kelly, who also serves as the liaison between the governor and the Florida Housing Finance Corp., then sent the Vestcor amendment to the executive director of the housing agency — where lower-level officials had privately objected to it. The housing agency then very carefully avoided expressing any opinion whatsoever on the Vestcor amendment during the one public hearing where it was discussed.

Another email — obtained from the Florida House of Representatives — makes it clear that the governor’s office supported Vestcor’s proposal.

In that email, Kelly sent the Vestcor amendment to Rep. Rick Roth, a Republican from West Palm Beach who was the House sponsor of the underlying affordable-housing legislation that Vestcor was trying to hijack.

Kelly noted that a minor technical issue would need to be fixed. But “otherwise, the substance of the amendment looks good,” he wrote to Roth.

It was right around this same time that Rood, the Vestcor chairman and big Republican donor, met personally with DeSantis’ staff. Rood declined to discuss the meeting.

It’s possible we’ll learn more about DeSantis’ role in this legislation — once the governor’s office finally fulfills the public records request that Seeking Rents filed on Feb. 21.

It’s worth noting that DeSantis’ office sent Seeking Rents an estimate on May 17 that said the request would require eight-and-a-half hours of staff time (and thus cost $455.47 to fulfill).

That was around 2,832 hours ago.

It’s also worth noting that Ron DeSantis has written proposed legislation that would make it even harder to pull public records out of his administration.