Waste of the Day: Florida Emergency Fund Spent on Porta-Potties, DeSantis Donors

Topline: Florida spent $405 million in emergency funding on its immigration crackdown in the last six months, with nearly a quarter paying for porta-potties and millions going to companies whose executives have donated to Republican political action committees linked to Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Phoenix reported.

Did Florida properly police the immigration crackdown spending?

Key facts: Florida’s $2.7 billion Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund was created in 2022 to be used by the governor “for purposes of preparing or responding to a disaster declared by the Governor as a state of emergency.”

DeSantis declared illegal immigration to be a state disaster and appropriated much of the money to detention efforts.

While $405 million has been spent in the last six months, a total of $573 million has been spent since 2022 on Operation Vigilant Sentry, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiative led by the Coast Guard to deter illegal immigration near Florida. The largest payment was a whopping $92.8 million to a porta-potty company, Doodie Calls, for sanitation at the South Florida Detention Facility, Florida Phoenix reported.

The state also sent $20.7 million to the disaster response firm Gothams LLC and $9.2 million to the security company GardaWorld.

Gothams founder Matt Michaelsen gave $25,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2021 and $25,000 to DeSantis’ Empower Parents political action committee in 2022, while GardaWorld donated $5,000 to the DeSantis’ Empower Parents PAC, according to the Miami Herald.

Another $25.5 million went to CDR Companies, an emergency response firm led by Carlos Duart and Tina Vidal-Duart. The married couple has previously donated a combined $1.9 million to two DeSantis PACs and to the Republican Party of Florida, the Miami Herald found.

How chummy were the donors with the State of Florida?

Vidal-Duart is on the board of the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity founded by First Lady Casey DeSantis. As Open the Books previously highlighted, the charity secretly received $10 million in Medicaid funding that was later donated to the Keep Florida Clean PAC run by Attorney General James Uthmeierl. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

The emergency fund also paid for $156,147 worth of “food products,” including $2,170 to Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila Bar, $1,200 to Bumpa’s Sports Bar in Tallahassee, and more than $3,000 to Chik-Fil-A.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: The state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund expired on Feb. 17 but was reauthorized two days later.

The Republican-led Transportation & Economic Development Budget Subcommittee tried to add new guardrails to the emergency fund — such as limiting it to natural disaster spending only and requiring quarterly spending reports sworn under oath — but they backed down following criticism from DeSantis and his allies. James Uthmeier called the idea “moronic.”

Summary: Government spending should always be subject to strict oversight and basic cost efficiency, even when it’s meant to combat a crisis like illegal immigration.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.