TALLAHASSEE — Two of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ former top staffers were among the lobbyists that sought to make sure their client was well positioned for a new Emergency Management warehouse and inventory control contract, emails obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show.

The client, LifeScience Logistics of Dallas, has a 15-year history of providing healthcare supply chain services, warehousing and distribution systems and vaccine storage and delivery systems to government clients, including the federal strategic stockpile.

LifeScience also has a $39 million contract with the state to import and store Canadian prescription drugs and has donated $50,000 to two key Republican leadership committees prior to the legislative session that began in January and ended in March.

“This sounds like a case study in how business gets done in Florida,” said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a Tallahassee-based, nonprofit political watchdog group.

The Division of Emergency Management wanted a better system to store and keep track of the hundreds of millions of dollars of emergency supplies and equipment purchased to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes and other disasters and kept in three warehouses.

“Initial stock was purchased during the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic and has been managed as needed,” DEM Communications Director Alecia Collins said in an email to the Orlando Sentinel.

The Division originally planned to bid out the contract itself, and asked the Legislature for $75 million to build and retrofit new warehouse space for supplies it was required to purchase for public health emergencies. But it agreed to side-step its normal bidding process after talking to Legislative leaders.

“Through talks with the Legislature, and due to the unpredictable rise of construction costs, the Division and the Legislature found it would be more cost-efficient to seek out quotes and compile those quotes into a report for review before selecting the best option,” Collins said.

On Jan. 31, three weeks into the regular 2022 legislative session, Ballard Partners lobbyist Christine Daly Brodeur reached out to House Appropriations Chair Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, to talk about their client LifeScience Logistics.

The next day, Brodeur, who is married to Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary, asked Rep. Jayer Williamson, R-Pensacola, for a meeting on behalf of an unnamed client to talk about the “DEM Warehouse issue.”

Included in those emails were Adrian Lukis, the governor’s former chief of staff who joined Ballard in November, and Courtney Coppola, Lukis’s former deputy chief of staff who joined Ballard in January shortly after leaving the governor’s office.

Lukis’s father is a senior partner with Ballard.

The only client Brodeur, Lukis and Coppola appear to have in common is LifeScience Logistics, state lobbying records show.

Brodeur reached out again on March 3 after the start of budget negotiations between the House and Senate, asking Trumbull for a meeting with her and Lukis to discuss “some implementing language that is really important to us.”

Brodeur did not return a call or emails seeking comment on whether they succeeded in getting the implementing language they wanted on behalf of LifeScience Logistics.

The budget contained a huge section of proviso language ordering the DEM to request “procurement proposals” for the lease or construction of a climate-controlled warehouse for the storage of emergency supplies – including health and medical supplies – as well as inventory management services.

Language was added that the project be done in consultation with the Department of Health, and include durable medical equipment and “medical countermeasures.” It also moved up the date the report had to be delivered from Jan. 1, 2023 to Nov. 30 of this year.

“Proposals must be from experienced providers who can demonstrate successful past performance of projects similar in size, scope, and complexity,” the proviso language says.

Other requirements included integrating DEM and DOH warehouses into a “new, fully-licensed and regulatory-compliant warehouse footprint with facilities” at various locations to meet the state’s strategic safety and distribution needs, as well as being able to store “food and water, health and medical equipment, ... in the correct environment with appropriate security, temperature, and humidity controls.”

In return for its work on behalf of LifeScience Logistics, Ballard received from $20,000 to nearly $40,000 since October 2021 from the medical company. State law requires lobbyists to report compensation from their clients in increments of $10,000.

The company also donated $50,000 to two key Republican legislative leadership committees in the months leading up to session :

While records show the proviso language in the bill was slightly modified, it’s unclear whether it gives Logistic Life Sciences an edge over its competition. But industry experts said it is one of a handful in the field of medical logistics qualified to do the work outlined by the proviso language.

“How this appears to the public is that there is a quid pro quo,” Wilcox said. “It just doesn’t look good. Whether it’s illegal remains to be seen.”

LifeScience Logistics already has demonstrated its ability to provide the services required for the new contract under its current $39 million contract with the Agency for Health Care Administration to import, store and distribute prescription drugs from Canada.

Since signing the contract in December 2020, the state has paid LifeScience Logistics $23 million. The company completed construction of a 100,000-square foot climate-controlled warehouse in Lakeland in May 2021.

Getting cheaper Canadian drugs to Florida residents is a top goal for DeSantis, who has spent three years working with the Legislature on a plan that has the support of the Biden administration, but has been stymied by the Canadian Government and a federal lawsuit filed by Big Pharma.

A year ago DeSantis was joined by LifeScience Logistics CEO Richard Beeny at a newly constructed warehouse in Lakeland meant to hold all the prescription drugs they were going to bring to Florida. Beeny donated $3,000 to the DeSantis re-election campaign in November.

The import plan has been held up by a lawsuit by Big Pharma and the Canadian government warning their pharmaceutical companies not to participate in the program.

As of July, both the lawsuit and situation with the Canadian government were still not resolved.

Currently, the DEM has staff at all three warehouse locations who manage the warehouse supplies and daily operations, Collins said. “This year, the Legislature appropriated funds for additional positions to further assist with warehouse management,” she added.

Also, she said, the division is using “currently available technology” to track and manage all its inventory.

Meanwhile, the DEM is working to complete the warehouse storage and inventory management report outlined in proviso language in this year’s budget, said Amelia Johnson, the division’s deputy director for communications.

“After this report is submitted, the Division will work with the Legislature to find a storage model that meets Florida’s long-term needs,” she said.