As Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to try to distance himself from last year’s scandal to build hotels and golf courses on preserved state park land, public records released this past week show his highest-ranking deputies scheduled a meeting with the nonprofit involved in the plans nearly two years ago.

A calendar appointment for DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, shows a call on Feb. 9, 2023, with Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, the founder of the Folds of Honor veterans charity that had pitched multiple politicians on the idea of building a golf course on Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Also included on the appointment were Scott Tolley, who has worked for both Folds of Honor and famed golfer Jack Nicklaus, as well as Alex Kelly, who at the time was a deputy chief of staff for DeSantis.

The subject of the call is “Jack Nicklaus golf course.” Nicklaus had offered to design the courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, according to his lawyer.

If the conversation was about the state park, the date would make this the earliest known discussion about the golf course plans — happening at the highest levels of Florida government — more than a year before they were revealed to the public through a leak by a concerned state employee. The governor’s office staffers involved in the meeting have advanced in state government since the scandal — DeSantis recently tapped Uthmeier to serve as Florida attorney general and Kelly has since become the leader of the state commerce agency.

Additional details about the scheduled call were not immediately available. The governor’s office did not respond to emailed questions about the meeting.

Other Republican officials said the charity pitched them on building a golf course in Jonathan Dickinson State Park in late 2023.

“It was a bad idea in February of 2023. It was a bad idea on Aug. 20, 2024 — when (the state) announced the public meetings. It was a bad idea on Aug. 27, when people raised their voices across the state. And it was a bad idea when DeSantis pulled the plug,” said Cris Costello, senior organizing manager for the Sierra Club, which coordinated statewide protests.

“It was a bad idea, period. Floridians will never stand for it — we’ll never let it happen,” Costello said.

The calendar appointment was included in a cache of documents requested by American Oversight, a nonpartisan transparency advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., that is suing the DeSantis administration over its handling of records. The files were posted online Jan. 30 by the governor’s office, as is typical when it responds to requests for public records.

DeSantis on Monday announced his budget priorities for the upcoming year, including $69 million for “infrastructure improvements” at Florida state parks. When asked whether that funding could be used for golf courses or pickleball courts on park land, the governor again tried to separate himself from the controversy.

“There was never anything that was proposed at all, and we’re not proposing anything,” he said.

But the agency he oversees, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, backed the plans publicly on social media in August, listing each proposal one by one in a thread on X. “At Jonathan Dickinson State Park, we are considering the addition of golf — one of the nation’s most popular sports,” the agency wrote online.

Officials from the environmental agency were scheduled to hold public meetings throughout the state in August to present the proposals, though they were not authorized to answer questions. Those meetings were scrapped after the overwhelming pushback from residents and elected officials of both parties.

The governor’s communications staff also supported the plans online and in emailed statements.

Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for the governor, previously told the Times “it’s high time we made public lands more accessible to the public.” Another spokesperson, Bryan Griffin, posted on social media that the park plans were an “exciting new initiative.”

DeSantis on Monday lobbed blame at James Gaddis, the former environmental agency employee who leaked the state’s plans. The agency fired Gaddis over the leak and the administration publicly released his personnel records with damaging information about issues with a past workplace relationship.

The governor called Gaddis a “bureaucrat” who leaked the memo warning about the state’s rushed proposals “to create a narrative.” Gaddis has said he didn’t leak the plans for political reasons but, instead, because he was concerned by the secrecy and widespread habitat destruction if the developments became reality.

In a statement to the Times on Monday, Gaddis said the memo he wrote “was an accurate listing of what my colleagues and I had been working on, what we had been asked to do and how we were asked to conduct ourselves.”

He continued: “I am very pleased to hear that there are no future proposals of this nature in the works.” Gaddis filed a whistleblower complaint against the state through the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

In addition, bills have been filed by Republican lawmakers in both chambers to prohibit development plans from reemerging. The “State Park Preservation Act” would prohibit large hotels, golf courses, pickleball courts and other amenities from being added to state park land and would instead require the parks to be managed in a way to prioritize “conservation-based” activities like fishing, camping and hiking.

The Senate version of that bill, sponsored by longtime Sen. Gayle Harrell, is scheduled for its first committee hearing on Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. in Tallahassee. The fact that lawmakers could vote to advance the proposal this early in the year could signify that it has momentum.

The full legislative session begins March 4.

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