We are all looking forward to our Florida DOGE investigating our local governments in St. Johns County, where RONALD DION DeSANTIS was our Congressman, elected in 2012, serving in Congress 2013-2018.
From Orlando Sentinel:
DeSantis plans ‘DOGE’ audits of cities and counties that didn’t voluntarily comply
State officials are preparing to conduct “on-site audits” of cities and counties across Florida, starting with Broward County and Gainesville, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday in press conferences in each place.
Blasting local governments for DEI policies and administrators’ salaries, DeSantis said he plans to announce between 10 to 15 similar audits in the coming weeks, targeted at agencies that didn’t voluntarily comply with his request to turn over financial data to his new Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE.
DeSantis and newly appointed Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who accompanied the governor at his appearances, didn’t mention any Central Florida jurisdictions in their crosshairs.
The audits, DeSantis and Ingoglia said, could reveal key information in their campaign for Florida voters to ban property taxes, a referendum they hope to pitch next year. Auditors are expected to begin their work July 31.
“You cannot have meaningful property tax reform unless you have meaningful spending reform,” Ingoglia said in the news conference in Gainesville. “We’re on a mission to prove that the things they don’t want to cut, they can cut. They just don’t want to cut.”
Ingoglia was a state senator until DeSantis appointed him to fill the vacant state CFO job; he took office on Monday.
DeSantis was flexing his new power to audit local governments, granted to him this year in Florida’s budget. Under the policy, his office can analyze personnel, contracts, grants or for supporting DEI, referring to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Specifically, DeSantis argued in his Fort Lauderdale press conference that the Broward County administrator Monica Cepero had a bloated salary of close to half a million dollars per year. He also contended that Broward and Gainesville have “DEI and Green New Deal” policies.
He contended both governments have let spending get out of control as their revenues have soared. City and county budgets have exploded in recent years even without increasing property tax rates, because soaring property values have bolstered collections.
“If you want the same revenue, the millage rate should be going down, not staying the same,” Ingoglia said. “So when your county comes out and says, well, you know, our millage rate has stayed the same, that’s a tax increase in this scenario.”
Administrators of cities and counties are usually highly-paid positions overseeing the day-to-day operations of a local government. For instance, in Seminole County, county manager Darren Gray makes $273,000 annually, while Orlando’s chief administrative officer Francis Flynn makes $295,714.
But one of the highest-paid administrators in Central Florida is a top political ally of DeSantis. Stephanie Kopelousos earns $400,000 a year as the administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which provides government services to Walt Disney World.
A five-member DeSantis-appointed board hired Kopelousos in March 2024 after DeSantis recommended her for the job. She served as DeSantis’ director of legislative affairs and also worked on his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
DeSantis and Ingoglia also hinted that law enforcement agencies, school districts and potentially tourism marketing agencies could be a focus of audits.
“You will see counties in a variety of parts of the state and different political compositions,” DeSantis said. “It could also be other entities that are affiliated with a specific county.”
DeSantis noted that Broward spent $800,000 on a Rose Bowl parade float last year – though that expense was made by Visit Lauderdale, the county’s tourism marketing arm funded by a portion of the Tourist Development Tax. The float was pitched as a way to bolster Broward’s tourism with a message inclusive to people of various ethnicities, sexual orientations and cultures, the agency said at the time.
“Broward has also spent a lot of money on all kind of pet causes,” he said. “There are a lot of things here that really deserve scrutiny.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said she saw the splashy Tuesday rollout as a distraction from news reports questioning spending at the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center in the Everglades.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis is operating a half-billion [dollar], no-bid contract detention facility in the Everglades, hiding contracts from the public, providing no clarity where the money is going to come from,” said Eskamani, who is also a candidate for mayor of Orlando.
The Orlando Sentinel also reported that Florida’s fiscal watchdog agency hasn’t audited any of the expenses and contracts issued under DeSantis 30-month-old, ongoing emergency declaration of a “border crisis,” despite a state law requiring such oversight.
“If anybody is going to be DOGE’d right now, it’s Gov. Ron DeSantis,” Eskamani said.
Martin Comas and Skyler Swisher of the Sentinel staff and Anthony Man of the Sun Sentinel contributed.
rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
1 comment:
These so called Republicans stick their nose into everyone's business. That's not what Republicanism is supposed to be about. It's about keeping state and federal government out of local affairs. Ron DeSantis is a derelict and liar.
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