DeSantis launches Florida DOGE plan for local governments. Broward is first.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s new chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, unveiled details Tuesday about their plans to DOGE local governments, hoping to uncover what they see as wasteful or inappropriate spending.

Their first target: Broward County.

It is far from the last. After announcing their efforts at a news conference in northwest Fort Lauderdale, they flew to Gainesville for a similar announcement about the city. And over the next couple of weeks, DeSantis said the list would grow to 10 to 15 city and county governments.

03:03

:“It’s off to the races,” DeSantis said. “I think there’s problems in local governments. Some local governments have done a good job. I think we have a big, diverse state, and it’s not necessarily like this part of the state is all bad, this part of the state’s all good. It’s really a mix, and I’ve had a lot of complaints, from folks down here in South Florida, vis-a-vis some of the governments.”

DeSantis said it is “very possible” that Miami-Dade County and “possible” Palm Beach County will soon be added to the list. Other local governments — cities, towns and villages — won’t be immune, he said.

“We’ll be starting with those jurisdictions (about) which (we) have received a lot of complaints for their spending practices, and so we’re here in Broward County and I think most people know there’s some criticism of how the county government has operated,” DeSantis said.

00:02

02:4

State teams will arrive at Broward County offices and elsewhere starting July 31 for “onsite DOGE inspections and audits, ” DeSantis said, bolstered with additional authority the Legislature authorized for the executive branch during this year’s legislative session.

They’ll be looking for areas that DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has sought to eliminate, such as efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and some kinds of environmental efforts aimed at responding to climate change.

“Broward has also spent a lot of money on kind of pet causes whether it’s D, E and I, whether it’s the Green New Deal,” DeSantis said. “There’s a lot of things that really deserve scrutiny.”

DeSantis cited County Administrator Monica Cepero, who he said “makes almost half a million dollars a year.” He brought up her salary again in Gainesville.

DeSantis and Ingoglia also pointed to Visit Lauderdale, the county tourism promotion agency, spending $800,000 on a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1, 2024.

DeSantis and Ingoglia said their efforts are aimed mainly at protecting property taxpayers. The Rose parade float was paid for with taxes travelers pay when they rent hotel rooms, with use of the money limited to promoting Broward as a tourist destination. Ingoglia conceded that fact, but said it was indicative of a broader problem.

“That is just a symptom of excessive reckless spending where quite frankly they don’t care. I’m sorry to say this, but a lot of local officials just don’t care because they don’t view it as their own money,” he said, suggesting that local elected officials view tax receipts “like this endless pot of money.”

DeSantis and Ingoglia depicted state government, where they’ve been operating, as a lean and efficient operation. Ingoglia was a state senator until DeSantis appointed him to fill the vacant state CFO job; he took office on Monday.

Broward, they said, has experienced an explosion of property tax money coming into its coffers in recent years. They said that has fueled spending far above what would be needed to keep pace with relatively modest population growth in recent years.

DeSantis said the amount of property taxes taken in by the county has increased by almost 50% — some $450 million — since 2020 while population has increased less than 5%.

Ingoglia said local government spending “is far outstripping in my opinion, the residents and the taxpayers’ willingness and ability to pay.”

“There is a new era of accountability in the state of Florida when it comes to fiscal spending,” said Ingoglia, a former chair of the Republican Party of Florida. “I will tell you that I cut my teeth years ago calling out local wasteful spending. And I have seen that local governments usually have the most egregious patterns of spending money on stuff that, quite frankly if the voters knew and we shone a light on it, they would probably disagree with.

“Broward County unfortunately is probably, in my mind, one of the worst offenders when it comes to spending,” he said.

Broward Mayor Beam Furr said he thinks the DOGE team will be suprised, positively, once it’s reviewed the county’s spending.

“We have been good stewards and I think it’s a good story that we have to tell and my hope is once the governor’s office has a chance to take a look at it, they’ll see we have a good story to tell,” Furr said in a phone interview. “I speak for all of the commissioners, if we can be more efficient in any way possible to provide the best service with the best price, we’re going to continue to do that.”

Furr, who is co-chair of the Broward Climate Change Task Force, said he thinks representatives from the state will be impressed when they see what the county is working on in connection with the Green New Deal. “We’ve just put forth an entire resilience plan with a return on investment aspect. It’s very financially responsible as well as environmentally responsible. They can take a look at it. I think they may find they may want to model” it elsewhere.

And, Furr said, the county has complied with all laws relating to DEI. “But I do think that Broward county has shown that it values the diversity in our county,” he said “We’re going to continue to make sure everybody is valued in Broward County.”

Ingoglia, referring to his time in the Legislature, said county and local governments spend lots of money on things that would not survive public scrutiny if they were exposed — and then come to the state seeking money for local projects.

“The question we need to ask is (are) the counties who are requesting the money actually spending the money that they have wisely?” Ingoglia said. “What will frustrate me is when I see a county egregiously spending, not being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, and then all of a sudden you hear an appropriation request.”

In a Monday letter to Ingoglia and DeSantis’ DOGE team, Cepero pointed to the proposed budget for the county’s next fiscal year with a flat millage rate for property taxes.

Ingoglia was sharply critical of the way local governments spin property taxes. Many tell their residents that the tax rate, or millage, is staying the same. But with rising property values, that still means more tax money coming into government coffers because a tax bill is determined by multiplying the rate by the property value.

“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.”

State Rep. Chip LaMarca, a former Broward County commissioner who was at the DeSantis-Ingolia announcement, agreed in an interview with the assessment. He said he voted for only one annual county budget during his eight years on the commission — the year the county decreased the millage rate.

“I agree with the idea that you just don’t add more recurring spending by leaving the millage rate the same,” LaMarca said.

LaMarca said Broward County government spending warrants some scrutiny. “It’s a good place to start. I don’t think he’s (DeSantis) here by accident.”

Furr said the biggest driver of property taxes is public safety. “If I were looking for places where you could be more efficient, I think you’d be looking at places where most of the money is going,” he said.

DeSantis suggested the Broward Sheriff’s Office could also be subject to scrutiny as part of the DOGE review. “There’s a couple of sheriff’s departments across the state that people have concerns about.”

Specifically asked about the Broward Sheriff’s Office, DeSantis said, “I think that’s all fair game.”

“We have the best sheriffs in the country in the state of Florida but I would not say all 67 departments are run (well). I would say most of them are run well, but I would say that there are some that they need to be looked at and I think this (Broward) could be one here, and I also think there’s a couple others that have been brought to mind about where you would look to do. So stay tuned on all that.” In Gainesville, he cited the Broward Sheriff’s Office as “grist for the mill.”

Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony is independently elected. But his budget is financed by county tax money overseen by the County Commission, which oversees almost all the rest of county government, including agencies such as Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Tony has been elected sheriff twice, but he originally was appointed to the job in 2019 — by DeSantis — when the governor removed the previous sheriff, Scott Israel.

Spokespersons for the Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

DeSantis said Broward County government has been somewhat cooperative with initial state efforts. It responded to some state questions with a letter Monday afternoon, he said, but that didn’t affect his decision to pick the county first. “We had already decided that this was gonna be something, you know, that we were gonna do going forward.”

Furr said the county has complied with all the state’s requests for information and would continue to do so.

“Broward County is aware and welcoming of the State of Florida’s announced onsite visit to Broward County. The County has been compliant and responsive to previous requests from the State’s Department of Government Efficiency,” spokesperson Gregory Meyer said via email Tuesday.

The county did not respond Tuesday to questions about Cepero’s salary and benefits. The website openpayrolls.com estimated it is $461,232, in the vicinity of DeSantis’ figure, but it wasn’t clear if that includes extras.

Earlier in Cepero’s career she was an adviser to former Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican. She’s currently registered with no party affiliation. “It’s not a political appointment,” Furr said.

Furr said Cepero is not overpaid. The county’s budget, including the airport and seaport, is almost $9 billion.  “It is a 24/7 job. And when you look at what corporation heads are making … it is a fraction. She’s well compensated, but we know that this is a huge job and has a lot of responsibility to it.”

And LaMarca said Cepero’s salary doesn’t mean that she’s overpaid. “I don’t necessarily think so,” he said. He said the directors of the seaport and the airport, “the enterprise and high revenue operation centers at the county are probably underpaid.” When those executives who report to Cepero get raises, LaMarca said it generally means a boost for the county administrator.

The Rose Parade float, seen by millions on TV, highlighted Visit Lauderdale’s “Everyone Under the Sun” brand campaign, which the agency described as welcoming “people of diverse cultures, ethnicities, sexual orientations and disabilities” with the aim of showing “why Greater Fort Lauderdale is an ideal destination for visitors seeking a genuinely welcoming and inclusive environment.”

Some of the floral arrangements depicted the wave wall along Fort Lauderdale beach, the guitar hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and alligators, manatees and sea turtles.

Furr said the Rose Parade float did what it was supposed to: “attract people to this county for vacationing” to support the hotels and restaurants. “I think that one’s taken out of context.”

There was enough politics surrounding the float, which was approved by the County Commission, that a Los Angeles Times headline explained “How one Florida county is defying DeSantis at the 2024 Rose Parade.”

Several of Broward’s leading Republicans were present for the DeSantis-Ingoglia event, including LaMarca, Broward College President Torey Alston, a former DeSantis appointee to the School Board and County Commission; Michele Merrell, the county’s elected state Republican committeewoman; and Barbra Stern, who finished a close second in the election for Fort Lauderdale mayor last year and has filed paperwork as a candidate for 2028.

Stern said she looks forward to seeing local governments receive some DOGE scrutiny, and said Fort Lauderdale could benefit. “I have grave concerns over some of our activities here in Fort Lauderdale,” she said, including continued studying of the possibility of a train tunnel under the New River, a project she said is dead.

“Police headquarters. I’ve been very vocal about that. That’s a project that ballooned in price from when it was originally designed, and they changed the design,” Stern said. “We didn’t need an iconic police headquarters. We needed a functional police headquarters. That added to the cost of the project. Those are taxpayer dollars. We’re paying for this.”

LaMarca lives in Lighthouse Point, where he was city commissioner. He’s considered moving to Fort Lauderdale and running for mayor after term limits force him to leave the Legislature. He said cities warrant as much scrutiny as the county. “I don’t think any individual city’s immune from it, starting from where I live to the largest cities. They all should look at their budgets every year and make sure we’re not just adding more on.”

Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.