During an ongoing Summer media tour, Florida’s DOGE office is proclaiming that its primary purpose is fighting corruption rooted in local governments.
“It was great to be boots on the ground with our teams of reviewers as they comb through local government spending,” said Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia as his team arrived in Orange County this week. “Waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars will not be tolerated.”
But the reality of Orange County’s DOGE audit appeared to be missing the political fireworks. The tone was professional. The auditors had follow-up questions and asked county officials for context. The discussions often weren’t sexy over what was a data dump of records, nearly 600 gigabytes, or about 183,000 files.
Auditors wanted to know about everything from public trails and bike lanes, public Wi-Fi, employee compensation, utility rates and the process for awarding contracts since six contracts seemed to be a potential target.
“The people that we worked with were very pleasant, and they were very thankful for us, because we had it all organized for them based on all their questions,” County Budget Director Kurt Petersen said about the audit. “We opened our books to them and we tried to answer the questions that they had to the best part of our staff’s abilities.”
“I’ve seen some stories in other counties that have given a little pushback. We did not do that. We felt even if we didn’t like what was going on, that it’s not our fight. We’re going to disclose everything that they wanted. I’m sure they’re going to pick things that they feel is wasteful … They can say that, and it’s up to our Board and Mayor to defend what we’re using our funding for.”
Ingoglia’s office did not respond to questions or an interview request on Friday for this story.
The county’s proposed upcoming budget is $8.2 billion and helps pay for one of the country’s largest convention centers and the sheriff’s department and employs nearly 12,000 employees.
“We’re a large county, so we had a lot of documents,” Petersen said. “They wanted all the procurement contracts in excess of $10,000.”
The county’s data dump was public records. However, some of the information needed redaction before it could be released to the public because it contained private information, like some employees’ addresses, Petersen said.
The 12 DOGE employees, who were tight-lipped about their backgrounds, did not want to sign in when they arrived in Orange County Administration, Petersen said.
Half the DOGE auditors came from the Florida Department of Transportation, although the two who seemed to be the leaders of the group were from the state Department of Management Services and the planning and budget in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office, Petersen said.
Ingoglia, who held a news conference in Orange County, did not speak with county leaders during the audit. He asked county staff to leave the room so he could speak to his DOGE team for about 10 minutes before leaving, Petersen said.
Attracting auditors’ attention were six grants that the state employees claimed were related to DEI (diversity, equity or inclusion), Petersen said. The grants are for the Zebra Youth, the Stono Institute for Freedom, Justice and Security, the Black History Project, Orlando Youth Alliance, the Central Florida Urban League, and Caribbean Community Connections.
“We didn’t go into details like what those grants do or anything,” Petersen said. “They didn’t really ask about that. They just wanted to know the process for them getting that funding.”
The group’s contract with Orange County to provide youth services, which the Review Board evaluates to make sure they meet specific criteria, said Petersen.
The county doesn’t employ anyone to oversee DEI; the human resources department does offer training, which might be interpreted as DEI, Petersen said. He pointed out that the training was not mandatory.
Auditors also showed interest in the number of county positions that have been vacant for 180 days. The county’s trouble with 200-plus open corrections officer jobs has been in the news lately since county officials said they could not transport ICE detainees when they grudgingly approved a federal contract addendum Tuesday, the same day the DOGE audit began.
DOGE also asked about the county’s employee teleworking policy (based on management discretion, Petersen said). Other topics covered included the union negotiations process, the county’s surplus properties and details on the properties the county leases out.
According to Petersen, there was one significant issue not brought up during the audit. There was no discussion on the county’s millage rate — an issue that DeSantis has been vocal about as he tries to build a case for eliminating property taxes.
“They didn’t talk anything about our revenues,” Petersen said.
And no questions on former Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean, who faced allegations of misspending last year.
Gilzean, a DeSantis appointee, was accused of running his office into the red as he gave millions of dollars to outside groups unrelated to running elections and his allies. He also gave a $45,000 grant to the Orlando Regional Realtors Group four months after the organization picked up his $16,500 tab for his swearing-in ceremony. (ORRA returned the grant money this year.)
Petersen defended Orange County.
Like any institution, he said, it’s not perfect. Still, the county undergoes an intensive budgeting process and has the only voter-elected comptroller in the state to add additional oversight for spending.
“There are checks and balances to make sure there’s no fraud and things getting paid that shouldn’t be,” Petersen said.
Now, Orange County waits to hear DOGE’s findings. Ingoglia said a report will come within 60 days of the completed audit.
What’s next: the city of Orlando’s turn for its DOGE audit Monday and Tuesday.
Petersen said he had already briefed the city on what to expect.
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