st. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – A team of auditors at Florida Doge arrived at St. Petersburg City Hall Wednesday morning. This is a two-day effort to look directly at the city’s finances and ask follow-up questions for city staff.
Hours after the team arrived, protesters were at city hall to express their concern. One of them was Mary McMullen.
“We don’t need them to tell us how to spend our money and how we should live,” McMullen said.
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Longtime residents joined others who held up signs. “We’re missing out on our town,” he said. Another protester wrote “Dump Doge,” and another sign said, “We trust our elected urban government. We are not Doge.”
Protesters were also concerned about how the state would interpret some of the city’s efforts and link those initiatives to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Councilman Brandi Gabbard thanked those residents for their support.
“The city of St. Petersburg is a very good custodian with the taxes we collect from our residents and pushes back the claim that public safety is being disposed of in those taxes,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard is also concerned about whether the state will value the city’s resilience efforts, particularly as it represents its neighbours of coastal municipalities.
Minutes after the protests, the protesters headed the road through city hall to listen to Chief Financial Officer Blaze Ingoglia at a press conference.
“What we’re looking at is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in many places that local governments can cut,” Ingoglia said.
Newly appointed members of the Desantis Cabinet were asked to enter the details.
“We shouldn’t give specific examples. We’ll explain these examples in detail when the report is published,” Ingoglia said.
Ingoglia added that the audit will not only consider the overall purpose of some initiatives and programs, but primarily the process of starting or getting them up and running.
“The contract may be worth it. It could be a valid use of taxpayers’ money. But it may be doubtful how they go through the procurement process and place bids,” Ingoglia said.
Ingoglia said the auditor is currently employed by the state. They are all from several departments. The CFO said the overall Doge effort would be a small price as state resources are already allocated for the effort.
The press conference ignited a temperament between Ingoglia and the protesters. McMullen left midway through the press conference.
The ultimate goal after Doge is to present a report with recommendations for cities and counties to cut or save money. These funds can help compensate for the loss of money from services essential to funding if leaders cut property taxes. Another option is that voters are likely to decide on future vote revisions regarding potential future reductions in property taxes.
Property taxes are handled by local governments. However, amendments to the constitution could force local leaders to change how much property owners pay in property taxes.
Mayor Kenneth Welch issued the following statement:
“We have successfully completed our first day with the state’s Doge team. We would like to thank the City team for their efforts to quickly compile and prepare this requested data ahead of today’s visit. As mentioned when we first received the request, the city is offering All Doge requests and will provide additional information or explanations as needed.
