Talahassee – Four Florida employees earning six-figure salaries have lived out of state and earned a $56,000 travel expenses, including money spent on a trip to Tallahassee.
Four data analysts work in the Management Services department after an audit released last week showed many obvious data management issues, particularly after showing that the state could not track the number of vehicles owned.
Of the approximately 35,000 vehicles listed in the state’s new vehicle tracking database, around $57 million weren’t recorded in other state property records, and hundreds of other people lost or inaccurate vehicle ID numbers, the audit said.
State records show that seven people who run the state agency also spent a lot of money on their trip. It costs $160,000 in two years. The head of the game committee spent most at over $76,000, and the lottery director came in second in October last year on a travel bill of over $35,000, including a weekly weekly trip to Paris for $2,745.
Members of the House Budget Subcommittee said this week they were surprised to learn that the top data analysts in the Management Services division still live out of state.
The amount spent by the four employees “few taxpayers funds for staff to travel to work,” said Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, chair of the House State Budget Subcommittee.
Most of the reasons listed on travel are for daily duties and visits, she pointed out.
“The employees and groups of employees who regularly travel to taxpayers at this level of cost are unaware,” Lopez added, asking for other agencies to investigate, confirming the number of employees living out of state.
DMS is the business unit of the state government and has a budget of $1.1 billion. Provides workforce and business support services to other state agencies, including purchasing, real estate development, telecommunications, and managing state fleets of vehicles.
The four executives lead the elite “Enterprise Cybersecurity Data” team.
Lopez said he also wanted information about state-funded travel by other agency leaders.
“I think every institution should look publicly for travel,” she said.
Lottery Secretary John F. Davis did not appear at the hearing upon request.
“If he had been here today, I think he could have given us more details,” Lopez said.
This rising cost of travel comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling for the creation of Florida government efficiency similar to what President Donald Trump launched. DeSantis even boasted that Florida was “doge before Doge became cool.”
The lottery and DMS secretaries were both appointed by DeSantis.
DMS Secretary Pedro Allende hired Chief Data Officer Edward Lane in March 2023, with a salary of $206,276 per year. Rhyne, who lives in Maryland, had a travel bill for four people at $41,860.
The interoperability analytics manager for an agency living in West Virginia earned $126,162 a year and earned $8,418 travel expenses. A security manager living in Idaho was paid $103,662 and submitted a travel fee of $4,590. Analytics Lead, who lives in Maryland, earned $148,521 a year and spent $1,730 on the trip.
Allende, who worked for his first term in the Trump administration, was appointed by DeSantis in 2022. He and Lynn served together for 10 months at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2019 to 2020.
Allende was invited to this week’s committee hearing, but he sent his assistant secretary, Tom Berger, in his place. Arende, who lives in Miami, was attending a cybersecurity conference in Washington, DC
Berger read Arende’s statement saying he was the only decision to hire four data experts and that it was made at his “enforcement discretion.” He said Allende had created certain accommodations for Rhyne’s trip “as they strive to build a true data community to pursue true interoperability.”
Berger failed to explain what a particular obligation was and admitted his “ignorance about cyber data.”
Lopez also wanted to know if a search was made. “What I’m listening to is the only people I can find in these specific skill sets,” she said.
Burger added that if the job was posted and searched, without which the agency head has the discretion to hire.
Rep. Felicia Robinson of D-Miami Gardens asked why they were unable to move these people to Florida when they were being paid such “very great pay.” She also asked why Arende couldn’t find an equally talented data expert here in Florida.
“It’s a matter of Florida taxpayers dollars that we pay to people who don’t live in our state,” Robinson said. “Did you even have a conversation about them living here?”
There is no law that requires top-level employees or appointees to live in Florida or the towns where their agents are located. Gov. Ron Desantis has appointed several out-of-state residents to various committees.
Two lawmakers introduced a bill this year that required agency directors to live in Florida and be US citizens. One bill requires them to live in the same county where their agency is headquartered.
For example, surgeon General Joseph Radapop lives in Clearwater, while his agency, the Ministry of Health, is in Tallahassee.
Rep. Linda Cheney, r-st. Petersburg said the agency appears to have hired experienced employees, but questioned the inconsistency in stock found in the audit.
“We have these high levels of people, and we have these serious issues,” Cheney said.
Lopez noted that the administration would need to submit a report to Congress in 2022 on data inventory, but has not done so yet.
Initially, the committee was told that there were no people in the state who could not provide the report on time. But along with new people on staff, Lopez asked, “When will this report, which was scheduled for 2022, be completed?”
The data team doesn’t focus on day-to-day operations, but instead is part of the “enterprise cybersecurity team” that is involved in the “big picture.” Berger said.
“They are very high level of talent that you can’t see anywhere else,” he said. “They were hired for their skill sets, not where they happen to live. These positions work at the enterprise level, not at the agency level.”
R-Daytona Beach MP Bill Partington said he is still waiting for an answer on the number of vehicles owned by the state after the department went through three different IT systems and attempted to track them.
“This committee needs transparency to do our job to know how money is being spent,” says Partington.
The new system was released in September 2021, but by December 2024 it was not fully implemented.
The audit by the Florida Auditor General included 14 findings, including inadequate monitoring of the state fleet, numerous unparalleled, missing or incomplete records, and no evidence that purchase requests were processed in a timely manner.
