Tallahassee’s $10 million deception

Thank you to Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeffrey Schweers (“Grand jury: $10 million ‘misused’ by DeSantis administration,” Aug. 28) for naming names and shining a telling spotlight in the latest long-running Tallahassee game of smoke and mirrors.

Sadly, this administration’s empty pledges of government transparency, taxpayer accountability, public records request rapid response and fiscal stewardship have seemingly been met with calculated deception, stonewalling denial and absence of even a willingness to discover the truth — all conducted at the highest levels of the DeSantis administration.

Is this the hallmark of good government we signed up for?

We’ve seen this movie before: Follow the money. This dumpster fire is not going away.

— CJ Williams, Winter Park

Where is the responsibility?

The Aug. 28 headline reporting the grand jury finding of “misused” funds by the DeSantis administration is a melba milquetoast description of what I consider grand theft. Other criminals will be delighted to hear that if they don’t “claim responsibility” for key decisions leading to their illegal acts that they could get off scot free. Each of these government leaders — Ron DeSantis, James Uthmeier and Ashley Moody — were a part of the implementation of this “sophisticated scheme” to divert the state of Florida’s $10 million to Republican political causes.

It doesn’t take a law degree to see that this was an unethical, possibly illegal act. Perhaps Uthmeier can use this as a case study in his UF Law School class since he was in a position of authority. In the hierarchy of government, the buck stops at the top. I call on Rep. Alex Andrade to push for another grand jury to get a real conclusion with consequences on this sordid matter, and would hope that our future governor would support this pursuit of justice for the taxpayers of Florida.

— Debra Lupton, Winter Park

A tangled web of corruption

Republican officials have once again discovered a new pathway to corruption: “reappropriate” $10 million in federal taxpayer funds meant to fund Medicaid programs in Florida, as a grand jury found. Send it through a pipeline via a “special settlement” to a “charity” controlled by the governor and first lady of Florida.

“Reapportion” those funds to a political organization to sway the vote on a ballot measure that the governor opposed.

Then promote everyone who helped through this tangled web of graft and deceit, including our sitting U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and our current state attorney general, James Uthmeier.

A plan that looks so winding and complicated that it boggles the minds of we mere constituents, and apparently even the grand jury convened to look at it. Incredibly, the grand jury could not see its way to criminally charge anyone because no one admitted to the crime, or could not recall the crime at all.

$10 million stolen from federal and state taxpayers and no charges filed? I believe this could be the crime of the century, if there weren’t so many others to choose from.

— Mary Sharpe, Lady Lake

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