BRADENTON, Fla. – Slammed for overspending, Manatee County got an earful last week as Florida’s chief financial officer took the local government to task.
State CFO Blaise Ingolia called Manatee County the worst his department has audited, so far. The results came from Florida’s DOGE, the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight.
RELATED: Florida DOGE committee slams Manatee County Commission for overspending
Big picture view:
Tuesday was the first Manatee County Commission meeting since those findings were released, and commissioners remained focused on spending and tracking every dollar.
It was the word on everyone’s mind, but not on their lips.
“It’s the public’s money, and they want to know where it’s going,” said Manatee County Commissioner Dr. Bob McCann.
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Commissioner Jason Bearden echoed that sentiment.
“Before we start talking about increasing fees, we need to lower taxes significantly,” he said.
What they’re saying:
Manatee County commissioners did not initially speak about Florida CFO Blaise Ingolia’s claims of Manatee County overspending by $112 million through their budget, but it eventually came up.
“We are relying on you all to find those efficiencies to put them into practice,” said Commissioner Amanda Ballard.
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Commissioners addressed the progress of Manatee County’s Government Efficiency Liaison Committee, which is a citizen-led group formed back in May – long before DOGE came knocking on the county’s door.
“Since our last meeting, we did identify three areas of interest,” said Mark Stanoch, the committee’s chairman.
Stanoch told commissioners that the committee will soon be discussing the county’s tourist tax, grant processing and purchasing policies.
The other side:
Ingolia did not touch on actual line items in Manatee County’s budget at his press conference last Thursday.
“You’ve got to look at things over time. I think that’s one of the problems we are saying. ‘Here’s a number, here’s a goal. Get it, you can’t,'” said Stanoch.
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As far as expanding the county government’s reach with 472 additional employees over the past five years, Stanoch said some positions were created and paid for by grants and 61 were hired last budget cycle by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
Stanoch said his committee is dedicated to bringing factual numbers and results to commissioners.
“We have adopted the view of going bottom up, which is why we decided to look at areas of interest first and then maybe then, after we look at enough areas of interest, we can aggregate it up,” he said.
What’s next:
Updates by Manatee County’s Efficiency Liaison Committee are open to the public. Their next meeting is on October 28.
They also have an opening on their board for one Manatee County resident to join.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered through an update at the Manatee County Commission meeting on October 21.