Miami Beach is now bracing for a rare, top-to-bottom state audit after lawmakers quietly and unanimously approved a request by Republican Rep. Fabian Basabe.<\/p>\n
The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee<\/a> directed Florida Auditor General Sherill Norman to examine Miami Beach\u2019s operations, a move lawmakers advanced without discussion after Basabe alleged chronic mismanagement and weak transparency.<\/p>\n An audit, he said, would \u201cstrengthen systems, reinforce public trust and support the residents we all serve.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t about fault-finding. It\u2019s an opportunity, with the budget of our size and the responsibilities that we carry as a coastal community,\u201d he said. \u201cTransparency and partnership matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Basabe detailed his concerns in an October letter<\/a> to the panel\u2019s Chairs, Sen. Jason Brodeur and Rep. Chase Tramont, accusing the city of mismanaging its nearly $1 billion budget, procurement irregularities and chronic delays on major capital projects.<\/p>\n Norman will now set the scope of the review, Audit Manager Derek Noonan told the Miami Herald<\/a>, which first reported on the audit\u2019s approval. Noonan said auditors will coordinate with the city in the coming weeks to begin document requests and arrange on-site work. A final report is expected roughly one year after the audit formally begins.<\/p>\n Miami Beach officials have pushed back on Basabe\u2019s allegations. City Manager Eric Carpenter told the Herald that the city \u201cundergoes comprehensive audits each year\u201d and is prepared to \u201cfully cooperate with the State to dispel any misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n Notably, those audits are conducted internally.<\/p>\n Commissioner Alex Fernandez \u2014 a Democrat with whom Basabe has differed on multiple matters, including the city\u2019s homelessness ordinance, which the lawmaker has argued conflicts with state law<\/a> \u2014 similarly told the Herald that Miami Beach is a \u201ctransparent, well-run, and fiscally strong government.\u201d He noted that the city has reduced its millage rates and boasts strong bond ratings, record reserves and a year-end surplus.<\/p>\n Commissioner Laura Dominguez, also a Democrat and target of negative attention from Basabe in the form of a pay-for-play accusation<\/a> she called a \u201cbaseless smear,\u201d also cited the city\u2019s bond ratings, balanced budget and annual audits in a statement to Florida Politics.<\/p>\n Basabe has called for the audit to probe a wide range of concerns, including a 45% increase in the city\u2019s budgets since 2021, spending on international travel, allegedly opaque procurement contracts and what he calls a counterproductive pattern of repeatedly arresting and then releasing homeless people.<\/p>\n His October request also flagged alleged \u201cinflated contracts, diversion of funds,\u201d excessive reliance on outside consultants and favoritism in leases and contract awards. He further questioned delays in completing projects such as Bayshore Park, which he said \u201ctook thirty years\u201d to build \u2014 contemporary reporting suggested the timeline for the project was closer to 10 years<\/a> \u2014 and the Miami Beach boardwalk<\/a>, which he said took 20 years to finish.<\/p>\n Though Miami Beach already maintains an independent Inspector General with broad subpoena authority, the Auditor General\u2019s inquiry represents one of the most sweeping state-led examinations of a South Florida municipality in recent years.<\/p>\n It also lands after Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration, through its separate Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by CFO Blaise Ingoglia, conducted audits of Miami-Dade County<\/a>, Broward County<\/a>, Palm Beach County<\/a>, the city of Miami<\/a> and other local governments that Ingoglia said have collectively overspent nearly $1.9 billion in one year alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Beach is now bracing for a rare, top-to-bottom state audit after lawmakers quietly and unanimously approved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2561,44090,16438,16441,123,1642,44091,125,124,44092],"class_list":{"0":"post-78758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-alex-fernandez","9":"tag-derek-noonan","10":"tag-fabian-basabe","11":"tag-laura-dominguez","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-beach","14":"tag-miami-beach-audit","15":"tag-miami-headlines","16":"tag-miami-news","17":"tag-sherill-norman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}