They asked for it.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Department of Government Efficiency demanded mountains of information from the Broward County administration, from contracts and payroll to “DEI” and “Green New Deal” projects, determined to identify any potentially wasteful spending that abuses the taxpaying public.
It took nine days for county employees in every department to gather the information, County Administrator Monica Cepero told elected commissioners in an email released Friday in response to a public-records request. By the time the Florida DOGE team left for the day, it had everything it requested, Cepero said.
“This includes over 54,910 files, totaling over 134.7 gigabytes of data, in various file formats,” she wrote. “This volume of information was produced, organized, reviewed, and submitted by county personnel across numerous areas of responsibility over the past nine days.”
In person, Cepero said, the DOGE team focused its questions Thursday on the process of assigning contracts to vendors and efforts to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion. She anticipated Friday’s discussions to focus on environmentally conscious programs, dubbed “Green New Deal” by the state audit team, and transportation.
The county also provided information about compensation, water and wastewater management, property management and services to the homeless.
DeSantis has long pointed to Broward as a county in which local governments allow left-leaning political ideology to steamroll over fiscal responsibility, resulting in higher property taxes and out-of-control spending.
Broward officials said they hoped to counter that narrative by being transparent with the DOGE team and accounting for its spending priorities.
While some local officials say the outcome of the DOGE review was predetermined by its mission, County Mayor Beam Furr said the exercise can be fair if the audit team is honest and it gives the county a chance to address its findings before issuing a final report — a standard practice in government and nonprofit audits. The Broward County Commission receives an independent audit annually. The auditor, Bob Melton, was part of the Broward team that met with the DOGE representatives this week.
“We should have an opportunity to respond to their initial findings,” Furr said in an interview Thursday. “If there’s money that was misspent, that is a fair target.” But political differences should not be confused with government waste, he added.
“If a local government determines that something is needed, it’s their right to do that,” he said in a follow-up interview Friday. “Other people may not agree with what we decide. That’s the way our representative democracy works.”
A separate DOGE team went to Gainesville on Thursday, and DeSantis said more reviews will be conducted in Orange, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, along with the city of Jacksonville.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.
Originally Published: