Auditor General conducting follow-up to City of Gainesville audit report earlier than expected
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Auditor General of the State of Florida notified the City of Gainesville on June 1 that the follow-up to the January 2022 audit report will begin tomorrow.
City Manager Cynthia Curry indicated at the June 1 City Commission meeting that the follow-up was expected in July: “For those that don’t know, we have been asked to advance the review of the State Auditor’s findings by a month. As opposed to coming here in July, they’re here, June 1.”
The letter states that the Auditor General is required by statute to follow up “no later than 18 months” from the release date of the audit report for the purpose of determining the progress the City has made on the 18 findings.
The letter states that the team from the Auditor General’s office must have unrestricted access to City records and personnel, and working space must be provided for staff members.
The original findings, many of which have been corrected, dealt mainly with GRU debt levels, the transfer of funds between GRU and General Government, Reichert House Youth Academy, the City’s internal financial reporting controls, the City’s budgetary controls, transparency of Ironwood golf course operations, transparency of the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area, City policies and procedures regarding background checks and performance evaluations, controls over purchasing cards (P-cards), and travel policies and procedures.
The Joint Legislative Audit Committee’s scrutiny of the City of Gainesville, and particularly Gainesville Regional Utilities, began when they heard a presentation on the audit findings at their February 23, 2023, meeting.
Following the presentation, Alternating Chair Rep. Mike Caruso (R-Boca Raton) said, “These are major, major items that the audit has revealed.” He said he was concerned with the golf course findings, the Reichert House, and particularly the findings on internal controls, but “I think the audit doesn’t go far enough… If we could have sound effects in here with lightning and fire and thunder, I think that would more appropriately show the magnitude of what this audit has touched light on.”
Caruso said the audit “inadequately addresses the fact that the GRU is not sustainable.” He said GRU has $1.7 billion in debt, which “technically may be in default for breach of the anti-subsidizing clause.” He said the City is “using the GRU as its own piggy bank, without consideration of its own fiscal responsibility… without consideration of the hardship it places on GRU customers… I don’t think the magnitude of all this has been addressed.”
Caruso told Mayor Harvey Ward and City representatives, “I’m telling you, go back and make those bold moves, or we will take action. What action? We will write letters to the governor, ask him to remove you from office and put people in that will take the bold actions to save GRU, to save the utility, to ultimately save the City.”
In April, the City Commission set a formula for the General Fund Transfer, now known as the Government Services Contribution, and cut it by about $19 million. Since then, they have had a series of budget meetings that so far have added $6,338,585 to the City’s General Government budget, but the City has signaled that property taxes will increase by at least one mill.
Some CC members should be very nervous.
I like my politicians perpetually nervous. It means they understand they work for the people.
I don’t know what Mayor Wars plans, but he and the commission have all proven their incompetence, time and again. Harvey, ignoring the problems is not going to make them better. I hope you and the cc have resumes out for new jobs, although the search might be disheartening. Maybe Ms. Simon can find jobs for you in Alaska.
“Caruso told Mayor Harvey Ward and City representatives, “I’m telling you, go back and make those bold moves, or we will take action. What action? We will write letters to the governor, ask him to remove you from office and put people in that will take the bold actions to save GRU, to save the utility, to ultimately save the City.””
No matter how many times I read it, it never gets old. Hopefully the City Commissioners will do what they do best and broadcast their appalling incompetence to the follow-up auditors.
A month early I bet the city commission has lumps in their pants along with a strong smell
I just hope that the governor signs Senator Clemens bill gets control of GRU their should be no fund transfers untill the debt from the Bio plant is paid off
All it takes is to raise taxes substantially.
Raise away I live in the county
Does anyone know if thar bill has been sent for him to sign yet? If not, is there a specific reason?
It has not been sent to the governor yet. Bills are sent over in batches, and there are many left to be signed.
Thank you, Jennifer.
The Florida Senate gave approval to House Bill 1645 Thursday with little debate and no amendments. The legislation − sponsored by Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, and dubbed the “GRU Takeover bill” − now heads to the governor’s desk for a final signature.
Yes, it will head to his desk when the legislature presents it to him. They present bills in batches, and they send out a list of which bills have been sent to him. I will let you know when it’s sent to him.
It’s on his desk he can either sign it let it become law without him signing it or veto it
I am at a toss up between him and trump if he vetoes it or doesn’t sign I will vote trump
It has not been sent to him.
He’s too busy using our taxes for stupid stunts like this, which have nothing to do with Florida and everything to do with his campaign for president.
“SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom took his feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis to new heights on Monday, seemingly threatening him with kidnapping charges after California officials say South American migrants were sent to Sacramento by the state of Florida as a political stunt.
Newsom, a Democrat, cited state kidnapping laws in a tweet to the Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful, whom he called a “small, pathetic man.”
If you dam democrats would stop the border crossing make the ones who want to come here do it legally then none of this BS would be going on.
Me thinks he is waiting for customers to get their first summer electric bills… and also for stuff to drip drip from JLAC.
That will help tremendously with the PR battle once it’s signed.
Far fetched.
Glad we agree it is BS when our governor spends Florida taxes with no benefit to the state – the migrants were picked up in Texas – to the migrants, including kids – they were dropped off at a Catholic church after being promised work and help by those who kidnapped them, who took off – or the problem – there were 30+ migrants in the group.
Surely your partisan interests have not caused you to accept stupid and selfish showboating like this, which injures real humans and costs Florida taxpayers for a campaign stunt, right?
Why aren’t you complaining that Newsom isn’t doing more about the insurance companies in California? Why isn’t Newsom threatening Bumbling Biden with kidnapping since he was the original “ship the migrants” to other states?You liberals, you’re all the same…full of hypocrisy and you know what else.
Bray on!
I don’t live in California. I do live in Florida where the Governor and legislature have done nothing about our insurance crisis while they gin up non-existent problems which scare idiots.
You would be more “at home” in California. You can pay your employees above average wages, their medical bills and bray about Newsom.
What a great start to pride month! Pride cometh before the fall. These far-left ideologues are substantially outnumbered and are just now beginning to realize it.
Gainesville City Commissioners are in a Biomass Fogg. They continue in a climate of non-reality. How sad for Gainesville voters that catapulted these morons into office. They have their own Tik Tock thing going and time is not on their side. Oh, well. Let them smirk and look down on everyone but them. Thier firing is the first step in the right direction, if there is any hope left.
This happens when local voters elect local politicians with no experience in business. Those voters too lack such experience.
How about no business in politics?
The governor, who under this bill will appoint the members of the board tasked with running GRU, has never even worked for a business, let alone managed one. He’s a lifetime government employee who went to elite colleges.
To Jaz… he does more before lunch than you will do in your lifetime. Really tired of your Demonics.
Glad we agree that the facts are that Jeff K’s description of Gainesville commissioners fits the governor, and in spades. Too bad you think ginning up non-existent problems as campaign stunts for a higher office aimed at idiots, justifies DeSantis using Florida taxes for his personal gain and our state as prop.
There are many politicians who haven’t done either as well. It must be exhausting for you with all that braying.
Wipe your chin.
Guest, I can’t think of other politicians who never had to make payroll trying to take over the most successful business in their state or a utility with a higher credit rating than FPL, can you?
You say this over and over as if it were true, but it’s not.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board does not govern Disney as a company, and DeSantis appoints the members but does not sit on the board and has no vote in their meetings.
The board governs the land on which Disney World sits the way the Alachua County Commission governs the land on which every Alachua County business sits.
Nancy, the governor himself stated that he hopes he can influence Disney’s programming by twisting their arm with this board of political hacks and religious nuts he personally appointed. By the way, his recent bill signings, reported here, was done at The Villages which is run as a special district – same as Disney was – which DeSantis claimed was somehow corrupt after Disney’s CEO criticized legislation.
How anyone calling themselves a conservative or a 1st amendment defender can defend this is staggeringly hypocritical. The Governor is using the power of the state in ways not intended by law to silence criticism. In the process he has expressly claimed he will try to damage Disney’s business, and the hell with them or those – who are in the millions – who depend on it for their livelihood in the Orlando area, and they go way beyond just those who work directly for the company.
So now you’ve switched from “DeSantis, who has no business experience, is running Disney” to “DeSantis uses government power in ways I don’t like.”
That’s fine, nobody is asking you to like it. But my point stands that DeSantis is not running the Disney company, and his lack of business experience is irrelevant to the discussion, and instead of defending your point, you switched to a completely different argument.
Nancy, both things are true – DeSantis has zero business experience, which extends to not even having worked in the private sector, and he is using his office to both punish a business and to effect it’s end product. If you do “like” this behavior, I think you need to reread the constitution and especially the 1st amendment, but you can’t hold that position and claim to be “conservative”, or anything but a proponent of the use of big government state power to control what people say and punish businesses who disagree with whoever is governor. You can’t deny that is what is happening, so own it or denounce it.
Only DeSantis has to “own” his actions – I’m more interested in what is true. And the truth is that Disney had a very sweet deal since the late 60s in which they governed the land owned by their business, set their own taxes, etc. And when they decided to get involved in a political issue, they lost that sweet deal. They are now governed the way Universal is – and every other company in Florida – instead of benefiting from crony corporatism. This was a reset to where it should always have been. If you’re going to argue that Disney can’t survive without that sweet deal, I wonder how Universal and Sea World and Busch Gardens are surviving.
Nancy, there are hundreds of special districts in Florida, what you are calling sweet deals, and DeSantis had no problem with any of them, including Disney, until it’s CEO criticized legislation which became law. So no, what you say is not true about “every other company in Florida” One of those special districts is The Villages, where DeSantis went to sign some bills a few days ago according to another article in the Chronicle. You are being incredibly naive or on DeSantis messaging to claim this is “crony corporatism” when it was designed in both those cases to give large companies with the resources the ability to self govern the properties they were responsible for, a job which Disney has done a fabulously successful job of for 60 years to the benefit of the greater Orlando area, without which it would still be an orange juice capital and not an international destination. What you call “get involved” amounted to the Disney CEO publicly criticizing DeSantis legislation, a right each of us has under the 1st amendment, whether we are corporate magnates or hourly serfs.
As voters, you and I are ultimately responsible for our government and will pay the price for it’s excesses and faults, whether that be in Gainesville or Disneyworld and you do own this if you know what your elected leaders are doing and approve it, as you apparently are this dictatorial action by the governor who has on multiple occasions shown he is not fit for leadership because he regularly abuses the powers of his office to suit his own vanity or ambitions. You like his policies otherwise? OK, we can argue about that. There is nothing to argue about with somebody in power punishing those exercising their 1st amendment rights. That was settled in the constitution.
There is one big difference between Reedy Creek and every other special taxing district in the state of Florida: the board of Reedy Creek was selected by and acted to benefit one single corporation. That alone makes the rest of your arguments moot.
This article explains Reedy Creek’s unusual powers: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2022/05/24/florida-special-tax-districts-like-disneys-reedy-creek-explained/
The Villages’ board is elected by property owners who live in the district, and they receive services for the taxes paid to the district. Only Disney benefited from Reedy Creek, and no other district is structured that way.
Thanks for the link Nancy, but it does not say what you claim. Obviously all were designed to benefit the single corporations or semi-governmental entities that run them, but come with responsibilities, responsibilities which no one claims Disney has not fulfilled while single handedly turning Orlando into an international destination for the world’s best kid based tourism. The reason for DeSantis doing this are not arguable and prior to it’s CEO criticizing his legislation was never hinted at or mentioned as a problem by him or any of his lap dogs in the legislature. You can try and pretend that Disney has screwed up it’s obligations to an extent requiring intervention, but the evidence is opposite that and the dictatorial and anti-freedom actions of the governor obvious and unarguable – he openly wants to punish them, has said he hopes to affect their programming – buy stocks jerk-off! – and obviously has no complaints about the companies effects on the business of the state, the billions of taxes it’s pays, the thousands it employs, and through it’s impact, the economic benefits which literally millions in that area enjoy. That you still support this says everything about how much freedom you support, how “conservative” you are, and to what limits you will go to justify your team. It’s not a pretty picture.
I’m not sure how you can read this and say Reedy Creek isn’t unusual: “The district also has the power to create conservation areas, build its own airport, create water and sewage systems, build its own public utilities … the list goes on. Disney even controls who sits on the five-member board that governs the district.”
So we’re done – I won’t be responding any more. I’ll just say that removing a special privilege granted to a corporation by a previous legislature is the opposite of expanding government.
Thanks for responding, but your obfuscating does not hide the facts, which are that the governor is once again using the state power he has to try and quiet citizens – and businesses – who disagree with him. That in itself is both unusual – thankfully – and reprehensible but doubly disgusting because of those making excuses for him, like you, and the fact that he – with zero – make that zippo, nada, none – business experience is playing with punishing the state’s most successful business, with attendant high tax payments, jobs, and economic impact – which is historic to say the least – including saying he hopes to damage it’s business, and intends to impact it’s product.
You own it, it doesn’t look good.
Jizzman, kinda makes you wonder what AOC did to get elected doesn’t it? She must have worked it very hard to shut Amazon down.
City milking GRU makes sense though. Without it, the city couldn’t afford a bucket to piss in.
So Guest – your obscene nickname goes to your character, not mine – you approved of AOC’s efforts to battle Amazon in her district? I didn’t, though not living there I did not spend time on it. If she runs for national office or governor of Florida I hope she does have to answer for it, though her efforts were supposedly intended to protect mom and pop businesses, not punish the company for criticizing her.
Hurt your feelings? Get over it and go bray some more.
Ward needs your company.
Harvey and Co. are probably having a little bonfire to hide the evidence.
Anyone want to have a bonfire protest in their front yards if they start raising taxes?
Don’t be surprised if they add to the charter that city commissioners will be exempt from property taxes in the near future.
The liberal lunatics who voted for these incompetent idiots are equally to blame. Hope they’re happy…idiots usually find joy in anything.
The three options are –
1) Gov signs if presented to him
2) Gov vetoes it
3) Gov does neither by 1 July – and it automatically becomes law.
My guess is he goes with option 3.
My guess he is signs it and uses Gainesville as a model to tackle cultural Marxism while campaigning for POTUS. Depending on how it’s played it could make or break him.
I’ve said this from day 1. Get ready for Gainesville to be on national tv.
He squashed/broke the former Superintendent like a little bug.
The commission will be much easier imo.
I’m sure they will come up with some scape goat(s) to take the punishment for their incompetence.
Tony Jones should be getting pretty nervous; I have a feeling that many things regarding the Reichert House will come to light; the past auditor was just scratching the surface.
Lauren Poe also has a huge hand in this mess that the city is in. Hopefully his day of accountability comes as well.
The impact of Caruso’s comments are likely to nosedive the City’s credit rating… again
Maybe they heard Harvey’s comments about the city’s financial crisis being contrived and not real. They can get his fat butt out of City Hall a month sooner and save the taxpayers a month’s salary.
No they can’t. He’s the elected mayor and none of this idiots – including DeSantis, Clemons, or Perry could get elected to anything in Gainesville, which is of course the point of this charade.
PS GRU’s credit rating is higher than FPL’s, you know the company that gave Perry $200k in illegal dark money so he could squeak by Enneking using a stealth candidate.
executive order stating the grounds for the suspension and filed with the Secretary of State, the Governor may suspend from office any elected or appointed municipal official for malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties.
Let’s see neglect of duty failure to get GRU debt under control, incompetence, every time a Gainesville commissioner opens their mouth they prove this
But he got elected Governor of Florida instead of your butt buddy Gillum or “can’t make up my mind” Crist.
As far as anyone knows, Gillum still can’t find his pants. Are you hiding the evidence?
How about leaving me out of your sex fantasies. This is getting to be a habit with you.
🤣 You must have an awful lot of fantasies about DeSantis then. How do you manage the time between him, Perry and Clemons? Must get crowded in that head of yours.
It’s obvious he doesn’t have a job – or life.
Better check your “facts” Jazz… just ask the former mayor from Panama city. This city’s corruption goes deep too and I hope the state protects the citizens of Gainesville’s best interests and replaces the incompetent “elected” officials that are deaf, dumb, and blind by choice.
Sorry… the mayor removed from office was from Lynn Haven in 2020 by our current Governor. It’s getting hard to keep track of all this nonsense.
James, absent obvious corruption – and there is no evidence of that in Gainesville – it is highly unusual for elected officials to be removed by the governor. Of course this dictator of a governor, supported by supposedly “small government conservatives” in the legislature, will do it on any pretext, including statements – not acts – by popular political opponents, and replace them with partisan operatives who could never be elected, so maybe you’re right. We’ve come to this, and people like those commenting here who supposedly are “conservative” have no problem with it. That’s to to their shame.
Does Stupid and Prejudice qualify as corruption?
Rep. Caruso needs to send letters to Governor Desantis so he can remove the mayor and commissioners because they are not competent to run this city.
They’re competent at one thing & you are correct, it’s not running the city. Jazzy said so.