Florida DOGE report highlights local budget increases and calls out DEI training
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A report released this week by Florida DOGE highlights budget increases at Alachua County and the City of Gainesville and calls out DEI and climate initiatives conducted by both entities.
Click here to read the report.
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established by Governor Ron DeSantis through Executive Order 25-44, and part of the purpose was to provide Floridians with local governments that operate efficiently, transparently, and with respect for the taxpayers who fund them.
Florida DOGE teams have conducted on-site audits of multiple local governments, including visiting the City of Gainesville on July 31, 2025, and visiting Alachua County on August 13, 2025. On September 25, 2025, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia held a press conference in Alachua to announce that his office found $84 million in wasteful spending in Alachua County’s budget.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The DOGE report focuses on increased spending by local governments and the prevalence of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in “jurisdiction after jurisdiction.” The report describes these programs as “race-based programs to promote ‘DEI’ in violation of America’s core principles.” The report also stated that “cities and counties are squandering millions in virtue-signaling about a so-called climate crisis.”
After summarizing opinions from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, arguing that DEI violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law, the report states, “Virtually every city and county visited by DOGE site teams trained its staff in equity and other DEI principles between 2020 and 2025… Not a single city or county… could identify significant follow-up engagement or training with employees to counter or reject the lessons of prior, DEI-focused trainings.”
These paragraphs from the report describe the general findings regarding DEI training in local governments:
Florida DOGE’s review of DEI materials demonstrates that past DEI training has sought to embed an intent to discriminate among the staff of government institutions by providing training that inflicts guilt on individuals for the past actions of other people who share their skin color, sex, or other innate traits. Public employees have also been taught that they are themselves unknowingly racist. DEI training then has instructed these employees to deliberately discriminate “in reverse” to make up for their so-called guilt and privilege, setting aside the “equal opportunity” required by law in a quest for “equal outcomes.”
To make their lessons persistent, DEI training sessions have forced participants to recite key phrases like “silence is violence” or “I am a racist,” swear oaths that they will “promote equity,” and engage in humiliating role-play exercises where others discriminate against them. This kind of psychological conditioning is not designed to educate people, but, instead, to make them internalize what is being asked of them. Absent corrective action, this will likely lead some of those trained to, in the future, reflexively apply race- and gender-based decision rules in program design, resource allocation, hiring, promotions, and discipline.
Report highlights Alachua County’s Equity Advisory Board
The report highlights Alachua County’s Equity Advisory Board, which is “tasked with redesigning County programs to deliberately discriminate to undo purported ‘pervasive racial and gender bias.'” The Alachua County Commission made two appointments to the board at its January 27 meeting, indicating that the board is still active.
The report also states that Alachua County “distracted its Fire Rescue department with training geared towards persuading personnel ‘that systemic sexism, racism, discrimination, and inequality truly exists.'”
According to the report, the DOGE teams “repeatedly found that local officials were reluctant to discuss their DEI-related activities, provided implausible answers and explanations related to DEI, or had failed to retain records related to past DEI programs.” The report listed several cities as examples of this: the City of Pensacola, the City of Orlando, Hillsborough County, and the City of Jacksonville.
City of Gainesville grants require applicants to explain the role of minorities in their operations
In a section about grants to “nonprofit organizations dedicated to the adoption and propagation of DEI frameworks,” the report highlights the City of Gainesville’s requirement that grant recipients “explain the roles of racial and ethnic minorities in their operations” and its distribution of “funding to support scholarships that excluded on the basis of race and sexual orientation/gender identity.”
“Climate change” policies described as “wasteful spending”
Although the report did not specifically name Gainesville or Alachua County in this section, its review of “climate change” policies describes the following, all of which have been pursued locally, as “wasteful spending”:
- Electric vehicles and EV infrastructure;
- Spending on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, “animated by the belief that ‘decarbonization’ requires the replacement of mechanical transportation with muscle-powered transportation altogether for many trips”;
- Installation of solar power systems into government facilities;
- Additional design expense for government buildings to achieve “green” certifications;
- “Studies,” “Plans,” and “Strategies” for local government “climate action”;
- Government staff positions dedicated to “Sustainability,” “Green Energy,” “Climate,” and other similar “functions.”
Alachua County
The Alachua County section of the report led with a chart showing that the County’s budget increased from $163 million in FY 2016-17 to $321.6 million in FY 2024-25, while the population increased from 260,003 to 298,485; the spending nearly doubled while the population increased by about 15%.
The report cites across-the-board pay increases for County employees of 6%, 4%, 7%, and 3% in recent years, in addition to merit-based pay increases, and expresses concern about “numerous small grants to which the County provides minimal oversight.” One of the grants was $3,000 for “Spirit Led Art Therapy,” and another example was a $2,500 grant for the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice’s “Art Tag Grant Program.”
Other examples of potentially problematic spending include a $124,000 professional services contract with the University of Florida “for which no records of invoices or payment specifics were kept,” $430,000 in consulting contracts, multiple large termination leave payouts ($95,000 to one employee and three others over $58,000), and $30,000 to Planned Parenthood for “Teen Time.”
DEI examples include a multi-day training program that “indoctrinates senior County staff to reject ‘Dominant White Culture'” and included “equity retreats” and biweekly meetings that continued for multiple years. According to the report, Alachua County’s “Energy Efficiency Program” is built around a “Commitment to Equity,” with a focus on ensuring participation by minorities, including “LatinX.” The County also has an Equity Advisory Board to advise on an “Equity Action Plan,” premised on the concept that “racial and gender bias are pervasive.”
The report includes a handout (shown above) from Alachua County training materials that lists the following as “traits of dominant white culture”:
- Strong “hero” leaders;
- Closed door decision-making;
- Sense of urgency;
- Progress is bigger and more;
- Debate and linear thinking;
- Right to comfort;
- Following rules — “on time”;
- Objectivity;
- Fear of open conflict;
- Power of written word & images;
- Perfectionism;
- Binary thinking — either/or;
- Professional credentials;
- Only one right way;
- Pride & martyrdom.
Editor’s note: In 2020, Alachua County voters approved the following amendment to the County’s charter: “The Board of County Commissioners shall annually examine policies for all County operations and endeavor to eliminate all elements of racial and gender bias in both the design and delivery of County programs and services.”
City of Gainesville
The City of Gainesville section of the report led with a chart showing that the City’s budget increased from $99 million in FY 2016-17 to $155.4 million in FY 2024-25, while the population increased from 128,816 to 151,275, an increase in property tax collections of 150% in 10 years, while the population increased by less than 20%.
While the taxable value of properties in the city doubled between 2017 and 2026, the City also raised its millage rate by almost 50%, from 4.5079 to 6.7297 mills.
The report notes that City officials told DOGE that the millage increase resulted from the loss of GRU profits, but “the use of utility revenue to subsidize a jurisdiction’s ongoing operating expenses is not a best practice, and, indeed, can jeopardize the utility’s ability to provide reliable and cost-efficient utility services. As the Florida Auditor General observed in an audit released in January 2022, the City of Gainesville’s use of GRU to fund ‘large transfers to the City’s General Fund to support general government services,’ as well as ‘City overcharges of direct costs,’ created serious risks to GRU’s financial sustainability, prior to GRU’s independence. This included high electricity rates, a high level of debt (roughly 5X worse than in comparable utilities…), and downgraded debt ratings.”
The budget section of the report concludes, “The City’s response to losing the ability to tap into GRU’s surplus should have been better fiscal stewardship, not a $24 million increase in extractions from the Gainesville property tax base.”
Office of Equity & Inclusion spending and DEI training
The report notes that Gainesville funds a $1.4 million Office of Equity & Inclusion that pays its Director “nearly $195,000.” The report also calls out $400,000 that was spent on an Equity Toolkit.
DOGE staff reported that Fleet Management employees felt “unfairly targeted” by DEI training that began in May 2024 “through a series of weekly workshops with titles like ‘Identity and Power.'” Staff “were required to ‘acknowledge that power and privilege impacts the culture in Fleet at the City, and at all organizations,’ and to share their gender, race, ethnic, sexual, ‘(dis)ability’ and ‘body size’ identities.”
DOGE staff reported that DEI training modules “contained scenarios that presumed hiring decisions were based on discrimination unless non-white males were hired, or if someone who ‘changes’ from being a woman to a ‘man’ is not hired.” Other training reportedly taught that “describing someone according to biological reality, including refusing to use made-up pronouns, ‘is a form of discrimination.'”
City screened for “resistance” in its staff
The report states that the City “screened for ‘resistance’ in their staff, creating charts listing staff and their race, gender, age, marital status, and job duties,” but the City concluded that some staff would offer “no pushback” because they were “scared of termination.”
City grant applications reportedly gave preferences to applicants that “serve a minority or special constituency audience” and made special grants to “artists who identify as LGRBQIA+.”
DOGE also noted that Gainesville pays membership dues to ICLEI USA, the U.S. branch of a global “sustainability and climate action” organization that “centers many of its activities around ‘equity’ and even provides DEI training on subjects such as ‘unconscious bias.'”
Policy compliance issue in PRCA Department
The report notes that the DOGE team discovered a policy compliance issue in the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs Department, where an Administrative Manager reports directly to the Assistant Director, but that position does not appear in the City’s table of authorized positions. “During DOGE’s review, DOGE learned that this individual’s position was eliminated, the person’s responsibilities were reassigned more than two years ago, and the person has not been officially assigned or transferred to another job… Further, records… indicate that the person may be receiving ‘special assignment’ pay — a bonus of 5% to 10% — for duties held in the previously-eliminated position.”
Recommendations
The report recommends that the legislature clarify and enhance the CFO’s audit authority over local governments and encourage local governments to use zero-based budgeting and freeze hiring and wage levels; reinforce state law prohibitions on DEI in local governments; prohibit “net zero” and other climate-related initiatives; improve local government budgeting practices; and streamline local government structure through abolition or consolidation of small municipalities. (The full recommendations start on page 95 of the report.)
Wait, did I read this right?
Regarding the DEI and “rejection of dominant white culture”, it subliminally being reported as if this is being carried out by black and brown people, this is why it is necessary to identify exactly who is doing what.
The problem is black and brown people have never had the power to introduce racial agenda’s especially in Alachua County, the county with the most lynchings per Capita.
So who are these white people, that don’t consider themselves white I surmise, and are fighting against a “dominant white culture”, sounds like someone is hiding under the banner of the white race, while also trying to attack it.
Race and Hispanic Origin
White alone, percent 69.4%
Black alone, percent(a) 19.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent(a) 0.4%
Asian alone, percent(a) 7.0%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, percent(a) 0.1%
Two or More Races, percent 3.2%
Hispanic or Latino, percent(b) 13.2%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent 57.8%
Its funny how you chime out on Alachua County as having the most lynching per capital. Gainesville and Alachua County is largely Democratic and has been for how long? Other people such as Jazzman, Crying Bear have championed the blue County in the sea of red of North Florida. Who was in charge when all these bad lynching happened- DEMOCRATS. Democrats are the true racial divide and the deep rooted racists. All DEI and wokeness has done is harm minorities. You pass the false narrative that one race is better because they are white, more educated, better housing, etc. All the while telling brown, blacks, and others they need to listen to the local government on how to get by on government assistance, and the false premise that using the color of your skin or your culture will buck the system and make you better. This little charts and DEI materials prove that. Showing a group that has been held back by democrat leaders word like marginalized under color, low on education and ability does nothing but cause racial tension and issues. DEI is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and state law. Common sense approach shoukd be – You get ahead by bettering yourself, working harder, and not relying on others to get you a free pass.
” You pass the false narrative that one race is better because they are white, more educated, better housing, etc.”
Learn your history, this is false narrative for almost 1000 thousand years was pushed by the ruling class, that blacks were inferior and incapable of intelligence.
100’s of generations of whites in the west were raised to believe this, when was this “false narrative” ever corrected by the West?
Bear, you ignorance of histpry is amusing but embarrassing for you. You get I hope that our 2 major parties have mostly switched scripts over the last 100 years, which is how black voters went from almost all Republican to almost all Democrats in the 1930s. They’re not stupid and in fact are major players in that party with thousands holding elective office and others in party leadership roles.
You might note that the head of the county GOP is also an admitted national officer in the John Birch Society, an organization that blames Lincoln for the Civil War. Given Lincoln has been considered the long time father of the GOP, that’s some crazy s..t right here locally.
Look into which party is all states rights now, would flip out if Reconstruction was proposed again, gets virtually no black votes, and has only a handful of Uncle Tom elected leaders representing lily white districts and their interests – not blacks – and are the only ones who can dance at GOP conventions. Hey, who besides an Uncle Tom would be MAGA when that has meant removing accounts of black persecution and accomplishment from our museums, MLK day at our National Parks, firing one high ranking military officer after another who was black, and removing true history of American blacks from schools, and attempts to limit black voters from voting rolls and polls.
It’s like ex-GOP Speaker McCarthy said in a moment of truthfulness:
“And I look over at the Democrats and they stand up. They look like America,” he told Sorkin. “We stand up. We look like the most restrictive country club in America.”
Tell me he’s wrong.
This is Tema Okun
https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/about.html
Kenneth Jones died in 2004
Ok, you are quoting a eassy from 1999. It is 2026 now. In rebuttal this writing by Tema Okun.
“Matthew Yglesias wrote in The Washington Post that while the goal of “White Supremacy Culture” may have been “to subvert and disrupt malign hierarchies”, it could also be weaponized by employees to “disrupt the normal conduct of work, where goal-setting, urgency and avoiding mistakes are in fact important. Yglesias later expanded on this critique in a Substack post, writing that Okun “doesn’t put forward any evidence or arguments in favor of her claims”. He argued that while many of the characteristics listed by Okun were negative, they had “literally nothing to do with race” and that the essay “instead comes from essay “instead comes from a place of extreme characterological aversion to hierarchy and structure.”
In 2021 Okun revised the essay Okun added that the essay was not intended as a “checklist” for evaluating behavior in order to conclude that someone is “a terrible person” or “a tool of white supremacy culture.” She suggested that the document was useful as an “internal map” for assessing one’s own behavior, and noted that her 2021 revision of the essay included more discussion of social class, including how “white supremacy targets white people in some of the same ways that it targets people of color.”
So again I say that these DEI models, etc are nothing more than clickbait to make people who are not normally qualified for jobs based on experience, merit, training seem to be qualified just by their race. That is one of tge reasons for a failing business and government.
Bear, I understand where you are coming from.
The issue is why did America create DEI originally?
Not what it became about, but what its original purpose was.
There are thousands of people who make their living promoting affirmative action, and now DEI. Once it became clear that the days of legal affirmative action were numbered, the rent seeking industry built up around that activity mutated and expanded the scope of AA with DEI to continue getting paid.
Wasteful Spending.
This single page should explain completely what is behind the teachings of DEI and showing the racial intent of the program The City of Gainesville at one time was an upward mobility company. You simply cannot put unqualified people in positions they are not qualified for because of skin color or ethnicity or to fill a quota so to speak. DEI deliberately punishes people becauwe of their color. It’s modern day Affirmative Action on steroids and promotes racial tension and division. I never understood why they make up these programs that lowers the standards of what a workplace should be.
Some call it equity. Others call it propping up a group because that particular group is incapable or unable to be successful on its own. It is more commonly known as reverse discrimination.
What blatant racist crap. Whites have been “successful” in a stacked deck of white leaders. Your idea that racial fairness in hiring implies that we had a strct meritocracy previously and that Ol Bubba’ must have been the best man for the job is a self congratulatory fantasy. You may not be the best man for the job.
So says the equal opportunity building contractor.
One-party rule locally = absolute power corrupts absolutely, locally.
DEI exposes the county to expensive discrimination lawsuits. So that’s on top of the $84 million already wasted.
💩👺🤡👿👹🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
The two party system leads to tyranny by the majority.
While often tied to the two-party critique, the concept of “tyranny of the majority”—where dominant factions violate minority rights—is historically rooted in warnings by Founders like Madison and Tocqueville against unchecked democracy. They feared overbearing majorities and partisan divisiveness would erode liberty.
That’s why we have the Constitution and courts, to safeguard balance of individual power vs. group power.
It’s unconstitutional to group people for blanket discrimination that suppresses individual merit.
You mean like slavery, redlining, and Jim Crow?
You guys fail to comprehend that as a black person in america any argument you make can be turned back on you.
I believe its called hypocrisy, like giving the General Sherman giving 40acres to every slave, and the Johnson taking it back and giving it to the slave owners.
Giving reparations to the Jews, Indians and Japanese, but tellings blacks, to quit crying and work harder in a system that touts merit, but has never operated on pure merit.
This meritocracy you speak of didn’t even function properly when it was all white, how’s it going to work out when its becoming less white.
How can your forefathers be the greatest oppressors to ever live and you their children be the greatest victims to ever live while also continuing the spirit of your forefathers?
The audacity, and maliciously willful deficiency in understanding is astounding.
Yeah, and thank GOd we’ve had none of that in our history before AA and DEI, right JK?
The most economically stable race : Asian, Very high % of two parent households. Least stable, African-American, small % two parent households. How about working on initiatives to promote 2 parent households?
How ’bout hiring on merit and competence and show visible pathways to accomplish that status and let people grow into their own futures?
The chronicle should hold a town hall meeting so we can discuss this face to face.
Wendy great insight, but wait why was the “man in the house rule” only enforced on black women and families and not everyone…as CM says “in a merit based society”. lol
So wait the broken home in the black community is a result of selective enforcement??? Who’da a thunk it, lol.
Liberalsm and progressiveness is a disease. The above load of dei horse puckey should be criminal.
All talk, no action!
No kidding. Hoping for some action!
Insert Florida for Texas. Republicans are masters of race baiting politics that hurt the poor and working class.
“Texas politicians’ government-bashing is both ideological and strategic; they benefit politically by stopping government from having a beneficial presence in people’s lives—as white constituents’ needs mount, the claim that government is busy serving some racialized other instead of them becomes more convincing.”
― Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Does one need any further evidence than this report of the continued intentional wasteful spending of taxpayers money?
I have witnessed first hand city of Gainesville personal place an unqualified candidate into a position they had no business being in just for the sake of equality.
Until the left minded voters of Alachua county get their heads out of their bums, liberal government will continue to waste their tax dollars in the name of equality.
Ben Sasse, Manny Diaz, New College and FIU presidents
Liberal governments only, wake up.
Federal DOGE – failure that it was – didn’t go after other governments, it went after supposed FEDERAL waste. This state version isn’t looking at state government waste, but it’s perceived enemies in local governments which it has and continues to undercut with legislation.
Now we get this political screed with it’s stupid opinions about climate change and DEI programs which serve to alert us to the likely BS of everything in the reports. Hey, if you are so stupid – our president is – to ignore the warnings of virtually every scientific organization and every climate scientists in the world, this is just your thing. A real Fl Doge would count this report as a waste of money, along with giving a $360 million property in downtown Miami to Trump, Alligator Auschwitz, the governor and his wife and the AG stealing $10 million from the state for a favored political campaign, the governor’s repeated grandstanding we pay for, the give away to well off people for their kid’s education while not accepting federal medicaid funding, and on and on.
So the true believers here – most of us unfortunately – and the racists can wallow in this misinformation like the slop in a pig pen and come out thinking they smell like roses. That’s what your handlers intend.
Jazzman,
Regarding issues like the fake pandemic and man made climate change alarmism…People like you have been convinced through years of social engineering to believe that things which are “proven to exist” through the use of high-tech gadgetry and things they see on screens represents biological or physical realities.
Once these phantasms are run through the academic mills and pronouncements are made by credentialed idiots that define academia folks fall in line accepting these beliefs as unassailable “truths.”
Virtually everything that emanates from these academic indoctrination centers, especially in the sciences, is total bullsh!t.
Having lived in, worked at and was surrounded by such illustrious “intellects” I can attest to the fact that virtually all of these “high-sounding” priests are truly total nutjobs.
Slice, I stopped at “fake pandemic and man made climate change alarmism”
Sorry, but I live in the real world, not the shadows of conspricacy nuts who stroke their own egos by imagining they alone have the true inside story.
Okay Fred
Well the world has not melted down and civilization is still here. We are not living in nan made floating islands. And it still even snows in Florida every once and a while. Al Gore was wrong and he still is playing alarmist today.
Jazzman – you call others racist but did you or did you not call a black person “Uncle T-m” in a comment just because their stance didn’t align with yours?
No, I call people Uncle Tom’s who will sell out their own relatives to gain power. That would be people like Sen Tim Scott and Rep Byron Donalds – both elected by lily white majorities (Donald’s district is 6% black, Scott from neo-confederate S Carolina) – who are MAGA and kiss Trump’s a.s and therefore stomach removal of black history from our museums and schools, firing of high ranking black militart officers, attempts at limiting access by black voters to polls and voter rolls, elimination of programs which largely benefitted poor blacks, teaching American history scrubbed of the ugly parts – most of it – of our treatment of blacks, and even squelching MLK celebrations.
Yeah, I did that.
Okay, good to know. I’ll never talk to you again.
You mean like Biden and his tribe not acknowledging a granddaughter because it would look bad on a already stained family. Or maybe Walz selling out the taxpayers to fraudulently fund another country. Or maybe these left wing unicorn politicians that sell out the American people by allowing illegal trespassers to commit crimes without repercussions. Maybe throwing US veterans out of a hospital to treat illegal trespassers on the taxpayer’s dime. Or selling a lie to the American people that a vaccine, wearing jock straps and handkerchiefsas mask will prevent you from getting the boogie man virus. Give me a break
Jazz,
We have been down this road before.
Any argument you make is likely sound.
But the moment you decide to play fast with history that argument goes out the windows.
I have been to the place they call Alligator Alcatraz. I know lots of people who have worked there. It’s not pleasant. But it not a death camp.
The people there are better fed than the people that work there. They have needs that are met. It’s not perfect. But is no where close to a death camp.
Seriously, I know people who were feed “leftovers” from the people who are detained there. Moreover, the food at that is fed to our national guardsmen in Florida was considered substandard to what they feed the people detained at Alcatraz.
They have medical care. They have a lot. It’s not pleasant but it’s far better than most people
detained outside the US will ever know.
You comparison to anything in the modern United States to Auschwitz is an insult the people who suffered there and died. It is an insult to the people who suffered under the Nazis during the war.
Your flippant use of the terms diminishes anything important that you might say and destroys your argument.
We’ve been down this path before. You are an agitator.
I have been to Auschwitz. There is no comparison. There is no comparison with what is happening today in the US and what happened in Europe during the war.
And you know, my family personally dealt with this dark history and paid the price.
Words mean something. Live up to them.
A lot of people sacrificed and died for your right to speak. Choose your words wisely.
That guy, I am fully aware of the differences between the real Auschwitz and Alligator Auschwitz, which I so named in an attempt at sarcsam. I am also married to a Jew and have been for a very long time, which means my kids and most of my relatives (she from a big family, I from a small one) are jews (both to other jews and to racists and nazis) though they are not religious. I think others understand that there are no ovens on TaMiami Trail, no gas chambers, or separation of those to be workers and those to be murdered, so I doubt anyone else is confused by my attempt at sarcasm, including you.
But hey, thanks for the advice.
I never said you were not aware.
However, I did say. Try not to trample on your family and history on the way to your point.
Not only is it in poor taste. It’s just plain wrong.
You are better than this.
Liberal governments gaved failed the American people both nationally and locally. They intentionally tell a group of people they are inferior and must throw the click bait that the white population is evil and at fault.Yet they are the ones offering low income housing in already established slum area, defendment of police. Stupid judiciary things like ROR, low Bail, etc. Needle exchange/drug smoking kit programs that only increase addiction to make it safe to keep using drugs. Stupid programs to stop black on black crime and demand more police protection which in turn makes people deem police racist for doing their jobs. Hint- you want more police in neighborhoods combating the gang/drug violence then naturally there will be more arrests of black people in low income areas because liberals want to keep the blacks in one area. Stop blaming white people for the problems that were caused by stupid liberal woke policies.
Still waiting for that $5,000 DOGE refund we were promised….
This entire report is for clicks and headlines. There’s no teeth to the state’s recommendations; whether they dislike the findings is not enforcement. They cannot compel corrective action on their own so .. thanks?
The school district continues to carry the weight of administrative roles created specifically to house underperforming staff—positions that didn’t exist five years ago. It is a clear budgetary drain. Yet, instead of trimming this top-heavy bureaucracy, the interim Superintendent instead cut the hours of frontline school staff who have the most direct, positive impact on our students.
DOGE should investigate that.
The state did not provide us the report nor the supporting data. We were able to locate the report through the efforts of the media. We are reviewing it.
Fiscal responsibility is a foundational value for the County and has led to nine consecutive years of millage rate decreases. Our budget decisions reflect the values of the majority of this community, and the voters decide how we’re doing every two years in November.
One way the State could have an immediate impact on property taxes, would be take back and pay for the 100s of unfunded mandates that they have handed down to counties over the past five decades. If you would like to broaden your understanding of this issue, follow this link: https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/d2vUg7msx4Ch9
“Fiscal responsibility is a foundational value for the County”
More lies from the Left. Is this why you buy properties that will continue to drain money from the taxpayers? Ironwood golf course, the new Celebration Pointless indoor tractor facility, Grace, and the motels for the bums are all big time money losers. Who’s going to maintain these facilities as they drain money from your coffers?
And since majority of Alaucha is democratic and all y’all know how to do spin spend spend so no it won’t be any complaints about the waste that y’all do
Mr. Howard, I don’t know if what you did there was intentional, but sir you win the day with your comment.
“Spin,spend spend” chef’s kiss good sir, chef’s kiss.
The fact that the state did not send the “report” (“screed” being a more accurate description) to the county confirms – along with the highly political commentary within it – that it is propaganda, not a serious attempt at reform.
The Alligator has a better article which features some fact checking and comments from local political leaders on the report. For instance, the report says Gainesville has 200k more residents than it actually has.
See the chart in the Alachua Chronicle article that proves they did not get the population of Gainesville wrong in their analysis, although there is a copy/paste error in the Gainesville summary section.
Jennifer, you are usually fair and I have commented about that many times, but you published this BS in great detail without comment from any local officials, county or city, who were not even provided a copy of the report by “DOGE”, a clear indicator that this was politics not serious bookkeeping. The political descriptions of various programs, some of them beyond ignorant – see climate change passage – are the other signal of what this report was about. You enabled this process by treating it seriously when even it’s authors didn’t. The Alligator article in contrast did speak to local officials, important information about how unserious this was.
I expect better from you, and typically you do not disappoint.
Extensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) LOSSES are ongoing, are in the millions, and do not include the onerous legacy costs of major GRU managerial blunders.
“GRU managerial blunders” Really? You must mean the previous City commissioners approving the Biomess boondoggle. That wasn’t GRU mismanagement that was Leftist mismanagement.
Nobody cares what you have to say Jim, you are just an angry little man now arent you. Focus on civil rights of minorities, your people seem to have a problem with that.
DEI is so nauseating and racist.