Governor DeSantis establishes Florida DOGE Team, DOGE Florida account quickly highlights “wasteful spending” by City of Gainesville
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today Governor Ron DeSantis signed an Executive Order establishing the EOG DOGE Team within the Office of Policy and Budget in the Executive Office of the Governor. The team’s job is to ensure compliance with the Executive Order, identify and report unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments, coordinate with the State University System and Florida College System to identify and eliminate unnecessary spending and inefficiencies, and recommend legislative reforms to promote efficiency and eliminate waste in state and local government.
Each State agency is also required to establish its own Agency DOGE Team. The Executive Order was effective immediately and can be read here.
The DOGE Florida Team quickly set up an X account and started highlighting wasteful spending in various cities and counties, including the post above that called out $1,447,750 in “wasteful spending” in the Office of Equity and Inclusion at the City of Gainesville. The post read: “This office boasts 12 full-time employees tasked with ‘training staff on diversity, equity, and inclusion goals’ and orchestrating the annual ‘Journey to Juneteenth’ celebration. Some of the position titles include ‘Diversity and Inclusion Specialist” [and] ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager.'”
The DOGE Florida X account also calls out climate resiliency and sustainability initiatives in other cities; the City of Gainesville recently adopted Climate Resiliency and RTS Zero Emission Transition Plans.
If you’re surprised by the waste here, you haven’t s been paying attention. Remind me why we can’t afford road maintenance again?
Oh there’s plenty of waste in Florida and let’s not let the GOP-led legislature off the hook. They’ve controlled the state for years yet property taxes are through the roof along with skyrocketing homeowners insurance meanwhile Ron flies everywhere on our dime trying to be president. Big business gets to skirt eVerify while they employ undocumented workers and nothing happens to them.
I have no issue with shuttering this pitiful department in Gainesville – I think we should keep it going all the way to Tallahassee!
Stop pretending the fraud snd waste is a partisan issue.
Property taxes are 100% local, and homeowners insurance is regulated by the state but not controlled by the state. And Florida’s overall rates are currently increasing at the slowest rate in the nation after the governor called two special sessions to implement policies that have attracted more companies to the state: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/718820-sp-study-shows-florida-had-nominal-increase-in-homeowners-insurance/
Property Tax is theft and is a nationwide scam.
https://youtu.be/nqhXvf3UUcs?si=jE59cm9HvmTu2ZNZ
Just so you know. He has nothing to do with property taxes. That is set by the county, not state.
Democrats control property taxes in Alachua county.
Not a partisan issue, you are correct. However, please explain why only one party is going after it and the other is suing to keep wasteful and useless things?
Because the dems are on the take. They are paying off voters that have no morals or conscience
Because the county and FDOT can’t figure out who’s responsible of what road and the expense that comes with it. This department has nothing to do with your road complaints.
We’ve been drinking out of paper straws for 5 years now in Gainesville and Alachua county.
Contact Governor Desantis and tell him to do the same executive order President Trump did banning paper straws!
Do it! Do it right now! Here’s the link.
https://www.flgov.com/eog/leadership/people/ron-desantis/contact
We want plastic straws back!
Papers straws are crap 💩.
Sherman, there is an easy way to get plastic strews. Get sick. Even at the height of paper strew mania Shands only used plastic straws. Thousands per day. Nice that they got an exemption to use plastic that worked for sick people.
@ get: I’m healthy…never get sick…ain’t going to Shands.
I didn’t take the c19 big lie clot shot either…
I want a plastic straws when I go to Applebees, Sonny’s BBQ, or McDonald’s!
It’s stupid to put a paper straw in a plastic cup with a plastic lid.
Paper straws suck.
The straws ordinance is void cause DeSantis has jurisdiction over restaurants anyway…
Liberal heads are exploding 🤯 and planets are colliding.
I saw lots of people like you screaming its not real who died from covid. I want a similar end for you and all other fascist losers AND FREELOADING TRAITORS
No: they were dieing anyway.
Check the VAERS data..
Covid was a big Joseph Goebelian lie.
Masks don’t work.
Biden pardoned Fauci why?
They shut down the planet for a Corona virus.
You are easily triggered…you drank the kool aid.
RFK is gonna make America healthy again🇺🇸
RFK is a Democrat and was hired by Trump because he was the best guy for the job!
“As it is based on submissions by the public, VAERS is susceptible to unverified reports, misattribution, underreporting, and inconsistent data quality.[3] Raw, unverified data from VAERS has often been used by the anti-vaccine community to justify misinformation regarding the safety of vaccines; it is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused an adverse event, or how common the event might be.[4]”
Not shocked. Born and raised in Gainesville and it has become a liberal hell hole and pot hole city, but will spend whatever it takes for bicycle paths that are rarely used and any liberal issue of the moment.
Very frustrating in Gainesville to navigate bicycle lanes AND crosswalks with bicyclists.
Who cares. Drive your car then or ride where there isn’t traffic.
I’m curious how much tax money goes each year to build and maintain bike lanes that carry some uncountably small percentage of daily traffic, and how many accidents were caused because the car lanes have to be narrower. Talk about your wasted money.
This is fantastic news, need to shine a bright beam of sunlight on the fraud and corruption in Gainesville city government.
I hope they shine a light on our local terrorist training camp, GRACE Marketplace. I’ll also be curious to find out what USAID-style scams our wannabe / D-tier politicians like Poe, Ward, and Eastman are involved in.
So, he’s been Governor for 6 years and decided to look for waste and abuse in Florida not until near the end of his two terms? It’s almost like he saw Elon’s stunt be well-received by the gullible, low-IQ MAGA crowd and decided to copy and paste the same political stunt here.
Jed voted for the freak mayor of tallahassee for governor.
Jed: DeSantis is going to ban paper straws next a la Trump executive order banning paper straws. Email DeSantis to speed it up! I can’t wait to be drinking from a plastic straw again in Gainesville & Alachua county! 😃
Nothing to do with the current DOGEs, but
Jed: EVERY politician from EVERY party, state or local, incumbent or challenger, for at least the last 50 years that I have been watching, has run on a platform of “I will eliminate waste and fraud in government.”
Am I the only one to notice that if there is any “waste and fraud in government” left after FIFTY YEARS of rooting it out, that means that EVERY politician is a total failure for failing their main campaign promise?
You must be on the city dole
Hell yeah! Better late than never!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
What about the COURTS’ revolving doors of waste? Investigate that before we turn into another abandoned city.
ACLUSPLCDNC 👹🤡👺💩👿
Governor DeSantis needs to investigate the City of Gainesville and Alachua County commission. We have paid for roads to be fixed and they do nothing there are people being killed on 337 heading to Bronson and they keep moving the date by years.232 is the worst also. Please make these liberals accountable for their misuse of our tax funds
Waste in Gainesville? No Crap !!
Heck ya gainesville is totally corrupt. And the city is gonna really be screwed when DeSantis gets rid of property tax. What are they gonna do without GRU money and no property taxes…LOL
Liberals hate having other people’s money taken away from them. They may actually have to be accountable. Florida DOGE make a liberal scream, pout, and cry it’s “We took your money to spend on our special gifts. It’s not fair.”
Hahahahahahahahaha this so SWEET!
Glad someone will be helping find the wasteful spending. Alachua County is riddled with waste and incompetent commissioners. They also worry more about keeping their grip of the county than doing the right thing. They spend more on Culture and Recreation in one year than they have slated for roads to be done AND planned this year. They take advantage of the suburban areas simply to keep the waste going.
Over one million employing people in a diversity department. How shameful and disgusting. But clowns electing clowns. Great town run by golf balls.
Can this go ahead and be done for Alachua County Public Schools next?! Serious teachers need a COLA raise while they have so much administrators like the interim superintendent getting paid worth 7-8 x 1 teacher’s salary each month plus expenses? That’s waste, and slap in the face of real educators in this community. Sadly we have school campuses failing to be maintained and parents concerned how even with state mandated SRO we still have hun violence on campus? This county is state overhaul in my opinion.
They want to abolish the department of education so good luck with that lol. Public education is not respected and will soon be a thing of the past.
Please come to Gainesville and look at our books. Our citizens tax themselves for basic government functions like schools and roads. I can’t imagine what my tax dollars are going to with a super majority going on 40 years and a mindlessly pliable electorate while government feeds from the trough.
Please come to Gainesville and drink from a paper straws…then fix it so we’re drinking from plastic straws.
Only the stupid voting citizens vote to tax themselves.
All of a sudden, the city wants to be excluded.
Doge the ACSB now and give the teachers their raises.Should be able to find some money by abolishing the DEI dept.
Governor Desantis: ban paper straws next! We want plastic straws back!
No matter his intent, Governor Desantis has no business telling counties and municipalities how to spend their money if no laws are broken. He has every right to point out stupidity when he sees it, though. Our county and city commissions are directly elected by the people.
Everything our county and city are spending money on is the will of the people.
Befuddled, this comments board and the modern Trump GOP don’t get democracy and don’t GAF about it. Hey, we voted in the UN with Russia and N Korea yesterday to not condemn Russia invading a democracy. We’re the new bad guys and in the “Axis of Evil”.
Only the stupid people voted, and continue to vote, to tax themselves.
Not if they accept state money.
You know there’s a problem when people fight for wasteful spending
Drop dead.
Then look into state waste – that’s what you are elected to do. Check out sending immigrants to Massachusetts, the Gov flying around on state planes for campaigning then using state resources to fight ballot initiatives or for penalizing private companies who’s CEO says something he doesn’t like.
And Biden and Harris didn’t campaign on the U.S. taxpayers money? They didn’t use US taxpayers money to fly illegal trespassers into the country in the middle of the night into Florida? Or use US taxpayers money to bus them into Florida. Can’t have it both ways Liberal. You pay US tax to allow Biden to criminally transport illegal trespassers into the country and state but yet you pay no florida income tax to send them back out.
Jennifer, this isn’t a press release so you are responsible for promoting this BS campaigning by the Gov and questionable statements like:
“The DOGE Florida Team quickly set up an X account and started highlighting wasteful spending in various cities”.
Uh, yeah, so says the anti-DEI Gov, so far unoffended by the Trump administration nominees who are all white but one. and by no person’s standards can be considered “qualified” or selected by a meritocracy. It’s the clearest example yet of why DEI is still necessary. Why are you selling this?
It’s so easy to trigger you Jazz.
They gonna come up with an mRNA shot to cure your TDS.
Are you thinking “TDS” is funny? It means you have no answer and are relying on the same GOP BS we got with BDS and that joke dates to 2001.
If anyone has TDS it’s the fools who think he’s a straight shooting principled leader who cares about them, but I think “Zombies” is a more accurate description..
Shame on the City blowing money on diversity departments. Get real Jazz
Look at Trump’s appointees to see what the GOP thinks is good hiring practices.
Yes, heaven forbid we should treat people equally. Have you actually met the people you want to get rid of? I was fortunate to work in an atmosphere that believed that our differ made us stronger, more knowledgeable, and more understanding of the ideas of others. How sad that other people haven’t had this great experience.
Tell us about your experiences
Is the purpose here to trigger people? I thought the point of the article was the censorship of ideas by the DeSantis administration.
Patel is Indian. Gabbard is Polynesian. HUD Sec is black. Rubio is Hispanic. There aren’t any psychos like the trans admiral or the bald man in lipstick and high heels. Scream and cry it out, Jazzbaby.
Gabbard is 3/4 white and Rubio is whiter than Santa Claus, so that leaves 1 black guy – as I said – and an Indian, none of whom along with all the rest of the appointees, would get hired by Amway.
Wow… Are you, “Mr. Reasonable,” really doing this now? Measuring people’s qualifications by the tint of their skin? This is exactly why the American people have turned against DEI. It’s despicable.
Paula, WTF do you think DEI is about? We are told by opponents that considering race and gender when hiring and promoting will mean an end to meritocracy, as if hiring all white people like we have done for most of our past, was the right way to do it. Now the GOP has appointed and approved a clown car of agency and department heads with 1 black guy out of 40 and the most prominent are not qualified to be substitute gym teachers in Arkansas.
Look at our school board jazzy
Your Liberal Demoncrat Klan hood and robe are showing – Sinner
Only you would attempt to bring racism into it. Typical liberal woke democrat
What do you think DEI is about you cretin?
DEI institutionalizes discrimination in hiring. Companies and government no longer hire on the most qualified. IE “quota hiring” kind of like the 90s. Now that companies can’t say quota, they insert DEI to discriminate against the most qualified person, throwing merit out the door for radical ideology. Obviously you think Joe Biden and Kamela Harris were the most qualified people, but they showed the country how unqualified they really were. Get with the program Jazzy – TRUMP WON, DEI IS DEAD AS A DOORNAIL. seek help once again.
See Trump appointees.
Biden handed Trump a sound economy, just like Obama did. Look at the disaster Trump left – same as Bush, jr.
2 billion to fat Stacy. Get real jazz
Boomer yells at clouds.
You’re a funny guy.
There’s a bunch of people who are hired without the qualifications…lots who are elected to public office as well.
Don’t have to look much further than downtown Gainesville to know that.
So Biden hired so many LGBT++ to his cabinet strictly because they were the most qualified. We know thats a lie
Can add $3 million for Ward’s dream Streatery for a 1 block renovation.
Hope They Look Into Our Roads
Property taxes Salarys Of Commi
Commison Gainsville Commison As A Whole and All The Coruption .
The simple minded rule this thread. If anyone is paying attention, Musk has no idea what he is doing except when it comes to protecting his own financial interest in the federal government. He’s fired critical personnel he has then had to rehire, fired others causing death in distant lands we can ignore, fired personnel who who’s absence will be dangerous in the FAA (eager to take a plane?) and forest fire rangers, and then lied or just f.. up on estimating his great savings. $55 billion quickly became $2 billion when examined and who knows the value and danger of what he eliminated. He’s an idiot making his own political judgements about programs and agencies created in Congress with much work by members of both major parties. The CFPB specifically represents consumers in regulating and policing credit card companies and banks from screwing you and me on things like late charges and overdraft charges and has returned approx $20 billion to the people. Musk is starting some kind of money service as part of X and of course doesn’t want the oversight.
You all are being taken for a ride and don’t know it.
Simple minded. Read your garbage
PS According to the WSJ, DOGE has identified $2.5 billion in possible savings. Federal government subsidies to Tesla = $15 billion.
Don’t forget the department of doing, whatever the heck that is?
Oh, and Ronnie, check your own office before going after these democratic countries and cities. Can’t have egg on your face now can we?
I can live my life without another plastic straw. Don’t like paper straws buy your own metal straws and bring them with you. There are other options such as bamboo straws. Such a small issue compared to the high electric and property taxes in this county.
I hope the Alachua Chronicle and/or Florida DOGE take a deeper look into this county’s expenses. The wasteful spending by this city/county and the pandering to one party or group will hopefully be a thing of the past soon.