CFO Blaise Ingoglia says audit of Jacksonville finances is still underway.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s Chief Financial Officer stopped in Jacksonville Friday, just three weeks after starting the process of auditing the city’s spending. CFO Blaise Ingoglia has been making his way across the state, auditing counties and cities to see where they can ‘cut wasteful spending.’
Ingoglia said he chose Jacksonville as one of the initial cities after hearing concerns from people living there.
“We have heard from some of the taxpayers on the ground to check certain places, Jacksonville was one of those places where a lot of the taxpayers said we want tax relief, go and review them,” Ingoglia explained.
Ingoglia said his team is still in the process of auditing the city and the findings should be ready in about a month.
“We’re going to be sending out a larger, broader report showing where the city is in conjunction to other cities and other states, trying to give people full context of the amount of spending that’s going on,” Ingoglia said.
When asked whether he thought his audit is redundant after city council’s special committee on Duval DOGE already reviewed city finances months ago and the fact that the city regularly performs its own audits, he said “not at all.”
“We are looking for things that they should not have spent money on because we know that property tax relief is coming and local governments already are trying to play defense and say that they cannot cut. We’re gonna show them that they can cut,” Ingoglia said.
Ingoglia’s stop in Jacksonville also created tension with the mayor’s office after he accused Mayor Donna Deegan of trying to restrict his team by having them sign an agreement before performing the audit. The issue was ultimately resolved, but the mayor said Ingoglia did not speak with her during his visit. Ingoglia addressed that.
“I spend a lot of time on the road analyzing data so it’s nothing more than just not having enough time to be able to do it. It’s not just her, it’s other county commissioners and mayors also,” Ingoglia said.
Ingoglia said his goal is to audit every county in the state, but his sights are also set on school boards and special districts. When asked if he was worried state government was getting too big with the amount of oversight being place on local municipalities, he said no.
“They ask us for permission to become a city but then they tax the heck out of their own citizens. Someone has to look out for the citizens and the taxpayers. And we’re going to do that for them,” he said.