A.G. Gancarski
Interesting times in Duval County, where State Rep. Jason Fischer has been calling for an audit of Duval County Public Schools. And it appears there is a showdown imminent between the Duval Delegation and the Mayor’s Office on one side and the Duval County School District on the other.
In a letter sent Thursday to the Duval County School Board, Rep. Jason Fischer expresses “deep concern” about the School Board not taking “formal action” to schedule an audit to account for $21 million of what Fischer deems to be overspending in the current budget year. [Letter]
Board Chair Paula Wright, writes Fischer, asserted that there was a committee vote for an audit in July.
However, counters Fischer, there was neither a formal vote authorizing an audit, nor a noticed meeting to discuss such a proposition.
Fischer has had GOP support on this, ranging from House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Rep. Joe Gruters to Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry. However, until Thursday evening, he had no Democratic support.
That logjam broke, as the iconoclastic Democrat Kim Daniels crossed party lines to support Fischer’s play.
Daniels wrote Joint Legislative Auditing Committee Chair Debbie Mayfield, noting “misstatements” by Chairwoman Wright in the wake of Fischer’s call for an audit.
Wright claimed that there had been a vote to conduct a forensic audit at her recommendation, but Daniels and Fischer contend that did not occur.
Daniels is “confident” DCPS will come out of the audit well-positioned, she wrote.
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Daniels has been positioned interestingly vis a vis House leadership.
She carried the “Religious Freedom in Public Schools” bill, a priority of more Republicans than Democrats.
Daniels also sided with House leadership on economic incentive votes in the most recent session.
Many local Democrats in the perpetually fratricidal Duval wing of the party look askance at Daniels, citing documented ethical lapses throughout her political career.
Just this week, the Florida Ethics Commission found probable cause that Daniels made material misrepresentations on financial disclosure forms from 2012 to 2014, when she was on the Jacksonville City Council.
Daniels had not listed certain properties owned by her churches.
Daniels has faced similar scrutiny related to campaign finance before: the Florida Elections Commission found probable cause that Daniels spent campaign funds advertising one of her religious books, the Demon Dictionary, in a vanity-press publication called Shofar.
Daniels, a traveling evangelist, went through a rocky divorce earlier this decade, one which led to sensational allegations regarding her management of household and church finances.
There will be some who will question her standing to call for an audit.
But for audit-minded Republicans, signs of bipartisan support are more than welcome.
