Gabrielle Russon
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia accused Orange County employees of hiding emails and records as he announced on Tuesday that he has issued investigative subpoenas to pry them loose during the government’s DOGE audit.
“I called up the Governor, I said, I think Orange County has something to hide,” Ingoglia said in a news conference Wednesday in Orlando as he questioned whether the county had released emails pertaining to six grants for what he said were diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
However, in a swift response, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings denied that the county was covering anything up and stated that the government had fully complied with the state’s orders.
“The state has offered no evidence to support its allegation that we were hiding information or acting without integrity. We welcome the opportunity for full public transparency on this issue,” Demings said in a statement.
Tensions between the state and Orange County, one of the bluest areas in the state, had already been running high before Tuesday’s press conference.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to have Demings and the County Board removed if they did not approve a contract addendum with the federal government to transport ICE detainees. The board grudgingly approved it this month.
Ingoglia said Tuesday that the state received a tip from a county whistleblower who reported that other county employees were changing the names of files that contained keywords like “DEI.”
“We started crunching and compiling and looking at all this data, and we saw some anomalies that were very, very strange indeed,” the CFO said. “So upon our team’s arrival, we started receiving those tips that Orange County employees were possibly tampering with documents to circumvent our review of their egregious spending.”
Ingoglia also accused county employees of reading from scripts during the DOGE audit meetings earlier this month.
Demings again denied the CFO’s allegations.
“Orange County government fully cooperated with the Florida DOGE audit team, providing all the data and documents requested. No employee was instructed to alter, change or delete any documents,” Demings said. “While our employees may have read from or referred to notes or documents being discussed by the DOGE team, employees were not scripted in their remarks.”
Ingoglia threatened to use the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s digital forensic units “to find out exactly who did what.”
“Now, I’m probably freaking out a lot of Orange County employees right now,” Ingoglia said. “My advice to you is when you are contacted and when you’re going to be interviewed, do not hide the information, be truthful with them. We know that people above you told you to go and change the information in an effort to try to hide the information from us.”
Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando who frequently criticizes DeSantis, rebuked the news conference.
“No allegation of ACTUAL fiscal mismanagement,” she wrote on X. “Another effort to distract us from their lack of leadership in addressing issues like cost of living.”
Earlier this month, County Budget Director Kurt Petersen told Florida Politics that the county provided approximately 183,000 files and answered auditors’ questions on various topics, including job vacancies, walking trails, free Wi-Fi, employee compensation, and details on how contracts are awarded, he said.
“We opened our books to them and we tried to answer the questions that they had to the best of our staff’s abilities,” Petersen told Florida Politics.
Ingoglia did not provide details on what the six contracts he was referring to, but Petersen said earlier that the state appeared to be focused on agreements with the Zebra Youth, the Stono Institute for Freedom, Justice and Security, the Black History Project, Orlando Youth Alliance, the Central Florida Urban League, and Caribbean Community Connections.
Orlando and Orange County governments are on a growing list of DOGE targets, which includes Gainesville, Jacksonville, the counties of Broward, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Palm Beach.
DeSantis appointed his close ally to be the Chief Financial Officer last month. Since then, Ingoglia has been on the campaign trail with the Governor to call out wasteful local government spending. DeSantis has his eyes on 2026 as he tries to convince the public to abolish property taxes. The issue is expected to go on the ballot next year. DeSantis and Ingoglia argue that property taxes have become excessive in recent years, while critics contend that eliminating local funding would result in reduced local services. State officials are misguided, they say, by not focusing on the real financial killer: property insurance.
