The Florida Department of Government Efficiency team arrived in Broward County on Thursday to conduct its planned two day audit — and programs like Broward's transportation surtax and climate change mitigation efforts appear to be under scrutiny.
Governor Ron DeSantis and newly minted Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia announced at a press conference last week that the state task force would begin in-person audits with Broward County and Gainesville.
The FL DOGE task force, modeled after the federal Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk, who has since stepped down from the role, says its mission is to "Further Eliminate State Government Waste, Save Taxpayers Money, and Ensure Accountability in Florida."
Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said he believes “home rule” means that the county cannot be forced to reallocate its dollars by the state. But the audit is already placing a burden on staff, he said.
“ Our staff has a lot of other things to be doing. We already run a fairly lean and mean machine here, and now you're asking everybody to spend a couple of weeks or whatever it's gonna be to be uploading thousands and thousands of pages of documents and getting and finding all this information for all these questions. It's a huge imposition,” he told WLRN.
READ MORE: DeSantis, CFO Ingoglia announce Florida DOGE audits — starting with Broward County
In a letter sent to the county announcing the audit, FL DOGE made specific requests for documents from the following areas: Procurement and Contracting, Personnel Compensation, Property Management, Water and Wastewater Utilities System, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Green New Deal, Grants, Transportation, Homeless Services.
“ It's primarily an uploading of a lot of documents, they've given us a lot of questions, so what we're doing is complying. We're just providing all the documents,” Furr said.
The FL DOGE letter also mentioned two specific staff members, Coree Cuff Lonergan and Gretchen Cassini. Cuff Lonergan is the CEO of Broward Transit and Cassini is the Mobility Advancement Program (MAP) manager. MAP is the administrative arm of the county’s transportation surtax funding.
The singling out of Cuff Lonergan and Cassini indicates that the county’s transportation projects — funded by a voter-approved surtax — could come under scrutiny. Cities in the county were also asked to send FL DOGE information on their projects funded by the surtax. Furr defended the program.
“ Those are things the voters have voted for, and overwhelmingly… We're dealing with gridlock, and the voters said, 'Whatever you can do to alleviate congestion and enhance mobility, do it,'” he said.
Furr also pointed out that MAP has an oversight board in place. The Broward MAP Transportation Surtax Oversight Board is independent of the county commission, its members are not directly nominated by commissioners. Furr praised its oversight efforts.
“ It's an across-the-board spectrum of people, from various fields, professionals that look at every single project and decide, 'Does it subscribe to what the surtax was all about?' And then, 'Is it being done in a fiscally responsible manner?'” he said.
“ We've got guardrails up already. I don't know if they [FL DOGE] know that,“ he said.
Another area that drew confusion was the section titled “Green New Deal." Broward County has never adopted a policy called a “Green New Deal” nor have they officially supported the fourteen-page resolution authored by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D- New York) and Senator Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts) in 2019 that bears the name. The term “Green New Deal” has been a buzzword for conservative media and elected officials since that resolution was introduced.
What is mentioned in that section is the 2025 Broward Climate Change Action Plan. Furr is the county commission’s representative on the county’s Climate Change Task Force.
“ The district I represent is about, on average, about 10 feet above sea level… It would be malfeasance and irresponsible for us not to be looking forward into the future. Looking at how we make sure that when that time comes, the sea level rises according to our predictions and that we're ready for it,” he said.
Absent from the letter is any reference to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which commands 55.7% of the county’s budget. The department has faced numerous controversies over spending in recent years. Last year, BSO’s newly unveiled training facility was found in an audit to have exceeded original construction estimates by more than double. The county has no oversight on how BSO spends its money.
