County attorney governor's executive order audits

1:29:41Who who do I go to next?

1:29:43Me.

1:29:43County Attorney. I was gonna

1:29:45do N eighty three, but the administrator has covered it, so thank you.

1:29:48Well uh let me ask you something. I uh like I said, I usually try and read the paper and I only heard it anecdotally, but are we getting some Kind of Doge requirements from our governor that we are gonna need to respond to what

1:30:03Right. So I don't know if Ralph is here. I know the governor signed an executive order yesterday which covered uh doge type activities across the state, but to include sort of The way I read it was a desk talk audit of of local governments. So of course, you know, we you know here in Pasco County, our our office of of performance management has for almost a decade uh really been using private priv private practice principles. Such as Lien Six Sigma in all of

1:30:33our departments to ensure not only, you know, not only cost efficiency, but really in terms of service delivery to our customers. Because I know we can talk about cost, and we talk about cost and efficiency as sort of being one and the same thing. But I also look at terms of value, and are we providing value to our citizens? And and quite honestly, that that group has operated for well over a decade. We have four or five Six Sigma black belts, a lot of green belts in the organization, a lot of yellow belts. It it falls within our culture of innovation that that we tried to push here. But notwithstanding, uh,

1:31:04you know, Ralph, maybe you can talk to the particulars of what the executive order had.

1:31:09So as you mentioned, he had the press conference and he and he rolled out an executive order of what his um he envisions. Generally, he's created a new Doge task force modeled after federal efforts to reduce government waste. He will eliminate over 70 boards and commissions deemed redundant and ineffective. A push to further reduce spending despite population growth and inflation. A continued focus on tax relief. uh including the elimination of Florida's unique tax on business rent, efforts

1:31:39to read uh to use artificial intelligence for auditing state contracts and eliminating ideological spending. Specifically for local government. Local government spending, the governor stated that while Florida state government has reduced spending, many local governments have increased their budgets and imposed higher property taxes. Homeowners are overburdened. Due to the rising property tax assessment, particularly affecting seniors or on fixed incomes, he suggested Florida could shift m uh more tax burden to visitors

1:32:10and seasonal residents rather than relying on our permanent homeowners. Local government audits, Doge Task Force will review county and municipal spending using public available records. The governor is requesting legislative power for the task force to enforce audits at the local level. That way, a bill would not have to be introduced. Um the way he envisions this is go um last for Over a year, March 26th, I think it'll it would go out. Um the

1:32:40task force would be done. Uh legislative action to improve local government transparency. He is pushing for laws that would force local governments to comply with audits by the state's efficiency task force. So We would have to implement that this session. The task force would also use AI technology to detect wasteful spending. Local government spendings on DEI and other programs. The governor noted that at the state level, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have been eliminated.

1:33:11May still uh be funding similar initiatives under different names at the local level, so he wants to do away with those. He emphasized that AI auditing tools will be used to flag contracts that continue DEI-related spending under new labels, infrastructure and local service. The state has been accelerating infrastructure projects to keep up keep up with the population growth and tourism, and he suggested that local governments need to be more efficient uh in their own infrastructure spending. So that's basically

1:33:41the gist of it. Uh our attorneys have the uh executive order. He's under one pager. It will be uh now we have to see what uh bills are filed to uh to give him that authority with the uh task force uh with a local level. Um we're also, you know, session uh opens up next week. Um we have several bills uh out there that have been uh filed. Um again whittling away. Um local

1:34:11government. Uh a couple of interesting ones dealing with our Our avalorum uh a study to uh do away with ad valorem. Uh that was something the governor would like to see on the ballot. uh in uh the next election.

1:34:26Have we bonded our advocate? Do we bond our ad

1:34:29yeah? Well that okay So just keep in mind those are those are but I think at the end of the day uh y you know we'd be ready to comply with that. I think we do enough already and we could be proud of where our county is. But I'm sure there are some other local governments that that he's trying to target. But Mm-hmm. I I think as we move forward we should be fine.

1:34:50So, you know, we a number of years ago voted to or agreed to bring in the Auditor General. s office over at the clerk. So we this is kind of for some of our newer board members. They not every county does that. Um but we we chose to do that and um it's just for us though. So not I don't think they go into our constitutionals. Um but I would imagine that this look and I ask for

1:35:20accountability is to all government agencies. And so just at least we we You know, w we can show we audit ourselves, I think. So we probably have some good data um here with our office and I'm I'm sure our our uh constitutionals will comply with that we're coming down the pike. Um

1:35:44Okay. And we don't have a DEI program here, so we're we're good there. Okay.

1:35:52Uh we have nothing directly from uh from uh Clerk Alvarez Soles, but I would just comment that There it's currently All the constitutionals are currently audited in the comprehensive audit each and every year.

1:36:07Yeah,

1:36:07but we are part of the comprehensive audit.

1:36:10But I think we do we go in d much deeper than the others.

1:36:13You have more you have the auditor general has set up an annual plan to go in and do assisted uh for management reasons uh at the board level. Uh but this is over and above uh the uh comprehensive planal officers

1:36:33Yeah.

1:36:34in detail.

1:36:35Each and every year. Yeah. That's that's the equivalent of uh what we would call a typical financial audit. And so that's making sure that everything is accounted for appropriately. What what we do at our level, I think Commissioner Starkey is, you know, we'll look at hot spots in the organization, we'll look at areas that You know can you know are we are we adhering to our par are are we adhering to our own procedures and our own policies and are those procedures and policies best practices and and recognized and so that's that audit plan is developed every year in conjunction

1:37:06with our various departments and the clerk's office we've had them come in you know we've we've looked at our building services group We've we've done stuff with utilities, so over the course of many years, uh it's it's part of the culture of of continuous improvement.

1:37:19Yeah, I mean I think when we find You know, we're a big organization. We handle lots of money, lots of programs, and it's good to have a fresh set of eyes to make sure we're we're doing everything right and they've we've found where we could do things better and we fix those. So we we appreciate that look, no doubt. Okay. Um is that it for you? Did you uh marry a bunch of people on Valentine's Day at the clerk's office? Uh

1:37:45we I believe um uh Nikki had twenty four tw I believe twenty four couples on the courthouse steps on Valentine's Day. Very good.