Florida's Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has issued 16 subpoenas for Orange County government employees. Ingoglia has alleged county staff changed file names to conceal spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in connection with the Florida Department of Government Efficiency's audit of local spending.
On Thursday, Orange County confirmed its employees, including county attorney Jeff Newton, received state subpoenas demanding they produce computer files for inspection.The subpoenas specifically target materials pertaining to the county's DEI efforts; climate initiatives; procurement; and contracts or grants.
Orange County did not release the other 15 names as some of the employees are on PTO and have not yet been notified by the state at this time.
The subpoena specifically requests documents related to six organizations which received county funding: The Black History Project, Central Florida Urban League, Zebra Youth, Caribbean Community Connections of Orlando, Orlando Youth Alliance, and the Stono Institute for Freedom, Justice and Security.
It also requests file deletion and access logs related to the documents, and any communication about the destruction of county records.
Ingoglia said the investigation began after an insider tipped his team off about changes in file names in an effort to conceal spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
He said a search failed to find emails related to the DEI-focused grants and that other information appeared to be missing. As his team asked questions, he said, county employees seemed to be reading off a script.
"I think Orange County has something to hide," Ingoglia said Wednesday at an appearance Wednesday with Governor Ron DeSantis. "All of that is why I, as the chief financial officer, today are issuing investigative subpoenas for all documents related to these grant programs," he added.
On Wednesday, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the county cooperated fully with the DOGE audit and that "the state has offered no evidence to support its allegation that we were hiding information or acting without integrity."
Central Florida Public Media's Joe Byrnes contributed to this report.
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