CFO Ingoglia Issuing Subpoenas to Orange County Employees

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said Wednesday that it was “probable” Orange County employees tried to hide information when his DOGE team began examining spending practices with the county government.

Therefore, he said, he was issuing investigative subpoenas to all county employees his office believes were involved in grant programs for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts.

Ingoglia made those remarks while speaking at a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis in Orlando.

DeSantis said some of the staff seemed to be reading from a prepared script, which he believes raises suspicions.

“They wouldn’t fully answer the questions and really left a lot of our folks not satisfied that they were getting all the answers that they could. So there’s a lot of different things to unpack here,” the governor said.

DOGE auditors had received a tip from “someone inside county government” that employees were changing the names of files to obscure certain key words, Ingoglia said — specifically, diversity, equity, and inclusion. His staff ended up gathering about 1.2 million emails related to six grants that had been given out for DEI programs. During the search of those million emails, he said, five of those grants were never alluded to.

“So, I wonder what happened with those emails?” he said. “So, it’s telling me that it is probable that we have county employees [who] tried to hide some of this information.”

‘Freaking out’

Auditors with Florida DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — have conducted onsite audits throughout the state since DeSantis named Ingoglia as chief financial officer in July, including Broward, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Orange counties and cities like St. Petersburg and Gainesville.

Ingoglia suggested he was probably “freaking out Orange County employees” when describing the subpoenas, and urged them when they are interviewed to be truthful. (He did not call out any employees by name during the press conference).

“Don’t lie to us, because, if we have to, we will bring in FDLE and digital forensic units to find out exactly who did what, so please be truthful with us,” he said.

This is not the first time Ingoglia has claimed unnamed sources had informed his agency that local officials in governments targeted with DOGE audits have tried to delete or hide financial information, but this is the first time his office is going to investigate.

DeSantis and Ingoglia have been campaigning for more than a month on the promise that Floridians will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment in November 2026 that will either substantially reduce or outright eliminate property taxes for those who own homestead properties in the state — something no other state has ever done.

The measure is likely to be proposed during next year’s legislative session, although what it will say has not been determined at this time.

The two Republicans argue it’s important to detect any questionable spending now to get ahead of complaints by local government officials that reducing or eliminating property taxes would severely harm services like public safety.

DeSantis later dismissed comments by Orange County officials that they have complied with all of the requests made by Ingoglia’s DOGE team.

“The CFO would not have issued the subpoenas if all of the questions were answered,” the governor said.

“This is not performative. He wants answers and, under the law, he’s entitled to answers. And I know you haven’t seen CFOs necessarily flex those muscles in the past. This has been part of their authority for a long time.” He added that the CFO’s office received more authority regarding local government spending in the most recent state budget.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings released a statement shortly after this story was first published early Wednesday evening.

“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,” he 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. 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.”