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As Florida DOGE comes to St. Petersburg, local residents push back
Florida Phoenix ^ | August 13th 2025 | Mitch Perry

Posted on 08/17/2025 12:17:33 PM PDT by Jacquerie

‘They have no business messing around with our city government.’

State-appointed auditors came to St. Petersburg Wednesday to begin two days reviewing spending by Mayor Ken Welch and the majority Democratic-led City Council.

Confronting them was a group of local residents in front of City Hall who declared they didn’t trust what the DeSantis administration says is the motivation for looking into local government spending.

Mimicking the federal initiative led by Elon Musk in the first months of the second Trump administration, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year, describing it as an effort to eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability.

But it’s been turbocharged into a higher gear, looking at municipal and county government spending, ever since DeSantis appointed former GOP state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as chief financial officer last month.

“Look, all of this is … because property taxes have been skyrocketing here in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia told reporters inside St. Petersburg City Hall on Wednesday.

But the critics who stood outside in the blazing heat earlier said they weren’t buying it.

“Their letter talked about DEI,” McMullen said. “It talked about whether we have electric vehicles. It talked about the environment and that we are having the nerve to get involved in anything that might speak about problems with the environment. So, if they were here for what they say they were here for I’m fine, but that’s not it.”

“They have no business messing around with our city government,” said St. Pete resident Diane Willis. “They don’t even run our own state government well. I mean, the governor talked about transparency and accountability was the reason for DOGE.

(Excerpt) Read more at floridaphoenix.com ...


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: audit; coverup; democrats; doge; florida
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To: Jacquerie

I got your baby boomer hangin’.


21 posted on 08/17/2025 2:31:51 PM PDT by dljordan (The Rewards of Tolerance are Treachery and Betrayal)
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To: Jacquerie

Do the Scienos still run St. Petersburg?


22 posted on 08/17/2025 6:24:30 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy. a)
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To: Jacquerie

Charge them exurbanite fees for files and access.

The damn Rats did that to us.


23 posted on 08/18/2025 8:11:39 AM PDT by Dacula
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