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Florida DOGE team doesn’t want to fill out forms before accessing Jacksonville’s data

Blaise Ingoglia, the state's chief financial officer, is refusing a request by the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, to fill out paperwork before accessing the city's systems.
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The mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, is locked in a dispute with Blaise Ingoglia, the state’s chief financial officer, over how the state’s DOGE team will access the city’s data ahead of its audit of the city’s finances Thursday morning.

On Monday, Ingoglia, a Republican who also leads the state’s DOGE team, which is tasked with rooting out inefficiencies, posted on social media a letter that he sent to Donna Deegan, the Democratic mayor of Jacksonville, accusing the city of trying to restrict his team’s access to the city’s financial data by placing “conditions and restrictions” on the DOGE audit team.

“Let me be clear, we will not execute documents including, but not limited to, non-disclosure agreements, technology use agreements, acceptable use policies, indemnification agreements, and cost-sharing agreements while performing audits under the authority of this office,” Ingolia’s letter said. “These types of documents slow and impede the important work of the auditors and are nothing but roadblocks to the transparency that Floridians deserve.”

In response, Deegan shared a statement Tuesday that said the city was only requiring DOGE team members to fill out a one-page technology use agreement form, and to provide information on the quantity and names of people who will need access to the city’s secure financial system during the audit. She added that Jacksonville already conducts a self-imposed audit each year, and it is mandated by state law that external auditors follow “appropriate security considerations” to gain access to the city’s data and systems

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Deegan also shared the brief technology form the city requested DOGE members complete. He said that the city was notified only last week about the DOGE team’s visit, and added that “hundreds of staff hours have been spent on short notice in the middle of our annual budget review to prepare.”

“We go to great lengths to protect the integrity and safety of our network,” Deegan said in a statement on Tuesday. “As such, we require every external auditor to complete a standard one-page form to request access to our sensitive and sophisticated financial systems. We respect Florida DOGE’s desire to gain access. All we ask is that they follow our well-established procedures, which are protected under the very state statute that they cited. Security should never be politicized.”

The Florida DOGE audits are widespread. Tallahassee’s WCJB News 10 reported that at least nine governments are under slated to undergo review, including the Republican-led counties of Pinellas and Manatee. Along with pushing back on Deegan’s assertion that the audits were politically motivated, Ingoglia on Tuesday also threatened to subpoena data from the governments that do not comply with his orders, WCJB reported.

“I know for a fact there is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in the system,” Ingoglia said. “This is not a negotiation with local government, so we’ve had counties ask us to sign non-disclosure agreements for public information.”

Keely Quinlan

Written by Keely Quinlan

Keely Quinlan reports on privacy and digital government for StateScoop. She was an investigative news reporter with Clarksville Now in Tennessee, where she resides, and her coverage included local crimes, courts, public education and public health. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Stereogum and other outlets. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in social and cultural analysis from New York University.

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