Sixteen Orange County employees, including top attorney Jeff Newton, were served with investigative subpoenas issued by Florida’s Chief Financial Officer who alleged the county “possibly” tampered with records to impede a state review of “egregious spending.”
The subpoenas — legal orders compelling recipients to hand over documents and computer files — seek information regarding the county’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; climate initiatives; procurement; and contracts or grants. They specifically seek guidance given to employees about preserving records of those programs.
In the crosshairs, according to the requests from Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are county records related to interactions and assistance to the Black History Project Inc, Caribbean Community Connection of Orlando Inc, Central Florida Urban League Inc, Orlando Youth Alliance Inc, Stono Institute for Freedom, Justice and Security, Zebra Coalition Inc, and/or Zebra Youth Inc.
All those groups serve Black, Caribbean or LGBTQ communities.
The subpoenas seek computer logs and digital trails that might show if record were deleted, renamed or destroyed.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Thursday morning that county staff will comply with the legal orders compelling them to provide testimony or hand over documents to Blaise Ingoglia, appointed his post by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Ingoglia — in a Wednesday afternoon press conference — offered scant evidence for his claims of tampering, although he said whistleblowers had alerted the state to the possibility.
“I will tell you that there’s something else driving this…It’s being driven by political motives for whatever reasons to focus on Orange County,” Demings told reporters after a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a new bus transfer center in Pine Hills. “It’s just mean-spirited.”
He said the county “fully cooperated” with the inquiry from the DOGE team, which was modeled after a federal cost-cutting group led by billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk at President Trump’s behest.
The state DOGE team did not speak with Demings, a Democrat who has served as county mayor since 2018.
“What our staff is saying is that they answered whatever question or provided whatever information was requested,” he said. “I can tell the public there’s not been any direction from myself or senior leadership to our employees to hide information on any of that.”
Demings, whose decades-long law enforcement career in Central Florida included serving as Orlando police chief and later as Orange County’s elected sheriff, criticized Ingoglia for predetermining the outcome of the investigation for which subpoenas were issued.
“You should let the facts determine where you end up,” the mayor said. “This whole process has been tainted at this point because they’ve already tried and convicted Orange County before they’ve even completed their investigation”
Demings said he believes Ingoglia intended to intimidate county employees when he warned in a press conference Wednesday to “be forthright” and pledged to bring in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s digital forensic units “to find out exactly who did what.”
The mayor said he “doubts very seriously” county employees tried to hide records from DOGE as Ingoglia alleged.
He also said the governor’s press conference with fellow Republicans Ingoglia and state Rep. Jason Brodeur aimed to taint public opinion. “But this is the political landscape that we’re in now,” Demings said. “But we are a target. This community is a target.”