FORT PIERCE, Fla. — On Wednesday, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia fired off at Fort Pierce city leaders, claiming they had over $10.5 million of wasteful spending last fiscal year.
WATCH BELOW: 'He's using analytics,' Commissioner Michael Broderick tells WPTV's Tyler Hatfield
“We’ve accounted for everything a local government should or would need in order to deliver services to the taxpayer,” said Ingoglia. ”What should scare you is Fort Pierce blew right past that number.”
It’s an accusation, City Commissioner Michael Broderick doesn’t think is fair.
“His news conference certainly made for good sound bites,” said Broderick.
Fort Pierce
Florida CFO targets Fort Pierce for $10.5M in 'wasteful' spending
Ingoglia claims the city’s general fund increased by more than $25 million, or nearly 60 percent, since 2019. While the city population only increased by less than 5,000 during the same period.
“Ask yourself the question, is government protecting you, or is government protecting their large, bloated budgets?,” said Ingoglia.
Broderick said Ingoglia isn’t offering a fair analysis of the city’s budget.
“He's using analytics to say that the city growth was x, and that should be mirrored, specifically with growth in revenues that the city is taking in expenditures,” said Broderick. "That's not really how that works.”
Broderick also said Ingoglia’s analysis wasn’t generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Ingoglia also questioned city staffing, claiming that of the 90 full-time positions hired in the last six years, only 15 were first responders.
Broderick said the city has been wanting more public safety staff but retention and staffing issues at the police department has made it difficult.
“We have positions funded that we have not filled in the police department,” said Broderick. “It's problematic, because we need to staff our complete shifts of officers on the streets.”
But Broderick said he agrees the expansion of city staff needs to be examined.
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“I will acknowledge the fact that there was an extensive growth of personnel within the city government,” said Broderick. “This is something that I believe the city needs to investigate further.”
While Broderick doesn’t agree with the metrics Ingoglia used, he said he’s up for a deep dive into their budget.
“We need to take a very hard look at that, and a justification has to be made for every penny of city money that is spent," said Broderick. "Every penny that of taxpayer money that is spent needs to be justified."
