CFO pushes for government transparency — except in his own Office

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is on a public crusade to make local governments more transparent and accountable.

“For the people listening to me right now, watch your local governments,” Ingoglia said at a press conference in Orlando during one of his many stops urging local leaders to be accountable, spend wisely and be open about their finances.

But behind the scenes, his statewide Office is stonewalling media inquiries and record requests meant to give insight into the CFO’s own operations and spending.

Ingoglia’s Office has either ignored, or taken months to respond to, Florida Politics’ questions and public record requests on his auditors’ travel expenses, his payroll and his plans to grow his Office.

On Aug. 7, Florida Politics filed a public records request for the travel expenses for the CFO’s auditors who traveled to Orange County and Orlando to probe the local governments’ budgets. Florida Politics paid a $216 invoice to receive the records by late August.

The CFO’s Office took more than five months to release 20 pages of records and only did so after a First Amendment lawyer intervened on Florida Politics’ behalf with a letter warning that the CFO’s Office could be responsible for legal expenses if Florida Politics had to go file a lawsuit over its right to public records.

“To date, and despite multiple status inquiries in September, November, and just recently in January, Ms. Russon has not received any of the records she paid for in August of last year,” Tampa lawyer Mark Caramanica wrote in a Jan. 31 letter demanding the CFO to release the records by Feb. 3. “There is no legal justification to continue delaying production.”

The CFO’s Office complied and released 20 pages of travel expenses on Feb. 3 and also promised to return the $216 FP paid for the records.

Included in the records were two trip reports showing that a government analyst and a senior management analyst each spent about $1,000 for a three-day trip to Orlando in August.

They both stayed at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando Downtown. One drove from Tallahassee while the other drove from Panama City.

The CFO’s Office did not release any travel expenses for Ingoglia, who was in town for his probe and held a news conference.

CFO spokeswoman Sydney Booker said Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office is overseeing Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the CFO only sent two employees to Orange County.

Ingoglia’s Office did not respond to a request for this story to explain the delays in releasing information.

“It seems pretty ironic,” said Dave Cuillier, Director of the Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida’s Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment. “It’s not unusual that a government agency hides information. Unfortunately, it’s all too common. It’s just bizarre that this particular agency would not be forthcoming given its mission.”

Cuillier argued the CFO should be posting information online to make it easily accessible.

“If they really are serious about this, then they should be proactively posting all their information online on their website. You shouldn’t even have to ask for it,” Cuillier said. That way, journalists wouldn’t have to “wait around forever or get ghosted,” which Cuillier called “a really bad look.”

Billie Tucker Volpe, an executive coach who also operates a local government watchdog website, questioned how aware Ingoglia is about his Office’s handling of records and media inquiries.

“I’m curious if he knew this was all happening or if it was his people who were doing the gatekeeping,” Tucker Volpe said.

“I’m not going to give him a pass,” she added, saying “it still falls in his lap.”

While in Orlando last year, Ingoglia also announced he was planning to grow his Office as he plans to investigate every local government in Florida for wasteful spending of public dollars. It’s part of the public case Ingoglia and DeSantis are trying to build for abolishing local property taxes, as they argue local leaders could function with smaller budgets.

Of his hiring plans, Ingoglia said publicly, “We are looking at reorganizing our offices to hire more auditors, to hire more local government experts, to hire more CPAs so we can get in the weeds of some of these numbers and show some of those DOGE-like calculations in the future. … We’re looking to expand it because the taxpayers deserve transparency and fiscal responsibility.”

After the November press conference, Ingoglia’s Office did not respond to Florida Politics questions about how many people he planned to hire and at what cost.

On Jan. 5, Florida Politics submitted a records request for the payroll data at CFO’s Office and asked for information including employees’ hire date, salary and title.

The CFO’s Office has not released those records either. Booker confirmed Monday evening the CFO’s office is still processing the records request and promised to be in touch soon. She added state employees’ information is already posted online under Florida Has A Right To Know.

Lawmakers are considering expanding Ingoglia’s power over local governments in SB 1566 and other bills moving through the 2026 Legislative Session.

SB 1566, which is scheduled to be debated Tuesday during the Senate Community Affairs Committee, includes a provision requiring local governments to post employee salaries and travel expenses online for the public to see.