Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia called Manatee County Government’s hiring “wasteful” spending, but the head of the county’s citizen review committee says that’s not the full story.
At a press conference in October, Ingoglia unveiled the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO) audit and said Manatee County hired 472 full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel in the last five years, while the county’s population rose by about 61,000. In his blistering commentary on Manatee’s budget spending, he said that number is far beyond what he expects, even for a growing municipality.
“They’re hiring librarians, administrators, clerks and expanding government at a rate that is probably unprecedented in this area,” Ingoglia said at the press conference.
The Bradenton Herald analyzed the county’s budget books to learn which departments have grown over the past five years to account for a surge in population growth…