Mayor Donna Deegan and Florida DOGE are in a standoff over the state group’s refusal to sign what Deegan calls a standard agreement for giving access to the city’s computer system that stores financial records and documents.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said Florida DOGE will not sign any such agreement while carrying out its work in Jacksonville or other local governments where DOGE teams are examining spending.
“What are you trying to hide?” Ingoglia said in an X post directed at Deegan.
Deegan said the city isn’t trying to hide anything. She said she’s reached out to Ingoglia for a meeting about how Florida DOGE can have access to the city’s electronic financial system while she also can uphold her duty as the city’s chief executive for protecting the security of that system.
She declined to say what would happen if the state refuses to enter into an agreement.
“Not there yet,” she said. “I just want to have the conversation first. I don’t want to draw any lines in the sand.”
She said she expects to get a resolution by talking to Ingoglia that would give Florida DOGE access to the city’s financial system.
“I’m not going to allow this to become a political talking point for weeks on end over something like this,” she said. “I simply want to make sure that I am doing my responsibility as mayor and protecting our data in every way that I am legally bound to do. That’s all.”
The Florida DOGE team is scheduled to be at City Hall on Aug. 7-8 for an on-site visit that would potentially include using the city’s information technology system for research.
Florida CFO says Jacksonville’s request is “bureaucratic red tape”
Ingoglia said requiring Florida DOGE to sign an agreement in order to have access to the system is “bureaucratic red tape.”
“These types of documents slow and impede the important work of the auditors and are nothing but roadblocks to the transparency that Floridians deserve,” Ingoglia wrote in an Aug. 4 letter to Deegan that he posted on his X account.
Deegan said the city is applying the same requirement to Florida DOGE that the city has been using for external auditors hired by the city when they log into the city’s computer system.
Deegan said Florida law, which gives the state’s Office of Policy and Budget staff the ability to use the city’s data system, contains a provision that the access is “subject to appropriate security considerations.”
Ingoglia’s wrote in his letter to Deegan that state law empowers Florida DOGE to do the audits of local governments without “additional restrictions.”
City Council President Kevin Carrico agrees with Ingoglia.
“The city should comply with the state’s request, open up the books and show them we have nothing to hide,” he said.
Florida law requires Jacksonville to have cybersecurity standards
The city’s external use agreement spells out 27 rules for use of the city’s computer system. The rules apply to use of passwords, log-in information, encryption devices, disclosure of private or confidential information, and obtaining public information for personal use.
The form also requires people requesting use of the system to provide their names and the specific “systems and/or applications” the users want to access. The agreement says the user can only get access to resources “for which they are specifically authorized.”
The agreement says the city reserves the right to “review, audit or monitor any information technology used by external users.”
State law requires local governments to create cybersecurity standards that safeguard its data, information technology and information technology resources.
State law also gives the Office of Policy and Budget in the governor’s office the ability to get access to a local government’s buildings and its data systems after giving seven-day notice. In both of those cases, the access is “subject to appropriate security considerations,” according to state law.
Deegan said it’s surprising that the agreement at issue in connection with Florida DOGE’s visit has become controversial.
She said she is “not enamored of political fights” because they “take attention away from things that we should be doing for our citizens.”
“And frankly, we already have dozens of employees in the city that are spending hundreds and hundreds of hours collecting all of this data for the state while frankly, in my mind, they could be working for the citizens with that time,” she said.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida DOGE won’t sign agreement that city says is required for using computer system
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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