Bad Timing.

I had something completely different scheduled for today until yesterday's bombshell press conference with Florida's Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia's. So we change course to discuss that a bit... I will do a full break down later this week, once I do a bit more research.

Yesterday's press conference was a last minute thing. I received a text from Jordyn Weaver, who works in Ingoglia's office, on Sunday morning inviting me to the press conference yesterday. No other information was given. Just the location and the time to be there and to RSVP.

Of course I responded that I would attend. When I arrived, I spoke with a couple of commissioners who arrived around the same time. They had no idea what this was about. I spoke with some people who were attending and they too had no idea what it was about.

Interesting.

After seeing the signs and whatnot on display, I presumed it was related to Citrus County, but I did not recall the county getting notified that the state was starting to look at the data they supplied back in July of 2025. Remember, the county volunteered to provide this information to the state and did so after getting a slight extension.

It appeared no one knew what was coming... he would go on to announce that his office has identified $39 million in wasteful spending over the last 6 years.

I will dive into what all this means later this week...

One interesting thing to note... This could be completely coincidental, but this week is around the one year mark of the 491 fiasco involving Commissioner Bays going around Ingoglia's office to another senator seeking appropriations for 491. It is also starting to be prime election season, in which Bays is running for re-election..

Again... timing could be coincidental... but interesting nonetheless.

So why am I here today talking about it without doing a deep dive into the details? Take a look at this agenda item for next week's BOCC meeting.

Talk about the worst possible timing to come to the BOCC with a presentation on why the CCSO needs more money to increase the pay for deputies and other employees in the Sheriff's office.

Before I get blasted, I am not suggesting this is not needed and not deserved. I am just pointing out that the timing is horrible. The public (and county) just heard the CFO state that there is $39 million in waste and now, here comes a constitutional officer asking for a significant amount of money to increase salaries across the board.

Ouch.

Let's take a look.

This slide shows the areas this study will cover.

This slide shows the comparisons for each section that the CCSO used to gather their data.

These are some of the challenges the CCSO recognized with its sworn law enforcement staff.

This shows that the starting salary for a deputy in Citrus is 13% lower on average than those of surrounding counties. We have heard in the past that CCSO has a difficult time competing for new deputies with surrounding counties due to this.

This one compares neighboring agencies with those that are similar in size/demographics to Citrus County.

This chart shows the Sergeant and Lieutenant pay compared to surrounding counties.

And the chart comparing these salaries to surrounding areas and areas similar to Citrus.

These charts show we are about 32% below average in Sergeant pay and 28% below average in Lieutenant pay.

Here is a chart for Communications. This shows Citrus is 20.3% below average.

Support staff is compared to BOCC salaries for the same/similar positions showing that most are trailing their county government counterparts.

This is from Florida Tax Watch showing per capita expenditures for public safety in each county, showing Citrus County ranking 54th.

Side note... say what you want about Prendergast, but he came with similar numbers and was largely rejected by the BOCC... in part due to the method he used to bring awareness to them. None of this is new and none of it should be shocking.

I digress.

Here is the big question... What is all of this going to cost?

There you have it... $5,662,000.

Ummmm... like I said, after yesterday, I could not think of a worse time to ask for $5.6 million dollars. It is going to be interesting to see what the BOCC says about this. The report does say that there are some revenues out there that may help offset some of these costs.. so I am looking forward to seeing him explain those numbers and what the final total will be for this.

One question on this and a question about Tuesday.

What happened to the Sheriff's Office MSTU? It was floated back in 2024 because the BOCC did not like how Prendergast was blaming them for lack of funding and issues about the COPS grant in 2023. They threatened to put it in place to "force" him to go to the public if he wanted more money... despite them having to approve the MSTU amount. The BOCC spend thousands of dollars for the consultant to create the MSTU and then it died. There is part of that $39 million in waste I imagine.

So... are we bringing that back? With the talk of property taxes going away, funding has to come from somewhere. Might be time to revisit this. Keeping the Sheriff's budget as its own tax would also give the community a chance to weigh in on that alone... and people will show up for that. We saw that with the Fire Services fee a few months ago when the room was filled with people in opposition to the increase for the most part.

Now.. about Tuesday.

Yesterday will certainly create waves in county government. This will certainly be a topic of conversation on Tuesday. I expect some input related to this from residents. However, I would caution the BOCC to tread carefully. This topic is NOT on the agenda and likely should not be discussed in depth without it being on the agenda. I suppose someone could walk it on, but the rules only allow that for emergencies that cannot wait... Not sure this qualifies as an emergency that cannot wait. Budget decisions are not due next week. Might be wise to put it on the agenda for the first April meeting and have the full discussion then.

Don't want to see them breaking the rules and all that...