Administrative staff members dealing with responses
Both City of Sarasota and Sarasota County Government leaders have received letters from state officials over the past week, telling them they had until July 21 to complete a spreadsheet with details sought in accord with the governor’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
On Friday, July 11, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis forwarded to the county commissioners the email he had received from Eric Soskin, senior adviser and DOGE Team leader for DeSantis, and Leda Kelly, director of the Office of Policy and Budget, who made the formal request on behalf of the governor.
Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert learned of the deadline when she received a notice from the Florida League of Cities on July 14, the News Leader learned from a review of email exchanges in the city’s public folder.
The same day, Alpert forwarded the League information to interim City Manager Dave Bullock and Deputy City Manager Pat Robinson. “Wanted to make sure we didn’t miss this deadline,” she wrote.
Bullock responded approximately 2 minutes later: “It has already been sent in.”
County Administrator Lewis told the commissioners in his email that staff “will prepare the response as we have with previous requests.”
Commissioner Tom Knight was the only board member to respond via email, as shown in the county public access folder when the News Leader reviewed it.
On July 12, Knight wrote Lewis, “This may be some information that may be utilized on August 19th for the others to see what you are getting from Tallahassee. Would be good for the public to see the political trend.”
Knight was referring to plans for another commission workshop on Aug. 19 in regard to finalizing the county’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1.
As the News Leader has reported, Knight won the support of his board colleagues for the Aug. 19 session. He has expressed concern about projected deficits in the county’s General Fund budget in the 2028, 2029 and 2030 fiscal years, given a lower increase in property values this year and falling home prices in the county.
The General Fund, which contains all of the property tax revenue and other types of revenue that the county receives — such as that from a gas tax and the state’s sharing of certain funds. It is the “account” that pays for operations of county departments that do not generate money for their annual expenditures, as well as the operations of most of the county’s constitutional officers, such as the sheriff and the supervisor of elections.
Commissioners also have referenced state requirements over which they have no control that affect the county budgets, such as increases in Florida Retirement System payments.
As Jeffrey Schweers of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in late March, “Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken the unprecedented step this week of asking city and county administrators about any financial problems they have or expect to have, one of the first official acts of his newly created Department of Government Efficiency.”
Schweers added, “In a social media post on X … DeSantis said he was ‘calling on all Florida counties and municipalities to voluntarily work with our Florida DOGE team to review local spending and financial practices.’ ”
Schweers explained, “DeSantis issued an executive order creating Florida DOGE in February, after President Trump created a federal DOGE and put billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in charge of slashing budgets and laying off workers in an attempt to trim billions out of the federal budget.”
In his communication to the commissioners, County Administrator Lewis provided a copy of the email from Soskin, DeSantis’ DOGE Team leader, and Kelly, including the following list of information that they required:
