Winter Springs audit grilling by state lawmakers fires up Monday

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann faces questions from state lawmakers in Tallahassee on Monday about city finances after the state ordered an audit. 

The state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee, or JLAC, meets Dec. 4 to hear a presentation of the Auditor General’s operational audit of the City of Winter Springs “and response from the City.” 

You can stream the Winter Springs audit meeting, which starts at 3:30 p.m., online here. You can also read a copy of the state’s audit here, which had eight findings. The most significant issue identified was that the city is in dire need of new wastewater facilities, and lacks the funds to build them. 

The city has since passed an ordinance on Nov. 16 that would double the average homeowners’ water bill by 2029, although final approval of that would need to be completed at the Dec. 11 City Commission meeting. That money would be used for more than $166 million in repairs and other construction, including a new wastewater treatment facility.

The city was admonished for putting items “with significant financial impacts or high public interest” on the consent agenda rather than discussing and voting on them individually at public meetings. The state further emphasized that penny sales tax revenue be spent in-line with “public expectations.” 

Winter Springs was due to appear before the committee in November, but that meeting was postponed because of the legislative special session to increase sanctions against Iran and provide financial relief from Hurricane Idalia. 

“In the end, my goal is to quite frankly put these audits behind us and move forward,” McCann told commissioners last month. “I’m going to move forward with the truth, with a bit of humility, be thankful, and hope that quite frankly we move this behind us.”

 State Sen. Jason Brodeur sits on the JLAC committee and was the one who asked the state’s auditor general to investigate the city. He told Oviedo Community News he has “a lot of questions” for the auditor general, who he said did not dig deep enough, and for city officials who he said aren’t taking the audit seriously enough. 

“I am dismayed that the city takes a nonchalant approach to the findings, that it’s not a big deal,” Brodeur said earlier this month. “It is a big deal.”

Oviedo Community News will be covering the hearing and will provide updates.