Miami Commissioners Invite Florida DOGE to Investigate City Spending

On Thursday, the Miami City Commission unanimously approved a motion by Joe Carollo to invite agents from the newly formed Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to uncover potential inefficiencies in government spending in the Magic City.

The vote was unanimous, though Commissioners Christine King (District 5) and Damian Pardo (District 2) said they supported government transparency efforts rather than sweeping job cuts.

"I will not support a broad stroke of getting rid of departments," King said before the vote.

Pardo agreed, saying the city already conducts forensic audits of spending each year. "If we want to invite further oversight, great," he said. "I will not support moving fast and breaking things."

Pardo echoed a computer engineer who'd spoken earlier at the meeting and invoked tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg's serial mantra, which long served as the motto of Facebook (now Meta), the social media giant he founded.

The Miami city manager's office did not respond to New Times' request for comment.

With Elon Musk at the helm, DOGE's federal iteration has slashed thousands of jobs nationwide since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis created a Sunshine State DOGE branch by executive order in February, aiming to eliminate 70 state boards and commissions, among other so-called waste.

It's unclear how many Florida municipalities have invited DOGE to look at their books, but Hialeah hopped aboard the efficiency train in late March.

According to Carollo, DOGE won't have a say on firings or department cuts. "The ultimate decision falls to this commission," he said at the meeting. "This is additional advice so that we can truly live by the word that's thrown around so often: transparency."

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Democrats in the United States House of Representatives have accused DOGE of "illegally firing tens of thousands of employees through prohibited personnel actions," according to a March report from the House Committee on the Budget. "These cuts threaten services that Americans rely upon, such as delivery of Social Security benefits, access to classrooms for students with disabilities, and help processing tax refunds."

On its website, DOGE claims to have saved more than $160 billion, or about $993 per U.S. citizen, in the first four months of Trump's second Presidency. The majority of those savings have come from cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Department of Education, Department of Labor, and Office of Personnel Management, according to DOGE.

City Commissioners at the meeting punted on another primary objective of the Trump and DeSantis administrations. Commissioners deferred a vote on whether to deputize the Miami Police Department to aid in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation efforts in South Florida.

The 287(g) agreement allows trained officers to stop, question, and detain people suspected of violating immigration laws.

Cities in South Florida, including Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami Springs, and West Miami, have been lining up to make agreements with ICE,  according to the Miami Herald. Like most of Miami, the cities have large immigrant populations. Since February, scores of police departments nationwide have signed the 287(g) agreement.

Commissioners deferred the decision to a June 12 meeting, when they will hold a special election to replace former Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who died earlier this month.

In recent weeks, DeSantis threatened to suspend local officials who refuse to aid the Trump administration's efforts.