WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – City leaders in Winter Springs discussed an audit on Monday that says the city has been misusing funds from its one-cent sales tax.
However, during the meeting, city leaders denied doing anything wrong.
During the meeting, the city commission voted to continue forward with its list of projects to be funded by the one-cent tax funds, including a water improvement project.
In May, the county’s inspector general’s office released its findings, which stated that the city was planning to misuse about $2 million from its $19 million stake from the one-cent sales tax fund.
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Mayor Kevin McCann said the city is being used as a political tool for officials at the county level who do not support the one-cent sales tax. He added that the city volunteered for the audit, but he said the audit is not accurate.
McCann said that Seminole County Clerk Grant Malloy ran on a campaign against the one-cent sales tax. The mayor continued, saying that the audit states what Malloy wants the one-cent tax to be used for — not what the actual verbiage of the law states.
According to McCann, Oviedo recently denied Malloy’s request to conduct an audit, saying that Oviedo didn’t want Malloy to use them as a political pawn as was happening in Winter Springs.
The city attorney has also submitted a response to the county’s auditors on behalf of the commission.
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