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Walton County hires MGT to audit planning fees and operations; commissioners discuss potential forensic review
Summary
The Walton County Board authorized staff to negotiate and proceed with MGT for a comprehensive recalculation of planning fees and an operational review. Commissioners and members of the public pressed for wider process and, in some cases, forensic auditing if the review turned up anomalous transactions.
DeFuniak Springs — Commissioners on Aug. 12 authorized county staff to negotiate with consulting firm MGT and proceed with a comprehensive recalculation of Walton County’s planning fees and a review of planning operations, including fee calculation, permitting flows and recommended efficiency improvements.
Melissa Thomason, who led the procurement summary, said the county sought firms with Florida experience and that MGT’s team includes an auditor who recently retired from the state auditor general’s office. Thomason recommended negotiating in a range of roughly $85,000–$99,000 to cover a full recalculation of fees (recreation, impact/plant fees, mobility) and a report of findings, benchmarks and recommendations.
Commissioners and members of the public repeatedly asked whether the review would be broad enough to uncover past wrongdoing or systemic problems. Several residents and attorneys urged a forensic audit — a deeper, transaction-level investigation — to identify misapplied fees or improper approvals. County staff and the county attorney recommended a two-step approach: (1) bring in MGT for a comprehensive process and financial audit to identify anomalies and (2) if MGT finds specific irregularities, deploy a targeted forensic audit to investigate defined transactions, rather than opening a large open-ended forensic probe that can be costly.
Planning Director Steven Shone and County Administrator Brian Kellenberger said the department has experienced staff turnover; Shone noted the department is climbing out of permit backlogs and that some delays resulted from departures and a surge of applications. Commissioners directed staff to return with recommendations and a negotiated agreement; staff said MGT could begin work under a purchase order if the firm will accept it, otherwise the contract will come back to the board.
The board also discussed bringing short-term management/consulting support into Planning to help with day-to-day processes while the audit proceeds. Commissioners asked staff to return with options for immediate, temporary operational assistance and to prioritize streamlining single-family dwelling and temporary power permits, which residents reported as the most urgent problem areas.
