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Committee agrees to study proposal for an independent Office of Inspector General
Summary
A committee member proposed creating an independent Office of Inspector General to prevent fraud, waste and abuse and to separate ethics oversight from administration; the committee voted to add the item to its work list for staff analysis.
Dr. Howard Kessler presented a proposal to establish an independent Office of Inspector General for Leon County and to expand its remit to include the county's Blueprint agency staff on the county payroll. Kessler said independence, separate legal counsel for the office, and protections against arbitrary removal were central to the proposal: "The mission of the proposed Leon County office of the inspector general is to remove conflict... to include the prevention and the detection of fraud, waste, abuse, efficient and effective use of public resources and promotion of public integrity," he told the committee.
Kessler suggested structural safeguards, including a fixed term for the inspector general and a supermajority requirement for removal for cause to protect the position from political intervention. Committee members asked procedural and budgetary questions, sought comparative examples from other charter counties, and requested that the analysis include fiscal impacts and governance comparisons.
The committee voted to add the Office-of-Inspector-General proposal to its running list so staff can prepare detailed analysis and options for future meetings.
Next steps: staff will prepare comparative research, examples from other counties, and estimated fiscal impacts for committee review.
