The Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization could face staff cuts in the wake of an audit that found fiscal and operational issues.
A proposal is up for discussion at a board meeting Wednesday to cut the organization’s staff to two employees, director T.J. Fish and a grants manager, from about a half dozen and contract the rest of the MPO’s workload.
The internal audit questioned appropriate use of funds and found that employees were estimating instead of tracking actual time spent on grant activities, said Sumter County Administrator Bradley Arnold.
Sumter County commissioners commented on the MPO’s issues at their meeting Tuesday night.
Commissioner Doug Gilpin said Sumter County should not get too involved in the controversy because the MPO staff is employed by Lake County.
“There are other things that could be done,” he said. “There are things I’d like to do.”
Commissioner Don Hahnfeldt said he agreed with Gilpin.
“I hope they would emulate the business practices of Sumter County,” he said.
The Lake-Sumter MPO is the lead agency for regional transportation issues in Lake and Sumter counties and helps to allocate millions of federal transportation dollars each year.
At their meeting, Sumter commissioners also scheduled a June 14 public hearing on eliminating the county’s fire service fee.
County Fire Chief Leland Greek said the fee for fire responses was assessed to insurance companies until the Florida legislature outlawed the practice. He said about $100,000 was collected one year, although no residents or businesses were billed. The fee has remained on the books, but is no longer levied.