💰 Destin officials say the DOGE initiative has already identified about $625,000 in savings without reducing services
🏛️ The program reviews spending, staffing, contracts, and city assets to improve transparency and accountability
🔍 Future efficiency measures will roll out in tiers, targeting both quick savings and long-term structural reforms
DESTIN — Facing rising service demands, tightening budgets and growing scrutiny from state auditors, Destin city leaders say they are choosing to get ahead of potential problems rather than wait to react to them.
That approach was outlined on Dec. 16 in a brief presentation to the City Council on the Destin Optimization of Government Efficiencies, or DOGE, a citywide initiative aimed at modernizing operations, cutting waste and reinforcing public trust.
City Manager Larry Jones told council members the effort has been underway for several months and is already producing tangible results.
“Over that time, we’ve identified about $625,000 that we’ve been able to bring back into the fold,” Jones said, crediting staff across departments for identifying savings without reducing service levels.
Jones described DOGE as a long-term management framework rather than a one-time cost-cutting exercise. He said the goal is to institutionalize efficiency and accountability across all city departments while aligning with the council’s focus on transparency, data-driven decision-making and resident-centered service delivery.
City agenda materials note that the DOGE framework mirrors audit models increasingly being used across Florida, including in Bay County, where reviews now extend well beyond basic financial controls.
Those audits often examine procurement practices, employee compensation, property management, utilities, environmental spending, transportation programs, grants and administrative processes. City officials warned that jurisdictions unprepared for that level of scrutiny risk negative public perception, state-imposed cost controls or loss of local discretion over budget priorities.
DOGE, officials said, is designed to prevent that outcome by ensuring Destin can clearly demonstrate how public dollars are spent and what residents receive in return.
At a practical level, the program establishes a broad review of city operations. All agreements and expenditures exceeding $10,000 are subject to review. Staffing levels, overtime usage and compensation histories are being examined to ensure they align with actual service demands.
City-owned buildings and long-standing leases are under evaluation, as are utility, transportation, and environmental programs, to determine whether they deliver value relative to their costs.
Beyond internal reviews, DOGE places unusual emphasis on communication. City materials describe a strategy of “public narrative control,” in which staff proactively share efficiency gains and operational improvements with residents, the media and oversight agencies.
Officials said the intent is to frame efficiency as a deliberate, resident-centered approach to governance rather than a response to crisis or criticism.
The initiative is structured in tiers based on how quickly actions can be implemented and the scale of their impact. Tier 0 includes measures already completed or in progress, and those early efforts account for the bulk of the $625,000 in identified savings.
Jones said the single largest source of savings came from the city’s employee health insurance program. By renegotiating coverage and making policy adjustments, the city avoided a significant cost increase and saved approximately $430,000.
“A large portion of that was our health insurance that we renegotiated,” Jones said. “We saved about $430,000 on that.”
Another significant savings came from direct purchasing on capital improvement projects. Instead of paying contractors to purchase materials, and passing sales tax costs on to the city, Destin bought materials directly and leveraged its tax-exempt status.
Jones said that approach was used for the pickleball courts, lighting upgrades at Morgan Sports Center and the Crosstown Connector project, saving about $125,000.
“As opposed to paying the contractors to purchase materials, we’d buy it internally and not pay sales tax on it,” Jones said.
Individual departments identified smaller but recurring savings. The Destin Public Library found roughly $12,000 in savings, including about $7,500 tied to subscriptions that were no longer being used or had expired and needed to be canceled, Jones said.
Human Resources identified about $50,000 in savings by correcting workers’ compensation classifications and restructuring parts of the hiring and testing process.
“We saved about $50,000 making sure our workers comp classifications were correct, and doing some restructuring of the way we brought folks on board, and some testing and things we were doing that probably didn’t have as much value,” Jones said.
City documents show additional Tier 0 efficiencies in information technology and Parks and Recreation, including eliminating underused software modules, transitioning to lower-cost systems, bringing some maintenance work in-house, improving energy efficiency and relying on grant-funded staff to reduce pressure on the general fund.
Tier 1 initiatives, described by staff as “quick wins” expected to be implemented within six months, focus on reducing administrative time, fuel use and recurring operating costs. Among them is a proposal to simplify or eliminate the city’s annual budget book, a process estimated to consume roughly 450 hours of department director time each year. Staff estimate that streamlining the document and discontinuing participation in the Government Finance Officers Association budget review program could save about $24,500 annually.
Fleet management is another focus area. City data shows more than 1,200 hours of vehicle idling each year. A proposed five-minute idling limit is expected to save $3,000 to $5,000 annually in fuel and maintenance costs. Utility and telecommunications audits are also planned to identify unused power meters and obsolete phone or fax lines, with projected savings of $5,000 to $8,000 per year, according to city documents.
Other Tier 1 actions include packaging road resurfacing projects into larger annual bids to reduce contractor mobilization costs, shifting some janitorial supply purchases to lower-cost vendors, such as Amazon Business, and raising purchasing card limits for certain positions to reduce paperwork and delays while maintaining audit oversight.
Looking further ahead, Tier 2 initiatives target structural efficiencies and asset management.
These initiatives include using telematics data to identify underused vehicles for reassignment or retirement, renegotiating decades-old building leases to ensure fair rents and shared maintenance responsibilities, expanding paid parking in the Harbor District with half of the proceeds reinvested locally, and conducting regular fuel card audits to detect waste, misuse, or fraud.
Tier 3 initiatives are longer-term and more strategic, including standardizing capital project close-outs and implementing centralized warranty tracking to protect city investments, speed project completion and improve contractor accountability.
Jones emphasized that DOGE is being implemented within existing departmental budgets using current staff resources, with any future costs for technology tools or consulting support expected to be offset by savings generated through the program.
“There’s a good amount of information in your packet that you may review, but that’s the crux of where we are today,” Jones said. “Pleased with staff has worked hard to identify those things, and we’ll continue those efforts moving forward.”
No immediate council action was required, though staff said future DOGE initiatives that require approval will be presented in a standardized format outlining data analysis, recommended actions, expected outcomes and measurable benefits.
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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