High Springs cleared of grant fraud allegations

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has cleared the City of High Springs of illegal activities with respect to expenditure of grant funds allocated by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO).   

After a resident alleged that High Springs had committed fraud in the use of Byrne Grant funds, ACSO forwarded the informal complaint to the FDLE for review. Though the documented findings indicate the sheriff’s office initiated a complaint, Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell clarified that is not true.

But as a result of the forwarded complaint, FDLE officials visited both the City of High Springs and ACSO to conduct an administrative review of the grant.

Robyn Rush, a High Springs resident who has raised concerns about various issues regarding local government and law enforcement, approached the city commission several weeks ago about the Byrne Grant.  At that time she claimed the police department was requesting grant reimbursements from the sheriff for money that was never spent.

The findings of the administrative review, which High Springs police chief Jim Troiano received in the mail Wednesday morning, state “The office of executive investigations found no evidence of criminal misconduct that would warrant further investigation. Therefore, this case will be administratively closed.”

In response to the FDLE’s findings, Troiano said, “I hope this answers Ms. Rush’s questions.”

The review did find several instances where High Springs had incorrectly reported hours for reserve and part-time officers who did not work overtime, and another officer’s timesheet did not match up with overtime paid.

These mistakes will amount to a total of about $400 in grant funds that have to be paid back by Oct. 31.

However, the findings also indicate that other municipalities, including the Gainesville Police Department, had similar issues, and ultimately, it falls to the sheriff’s office to ensure that grant money is not misallocated.

“It is my understanding,” said Troiano, “these are common errors – it just happens.”

He said he hopes that in the future there will be better communication between the sheriff’s office and the police department to help prevent such misunderstandings.

Sheriff Darnell, who was en route from Tallahassee Wednesday afternoon, had not yet seen the findings when she commented, but she said she disagrees that there is any problem with communication.

She said the Byrne Grant and the process and rules that go along with it have been in place for several years, and there is no reason anyone should be having misunderstandings at this point.

She was pleased to hear that the review confirmed what both she and Troiano were confident of, which was there had been no illegal expenditures from grant monies.