By: Mary Ellen Klas
Source: tampabay.com
Chief Financial Officer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink rapped the Head of the Florida Department of Transportation, Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos, after she realized that a number of cost saving measures put forward by a retired contract writer for the department had been rejected as having “no merit”.
Harlow Hyde, 61, on his last day on the job, wrote a 12 page letter suggesting how the Department of Transport could save money. The Department noted that his suggestions had “no merit”. Ironically, earlier this year, the Transportation Department has halted the automatic salary increases for contracts, a measure likely to save $10 million and which was one of the ideas that Hyde had put forth in his letter in February.
Sink in a letter to Kopelousos on Wednesday wrote, “When a citizen takes the time to suggest efficiencies that can save taxpayers money or help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, it is incumbent upon all of us to give these ideas the acknowledgement and consideration they deserve.”
Sink has requested Kopelousos to review all of Hyde’s recommendations and report back within 30 days.
It took awhile, but citizen’s call for cost-cutting stirs response in Tallahassee
