The Orlando City Clerk apparently has time to decorate her office, but has no time for her government work, including public records and answering questions. Talk about bad timing with Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Florida DOGE coming to Orlando.
When West Orlando News could not get any real response from City Clerk Stephanie Herdocia’s office or Records and Archive Supervisor Janna Baumann, we decided to visit City Hall and see why no one was working or available. Well, it turns out the City Clerk’s office apparently had plenty of time for arts and crafts activities ahead of the Florida DOGE audit:
In Mayor Buddy Dyer’s administration, this is what government employees spend their time doing and this is how they spend our local tax dollars. Despite the decorations (more photos below), it was advised that no Records employees were available and that Janna Baumann was “in a meeting,” an excuse used almost every single time West Orlando News reached out to the city supervisor – maybe it was a decorating meeting? Either way, she never returned my call the entire day, so I headed to City Hall to see what was going on.
After waiting in the over-decorated City Clerk lobby for over 45 minutes, most of the time with no acknowledgement or follow up from staff, I called the office and one employee answered and seemed shocked I had been waiting so long with no one assisting me. He came right over to help see what was going on, meaning there was someone available to assist the whole time. Once he understood my concerns and requests, I could witness him crouching down in the back of the office to a cubicle, presumably Records Supervisor Janna Baumann, but she refused to be seen.
It was a missed opportunity for a local government employee to simply do her job. City Clerk Stephanie Herdocia recently released a memo to her staff outlining customer service as a top priority. Clearly, these city employees are better at decorating than service to the public.
It was also bad timing right before Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia and Governor Ron DeSantis’ DOGE team comes to audit the City of Orlando. Stephanie Herdocia is one of the city’s highest-paid employees and a member of Mayor Buddy Dyer’s executive staff. Per a recent West Orlando News public records request, Stephanie Herdocia makes $136,739.20 of base pay on an annualized basis.
As West Orlando News continues several investigations into alleged wrongdoing and improper actions by city government employees including City Clerk Stephanie Herdocia, we have been consistently running into roadblocks from Janna Baumann, who is reportedly the only city employee Stephanie Herdocia allows to deal with West Orlando News public records requests. Every other employee openly tells West Orlando News they are not allowed to speak about or work on our requests. That does not make for an efficiently run government office.
Whenever I call the City of Orlando Records Department, I am told that Janna Baumann and the entire Records management team are “in meetings” – almost every time. How many meetings can one department have, every single day? Sources have informed WON that sometimes the Clerk brings cake or food in for “cake day” meetings – I hope that’s not using taxpayer money too.
Talk about a bloated and useless government office if every member of management attends the same meetings with each other, all the time. It doesn’t even make sense.
These City of Orlando government employees are not living up to the City Clerk’s own top priority of customer service and they are wasting taxpayers’ time and money.
Janna Baumann also claims to be incompetent about process and records whenever she is asked questions, and sources in the City Clerk’s office state that Baumann was reportedly brought in through a connection with Records Manager Danielle Abdul-Nabi and remains unqualified. She is not able to answer simple questions within her job scope and responsibilities – maybe because the City Clerk will not allow her – but as a government employee, this is not fulfilling her duties or obligations.
A source at City Hall informed West Orlando News that after taking the photo of the front desk display, the City Clerk’s office has removed the decorations ahead of the Florida DOGE visit. Stephanie Herdocia knew those actions were not an appropriate use of time or money for the taxpayers. But the pictures never go away.
Needless to say, the city of Orlando is still refusing to follow up on concerns about records provided regarding Stephanie Herdocia. They are all “in a meeting.”
I urge the Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia and Governor Ron DeSantis to demand a full audit and review of all operations and qualifications of the City Clerk and her staff. The Orlando City Clerk’s office has been in turmoil from recent resignations and ongoing allegations of wrongdoing by city employees. It’s time to bring transparency to this corrupt office.
Here are more pictures of the Orlando Clerk’s office decorations from this week and the empty desks and office that utilizes a lot of taxpayers’ money:
ALSO: Orlando City Clerk Spends Thousands of Tax Dollars on Vegas Trip
