What began as a campaign-season public records request has escalated into a forensic audit and an active state criminal investigation inside one of Sarasota County’s constitutional offices.
A forensic audit by the Guidehouse consulting firm, commissioned after Mike Moran won the November 2024 election, alleges that 13 employees in the Sarasota County Tax Collector’s Office received “extra compensation” totaling $461,753 between fiscal years 2021 and 2023.
The report says the compensation was delivered through payroll adjustments, credited hours, and benefits-related offsets, and that key documentation was missing — including records showing approval by Moran’s predecessor, Barbara Ford-Coates, who served as tax collector for more than 40 years.
Moran’s office later provided the Guidehouse audit findings to the State Attorney’s Office, which referred the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to an email obtained by the Florida Trident.
Additional concerns were raised about the deletion of emails. On the Friday before her last day in office in January, Ford-Coates sent an email to IT director Matt Doran instructing him to “delete my email account Monday morning; text me when it’s done.”
Although Ford-Coates’ mailbox was deleted, all individual emails were archived. Moran attributed the issue to a combination of a Microsoft glitch and changes to retention settings by the IT department, and said his office hired an outside firm to conduct a forensic review to verify data integrity and confirm that no emails were lost.
Moran also filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in September 2025 seeking email records. The lawsuit says Moran learned that multiple data loss incidents may have occurred, potentially involving several different user accounts.
In late October, Microsoft’s attorney responded to a subpoena seeking an audit log, stating that there were no responsive records.
Together, the two audits initiated by Moran cost taxpayers more than $317,279, excluding staff time and legal fees.
Moran declined to address the substance of the allegations beyond written statements, citing the ongoing investigation.
Both the FDLE and State Attorney Ed Brodsky declined to comment on the investigation.
Contacted by the Trident, Ford-Coates denied any impropriety. “I believe my office was in full compliance with all laws. I have not been contacted by any law enforcement agency. If I am contacted, I will, of course, cooperate with any investigation.”
Ford-Coates responded to Moran’s accusations during the campaign, saying severe staffing shortages existed during 2023 and “one employee worked 75-80 hours per week, the equivalent of two jobs, and I paid them for actual administrative time worked.” The practice ended when the office was fully staffed.
She noted the office was audited annually by an independent accounting firm selected by a county procurement team. None of those audits flagged any impropriety or questionable activities.
A multi-year review of the annual comprehensive audits by the Florida Trident did not uncover any issues.
Moran acknowledged that he requested payroll and compensation records while campaigning. A central theme of his campaign was his criticism of Ford-Coates's compensation practices for managerial employees.
Moran launched an “operational assessment” shortly after taking office in January 2025, describing it as an effort to evaluate an administration that had held power for decades.
Public records show the first documented contact between Moran and Guidehouse executive Jeff Bankowski occurred on January 14, 2025 — one week after Moran took office — when Bankowski sent Moran a draft contract referencing work “based on our discussions.”
Both Moran and Bankowski previously worked in the finance and accounting industry in Michigan, though no prior professional connection between the two is reflected in the public records reviewed.
In email exchanges, Moran initially did not directly answer whether he had prior contact with Bankowski, who supervised the audit. In a later response, Moran said he had no dealings with Bankowski prior to running for Tax Collector. Despite multiple follow-up questions, Moran did not answer whether he had contact with Bankowski before being elected. Moran described any Michigan connection as coincidental.
Emails obtained by the Trident show Moran and Bankowski planned to "meet at night for dinner or after normal hours" in Orlando after Guidehouse was hired.
Bankowski did not respond to a call or text message seeking comment shortly before publication.
Moran said the initial review by the Guidehouse accounting firm expanded into a forensic accounting analysis focused on payroll and executive compensation.
During the Guidehouse audit, the Florida Retirement System (FRS) conducted a separate audit of transactions dating back to July 2010. It found one instance of a $2,150 bonus incorrectly reported as a retirement bonus, which did not meet eligibility criteria. No other concerns were noted by the FRS audit.
The Guidehouse audit did not issue criminal conclusions. It identified risks, inconsistencies, and missing documentation — then recommended that the office coordinate with an employment expert to determine the legality of the extra compensation and whether any recovery or corrective action would be appropriate.
Public records also document how the matter moved from internal review to law enforcement.
In an email this month responding to a records request, Bradley Ellis, the Tax Collector’s general counsel, described a July 30, 2025, in-person meeting with the State Attorney’s Office. State Attorney Ed Brodsky emailed him the same day to advise that the matter was being handed to the FDLE. Ellis also described follow-up contacts from FDLE and a Dec. 1, 2025, meeting followed by additional calls with an assigned agent.
Guidehouse reported that, for the period reviewed, “thirteen exempt staff members received some form of extra compensation totaling approximately $460,000.”
Exempt employees are defined under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act as those who meet minimum salary requirements and primarily perform managerial duties or specialized professional work, such as an engineer, accountant, attorney, or IT administrator. Federal law exempts those employees from the requirement to be paid overtime if they work in excess of 40 hours in a week.
Florida law prohibits unauthorized extra compensation to employees after services have been rendered or a contract has been entered into.
A table in the report itemized how the “extra compensation” was calculated, using “hours” and hourly-rate equivalents for some employees and “ADJ” payroll adjustments for others, producing a total of $461,753.
Two executives represented the bulk of the total:
Together, those two line items make up about 77.5% of the full $461,753 total.
Guidehouse also described broader executive leadership concerns, including what it characterized as questionable business practices and decisions made in staff members’ own self-interest, and noted a need to strengthen procurement and conflict-of-interest controls.
The audit’s most persistent theme was not just compensation, but documentation.
Guidehouse cited an absence of records supporting Tax Collector approval of extra compensation during FY21–FY23 and its termination in September 2023, as well as an absence of records supporting approval to increase paid time off (PTO) from 480 to 720 hours.
Guidehouse also said it had trouble obtaining original payroll information from the Sarasota County Clerk & Comptroller’s office — citing corruption/loss of payroll data for the Tax Collector’s office covering 2021–2024. But other records obtained from the Comptroller’s office push back on any suggestion that records were lost.
An error in timecard processing caused data to be removed from the timekeeping system, but not from the payroll system or permanent records. The contract with the vendor did not require archiving the timecard records. The Comptroller’s staff reconstructed the timecard records from the payroll data and provided those records to the Tax Collector.
The Comptroller acts as a payroll processor for the offices of the Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, and Board of County Commissioners. The Comptroller also assisted the Tax Collector in correcting contributions FRS rejected for exceeding the PTO cap of 500 hours. Before payroll adjustments were processed, the Comptroller confirmed the payments were authorized by the Tax Collector.
Guidehouse stated that the practice of paying extra compensation to exempt employees “in the manner observed” appeared to violate the FLSA.
The prior administration’s internal explanation, as reflected in the audit appendices, pointed to extreme workloads — especially during COVID-era shutdowns and staffing shortages — and a desire to compensate exempt staff who were working the equivalent of two jobs.
One memo in the appendices describes 120 hours of PTO provided to CFO Joe Garofalo as compensation for working approximately 75 hours per week during a period tied to COVID-related office closures and reopening logistics.
Guidehouse, however, highlighted inconsistencies between payroll records and the CFO’s explanations.
Garofalo wrote in a Jan. 6, 2025, email that he understood employees “cannot be paid for work in previous years,” and said that since he and the chief deputy were still working 75–80 hours a week, they were compensated for the hours they were actually working each pay period, with adjustments ending once staffing stabilized in September 2023.
Guidehouse said the records it reviewed appeared to contradict that framing — citing examples where employees were awarded PTO hours in FY23 as compensation for hours worked in earlier years.
Efforts to reach Garofalo for comment were unsuccessful.
Guidehouse also asserted that payroll adjustments stopped immediately after Moran's September 2023 public records request during the campaign and questioned the claim that staffing stability drove the timing, noting that staffing volatility appeared to continue.
The Tax Collector dispute lands in a gray area that other constitutional offices acknowledge exists: what happens when exempt employees work extended hours during emergencies, hurricanes, or staffing shortages.
A Florida Trident review of compensation policies across Sarasota County’s constitutional offices found wide variation in both pay practices and how paid time off is awarded, accrued, and used.
State Attorney Ed Brodsky explained that giving exempt staff paid time off that is not deducted from accrued PTO is a common way to recognize unusually long hours after lengthy trials. “We don’t document that,” Brodsky said.
Sheriff Kurt Hoffman described a different approach for managing crunch periods for exempt employees.
Hoffman provided records showing exempt employees in the Sheriff’s Office logging extra hours during hurricanes Ian and Milton. The extra compensation was determined by taking their salary and deriving an hourly rate. Hoffman confirmed in an email that the individuals reflected in the records were exempt employees. The additional compensation exceeded the base salary rate and was reported as retirement-creditable pay, a designation later confirmed by FRS as correctly reported by the Sheriff’s Office.
Sarasota County government has a similar policy. Exempt employees normally cannot receive overtime pay, but during a declared emergency, the County Administrator may authorize them to receive straight-time pay for hours worked over 40 in a week and may also approve PTO for both exempt and non-exempt employees.
In 2024, Sarasota County awarded 26,200 hours of PTO under the policy for emergencies.
Property Appraiser Bill Furst said he does not compensate exempt employees for hours worked beyond 40 per week. “That’s not allowed by law,” said Furst. His office provides all employees with an annual “salary additive” in the same amount, which is treated as compensation and included for retirement contribution purposes.
Last year, the salary additive under Furst was $3,553 per employee. Although the written policy describes it as a “lump-sum” payment subject to availability, a state statute and FRS rules generally provide that lump-sum payments are not creditable compensation for retirement purposes.
Donna Perkins, the Finance Director for the Property Appraiser, acknowledged that the office's policy language was confusing but emphasized that their practices were consistent with all statutory requirements.
The Property Appraiser plans to clarify language in the policy after questions were raised by the Trident.
Moran has described sweeping changes since taking office: a new leadership team, multi-layered reviews of compensation decisions, and tighter controls intended to prevent any single executive from unilaterally approving pay practices.
In a written statement, Moran said it was his responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars while delivering transparent and professional service. He said that what was uncovered was “deeply concerning,” but it also provided an opportunity to correct long-standing miscalculations, implement modern technology, and restore trust.
The constitutional officers meet informally with county officials about once a month in Executive Leadership meetings. Moran said he raised concerns there about uncollected school board commissions and excess calculations, but does not recall focusing on his campaign complaints about staff compensation.
Other constitutional officers said Moran frequently raised the campaign complaints.
One constitutional officer who declined to be identified to maintain professional relationships said the controversy looked more like inconsistent practices and politics than criminality.
But the political framing remains inseparable from the facts. Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano, a former state senator, said the timing places the controversy at the intersection of election politics and public accountability because the same person who surfaced the claims as a candidate later commissioned audits and pushed the matter to prosecutors.
Fasano has known Ford-Coates for many years. “I doubt she intended to break any rule or law purposely. Mr. Moran needs to move on and just be the Tax Collector,” Fasano said.
The political context becomes more pointed when viewed alongside Moran’s own history of controversial public compensation practices.
Before becoming tax collector, Moran served as executive director of the Florida PACE Funding Agency, a quasi-governmental entity that administers property-assessed clean energy financing. Public records previously reported by the Florida Trident show that Moran received compensation over and above his salary, tied to the volume of PACE contracts, along with travel and entertainment expenses at lavish steakhouses across the country.
Moran defended the criticism at the time by arguing that PACE funds were not “taxpayer money” in the traditional sense, despite being collected by the Tax Collector from assessments on area residents' tax bills.
The Guidehouse audit does not address Moran’s prior employment, and no authority has alleged his PACE compensation was unlawful. The contrast is political, not legal: a public official criticizing “excess compensation” during and after a political campaign, after his own compensation has drawn scrutiny and criticism.
About the Author: Michael Barfield is an award-winning investigative reporter for the Florida Trident who helps strengthen transparency and accountability across Florida. He assists reporters and the public with public records questions and requests, and he oversees and supports the organization’s litigation to enforce open government. He’s a frequent lecturer on Florida’s Public Records Act and Sunshine Law, serves on the governance committee of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
This article first appeared on Florida Trident and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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kmskepton
Thank you. This is rich coming from him (Moran).
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
RRICH69176
Will the tax payer now incur thousands to "root out" gray practices in the past in the department. This appears to be a political attempt to leave questionable negative press on the prior official. And it is being initiated by an official who has spent lavishly in his prior job (indirectly paid by taxpayers). Just do your job!
Wednesday, February 11 Report this