Lawmakers push to yank DMS Secretary’s salary, saying ‘fiscal house is completely out of order’

Fed up with non-answers, the head of a House budget oversight committee has recommended suspending the salary of Pedro Allende, the secretary of the Department of Management Services. 

Allende’s $210,842 pay would be pending satisfactory resolution of the agency’s outstanding problems, according to Vicki Lopez, a Republican from Miami Dade who chairs the House State Administration Budget Subcommittee.  

On Thursday, she also recommended the firing and pay elimination of four controversial state Data Service employees Allende had hired. In addition, five more remote state employees have been found, Lopez said, two of them graphic designers.

The actions marked what Lopez described as the “grand finale” concerning recommendations on several agencies examined by the subcommittee, but particularly with respect to Allende who had been summoned with mixed success before the lawmakers multiple times.

 “There is definitely growing concern that the department’s fiscal house is completely out of order,” said Lopez. “For all of these reasons and more, I will include proviso [language in the 2026 state budget] that places the Secretary’s salary rate and salary budget in reserve. Not a dime of it will be replaced or released until he can answer these basic questions or perform the statutorily required objectives. These are not overly complex issues.”

Several hours after the meeting concluded, the agency suddenly began responding on X, posting an excerpt video from the proceedings, and “setting the record straight,” replies it claimed answered the long sought-after information. “Contrary to what was said today, the Department has worked diligently to address all concerns raised by the committee from the very beginning of Session,” @FloridaDMS insisted.

The problems Allende has been dodging began in January, soon after a scathing state audit unchallenged by Allende, was released, finding that the agency, which oversees a myriad of state operations, was unable to accurately account for millions of dollars worth of vehicles in the state’s fleet.

As the Florida Trident first reported, the audit was followed by the discovery that Allende had hired four state employees as part of DMS’ Data Team, all of them based out of state with little oversight, and was paying their commuting expenses to Tallahassee costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, in addition to their six-figure salaries. Allende claimed that the hires were necessary in large part to complete a statutorily-required inventory and data catalogue, a project that remains years overdue. He has not answered questions posed by the Trident  regarding prior relationships with the elite group. 

The list of issues Allende has failed to explain or remedy following the subcommittee’s inquest includes a legally-required contract DMS failed to extend with People First, which handles the state payroll and benefits for state employees; the lack of a plan to address its $60 million expenditure to fix leaking garages in the Capitol Complex which continue to leak; millions of dollars more in revenue collected than needed to pay state telecommunication service costs; a long-ignored and growing $237 million deficit facing the state employees’ health insurance trust fund; and DMS’ abrupt severance of a lease with lawmakers of the 21^st floor in the Capitol.

Lopez’ subcommittee was one of several tasked by the House Speaker with examining state agency spending, and how effectively those dollars were being utilized.

 “We have a crisis of leadership at DMS that has resulted in a crisis of management,” said Lopez, later adding that she hoped that the governor was paying attention: “I liken DMS to the house that’s on fire. And you can see the fire in every single window of that house.”

The subcommittee’s budget recommendations will now become part of the overall House budget package. In the weeks ahead, both the House and Senate will craft the final budget for 2025-2026.