County drops fleet probe

In light of former county fleet manager Jack Stepongzi's abrupt resignation, the county audit department has ceased its investigation into his alleged fraudulent business practices and kicked the matter over to the sheriff's office and state attorney's office.
Now that the sheriff's office has deemed it a criminal investigation, that puts it out of the county's jurisdiction. The county's audit department concluded Wednesday that a more thorough investigation by the proper authorities is needed.
"I think it's been really time-consuming, so it's time to turn it over to someone who has subpoena and interviewing powers," Circuit Court Clerk Karen Nicolai said late Wednesday.
Because the whole matter blew up so quickly, the audit department had no time to continue those investigations.
Stepongzi has admitted to receiving a 10 percent "commission" from Texas-based Vulocity, which sold global positioning units to Hernando County for use in fleet vehicles.
Stepongzi, who told Hernando Today he had received $334 during a seven-month period, resigned Friday.
But the audit department only found out about it Oct. 28, two days before Stepongzi quit - too little time to do a proper investigation.
"At this time, the reviewing party has not yet verified the reliability of the (anonymous) complainant's statement," the report said.
On Oct. 30, the county reviewers and Assistant County Attorney Jon Jouben discussed contacting Vulocity but decided that since Stepongzi resigned that same day, audit reviewers were advised not to go any further.
"(Audit Services Director Peggy Caskey) and I decided not to contact Vulocity as we did not want to interfere with any pending or future law enforcement investigation," Jouben said Wednesday.