Two top Sink aides forced to resign

Two top aides to Florida CFO Alex Sink abruptly handed in their resignations Thursday night. Out are Doug Darling (pictured, right), chief of the state Division of Accounting and Auditing, and Herb Fillyaw, chief of the Division of Information Systems. Sink confirmed both men were asked to resign.

The ouster comes days after the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche completed an audit of the agency's internal controls following the discovery of a scheme to defraud the state of millions of dollars by a Lebanese man living in Broward County. The audit found a lack of internal controls. The scheme was spotted by alert employees of Regions Bank and the road contractor Anderson Columbia.

"One of my concerns about state government is that you have an environment where people have been doing the same thing the same way, year after year after year," Sink said in an interview Friday. "We just uncovered some things that I would call 'Control 101.'^"

Darling earns about $111,000 a year and Fillyaw about $116,000. Replacements have already been named to both posts.

Steve Bousquet, Times Capital Bureau Chief

[Photo: Steve Bousquet, Times]

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Comments

And the replacements are???

Anderson Columbia wrote the book on defrauding the state: Bo Johnson, Randy Mackey, and WD Childers. Finally someone scammed them out of their money.

Sorry to hear about Doug. He was a straight shooter with the Legislature on the Convergys and People Soft fiascos of the Jeb regime.

funny- if the CFO had a "R" behind her last name, this blog would be filled with insane accusations of corruption, but since Sink is the beloved darling of the D party- all we hear are crickets...

chirp chirp- LOL

bad deal bad deal bad deal

So, who's got the real scoop?

Herb was a tool.

Sink has mishandled this department from day 1 yet there is nary one critical word about her. I agree if she were a Republican they would be calling for her resignation.

hoepfully DMS holds any retirement/DROP payments until the whole story gets out...

She'll just blame this on Gallagher and Bush, and the media will nod and agree.

Please, someone, somewhere, hold this CFO accountable!!!

[Lex]

The politicians are at it again. Could someone pass the Preparation H please?

She was forced out of Bank of America...can we just force her out of this office?

[Idiot Democrats]

There must be SOME Republican we can blame!

Can't we blame this on George Bush too?

Maybe it is a "Right Wing Conspiracy"

Or at least that is what she will say.

So let's see. Sink is the watchdog of our dollars. Hmm...

1) Our SBA short-term gov't pool goes from 18 billion to almost nothing

2) We lose a couple of billion in subprime

3) We hold Lehman brothers until it busts

4) We don't know what our exposure was to Washinton Mutual (which I'm sure she'll call a press conference to let us know she's going to "look into it")

5) Now we're being defrauded of millions.

I don't know about anyone else, but Alex Sink doesn't seems to be more of a blind poodle than a tough watchdog. Oh, but she's an environmentalist. I forgot.

SINKER...

Perhaps she should just resign and go spend more time promoting her ultra liberal causes.

3:34 -- get over it

Hey look old Alex here (wife of Bill "I lost to Jeb" McBride) was making over $2 million a year as the head of Bank of America, Florida.

She lives in Thononosasa in a huge house.

I doubt the meltdown hurt them. They probably have their assets in gold.

I am interested in hearing more about these resignations.

432-

We all will, once the media scrutinizes her the way they do all the Republicans.

She's gotten away with murder...major losses, scandals, etc, and the media says NOTHING!

Shame on her, and shame on the media.

None of this crap happened when Tom Gallagher was CFO. He could come to the office one hour a day and get more done than Sink can get done all year. She is way over her head. How did Alan Katz let her get in this mess? Oh, that's right, he is busy with the Obamarama.

Alex is hot!

[Dr_Dug]

Just loke Wallstreet...the crooks get caugth and quickly leave town. We need to keep these guys around and throw them in jail when the water is clear!!
Anyone seen John Edwards lately?

[the scapegoat]

I don't trust anyone with a cartoon tie on, particularly if they walk around humming.

3:12 ->

Kimberly McMurray, Bureau Chief of Funds Management, will be the new Director of Accounting and Auditing.

Craig Vollertsen, the Bureau Chief of Mainframe Infrastructure, will serve as the Interim Director of the Division of Information Systems.

[Dr_Dug]

where do babies come from?

This is a precursor to news of a major screw up by the CFO...of course...the buck won't stop at her desk..instead..she has forced two underlings to resign....she has failed at every step since taking office. Her so-call financial expertise is the same type of expertise that brought us the sub-prime problem and the current financial crisis.

She has been too busying campaigning and not paying attention to running her Agency. She has seriously top loaded her executive capital staff with Dem/BoA friends, paying no regard to the core duties and functions of DFS.

Just another example of the taxpayer's resourses have been squandered, mismanaged and stolen! Who they going to point the finger at next? Some guy jay walking?

Dare I ask if either were a member of a minority group or do any work in that office?

Alex Sink responds appropriately!

When something smells like a rat, terminate the rat.

Anderson Columbia has a long history of overcharging the people of Florida for building and repairing roads.

Nice to see them doing some good for the people of Florida that is not overbilling.

Clearly, based upon the July 30th Lucy Morgan article, Anderson Columbia had their self-interest at heart, but still nice to see a slight change in their business dealings with the people of Florida.

[Tom]

Great catch Alex. Now that you got your feet wet in your position you can check out your remaining areas of concern and save the taxpayers from future problems. Bob Butterworth (DCF) and you need to be applauded for your work efforts and having the will to expose and correct issues. Davis Productivity Awards to the two of you.

[Big Money Grip]

None of these guys were members of any minority group.

Tom-

you're an idiot.

Posted by: | September 28, 2008 at 08:12 PM --

No self-respect, eh?

[Craig]

Alex Sink will be cleaning up the mess Bush and Gallagher left for a while.

[William Beach]

Herb was a tool.

Why isn't this a national media story?

If she were a Republican, the NYTimes would have this story on the front page.

And Olbermann would be foaming at the mouth.

Do the classy thing, Alex.

Resign.

We cannot afford for you to be CFO any longer.

And I am a Republican who voted for her.

Maybe she should spend a little less time commenting on presidential politics.

[e_darling]

doug is just another member of the good old boys club. he used his position for himself and his cronies. its great to hear that karma still exists. best of luck in early retirement!