Ocala City Council Special Meeting – Internal City Auditor Interviews and Selection – August 11, 2026

On August 11, 2026, at 18:30 UTC, the Ocala City Council held a special meeting to interview three applicants for the position of Internal City Auditor and to select a candidate for the role. No agenda or minutes were available; this summary is based on the meeting transcript. The meeting was open to the public and recorded. The Council interviewed candidates one at a time, then deliberated and unanimously selected Vincent Iovino.

Candidate Interviews

• La Shena, an accountant with more than 15 years of experience, described her background in government and nonprofit accounting, external audit work at CPA firms, and familiarity with the Blue Book and Yellow Book government auditing standards. She said she has used Power BI, would report to the City Council, and would begin by reviewing prior audits, Council expectations, and team operations. She described a past fraud case under the LIHEAP program in which an employee paid a bill for herself; when her director did not want to report it, she went to the executive director, the issue was disclosed to auditors, and procedures were changed to require finance director sign-off.

• Vaughn Gritten, an internal auditor with more than 20 years of experience, said she has spent seven years as senior assistant auditor to the former city auditor, Randall Glendrin. She described herself as passionate about internal auditing and said she would work for the City Council. She said she would identify problems through the risk assessment process and hotline reports, would follow the existing 72-hour notification policy, and would provide quarterly updates to Council on audit work, management's progress on recommendations, and the city's strategic plan. She argued the department needs at least three people because a third person provides quality, objectivity, and a mix of finance, IT, and data analytics coverage.

• Vincent Iovino, an IT-focused auditor who has lived in Ocala since 2002/2003, described his collaborative risk assessment process, use of FIPS confidentiality/integrity/availability principles, agile audit sprints, and real-time communication through the Rike application. He said he has used AI as a tool in an audit of the procurement policy, but still reviewed and verified AI-generated work. He said he would report to the City Council and would communicate both problems and good news directly. He described an ethical dilemma in which numbers did not match what was presented; he reported the discrepancy to his chief audit executive, and said in Ocala he would report findings to the City Council and keep auditees informed throughout the process.

Council Deliberation and Selection

• Council members said all three candidates were qualified but had different strengths. One member favored Vincent because of his combination of accounting, social awareness, communication, and personality. Another expressed a preference to reopen the search before choosing among the three, but ranked Vincent first if a selection had to be made. Another said Vincent was the most qualified, citing the need for someone who can examine procedures, catch issues, train staff, and communicate problems to the Council.
• One council member raised concern about Vincent's statement that he would keep the Internal Audit department at two people. The member said Vincent was originally hired for the IT portion of audits and may not fully understand what auditing the rest of the city requires; the former city auditor maintained that three was the minimum and wanted four.
• The Council discussed salary. Candidates' minimum compensation requests varied, with figures around $90,000, $110,000, and $115,000 mentioned. One member noted that the midpoint of the salary range was approximately $113,000, and hiring any of the three would likely cost between $113,000 and $120,000.
• Councilman Mussley was not present; the city attorney advised that his interview notes should not be discussed in his absence.

Key Outcomes

• A motion was made and seconded to offer the Internal City Auditor position to Vincent Iovino. The motion passed unanimously by roll-call vote of the Council members present.
• Vincent Iovino was brought back into the meeting and informed that he had been selected.
• The Council planned to have Councilman Mussley work with staff to negotiate the contract and get the selected candidate started as quickly as possible.