| Transparency Issue |
Lake County Commission -
Board of County Commissioners (BCC) |
Lake County School
District (LCSD) |
Other Agencies:
- North Lake County Hospital District (NLCHD) -
after reading the column below, NLCHD Board members should be castigated
and resign.
- Lake County Legislators" Delegation meetings.
- Cities (not currently reviewed, but will be added in the future) |
| Open Meetings for public |
Meetings are open, but held
during day when many cannot attend.
(3) |
Regular meetings held at night
(good) but most workshops where details are discussed are held during
the day. (4) |
NLCHD holds meetings at night when public can attend.
(5) |
| Meetings are in consistent
locations. |
BCC regular board meetings
always held in round admin building in Tavares. However, they have
some workshops in Clermont or other locations, which are not videotaped
and the address is not always clearly publicised. Sometimes, the remote
workshops seem to be clearly located to avoid public scrutiny for
discussions. (3) |
All meetings are held during the
day at the LCSD Board meeting office, or Monday evening meetings are at
the BCC conference room. There may be an occasional meeting at
other locations but they are noticed. (4) |
NLCHD meetings are all held at the BCC chambers.
(5) However, there are only three meetings each year. |
| Meetings are properly noticed in
advertisements (required), and optionally on websites. |
Meeting notices are advertised
once a month in one local paper, but also posted on website in
Commissioner Calendar section. Workshops not always clearly posted
on website. Important items are sometimes NOT on agenda, but added
as a surprise 1-3 days before meeting, giving impression they are trying
to hide the issue from public notice.
(2) |
Regular evening meetings and
workshops advertised, and also disclosed on website calendar. LCSD
uses "Board Docs" to post agendas of regular Board meetings, and NOW
posts workshop agendas. LCSD is most open of all agenices.
(5) |
NLCHD advertises the three required annual meetings
ONCE for each meeting. They do not have a website or email list to
notify interested parties. The public has to either accidentally
see the ONE ad, or have someone tell them to even know the meetings
exist. (1) |
Audio recordings of all meetings
are created as required by open meeting regulations.
|
Audio recordings are taken by
the Board Support office of the County Clerk for both regular and
offsite meetings. They are not modified or edited, and available for $3
on a CD within 1-3 days. Not posted on websites. Score would
be 5, but audio recordings not posted on website. ( 4) |
Audio recordings in the LCSD
Board conference room are taken by Assistant to the Commissioners, and
are available on CD fairly quickly. For meetings held at the BCC
Conference room (round admin building), the recordings are taken by the
same Board Support office of the County Clerk and are available in 1-3
days for $3 on CD. There are several advisory committees and those
audio recordings may vary in quality depending on the staffer assigned
to take them. Examples include the union bargaining sessions and the
Internal Audit Committee. (4) for Board meetings, (3) for
committee meetings. Score would be 5, but audio recordings not
posted on website. |
Audio recordings were poor or lackadaisical until the
NLCHD moved meetings to the County Commissioner chambers about 2010,
where the County Clerk's Board Support unit now makes the recordings and
they are available within 1-3 days. Score would be 5, but
audio recordings not posted on website. ( 4)
 |
| Meeting summaries of agreed
actions and decisions are created and posted. |
BCC is only agency that does
this. Thus you can verify what they voted is what you
heard during meeting (votes not always clear). (5) |
LCSD - Not done - you have to get audio recording or
wait up to 2 months for minutes to determine what was decided. (0) |
NLCHD - Not done
- you have to get audio recording or wait up to SIX months for minutes
to determine what was decided. Minutes are created by County
Clerk's Board support unit and they don't have deadlines, such as 1-2
weeks, so they might not be done for months until just prior to the next
Board meeting. (0) |
| Minutes of prior meetings are
available on a timely basis, accurately transcribed, and posted on a
website. |
BCC minutes are prepared by the
Board Support office of the County Clerk and are very accurate compared
to audio recordings. However the unit doesn't have enough staff
and could take a month to do the minutes. |
LCSD minutes are NOT timely and
public must wait up to 2 months before they are "approved" by Board,
then available. |
NLCHD
minutes are prepared by the County Clerk's Board Support unit and are
accurate, but not prepared on a timely basis, and are NOT posted on any
website. You have to contact the Board's attorney or accountant to
get them, and the attorney is not always cooperative.
(2)
Lake County Legislator's Delegation
meetings - the six Lake County State legislators have a single annual
public meeting to hear comments and requests from agencies and the
public and they are the WORST of any local agencies in creating the
minimally required audio recordings and printed minutes.
Audio recordings and minutes are prepared by the staff of the Legislator
who is meeting Chair. For the two most recent meetings, minutes
and audio recordings were inept, hard to request, not accurate (just
summaries), not timely and not available by web or downloading.
Rank (-5) for bad attitude on the part of
Marlene O'Toole and Paula Dockery's staffs. |
| Videos of meetings. This is
especially helpful if online videos and archived copies are available so
members of the public don't have to travel to meetings, and can view
videos from work or later from home in real time. This
feature provides more transparency over meetings than offering long
delayed printed minutes or audio recordings. |
BCC Board meetings held in the
normal Board chambers ARE recorded on video tape because they have
equipment there. They are also streamed live via a website link,
AND the archive video copy is posted on the Board agenda page within one
day. (5) for main meetings. However, remote or
committee meetings are NOT videotaped, so (0) for that. Combined
score is (4) for being the leader. Thanks go to Jimmy Conner for
pushing them to create the online video service. |
No videos available. (0) |
No videos available, even thought the NLCHD meets in
the County BCC chambers which has video equipment, the Board majority
has REFUSED to atuthorize videotaping the meetings. Thus activists
and this author now personally videotape the meetings. Score (-2)
for bad attitude. |
| Wi-Fi available for visitors to
pull up meeting agendas and supporting documents during meetings. |
BCC provides wi-fi in the main
BCC chamber hall, and you can pull up online agendas and posted
supporting documents. Not available at remote meetings
or most committee meetings. (3) |
Only available for Monday
evening meetings held at BCC chambers, because BCC has open wi-fi.
Not available at LCSD offices or committee meetings.
(1) |
NLCHD has NO website and the Board majority has
refused to create one, so even though meetings are at the BCC chambers
which have wif-fi, there is no official website to look at. (0). |
Website available that makes it
easy for public to get full information on meetings, with:
- Calendar online that shows ALL meetings, including regular meetings,
workshops, committees.
- Agendas posted at least 3 days prior to meeting.
- Agenda item documents posted online for viewing.
- Minutes posted in timely manner. |
Very good website, with online
agendas, most supporting documents, online video archives of meetings in
the main BCC conference room. However, workshops are not
always posted on agenda and there may not be a workshop agenda.
BCC says they are "properly noticed" by citing their monthly
advertisement. You have to look at a different page to see
schedule of "regular meetings" but it doesn't clearly specify workshops.
Process is not consistent, when ALL meetings, including workshops and
committees should be posted on a single list or calendar at least a week
before the meeting. BCC has habit of adding new, controversial
agenda items at last minute, like on Monday afternoon, and many viewers
may miss those items. Our impression is that it is done
intentionally to reduce public scrutiny. (3) |
Regular meetings are posted in
both the BCC calendar and the "Board Docs". New visitors can get
confused because the information in the Calendar does not always match
Board Docs. Board Docs has listing of upcoming and prior meetings,
but does not always contain supporting documents. Staff is
good at posting all upcoming items in agenda, but some staff Directors
consistently do NOT post online supporting documents, and others do.
|
NLCHD - The hospital supporting Baord majority
consistently refuses to create a website so the public can see agendas,
minutes, etc. This author has created one at
www.NorthLakeCountyHospitalDistrict.com
Score: (-5) for bad attitude. |
| Availability of last minute
supporting documents. Since meetings are supposed to be advertised
early, you would think presenters would be required to provide
supporting documents for earlier online posting, or at least electronic
copies to post within 1-2 days of discussion. NOPE. |
BCC minutes and audio recordings
are created very well by the County Clerk's Board Support unit. BCC does
post online "agenda request" documents for every agenda item, and
some departments are good at posting online supporting documents by the
prior week. However, anyone bringing added Powerpoints or supporting
documents for Board meetings give a copy to the County Clerk's staff,
but there is NO method to scan and post them on the agenda item for the
public record. Request for such documents have to be made directly
to the speaker as the Court Clerk doesn't seem to have a process to
handle or post them online. This is a major weakness, allowing
some presenters to giver presentations with no easy way to review their
information. (0) |
The same problem exists with the
LCSD. It is my imprssion that some Directors intentionally
only bring printed documents so the public cannot view the information
being presented to the Board.
The CFO consistently does not post supporting documents on budget and
other issues or provide them in printed form at the meetings. The
score would be worse, but some Directors are the opposite of the CFO and
post documentation online or bring extra printed copies for the public
and press.
Score is (-2) (for bad attitude on the part of the CFO &
Superintendant related to budget and financial hearings) |
NLCHD - Ha Ha Ha - are you kidding? As
mentioned earlier, the Board refuses to have a website. Hospital
staff will present and give information at Board meetings and copies are
not available at all to anyone except the Board. (-5) for bad
attitude
|
| Attitude of staff in presenting
information at meetings - is it just for the Board, or presented in a
manner to facilitate understanding by public visitors? |
For BCC meetings, this varies.
Not all presenters give verbal background for the public to understand
an issue that was discussed at prior meetings. Agenda request
documents are more descriptive about background on an issue. I
have found I cannot rely on staff presentations, agenda descriptions or
supporting documents to understand the history of an issue. Staff
needs to consistently prepare verbal and printed information to not rely
on remembering prior meeting discussions. Usually, the Board will
get preliminary discussions from staff and detailed "board packages"
that may contain more than posted online. However, staff usually
does make good use of Powerpoints for some presentations to describe
issues in a LOGICAL manner.(2) |
This varies by presenter.
There is no consistent quality of presentations, and many staff seem not
to have taken classes in presentations or organization.
Thus, it is not uncommon to see a Director come in with 6
different spreadsheets, memos, etc and given them to the Board at the
last minute and try to describe how they related to each other.
LCSD staff need to upgrade their presentation methods to provide issues
in logical, related formats. You would think the Superintendant or
Deputies would require consistent presentation methods, but they do not.
(2) for skills, but most Directors have a more positive attitude in
sharing data. Thus rank is (3) |
NLCHD - This Board gets information on agendas
and in printed documents from the Board Accountant, Attorney and
Hospital staff. None of it is provided earlier or after meetings
on a website, or easily obtained after meetings. (-5) for
bad attitude. Public records requests have to be filed for
any documents, and cooperation varies. The accountant cooperates,
and the attorney does not. |
| Agendas provide clear discussion
of issue and ALWAYS provide accurate estimate of "fiscal impact" so
readers know which are the major spending items. |
BCC agendas have improved, but
sometimes fiscal impact is left out, and you have to read the supporting
documents to find the items relates to a $200,000 expense. A clear
example was an agenda item to add over 200 EMS employees to the County
health insurance without any analysis of the added budget. They
did the same when adding employees from the Court Clerk to the BCC plan.
However, most items do provide accurate estimates of fiscal impact.
The score would be higher, but some items exclude fiscal $ impacts, and
are large amounts, possibly done intentionally for consent items.
(3) |
Accuracy varies. (3) |
NLCHD - Their agenda has only one fiscal issue,
usually. To approve giving about $10-million to two hospitals
without any rules on how or where funds are to be spent.
(-5) for bad attitude in never specifying rules about where funds should
be spent, and what expenses are not allowed. (-5) |
| Copies of agenda are available
at each meeting. |
Yes - (5) |
Yes (5) |
Yes (5) |
| Public records requests handled
in timely manner without constraints. |
1) Meeting minutes and
information handled well by Board Support Dept. of County Clerk.
2) However, weak process to get documents provided by speakers during
meeting and not posted earlier online.
3) Non-meeting requests handled efficiently for reasonable costs by the
BCC Attorney's office, who has a paralegal assigned to provide the
information.
Rank (4) - would be 5 if
meeting documents cited in (2) above were easily requested AND uploaded
automatically as an attachment to agenda item. BCC staff and Court
Clerk staff are great to work with when requesting documents. |
Much better now that they have a
very cooperative and responsive Public Information officer who handles
requests. However, our bad, prior experiences getting public
records requests or meeting support documents from the CFO downgrade the
rank until we can verify improvement. (3) |
NLCHD - each request varies. Documents are not
posted online and it takes a long time to get some documents and there
is no process to ensure public can see all documents given to the Board
by staff or meeting presenters. (-2) for bad attitude.
 |
| Charges for public records
requests are reasonable |
Yes - verify the rate before you
order anything. |
Yes - verify the rate before you
order anything. |
Not much available - electronic versions provided at
no cost, no real public policy on printed copies. |
| Important agenda issues are not
hidden in the "consent agenda", but are "pulled" for discussion by staff
or Board members to ensure reasons for major decisions are not buried in
consent items. |
BCC varies on this issue.
Some Board members like Jimmy Conners will pull an item just to ensure
the Board is on record to discuss a decision. But, other items are
buried in the consent agenda and approved automatically without
discussion, so the public has no idea why an issue was approved by Board
members. |
LCSD Board members are the most
open of any agency. They will pull items just to have a dialog,
and staff seems most open. I do not get the impression that
any major issue is buried in a consent item to hide it from public
scrutiny. However, two of the Board members, Debbie
Stivender and Rosanne Brandeburg do not seem as enthusiastic, but make
comments challenging another Board member's interest in dialog.
They seem more interested in just approving staff recommendations, and
having short meetings than providing public record of reasons why they
want to approve budget items. (4) since not all Board
members encourage open discussion. |
NLCHD Board members consist of a majority of 4 of 6
members who support minimal discussions, but they have allowed full
discussions generated by public input, so at least the public input on
issues are on the public record. (5) |
| Public Input is allowed during
all meetings. |
BCC is very restrictive in
allowing public input. They don't allow it during monthly zoning
hearing meetings, even though non-zoning issues are voted and approved
during the same meetings. Thus, they seem to put some
controversial issues on that agenda just to avoid hearing the public on
an issue. After pressure from this author, they moved the public
input session for regular meetings from the END of the agenda to near
the Beginning, thus public input could be given BEFORE a decision was
made. However, they do NOT allow public input during individual
agenda items, and they do not pull items for public discussion if a
anyone requests it. There have been meetings about major decision
items and 30 people may show up and the Chair (previously Welton
Cadwell, now Jennifer Hill) would not let anyone talk except supporters
of a favored issue (like City officials, but not voters).
Committee meetings do not always list public input on agendas.
Public input is not always allowed at workshops; Thus we
rank BCC as (-2) for a BAD and RESTRICTIVE attitude on allowing public
input. It was always clear that prior Chair Welton Cadwell just
didn't want to hear anyone, and new Chair Jennifer Hill seems to
continue that attitude. |
LCSD is the most open agency for
public input. They allow general public input at the end of every
meeting. They require a public input request card, but if you turn
it in about any agenda item, even consent items, they will let you speak
for 3-minutes. Rank: (+10) for GOOD attitude regarding public
input. |
NLCHD is very good at allowing any and all members to
give public input, and does not restrict talking time, thus I may
disagree with them on many issues, but they also get a rank of (+10) for
a GOOD attitude in allowing public input. |
| Agency Policies are usually
initiated and approved by Board members - a major duty. Are the
policies easily available? |
Yes - online on the website. (5) |
Yes - online on the website.
(5) |
NLCHD - Ha, Ha, Ha. Are you kidding. What
policies. No website either. (0) |
Budget documents are available
in printed version for a price and online. Approving the budget is
one of the major duties of Board members, thus proposed and final budget
"books" should be easily and quickly available.
Electronic versions of budgets, including all the details, sorted in
different formats should be available in this day and age.
|
You can order the BCC proposed
and final 400+ page budget books in printed format from the County Clerk
Board Support office for a reasonable price ($70+?). You can
download the full, detailed budget book from the website for no cost.
(5) for providing the full versions electronically from the website. |
For LCSD, there is NO electronic
version available at all except a 17 page regulatory format that no one
can understand but a fund accounting specialist. You can order the 400+
page book for over $100. Other school districts prepare 150+ page
budget books that give a good overview, but that is not done here.
(-5) for bad attitude. |
NLCHD - There is no real budget. They collect
around $10-million based upon a standard 1-mill property tax rate, and split it between two hospitals.
However, it is a pain to get anything from staff and there is no website
to even provide the annual financial report. (-5) for bad
attitude. |
| Annual, audited financial
reports(known as the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report)
are available both in printed and electonic format. |
Yes - no problem.
(5) |
Yes - no problem (5) |
See above regarding bad attitude. (-5) |
| Availability of printed budgets
and CAFR's at public locations. Other government agencies provide
final and proposed copies of budgets, CAFR's and other important
documents in public libraries. However, it seems Florida does not
mandate that, which would ensure a public copy is always available and
not "lost". Reduces ability of researchers to locate and compare
data between years. |
BCC - might have a printed copy
in the offices, but none in libraries. |
LCSD - might have a printed copy
in the offices, but none in libraries. |
NLCHD - ha , ha , ha - are you kidding?
They don't care about transparency. No website, no public copies
in libraries. (-5) for bad attitude. |
| Availability of departmental &
program and function performance metrics on a monthly basis |
To be researched |
To be researched |
NLCHD - Ha, Ha, Ha - are you kidding? There are
NO rules established by the Board on how, where the funds are to be
spent, and no performance, program or function metrics.
(0) |
| Quality of departmental, program
and function performance metrics. The public deserves the same
level of management as corporations to measure and determine
productivity and efficiency of staff, programs,etc. It
should be publicly available so management efficiency can be evaluated. |
To be researched further.
We have posted earlier about the poor quality of the "activity" metrics
listed in departmental budget sections. There is no comparison to
what a corporation would measure. |
To be researched - Schools do
have metrics regarding academic performance, such as the FCAT and No
Child left Behind (or whatever the Feds named it this year). |
NLCHD - Ha, Ha, Ha - are you kidding? There are
NO rules established by the Board on how, where the funds are to be
spent, and no performance, program or function metrics.
(0) |
| Internal Audit: Is there
an independent internal audit function to review agency operations for
efficiency, effectiveness and economy and provide public reports on
findings? . What is the quality and availability of audit reports.
This is different than the standard financial audits completed every
year for agency financial statements. (Note: This author was an
internal auditor for 18+ years, so I know something about this
function.) |
LCSD has a "District Auditor"
who conducts a few audits based upon a Board and Audit Committe approved
risk plan. He also has funds to use outside auditors to review
construction contracts and other areas. He is a CPA and not a
Certified Internal Auditor or Certified Fraud Examiner. Audit
reports and audit plans are on the website. However, reports are
hard to understand. (4) |
The BCC has no internal auditor
of their own. The separate Court Clerk internal audit department
does conduct a few audits of BCC, but rarely. One reason is the
County Board has never given full authority to audit anything (called a
charter) to the auditor, and the Court Clerk will not let him initiate
audits without BCC approval (which is SLOW and RARE). Additionally, the
Audit Director was hired without competitve applications, and is related
to a prior County Clerk, thus credibility is up in the air because in
his first year, there have not been ANY audits of BCC that have been
published.
Read more HERE about internal audit and other oversight for BCC.
(1) |
NLCHD - No internal audits or forensic audits.
We have recommended they have one each year to trace where funds given
to local hospitals are actually spent, but no action has been taken.
(-2) |
| Is there an internal audit
policy committee appointed by the Board that holds public meetings
to review and approve risk analysis, audit plans, and quality of
reports. |
Yes - five members, mostly CPA's
(not Certified Internal Auditors - CIAs) have periodic meetings and
provide guidance to District Auditor and Board on internal audit issues.
(Note: CIAs are RARE in Lake County. (5) |
None - No policy or committee.
The BCC members recently (March, 2011) discussed appointing an audit or
finance steering committee. See link above for details why.
We recommended that the committee include industrial company controllers
rather than just CPA's to provide operational perspective.
(0) |
None - NLCHD has a contracted accountant and only has
financial audits. See above. (0) |
| Monthly financial reports:
Are they published online within 30 days of the month end closing? |
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| Capital Improvement (buildings
and renovation) Planning and Budget Reports - Are monthly, annual and 5
year plans posted with monthly actual spending compared to plan?
Is there a clear report that shows planned and actual project spending
to date, even if spending runs more than one budget year? |
|
|
|
| Are check registers are posted
online monthly, with year to date totals? Done on a timely basis -
less than 30 days from end of a month. |
Not done at all. (0) |
Not done at all in Lake County.
School districts in various states are doing this so the public can
research who is getting the money.
We had an earlier
posting HERE regarding four examples elsewhere. (0) |
NLCHD - minimal check issues, but not posted
anywhere. (0) |
| Departmental reports and
documents posted online |
Many are - to be researched
before ranking this. |
Many are - to be researched
before ranking this. |
No website. Ha Ha Ha - are you kidding?
They should be posting the financial statements, minutes, agendas, and
related Hospital financial reports (990 report, audited financials,
etc), but none are posted in a central place for public scrutiny.
(-5) for bad attitude. |
| Committee Reports, agendas, etc
are posted online and in understandable formats. These would be
public committees with appointed members of the public subject to
sunshine laws. |
Some are - to be researched
further. (3) |
Most committees are internal,
and nothing is published. Only Audit Committee documents are now
published. (3) |
NLCHD- Ha, Ha, Ha. Are you kidding?
Nothing. (-5) for bad attitude. |
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| More to be added later - vj |
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| Total Transparency
Scores - To be calculated soon: |
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This is a Transparency "Toolkit" published by the United Nations for use in
improving Democracy in developing countries. Of course, it takes the
approach that Big Government is the best provider of services.
These transparency issues are based upon my observations attending Board meetings and
other events for the Lake County Board of Commissioners (BCC), as well as the
Lake County School District (LCSD), the North Lake County Hospital District
(NLCHD), the Lake County Legislators' Delegation annual meetings, and other agencies since 2006 while writing my blog on local
Lake County, FL government
agency fiscal fiascos. Score ranking for each attribute of good
transparency is 1-5 - Best is 5, and negative scores are given for BAD attitude.
Send comments or proposed revisions to FiscalRangers AT comcast DOT com .