Fiscal Rangers

Lake County, FL Inspector General Bob Melton speaks at North Lake County Tea Party

July 24, 2015 Tavares, FL The Inspector General for Lake County, FL, Bob Melton, was the featured speaker at a meeting of the North Lake Tea Party on July 14, 2015. He works for the Lake County Court Clerk, and can do performance audits of the Lake County Government, but not the Constitutional Officers unless they request an audit. They have never done so. But this talk focuses on his department abilities, and provides insights into the function of Guardianships and what he has seen when working at other Counties. Here is a link to the video of his 45 minute talk: https://youtu.be/jzrh2R8zw14 Here is his Powerpoint shown in his video: Download Role of the IG in Government Guardianships FINAL Here is the Inspector General's webpage on the Lake County Court Clerk website, including many performance audits of Lake County Government functions. Opinion In my view as an experienced Internal Audit Manager, Melton's group issues some very good audit reports on inefficiencies and needed performance improvements in County Departments. He just needs authority to initiate similar performance audits of all the Constitutional Officers and other local agencies like Cities or the North Lake Hospital District or the Lake County Water... Read more →

Lake County surprise assessments could increase your tax bill tremendously

July 10, 2015 Tavares, FL This Daily Commercial article by Livi Stanford explains why you want to resist buying homes that are not on paved roads or may be subject to future assessments for public works projects. A neighborhood in Lake County has 10 homes that were on a dirt road. Some of the owners petitioned the County to pave the road and levy a property assessment on each home. Since a majority of the owners wanted the road, the County Board approved the road paving, with an assessed fee of $1800 per home per year for 10 years. But three of the owners (who objected to the paving) say they could not afford the tax, however the Board this week re-approved the assessment without providing any more relief to the resistant home owners. So always find out if a home you plan to buy may be subject later to some type of assessment for road paving, light poles, sanitation pipelines, septic tank replacements, etc. Vance Jochim Read more →

Tax Wars Start - County plans for renewing "penny sales tax" take hits from Right Side of the Lake Blog

Tavares, FL June 13, 2015 The Lake County Board, School Board and 14 local cities all want you to approve a 15 year renewal of the expiring 15 year penny sales tax. The issue will be on the November ballot, costing $440,000 (or I heard $900,000 at the Board meeting) to hold the election just for this issue. Today, like Vesuvius erupting, the old Right Side of the Lake blog, written by Don Magruder, erupted with many reasons to vote NO on the tax. Several of the reasons are correct. However, the School District and the Cities would be hurting if they each lost their 33%, or about $10-million per year for each of them. I also believe the vote should take place in 2016 during the regular election, and not in a special election costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. My Opinion - followed by link to Right Side of the Lake blog article My first argument against the sales tax renewal is that the school board (Rosanne Brandeburg), at least one city (Eustis) and possibly some County Board members are planning to SELL the future tax revenues in bonds to enrich attorneys, bond salesmen, construction firms and leave... Read more →

Lake County Property Values jump average of 5.8% with Groveland up 19%

Tavares, FL June 1, 2015 The Orlando Sentinel says that Lake County's property values spiked up an average over 5% and Groveland property values jumped 19%, while Leesburg stayed at 1.1%. This is a reason that the Lake County Board must roll BACK the property tax rate to the rate used TWO years ago before Jimmy Conner, Sean Parks and Welton Cadwell bumped up County property tax rates by 14+%. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Updated: Cemex suing Lake County Board, City of Clermont & 11 Other Groups

Tavares, FL May 2, 2015 May 3 Update: The Daily Commercial's Livi Stanford wrote a May 3rd article on this lawsuit after the County Attorney agreed to share the "Petition for Writ of Certiorari" legal paperwork filed by Cemex. It is too early to know responses from defendants, so now we have to wait for the lawsuit to grind through the courts or perhaps see a settlement. Cemex wants the mine approved. County Commissioners have been ordered by the legal department not to discuss the case. HERE is the legal petition that gives Cemex's reason for the lawsuit - try the above article first, then read it: Download 2015-05-30 PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI Here is the earlier Daily Commercial article about the Lake County Board's decision to reject approval of the sand mine at an earlier meeting. If you search on "Cemex" on their website you can find a series of articles. Original May 2 posting: The large construction materials firm, Cemex, was turned down by the Lake County Board recently when they applied for a permit to open a Sand Mine in an area south of Clermont. So two days ago, on April 30, 2015, Cemex filed legal... Read more →

Downtown Tavares parking is so bad, businesses are asking the City to fix it

Tavares, FL Apr. 3, 2015 Parking in downtown Tavares, FL is so bad that Orlando's ABC affiliate Channel 9 posted a video report. http://www.wftv.com/videos/news/tavares-residents-want-the-city-to-fix-parking/vDMyPR/ Myrt's Channel 9 report caught part of the issue, but skipped the problem where Lake County government employees are using up some of the spaces. The parking garage was justified by saying government employees would use it, but not all do, AND the entire first floor is set aside not for taxpayers, but police and disabled, and most of those spots are vacant. Why should taxpayers be expected to drive up three levels rather than employees? Finally, many spaces are taken by jury members. They should be asked to park on the upper levels and not take over the lower floors. The entire first floor, as well as parking spots on the street should have posted time limits like 2-4 hours. Otherwise, people with short, legitimate needs to visit the County, like paying a Tax Collector bill or getting a building permit can't find parking, and they are "customers" who should have priority on parking. The blue Mustang is parked on Main St. every day. This picture is of a blue Mustang that is parked out... Read more →

Columnist Explains New Solutions to Poverty & Dependency

Tavares, FL March 29, 2015 Conservative columnist Cal Thomas had a great column in today's Daily Commercial. He described how Federal poverty programs rarely work, but praised a new set of case studies of overcoming adversity from the "Center for Neighborhood Enterprise", run by Bob Woodson. Woodson and US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI - yes, that Paul Ryan who may run for President)recently embarked on a tour showing a new seven part online video seried calle "Comback. It showcases people who overcame poverty, drugs, etc on their own. Those people are labeled as "Overcomers" by Woodson. You can find the seven part video series here. "Comeback tells the inspiring, true stories of real-life Americans overcoming adversity in our nation’s cities and communities." The idea is to share what real people did to overcome their adverse conditions and raise them SELVES up to a better life. (Gee, does that sound like development of the conservative mantra of "self reliance" rather than big government dependency?) Regardless of whether you like Paul Ryan, maybe some Lake County, FL city and county officials can explore this program for local implementation? Vance Jochim www.FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Lake County Residential Zoning needs drastic improvement to retain home values

Lake County, FL allows many lax residential code weaknesses, and we show you pictures of many of them in just one residential community. Caveat Emptor when you buy a house in unincorporated Lake County. Read more →

Why aren't Florida Consitutional Officers Required to be Transparent about their Budgets?

Feb. 3, 2015 Tavares, FL - Lake County Why aren't Florida Constitutional officers required to be transparent about their budgets and have public budget hearings like the County, School Districts, cities and Hospital District? Florida requires little oversight on elected Constitutional Officers like Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Sheriff, Elections Superintendent - I have periodically asked that Constitutional Officers be required to have public hearings over their budget details and to post a DETAILED proposed and then approved budget each year. Instead, they have no requirements to do so. As an example, the Lake County Tax Collector has a 2014-2015 budget of $5.5-million, but his website only shows this very vague, one page proposed budget dated Sept., 2014. Why aren't Constitutional officers required to have public hearings, budget workshops, and post DETAILED budgets on their websites like the County and schools do? What is going for software vs facilities vs utilities vs wages vs benefits? We don't know and are never allowed to provide public input. Ask your constitutional officer AND your Florida legislator why they don't do that. http://www.laketax.com/forms/2014-2015_budget.pdf and, the Tax Collector has only ONE page in the 484 page Lake County Budget book HERE (scroll to page 384).... Read more →

Lake County, FL Animal Services has problems, but at least they aren't labeled a "death camp" like Putnam County.

Jan 26, 2015 Lake County, FL Lake County's Animal Services has had repeated problems with management and their approach to euthanasia. But this article points out that Putnam County, FL has a worse problem - they are labeled as a death camp for animals. See, we aren't the worst! http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-01-25/story/putnam-county-working-improve-death-camp-animal-control-reputation?utm_source=FAC+News+Clips+-+January+26%2C+2015&utm_campaign=FAC+News+Clips+-+January+26+2015&utm_medium=email Read more →

Will Lake County Schools implement the one world IB education program?

The Lake County School Board may initiate IB education programs if two School Board members have their way. There are pros and cons, and we will have more next week. Read more →

Daily Commercial Discloses Capabilities of County Inspector General Bob Melton

Tavares, FL Lake County, FL Dec. 7, 2014 For eight years I have attended Lake County School Board meetings, and attended County Board meetings for 6 years. As a former Certified Internal Auditor I have preached the need to have competent Internal Auditors in both County Government and for the Lake County School District. During that time, each agency went through three auditors and now both have very competent Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) who focus on efficiency, effectivenes and economical operations reviews. I also was a CIA for 20 years. Today the Daily Commercial published a front page story by Livi Stanford on the County's Inspector General, Bob Melton. Livi is the reporter covering both the Lake County Board and the Lake County School District, and has recently been writing articles on the detailed audit reports from each agency's audit departments. Hooray. Now they need to do a story on School District Internal Audit Director Tom Mock, another Certified Internal Auditor. Read the Daily Commercial story HERE. You can find internal audit reports from Melton's website as well as the Lake County internal audits of Tom Mock at these two links: http://www.lakecountyclerk.org/internal_audit/default.aspx and http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=114 And for more background on why... Read more →

Lake County FL School Impact Fees Increased but growth costs still 25% Unfunded

Tavares, FL Dec. 7, 2014 The Lake County Board of Commissioners approved an increase in the Lake County School Impact Fees, raising it from an average $2500 per NEWLY constructed home to $7500. The fee is paid by the homebuilder at time of construction completion. HERE is the Orlando Sentinel story on the fee increase. Impact Fees are based upon the amount needed to generate new student stations (i.e. schools and classrooms) due to growth caused by new residents buying the new homes. Existing homes are not taxed, only new ones. The current rate is based upon a consultant's study required by Florida State that defines the average funds needed per home, and the current rate is about $10,200. However, the school district has no received full funding for years, due to waivers by the School Board and the County Board. Thus the approved increase will still not fully fund the added classroom space and facilities needed due to population growth. Here is the comment I posted on the newspaper Facebook page about the impact fee increase: " Well, this really means that the Schools need about $10,200 for every new house to build schools for the new kids from... Read more →

Video of Common Core Opponents Ripping into Lake County Legislators' Delegation Forum

Common Core Opponents Rip into Lake County, Florida's Legislators' Delegation Forum at a 3-hour meeting in Leesburg, FL on Dec. 2, 2014. A total of 35+ public input speakers presented different issues to the Legislators, with about 10 of them opposing Common Core in Florida. Read more →

Lake County Garbage Gate Fiasco Continues - WCA trash firm fails to pickup on scheduled day AGAIN

Tavares, FL Lake County, FL Nov. 29, 2014 by Vance Jochim Lake Countians GarbageGate Update - The Jimmie/Sean/Welton Garbage Gate fiasco continues... at least in my unincorporated Lake County neighborhood. Those Commissioners voted for this particular NEW method and vendors collecting the trash. My County selected trash collection firm, WCA, failed once again to pickup trash on the correct day. Thursday is my normal trash pickup day, but the published "Holiday" service schedule for Lake County trash pickup (unincorporated) says they won't pick up trash that day, but that Friday would be a normal collection day. The County published "Holiday" schedule of County services ALSO says Friday after Thanksgiving is a normal trash pickup day. So, everyone put out their trash bin and their recycling bin Thursday night for Friday pickup. My neighbor even left his relatives in Tampa early to get back and put the trash out. But the trash bins were still sitting there full of cat poop and garbage as of 7am this Saturday morning. Yup, even though the County issued a press release saying that folks with a Thursday pickup date would have their trash collected on Friday, nothing happened. So, the ignored Lake County trash... Read more →

SHOCKING - Daily Commercial NOW says the Lake County, FL County Commission Should Review the Budget

Yes, today the Lake County, FL newspaper, the Daily Commercial, had both a front page article AND an "OurVoice" editorial saying NOW the County Board, after raising taxes by almost 14%, should "get serious about your budget". This article contains a review of a newspaper article, an editorial and my specific responses to the points in them. Read more →

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer in Tennessee embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014 Read more →

Election Recommendations and News of School and County Board meetings this week

Tavares, FL Nov. 3, 2014 This post covers several issues: ( Updated at 2pm to fix some typos and add clarifications) - Election recommendations. Tomorrow is election day, so my recommendations are at the BOTTOM of this document - If you have NOT voted, be sure to do so tomorrow. I also include the Lake County Republican Party voter guide as an attachment. - Tomorrow's Lake County Board meeting is canceled: The Lake County Board of Commissioners (BCC) website today showed a meeting scheduled for tomorrow on their website, but it was canceled at a prior meeting. However, they did not send out update notices to their email list nor did they post the cancellation on the website. So, no meeting tomorrow, and I let them know in clear terms they need to keep the website updated and should ALWAYS send out update and cancel notices when they occur. I also told them about a programming error where if staff remove a linked document, there is no "error trapping" and the user gets an cryptic technical error notice rather than one written for users with a contact for solving the problem. The problem is there is an outside software firm... Read more →

More Problems with Lake County, FL Government online Agenda & Meeting Packets - it never ends

The Lake County, FL Board of Commissioners uses a convoluted and badly designed agenda, packet and video software from SuiteOne Media. I have constant problems with it, and the design is not user friendly. So, here is my latest post on flaws in the system. The problem is no one with technical skills is in charge of it, and they don't test it after posting documents. You have to be a power user or IT specialist to figure out how to find relevant sections and documents, agenda data is not indexed in the massive pdf packet, so if you download it, you can't easily find the section you want in packets that can be 400-600 pages long. Read more →

More Problems with Lake County, FL Government online Agenda & Meeting Packets - it never ends

The Lake County, FL Board of Commissioners uses a convoluted and badly designed agenda, packet and video software from SuiteOne Media. I have constant problems with it, and the design is not user friendly. So, here is my latest post on flaws in the system. The problem is no one with technical skills is in charge of it, and they don't test it after posting documents. You have to be a power user or IT specialist to figure out how to find relevant sections and documents, agenda data is not indexed in the massive pdf packet, so if you download it, you can't easily find the section you want in packets that can be 400-600 pages long. Read more →

Lake County Has New Trash Collection System Starting Monday but the process is botched in my neighborhood - what about your neighborhood?

Oct. 3, 2014 Tavares, FL Update: Oct. 4th - The Daily Commercial had a front page story on this issue, and also obtained quotes that confirmed our prior report's experience (see below) that not all delivered trash carts contained instructions. See their article here. If you live in unincorporated Lake County (not a City), your new trash collection process starts on Monday. If you live in a City with their own trash pickup process, this does not apply to you. In this bulletin: - Lake County Government and/or new vendors may have botched the rollout of new trash pickup services and schedules like they did in my neighborhood. - If you are in unincorporated Lake County and got new trash bins, how to find your new collection schedules and rules if they were NOT attached to your new trash bins. - Rumors about how trash collection fees may go up if a couple of incidents occur. And it seems some of it might be botched up. At least in my neighborhood, we got two new trash bins and NO INSTRUCTIONS or news of different collection schedules. I have not received any mailed instructions either, although a postcard announcing the changes... Read more →

Lake Countians - Your Property Tax will go up 13% Unless you tell Jimmy Conner, Sean Parks, Welton Cadwell & Tim Sullivan NO!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 23, the Lake County Board is taking their final vote to RAISE property taxes by 13%. We provide an overview, a copy of County Commissioner Leslie Campione's plan to avoid the tax hike, and info how you can provide feedback to the four Board members who supported the tax hike in last week's vote. This is the final vote, tomorrow at 5pm. Read more →

Your Lake County Property Taxes may go up 11-18% if you do not take action Tomorrow

Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 | Tavares, FL | by Vance Jochim If you live in Lake County, FL and own a house, commercial or investment property, your property taxes shown on your property "Trim" notice could go up 11-26% due to 1) appraisal values going up 4.2% or more and 2) the Lake County Board approving a budget and tax hike of 11-18% tomorrow afternoon at 5pm (Tuesday). I refer to the County tax increase as the "Jimmie Tax" due to encouragement for it by the Lake County Board Chair, Jimmie Conner. Or you could call it the Conner, Cadwell, Sullivan & Parks tax after the four commissioners who voted for it. (Tim Sullivan since recanted a bit and helped Leslie Campione reduce the pending tax to about 11%.) Below is an overview, our recommendations, and some links to reference documents. If you don't think the tax rate increases listed on the TRIM notice are acceptable, you need to write, call and visit tax authority public hearings to get your point across. There will be other groups who WANT the spending increased, including employees, interest groups and officials and they definitely are calling, writing and attending public hearings. Renters should... Read more →

Another Tax Spender Demand in the Daily Commercial

Once again, the Daily Commercial posted another front page article citing spending WANTS from local County fire officials while not talking to anyone with an alternative, or talking to taxpayers about the merits of adding more people to the staff. Read more →

Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione Explains why County Taxes Need not Increase

Lake County, FL Commissioner Leslie Campione just sent out her monthly newsletter which we inserted below. It focuses on the upcoming Sept. 9th 5pm meeting of the County Board where they may vote in the FIRST of TWO required public hearings to INCREASE the millage rate by 11% or more (it was 18% but that was reduced last week at a four hour meeting.). Read more →

VOTE - Tomorrow - Here are our FiscalRangers.com Election Recommendations

Tavares, FL (Lake County, FL) Monday, August 25, 2014 Update Aug. 26, 9am: We have corrected 3 bloopers as noted below. If you haven't voted yet, below is our reminder and fiscally conservative recommendations for Lake County, FL (no cities). Forward this to anyone who you think could use the information. But first read this NOTE: DID you get your property tax TRIM notice this week and see how high the proposed tax is? The Lake County Board is having a workshop tomorrow (Tuesday) on the pending budget and proposed 18% tax hike. If you want to give them your opinion, call, write or go to the meeting and give public input. You will have to do that at the BEGINNING of the 10am meeting (not 9am) when public input is allowed. The workshop could be 1-3 hours later. This is a workshop, and not the TWO required public hearings which are the final votes on Sept. 9 and Sept 23rd at 5pm in the County Admin building. Plan to be at BOTH meetings. Here is where you can find a copy of the proposed budget Update: 4pm: We got this superb 5 page analysis of all the alternatives to... Read more →

Lake 100 Business Group Meets about County Board proposed 22+% Tax Hike

Tavares, FL August 20, 2014 I was not at today's meeting, but all five County Commissioners were invited to a forum to discuss their planned “Jimmie Tax” (because Chairman Jimmie Conner sponsored it) tax increase of up to 18%. Add to that an increase in taxable valuations of 4.3% - thus the total tax increase on businesses, investment properties and non-homesteaded residences would be about 22% on AVERAGE. South County will see higher increases of 26% or more due to higher valuations and some other areas may see less than 22 % valuations. Only TWO of the County Commissioners showed up at the event, Leslie Campione who voted against the increase, and Tim Sullivan who voted FOR the tentative increase. County Board Chair Jimmie Conner, and Board members Welton Cadwell and Sean Parks failed to show up. The Lake 100 is a business group of mostly CEO’s of larger businesses in Lake County and were all against the tax increase. Campione has a plan where taxes would not be raised and for the County “to live within their means”, but the other Board members have only had two budget workshops and have ignored her ideas. Read this Orlando Sentinel article... Read more →

Tod Howard, Bill Mathias & Nancy Muenzmay win Leesburg, FL Elections HobNob Straw Poll

A Lake County, FL area elections HobNob was held Aug. 14, 2014 in Leesburg, FL and here are the results and links to pictures. Read more →

FiscalRangers Call for action - Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie column has attacked fiscal conservative Leslie Campione and you need to post comments XX

If you object to the way proposed Lake County, FL property tax increases of 18% are being "justified" or you think they are too high, send this to your friends. You can keep up with details on this proposed tax hike by visiting our new FiscalRangers.com blog page HERE focused on just the tax hike issue. Bookmark that page to get updates. As you remember from our prior July 21 warning article, the Lake County Board later voted 4 to 1 on July 22 to approve a tentative property tax millage rate increase of 18% which will appear on your TRIM notices for property taxes in mid-August. Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione is the one who said there were alternative methods to pay requested wage increases and some expenses without tax increases. But the Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie just wants taxpayers to throw money at the "budget needs" without considering alternatives. Lauren's tax and spend attack column appeared today, and is here. She even used the liberal name calling technique and attacked "Tea Party anti-tax extremists". This is not an anti-tax issue (but I couldn't help using this picture), or against salary increases, but a challenge to the method used... Read more →

The Lake County Board will Start the Process to Hike your Property Taxes 18% or MORE tomorrow, unless you tell them your opinion

Tavares, FL - July 21, 2014 Call for Action: If you are concerned about the County raising your property taxes up to 18% or more, you should be at the first approval meeting which is tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22 at 9am. It is the first of three meetings where the Lake County Board of Commissioners start the process to approve property tax millage rates by 18% or MORE. Tomorrow, they will set the maximum millage rate increase which will be on your property tax TRIM notice. The actual millage rate could be set lower at two future meetings. In my opinion, County Chairman Jimmie Conner is requesting all parties to pile on with budget requests to build up a big pot of "needs", then scale it back to maybe 5-8% and look like a hero. So the problem is not only the millage rate, but which services will be funded. So you need to provide input on both. Here are some recent Daily Commercial articles by Livi Stanford on the budget “needs” – notice they mostly talk to officials or staff who want to raise taxes, and rarely talk to taxpayer advocates about reasons to cut costs to match revenues... Read more →

Lake County Puts off $8-million in Equipment Replacement & Maintenance, and now the Commissioners Want to Raise Taxes 18% to Make Up for it?

The Daily Commercial just reported that County staff is proposing raising property millage rates by 18% or more for many reasons. I was at the Board meetings and saw the presentations. In this article, one reason for tax increase request is because the staff and the elected Board failed to have a routine process to replace $8-million in depreciating equipment and/or budget to maintain it on a yearly basis. "County Manager David Heath said it would cost an estimated $8 million to replace all the vehicles, but it is not possible to replace them all at once." This up and down equipment replacement budget policy has to stop. Here is the article, followed by the comment we posted: http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_f0c15e97-547a-5ef0-8779-b2efc9d68eeb.html Our Comment: How can professional government managers propose a budget to County Board members and leave out the need to replace depreciating vehicles? "there is no funding allocated in that (2015) budget to replace the vehicles." This situation of delayed capital replacement and deferred maintenance continues to indicate a lack of management skills on the part of both staff and elected County officials. This practice of putting off equipment and maintenance makes operations less efficient and now builds up a huge... Read more →

FL House Rep. Larry Metz Provides Update on FL 2014 Legislative Session

The 2014 Florida Legislative session is over, and Lake County's FL District 31 Rep. Larry Metz held a community update meeting in Clermont, FL to describe wins and losses in the recent legislation session. Links to his Powerpoint and Video are included. Read more →

Tomorrow, the Lake County Board Should REJECT any Tax Hike to Fund the Sheriff Unless They Require These Conditions

The Lake County FL Board will be discussing tax hikes and budget increases for the Lake County Sheriff. We do not believe that is fiscally sound without the conditions we describe. Read more →

Should a Peat Harvesting Project North of Lake Eustis be Approved or Killed by Environmentalists??

Tavares, FL June 20, 2014 - Updated Monday, June 23, 2014 - contains opinion and added documents. The short link to this page is: http://tinyurl.com/o5wr84e A Peat Harvesting project known as the Goose Prairie Peat Harvesting Project (300 out of 600 acres north of Lake Eustis by HWY 44) is in process of getting approval from the Lake County Board and is scheduled to be discussed at the Tuesday, June 24, 2014 Lake County Board meeting. It is listed on the agenda under tab 23 for Planning & Zoning issues. Unfortunately, you have to download the entire 1176 page "Packet" file to find the 300 pages on the Goose Prairie proposal. Half those pages are pro and con emails and letters to Board members. I think liberals have hijacked this issue to use it as a fund raiser for environmental issues. The Opponents are led by the former head of the Lake County Democrats, Nancy Hurlburt. They have used half truths and diversion tactics to frighten nearby residents when County staff appear to have addressed all resident concerns. I have attended a community hearing and a presentation at the Lake County Water Authority, and I believe this proposal to harvest... Read more →

Will Democrats Be Able to Vote in Florida House District 31 Republican Primary?

Last minute political tricks may result in Democrats and other voters voting in the Republican Primary for Florida House District 31. District 31 covers Apopka, Mt. Dora, Eustis and Tavares areas. Read more →

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Visits Lake County and we have video and pictures

Florida Gov. Rick Scott made a campaign stop in Lake County, FL. Here are links to a video of the event, a newspaper article and pictures on Facebook. Read more →

Lake County's Dr. Jack Cassell on American Pickers TV Show on History Channel

Lake County, Florida's conservative Dr. Jack Cassell, known for an active conservative Facebook page, is a closet collector and the History Channel's American Pickers visited him recently. Read more →

Leslie Campione Running for Re-Election - Video at North Lake Tea Party

Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione is running for re-election and gave this 60 minute talk at the May 7, 2014 meeting of the North Lake County Tea Party. The video contains links to her website and to that of the North Lake Tea Party. Read more →

Agenda 21 Update - Karen Schoen Video & Other Lake County Agenda 21 News

This is an update on Agenda 21 news related to Florida and Lake County, Florida. Includes new video of Agenda 21 expert Karen Schoen on how the United Nations derived and Bill Clinton funded Agenda 21 assaults property rights & owners and a bit about the Lake County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Basically, Agenda 21 uses the cover story of environmental problems to reduce Constitutional freedoms and property rights in the US so big government can gain control. It is all documented and a 50 year "stealth" plan. Read this and watch the videos to learn how to take action now. Read more →

Lake County Parks Staff Plead for more Funding - is it justified?

Tavares, FL May 1, 2014 The Daily Commercial published an article quoting Lake County managers and officials pleading for "mo money" to fund expanded plans for County Recreation facilities. http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_565b7c50-2adb-52d0-85f3-3670a2a9a836.html The article left out any balancing information on why they want it, or the possible underlying reason is to justify higher taxes in the upcoming budget year. Here is the comment we posted about the other side of the "need" for more parks funding: As a person who has attended most Lake County Board meetings, I sympathize with the managers & officials pleading for more taxpayer funds. However, the article does not: - Get quotes from people that don't want tax hikes, which is what this is leading to. - Describe the reason for lower tax revenues overall is that the Board waived most residential and commercial impact fees which provide funds for roads and schools. This was done to please the Homebuilder's Assocation and shift tax needs to all taxpayers. This has put pressure on budgets. - Describe the bad habit of the County in constantly buying land without also budgeting for maintenance costs. Thus they get grants or financing deals for land without funding facilities or maintenance as... Read more →

Lake County FL Budget Woes Described, and our Counter Comments

The local Lake County Daily Commercial published an article quoting many officials about low budgets and the possible need for MORE taxes. They did not quote any watchdog groups about alternatives to raising taxes, and we provided some comments they would not publish. Read more →

CRA Update - California Shut them Down, Broward County FL stops funding them, and what will Lake County Do?

Tavares, FL April 1, 2014 No, this is not an actual book, but it could be... In 2011, California Gov. Jerry Brown shut down all CRAs and took their funds. Now they are trying to create new ways in California to replace the CRA’s (Community Redevelopment Agencies) which were never approved by voters, and nothing seems to work yet. http://www.publicceo.com/2014/03/will-california-ever-replace-the-hole-left-by-its-redevelopment-agencies/ Meanwhile, here in Lake County, FL, it will be interesting to see what happens with CRA’s in Lake County. Voters never approved any of them in Lake County. Instead, they were implemented by a legal process where local cities had to prove there was "blight" and no local votes took place. Lake County takes more than $1-million from their general funds and send it to the 15+ CRA’s in Lake County. All are run by cities except the new one in Sorrento run by the Lake County Board, which has no funds due yet to that CRA. Attached here is the recently issued annual report of the Lake County run CRA in the Sorrento area: Download 2014-03-25 BCC CRA Plan - 69pgs My previous article on Broward County, FL deciding to stop contributions to CRA’s is here: http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/2014/01/broward-county-fl-decides-to-stop-contributions-to-cras.html And here... Read more →

Property Rights Reduced by Lake County, FL Centrally Planned Land Development

Lake County, Florida's Board of Commissioners is considering a New Urbanism "South Lake Sector Plan" development where government planners will damage property rights and decide which land owners get increased value for development rights versus losing property owners who will be locked into Agricultural or Environmentalist demanded Conservation areas of much lower value for the future. Read more →

Property Rights Alert: Florida Bill filed to reduce local governments setting excess land use permitting requirements

Tavares, FL Sunday, Mar. 2, 2014 Land Grabbing is the use of land use planning restrictions to reduce the value of owned land. Property Rights Alert - Of course, the Florida bill HB-1077 (2014) was just filed, and it may or may not go anywhere. The environmentalists, who want excess regulations to get environmental preserves FOR FREE, will fight it, but property rights groups will favor it. http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=36631840 It would be interesting to know if the Lake County South Sector Plan would be affected since County staff, not a property owners association consultant, is now doing the planning for it under the “guidance” of Commissioner Sean Parks, who helped write the Lake County Land Use Comprehensive Plan and spearheaded the Sector Plan proposal. The South Sector plan defines lots of open space, high density housing and only some commercial development areas. Once the Lake County Board approves the sector plan by April, it becomes part of the Lake County land use plan and it is a taking of property values of the property owners in the 16,000 acre area who are not favored and did not get allocated high value residential and commercial land use rights. And, what about the... Read more →

Wekiva Parkway Update for Lake County, FL by County Commissioner Leslie Campione

Mount Dora, FL Monday, Feb. 17, 2017 Some Lake County residents in Sorrento/Mount Plymouth and future commuters on the Wekiva Parkway are getting shafted by environmentalists, FDOT (Florida Dept. of Transportation) and Orange County's Highway Authority. (That is my opinion, not that of presenter Leslie Campione.) Wekiva Parkway is the expanded north west part of the Orlando beltway that is being constructed now. You can get maps and an overview at: www.wekivaparkway.com Use or download the main map so you understand the project sections and numbers. The website also has numerous Powerpoints you can view for more information. Watch this one from Jan., 2014 with recent info: Download Rotary Club of Apopka 013014 Lake County Commissioner gave an update at Lakeside Inn with TJ Fish, Executive Director of the Lake Sumter MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization). You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/GOLLPbjPTOc The video is not completely in focus because the interior lighting at the Lakeside Inn is so poor the camera could not focus well, but it is clear enough to see the maps and listen to the audio. Some of the highlights - I apologize if I use the wrong names - I am not familiar with the... Read more →

Upcoming Renewal of Lake County FL Penny Sales Tax Might Pit County & Cities vs Schools

Tavares, FL - Sunday, feb. 16, 2014 For almost 15 years, the County Govt., the cities, and the School District received equal thirds of revenues from a Penny Sales Tax approved by voters. That tax is due for a public renewal vote in 2015, and the School Board is talking about instead launching a referendum for a different, and additional 1/2 penny tax just for their capital spending needs. But the County government leaders and League of Cities would rather stay with just renewing the existing tax and percentage splits because they are fearful the public won't support a renewal of the tax if the schools go for a separate, new sales tax. This story by Livi Stanford in today's Daily Commercial (see link below) provides all the details, so read it to get an idea of what could happen - either all three tax entities join together to renew the existing tax, or the School Board independently tries to get voter approval of their own half penny tax, which leaves the County & Cities to campaign for voters to also approve renewal of the existing penny tax which would be split only between the County & the cities. My... Read more →

FiscalRangers Alert: Will Lake County, FL Board Throw $2-million More Into Expensive Cagan's Crossings Library?

Tavares, FL - Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 Tomorrow, the Lake County Board is being asked to approve, WITHOUT DISCUSSION, the start of a process to use $200,000 of library impact fees to design the total $2.2-million build out of the second floor of a library in South Lake County for unstated purposes. Those purposes may be to develop services that compete with tax paying businesses. The issue is in tab 8 of the "consent agenda" which means the Board will approve it without discussing it in public at the hearing. Lake County, FL has a very expensive library built in Cagan's Crossings, in the very south east corner of Lake County and next to Polk, Osceola & Orange County. Various agreements exist/ed to allow residents of other counties to use the libraries, but as far as I know, Lake County paid for it. Here is the link to the Cagan's Crossing library page: http://www.lakeline.lib.fl.us/libraries/cagan_crossings_community_library.aspx That is the library where Polk County agreed to contribute annually towards library expenses, then welched, causing the Library Dept. to reduce staff. It is my understanding that Polk County HAS no libraries, thus I assume they do not have a Library Impact fee, but Lake... Read more →

Broward County, FL Decides to Stop Contributions to CRAs

Tavares, FL - Jan. 16, 2014 Most cities in Lake County have CRAs which set aside future property tax revenues to use to “redevelop” blighted downtown areas in specific “zones”. Projects might include repair of old sidewalks, painting and fixing exterior fronts of old retail buildings, and other projects to improve the attractiveness of the downtown area. Note: The book cover at the left is NOT a real book, but who knows, someday. The hitch is that part of the CRA revenues come out of County property taxes, not just city tax shares. For instance, if you look at the Lake County budget, you will find they pay out over a million dollars to CRAs in the County. That money comes right out of COUNTY property taxes but goes towards CITY CRA projects. So the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida just reported that Broward County, FL Commissioners got fed up with those tax losses and will stop approving any extensions of expiring CRAs by cities that use County Tax funds. The Commissioners want to use the funds for their own projects. Broward County has much higher tax collections than Lake County, so the numbers are much larger. Cities in Broward County... Read more →

Highlights of tomorrow's Lake County Board Meeting agenda

Tavares, FL Mon., Jan 13, 2014 The Lake County Board of supervisors have been off for about a month, and you can find their agenda here, and also the detailed 600+ page “packet”: http://lakecountyfl.suiteonemedia.com/web/home.aspx <<< I find it doesn’t work with Firefox, so use Internet Explorer This is a quick overview of issues: This meeting includes an initial period for awards, which will probably take 15 minutes. Tab 5.03 and 5.05 - Two recent County audit reports are not described as such in the agenda. The Court Clerk’s Internal Auditor issued TWO audits of County operations, and magically they are not attached to the agenda and the descriptions don’t even say they are audits. One is an audit of “ARRA Grant Reporting” and you can find it here: http://lakecountyfl.suiteonemedia.com/web/home.aspx The other audit is about the BCC Web Server / Application Security, but is also not on the agenda or on the Court Clerk’s website, so I obtained it from the Auditor and attached it here: Download 2014-01-14 Audit BCC-112 BCC Web Server-Application Security I will write articles about these soon. This continues a pattern where staff and the Board are avoiding public awareness of recent audits and is a bad... Read more →

How Environmentalists Abuse Private Property Rights and Get Funding via Backroom Legal Settlements

Tavares, FL - Dec. 28, 2013 Environmentalists have been abusing private property rights for years by enacting laws like the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that requires the Federal Government to enforce ludicrous regulations to "protect endangered species". Then they use a method called "sue and settle" to SUE the Federal Government because the restrictive laws are not being implemented in various locations. That is how they force the Feds to settle in backroom deals to get more funding for their causes. It also is why you hear periodically where a Federal government agency, like the Fish & Wildlife Service, slams the door on some poor property owner so he can't use the land or sell it due to the existence of some endangered lizard. Liberals use the ESA just to halt development This article is a very clear description from a US Senator of this abusive practice. Read it and understand what could happen to you if you own land that the environmentalists don't want developed. Always remember that liberals and environmentalists are behind this fund raising scam. Most of the articles below explain that many lawsuits are filed so environmentalist attorneys win, but little is done by them or... Read more →