Fiscal Rangers

Lessons for Lake County? Georgia City of 100,000 Outsources EVERYthing and is NOT broke.

Tavares, FL - May 21, 2012 by Vance Jochim Here is a great video from the Florida Tea party network about Sandy Springs, GA, population 100,000 (bigger than the Villages), which started outsourcing all their programs in 2005 after incorporating as a new city in Fulton County, GA, and now has NO debt. Watch the EIGHT minute video first, then return for my comments. The video was created by Reason.org which is a Libertarian think tank in California. Then ask your Lake County officials why they are not examining outsourcing services, and why unincorporated Sorrento - Mt. Plymouth is not incorporating as a city and outsourcing services? http://theteapartynetwork.org/2012/05/a-great-vision-of-municipal-government/ This city was initially a large unincorporated area in Fulton County, GA, and was taxed by the County for funds spent elsewherein the County. The County rarely paved or repaired roads. Democrats controlled the legislature and prevented Sandy Springs from incorporating as a city until 2005 when Republicans took control and allowed the City of Sandy Springs to be established. So, this was all done since 2005. "Companies are better than managing projects than government, and one contractor provided services for $25-million vs $50-million if run by the county government." Sandy Springs... Read more →

How Socialists use Agenda 21 & "Endangered Species" Designations to Increase Energy & Other Costs

Monday, May 21, 2012 - Tavares, FL by Vance Jochim A lizard in New Mexico and Texas could increase US gasoline costs if the EPA had their way, and Lake County elected officials and voters could learn a lesson from the fight with the EPA there. Here in Lake County, we have a Comprehensive Land Use Plan that has been modified somewhat, but not enough. It was developed when Florida had adopted "Growth" plans derived from legislative guides produced by the American Planner's Association (APA) which were created using funds from numerous Federal Agencies directed to implement the United Nations Agenda 21 by Bill Clinton's Presidential Council on Sustainable Development. For more background on Agenda 21, see our info page at tinyurl.com/HaltAgenda21 . Now, we have a good example in the following article about the stealth method used nationally by the EPA to implement Agenda 21 objectives of using enviornmentalism as a cover to increasing energy costs, reducing values of private property, etc. http://epaabuse.com/3424/editorials/proposed-listing-of-sagebrush-lizard-as-endangered-species-threatens-energy-production/ The article explains how the EPA can define an "endangered species" such as a lizard, then prevent landholders from developing or building on their land to "protect" the lizard. I don't know about you, but my... Read more →

Update on Voter Fraud in Florida - State finds 1251 Voters who are "Non-Citizens"

Tavares, FL - May 8, 2012 by Vance Jochim Florida Voter Fraud Update: Awhile back, on April 4th, we told you about an NBC investigation in Lee and Collier County where they found over 100 local voters who VOTED, but then were discovered not to be legal citizens.' In Florida, at least, you are supposed to be a US citizen to vote. But weaknesses in the voter registration system in Florida allow people to register to vote without confirmation they are actually a citizen. The NBC investigation compared jury records, using a list of voters who got out of jury duty by saying they were not citizens. Then they checked public voter records and found 100 of them who had voted, some for many years, while not being a citizen. (This is not about illegal aliens, but about people that could be legally, or illegally here, but not a citizen). NOW, the Division of Elections of the State of Florida, embarrassed by the investigation, expanded the investigation, and found non-citizens who had obtained drivers licenses. They matched that list with people registered to vote in Florida, and found 1,250 of them. A newly appointed Secretary of State, Ken Detzner, is... Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Update on Lake County School Board & Tomorrow's Lake County Board Meeting

Tavares, FL - May 7, 2012 (This is a duplicate of an email sent out today to our FiscalRangers.com email list.) First, an overview of an issue at today’s Lake County School Board meeting which might save taxpayers $400,000, and then read items I have selected from the agenda for tomorrow’s Lake County Board meeting, and finally “other news” about local candidate forum events and an upcoming meeting of the North Lake County Hospital District. In my opinion, the item under Lake County's Agenda (belows) tab 24 needs Board attention. Once again, the Board is asked to approve the annual CDBG Federal grant programs, and little details are provided for early analysis, and we point out some issues from last year’s CDBG discussions. Lake County School Board today – Cutting FREE transportation to Orange County Charter School Could Save $400,000 - At today's Board meeting, the School District staff requested Board approval to turn off paying for transportation to Princeton school in Orange County for about 32 autistic kids in order to save about $400,000. They want the kids to go to Lake County facilities and services, which were not available 7 years ago when the students were sent out... Read more →

Petition Card Counts & Status for Candidates for Lake County, FL Offices

2012 Local Lake County, FL Election Candidates and Petition Card Counts as of Friday, May 4 As of Friday, May 4, 2012 by Vance Jochim [email protected] Most candidates for elected office in Lake County have turned in the required number of election petition cards exept Jim Miller and Paul Richardson, who are very nearly there. Additionally, four candidates are not turning in the required 1951 cards, and apparently plan to pay required fees in June. This report doesn't cover Judges or State elected positions like a State Rep. That information would be on the State Elections website, while Lake County specific candidates are listed on the local Lake County Elections Superintendent website (see link below). Candidates running for major elected positions in Lake County are required to turn in 1951 validated petition cards signed by registered voters, or pay a fee ranging from about $1500 to $8000. We visited the Lake County, FL Elections Dept. today, May 4th, to examine the progress of announced candidates in collecting petition cards. You can find the official, updated list of candidates at the link below. The Excel version has more data, but neither list provides petition card status like we furnish below. http://elections.lakecountyfl.gov/candidate_information/index.asp... Read more →

Lake County, FL Sheriff IT System HACKED and data stolen

The Lake County Sheriff's Dept was hacked by people who downloaded about 40gb of files from the Sheriff's servers. That is not a good indicator of their knowledge about computer security. As a former corporate internal auditor and certified information systems auditor, my observation is most law enforcement departments (Police & Sheriff) are still stuck in focusing on physical crimes using kinesthetic staff, and not focusing on intellectual crimes requiring people with technical degrees. This is the result. I would recommend the Sheriff create an anti-hacking & IT Controls committee of volunteers, much like the County Board and School Board have committees, and have them review both internal IT practices and ability to act when local IT crimes are reported. I tried contacting the Sheriff's public information officer, but no one answered either phone. However, the articles below give a good overview of the incident. http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/050212hacking http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/4/30/hackers_target_lake_.html http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-lk-sheriff-office-hacked-20120430,0,1956813.story Read more →

Voter Fraud Method Disclosed by Ft. Myers NBC TV Investigation - May Exist in ALL Florida Counties

FiscalRangers.com Alert - Tavares, FL April 4, 2012 Florida Voter Fraud Method Detected by Ft. Myers NBC TV station investigation, which finds County Elections Departments not preventing NON-US citizens from voting. Problem could exist in ALL Florida counties. Note: We will post updates here on this page as we get them. vj A TV investigator for NBC Channel 2 in the Ft. Myers area found that there was no prevention technique to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote, and he found over 100 who had told the courts they could not be on a jury because they were non-citizens, but they also VOTED. Then he checked the voter roles and found over 100 who claimed non-citizenship to get out of jury duty who HAD voted, some for many years without detection by the Elections Supt. The reporter asked the Elections Supt. If they did any cross checks with the courts to verify addresses, or to detect non-citizens, and apparently it is not done in Florida. He discussed the issue with Election Superintendents of Collier and Lee Counties. The TV report was dated Feb. 2, but we just discovered it. The reporter did not investigate whether the people actually lied when... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Need to Deny Re-Zoning for Clermont Mosque

Tavares, FL - March 26, 2012 Update: On Tuesday, March 27, the Lake County Board denied the re-zoning request described below, basically for the types of reasons I mentioned. vj Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 27, a group called the Clermont Islamic Center (CIC) is trying to get a 4+ acre section of land near Clermont re-zoned by the Lake County Commissioners from Agriculture to Community Development so they can build a 2500 sq. foot , 45 foot high Muslim Mosque with 199 parking spaces. It would be in an agriculture area with single family homes and lack of adequate roads to handle the expected traffic of 2,000 vehicle arrival & departures per day. It would be the highest building in the entire area except for the Citrus Tower. Both the City of Clermont Council, and the Lake County Zoning Commission have voted against the re-zoning. However, the Lake County "planning & growth" staff DID recommend the re-zoning, but their reasons are vague, based upon the new County Comprehensive Plan (which makes it suspect right there) AND the possibility they screwed up and did not calculate the true traffic impact the mosque would have on the area. The Lake County Planning staff... Read more →

Did Aliens Scramble Voting Results in Palm Beach County - Read and Decide

Tavares, FL - March 20, 2012 This is a good article below to illustrate how amateur data management in local government agencies like the Palm Beach County Elections office can result in poor safeguards that then allow huge errors. In this case, apparently, the order of the names on a recent local ballot in Palm Beach County. FL did not match which fields were used to calculate candidate totals, so that people using the ballots saw a specific name, but their vote for that line item was added into totals for a different name for the election results. The Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor, Susan Bucher, apparently When a manager blames the mysterious computer for a glitch, rather than the people or process for programming it, then they need to go. It also means they didn’t have good quality control procedures to test and ensure data was accurate. The citizens cannot afford to have computer illiterate officials in charge of data focused operations. According to this article, this is a pattern with the Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor. However, the article does NOT say how the Elections Supervisor, Susan Bucher, detected the problem AFTER all the votes were certified. Was... Read more →

National Website Monitors "State Integrity" and Ranks States - Florida is a C-

Tavares, FL - March 20, 2012 I found a new website that is run by a number pf public integrity types of organizations, and they rank all the States by several categories and rank their "Corruption Risk". Here is Florida's page, which shows abysmal rankings in most categories, and an average C- in Corruption Risk . Even with that ranking, they are 18th out of all the states, which shows how much worse other states are. http://www.stateintegrity.org/florida I noticed that they ranked "Internal Audit" as one of the only "A" categories, so I posted this comment: As a former corporate internal audit director, Certified Internal Auditor and anti-corruption adviser, I was amazed to see you give Florida an A for internal audit. I write a blog on local Lake County, FL government agency fiscal fiascos and mis-management at www.FiscalRangers.com . After five years of monitoring issues here, I do not believe there is ANY oversight on about 2000 local government agencies comparable to what I saw in Fortune 500 firms, the County of Los Angeles or even the Federal government. They may do nice, clean "financial audits" but the Inspector General has no authority to initiate performance or internal audits... Read more →

Lake County Government Website Receives "Sunny Award" for good Website Transparency

Tavares, FL - March 13, 2012 This is National Sunshine Week, and Lake County received an award for how the County website provided information to improve "transparency" over local government actions. Congratulations to Lake County, FL Government for receiving the "Sunny Award" from Sunshine Review, a journal on government transparency located in the Washington D.C area. They ranked 6000 government websites and only 214 received the Sunny Award, and Lake County's website was one. Lake County's website was scored an "A" transparency grade on Sunshine Review's Transparency Checklist. It goes to show, that Lake County will do anything to keep me from providing public input at a Board meeting!! I notice that their winners list also included many School Districts, including nearby Orange County. Here is the website page listing all 214 "A" Sunny Award winners, including Lake County: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/2012_Sunny_Awards Here is the webpage describing the "Transparency Checklist" and method used to determine Sunny Awards and rankings. They have checklists for cities, countys, school districts & state agencies: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Transparency_checklist However, I couldn't help notice that one of the checklist items isn't followed much at Lake County. They post financial audits, but not performance audits and there are no evaluations of... Read more →

Lake County Board of Commissioners Surprises & Depresses Citizens at Recent Board Meeting

Tavares, FL 32778 - Dec. 14, 2011 We described in our Monday blog posting about several subjects to be discussed at the offsite, somewhat secret workshop of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners that was held Tuesday at Camp Challenge, just east of Sorrento. The meeting was important because several issues affecting long range decisions on budgets, taxes and other issues were discussed. 1. Public Input now allowed - First, Kudos to Commissioner Leslie Campione, who is now the new Chair of the Board. She reversed a prior policy of limiting public input to allowing public input for EACH agenda item, a first for the County, but common at the Lake County School District. We have been lobbying for that improvement for at least 3 years. Previous Board Chairs Jennifer Hill and Welton Cadwell severely limited public input and normally would NOT have allowed ANY public input at a workshop like this. As a result of Campione's new policy, many attendees, including residents of the Sorrento - Mounty Plymouth area (where the meeting was held), this author, leaders from Mt. Dora & the League of Cities, were able to provide feedback on specific issues, which I believe improved the... Read more →

Lake County Government Update on Feb. 9, 2012 Board Meeting

Tavares, FL - Feb. 9, 2012 by Vance Jochim - FiscalRangers.com These are notes related to the Feb. 9th Lake County Board Meeting Tab 25 - Lake County Board Quarterly Budget Update Summary: The Board spent about 35 minutes discussing an update on the current and next year's budgets. They are on target on the current budget, and showed graphs on Quarter 1. The process and details of the presentation are getting much better and closer to what you would see in corporations. The staff also presented expectations for establishing the budget for 2013, and they expect that revenues will be reduced another 5% for each of the next two years due to dropping property tax valuations and other revenue sources. The Board and staff also are working out a much better process to ensure the Constitutional officers are engaged in budget talks, so there are no last minute surprises or standoffs like last year. Details of the budget discussion: (You can also view the online archived VIDEO of this portion of the meeting HERE (video 2 for the Feb. 7), and the Powerpoint is located under tab 25 on the agenda webpage HERE. The Board is still in the... Read more →

Controversial Lake County Water Level Settings for Lakes to Remain Stable for Now.

Jan. 15th, 2012 - Tavares, FL By Vance Jochim, FiscalRangers.com The water levels in Lake County Lakes Dora, Beauclaire, Harris, Eustis & Griffin should now cease dropping due to a new Florida State water district policy demanded by many Lake County residents, boaters and FiscalRangers.com readers at recent public hearings. The St. Johns River Water Management District Board ( "St. Johns District" ) is a Florida STATE agency which controls lake and river waters in about 15 Florida Counties including Lake County. They have the legal authority to control and set water flow between lakes. They held a Board meeting at their headquarters in Palatka, FL on January 10th and approved a revision of a previous controversial staff policy to shutoff water flows from the headwaters source of Lake Apopka to Lake Dora, Eustis, Harris & Griffin. That policy had been implemented in early December, and lake water levels in Lake County had dropped 3-6 inches in four weeks due to the policy. This was after a public hearing on January 5th in Howey-in-the-Hills was attended by 300-500 citizens supporting different alternatives to the shutoff policy. You can read a lot of earlier background details HERE in our previous blog... Read more →

Can Voter Fraud Take Place in Lake County? Examples from New Hampshire!

Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 - Tavares, FL - Can voter fraud occur in Florida or here in Lake County? We don't have that answer YET, but the local "True The vote" coordinator for the North Lake County Tea Party sent us this article about how easy it is in New Hampshire. An undercover video team looked up a list of recently deceased but registered people and found they could get their voting ballots and NO ID was required in New Hampshire to verify their identity. Be sure to watch the video on the following link. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6e056f38408ce5b5a62ccc857&id=df12af60d0&e=add9c1f9f7 Or, here is the video right on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/embed/9-uVhhIlPk0 xxxxxxxx New Hampshire Shows How Easy Vote Fraud Can Be. Is South Carolina Next? True the Vote strongly supports enacting voter ID laws in order to prevent vote fraud. If anyone ever questions the need for such measures, consider what just happened in New Hampshire. A new investigative video by Project Veritas has shown just how easy it is to cast an illegal ballot in The Granite State, a state that requires no identification to vote. Project Veritas, headed by filmographer James O'Keefe, sent its cameras to several primary polling places in New Hampshire armed... Read more →

Updated Jan 15th: Lake Dora water flow from Lake Apopka shut off by CAT People at St. Johns River Water Management District

Updated Jan. 15, 2012 to include Fox Orlando interview link to their website. Updated Jan 9, 2012 after the meeting: The Lake County public hearing of the St. Johns River Water Management District meeting was held Jan. 5th to discuss water level management practices affecting Lake County lakes. Our update with conclusions and our recommendations are in section PS8 at the bottom of this document. (Several updates added to section PS8 with the latest on Jan 9th). Links to local media articles on this meeting also added to section PS8 thru 1/9. The ST. John's Board is having a Baord meeting in Palatka on Jan. 10th to decide their actions, and we will post a NEW article. Tavares, FL - Dec. 27, 2011 (Updated 4pm, Jan. 4th) - Water levels in Lake Dora & downstream lakes are dropping due to actions to completely shutoff water flow to them from Lake Apopka. Alien CAT People working at the St. Johns River Water Management District started shutting off water on Dec. 8th from Lake Apopka to Lake Dora and all Lake Countians should get organized. (True, except for the CAT reference (:-)) ) A public hearing for Lake Countians has been scheduled... Read more →

Goodbye & Happy Trails to Steve Hudak, Orlando Sentinel Reporter & Other Media Gossip

Tavares, FL - Dec. 23, 2011 I am beginning to think that Lake County is becoming the local farming club (like baseball) for the Orlando Sentinel and for other news reporters. They send their newer reporters here, then move them to Orlando once we break them in... or vice versa. Anyway, longtime Orlando Sentinel reporter Steve Hudak was moved from the Lake County Board of Commissioners "beat" to the Orlando area for the Sentinel. We didn't have a "file" picture of Steve, but this picture is a good facsimile. His replacement is Eloísa Ruano González. Here is one of her first articles: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-lk-concert-south-lake-20111220,0,1479803.story One of the problems in losing an experienced reporter is they know significant background on the local government methods and officials, and it will take time for any new reporter to get up to speed and not be snookered by self serving quotes from officials or knowing when staff is snookering the officials. One example is the North Lake Hospital District issue, or the long running debate over the Emergency Operations Center, budget fiascos, impact fee actions, etc. It isn't just Hudak's beat, but the Orlando Sentinel reporters covering the Lake County School District have changed three... Read more →

Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks flips vote again - Sparks flew at today's meeting

Tavares, FL - dec. 20, 2011 - Omigosh - another Sean Parks' indecision point!! Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks frequently has changed his vote on issues even after votes and called for re-votes, which really aggravates the other Lake County Commissioners. Today, Parks out of the blue says maybe the Board should reconsider the decision to build the Emergency Operations Center after he and Welton Cadwell and Jennifer Hill voted 3 to 2 to fund it's $10-million cost months ago. The picture is from one of our earlier articles where we proposed an alternative EOC design that would have been mobile and less costly, but the Board ignored it! You could see the frost appearing on the faces of Leslie Campione and Jimmy Conners because many months ago they had opposed the EOC project, but were outvoted after Parks flipped his decision at a final meeting (never say final with Parks). The grimacing staff says they have spent $500,000 on design costs already, but Parks now wants to reconsider the issue due to the recent bad budget forecast for next year. So, they will do so at a mid-February meeting after solid cost estimates are in. Parks action resulted in... Read more →

Action Alert regarding Lowered Water in Lake Dora, Lake Harris & Lake Eustis

Dec. 18 Update #2: Commissioner Campione says she may move the discussion on the water issue UP to the front of the meeting if many people show up to discuss it. That means, be there at 9am - and I assume she MAY allow public input. vj Sun. 10pm Update Dec. 18 - Added info that we confirmed that this issue WILL be discussed at the Tuesday 9am meeting of the Lake County Commission, but it will probably be at the end of the meeting during the Commissioner "Reports" section, usually after 11am. We still do not know if public input will be allowed - return here to find any updates Monday afternoon. Dec. 16, 2011 - Send this to any other Lake County resident concerned about dropping water levels on local lakes like Lake Dora, Harris, Eustis. The Issue: The St. John’s Water Authority is restricting the amount of water flowing from Lake Apopka to upstream lakes like Lake Dora, the Harris Chain, etc. Lake Apopka is the source for most water in most of our other Harris Chain lakes. It is considered, however, to be one of the most polluted lakes in Florida. The St. John’s Water District... Read more →

Agenda 21 - Citizens of Rutherford County, TN Object to Planning Commission Revisions to Comp Plan

Dec. 15, 2011 - Citing the UN Agenda 21, which focuses on "one government" and reduction of property rights, "concerned citizens" of Rutherford County, TN objected to plans by the County Planning Commission to "update" zoning laws to comply with a new "Comprehensive Land Use Plan" (aka Comp Plan. This article gives an overview of complaints and the issues, which seem to center on revising zoning related to rock quarries to shift them to an "industrial" use and subject them to changed setback requirements and state level approvals which were not required before. I didn't read anything in the article that was specific enough to understand what property rights were being removed except that if a land owner wished to create a rock quarry, they would be subject to much LOWER setback requirements than currently, and subject to State approvals. Favorite quote: “All this is, is a hidden anti-development, anti-growth agenda under the veil of preservation and scenic beauty – all at the expense of the property owner,” said Timm Rudd, Rutherford County Republican Executive Committee member and real estate agent. Apparently, in this County, the zoning has not been updated since 1984 (similar to what happened in Lake County... Read more →

Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks Exposed as source for "Snarky" Online Comments

Tavares, FL - Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011 - Normally, you have to wait until Wednesday morning to read Lauren Ritchie's next column in the Lake Section of the Orlando Sentinel. But, we were tipped that the Wednesday column has already been posted to their website HERE: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-lk-lauren-ritchie-sean-parks-20111207,0,3833276.column Apparently, Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks has been posting "snarky" comments online in the Orlando Sentinel comments sections using a hidden name, and Lauren has the info. He has attacked various people, including this blog's author, and also insists that "others" also used his secret accounts to post comments. Here are some quotes from Lauren's article: "The childish individuals who hijack the public-discussion area to engage in name-calling and unfounded allegations are, fortunately, a small minority." "Commissioner Sean Parks, 40, acknowledged last week that in late May he created an account from which anonymous comments have been posted at OrlandoSentinel.com, repeatedly calling his constituents "hacks and loons," labeling one of his colleagues a "kook" and using a clever turn of phrase to refer to a fellow anonymous poster as human waste." Lauren also wrote: "Voters have the right to expect county commissioners to lead the community with integrity, and Parks no longer can... Read more →

Bi-Weekly Report to the North Lake Tea Party on Local Government

Tavares, FL - Nov. 16, 2001 - Twice a month I give an update to the North Lake County Tea Party which meets on the first & third Wednesday evenings at 7pm at the Tavares Civic Center, 100 E. Caroline St., Tavares. Check their website to verify details: http://www.northlaketeaparty.com/ So, here is my update, and I may add more after tonight's meeting. Lake County Government & Board of Commissioners (see meeting agendas HERE) - Poor Meeting Transparency Continues: Chair Jennifer Hill continues to indicate she doesn't like public input and is hiding issues from the public. She controls the agendas and meeting rules like allowing public input. Out of an average of four public meetings on Tuesday mornings each month, TWO never allow public input, but yet there are business issues decided and the public is NOT allowed to provide input. Those are any meeting billed as a "Workshop" or the "Zoning Meeting", yet you will always find political and business decisions on the agendas and decisions made. The worst example was LAST week, on Nov. 8th, when the workshop had five items on the agenda that used vague, nebulous terms and no explanatory attachments on the website agenda. I... Read more →

Gov. Scott Removes Madison County, FL Elections Super due to Voter Fraud

Tavares, FL - Nov. 6, 2011 - Some of our readers have been asking how secure the voting system is in Lake County, and whether voter fraud can occur like that in Houston two years ago. Well, I don't know about Lake County, but here is a case where the Madison County, FL Elections Supervisor AND a School Board members were arrested along with several others in a documented voter fraud scandal. We then found another article about absentee voter fraud in Daytona Beach, FL. It appears they manipulated absentee ballots, and did a lot of work to order absentee ballots sent to third location addresses, had the ballots marked to favor the one candidate, then mailed them in. The losing candidate filed a complaint due to the excess number of absentee ballots, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated, and got a bunch of people. I have no knowledge whether the same manipulation of absentee voters is possible in Lake County. HERE is the link to the SunshineStateNews.com article about the Madison County voter fraud case. And, HERE is a link about a 2010 Voter fraud case regarding absentee ballots and a Daytona City Councilman. And, HERE is an... Read more →

Lake Appraiser and Lake County Tax Collector Improve Transparency over Tax Authorities

Tavares, FL - Oct. 2, 2011 - FiscalRangers has achieved an improvement in transparency over tax authorities listed on property tax notices. We recently heard at a meeting of the North Lake County Hospital District that a taxpayer had a terrible time finding out what that Hospital tax on their property was about. She looked at her Tax Trim notice from the County Appraiser, Ed Havil, and the Tax Notice from County Tax Collector Bob McKee, and the only information for the Hospital District tax was the location and date of the final hearing to approve next year's taxes. No phone, no email, no address and no website was provided. Sure, she could call either office and they could provide a phone number, but no info on what the tax was or phone number listed on the notices or on the two agency websites (we thought). In contrast, if you look at THIS Wisconsin based website, it focuses on improved transparency over taxes there. And, if you visit THIS website from Milwaukee County, you find they have provided a "Milwaukee County Accountability Portal" which "allows the publci to view detaild data on SPENDING by Milwaukee County Government. And, look at... Read more →

Lake School Board Pushes off Decision on School Impact Fee Changes

Tavares, FL - oct. 17, 2011 - Here is an Orlando Sentinel article on a recent Lake County School District meeting where the Board postponed a decision to forward a new, required consulting study on future School Impact Fees to the Lake County Board of Commissioners. However, I need to provide you with some more insight not in the report. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-lk-impact-fee-stall-20111014-13,0,2128163.story The Sentinel article, written by Erica Rodriguez, quotes School Board member Rosanne Brandenburg as wanting more information. It also describes that the newly proposed rate for a single family home would go up from the current charge of $9324 (which has actually been waived for 15 months) to a new rate of $10,292. The new study had been presented to the School Board at an earlier meeting. The consultant walked through the entire process, in detail, on how the data was accumulated and used to calculate recommended future impact fees at "100%" of the appropriate rates to provide funding for future capital spending due to population growth. He clearly described the method used, and the fact that the new rates included a factor for bond financing fees, thus the $10,292 rate above, which includes a factor for bond financing... Read more →

Benefits of Florida Government Pension Reform are Increasing

The Orlando Sentinel editorial describes the improved funding available to Florida Schools and other agencies due to last year's pension reform implemented by Governor Rick Scott. He initiated a 3% employee contribution to pensions, which reduced direct employmee costs at schools and other agencies, releasing funds for other uses, AND starting the path for government employees to start contributing to their own pensions. Finally government employees are learning the harsh realities of costs of pensions and other benefits because now some of it is coming out of their pocket and not just provided FREE. Read and learn: Taxpayers benefiting from pension reforms 12:00 a.m. EDT, October 8, 2011 From Orlando Sentinel HERE Pension reform has encountered its share of push back, no question about it. And understandably so. However, lawmakers and municipal decision-makers who showed spine in proposing, defending and enacting necessary pension reforms this year, and the constituents and taxpayers who backed them, are being proved right. We are all starting to reap some of the benefits as a result. Because of Tallahassee's pension changes in this year's legislative session, school districts across Florida have as much as $819.4 million more to spend on other necessities. Counties in the... Read more →

Lake County Government AGAIN Fails to Provide Adequate Notice of Meeting Change

Tavares, FL - Sept. 21, 2011 - Today, I was planning to attend the quarterly meeting of the Lake County Tourism Development Council meeting, as posted on their website (see below). So, I called the office before 4pm to confirm the time and location, and was told the meeting had been CHANGED to last Monday, and it was "properly advertised". However, there was NO mention of the time change on the Committee webpage, which is what I rely on, because I don't have time to scan newspaper ads EVERY DAY to read government legal notices. The public needs a more reliable method of meeting notices than the 50 year old, pre-internet method of newspaper notices (and you don't even know which paper). However, one benefit of the canceled meeting is I had time to write this posting. Isn't that special? Here is an email I just sent to the Lake County Board and County Manager. File it under "Lack of Transparency". This is not the first time this has happened, or the first time I have notified the County Manager and Board of this poor procedure: =========================================================== To: Darren Gray, Lake County Commissioners Today, once again, I find a committee... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers Alert: Political & Government Events This Week in Lake County, FL

Tavares, FL - Sept. 11, 2011 - Here are upcoming events this week and calls for action (especially for the SECOND Hospital District meeting this Wednesday evening). Yes, I know it is late notice for School District meetings today, so next time, check out their agendas yourself on their website!! Monday, Sept. 12: Lake County School District - THREE meetings today - find them at the School Board website HERE - scroll down to see the "Calendar Events" but ALSO click at the TOP of the left column on "Board Docs" to get the detailed agendas and attachments. The Calendar and Board Docs are two separate systems, and they may not be consistent. 2:00 pm today: School District Workshop at the LCSD HQ on HWY 441 (The Calendar says 2:30 and no agenda will open, but the Board Docs agenda says 2pm - they rarely reconcile these to be consistent) They will be reviewing Charter School applications for two proposed charter schools (you can actually see and download the applications from the Board Docs agenda section), an update on the Florida Virtual (online) School program, a budget review (the final approval is tonight at 5:30 pm), a Reorg of the... Read more →

Lake County Redistricting Maps Get Shuffled Again - What are the Motives?

Tavares, Florida - Sept. 5, 2011 - Tomorrow, at Tuesday's 9am Lake County Board meeting (see agenda and addendum HERE), the Board will discuss a revised map for district boundaries, but there are a number of issues that residents need to understand, and I really believe the discussion should be tabled another week because staff removed a map from Jimmy Conner from the website, so the public can't evaluate proposed changes. Here is a link to the 9am meeting agenda AND redistricting addendum page for Sept 6. Click to see other agenda items you might want to know about, LIKE the Budget approval. Last week, the Lake County Board of Commissioners reviewed and discussed five proposed district boundary maps since they must draw new County Commissioner district boundaries with fairly equal population every 10 years (or more often). They argued over selecting Jimmy Conner's proposed map and revising one from Sean Parks. Kinda like verbal kangaroo combat. The current district boundary map is HERE, so you can compare it to the new proposed maps below (they were not linked on the SAME page). You will need to print it to compare the current districts to the revisions in the maps... Read more →

Lake County Redistricting for Lake County & School District - See maps here

Note: This report is a work in progress - I will add more details to THIS page during the next week, including dates of public hearings, link to news articles, additions to the "issues" lists. If YOU have a comment regarding the proposed district boundary maps, post it under this article and I may add it to the article. My intention is to include all issues and info so residents can use it to send comments to the respective board members or make public input statements at the public hearings that will be scheduled in about two weeks to select district boundaries. I would also recommend you ASK your elected official what they think, because there may be other considerations they know about. Tavares, FL - August 19, 2011 - This article is about the LOCAL Lake County district boundaries that will be changing for the County Commissioners AND for the Lake County School Board. Political boundaries must be changed every 10 years per State law to equalize the current population in the new districts. Lake County now has about 280,000 residents, so district boundaries must be redrawn so each of the five districts is about one fifth of the... Read more →

$20-million "Green Jobs" Program in Seattle Deemed a Failure - What about Lake County

Many local governments, including Lake County, have received Federal funds to provide retrofitting services to homeowners to install energy related insulation, etc. Lake County is just starting such a program, called Go Green, Get Green. But Seattle's got $20-million and after one year, they have only created 14 jobs... Hopefully there is more in Lake County, although our funding is a lot less (I think it is $800,000 to provide rebates on energy efficient appliances and retrofits). vj http://www.theblaze.com/stories/seattles-green-jobs-stimulus-success-failure/ Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Agenda 21 Alert: Democrat Florida Senator Bill Nelson Lobbies to Spend $100-million in Fed Funds on "Re-wilding"

tavares, FL - August 12, 2011 - The Florida Political Press tells us that our own liberal senator Bill Nelson is lobbying two US Federal Agencies to dump $100-million in buying more "public land" in Florida that would then be "re-wilded" and humans would be prohibited from visiting the lands. This is all part of the UN's Agenda 21 pushed by socialists to reduce land available to humans. Yes, if you are new to Agenda 21, it sounds like I am yelling "conspiracy" and you are right. But it is part of the early communist agenda and new socialists are using environmentalism to REDUCE LAND OWNERSHIP BY PRIVATE OWNERS by using taxes to buy land and restrict it from human usage. Even in Lake County, we have a "public lands" program with a small tax setaside to buy "public lands" and then NOT develop them for human recreation, but to restrict them from human use. They also want to waste tax funds on "re-wilding" which means tear out all the "non-local" trees, critters, etc and restore the land to what it looked like 200 years ago. I don't know about you, but to me, trees from 200 years ago probably... Read more →

Agenda 21 Update: Florida Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida to be Abolished

Tavares, FL - August 9, 2011 - Recently we wrote about the dangers of the UN Agenda 21 socialistic philosophy being rolled out into local government, with land planning restrictions that reduced property rights, with "planning" methods to push people away from CHOICE in where they lived to government decided central people pods (or "Employment Centers" in Green Speak). I don't really know what is the right answer to "growth" but stealth marketing of extreme Agenda 21 objectives needs to be monitored. I mentioned the existence of a Florida State Commission called the "Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida", and some of its objectives which reek of Agenda 21 objectives. But, a recent Florida law will apparenty abolish the 15 member Commission and they defunded it for year 2010-2011. Today I was reading an analysis of a new law passed by the current conservatives in the State legislature, HB 7201. The Lake County Board will get a presentation NEXT Tuesday on this bill and how it affects the County Comp Plan. Effect of the Bill This bill repeals s. 163.3247, F.S., and abolishes the Century Commission on June 30, 2013. You can go HERE to read three analysis of the... Read more →

Lake County Upcoming Government Issues for this Week - August 8

Tavares, FL - August 8, 2011 - Below are issues to be discussed by the Lake County Board and the Lake County School Board at their meetings this week, with my comments thrown in... Today - Monday - Lake County School District - go to their website HERE and view the "Board Docs" section for agendas and attachments, if any. A-1. School District Workshop at 2pm, TODAY, Monday, at School District building on HWY 441 This is a short workshop with the following topics, with my comments, if any: 2. TOPICS 2.01 Transportation Update From Lake County Public Works (Ross Pluta and Seth Lynch, Engineers) 2.02 Update to Capital Budget (Harry Fix, Director of Growth Planning) - NOTE: There IS an 8-page attachment which is a revised 2011-2012 Capital spending budget on the online agenda page in "Board Docs" It basically defers several construction projects due to the lack of funding. 2.03 Restructuring of Auditing Department (Susan Moxley, Superintendent) - This is interesting - the Board just last week agreed (I think) to continue the contract of the existing District Auditor, but attendees at the meeting said that two Board members said they could't understand his presentation. For the last... Read more →

Meeting Alert: Our Review of the Upcoming Lake County Board Meeting for Aug. 2

Tavares, FL - Aug. 1, 2011 - Tomorrow morning at 9am is the regular weekly Lake County Board meeting held at the Lake County Administrative Building in Tavares. I reviewed the agenda HERE and have the following comments listed by selected "Tab" numbers: This is a regular meeting, so they DO allow public input, but ONLY at the beginning of the meeting AFTER Tab 1 on the agenda. So, if you want to speak for 3-minutes, then be ready to do it then. The Board Chair, Jennifer Hill, still refuses to allow public input as each agenda item is discussed, which the School District DOES allow. Entire Agenda: READ the agenda HERE and watch the meeting online from the same page or attend the meeting and watch for any surprise additions or addendums. Both the staff and Commissioners tend to add last minute surprises, and sometimes they are key issues not defined well in the agenda page. Tab 7 - 4th Annual Green Fair VS Jobs, Economic Development and Foreclosure Reduction - The County staff organized this Green fair and arrange all types of vendors to attend. I applaud the effort, but why not do the same thing to improve... Read more →

UN's Agenda 21 is Taking over Florida Public Lands in Lake County & Other Actions

Updated July 28 to add section at bottom on Agenda 21 foreign aid projects on DEVEX website. Tavares, FL - July 25, 2011 - The UN has an initiative called Agenda 21 which is really aimed at reducing property rights and increasing socialism around the world. Agenda 21 has affected Florida as well as Lake County. Keep on reading... But first, if you don't know much about Agenda 21, WATCH this 9-minute "Agenda 21 Video for Dummies" explaining it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM&feature=youtu.be This article link below clearly explains one part, which is the encouragement of "wildlife" corridors which then prohibit access by humans. The article says now that 28% of Florida land is now taken up by such programs, and all of it funded with taxpayer money because no one challenged the concept. Recently, last year, two environmentalists on the Lake County Board (now no longer on the Board) pushed through modifications to the Lake County "comp plan" which laid out land usage plans, so that property rights were taken aways from owners by tactics such as limiting the size of roads in their area, which then controls traffic, which then reduces the value of land that could have been used for... Read more →

Channel 9 TV Quotes FiscalRangers in Report on Impact Fee Waivers by Lake County Governments

Tavares, FL - July 20, 2009 - Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Here is a Channel 9 report by Bernt Petersen on the issue of the value of waiving impact fees by local Lake County Governments. They got me questioning the value of the waivers, and they have quotes from local officials and staff supporting the waivers. http://www.wftv.com/news/28601741/detail.html What this all comes down to is whether you believe developers of new homes and business buildings should contribute impact fees EARLY towards the roads, schools and other infrastructure growth needs caused by that construction. Or should there be no impact fees attached to new construction, and ALL existing taxpayers keep getting taxed via sales taxes, property taxes and fuel taxes to pay for additional infrastructure needed by residents of the newly constructed buildings. Keep in mind that "new Infrastructure" is not the same as maintenance costs on existing roads, etc. which SHOULD be paid by property taxes, fuel taxes and sales taxes. Developers don't want to pay for any of those upfront costs, they want you to pay for it. Read it and post a comment. The video clip would not work on my computer, but the text is there... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers blog author to Host Lake County Roundtable Radio Show Wednesday

Tavares, FL - July 11, 2011 - Vance Jochim, author of this FiscalRangers.com blog will be the host for Ralph Smith's Lake County Roundtable weekly radio program this Wednesday at WLBE AM 790 at 11am to noon. WLBE is on Radio Road in Leesburg near the Lake Shopping Center. Ralph is on a road trip to the rockies, and I will be hosting the program, and naturally, focus on local Lake County government issues. Topics to be decided, and I will post them here sometime tomorrow, Tuesday. vj Read more →

Lake County Government Update - Upcoming Workshop & ACTION REQUESTS

Tavares, FL - July 7, 2011 - UPDATED Jul 9 to add more School District meeting info This is an update on: 1. The recent meeting of the Lake County, Florida Board of Commissioners 2. Next week's Lake County Board workshop on Tuesday, July 12. BE SURE to READ my ACTION requests and go to the meeting. 3. A brief update on the Lake County School Board issues and all THREE meetings for them next week. READ the next meeting section below on the July 12 workshop, PLAN to go to it, AND act on our ACTION REQUESTS described below. Important issues will be discussed at the workshop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Recent Lake County Board Meeting - last Tuesday, July 5th - Find the agenda HERE with attachments, if any, under "tabs" Tab 23: Firefighter's Union Agreement - The Board snuck through an approval listed in the agenda tab 23 as "Recommend approval ... of the attached Collective Bargaining Agreement" for a new one year fire fighter's union wage and benefit agreement without any prior public meetings. The Board had several SECRET "executive sessions" to discuss the contract, but no public meetings. They posted the 55+ page contract, but NO INDICATION... Read more →

Are Ethics of Elected Officials and Government Improving in Lake County?

Tavares, FL - July 7, 2011 - Ethics may slowly be improving in Lake County... So there was this high level official in the State of New York who forced internal staff to issue a $100,000 grant to a firm that had hired his wife as a consultant. But, he got caught, and was fired after the IG started their investigation. And, we have read about Orlando officials on a Board steering large service contracts to their own firms. Gee, it reminds me of a local Lake County official who I was told funneled campaign funds to a firm that employed his wife. But, knowing Florida, maybe it is legal here? Or, the rumors I hear about another elected official who got a house or land for much less than the owner paid for it? Perhaps for ruling on important issues? Of course, that could only be a rumor from political opponents... Or, the elected official who works full time for another government agency, but still takes time off for election campaigning and elected duties. Taking time off from your own business is one thing, but doing it while an apparent full time government employee is another thing. We don't... Read more →

Will Florida Teacher's Lawsuit to HALT 3% Pension Contributions Cost Lake Governments $6 to 9-million?$

Tavares, FL - June 28, 2011 - A recent Teacher's union lawsuit might increase local Lake County and School District budget shortfalls by an estimated $6-9 million dollars. The Florida Teacher's Union just sued Florida State to halt the planned 3% pension contribution by all employees, which is required by a new law initiated by Florida Governor Rick Scott. Previously, that expense was paid by the employer, such as local County governments and School Districts. As a consequence, they planned to save the estimated $6-9-million because employees would be paying the contribution, and have already factored the savings into budget plans. Now those savings might vaporize. HERE is the latest news on the lawsuit - court date set for October. I estimate that the lawsuit, if successful, could increase budget shortfalls for the Lake County school district by $3-4 million and Lake County government (including Constitutional officers) by an estimated $3-5-million (they have fewer employees). I use estimates because I don't have the actual dollar effects, but the lawsuit causes a number of "dominos" to fall in local (as well as State) government budget plans and could significantly raise current budget shortfall predictions. The School District made it extremely hard... Read more →

108 Miles of Lake County Roads Belong to the Cities - so who pays for Maintenance?

Tavares, FL - June 25, 2011 - Yup - here is another stupid Lake County government Fiscal Fiasco. If you are a County resident, would you be mad if you found the County was using YOUR tax funds (mostly sales taxes, not property taxes) to repair and maintain ROADS within city limits, and city resident taxes are not being used for the repairs, even though they LIVE or WORK on the street? Are you in a city, paying city property taxes, and the nearby road and sidewalks are not repaired because the City tells you "that is up to the County". The CITY should be doing the repairs using your property taxes or sales tax revenues they get (or other sources). It seems that a number of cities keep growing by annexing neighborhoods and businesses. That means the CITY gets the property tax at CITY tax rates (usually higher than the County), and the properties go off the tax rolls of the County Government, reducing their revenues. That is normal. Note: I if you know someone who should read this, please forward this to them, and ask them to LIKE our "FiscalRangers" Facebook page. But, what came out at recent... Read more →

What Should Local Voters do When their Elected Officials Have no Initiative?

Tavares, FL - June 24, 2011 - I went to a meeting recently where about 20 concerned local residents (not the Tea Party) were gathered to discuss why their area was not improving economically. Their businesses were slowly declining and nothing much was happening. There was a lot of griping about the lack of action by the local elected officials and the manager of their local area (not the County). After lots of discussion, they came to the conclusion their elected officials were part of the problem by not pushing the manager to establish measurable economic development objectives and implement them. It seems that one local high flying city does that, and their success is aggravating others without positive economic leadership. As always, I threw in my suggestion that foreclosures were a big part of the problem. Since I have not been able (yet) to get the Lake County County Commissioners to set up an action plan, I suggested this group add it to their list. I think it got lost somewhere during the discussion about trees. But, there were some heavy hitters from local bigger businesses, and the consensus resulted in the plan to do a survey and get... Read more →

Three Lake County Commissioners Sneakily Approve $8.5-million Emergency Operations Center

Updated June 16 - I added a link below in the "1. Budget Update" section to the County Manager's Powerpoint for the budget discussion. Tavares, FL - June 15, 2011 - The Lake County Commissioners had an offsite workshop yesterday in the wilds of Eustis at the Trout Lake Center. The agenda is HERE and SOME attachments are located under the "Tab" links. Offsite workshops are used many times to make decisions out of public view (no video taping), without public input and poor agenda details. Major results of the meeting were 1) a discussion on the $16-million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2) asking the Sheriff to do REAL budget cuts of another $3-million (5% of his $55+million budget); 3) three County Commissioners, Jennifer Hill, Welton Cadwall and Sean Parks approving the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for $8.5-million without disclosing it or the fiscal impact anywhere on the agenda, or allowing public input, and 4) Commissioner Jennifer Hill, who sets agenda items, did not provide for any public input during the meeting. (which is normal, but annoying, and an insult to taxpayers). We issued a bulletin on Monday about the pending meeting, and suggested... Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Weekly Alert on Local Lake County Government Activities

Tavares, FL - Monday, June 13, 2011 - This was sent out yesterday by email, but I have included some important revisions: - Tuesday School District Board 1PM "Retreat" CANCELED: I was notified this morning that the School Board retreat on Tuesday afternoon was CANCELED since the funeral for Tod Howard's son is Tuesday. However, last night it was still on the School Board website, and is still there this Monday morning. - Former Florida Senator Carey Baker will be speaking at the Wednesday evening Tea Party meeting, not Alan Hays. Hays postponed his appearance last week. Baker currently does not have a political office, but rumors are he is running for a local County Constitutional office. - I revised the wording in the discussion of overhead on the Lake County Fire Assessment District discussion in the County section below to clarify it. - The numbering is off due to this blog software not converting properly. Sorry 'bout that. vj Lake County School District Board a. Condolences to School District Board Member Tod Howard and his wife Ginger for the loss of their son in a car accident last week. See article HERE. Last week, the Board approved a new... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Decide to Invoice Hospital Districts for $237,000

Tavares, FL - June 9, 2011 - Lake County, FL Commissioners are pursuing collections for $237,000 in required Medicaid expenses from two local Lake county Hospital Tax Districts. Commissioners discovered the existence of a regulation never used that allows the County to invoice local Hospital Districts for required Medicaid payments. So, as this article indicates, they are pursuing collection of about $237,000 which will help offset budget shortfalls. This action has been attacked by another local blog which screams that the Commissioners are "defunding" Medicaid. That is ridiculous. The invoicing was pushed through by County Commissioners Jimmy Conner, Leslie Campione and Sean Parks, who properly took fiscal action to control County costs. All they are doing is following a previously unused Florida regulation that allows Counties to invoice local Hospital Districts for a share of Medicaid expenses previously paid by the County. This releases the budgeted money for other County spending priorities. That invoicing is a good fiscal practice, especially when the approximate $10-million in property tax revenues given to the North Lake County Hospital District are provided, as the article says, "without strings". The real issue is that the existing County Chairperson, Jennifer Hill, and the County Attorney, Sandy... Read more →

Congressman John Mica's Lake County Transportation Summit a Bust

Tuesday afternoon, Congressman John Mica, supporter of the Sunrail, gave one day notice to about two dozen local County officials and government staff for a meeting to discuss transportation issues in Apopka at the offices of Florida Atlantic Railroad, the firm that runs trains up the old our of repair and unmaintained CSX railroad track from Orlando through Mount Dora, Tavares and to Eustis. Lake County cities and the County have already agreed to pitch in taxpayer money to fund an $18-million reconstruction of the rail line, to be called the Orange Blossom Express. The State kicks in $13-million, and local agencies along the rail line will kick in the rest, and all have apparently agreed except Apopka, which "still has questions". I expect this to be a done deal, so it is not contingent on Sunrail being approved. We issued an earlier FiscalRangers.com alert that the meeting could be a plan to lobby for Sunrail. But our speculation didn't cover what really happened. I went to the meeting, along with about 2-dozen officials and several other "real press". Mica's staff ignored me and didn't even ask me to sign the email list! When everyone introduced themselves, and I said... Read more →

Florida Government Workers gripe about paying 3% towards Pensions, but in Louisiana, it is 11%

Florida Governor Scott recently passed a budget that included a requirement that Florida State and most local employees, who all belong to a central pension fund, finally start contributing 3% of wages towards the pension fund. Maybe they haven't checked other states before they gripe - Louisiana government employees were paying 8%, and now it has been bumped up to 11% in a budget plan by the Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. They also stopped giving automatic 4% merit increases. Both changes are in the budget plan, but we don't know if it will actually pass. "Under the ( Louisiana State ) plan, state workers would pay more toward their pension plans, with their contribution rising from the current 8% to 11%, a move anticipated to save $24 million.[18]" vj http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Louisiana_state_budget Read more →

Our Thoughts on Hurricane Readiness in Lake County

Tavares, FL - May 7, 2011 - The Daily Commercial just published an article about the need to plan for possible Hurricanes in the coming Hurricane Season. It is at: http://www.dailycommercial.com/localnews/story/050711shelters I have two thoughts regarding Hurricane readiness in Lake County: 1. What is amazing to me is that the County Government is in Tavares, but there are no public hurricane shelters in Tavares. The article had a whole listof shelters in Lake County, but nowhere is there a shelter in Tavares. Where are all those Tavares restaurant customers and visiting Seaplane owners supposed to go between meal courses when a hurricane or tornado is expected? 2. Also, the article talked about weaknesses of mobile & manufactured homes. There have been three major changes in mobile or manufactured home "tie down" procedures since the 1970's, so the latest are much less prone to being flipped, shifted, moved or damaged. But, the County has no program to publicize upgrades or encourage older mobile and manufactured home owners to upgrade the tie down systems on the home to prevent shifting and flips. Builder magazine had a long article on that subject about 2-3 years ago. I asked a Lake County building inspector... Read more →

Texas Sunset Commission Challenges Reason for Government Agencies

Tavares, FL - April 15, 2011 - This is what we need in Lake County and Florida. A commission like one in Texas with a responsibility to review the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission questions the need for more than 150 agencies, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. The Commission seeks public input through hearings on every agency under Sunset review and recommends actions on each agency to the full Legislature. In most cases, agencies under Sunset review are automatically abolished unless legislation is enacted to continue them. I found out about this Commission while reading THIS story on how the North Texas Tollway Authority is facing fraud allegations, and people are calling for this commission to review them. There is even a menu item "How to Participate" which describes specifically how the public can become involved. This is a great idea for some Lake County Board member to build their fiscal conservative chops. Create a commission like this for Lake County, and implement it to question departments and programs. UPDATE:... Read more →