Fiscal Rangers

Understanding Local Corporate Welfare & Identifying True Fiscal Conservatives

Tavares, FL - April 13, 2011 - Today, I gave a presentation at the Lake Federation Republican Women's Club in Tavares. It was on these two topics: - Understanding Corporate Welfare and Local Lake County Examples - Identifying Behaviors of True Fiscal Conservatives (vs liberals or Republicans in Name Only). Attached is the Powerpoint slide presentation. It has over 20 specific fiscal conservative actions that I recommend for elected officials to show they actually are fiscal conservatives. Download 2011-04-13 LFRWC Preso Enjoy. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers AT Comcast DOT net Read more →

Senator Paula Dockery on Sunrail Railroad Subsidy

Tavares, FL - Apr. 13, 2011 - The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners voted recently to subsidize the repairs of the privately (not public) owned CSX rail lines that run from Apopka to Eustis. They voted to spend over $1-million of their funds for the project which will cost taxpayers a total of over $16.5-million (Florida State kicks in about $13-million). The firm leasing the CSX line, Florida Atlantic Railway, will only pitch in about $1.5-million. We call that corporate welfare. We received the following memo from Sarah Hardy, a Legislative Assistant in Senator Paula Dockery's office on a related subject - the Sunrail subsidized rail project. Dockery has voiced objections to earlier attempts to use taxpayer funds to subsidize railroads. vj ================================================ Hi, Mr. Jochim, Thanks for your continued fiscal vigilance on behalf of the taxpayers. I really enjoyed your “on the hunt” illustration in the email. It’s great. Remember to mention that Orange County Commissioners recently voted to spend $18 million taxpayer dollars for infrastructure improvements on a private railroad corridor between Apopka and Eustis. This is the rail line that The Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Executive Director, TJ Fish, keeps asking for support from... Read more →

Guest Editorial: Are Taxpayer Subsidized Commuter Railroads Justified?

(Note: This subject of subsidizing rail lines is auspicious, because Lake County Governments recently voted to spend over $16.5-million in taxpayer funds to repair CSX privately owned rail lines in Lake County to facilitate commuter and freight rail operations without any reports showing facts to justify the expense - see our separate posts on this. VJ) From Richard Riker 3/21/2011 In December of 2009 Florida Legislature passed legislation by 27-10 establishing Sun Rail. This was done in a special session in an Obama-Pelosi hush and rush style. Why was this done in the “dead of night” without public disclosure? Simple, it would not have passed in the light of day. An initial impact of the passage was, as in most cases, financial, the legislature paid CSX Rail $10.5 million for track. This total is far more that the national average cost for track at $500,000 per mile. What are some of the other overall deterrents to rail transit? Ones that our legislatures should have considered before they voted for it. To begin with, and maybe foremost, only two rail lines in the entire world have recovered their capital cost Paris-Lyon and Tokyo-Osaka. No rail transit line in this country comes... Read more →

Florida Government Agencies should be Mandated to Use Charts Like This

Tavares, FL - Apr. 11, 2011 - In Lake County, FL , I have been watching union negotiations for wages. I have been preaching for maybe two years that the Administration and Board of the Lake County School District (and the Board of the County Commissioners) should develop statistics like the chart referenced on the link below. http://thathero.com/2011/04/11/oea-shared-sacrifice/ It is about Ohio wage patterns, and shows average wages of both union and private industry workers. Such charts should be mandatory for use when any government agency starts setting wage and benefits for government workers. Now, the chart is for Ohio, which is not a right to work State (Florida is), so the disparities between union and private wages are larger than you would find in Florida, but the idea is that no goverment elected officials should approve any wage and benefit increases without comparing trends like this, and for unemployment, benefits, pensions, etc. Government employees need to be paid within reason, and not excessively. vj Read more →

Lake County Board Approves Builder Welfare 15 month School Impact Fee Moratorium

7pm update - added estimates of potential lost revenue to the School District. 2:20 pm - Updated with added thoughts in a PS section at the end of this document. Tavares, FL - Apr. 5, 2011 - The Board of Commissioners (BCC) of the Lake County Government, after a one hour discussion, voted 5 to 0 against existing property owners and the School Board by more than doubling the length of time for a proposed moratorium on School impact fees. The approved time frame is from Jan. 1, 2011 (retroactive) to April 1, 2012, or 15 months. The Board essentially voted for Builder welfare over homeowner and education interests. School impact fees are around $9,324 per NEW residence, and the funds are intended for school construction due to increased population allowed by the addition of new homes. They are a major source of funding for the Schools to build new schools and to meet demands of population growth. HERE is the link to the list of all impact fees. The value of existing and foreclosed homes was therefore just reduced by $9,000 or more because new homes can be sold for lower values to compete with the existing and foreclosed... Read more →

Quote from Plato for taxpayers

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato Subscribe to fiscalrangers.com and "Like" our "FiscalRangers" Facebook page, and add it to your favorite links. Read more →

Channel 9 Orlando TV Interviews us about $2.7-million Lake County Medicaid Costs

Got Facebook? If so, go to our FiscalRangers Facebook page and LIKE us AND add us as a favorite link! http://www.facebook.com/FiscalRangers Channel 9 WFTV reporter Bernt Petersen interviewed me for this March 18th story regarding the possibility that Lake County can bill North Lake County Hospital District for a "proportionate share" of County Medicaid expenses. The online video interview, however, missed part of what I said, and tried to say taxpayers were getting double billed. I don't think so (see below), but the current County costs at their clinics for Medicaid patients might be billable to the Hospital District, which would allow the budgeted $2.7-million to be spent on other priorities. Staff seemed reluctant to admit that was a possibility, but Leslie Campione, Jimmy Conner and Sean Parks pushed for better information, which was furnished later (see memos at the bottom of this document), and a full report will be given at a future Board meeting. Here is a link to the Channel 9 video, but read my more detailed information below, because I don't agree with their statement that "Residents are Being Double Taxed". The basic issue is that at a recent Lake County Board meeting, the Commissioners, led... Read more →

Lake County Government Oversight, Red Flags, & Lack of Confidence

Tavares, FL - March 15, 2011 - Opinion (updated slightly at 3pm) I have reached the point where I have no confidence in a major oversight feature of Lake County Government. Most readers know I have a long background in internal audit in large corporations, local government (County of Los Angeles) and Federal Government (anti-corruption adviser in Iraq). Some observers claim I only look at Lake County functions from an audit standpoint. They confuse the function of financial auditors and their audits of County financial reports with the function of internal audit, which expands on financial audits to cover efficiency, effectiveness and economy of all operations. The work of internal auditors cover all the areas that CPA's ignore, like cost accounting, performance measurement, management controls and measuring effectiveness. Most financial auditors are CPA's and follow a very regimented, regulatory process, while operational internal auditors work in an unstructured field where anything can happen and must be reviewed and where the risk of unacceptable losses, and procedures needs review. In my opinion, a well running government agency depends upon five areas of oversight because government is a monopoly, so the discipline of price competition that exists in the corporate world is... Read more →

Seattle School Board FIRES School Superintendent for LACK of Management Oversight

So, you think as a government Senior manager you can't get fired? Well, after being rocked by a construction contract scandal, the Seattle School Board fired their Superintendent for not adequately supervising a manager who skimmed all sorts of funds. They ALSO fired the CFO. The firings took place after the Washington STATE auditors issued a report. Some of the findings included: - A manager over a "small business" setaside program created a company with the same name as the program, then cashed a check for $35,000 from the District school funds. - The audit found that, through the District's small business program that the unsupervised manager managed, the District paid: $1,519,965.34 for services with a questionable public purpose $280,005.25 for services it did not receive and for services that benefitted a private company. Apparently, they had really loose controls over payments less than $35,000. READ the blog report from a construction consultant HERE about the firing. READ the EARLIER blog posting HERE that lists more details and lists many weblinks to articles about the scandals. Favorite Quotes: "The school board's action of dismissing Supeintendent Goodloe-Johnson, came as the board attempted to restore the public's confidence in a district shaken... Read more →

Wall St. Journal: California Government Workers Paid 30% More than Private Sector Workers

Finally, someone did an analysis reported by the Wall St. Journal that describes what the true differential is between Public and Private Workers, and calls the Public workers on the Gravy Train... The study was based on California public workers, and also identifies missing components not described in another study from Berkeley. Here is an overview: - Actual wages are below private workers in BIG corporations by about 4%, but just about even if you compare all private worker pay (small and large employers). - Value of defined benefit pensions is about 4% higher for government workers because they are promised SPECIFIC levels based upon 8% earnings vs most corporations use 401k programs where the employee gets maybe 4%, and it is not a promised amount (defined benefit). - Retiree health benefits - about 90% of public plans offer retiree health benefits while pirvate sector employees rarely get them, AND government workers can start getting them when they retire in their 50's, while private sector plans rarely cover anything until a much later retirement age. State actuarial reports for California indicate the retiree health benefits could another 8% in compensation value. - Adding the values of the above pension and... Read more →

OMIGOSH - Lake County Economic Development Visioning Workshop Held Yesterday

Preface: If you are concerned about the need to improve the Lake County business and economic climate, jobs, reducing Foreclosures, etc., read this article below and let your Lake County Commissioners know you want a SERIOUS action plan using ideas collected at the meeting held yesterday. The action plan should be developed by March 15th which will be implemented by a COMPETENT Project manager with a sense of urgency and adequate funding to get the job done in months, not years. If they don't do it, I recommend we all move to Dallas and Houston, where the jobs are. Tavares, FL - Feb. 2, 2011 - Yes, it is true. After 3 years of downturns in the economy, the Lake County Commissioners finally, actually had a meeting to collect ideas on how to improve Lake County's economy. Hard to believe, but the idea was initiated by new Commissioner Leslie Campione, and a terrible giant of activity MIGHT be unloosed. The meeting was held at Lake Sumter Community College and about 125 community members were there from all types of backgrounds. The brainstorming session was facilitated by Alan Winslow, and consisted of a bunch of breakout sessions where people at different... Read more →

UPDATED: Two Big, Disappointing Decisions at Lake County Board of Commissioners Meeting Today

Updated Fri, Jan. 14 with revised info and "added comments" at end of this document on how the Lake County Board of Commissioners could indicate they actually have taxpayer fiscal interests at heart: Tue., Jan 12, 2011, Tavares, FL: Today's Lake County Board meeting was a "workshop" where they did NOT allow public input, and it started late at 9:30 or so and went to 2pm without a lunch break. Two disappointing major "consensus" decisions were made. Who is pulling the Puppet strings??? 1. Emergency Operations Center: Four of five Commissioners voiced a "consensus" vbte, including new Commissioners Leslie Campione, Jennifer Hill, Welton Cadwell, and Sean Parks (Jimmy Conner voted NO), to continue spending funds for the architect and a consultant to develop definitive costs for the Emergency Operations and "Communications" Center - was estimated to be $11-million, now maybe $9-million. Reading between the lines, it seems at least four Commissioners will approve the $9-million project once costs are better defined. This was a total reversal of Campone and Parks stands earlier. About half, or $4.5-million would come from "free money" (my words - Federal and other grants), and the other half, $4.5-million from local taxes, such as obligating future... Read more →

Florida Economic Gardening Institute Honors 50 Florida Companies for Business Growth, But NONE are from Lake County

Yes, the State of Florida funds a project called GrowFL or the Florida Economic Gardening Institute, which provides services and supplies to growing Florida firms that are beyond the "start up" stage. Below is a link to a press release about them honoring the growth efforts of 50 firms. NOT ONE OF THEM IS FROM LAKE COUNTY... Numerous recipients are from Duval, Hillsborough and Orange County, but none from Lake. Embarassing - what were the Lake County economic development people doing all last year that they couldn't ensure that one goal was to have several Lake County businesses enrolled in the program? I once did see a discussion of the GROWFL program during an economic "BOSS" development forum run by the City of Minneola, but that is when I found that startups didn't qualify. They basically want firms that already have sales over $750,000 and meet other criteria. Now, if Lake County had good elected officials and good Economic Development leaders, they would be out researching all the Lake County firms that fit the criteria, and publicly challenging them to apply to be one of the firms receiving GrowFL funding. Maybe next month it will happen...the staffing of the Lake... Read more →

Lake County Impact Fees - Should they be VARIABLE based on distance to infrastructure?

Note: If you are a Facebook member, and want to get frequent updates from our "FiscalRangers" facebook page, go HERE and "like" us.! In Lake County, our impact fees for new construction of houses and commercial buildings are fixed based upon sq ft and property type. The impact fee revenue is used to pay for added roads, schools, fire stations, and parks to handle the increased population. However, the impact fees are FIXED bacause there is no variable rate based upon distance from existing schools or defined population or commercial centers. Thus someone who develops a 400 unit housing development in a town near an existing school pays the same as someone who creates a new development in the boonies, 25 miles from existing schools or towns. The distance means that the County must build new schools and roads to handle the distant population. It seems to me that environmentalists want town centric development, and land owners, development attorneys, certain lumber yard owners and builders want the ability to create developments anywhere in Lake County, and not pay ANY impact fees. They want to shift the cost of new infrastructure to ALL taxpayers by using gas taxes or increased general... Read more →

Lake County Board Members to Consider Risky Strategy for Selecting the New County Manager

Yesterday, the Lake County Board had a six hour "retreat" to discuss future budgets, etc. I missed the meeting, only one member of the public was there, and no reporters. But, I was told that two Board members (Welton Cadwell & then Jimmy Conner) came out saying that they wanted interim County Manager Sandy Minkoff to be permanent, ...which was a surprise to everyone else, and then a third Commissioner, Jennifer Hill, said she also might support him. Until now, everyone was relying on earlier statements from Minkoff that he did not want the job and would return to being County Counsel... but that was a YEAR ago. And, until yesterday, there were plans for the Board to discuss County Manager hiring methods, by either hiring me ( not really, but a scary thought) or hiring a GOOD headhunter to find a really good County manager with a measurable track record who can lead this County out of the economic doldrums... kinda like John Drury is doing for the City of Tavares. My initial thoughts about this news is that there had been a momentum to use a headhunter to find a barn burner leader for the County, not an... Read more →

Osceola County Board Fires Four Staff which costs $800,000 in Severance

It is interesting to watch how fast some officials can fire a government manager, without regard to the cost of severance to the taxpayers. Below is an article about how the Osceola County Board cost the taxpayers $800,000 in severance pay by firing four people recently. My thought is that taxpayers need protection not from dumb or inefficient staff, but from dumb officials who don't try a mediation or counseling process, or anything. Now, of course, it could be that issues had been festering for months or years, and if so, the facts need to be disclosed better than a few quotes in the newspaper. My primary issues with this process of elected officials firing people is: - The allowed severances are way too high. They should be much lower. Why is it that government agencies allow such high severances in comparison to business? Is it because "it is not their money, but the taxpayer's money? Severance and termination policies should match those used by similar size industrial or corporate firms. (not non-profits). The Orlando Sentinel editorial at the bottom of this document describes how one agency limited severance to three months in a new manager's contract. In the case... Read more →

When will Lake County, Cities & School District Integrate Purchasing Efforts?

Tavares, Lake County, FL: The picture at left shows a typical paperwork based purchasing process - and we ask: do we in Lake County need to repeat that convoluted process with duplicative and separate systems (and several may be manual, not computerized) in each Lake County government Agency? Why don't they all share a single, internet based purchasing system running in the "internet cloud"? Why don't they consolidate County wide purchases to achieve economies of scale like corporations do on a daily basis? Local government purchasing departments have an annual fair for vendors to talk to representatives from the purchasing departments of many local Lake County agencies. I have attended the last two. I registered as a vendor (consulting) at the first fair, but never heard anything for about a year, but now I get a notice about once every two months for a request for proposal that is not relevant. The "leaders" of the purchasing fair created a "Pooled Purchasing" website called "Procurement Offices of LAKE" (POOL) within the Lake County website at http://pool.lakecountyfl.gov/ , and it is listed on the County's "Doing Business in Lake County" website. BUT, if you look at it, it hasn't been updated at... Read more →

Lake County FL Board Requests Ideas from Public on Improving Business Growth

This project to collect ideas from the public was initiated by new Board member Leslie Campione and the Lake County Government now has the below webpage to collect ideas from the public. The submission deadline is January 14th, and your ideas will go directly to the Commissioners for consideration in a new economic growth strategy and planning meetings in January or February. Visit the page and submit some ideas! We will. Send US a copy to FiscalRangers AT comcast DOT net and we will publish them. vj http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/departments/commissioners/business_growth_comments.aspx and, while you are generating ideas, send some to Governor-Elect Rick Scott at HIS idea submission webpage HERE: http://www.scotttransition.com/send-your-ideas/ AND... you could look at Florida Tax Watch's report of 125 ideas to fix Florida HERE: http://www.floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/12082010GCTSF.pdf Read more →

Cost Reduction Ideas We Have Submitted to new FL Governor Rick Scott

Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott has a transition website and a webpage to collect ideas from the public to reduce Florida government costs. It is HERE at http://www.scotttransition.com/send-your-ideas/ . Here are some ideas I submitted - I will add more as I do them. 2010-12-09 - Establishment of Independent and Elected County Auditors is Needed Florida counties have no County level department assigned full oversight over performance areas like efficiency, economy or effectiveness. The Auditor General does superficial, low quality financial audits, and the Counties brag about "award winning" CAFR reports and financial audits, but NO ONE is assigned independent review (unlike corporations) of operational metrics, efficiency, and effectiveness to reduce measurable costs. Florida needs to establish tough, mandatory departmental performance metrics, AND establish an independently elected County Auditor like other States have with authority to initiate performance audits of County, Schools, Constitution Officers, Special Districts and Cities. (Note: Some Florida Counties have had so many problems that they established their own County Inspector General - but they are usually run by ex-law enforcement or attorneys and are focused on after the fact investigations of wrongdoing, and not reviewing and improving performance measurement systems BEFORE problems can occur.) 2010-12-09 OPPAGA Needs... Read more →

Lake County Board Asks Public for Brainstorming Ideas to Increase Business Growth

Lake County, FL: New County Commissioner Leslie Campione discussed an economic development brainstorming project at prior Board meetings to collect ideas from the public to increase business growth. After building consensus and unanimous support from the other Board members, Campione was selected to spearhead the effort. The County has setup a web page to provide online or mailable forms to solicit ideas. Ideas from the public are due by January 15th, and the Board will have one or two brainstorming sessions to review the submissions, and perhaps ask submitters to come and present their ideas to the Board. Right now, the staff has also been asked to provide ideas, and also describe how their individual departments affect business development (i.e. fees, permits and time to approve them, etc). Here is the press release, so start collecting your ideas and submit them. I would suggest well researched ones with specific recommendations would be more acceptable than just providing platitudes. For instance, research how your idea is implemented in another agency and provide results data: vj Commissioners solicit suggestions from community on growing businesses in Lake County TAVARES — The Lake County Board of County Commissioners is seeking input from the community... Read more →

Get Ready to Pitch Legislative Requests to Lake County Delegation on January 5th

Lake County, FL: The annual Lake County Legislation delegation meeting is where various local agencies make a pitch for Florida State government funding or regulations from the Lake County Florida State legislators (Reps and Senators), and where Marilyn Bainter previously asked for changes to the Hospital District legislation to allow a flexible millage rate (which were ignored). I don’t have the time yet, but it will probably be at the auditorium at Lake Sumter CC. So, if someone let Godzilla loose in Eustis, and he and King Kong took out some historic homes, and your agency wants the State to initiate legislation to provide grant funding for a specific Godzilla rehab clinic grant, this might be the place to make a pitch. (Good luck on that... ) At a previous delegation meeting two years ago, the Legislators let hospital reps give a presentation, but them forced Bainter and her supporters to wait until the END of the meeting after everyone left to give their public input. Hopefully, if Bainter makes a presentation this year, she won't be treated so badly. The County BCC is being asked in next Tuesday’s agenda (tab 6) to approve a staff prepared list for the... Read more →

Here Is a Lesson for Lake County FL Government Managers - Don't Give Yourself a SECRET Raise!

About five months ago, the Hillsborough County Florida Commissioners fired their County Administrator after she gave herself and the County Attorney and others a 1% raise without notifying the Board. It took them awhile, but the Board fired the Administrator, Pat Bean, who had worked there 32 years, after discovering the hidden raises. So, local Lake County government managers, don't try to sneak through a staff raise without running it by the elected officials in a public meeting. Read two articles below with the details. vj Here is an early 2009 St. Petersburg Times article explaining the events that led to the firing - apparently the Board was not happy with the Administrator's management skills, saying she was a "reactive" manager. What is interesting is that many of the complaints listed were similar to those about a recent Lake County Manager who was fired last year, and another, still employed, local manager in another agency. However, they did not violate any regulations like in Hillsborough County. Below is an article when Pat Bean was fired around June, 2010. She was fired "with cause" indicating she violated terms of her agreement and not allowed to collect severance of over $220,000. That... Read more →

Pressure on for Lake County Commissioners to Locate New County Manager

The Daily Commercial opinion column below gives a good overview of the need for a new County Manager. The County has gone over a year with an interim County Manager, Sandy Minkoff - the County Attorney. The County needs a take charge, action oriented leader - maybe our own version of John Wayne. During that time, I think Minkoff has done a good job of stabilizing County operations, weeding out some weak people, and reducing staff due to smaller budgets. However, Minkoff is an attorney, as the op-ed points out, not an Administrator. Also, during the last year, there have not been any inititatives by the County to fix economic issues, jobs issues, or the huge foreclosure problem. A leader is needed. In Lake County, the only one that seems to be at the level needed (in my opinion) is Tavares's John Drury. Maybe that is why the Tavares City Council recently proposed raising his salary to the exact level of the County Manager. (But, they ended up only giving a $10k raise). New Commissioner Leslie Campione had it right at last Tuesday's Board meeting when she suggested a headhunter be used to find strong candidates, AND that economic development... Read more →

Only in Chicago (or Lake County): Chicago officials broke bidding rules to give $23-million radio contract to MOTOROLA

Does this sound familiar to Lake County, FL residents? It seems the Inspector General of Chicago found that city staff "circumvented competitive bidding rules" to award a $23-million radio contract to Motorola. This sounds familiar to our readers, who have read about a Lake County contract for $32-million that was awarded a few years ago to Motorola without any local competitive bidding. Originally, the staff issued a request for interest (rfi) to identify interested bidders. They got a very large proposal from Motorola and one from a smaller group pitching a different technology that would use radio towers already in place and cost about 50% of the Motorola bid. Staff rejected the competitor's proposal and would not allow them to submit a revised bid. Then, rather than re-publishing and requesting more bids from other competent bidders, they went and used an existing Motorola bid in another county, which is called "piggy backing". We here call it "sole source" bidding, and this has been a controversial subject that was even brought up in recent elections. Favorite quotes from the Chicago Tribune article below: “OEMC had falsified documents to push the initial purchase through an unrelated contract with the vendor,” the report... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers Voting Recommendations for Nov. 2nd Elections for Lake County, FL

Updated Nov. 5 - All our recommended candidates, even Mike Yost, were elected EXCEPT for two of the watchdog candidates for the North Lake Hospital Tax District, Richard Riker and Walt Dobruck. And, stupid voters didn't understand Amendments 5&6 and how they will give the liberal courts power over deciding gerrymandering of political boundaries, and Amendment 8 failed. AND, all the judges were retained, but maybe they got the message. Well, maybe next time! vj Revised and expanded - Wednesday, Oct. 27 - (added more info on FL 5th District Judges, School Board races and Lake County Water Authority races). As we get additional details, we will add them to this document. This document will remain at the top of the blog until after Nov. 2 elections, but scroll down to look for other issues posted after this page was written. vj Here are our recommendations for your votes for the Nov. 2nd ballot, whether you mail it in, vote early, or wait and vote at a precinct polling location on Nov. 2. I recommend you use your sample ballot and fill it in while reading this. You can find your Lake County voting precinct HERE. We do not have... Read more →

Video of Last Saturday's 1000 Patriot Walk - Very good!

Below is a link to a great, short video of last Saturday's walk in Orlando AND Eustis, and includes shots of Lake County citizens like Patricia Sullivan, Senator Carey Baker and others. Watch it, then sign up for more neighborhood walks to help get the word out to support FISCALLY conservative candidates and trounce liberal Alan Grayson and others. Be part of the solution to end Democrat efforts to implement socialism. Matter of fact, help Obama implement socialism by LAYING off a Democrat today! Let them experience the benefits of relying on big government and Obamacare. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjSvbVm6Yp4 vj - have you posted conservative candidate signs in your yard yet? Git it done! Read more →

Announcing the Fiscal Rangers EOC Building Design Contest - $50 Grand Prize

Lake County, Florida has an architectural design crisis, and FiscalRangers.com invites the public to help provide creative designs for the new EOC center. Please forward a link to this contest announcement to any Lake County citizen who may want to know about this contest. Readers know that the Lake County, Florida Commissioners (Hill, Cadwell & Stewart) recently approved to spend $11-million on a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) building even after the cost estimate DOUBLED and the non-Federally funded portion grew to $7-million. Basically, three County Commissioners didn't care about the economy, or public input, and committed two future years of sales tax revenue to the building, plus other funds that could have retained some laid off employees instead. And, they never discussed the added annual operating costs for the building So, we here at the FiscalRangers HQ decided that the building should at least have a memorable design, and the public should be able to submit design ideas for this building, rather than just accept the design from the boring architects. The picture below is one possible design for the new EOC center. The contest rules are below. No Democrats or spendthrift County Commissioners were harmed or portrayed in... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Spend $11-million on EOC Center with Little Discussion

This morning, the Lake County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the design of the MOST EXPENSIVE option for a new Emergency Operations AND Communications Center Building near the County Court building. Commissioners Jennifer Hill, Linda Stewart & Welton Cadwell offered hardly any justification for their decisions or discussion, and voted against Jimmy Conner to select the MOST EXPENSIVE option offered by the architect who prepared estimates. Board Chairman Welton Cadwell even chided Commissioner Jimmy Conner for "pontificating" when Conner was trying to discuss the merits of different options. Until today, the public and media were told that the cost would be around $4-million for a basic EOC (Emergency Operations Center) building with most of it being paid with Federal grant funds. But, the architect came back to the Board today with harder estimates and a range of options. The basic EOC was now around $6-million, which meant over $2.5 million not covered by Federal grant funds would have to be paid from local taxpayer funds. And, the original expanded version to include space for the Sheriff and EMS dispatch operations was estimated to cost $6-million, but now it is over $11-million. And the Board chose the most expensive... Read more →

Lake County Board to Consider Spending up to $11+million on Unbudgeted Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

Yes, it's true. Tomorrow morning, after 9am, in the Lake County Administration building, with little transparency, and no description of the NEW cost estimates in the agenda, your Lake County Board of Commissioners will vote on moving forward the staff proposal to build a separate Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Only, now, the new estimate from an architect seems to be $6-million to over ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS for a building that staff originally said would cost around $4-million in Federal funds. The rest has to come out of taxpayer's pockets. If you remember, the County Board authorized an architect to prepare a cost estimate for the original EOC (Emergency Operating Center), estimated at $4-million, plus a second option with Sheriff & EMS dispatch centers for another unfunded $2-million. The EOC center is the one where they wanted to spend $4-6-million on the ops center with mostly “free” Federal money. In the past four years, the County has only needed their current temporary EOC about 15 days total. Well, NOW THE ARCHITECT’S ESTIMATE HAS GROWN TO A BARE BONES budget of $6-MILLION TO a fully optioned construction project costing up to $11-MILLION. You have to look at all the attachments to the... Read more →

Corporations are Passing More of Health Insurance Costs to Employees

So, who did the Democrat voters think would pay for THEIR health insurance when they voted for Obama and supported Obamacare? Well, the Wall St. Journal says now corporate employers are passing more of the cost increases on to employees, rather than split the cost increases. Now local, state and federal government agencies need to do the same. The day is over when government employees should get a higher subsidy for health insurance than employees of businesses. Favorite quote: Cost shifting has become the norm for many of the roughly 160 million Americans who receive health insurance through an employer. In the latest survey, 17% of workers at large firms had deductibles over $1,000, compared with 6% who paid that amount before their insurer started to pick up the bill in 2006. At small firms, nearly half of workers had deductibles that high this year, compared with 16% four years ago. vj from the Wall St. Journal HERE Employers Sharply Raise Workers' Share of Health Costs By AVERY JOHNSON Employers passed health-insurance costs onto employees at a sharply higher rate this year, and businesses' premiums grew more slowly than they have in a decade, according to an annual survey of... Read more →

No Lake County Board Meeting Tomorrow, but We Describe How "Pushback" delays progress

This is a piddly little comment, but the type of thing that drives the public crazy when dealing with the government. And, I have used it to provide some details on a behavior pattern that can delay positive change in government. Recently, I checked the Lake County website to see if there was a Board meeting tomorrow, August 31, which is the fifth Tuesday. Nothing is listed and the last meeting listed was last Tuesday, the 24th. If you go HERE to the Board's Agenda page, you should see what I mean. Nothing is listed past August 24, although today is August 30. I then click a link on that page to see the official list of "regular" meetings (which don't include workshops), and that page is out of date, and only shows meeting dates through June. So, I call the County offices and get a nice lady who says "this is the fifth Tuesday, and they don't have meetings". So, as an experienced business guy, I always ask that a solution be implemented so other people won't have to waste time calling because the agenda gives NO CLUE that there is no meeting. I suggested that they should enter... Read more →

Roadside Snipe Signs & Political Sign Capers Abound in Lake County, and our Cheerleader Solution

Aren't you tired of all the advertising signs on roadsides? We have some sign caper stories and a proposed solution involving CHEERLEADERS. City or County ordnances define what is legal regarding business signs, and what is not, but it seems more and more businesses, and even politicians, are ignoring the rules. There are usually separate ordnances defining when political signs can be posted and where. We will describe the two types of signs, and some capers going on, and maybe a possible solution involving CHEERLEADERS (which increases our readership also! We could not find pictures of local Cheerleader car washes). 1 Commercial business signs - posted illegally Lake County towns like Tavares are infested with "snipe" roadside signs... you see them sprout like mushrooms on corners, medians and anyplace where drivers might see them. They are placed there by businesses that would rather trash the roadsides with signs selling printing, medicine, real estate, or signups to private kids sports programs. My understanding is that such signs are illegal if placed in roadside medians, which are usually defined as the space between roads (median strips), or in the grass between sidewalks and curbs. On some highways, like State roads, the state... Read more →

FiscalRangers Recommendations for August 24 Primaries in Lake County, Florida - Sullivan, Metz, Campione, Parks, Miller, Howard, Fischer need your vote

Below are my recommendations for local Lake County elections (not cities) for: - Lake County Commissioner - Dist 2 and Dist 4 - Lake County School Board - three openings - Congressional Dist. 8 (Alan Grayson is the Dem. incumbent) - Florida State Rep. Dist 25 - Judges - nope - I don't have enough information because it is really hard to find information on Judges, and, they don't really affect most fiscal issues of local government. However, Hodges & Miller are incumbents, and if you don't want incumbents, then go for Lyn & Odette. I have written various postings on specific candidate recommendations, but now need to summarize them and make recommendations on all the positions up for local voters in Lake County to decide. I have attended most School District Board meetings AND workshops (i.e. for budgets) in the last four years, and I have attended most County Commission meetings in the last 18 months. I ran for a while for Lake County Commissioner, District 4, until I realized I didn't have the funds or "army" of supporters like Leslie Campione. My principle guidelines on selecting a candidate are: - They aren't naive or inexperienced in intelligently evaluating... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Could Learn About Sustainability from this Example

Maybe the Lake County Commissioners can learn some leadership skills by studying lighthouse keepers and reviewing these examples of "sustainability", then implementing "sustainability" in local Lake County government programs. Sustainability is a liberal buzzword used by the State Dept and other government and even local liberal groups to describe the process of ensuring that a desired outcome "sustains" itself and continues without much assistance. The cartoon shows an extreme liberal's idea of sustainable personal transportation. Don't use much materials for wheels, eliminate any gas powered system, without considering the extra human effort and time to get anywhere. Humans come last. One definition is that "sustainable societies are ones that meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Harvesting wood is sustainable if you plant more trees than you cut so the forest is always being replenished for future generations. Sustainable fishing is to ensure the fishing stock is not depleted, and fishing is limited so that desired outcomes (fish populations) are replenished back to pre-human fishing levels. Sustainable housing is that which is designed to be repairable and reduces uses of energy, etc. to limit need for increased resource... Read more →

South Lake Tea Party/912 Candidate Survey Matches my Own Perceptions

I think maybe the South Lake Tea Party siphoned off some of my candidate recommendations. They just had an online survey of their members HERE and seemed to agree with me on just about all Lake County election candidates. I don't know how they did that, because I don't go to their meetings, but we agree about 100% on their survey results. Maybe we are both drinking Niagara water? Go look at the results. Watch this blog for some of the reasons why I made my choices later this week. I do NOT agree with many candidate recommendations from the liberal Orlando Sentinel, but you can also see videos of their interviews of candidates, including the local ones for County Commission HERE (scroll down and look at the right column for the videos). Those are very instructive. But, I have had a problem viewing them because Adobe Flash CRASHES in the middle, then the stupid video player software they use won't let you fast forward back to where the crash occurred, so you have to sit through the entire first part of the interview again to get back to where you were in the video. But, unlike most candidate forums,... Read more →

Lake County Board to Defer Discussions on Pending Impact Fee Increases

We have written earlier that the Lake County Impact Fee Committee had two meetings (May 20 & June 17) where they heard recommendations from a consultant to raise current impact fees for Transportation (Roads), Libraries, Fire District, and Parks. School impact fees are decided separately by the School District Board, so are not part of this issue. The committee voted to forward the consultant recommendations to the Board for approval. However, I asked Lake County Commissioner Jennifer Hill, the Board's liaison to the Committee, when the proposed fee hikes will be discussed by the Board for approval. She said the State law mandating periodic fee studies didn't require the decision until early 2011, so the Board will not review the proposed fees until late 2010. We can't help noticing that is also after the November elections for the two Commissioners that are up for re-election. The Board is also deferring a separate recommendation from the Impact Fee committee that was spearheaded by the Lake County Homebuilder's Association to shift impact fee costs to ALL taxpayers by increasing gas and other taxes. Since incumbents Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart are running for re-election, and they would probably vote against any shift... Read more →

New Government Method to Solve Budget Woes - Rollback Salaries

Until now, governments either laid off workers or gave them furloughs to reduce costs, but now, as major economic indicators drop, some are shifting to salary rollbacks. I mean, if property dropped in value, local salaries in business have dropped to 2000 levels, doesn't that mean government workers are overpaid in the current economy and should also be rolled back? And maybe the same tactic for other institutions like Hospitals? This is the next step to consider - salary rollbacks - to balance government budgets, and bring them in line with the private sector that has to pay taxes. vj from the NY Times HERE August 3, 2010 More Workers Face Pay Cuts, Not Furloughs By STEVEN GREENHOUSE The furloughs that popped up during the recession are being replaced by a highly unusual tactic: actual cuts in pay. Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money in cost-saving measures that are often described as a last-ditch effort to avoid layoffs. A new report on Tuesday showed a slight dip in overall wages and salaries in June, caused partly by employees working fewer hours. Though average hourly pay... Read more →

Tuesday's Lake County Board Expected to Approve Two Land Purchases for $600,000 EACH

Yes, they consider this routine to buy "strips of land for right of way and easements" for over $600,000 each. It is routine enough the Interim County Manager lists the items in the "consent" agenda, which means unless a Board member pulls the item for discussion, it is automatically approved for payment. Just like that... $600,000 times 2 = $1.2-million. Do you know how many antique wood boats I could buy with that amount of money? All the boats in the nearby picture. I could even hire attorneys to paint my boat dock to match the boat's varnished finish! Here are copies of the actual "Public Works" agenda sections: Tab 13Approve and execute a purchase agreement with Rocky Mount Development Co., Inc. for the purchase of strips of land to be used for right of way and easements for the Hooks St. Phase IV Segment B Project in the Clermont area. Fiscal impact is $616,500.00 Commission District 2 Tab 14Approve and execute a purchase agreement with Fox Hill Builders, Inc. for the purchase of strips of land to be used for right of way and easements for the Hooks St. Phase IV Segment B Project in the Clermont area. Fiscal... Read more →

FiscalRangers Defines the ONLY Real Republican County Commissioner Candidates You Should Vote For and Why

Updated 8/3/10 at 10pm - I revised the wording to better reflect who is a Republican, and who is a RINO. To my Republican friends: This cartoon about Clinton political games reminds me of other Democrat back door games going on in Lake County RIGHT NOW. Send this to all your Republican friends if you care who wins the Lake County Commissioner race, approves budgets and controls (or expands) spending of your tax funds for the next four years. A recent snubbing of a Republican event by two "Republicans" has resulted in my decision to recommend the only Republican candidates running for County Commissioner that should get your Republican vote in the August 24th primaries, and I will describe why. Below is a memo distributed by Alan Winslow, an officer in the Lake County Republican Executive Committee (REC), after a candidate debate organized by Winslow on behalf of REC was held for Lake County Commissioner, Dist. 2. Candidates Elaine Renick and David Yeager canceled at the last minute and went to a different "meet & greet" event and basically snubbed the Republican Party in Lake County. This happened even though Renick attended an REC monthly meeting just earlier this week.... Read more →

Is the Lake County Board or Staff trying to pull a fast one and Add People to Pension Plan?

EMS is the organization that provides Emergency services and ambulances for both Lake & Sumter Counties. EMS (Emergency Medical Service, Inc.) has a good reputation in Lake County. But, Is the Lake County administration staff trying to pull a fast one and get approval from the County Board at Tuesday's Board meeting to add 267 EMS employees to the County's employee benefits program (which may or may not include the pension plan) without ANY acceptable justification documents or any public discussion? You can find the Tuesday agenda HERE and click on tab 1 to see the "agenda request" document which fails to provide any details on this issue. You can find the website for EMS here - they are not listed on the County website as a County agency. This is the EMS that... recently approved the County Manager's plan to use about $1-million of their separate property tax income to help pay for the unfunded Motorola radio maintenance cost of over $1-million. The County may (decision still pending? ) get to use $1-million of EMS funds to offset un-budgeted radio maintenance costs without complaint. Is this request to add all the EMS employees to the County employee benefits programs... Read more →

FiscalRangers Opinion: Lake County's County Counsel Dept. Needs to Improve Business Contracting Skills

Revised: This article was rewritten on 7/19 and removed from the earlier post on a request for increased attorney's fees. I just posted an article about weak cost justification data for increasing the hourly rate of an outside law firm used by the Lake County County Counsel. That situation provides a good reason to review the public track record of the Lake County legal department from a business and business contract viewpoint. This issue has been bouncing around in my head for weeks. I have audited contracts up to $600-million in size, and have learned a thing or two about preventing contract disputes. It seems that the County Counsel department needs to beef up their skills in writing business contracts. This is about the County Counsel's department... within the Lake County Board's office. The current interim County Manager is Sandy Minkoff, who was the head County Counsel until he took that position. The current interim County Counsel is Melanie Marsh. So far, we have been told that once the County hired a County Manager, Minkoff (who has said he does not want the County Manager position permanently) will return to his prior position, and so will Marsh.Most of the duties... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Should Reject County Counsel's Request to Hike Consulting Attorney's Fees by 13.6% Until More Justification is Provided

Revised 7/19 - I removed information on a separate matter related to the County Counsel and posted it in another posting on 7/19. The interim County Counsel, Melanie Marsh, is requesting Board approval at Tuesday's (Jul. 20, 2010) Board meeting (agenda tab 15)to increase the hourly rate of a labor law consulting attorney by 13.6% without much justification (in my opinion) except to include the attorney's letter saying they wanted to increase rates. You can review the meeting agenda HERE for the Lake County Board of Commissioners July 20th meeting, and click on the tab 15 to see the details about this issue. My opinion is that the requested rate increase should be rejected by the Board until better justification data is provided, like described below. (More details below) So, what about the fee increase for the attorney described under tab 15? The only supporting documents are an "agenda request" document, and the rate increase letter from the attorney, Fisher & Phillips, LLP. The documents said the firm has not received a rate increase since 2007. I am not questioning the skills or reputation of the attorney involved, or the merit of the rates they receive, but I am questioning... Read more →

Lake County Lays off 23 Employees due to Expected $8-million Budget Shortfall

According to Lake County Commissioner Jimmy Conner's blog at www.ConnerReport.com, the County Interim Manager, Sandy Minkoff has laid off another 23 employees due to a projected $8-million budget shortfall expected for next fiscal year. Just think, they are reacting, but still don't have weekly status reports at Board meetings on economic development, job growth activities or projects to fill the estimated 5,000 foreclosed homes in Lake County. You can't turn around an economy if you aren't PUBLICLY tracking progress in the factors that cause up and down economic pressures. Maybe that is why another blog reported that incumbent County Commissioner Elaine Renick skipped a candidate forum this last weekend at Liberty Baptist Church. It is easier to hide than bring these issues out in the open on a weekly basis as priorities and discuss them. Here is what Jimmy said, or you can visit his blog: County Reorganizes To Increase Efficiency June 29, 2010 Due to declining revenues, County Manager Sandy Minkoff has been forced to lay off an additional 23 county employees. Property values continue to decline and next year's revenues are expected to drop another $8 million dollars, therefore the County has no choice but to reduce its... Read more →

Cost of Illegal Immigrants from a California Teacher Working in a Title 1 School

This is close to what I saw when I lived in California until I moved to Florida in 2006. One certain way to identify the impact of this problem in Florida is to require ALL government agencies, including schools, to track actual, additional costs to support illegal immigrants and all the social programs that support them. The costs should be tracked as a separate program, even if it involves multiple funding sources. vjFrom a School Teacher in California: CHEAP TOMATOES 900 teachers just got laid off from the Los Angeles Unified School District . They are $650,000 over their annual budget. The following English teacher helps to explain one area that looms large over California 's educational crisis. I hope each person receiving this mail will read it carefully all the way to the end. It is sad what is happening to our great country all because our politicians are afraid they will miss out on a vote. What a travesty! This English teacher has phrased it the best I've seen yet. This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent From a California school teacher - - - "As you listen to the news about the student... Read more →

Palm Beach County Hires their First Inspector General & Lake County Needs One

I have written earlier about the corruption in Palm Beach County that resulted in a citizen demand to create and fund a powerful Inspector General department. Well, they just named the new IG, who was the Inspector General over the Florida State Dept. of Children and Families... We need a similar department in Lake County due to the... lackadaisical audits of the County and NO performance audits of the Constitutional officers. vj Palm Beach County Commissioners unanimously hire Palm Beach County's first inspector general By Jennifer Sorentrue Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Updated: 5:13 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, 2010 WEST PALM BEACH — The woman responsible for stamping out corruption in the State's Department of Children and Families was hired today to serve as Palm Beach County's first inspector general. County commissioners unanimously approved Sheryl Steckler's four-year employment contract for the post. She is slated to begin working later this month. Steckler was one of eight finalists for the newly-created post. A seven-member selection panel made up of the county's ethics commission, State Attorney Michael McAuliffe and Public Defender Carey Haughwout chose Steckler after two days of interviews. She will be paid $150,000 a year. Read more →

Lake County Commission Race Election Candidate Platitudes & Vague Promises

The election season for local politicos is heating up, but many candidates are spouting platitudes & vague generalities as their campaign points, rather than specifics. Here is a collection of the campaign promises and platitudes I collected about a month ago from the websites of just those candidates running for County Commissioner (District 4 and District 2). They are all running (including myself) to replace incumbents Linda Stewart & Elaine Renick. When you hear these in speeches or read them on flyers, look for the LACK of specific local examples (like you see on this blog every week) or LACK of specific suggestions to FIX a specific problem defined by the platitude. For instance, if a candidate says they will cut "waste, fraud & abuse", then ask what specific examples led them to think there is "waste, fraud & abuse" in the local government agency. There have been not reported instances of fraud in recent history within either the County government or School District that I am aware of (although there has been a lot of mismanagement in the County causing "waste"). Most could not even define "abuse" (which is to abuse the use of public resources, like using the... Read more →

Lake County District 2 Commissioner Elaine Renick Decides to Run for Re-Election

Tavares, FL This could also be sub-titled "Reasons for Republicans NOT to Re-elect either incumbent Linda Stewart (District 4) or Elaine Renick (District 2) to their positions on the Lake County, FL Board of Commissioners. There was a Lake County Commissioner candidate forum on Saturday at the Legacy for candidates for the two of five Board positions up for re-election. Until then, only Linda Stewart (District 4) had been active in conducting a re-election campaign. The other open seat is for District 2, and is held by Elaine Renick, but she had not filed to run for re-election until apparently late last week, then she showed up at the forum. So, the three Republican candidates who had been running to replace her weren't too happy when she showed up and now is running. That throws a whole new picture on the race, since incumbents, even ones that are not popular, can get up to 30% of votes just because they are an incumbent. So, now the new District 2 candidates, Dave Yeager, Sean Parks, and Mark Saunders will face the same problem that Linda Stewart's four District 4 opponents have (myself, Buddy Atkins, Paul Williams & Leslie Campione). That is,... Read more →

Lake County Comp Plan Apparently Approved using Deceit and Sneaky Tactics

Yup, it's true. I was at last week's Lake County (FL) meeting of the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) when they voted on the Horizon 2030 Comprehensive Land Plan ( Comp Plan) during a public hearing. The Comp Plan is a 350 page set of regulations pushed through by Democrat liberals under the cover of appointments by the REPUBLICAN Board. However, the "Republican" (aka small government) Board members Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart pushed this through by outsmarting the sleeping Land Owners and Lake County Republican Party. I watched as Stewart was in the halls consulting with local liberal leader Rob Kelly. It was not a pretty sight. I gotta admit, I felt like I was watching a six hour fog of verbal versions of the Visigoths invading a country (see the picture). But, it took two emails from the Builder and Landowner's lobby spokesman Don Magruder and his blog, Right Side of the Lake, to uncover exactly what went on. You can read his two recent postings HERE. Basically, the five member Board (BCC) were to meet last Tuesday to finalize four changes to the Comp Plan (they were the only ones on the agenda), then vote to approve... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners NEED to CLEARLY Define future regulatory and litigation costs for Comp Plan

The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners will be voting Tuesday morning to approve a new and revised "Comp Plan" that is over 350 pages of new regulations affecting County zoning laws, rights of property owners, and land use regulations. Think of it as a GIANT wish list for environmentalists who want to restrict property rights by implementing 350 pages of regulations while ignoring the costs of implementation. There is an uproar between developers who don't want land use regulations, property owners who don't want new environmental restrictions on the use of their land, and environmentalists who want to restrict various uses to "protect the environment" etc. But, I am not writing here about those issues - there are enough people on both sides who will be at the Tuesday 9am meeting to provide public input to the Board. My concern is that there is inadequate information about the potential implementation and future litigation costs related to those 350 pages of regulations. Below is the memo I just sent to the Board today that explains these issues. You thought the Niagara Water legal blunders were bad... just wait until the County cannot keep up with required regulatory compliance and... Read more →

Lake County Impact Committee Meets and Recommends more TAXES!!

Update: Sunday, May 23 - I will write a new blog entry on this subject later this week, because there is some research I need to do, plus the current focus is on the Comp Plan review on Tuesday, May 25.But, here is a summary of what happened in last week's Impact Fee Committee meeting: Among other recommendations, the Lake County Impact Fee Committee, chaired by the Lake County Democratic Party Chairwoman, Nancy Hurlburt, decided to not increase current TRANSPORTATION impact fees as recommended by a consultant's survey. Instead, the committee wants to hold the transportation impact fees at the same level as currently used, but recommend the County Board seek alternative taxes and fees to... make up the missing 50% of the forecasted fees needed for the future. They will recommend increased gas taxes, property taxes, etc. How did the head of the County Democrats get in charge of the impact fee committee when all five County Commissioners are registered Republicans? ( I will find out...) Builders have been lobbying to shift impact fees from new construction to other sources, and this is a start. There are several different types of impact fees in Lake County, which are millage... Read more →