Fiscal Rangers

NY School District Pension Scandal Grows Again

We reported earlier about how NY State has started a large investigation on how contract attorneys for School Districts were also getting pensions improperly. Now, Newsday reports that NY state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has found another scandal. Apparently a lot of "interim" School District Superintendents were being hired and kept on the payrolls and double dipping by also receiving full pension payouts. Apparently, the interim jobs continued longer for retired administrators rather than actively filling the position with new recruits. It seems that a way to change the constant problems in School Districts is to maybe mandate strong independent audit departments, but also make the elected School officials somehow liable for ignoring good business practices. I don't see the same wave of fiscal problems in City or County governments, but it seems School Districts constantly popup with new ways to skim or waste taxpayer funds. Perhaps a big part is that School Districts seem to promote ex-teachers into management positions, rather than hire qualified and certified professionals in those administrative posts. They also focus mostly on student performance, and ignore balanced fiscal management by tracking performance in non-teaching functions. A few MBA's might help. Or, start outsourcing departments. vj... Read more →

Comparing Service & Safety of Lake County Hospitals

We focus mostly on local government productivity, but also include local "Institutions" like hospitals when relevant. The US Dept. of Health & Human Services just published new hospital rating data on a website, and you can enter your zip code and compare three of your local hospitals. They show you data and percentage rankings for numerous questions of hospital patients around the country regarding service, and safety issues. So, I entered my zip code for Tavares, FL and compared Waterman, Leesburg and the Villages hospitals. NONE of them rated higher than a 69% patient rating when asked if the patient would recommend the hospital to someone else. My big issue is the billing and pricing of services received at the hospitals, and that is not covered in any of the survey questions. So, click here for the DHHS website, enter your zipcode, pick some local hospitals and see if you really want to go there, or somewhere else... However, this study is voluntary, and not all hospitals agreed to be in the study. So, if a hospital isn't even in this study, I might worry more about them than the ones that have low scores but DID volunteer to be... Read more →

Los Angeles Times: Vallejo files for bankruptcy

California City of Vallejo files bankruptcy due to excessive union benefit agreements. Read more →

NJ Governor Nominates a new Medicaid Inspector General

New Jersey apparently passed a regulation last year to establish a new post of Medicaid Inspector General, and their Governor appointed an experienced Medicaid fraud prosecutor. Now, I don't like attorneys being appointed to audit jobs that should be run by experienced auditors, but just having a group focused on Medicaid fraud is a big jump in governance. Medicaid fraud is a huge growth industry, and it needs more attention. (Remember, Medicaid is the State run healthcare program for indigent and seniors, and it is partly funded with YOUR social security funds). Congrats to NJ and read more below. vj Link: GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR | Politicker NJ. GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR By Governors Press... - May 19, 2008 - 5:25pm Tags: Governor Jon S. Corzine, Release Date: May 19 2008 GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR TRENTON – Governor Jon S. Corzine today tapped a veteran federal fraud prosecutor to serve as New Jersey’s first Medicaid Inspector General. Governor Corzine nominated Mark Anderson to fill the newly-created position. Anderson currently serves as an assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, an office that... Read more →

New York State School District Issues 147 page Audit Report on Event Revenue Skimming

A New York State City School District in Ogdensburg waited 17 (SEVENTEEN) months before issuing a 147 page audit report about how school administrators failed to deposit ticket revenues collected at School events, and held the funds in an undocumented slush fund. Funny, the same indicators exist in Lake County when the recent audit of school accounts indicated that all the High Schools had problems with ticket counts. But, there was no work to determine if funds were missing. As a former member of the Audit Committee then, I asked that the information be put in Principals evaluation files because this was not the first time they had not had acceptable ticket controls. Another issue is that the Schools make decisions on which firms will get the business for graduation items like class rings, photos, etc. The risk is that kickbacks are given to school staff, or the funds are taken and used also for a school slush fund outside of normal district accounting. I was told verbally that at least two school administrators had signed contracts with supply firms when they have no legal right - all contracts should be signed by the District Administration in formal processes. This... Read more →

School District Fails to Collect $275,000 in fees for Controversial Pre-K program

Imagine if you were a landlord of an apartment building and your site manager didn't collect rent from 38% of the tenants, AND you didn't have a report that told you that $235,000 was not collected from tenants. That is the way the School District is managing taxpayer programs like the Pre-K program in Lake County, FL. Over the past few weeks, the Lake County (FL) School District has been mired in a controversy about funding for a "Pre-K" or pre-kindergarten program. Rabid parents showed up at last night's Board meeting ready to plead for the program to continue based upon rumors the program would be cut. Not so, said the Chairman Larry Metz - the Board had a workshop earlier in the day to receive the details in a new audit report and decided no cuts were planned. However, the audit report resulted in the outing of another poor business practice at the District. Apparently they charge pre-K kids parents fees for the program, but 38% of them had not paid the fees. As the article below says, teachers focused on the kids, and not being businesslike in collecting the fees. The result is the program lost money due... Read more →

Florida State Rolls Out Ethanol Which can Damage Car & Boat Engines

This post varies from our normal subjects, but is about a consumer related item that you need to know about. The State of Florida quietly forced gasoline distributors to start distributing gasoline with 10% ethanol about two weeks ago, even though many articles have appeared in the past about the damage that Ethanol causes. Ethanol has been used in other states trying to reduce smog, thus there is already experience with the damage, and Florida has no smog. Most gas pumps now have decal that says up to 10% ethanol will be in the fuel mixture. I have a 1965 Mustang with an expensive rebuilt engine, and I don't want the internal systems damaged. Read the articles below, then call your State legislators AND Charley Crist if you also believe the use of ethanol is stupid and can reduce the value of any vehicle or engine in Florida. Below are articles I have found so far, and I will add more as we find them. You can find them also - just do a google search on "ethanol damage" and you will find 510,000 hits (although many are related to ethanol binge drinking!) vj ========================================================== from http://www.amlibpub.com/liberty_blog/2006/09/ethanol-damage.html Monday, September 04,... Read more →

California Public Employee Pensions May force more Bankruptcies & Lawsuits

This is interesting. As we said in earlier posts, California city and county elected officials caved to demands of unions during good economic times to award them more benefits and pensions. Now the bill is coming due. This article below is written by a CPA, Marcia Fritz, who says that Vallejo, and maybe San Diego may have to file bankruptcy due to excess pensions that are underfunded. One interesting thing is a former congressman of mine (in California), Chris Cox, is now head of the SEC, and the SEC has filed suit against five San Diego officials for using misrepresented accounting to hide the true cost of the pensions. Fritz also mentions the new US accounting standards that will force all government entities to show the true cost of pensions and other liabilities in their new financials. I don't know about Florida, but California employee unions are getting worried since some government entities are getting close to filing bankruptcy from the excess pension costs. We will have to examine how Florida government pensions are affecting the future stability of local government agencies. vj ================================================ from the Sacramento Bee Editorial Page Marcia Fritz: Unions must lead the way in pension reform... Read more →

Ritchie Lays Out Needed Government Spending Cuts

Columnist Lauren Ritchie from the Orlando Sentinel is at it again - she has great tenacity in using public record requests to unearth some interesting ideas... meanwhile, the County Commissioner Chair, and two staffers went to Washington, DC to ask for funds to build two more buildings - one that would be used for the emergency task force but would sit empty for most of the year, and another as a transit center for the County bus service. I personally watch the quality of internal management systems more than individual spending issues like maintenance of plants. If you have a good management reporting system, you can easily see the effects and costs of a project, building, or program, and make informed decisions if some cuts are needed. Reliance on staff recommendations would be reduced. One of the problems I see, partly described in Ritchie's column, is that government reports spending on a line item budget basis, and not a program cost basis. Most corporations will have the line item consolidated financial statements to satisfy CPA's and investors, but they also have completely separate cost accounting, or metric tracking showing costs by project, location, or program (i.e. if you build a... Read more →