Fiscal Rangers

New Washington DC School Supt. Shakes up the System

A few months ago, we reported here about a huge corruption scandal affecting the Washington, DC school district. That district has always been in the news, mostly about failed students and the system. But, a new School Sheriff is in town, and for the last year she has been stirring the post and fixing things. Washington DC has a "inner city" school district, which was always very political, and run by a long series of unsuccessful Chancellors. They even tried a retired military general. My mother worked in the Los Angeles City School District, which has the same "inner city" problem with discipline, thus many "yuppies" moved out of LA years ago to Orange County. The nearby San Fernando Valley residents tried to withdraw from the LA Unified School District and couldn't get the needed vote several years ago. The new DC Super is making some big changes, as described in the article link below, but here are some that affect fiscal management and have been TURNED down by Florida teacher unions: - merit pay - the local Lake County, FL teachers voted 2 to 1 against a recent State provided merit or bonus program for teachers who increased FCAT... Read more →

New Zealand Is a Parallel Universe to Lake County

If you read the news and this blog about the Lake County School District or witnessed Schools Supt. Anna Cowin constantly interrupting the School Board, then this 2007 article from New Zealand indicates there must be a parallel universe to LCSD on the other side of the world... (:-)) Just last week, I heard Anna complaining at a Board meeting about the Board being on a witch hunt, thus New Zealand's universe must be a year ahead of us. vj Angry Tizard objects to rival's 'broomstick' insult 5:00AM Wednesday June 27, 2007 By Audrey Young Cartoon by Rod Emmerson An angry Auckland Issues Minister, Judith Tizard, demanded an apology in Parliament yesterday after taking exception to being referred to indirectly as a witch. Nelson National MP Nick Smith suggested she get back on her "broomstick" after she interjected continuously during his speech on the Budget. Ms Tizard objected and sought an apology. But Deputy Speaker Anne Hartley refused to order Nick Smith to say sorry, saying it was a "robust debate". Ms Tizard, on the verge of tears, then explained why she took such strong exception to the comment. "A witch has been used as a term of insult to... Read more →

Lake County Government Fiasco to be Unveiled Tomorrow

This blog has focused mostly on the School District fiscal management issues in Lake County, but now it appears that the Lake County Government and their Board have a growing fiasco. Tomorrow, or at the next Board meeting, a private citizen and resident of Tavares, Lee Johnson, will present to the board a major investigation he has undertaken over the last 2-3 months regarding personnel practices, hiring and firing, and other internal business issues in the County staff. I have his summary, BOCC presentation, and a list of highly documented, questionable practices within Lake County government. Now, this is NOT a surprise to the County Commissioners, because Lee visited with all five of them and the County attorney 3 months ago with some basic facts, and asked that they launch an independent investigation. But, they did nothing after his initial discussions, so he used public records requests to research personnel and other files to document a huge number of questionable actions on part of the County BOCC staff. So, after Lee presents his formal issues (and they already were given the details in the last 2 days) at the Board meeting, I will post the summary and other documents (not... Read more →

Good News About the Lake County School District

Ok, I tend to focus on School District drama, problems, fiscal mistakes and problems here, but occasionally, we need a balance. School District Board Member Cindy Barrow provides a good description of good news in her periodic email newsletter, so here it is... you might email her and get on her email list if you want more news. Like Barrow describes, the teaching side of the District seems to be working well, and they are improving FCAT and No Child Left Behind ratings. But it is my opinion that the management and non-instructional side of the District needs improvement by using more professional management reports, budget formats and methods to ensure spending decisions are based on businesslike analysis rather than emotional or "vague" data. vj This message is from Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member, District 3. This message contains my thoughts and opinions. This is NOT an official message from the Lake County School Board. Your correspondence is welcome. Please e-mail me at: [email protected]. Your Lake County School District is an "A" rated district! Dear Citizens: Tonight, I am writing to tell you about the future of Lake County Schools! In 3 months, we will have a new... Read more →

Cowin Goes Berserk at School Board Meeting & Other LCSD News

Tavares, FL -Tuesday - August 12, 2008 - I set up this "starter" post so you know I am writing an extended article to insert here sometime later today. It will include additional details on these Lake County School District Issues and Events in the last week: - Last night's Board meeting when Anna Cowin got upset regarding the Board's acceptance of the RSM Audit on Position Control. She claimed the auditor didn't talk to her and her response should be included with the report. When Board Chairman Metz tried to assert control of the agenda, she became more upset, got up, paced the floor like a wounded leopard, tried to demand 3 minutes of talking time by filing a public input card, and strode menacingly towards Metz, who then called for a break. Someone pushed a button and two Sherriff deputies showed up and waited in the back of the room for the rest of the evening. I am not sure who has authority to have the Deputies evict someone - is it the Board Chair, or the Superintendent? We almost found out. I would watch or record the video tonight at 6pm on LSCC-TV on Comcast Channel 13... Read more →

California Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team Concept Should be Used in Florida

California has a central FCMAT ( Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team ) organization that acts like an on-call help center to aid California K-12 (actually K-14 in CA) schools fix fiscal and management problems. Maybe Florida needs a similar organization to help a County that has been mis-managed, and the leadership wants to correct and improve their systems. Their website is at: http://www.fcmat.org/ vj Read more →

Huge Medicaid Fraud Scheme Unveiled in California

This is a clear reason why government shouldn't get responsibility for managing any program, since they do not institute financial controls to prevent situations like Federal Medicaid and State Medi-Cal Fraud. The NY Times article below describes how homeless people with Medicaid and California Medi-Cal health insurance cards were recruited daily and taken to one of three provate hospitals for bogus or non-existent medical problems so the hospitals could use their Medicaid card to file insurance claims. When I lived in California, it was common for rolling xray labs to arrive at business locations and xray people to generate false reasons to provide overpriced medical care to file against employer insurance. As a corporate audit manager, we tried to get our insurance company, MetLife, to provide a list of the known scammers to warn employees not to use them. But, the lawyers lobby and their friendly Democrat officials had passed laws that would allow the scammers to file liability lawsuits against any employer who tried to restrict which medical providers were used by their employers. So, we couldn't do it, but the insurance company stopped the claims during their review process. However, many firms, including local government agencies and school... Read more →

Lake County School District Board Votes to Ask Governor to Remove Supt. Anna Cowin

Update: August 5 - I added articles below from the Daily Commercial and the Orlando Sentinel, plus memos and attachments from Board Member Cindy Barrow. I was just at a workshop for the Lake County School Board, and they reviewed the response from Anna Cowin to an audit report where she authorized spending $600,000 on salaries for a "TAP" program without Board authorization. Based upon the lack of coherence in the response, and the presentation of a third audit by RSM McGladrey about another situation where over $400,000 in unauthorized salaries were paid based upon staff being instructed to make changes in the computer, the Board went nuts. Following a proposal from Cindy Barrow, the Board voted unanimously to gather evidence of apparent wrongdoing by Supt. Cowin and send it to Florida Gov. Crist to determine if she should be removed from office. Now, it is only 90 days until her term expires, but Cowin's flippant response to the TAP audit and other issues (like calling a press conference in the middle of budget hearings to conflict with it) didn't win points, and the Board basically got fed up and decided to ask Crist. They instructed the District auditor to... Read more →

Florida 65% Education Spending Rule Subject to Variable Computations

Controversy is rising over a proposed Florida State Constitutional Amendment 9 that says every School District must spend at least 65% of its money on classroom instruction. Already, the Orlando Sentinel came out with an article today that used dubious math (in my opinion as a former auditor) to say most schools already spent 65% of their funds on classroom training. Below is both an AP article, and then the Orlando Sentinel article. The problem is that the method for calculating the 65% is up in the air, and subject to incorrect assumptions. It is clear in my reading that the Sentinel is calculating percentages based upon only part of the School budget - they don't seem to include costs for school building or debt interest payment, and maybe left out other cost as part the the "total" used as the base in the percentage calculation. I wrote the reporter, Vicki McClure, to ask for more details. However, according to the AP article, To figure this correctly, you have to go to the law, and see how it defines the components to get to the 65% target number. The Sentinel made no mention that they did so. But, most of... Read more →