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 the details) here.
Lee asked me for some advice about a month ago, and did not know the County had an audit department, which is buried several levels down in the website for the County Clerk. Later I went with Lee to meet with County Clerk Neal Kelly and his Audit Director to discuss the issues. So now Lee will ask that the Board formally request that the County Clerk's audit team audit the Employee Services Department. Johnson has lined up an attorney and also believes several issues are criminal matters that need forwarding to State legal officials.
I have not been part of the team reviewing all the documents, and haven't seen the binders with the details, so I have to rely on Lee's written summary of details, which are specific, and significant. When you find a department where several "managers" who don't supervise anyone get large raises, you have to ask questions.
To me, the details are rather clear that a full investigation of personnel practices is needed. Who knew the County could allow this sort of thing when they supposedly had an internal audit staff of five? Here are some of the issues Lee has uncovered in his review of 10,000 County documents, 50+ personnel files and other information:
· A dual, and unaccountable system for employee evaluations.
· Misuse of Public Position, in violation of Fla. Statute 112.313(6).
· Lack of an equitable and transparent hiring process.
· Possible tampering and mismanagement of Public Records.
· Inappropriate relationships between management and their direct reports.
· The lack of an effective, and impartial, grievance process.
· Violation of F.S 112.3135(1)(d)- hiring of an Immediate Family Member
· Violations of the county’s established values
· Inflated pay increases for certain employees based on inaccurate Performance Appraisals.
· Possible abuse of county leave, working hours and sick time by management
· Inappropriate religious activities by a department manager.
· Poor security of county assets
· Failure to implement past audit recommendations
· Continual reorganizations resulting in constant remodeling and relocation of offices.
vj
