Fiscal Rangers

Orlando Sentinel Writes about Questionable Personnel Practices at Lake County

On Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel finally published Stephen Hudak's article about Lee Johnson's research project regarding possible mis-management in the Administration of Lake County government (FL). I was disappointed. There wasn't much new in the article, and Hudak didn't provide quotes from the many people who provided Johnson with details, especially on issues related to improper hiring, firing, promotion and demotion practices at Lake County. He also didn't really do any new research, which I was hoping for. I previously wrote about Johnson's research and that posting can reviewed here: http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/2008/09/lake-county-boa.html However, I understand that Hudak has received many emails and questions related to the article, and now may produce a follow up. This time, he should find some experts in Personnel practices in County Governments and get details from them about the acceptability of the questionable practices used at the County. Why wouldn't a reporter review charges of cronyism and improper hiring of relatives of elected officials? I am also concerned about the quality of the planned internal audit of the issues, based upon my recent review of another audit issued by the County Auditor who is based in the County Clerk's office. See my prior blog posts here:... Read more →

Audit of Lake County (FL) Growth "Administration" Dept is Weakly Justified

In the Lake County Government in Florida, there is a "Growth" Department with a budget of about $6-million according to the 2007 County Financial Report. And the County Auditor, based within the County Clerk's office, just issued an audit report on the Growth Department's "Administration" without explaining anywhere in the report what the Growth Dept., or the "Administration" function was responsible for, what their budget was, how many staff were subject to the audit, or what the Departments in the Growth Department did. I actually had to go to the website to see a list of the Departments within the Growth Division (Dept??). My analysis, with 18 years corporate and government internal audit experience, is that I had a hard time understanding the justification for some of the recommendations because the discussion centered on theory, exceeded the scope of the work unit's authority, and did not provide many hard facts to justify some of the recommended changes. Also, since the report didn't actually describe what "Administration" was, I actually called the Director of that Department, Amye King, and found Administration was her and her assistant (TWO people). However, she has several departments that report to her, but none of this... Read more →

Florida State Dept Sued for improper Terminations

The article below is about lawsuits filed against the Florida State Dept of Environmental Protection for possible improper terminations of employees. My first job in the 1970's as an internal auditor was at the County of Los Angeles, and even THEN we knew you had to follow regulations and a step by step process for firing and employee. I know, because I followed that process twice, and the other managers who made improper statements were named in an improper termination lawsuit, but I wasn't. I include the article here as reference on what can happen when a Lake COUNTY Dept. improperly fires employees, like documented by Lee Johnson's research report we filed here earlier. Word is, the Orlando Sentinel will have a story on the Lake County activities TOMORROW, so maybe they will FIX the alleged problems with improper hiring, firing, promotion and demotions rather than set themselves (and us taxpayers) up for a lawsuit like the one described below. vj from Environmental News Whistleblowers Sue Florida Eco-Inspector General TALLAHASSEE, Florida, October 24, 2008 (ENS) - The office that was created to serve as watchdog over the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is facing two lawsuits filed against it this... Read more →

Orange County, CA Sheriff Dept. Runs Up Overtime Tab of $48-million

I moved to Lake County from Orange County, California, so I still monitor Government effectiveness issues from that much larger County. Both the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register wrote up investigative stories on the excess overtime, and the details are below. It seems some Sheriff deputies were earning more than $100,000 in overtime. One of the local County "Supervisors" is also pushing for a more reasonable overtime policy. We certainly hope that local Lake County, FL Government Departments have better overtime policies and aren't also running up excess overtime... someone might just investigate that sometime in the future. vj You can read the OC Register article which can be found at http://www.ocregister.com/articles/overtime-deputies-report-2203274-sheriff-county. The article below is from the LA Times O.C. Sheriff's Dept.'s lack of policy blamed for skyrocketing overtime Overtime totaled nearly $48 million in the last fiscal year, more than double its level eight years ago, the report by the county's performance audit director found. By Christian Berthelsen Overtime pay in the Orange County Sheriff's Department has skyrocketed in recent years because the department lacks a comprehensive policy or effective controls on the extra pay, according to an audit released Wednesday. Overtime in the department... Read more →

Florida Teachers Union President Asks for Sales Tax Increase

The head of the Florida Education Association (the Florida Teachers Union) is asking for a $3.5-billion "temporary" 3 year sales tax increase for School Districts. See the Orlando Sentinel blog posting at the link below. Our thought is based upon what we have seen so far. The Schools should not get any more funds until they improve their fiscal management systems to the level used by businesses. For example, we recently posted the big differences between the Florida outmoded line item budget format and that used by the City of St. Paul, Minnesota. Then, we reported on a State Legislators groups saying that the line item budget only tells what is being spent, but provides no clear, businesslike analysis data on the effectiveness of programs. Thus, as we have seen, the Board is asked to approve a budget without any key performance indicators or value analysis showing whether the program had value and the outcomes of the programs were measurable and met expected standards. School Boards need to start reducing excess spending like any business would. For instance, the Orange County School District reduced school bus subsidies to parents by revising bus schedules to be more efficient, saving millions. In... Read more →

White Paper on Sound Government Budgeting Principles Explains Another LCSD Fiscal Weakness

Below, at the link, is an old 1995 white paper on sound STATE government budgeting principles published by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Although it is focused on State Government budgeting systems, it provides a GOOD understanding of the difference budget methods used by government, such as line item vs performance budgeting. Well, guess what... Lake County School District and County Government use the outmoded line item budget systems which the article says focuses NOT on program outcomes and effectiveness, but they focus on what you paid for. So, this is a large, reference source, but that one issue describes another weakness in the budget method used by LCSD. By not providing performance indicators or "outcome" measurements of programs or departments, the current line item budget system prevents analysis of whether a department or program is EFFECTIVE. Instead, the budget reports only explain whether the department has under or overspent the line item budget amount. Gee, imagine if someone in Lake County read this report in 1995 and actually converted the old line item budget method to the more results oriented performance budgeting model? Favorite Quotes: 1) Massachusetts Governor Weld submitted his budget proposals for fiscal year 1994 in... Read more →

Florida Taxwatch Quote on Budgeting in Government

BUDGETING WITHOUT DISCIPLINE: A FINAL THOUGHT Just as the Rule of Law is critically essential in a civil society, so is the integrity, transparency and accountability of the budget process to ensure the highest and best use of the taxpayers’ hard earned money. Source: www.FloridaTaxWatch.org vj Read more →

Michigan School District Must Payback $1.5-2-million to State for Overcounting Students

Most School Districts, including those in Florida, and apparently Michigan, receive education funds from the State Government by counting students in specific ways and times, and submitting the count to the State to get paid a defined amount per student (called FTE or Full Time Equivalent). Michigan currently sends the District $8241 per counted student. Apparently, the administrators at a School District in Godwin Heights either didn't know math very well, or couldn't read State instructions, and sent an inaccurate FTE count for "alternative education" students that overstated the FTE by 200. An audit found that the overstatement was not legitimate and now the District has to payback $850,000 for last year after the new school year started. AND, they overstated the count the prior two years also, thus the total payback will be almost $2-million. Favorite Quote: "If I mismanaged to the tune of $1.8 million, I should get the boot real quick," said Remi Montigny, father of four Godwin students, who manages a Kalamazoo insurance company. "We are not a rich district, and our quality is slipping away, and someone has to take more responsibility for this terrible thing." (Note: The article does say the District has a... Read more →

Lake County $34-million Radio System is Center of Spending Controversy

The Lake County Commissioners are getting some heat because they approved spending $34-million on an apparent sole source purchase agreement to "upgrade" the County emergency radio system. I have had people come to me stating various problems with the program, and the article below from the "Citizens for Better Government" gives a good overview of the problem. As the article mentions, the County Board seems too passive and their lack of BUSINESS SKILLS results in not asking questions but approving staff recommendations without challenging spending justifications. One stated concern is that the $34-million might not cover the full system, and millions more may be needed. One way to resolve that is to have the manager of the program to state he will quit the County if the system does not perform to specs within the $34-million budget. I only have the info others give me, like below, but like the Lee Johnson research study, this is another situation where there seems to be hidden spending decisions made by staff that are not challenged by the Board and that may result in waste of taxpayer funds. I encourage readers to ask their elected officials for more clarity and public transparency on... Read more →

California School Administrator Commits Job Bigamy

A school administrator in a California school district worked both his full time job in the district, but was also paid for another full time job in a different school district. I consider that Job Bigamy! The article below give the details, but it indicates the lack of ethics on the part of the administrator AND the apparent lack of ethics policy or enforcement in the School District. Similar situations have occurred locally in the city of Leesburg, FL. This is one of those situations that should be prohibited in a signed ethics policy by School District employees. The California School District should sue the administrator for all back pay while he worked at two jobs (or at least half of the salary for them, and half for the other District). I wonder if either school District, or even the local Lake County School District, have firm stated policies on the ability to sue for and recover payments made to someone who also worked somewhere else without disclosure. Do they have a policy requiring disclosure of ANY secondary or freelance job so it can be resolved at the beginning of the situation? vj From the San Gabriel Valley, CA Tribune... Read more →

Lake County Teacher Complains About English-only Rule

A teacher in Lake County apparently filed a complaint that she was demoted after complaining that she was requested to stop speaking Spanish in schools. See the article at the link below for full details. This is the type of endless complaint that I saw when living in Southern California. Only there, they probably had 50 different languages spoken in the SoCal schools, and the liberal courts always backed up the second language proponents. From a Fiscal standpoint, the expectation by some to speak or be TAUGHT in their non-english native language raises the costs of education and reduces funds available for citizen children. The lawyers make the money while activists demand that their non-english speaking students be subsidized with teachers who know their language. This is a really good reason to have an English only law. It is my understanding that students were supposed to be taught in English only, but pressure increased to bring in ESOL (English as a Second Language) teachers who know the other language and "assisted" students in their native language. But, this has morphed into teaching the students in their own language, continuing a reliance on non-english for communication. So, the FiscalRangers thing for... Read more →

Lake County Government HR & Fire District Fee Scandal Update

Awhile back we posted details from Lee Johnson on his quest to research internal personnel practices at Lake County offices and the resulting large list of instances when standard rules and regulations regarding hiring, firing, promotion and demotion were ignored and apparent cronyism ruled. That initial posting with the details uncovered by Lee Johnson is HERE. Below, at the link, is Johnson's update memo and he describes that Steve Hudak, the reporter from the Orlando Sentinel, is preparing an investigative article on Johnson's findings, and two pending lawsuits against the County for overcharging residents for a Fire District fee. The Hudak article is planned for Sunday, October 19th. It was due to come out earlier, but is now being expanded to cover additional problems at Lake County Government. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it was amazing to me that Johnson originally showed his initial evidence to the County attorney, the County Manager, and all five Board members, and they ignored him. Then Johnson spent more time and created a 1.5" think binder of evidence and gave it to them in Mid-August at a Board Meeting (I was there), and they ignored him again. However, as the second email... Read more →

Comparing Budget Process Quality for St. Paul, MN to Lake County School District

After attending all the budget workshops for the Lake County (FL) School District (LCSD) this past year, I have started searching for better examples of budget formats, transparency procedures & budget management reports used by other government agencies. The LCSD system of budget approvals is a mess, and mostly the fault of all the prior administrations, including the outgoing elected Supt., Anna Cowin, and her staff, who use a haphazard system, don't provide complete info to the Board, and do not make it easy for the public to follow the discussions. Additionally, the budget reports use "ancient" regulatory formats that are not easy for any reader to understand. So, I went through the 400+ page LCSD annual detailed budget (that cost me $56) and compared it to St. Paul's budget reports. Here is a look at what the City of St. Paul, MN does just to make it much easier for the elected officials and taxpayers, including much improved budget reports, processes to get meeting notifications and see budget hearing agendas and VIDEOS. LCSD has a total budget of over $650-million, and 5000 employees. St. Paul has a SMALLER budget and under 3000 employees, but provides significantly better budget formats... Read more →

Outstanding Description of How Federal Tax System Works & Effects of Democrats Tax Policy

A local, active Lake County, FL Republican sent this out, and it is a very good description written by an Economics Professor from Georgia on how the Federal Income Tax system works and the effects of someone like Democrats and Obama on who pays the taxes in the future. Use this story about taxes when you talk to Democrats who support always "taxing the rich". This description also illustrates problems with State Income tax systems. I moved to FL (no income tax) from California, which had an average of 9-11% State income tax on salaries. I just read that the Villages has an AVERAGE income of $98,000 per household. Most in the Villages are retirees. Do you think they left the higher income tax states to move to Florida and retire JUST for the golf facilities, or also due to the lower (none) income taxes in Florida? vj ================================================ ON THE WALL This is the absolute best explanation of how our tax system is “supposed” to work I have ever personally seen, it comes from an Economics professor at the University of Georgia. I encourage you to take the two minutes to read through this brilliant explanation, it is well... Read more →

New York Audit Finds Dead Still Collecting Medicaid Payments

This case illustrates how, even at the State level, fraud continues to occur because government officials do NOT implement sound enough business controls to prevent fraud. In this case, New York State Medicaid auditors found 417 dead people and 912 prison inmates still receiving Medicaid payments even though neither group is supposed to get them. Officials said 296 of the death cases have been closed and $1.7million recovered from providers, like nursing homes. Thus, it seems that nursing homes can continue to bill for medicaid for dead patients, and prisons apparently have no downside in failing to report new prison inmates to the Medicaid system so they can be dropped from the rolls. In my 18 years of government and corporate audit experience, the biggest problem was always that some bureaucrat was not following procedure or using professional level control procedures to prevent such improper payments. In this case, the nursery homes should be fined twice the overpayments, and the prisons should be billed for the overpayments since neither group followed procedures to minimize the fraudulent payments. Tough love is needed in government. Favorite Quote from the article at the link below: Okay, maybe you're dead or in prison, but... Read more →