I sent out this "news release" last night after the 2 hour meeting of the North Lake County (FL) Hospital District. You can follow prior and future info on this district on the separate page I created on this blog just for the Hospital District issues. vj
The Jan. 20, 2009 North Lake County Hospital District Meeting
From: Vance Jochim, author of the
FiscalRangers.com blog on Lake County government fiscal management
issues.
About 30 public members plus the Board of the North Lake County Hospital District met Tuesday night at the offices of the Lake
County Water Authority for a contentious meeting and one of only three meetings
held annually. The Board refused to schedule another meeting for public input
on the justification for the District’s 1 mill property tax, and would not
consider creating a website to provide transparency over District collections of
$12-million.
New Board member Marilyn Bainter,
who was recently elected to the Board by over 43,000 votes, was ignored
regarding several resolutions or her self nomination for an office. Instead,
the Board elected long time members to the board, and refused to consider
several proposals from Bainter and other public
visitors.
About half the attending public were
public members interested in tax transparency, and the other half were
representatives from the three Lake County Hospitals that received over
$12-million from the district last fiscal year, plus supporting attorneys and
accountants. The District levies a 1 mill tax on property owners in North Lake
County, and they are the ONLY Florida hospital district (confirmed by Marilyn Bainter)
that has legislation mandating a fixed 1 mill. Other counties have variable
millage rates that can be modified by the Board (source is Marilyn Bainter).
The Board allowed representatives
from both Leesburg and Waterman hospitals to speak and make a presentation on
the uses of the $12-million, but the Chair would not allow public input on the
presented facts. The hospital executives spent time justifying the tax by
saying that the funds were needed for indigent health care at the hospitals.
However, tax transparency advocates were requesting that legislation be
initiated to allow the tax to be set by the Board UNDER the current mandatory 1
mill rate.
Members of the public transparency
advocates group voiced concerns including:
-
the doubling of the tax collections
in the last five years due to increased property valuations that had no
relationship to the need of the hospitals for the
funds.
-
The lack of a clear audit trail or
independent audit of expenses charged to the funds. The hospitals rely on their
consolidated financial statements to provide evidence of legitimate spending on
“healthcare”.
-
Lack of clear legal direction that
funds should be spend on indigent care, vs the general term
“healthcare”
-
Unwillingness of the Board to
consider creating a website to provide copies of agendas, minutes, financial
reports, etc. for the public in a transparent
manner.
-
Frustration at the lack of clear
documentation to support exactly what the District funds were spent
on,
-
Unwillingness of the Board to
schedule another meeting in 30 days for public input and to provide answers to
public questions, thus the next scheduled meeting is in
September.
-
A clear unwillingness on the part of
the Board to act on public input. They allowed public input, but did not act on
any of the requests.
-
Unwillingness to accept
responsibility to obtain specific audit trail documentation for all spending by
hospitals to ensure charges were accurate and uses of the funds were
transparent. (Note: Local hospital representatives did say they were willing to
provide information, but the Board did not act to request any more information
or schedule a future meeting to discuss it.)
-
Since current legislation mandates
the 1 mill tax, the Board refused to initiate any requests to Lake County
legislators to pass a “local law” to change the mandatory 1 mill tax to a
variable “up to 1 mill” tax, thus allowing public input and public decisions by
the Board on how much the tax should be. For instance, one public member, Fred
Johnson, on the Howie City Council, said the tax revenue has doubled in the last
five years due to increased property valuations, and the hospitals should not
benefit from such a “windfall tax” without public
input.
The only positive Board motion was
to agree and get a tape recorder to tape future meetings since prior minutes did
not always reflect complete discussions or public input. A request to move the
next meeting to a larger facility was tabled by the Board with directions to the
Board secretary to research possible future locations.
It was clear to this observer that
the Board was highly resistant to any discussion or forum to provide requested
justification of spending, or initiate actions. Several local public
transparency activists recommended that voters contact their legislators and
demand initiation of the law that allows a variable tax rate “up to” 1 mill, AND
they should contact the North Lake County District Board members to ask why
there was no transparency over the Board activities. More details are
available, with Board contact information, via the “Lake County Fiscal Rangers”
link at www.FiscalRangers.com
.
Generally, in my opinion, the
Hospitals were not regarded to be the problem, but the Board for not supporting
efforts for transparency and public discussion of the merits of the mandatory 1
mill tax. The primary issue is that the Board should have the right to specify
millage rates LESS than the current 1 mill, or there is a need for a public
referendum so voters can decide if the tax is appropriate and
justified.
Contact details for other public
visitors at the meeting can be obtained by calling me, or look at the contacts
listed at:
Vance
Jochim
