Fiscal Rangers

Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000

Updated May 1, 2009 to better explain weak vs strong cash controls that should have been used. vj Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000 In our never ending quest to find examples of poor or weak government financial practices, here is another one regarding a school district, and some lessons we can learn from it. Nepotism struck a Miami area School District big time when the wife of the Monroe (FL)County School Superintendent allegedly skimmed $180,000 from fees PAID IN CASH for an adult cosmetology class she ran, and also by improperly using a school district credit card over many years. Magically, the lady flew away to North Carolina right after the finance director started asking some questions, and they are trying to get her to fly back. And, they haven't been able to get the husband and Superintendent to come in for an interview... This illustrates how important it is to have quality internal controls and audits, AND GOOD CASH AND COLLECTION CONTROLS especially when any employee related to high ranking school district administrators have access to ANY funds or assets. In a well controlled environment, any fees for classes would be paid directly to a separate finance... Read more →

Orlando Government reform group discloses excessive pension costs

This is an interesting email from another local government reform group called "LowerTaxesNow.org" about Orlando and their excessive pension losses and costs. They talk about how the taxpayer is getting stiffed by the excessive and growing pension costs, which makes you think that local School District and County government pensions may have the same problem because I think they all use the same central pension "investment" fund for Florida governments. It may be normal for the value of the pension fund to drop in down economy, but reading that that Orlando must kick in enough to not only MAKE UP the loss (employees should share some of the loss, but apparently not), BUT, they say that the taxpayers are on the hook to GUARANTEE an 8% growth in the value of the investment fund, which is unbelievable to me. Thus, the pension is a guaranteed investment program that pays more than most investments, and means the taxpayer is funding a growing pension scheme where the employees don't share in the losses. (needs further research...) NO privage employer any more provides such "defined benefit" pensions, but instead provides 401k type of programs where the employee decides which investments to make, and... Read more →

Our Take on Orlando Sentinel Opinion Article about Need for Local Government Internal Audit Functions

Earlier today I sent this out as an email to elected County Commissioners and School Board members and staff, but then Ralph Smith and Fred Johnson quoted it on today's Lake County Round Table radio show on AM790, so here it is. I added a few sentences not in the original email to clarify some issues. vj The Orlando Sentinel opinion article is at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpmyword22chambers042209apr22,0,6792959.story Basically, the President of IIA (based in Altamonte Springs), Richard Chambers, is writing about the problems at the Orlando-Orange County Expressway authority, and how the lack of support for internal audits by the Board resulted in the new internal auditor resigning. The IIA establishes worldwide internal audit standards, and issues the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) certificate after two day exams. I am a CIA with 18 years internal audit management experience. I suggest you read the article and the reasons why Chambers said such a position is needed to improve transparency. My favorite quotes from Richard Chambers: It's often said that government can be effective only if it maintains the public's trust. With this in mind, internal auditors in government play a pivotal role in reinforcing that trust. Their work provides assurance to taxpayers and... Read more →

Newspapers Win Pulitzer's for Growing Field of Oversight & Watchdog Reporting

Usually, when I hear of the Pulitzer awards, I expect to read about a newspaper reporter winning an award for an article about children somewhere. But, this year, a number of Pulitzer's were presented for investigative journalism articles reporting on government problems and corruption. Government Corruption? Yes, Corruption is being covered by newspapers, and is actually one of the reasons to continue subscribing to them and reading them. Blogs, even those like mine, rarely use freedom of information or public records requests to get info on corrupt politicians, but newspapers and magazines do. The good ones earn the "Fourth Estate" label by being the fourth branch of Democracy and keeping an eye on how goverment works and spends taxpayer funds. So, here is the article listing many of the awards, so check them out... vj The Los Angeles Times' series on wildfires run amok is among the winners. By Tina Susman April 21, 2009 Reporting from New York -- A five-part Los Angeles Times series on the futility of government efforts to quell the growing threat of wildfires won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, and the New York Times claimed five of journalism's highest awards in a year that recognized... Read more →

500-1000 People Show up for Eustis, FL Tea Party

Held in Eustis's Ferran Park, the tea party featured speakers during the lunch hour period from noon to 1pm. There were about 500-1000 people attending, which is pretty good when Eustis has a population of 8,000. Speeches were given regarding taxes and other issues, along with a singer and a pastor providing a prayer. Clearly, a number of churches helped get people there, plus supporters of Fair Tax, but the many signs carried by individuals gave the message about resentment over the stimulus and Tarp debts being incurred by the Federal government. Another tea party will be in nearby Tavares (FL) this Saturday in Wooton Park, when the organizers Will Pruitt, Ralph Smith and Fred Johnson promise a bonafide tea dumping (simulated) into Lake Dora. That tea party will be at 1pm. Below are some pictures of todays Tea Party in Eustis: Read more →

Comments Regarding Demands for Local Government Salary Increases

The local blog, Right Side of the Lake just published a complaint about the Lake County staff getting $1000 bonuses. In their article, former School Board member (and new County Commissioner) Jimmy Conner was quoted that there were no pay increases at the School District last year. However, the Board approved a 17% hike in health benefits without questioning ways to modify it, which I was told computed into a 2% total increase in the wage and benefit package for all employees. No corporation I ever worked at would pay such increases. They would reduce benefits, or pass costs on to employees as increased co-pays. I am also sure there were automatic step increases in many paychecks. Step increases are based upon tables for every position, and provide automatic, annual salary increases of 2% or more. No corporation uses step increases. This year the School Board was also looking at a 12% hike for health benefits, but they ARE considering a move to a self insured program, and they should be looking at going direct with their provider and not paying fees to the broker in Leesburg. Most private firms would be handling their own administration tasks regarding health insurance,... Read more →

2009 US Congressional "Pig Book" Published by Citizen's Against Government Waste

Ok, this is about Federal government pork barrel waste, but you can get some lessons to apply to local government spending practices. I notice that a city in Connecticut got $1.9-million for a water taxi program. Local Tavares got two of them used for much, much less, but maybe they should get Congress to provide some gold plating for the local water taxis? vj The 2009 Congressional Pig Book is here! This morning, at a press conference at the National Press Club, Citizens Against Government (CAGW) divulged publicly for the first time that despite the Obama Administration’s and Congress’ claims to the contrary, the cost of pork rose in the fiscal 2009 appropriations bills. From 11,610 pork-barrel projects costing taxpayers $17.2 billion in fiscal 2008, the price tag for our politicians’ self-serving spending climbed 14 percent to $19.6 billion in fiscal 2009, while the number of projects dropped to 10,160. C-SPAN aired the Pig Book press conference live, and “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” is scheduled to broadcast a story on the 2009 Pig Book tonight. Watch also for CAGW President Tom Schatz’s appearances on “CNBC Reports” tonight at 8:20 and on FOX News Channel’s “FOX & Friends” tomorrow... Read more →

Mayor of Canadian City Elected 11 times and eliminated city debt

Thanks to the Bainters for sending me this link. It is a youtube video about a Mayor of Canada's sixth largest city, Mississauga, Canada, who has been in office 31 years and eliminated debt and has $700-million in reserves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY79KbCptTo And, the Bainter's comments say it all: "Maybe we should all just move to this town. This lady is remarkable. Better yet insist our Lake County Politicians go to Mississauga and learn how to prioritize taxpayer money!" Unfortunately, the interviewer is really dumb and sophomoric. But maybe if we send a hockey stick to the Lake County Board and the School District Board, they might start reducing taxes and debt, which reduces interest payments, allowing more funds to be spent on actual needs, rather than interest. vj Read more →

"Families at Risk" Report Discloses Number of Florida Residents without Health Insurance

A group called Families USA focuses on family health issues, and recently issued reports for every state showing the statistics for how many people were without health insurance. You can see the Florida statistics at the page below. The main Families USA page, where you click on the Florida report, is here. http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/americans-at-risk-states.html Generally, prior statistics that are quoted often in news articles, and that I have seen were based upon the US Census and said that 47-million in the US did not have health insurance. This is a more in depth analysis, but until you review the method used to develop the report, be skeptical. And, on the same day, China announced a mega big program to build clinics in every village and a hospital in each County. The WSJ article on it is HERE. vj vj Read more →

Example of Hotline to Report Improper Accounting, Employee actions, etc.

We recently discussed the need for a hotline for both the Lake County School District and the Lake County government to report waste, fraud, abuse, integrity (ethics) violations, etc. This is the type of method that they should adopt, with a related policy and external or internal confidential system for handling the complaints. This is from the Investment Relations webpage of Resources Global Professionals, a consulting spinoff of big 4 Accounting firm Deloitte. Notice they say it is the responsibility of "all employees" to file reports of questionable activities. There is no doubt here... http://ir.resourcesglobal.com/contactus.cfm Corporate Integrity Hotline Our Company is committed to the policy that all employees have an obligation to report problems or concerns involving ethical or compliance violations or complaints regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters. We are posting notice of our Corporate Integrity HOTLINE on our website so that any employee, shareholder or other interested party may use this vehicle to report any such matters. The toll free number is (866) 588-5733. All calls to our HOTLINE can be made anonymously and without fear of retribution. Any caller is encouraged to provide adequate information to assist with further investigation. The calls are not traced... Read more →

Orlando Sentinel Finally Reports on North Lake County Hospital District Fiscal Fiasco

It has taken over 2 months to get one of the local newspapers to cover the problems with the North Lake County Hospital District, and the Orlando Sentinel's Christine Show did call new Board member Marilyn Bainter, plus myself, and also TRIED to get responses from the other Board members. As noted in the article below, NONE of the other elected District Board members or the attorney returned calls to the reporter, or if they did, they had "no comment". You can read our earlier list of issues HERE, and HERE. This lack of respect for the taxpayer or the reporter smacks of cronyism, when the other Board members won't even return calls to the press. This, to me, means that problems are deeper than we thought and this might be a smoking gun where the District Tax collections of over $12-million might be going for improper expenditures. For instance: - A main issue is that the two major hospitals ( Leesburg and Waterman) receiving taxpayer funds totaling $12.7-million but had total profits per Marilyn Bainter of over $28.4-million, thus our taxes are subsidizing their profits. (They each also give 5% of their total tax distribution to Lifestream which also... Read more →

Local Activist Group Establishes Hotline for Government employees

This is interesting. The Right Side of the Lake guys sent out an email blast (below) that announced they would establish a confidential hotline for employees of Lake County and the School District to file complaints. They beat me to the punch. I was planning to advertise in about 2 months that the FiscalRangers.com blog would set up a waste, fraud & abuse reporting hotline for taxpayers and employees of the School District and the County government, since they did not exist here in Lake County. Neither the Lake County School District or the County or even the Court Clerk's audit department have ANY abjective, confidential waste, fraud and abuse hotline (yet - keep reading). I discovered the lack of local waste, fraud & abuse hotlines in 2006 when I was on the Lake County School Board's Audit Committee. I had worked in the Federal Government where there are SEVERAL hotlines, not just one, and also acted as a hotline in several corporations I worked at. However, the only credible place for Lake County folks to provide complaints, tips or information locally was School District Board member Cindy Barrow, who did follow up on several issues which resulted in internal... Read more →