Lake County, Florida - Feb. 25, 2010 - Lake County Commissioner Jimmy Conner (Florida) is the only one awake and asking questions about fiscal issues in the Board Meetings - he has been asking tougher questions than "why are we paying for new DVD's for libraries" these days. His short article is at the bottom of this page. I go to most Board meetings, and you really wonder whether 3 of the Commissioners, including Linda Stewart and Elaine Renick EVER READ the agenda backup documents regarding fiscal issues, or even understand the concept of controlling costs like any $400-million corporation would. This is especially important when they don't have a Controller, and the interim County Manager is an attorney, not a professional Administrator. In this case, Jimmy was correct to ask for an investigation how the County bought a $35-million radio system without budgeting for the annual maintenance charges, estimated to be $1.6-million. One of the fiscal weaknesses of government "fund accounting" systems used by the County as well as the School District is that they may have separate funding for capital expenditures and thus they may tend to approve them without a process to ALSO budget for maintenance or... Read more →
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