Fiscal Rangers

Lake County Comp Plan Apparently Approved using Deceit and Sneaky Tactics

Yup, it's true. I was at last week's Lake County (FL) meeting of the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) when they voted on the Horizon 2030 Comprehensive Land Plan ( Comp Plan) during a public hearing. The Comp Plan is a 350 page set of regulations pushed through by Democrat liberals under the cover of appointments by the REPUBLICAN Board. However, the "Republican" (aka small government) Board members Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart pushed this through by outsmarting the sleeping Land Owners and Lake County Republican Party. I watched as Stewart was in the halls consulting with local liberal leader Rob Kelly. It was not a pretty sight. I gotta admit, I felt like I was watching a six hour fog of verbal versions of the Visigoths invading a country (see the picture). But, it took two emails from the Builder and Landowner's lobby spokesman Don Magruder and his blog, Right Side of the Lake, to uncover exactly what went on. You can read his two recent postings HERE. Basically, the five member Board (BCC) were to meet last Tuesday to finalize four changes to the Comp Plan (they were the only ones on the agenda), then vote to approve... Read more →

A FiscalRangers.com Perspective on the BP Oil Spill

Point 1: Never forget all oil drilling is to meet the oil demands of US and other country consumers and our demand pushes them to take risks to fill our demand for oil. Point 2: Never forget that "BP" is a BRITISH firm, not American, and they have a terrible drilling safety record, compared to other oil firms. I will discuss that later. Point 3: Never forget that BP and other firms were drilling in risky, high depth locations because US Democrats, liberals and environmentalists refused to let them drill in safer, lower depth locations near shorelines like is done near Santa Barbara & Long Beach, California, and they have also reduced oil firm ability to drill onshore, which is even safer. There have been hardly any ONSHORE drilling catastrophes, so it is much safer. Background: In the 1980's, I lived in Southern California and worked as one of 10 Internal Audit group Directors at ARCO (Atlantic Richfield), a very well managed oil company with a headquarters in Los Angeles, plus operations near New Orleans and the Alaskan Pipeline. I traveled to an offshore oil rig near New Orleans, Coal operations in Denver, the Alaska pipeline in Alaska ( including... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners NEED to CLEARLY Define future regulatory and litigation costs for Comp Plan

The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners will be voting Tuesday morning to approve a new and revised "Comp Plan" that is over 350 pages of new regulations affecting County zoning laws, rights of property owners, and land use regulations. Think of it as a GIANT wish list for environmentalists who want to restrict property rights by implementing 350 pages of regulations while ignoring the costs of implementation. There is an uproar between developers who don't want land use regulations, property owners who don't want new environmental restrictions on the use of their land, and environmentalists who want to restrict various uses to "protect the environment" etc. But, I am not writing here about those issues - there are enough people on both sides who will be at the Tuesday 9am meeting to provide public input to the Board. My concern is that there is inadequate information about the potential implementation and future litigation costs related to those 350 pages of regulations. Below is the memo I just sent to the Board today that explains these issues. You thought the Niagara Water legal blunders were bad... just wait until the County cannot keep up with required regulatory compliance and... Read more →

Lake County Impact Committee Meets and Recommends more TAXES!!

Update: Sunday, May 23 - I will write a new blog entry on this subject later this week, because there is some research I need to do, plus the current focus is on the Comp Plan review on Tuesday, May 25.But, here is a summary of what happened in last week's Impact Fee Committee meeting: Among other recommendations, the Lake County Impact Fee Committee, chaired by the Lake County Democratic Party Chairwoman, Nancy Hurlburt, decided to not increase current TRANSPORTATION impact fees as recommended by a consultant's survey. Instead, the committee wants to hold the transportation impact fees at the same level as currently used, but recommend the County Board seek alternative taxes and fees to... make up the missing 50% of the forecasted fees needed for the future. They will recommend increased gas taxes, property taxes, etc. How did the head of the County Democrats get in charge of the impact fee committee when all five County Commissioners are registered Republicans? ( I will find out...) Builders have been lobbying to shift impact fees from new construction to other sources, and this is a start. There are several different types of impact fees in Lake County, which are millage... Read more →

Lake County School District Board's Plan to allow Later Impact Fee Payments Derailed

The Lake County School District plan to delay education impact fees was derailed today. IThe School Board recently voted to allow builders to pay education impact fees at the time when the construction was complete (called the Certificate of Occupancy date or "CO") , rather than when permits were filed. The plan would have let builders wait to pay the average $8,000 or more education impact fee about 6-10 months later in the building process and improve their cash flow. However, that plan was derailed today at the Lake County Impact Committee meeting (which I attended) when the County staff said the administration costs were too high unless ALL impact fee collections were changed to the same method. The School Board representative on the committee, CFO Carol MacLeod said she will take the issue back to the School Board for review. But, it seemed that the County staffer in charge (Angie Thompson) of Impact fee administration did not want to do it, and no one asked for an estimate of the potential cost, thus the issue died. This was clearly an emotional denial of the issue by staff, and they should have responded with a willingness to at least prepare... Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Security Alert - BE VERY wary about new Orlando Sentinel "Login" Process

Today, the Orlando Sentinel has implemented a new login system that ensures your privacy in posting online comments is DEAD, and your comments can be linked to your name on other accounts you have. -At one time I was a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and I follow news related to consumer data privacy issues. Yes, I know you think I spend all my time reading County budgets, but when I am bored, I read about data privacy! Today, I tried to post a comment to an article on the Orlando Sentinel website and they no longer use their own login method, but force you to select one of several social media login accounts. Thus, you can't use any method except clicking and using your existing, or new account on Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. The sentinel is even offering a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to get people to use the new system. This is an extremely risky practice, because Facebook, for instance, has been pummeled in the press THIS WEEK for having... POOR security over member data, and NOT asking member permission before sharing their data with other social media systems. Basically,... Read more →

President Teddie Roosevelt's Ideas on Immigration in 1907 - read this!

I always liked Teddie Roosevelt, and now I like him even more. Read his thoughts below the picture. vj Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907. 'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Roosevelt 1907 Every American citizen needs to read this! Read more →

Lake County Cuts Applicant Pool for County Manager Position

The Lake County (FL) government is searching for a new County Manager, and here is one report on the current process and situation. My current favorite to handle the elected Board and the tight budget process is a Klingon applicant pictured here. After all, he might have to ask the Sheriff to give up some budget dollars! Below this article is the list of the 34 active applicants. When the list is whittled down further, I will review the resumes and write a follow up article. vj From 93 to 34 May 02, 2010|By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel (HERE) TAVARES — Lake County commissioners will begin weeding through a stack of applications for a new county manager to fill its chief-executive post, which has been vacant since Cindy Hall was fired. Interim County Manager Sandy Minkoff, the longtime county attorney who assumed Hall's role and is steering the county through budgetary tumult, said he does not want the job on a permanent basis. Human Resources Director Susan Irby said the pool of candidates has been whittled from 93 to 34 candidates — many applicants failed to meet the county's minimum educational and experience requirements. Three candidates who made the initial... Read more →

Lake County Board Meeting Agendas Need Better Transparency on Decision Dollar Effects

You can find links to tomorrow's Florida's Lake County Board meeting agenda HERE. I have previously written about how the County staff prepares Board agendas which do not always include dollar effects of Board decision items in the main agenda document. So, I analyzed tomorrow's County Board agenda to see if they were disclosing the full dollar effects of decision requests given to the Board, and 4 of 7 tabbed items with dollar effects did NOT disclose dollar effects in the main agenda document, and two items failed to disclose the much larger total dollar effect in the agenda request documents, thus the larger totals could have been overlooked (and we are talking amounts over $100,000). Here is what I found... Tab items where money was involved: 4 - Sheriff Grants - Clearly stated full amount of $597,790 6 - Maintenance Bond - clearly stated amount of $87,200.79 7 - Contract award to Absolute Line Tech - NO dollar effect specified in main agenda - it was buried two clicks down in an agenda request form in the "Fiscal Impact" field - $50,000. 11 - This item is to approve a revised reserve policy - changing from 10% to 15%,... Read more →

Lake County Sheriff Receives two Federal Grants totaling $597,790 & Lack of Budget Transparency

You can read the award letter and County Board resolution modifying the Sheriff's budget HERE. The Sheriff received one grant for $230,000 for infrared radar for the Sheriff helicopter ( we assume). The other grant for $367,790 was for vehicles, a new patrol boat, etc. As we learned at the last County Board meeting, the County Commissioners do not really control or set the Sheriff's budget, so this is a rubber stamp approval required by law, apparently. Additionally, there are NO public hearings, no public input or transparency over the budgets and spending of the Constitutional Officers like the Sheriff, County Clerk, Tax Collector, Assessor. We applaud the Sheriff's staff for having the initiative to at least get some Federal tax funds returned to the County by applying for grants. However, from a business standpoint, since the Sheriff doesn't provide the Board with much information, we have the following observations: - The documentation does not disclose related maintenance, training, staffing or related expenses that will be required to maintain the equipment. Will this now act as a reason to ask for more money when the economy is so poor. That issue was not addressed. Will there be annual maintenance contracts... Read more →

Are You Angry at the Florida Sunrail Boondoggle - then read this

Florida isn't the only State with railroad boondoggles. I lived in Southern California where they spent billions on commuter trains that are extremely costly. It would have been cheaper to give each rider a new car. And Florida taxpayers are mad at legislators for passing the $600-million plus railroad boondoggle called SunRail, although there are even more rail projects around the state to reward the firms who paid lobbyists to bribe legislators to get approvals. So, here is a link to a story about a similar railroad boondoggle in Fairfax County, Virginia that is further along. This is a website to fight the rail plan, and the link is to an article analyzing all the hidden and unknown costs. When will we elect politicians who do not accept campaign bribes to pass such projects? vj Read more →