Fiscal Rangers

Missouri's Aggresive Immigration controls reduce illegal alien count drastically...

Here is the full article about preventing the growth of illegal aliens in a State - Florida should adopt these practices... two different friends sent me this at different times. AND, on the same subject of illegal immigration, Colorado's "Republican Study Committee of Colorado" just had a six hour summit on the problem and stated that illegal immigration is costing Colorado taxpayers about $1.5-billion and must be addressed. One speaker said a majority of the costs were related to the care and education for the children of illegal immigrants. Read the article HERE. vj Missouri has NO illegal Aliens. AMERICA... LISTEN UP & TAKE HEED! Missouri has NO illegal Aliens....(THIS IS TRUE) Interesting: SCROLL TO BOTTOM TO VISIT IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION LINK AND AWESOME COMMENTS!!! Missouri's approach to the problem of illegal immigration appears to be more advanced, sophisticated, strict and effective than anything to date in Arizona . Do the loonies in San Francisco, or the White House, appreciate what Missouri has done? When are our fearless President and his dynamic Attorney General going to take action to require Missouri start accepting illegal immigrants once again? So, why doesn't Missouri receive attention? Answer: There are no Mexican illegals in Missouri... Read more →

Lake County School Board workshop today at 2pm - We Review the Agenda

Today's 2pm Lake County Board workshop meeting will discuss several issues and need clarity. You can see the Nov. 29th agenda and look at the agenda details HERE. Click the Nov. 29 agenda selection. The Board is being asked to approve a $2.6-million land purchase with incomplete justification data, and they are being given incomplete justification data on the cost of a proposed wellness clinic system (3 clinics). I found from my reading of the items and some supporting documents: - Item 2.01 - Purchase of two pre-fab toilet buildings for $72,000 ($36,000 each) - This request for approval is for two buildings from a firm in Washington STATE. The purchasing manager avoids any description why she did not get local bids to build these buildings, but instead wants to piggyback on another County (Leon) purchase order to buy buildings from the left coast. WHY? Wasn't there any attempt to see if local contractors could build the needed buildings at a price competitive to the stated cost of $36,000? - Item 2.02 - This is for an inter-local agreement to be discussed by the County attorney, but there are no explanatory attachments or overview or discussion of the purpose. WHY... Read more →

Blog Continues Support of Lake County Hospital District Spending While Ignoring Need for Oversight

Note: This article not only includes comments about the blog mentioned, but a list of all the fiscal accountability problems of the North Lake County Hospital District caused by the current Board majority, who we think should all resign, and our recommendations for improvement. vj The local Lake County blog, Right Side of the Lake, written by Don Magruder and assorted ghost writers (they never sign them) continued its support of the current majority of the Board of Trustees of the North Lake Hospital District who have taken NO ACTION to improve financial oversight of spending. The Board minority, consisting of Marilyn Bainter and newly elected Fran Grossi, want more oversight on how the funds are spent, and in some cases, have become so frustrated with the lack of oversight they have called for elimination of the tax. Since the current Pro-spending Board majority ( aka the No-Accountability Gang - there are four of them, just like the James Younger gang had four members in the nearby photo) has refused to create a website with public records on the spending, etc. WE have created this website to explain the issues: http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/ . There is also a Facebook page at FixLakeTaxes... Read more →

Here Is a Lesson for Lake County FL Government Managers - Don't Give Yourself a SECRET Raise!

About five months ago, the Hillsborough County Florida Commissioners fired their County Administrator after she gave herself and the County Attorney and others a 1% raise without notifying the Board. It took them awhile, but the Board fired the Administrator, Pat Bean, who had worked there 32 years, after discovering the hidden raises. So, local Lake County government managers, don't try to sneak through a staff raise without running it by the elected officials in a public meeting. Read two articles below with the details. vj Here is an early 2009 St. Petersburg Times article explaining the events that led to the firing - apparently the Board was not happy with the Administrator's management skills, saying she was a "reactive" manager. What is interesting is that many of the complaints listed were similar to those about a recent Lake County Manager who was fired last year, and another, still employed, local manager in another agency. However, they did not violate any regulations like in Hillsborough County. Below is an article when Pat Bean was fired around June, 2010. She was fired "with cause" indicating she violated terms of her agreement and not allowed to collect severance of over $220,000. That... Read more →

Pressure on for Lake County Commissioners to Locate New County Manager

The Daily Commercial opinion column below gives a good overview of the need for a new County Manager. The County has gone over a year with an interim County Manager, Sandy Minkoff - the County Attorney. The County needs a take charge, action oriented leader - maybe our own version of John Wayne. During that time, I think Minkoff has done a good job of stabilizing County operations, weeding out some weak people, and reducing staff due to smaller budgets. However, Minkoff is an attorney, as the op-ed points out, not an Administrator. Also, during the last year, there have not been any inititatives by the County to fix economic issues, jobs issues, or the huge foreclosure problem. A leader is needed. In Lake County, the only one that seems to be at the level needed (in my opinion) is Tavares's John Drury. Maybe that is why the Tavares City Council recently proposed raising his salary to the exact level of the County Manager. (But, they ended up only giving a $10k raise). New Commissioner Leslie Campione had it right at last Tuesday's Board meeting when she suggested a headhunter be used to find strong candidates, AND that economic development... Read more →

US Federal Reserve Prints Money - Here is YouTube Video Explaining this Fiasco

This is a great, but depressing video cartoon that explains "Quantitative Easing" which is liberal speak for "printing money" which will cause inflation. You may have read that the US Federal Reserve will "print" $600-million dollars in new money to buy bonds...which is a practice known for causing inflation. This video explains this messy technique and the problems it causes... Here is the URL on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k Read more →

Lake County Superintendent of Schools Receives Annual Evaluation from Board and Our Comments

The Orlando Sentinel published a short article about a recent employee evaluation of School Supt. Dr. Susan Moxley by the Lake County FL School District Board members. See it HERE. One of the issues noted was the need for improvement of her communications with the media, which is interesting since two of the five Board members had previously voted NO when asked to hire a public information officer. However, the other three Board members DID approve the position, so it was recently filled. Here is an expanded version of what I wrote on the Sentinel's website in response: Regarding the issue of Dr. Moxley improving communications with the media, the District, with approval of 3 Board members, recently hired an experienced public information officer who is issuing first ever press releases, and updates on Board meetings. I know he has helped at least one department improve their presentations to the Board by describing techniques that resulted in the department staff furnishing a more complete, integrated report rather than a series of disconnected documents and background information that many people could not understand. I also expect the District to be more forthcoming with facts to offset incomplete reports in the press,... Read more →

Time to Implement Obama type CHANGE for Democrats

If you own a company or manage a large department and are having a hard time generating enough business to keep all employees, here is a recommended method for selecting who to layoff: A Lay-off letter from an excellent boss. Dear Employees: As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our insurance costs, taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change...... I gave it to them. I will... Read more →