Fiscal Rangers

Chicago Wastes $18-million a year on Featherbedding Union Truck Drivers

The article below gives a good example why the City of Chicago has a reputation for being corrupt and wasteful. Their Inspector General found there were over 200 union truck drivers costing $90,000 per year who drove construction crews to work sites, then sat and did nothing (just like the guy in the hammock) until they returned the crew to their offices at the end of the day. This was instead of having one of the crew drive a truck, which would eliminate the need for the $18-million in truck drivers. And, apparently there have been previous scandals in Chicago, such as garbage collection crews given light collection routes, such that they goofed off 25% of the time. And, keep in mind they have REALLY strong union contracts, and are NOT in a right to work state. I hope local Lake County managers are keeping a better eye on how their staff is used than Chicago does. (I have been told of people watching several government workers arrive in separate agency trucks at a worksite...). vj Inspector General: City wastes $18 million a year on truck driver By Fran Spielman - City Hall Reporter - [email protected] Last Modified: Mar 31,... Read more →

Update from Past Lake County School Board Member Cindy Barrow

After finishing her term of election to the Lake County School District Board last November, Cindy Barrow relocated with her family to the Sarasota area (her husband relocated a business). Now we have an update from her about activities in her new turf. It didn't take long. Barrow is now running the local chapter of a Children's movement organization as described in her memo below. I reviewed the website of the organization and it seems very well organized, and aimed at improving five areas related to education of Children in Florida. Although Barrow was an active Democrat in Lake County, she always seemed focused on children's education issues in her role on the Board, and this group seems to be non-partisan. They even have a Republican consultant as one of the main advisers. Good luck to Cindy... vj ================================================== This memo sent out by Cindy Barrow... Dear Citizens: It has been quite some time since I have sent out an update to you. I concluded my duties on the school board this past November and moved to Sarasota. It did not take me long to find an organization that advocates for all of the children in the state of Florida.... Read more →

North Lake Hospital District on the Defensive Again - Our Recap of all the Recent Articles

by Vance Jochim Updated April 2 to include Orlando Sentinel editorial link. Updated March 31 & Apr. 1 to add link to Lauren Ritchie's March 30 & Apr. 1 columns... Tavares, FL - March 28, 2011 - Just in the last week, the Board Members of the North Lake County Hospital District (NLCHD) must be questioning the logic in being on the Board or the legitimacy of the District. Here are several news articles and posting about NLCHD in the last two weeks. A major issue is that some news sources, including the Orlando Sentinel, didn't understand a recent Executive Order from Governor Scott regarding "Hospital Districts" when it only partly may apply to Lake County Hospital Districts. (Read below). Be sure to read the comments to the online articles, which give a good flavor of the issues. - You can read our March 3rd blog posting on the NLCHD if you want an overview of the issues, with links to older articles. READ it HERE. - We published an article on March 23rd on how the Lake County government has ignored a regulation that would let them invoice the local North Lake County Hospital District for reimbursement for Medicaid... Read more →

Channel 9 Orlando TV Interviews us about $2.7-million Lake County Medicaid Costs

Got Facebook? If so, go to our FiscalRangers Facebook page and LIKE us AND add us as a favorite link! http://www.facebook.com/FiscalRangers Channel 9 WFTV reporter Bernt Petersen interviewed me for this March 18th story regarding the possibility that Lake County can bill North Lake County Hospital District for a "proportionate share" of County Medicaid expenses. The online video interview, however, missed part of what I said, and tried to say taxpayers were getting double billed. I don't think so (see below), but the current County costs at their clinics for Medicaid patients might be billable to the Hospital District, which would allow the budgeted $2.7-million to be spent on other priorities. Staff seemed reluctant to admit that was a possibility, but Leslie Campione, Jimmy Conner and Sean Parks pushed for better information, which was furnished later (see memos at the bottom of this document), and a full report will be given at a future Board meeting. Here is a link to the Channel 9 video, but read my more detailed information below, because I don't agree with their statement that "Residents are Being Double Taxed". The basic issue is that at a recent Lake County Board meeting, the Commissioners, led... Read more →

Why I have stopped monitoring the Lake County School District - the Morlocks are coming...

Note: If you want to get early notice on our blog posts, and you are a Facebook member, search on "FiscalRangers" to find our page on Facebook, and BOTH "Like" it, and add the page to your favorite Facebook page list. Tavares, FL - March 17, 2011 - I have given up on monitoring fiscal issues for the Lake County, FL school district. I can’t do much more after 4 years of attending Board meetings, giving public input and posting analysis on this blog without being on the inside. A fiscal Tsunami is heading their way… and I keep comparing the School District staff and practices to the book Time Machine by HG Wells, where the flower children Eloi lived on the surface, and at night the cave dweller Morlocks came out and ate them. Hounding the School District are Fiscal Morlock projects to: - reduce property taxes under local control to sales taxes revenues under State Control, - complaints from businesses about education quality (which may or may not be justified - I personally think it is partly a marketing problem), - unrealisting demands from unions from "missed" step increases not based upon current economic trend data, and continuing... Read more →

Clermont Drivers' License Examiner Charged in Citizenship Scam

So, it seems an employee in the Clermont, FL driver license office was taking bribes to process fake driver's license applications from illegal aliens. And, it only took four years to catch and prosecute them. I hope the police and sheriff in Lake County have a way to identify all the recipients of fake driver licenses who paid the going rate of $2500+ and arrest them also. vj Three charged in citizenship scam CLERMONT from: http://www.dailycommercial.com/localnews/story/031711indictment BRAD BUCK | Staff Writer [email protected] Three people, including one who worked in the Clermont driver license office, have been charged with helping illegal aliens gain U.S. citizenship, according to a federal indictment. Specifically, the three, all from Winter Garden, allegedly conspired to make false statements in applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A federal grand jury this month indicted Gaitrie Latchman, 46; Rajin A. Latchman, 28 and Ted B. Shirley, 49, all of Winter Garden. Shirley worked as an examiner in the Clermont office of the state Division of Driver Licenses. The indictment charges the three with transferring false identification documents and with furnishing altered passports to others, said William Daniels, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Gaitrie Latchman also is... Read more →

Lake County Government Oversight, Red Flags, & Lack of Confidence

Tavares, FL - March 15, 2011 - Opinion (updated slightly at 3pm) I have reached the point where I have no confidence in a major oversight feature of Lake County Government. Most readers know I have a long background in internal audit in large corporations, local government (County of Los Angeles) and Federal Government (anti-corruption adviser in Iraq). Some observers claim I only look at Lake County functions from an audit standpoint. They confuse the function of financial auditors and their audits of County financial reports with the function of internal audit, which expands on financial audits to cover efficiency, effectiveness and economy of all operations. The work of internal auditors cover all the areas that CPA's ignore, like cost accounting, performance measurement, management controls and measuring effectiveness. Most financial auditors are CPA's and follow a very regimented, regulatory process, while operational internal auditors work in an unstructured field where anything can happen and must be reviewed and where the risk of unacceptable losses, and procedures needs review. In my opinion, a well running government agency depends upon five areas of oversight because government is a monopoly, so the discipline of price competition that exists in the corporate world is... Read more →

Seattle School Board FIRES School Superintendent for LACK of Management Oversight

So, you think as a government Senior manager you can't get fired? Well, after being rocked by a construction contract scandal, the Seattle School Board fired their Superintendent for not adequately supervising a manager who skimmed all sorts of funds. They ALSO fired the CFO. The firings took place after the Washington STATE auditors issued a report. Some of the findings included: - A manager over a "small business" setaside program created a company with the same name as the program, then cashed a check for $35,000 from the District school funds. - The audit found that, through the District's small business program that the unsupervised manager managed, the District paid: $1,519,965.34 for services with a questionable public purpose $280,005.25 for services it did not receive and for services that benefitted a private company. Apparently, they had really loose controls over payments less than $35,000. READ the blog report from a construction consultant HERE about the firing. READ the EARLIER blog posting HERE that lists more details and lists many weblinks to articles about the scandals. Favorite Quotes: "The school board's action of dismissing Supeintendent Goodloe-Johnson, came as the board attempted to restore the public's confidence in a district shaken... Read more →

Florida Governor Rick Scott's State of State Speech - March 8, 2011

March 8, 2011 - Tallahassee Florida - Governor Rick Scott gave a rousing 30+ minute State of the State speech that was very clear, results oriented and quite good to those who want fiscal conservative approaches to State Government. The link below is the Florida Channel page for the full speech, plus responses from Democrats: http://thefloridachannel.org/video/3811-coverage-of-governor-rick-scotts-state-of-the-state-address/ This is the link to get the official transcript of the speech: http://www.flgov.com/2011/03/08/florida-governor-rick-scott-delivers-state-of-the-state-address/ I won't try to summarize it - you should read or view it yourself. But, it is clear that new ways of doing government's business are moving forward. For instance, Scott makes economic development calls every day to business leaders to try and get them to expand business in Florida, or locate new operations here. He introduced four company leaders who have done so. Gee, maybe some Lake County Commissioners might make some calls also - they have an economic development staff to give them leads, and they pay $300,000 each year to the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. But, I have never heard of any of the Commissioners recruiting any new businesses into the County. Instead, we heard how two earlier Commissioners refused to meet with leaders of prospective relocation... Read more →

Channel 9 TV Report on North Lake County Hospital District

March 3, 2011 - Tavares, FL - Yesterday, reporter Berndt Petersen's TV report on the North Lake County Hospital District was aired. He included interviews from this author, Vance Jochim, and Marilyn Bainter. (Note: The link to an online video is not available yet - when it is, I will publish it HERE, or a link to my recording of the video). Currently, the North Lake County Hospital District collects a fixed one mill rate tax on property, which generates about $10-million) and gives it to three local hospitals - Waterman (45%), Leesburg (45%) and a 10% share to You can find more of an overview on the District at: http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/ and at http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/north-lake-county-hospital-district/ The TV report was fairly short, and basically gave two sides to the story, but no real barn busting conclusion supporting reform of the District. Berndt did mention his estimate of $100-million going to the hospitals over the years, and the concern of Marilyn and myself that there were NO RULES on how the funds were spent. He left out my comment that the Hospitals could be spending their approximately $5-million per year in tax revenue on pink flamingos for the lawns, and there were no... Read more →

Local Lake County (FL) School Teachers Should NOT get "Makeup" Step Increases

I was not at the recent Board meeting of the Lake County School District Board, but heard many teachers showed up to support their demands to "makeup" automatic step increases. These are basically a hidden increase that is normally automatic for many government agencies. You always hear about the annual wage hikes as a percent (like the 1.5% wage hike that was pushed through last year, even though we were in a recession), but there are also "step increases". You might say they are based on seniority, and higher paid teachers get significant increases. But, two years ago, the School Board, in a moment of fiscal sanity, put a hold on the step increases to reflect the reality of a down market, and lower revenues. In the years I have been observing government activities, the unions almost always consider the amount on hold to be an IOU, and demand it be "made up" later. This is not reality. Corporations do not do that, unless they have strong unions who force them - then employess wonder why the products made by their company are not price competitive and their work is moved overseas. In the past few weeks, I have attended... Read more →

Lake County Schools Could Improve transparency like these four school districts

Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2011 - Tavares, FL - Today is Tuesday, and after 3 hours at a County Board meeting and my mind turning to fudge after listening to rhetoric about why the taxpayers should spend $9-million on a new Emergency Ops Center (which passed 3-2 - see my next blog posting), I thought I would write about School District transparency... One method of providing spending transparency is for a government agency to provide a copy of their "checkbook" ( aka check register or payables listing) online. Below, we provide three examples. Are you listening, Lake County (FL) School District? LCSD refuses to even provide an electronic version of their detailed budget online, much less their checkbook (records of all spending and payments). HERE is the only budget version we Lake County FL taxpayers can get online, which is only 21 pages long and in a "standard" regulatory format not understandable to 95% of taxpayers. In contrast, here are examples of 4 random School Districts with much better transparency, including the posting of more detailed budgets and checkbook registers online (for 3 of the 4). A. Wichita, Kansas School District Places Checkbook Register Online The article describing it is here:... Read more →