Lake County Upcoming Government Issues for this Week - August 8

Tavares, FL - August 8, 2011 - Below are issues to be discussed by the Lake County Board and the Lake County School Board at their meetings this week, with my comments thrown in...

 

Today - Monday - Lake County School District - go to their website HERE and view the "Board Docs" section for agendas and attachments, if any.

A-1. School District Workshop at 2pm, TODAY, Monday, at School District building on HWY 441

This is a short workshop with the following topics, with my comments, if any:

2. TOPICS

2.01 Transportation Update From Lake County Public Works (Ross Pluta and Seth Lynch, Engineers)

 

2.02 Update to Capital Budget (Harry Fix, Director of Growth Planning)  -  NOTE:  There IS an 8-page attachment which is a revised 2011-2012 Capital spending budget on the online agenda page in "Board Docs"  It basically defers several construction projects due to the lack of funding.

2.03 Restructuring of Auditing Department (Susan Moxley, Superintendent)  -  This is interesting - the Board just last week agreed (I think) to continue the contract of the existing District Auditor, but attendees at the meeting said that two Board members said they could't understand his presentation.  For the last two years, we have provided information to some Board members about how unclear the auditor's writing style was, and most people in private will say his verbal logic is not always understandable either.  However, three Board members supported keeping him.   This agenda item is interesting because it is coming from the Superintendant, but the Auditor does not report to her.  So, it could be re-assignment of an assistant, revision to staff assigned to do some "school account audits" or who knows what. 

2.04 Impact Fee Study (Randy Young, Henderson Young & Company) -  Comments:  This is the big issue of the day.   The Lake County Board snubbed the School Board earlier this year and waived School District impact fees for a 15 month period while the School Board wanted to wait for this pending study of recommended fees for the future.   However, local blog "Right Side of the Lake" has criticized this new study heavily HERE, but remember they are builder advocates and don't want any impact fees on any construction.  However, the method used to calculate the fees, and the issue of including a component to pay for bond debt interest are controversial.  See the actual study HERE on the Right Side blog website because it was NOT provided on the School District website.  The last time the School District asked for increased impact fees from the County Board, their request to also include fees to pay for school construction bond debt was rejected by the Board.  

A-2.  School District Regular 6pm meeting TODAY, Monday, at Lake County Admin (round) building on Main St. in Tavares - the regular meetings at 6pm are usually pretty quiet because the main issues are discussed and consensus decided at the workshops.  However, the evening AGENDA is HERE.  Most items are contract approvals.

However, item 10.03 is a Board discussion on the Internal Audit Plan for the upcoming fiscal year.  The major issue has been a demand from some Board members to switch from routine financial audits to "performance" audits to evaluate efficiency, effectiveness and economy of operations.   One weakness in the audit plan is that for some reason, the Board AND the audit committee has been prevented from defining planned audits and I am now told it is now done by a committee of administration and employees.  So, they basically are letting the fox define which areas of the chicken coop are to be monitored by the auditor.  That would never have been allowed in any audit department I ever worked in.   The auditor and the audit committee decide the audit plan, not the groups subject to audit.

 

Lake County Board - click HERE to get the agenda for TUESDAY, August 9'ths 9am workshop

B-1.   TUESDAY - 9am - Workshop - Lake County Admin (round) building - ONLY Fiscal Rangers gives you the added information below we obtained today.

The agenda is at the above link and only contains two items, with no attachments or clarity on the purpose.  As usual, Chair Jennifer Hill continues her practice of preventing public input at these workshops, and no agenda item provides for public input.   The two subjects are:

    I.  Public Transportation - we are not sure who is giving this, or the scope - BUT, we asked the County Information Officer, Kelly LaFollette, who wrote back:

"This is just an informational presentation by the Department of Community Services, Public Transportation Division Staff and Dottie Keedy regarding the LakeXpress fixed-route system, as well as Lake County Connection, which is our door-to-door paratransit service. The presentation will give an update on the systems, and update the board on how each of the services are funded.  I believe this was requested at a Board meeting by the commissioners a few months ago."

Our comment is that this program requires local taxpayer subsidies and scaling it back could help reduce the County budget shortfall.  Will that issue be discussed?  Who knows.

    II.  "Discussion regarding redistricting"  -  The Board will be discussing proposed changes to the County Commission District boundaries, based upon modifications related to changes in population growth in the County.  At this time, it appears they won't even listen to proposals to establish two south county districts, but instead redraw (gerrymander) the district boundaries to ensure each existing Commissioner is still in a district.  Most observers don't think it matters much since all voters in the County still vote for all Commissioners, so even if you no longer are in the same district, you still vote for all Commissioners.

Here are added comments from Kelly LaFollette, direct to FiscalRangers today:

The Commissioners will be discussing the various options available for the new district maps.  I believe the Commissioners have been meeting with staff individually to look at how they envision the districts being drawn up, and tomorrow’s workshop will be their chance to present their ideas for discussion and consideration.

FiscalRangers.com also asked:  "What will they decide by consensus or by vote from the above?"

LaFollette's answer:
"Hopefully by the end of the discussion, the consensus will be to have staff put on public display the option(s) that they are considering so that the public can give feedback.  The maps will not be on display tomorrow in the rotunda, but a few extra copies will be printed and available at the back of the room.  We should have them up by Thursday or Friday of this week.  We are planning on displaying them here in the Administration Building, and the libraries throughout the County."

Other Issues

There is really a lot of anger on Facebook pages from local citizens about the bad Obama Debt Deal and the reduction of the US credit rating.  I will be following up on this, and the impacts on Lake County.  New mortgage processing rules established by the Federal Dodd-Frank bill may greatly increase the effort to get a mortgage approved and increase processing costs.   The reduction in the US credit rating will increase interest charges for almost anything you finance, from credit cards to mortgages, including floating mortgages that change based upon government interest rates.  

I also have started investigations into Agenda 21 (did you know the Leesburg Mayor signed an agreement to implement UN Agenda 21 objectives, and a cituzen found that out...), Communist and Muslim "stealth" objectives.  

  I have posted those issues on my personal Facebook page (Vance Jochim) and also on the "FiscalRangers" Facebook page.

vj