Fiscal Rangers

Call to Action: Please Attend Tomorrow's (Wed) 1pm ANNUAL Meeting of Lake County Legislators

Tavares, FL - Sept. 27, 2011 - Readers of FiscalRangers.com are encouraged to attend tomorrow's (Wed) 1pm ANNUAL meeting of the Lake County Legislator's Delegation forum at Lake Sumter Community College Here is the meeting agenda. Unlike last year, where part of the meeting was held in the evening so the public could attend, this one is all during the day from 1-5pm. Download 2011-09-28 Legil Del AGENDA This agenda was only sent out today. Van Zant's office didn't return phone calls or the requested minutes, and could not tell us which building the meeting was in. UPDATE: I was told by an attendee that "The meeting is in the Fine Arts Auditorium in front of the gym." However, we obtained the minutes of January's meeting, and they are ATTACHED. It is a long Word document. Download 2011-01-05 FLORIDA DELEGATION MEETING MINUTES Thus, we assume the meeting is in the AUDITORIUM of the Lake Sumter Community College campus and is at 1pm. Please arrive early to ensure you find the right building (not the conference center). We will try to post some signs. Enter the campus on the west side by Cracker Barrel restaurant on Hwy 441. AGENDA LAKE COUNTY... Read more →

West Palm Beach Health Care District so badly managed, it was put under control of County Inspector General

Note: See also our update below on Leesburg Commission resolution related to local Hospital District. Tavares, FL - Sept. 27, 2011 - If you think Lake County has problems with lack of oversight over a measly $8-million given to our local North Lake County Hospital District, read about the one in West Palm Beach. That is the Florida county that had so many government scandals the voters pushed through a new Inspector General Dept. Then, the Board members of their local Hospital District screwed up so much that three members are quitting and they cut a deal to put the management of the District (which apparently owns or runs local health care facilities, unlike ours, which does not) under the direction of the new Inspector General. Read here: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/health-district-oks-inspector-general-pact-spending-on-1881602.html Leesburg City Commission votes 4-1 for resolution to Support Tax Payments by Hospital District to Leesburg Meanwhile, our local "Right Side of the Lake" blog, based in Leesburg, is lobbying the Leesburg City Council to pass a resolution supporting continued funding to our own North Lake County Hospital District, even though they don't have ANY rules on how about $8-million given to three local hospitals is spent. Read that info HERE:... Read more →

FiscalRangers Event Alert: Florida Republican US Senate Candidate Craig Miller to "Work" for four hours in a Tavares, FL Tire Store on THIS Monday, Sept. 26 between 11am to 3pm

Tavares, FL – Sept. 24, 2012 - One of the four Republican candidates for Florida US Senator, Craig Miller, will be in Lake County, Florida THIS Monday, Sept. 26th, to “work” for four hours at a local Tire Dealer in Tavares, FL. Miller calls these events “Miller on Main Street” where he works in REAL jobs for four hours to get feedback from citizens. The picture shows an earlier event when Miller worked in a local gunshop, A.W. Peterson Gun Shop in Mount Dora Miller and the other Republican candidates are running to replace incumbent Democratic Florida US Senator Bill Nelson. The public, press and local officials are invited to visit the shop to meet Miller, have him check their tires (or more…) and lobby for issues. Miller’s campaign website is http://miller2012.com/ . Here is his webpage on his “Miller on Main Street” workday program. Miller has been visiting different businesses in Florida and this one in Tavares, Lake Tire & Auto, is owned by local radio personality and conservative political pundit Ralph Smith. Smith has a radio program on WLBE AM 790 on conservative political issues and arranged the visit during this week’s Presidency 5 campain conference in Orlando.... Read more →

Photos of Herman Cain visit to Lake County are Posted on Facebook

Tavares, FL - Sept. 21, 2011 - Presidential Candidate Herman Cain visited Lake County and the Republican Executive Committee and other fans at a morning meeting today at the Mission Inn Resort in Howie-in-the-Hills. I uploaded about 100 edited pictures to my personal Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150324934173288.368530.692013287 Find your photo there, or tag pictures also. The picture shows myself at Cain's bus. I also took a complete video of his speech, which was very rousing, and will ADD a link to it HERE when I have time (might not be until this Sunday) to edit and upload it somewhere. Cheers Vance Jochim Read more →

Lake County Government AGAIN Fails to Provide Adequate Notice of Meeting Change

Tavares, FL - Sept. 21, 2011 - Today, I was planning to attend the quarterly meeting of the Lake County Tourism Development Council meeting, as posted on their website (see below). So, I called the office before 4pm to confirm the time and location, and was told the meeting had been CHANGED to last Monday, and it was "properly advertised". However, there was NO mention of the time change on the Committee webpage, which is what I rely on, because I don't have time to scan newspaper ads EVERY DAY to read government legal notices. The public needs a more reliable method of meeting notices than the 50 year old, pre-internet method of newspaper notices (and you don't even know which paper). However, one benefit of the canceled meeting is I had time to write this posting. Isn't that special? Here is an email I just sent to the Lake County Board and County Manager. File it under "Lack of Transparency". This is not the first time this has happened, or the first time I have notified the County Manager and Board of this poor procedure: =========================================================== To: Darren Gray, Lake County Commissioners Today, once again, I find a committee... Read more →

Sept. 11, 2001 Flashback from the Past - My letter to a newspaper 9/13/2001

I moved to Lake County, FL from Orange County, California in 2006. The libertarian based newspaper back there, the Orange County Register, just published letters to the editor from September 13, 2011, two days after the Twin Towers collapsed. I remember I was watching the news almost immediately and watched most of the tragedy live. Apparently, I wrote the following letter to the paper, and they republished it this last week with many others HERE. Here is my letter: IRVINE, Vance Jochim: As a former computer operator for a U.S. Army intelligence center in Saigon in 1969-70, I almost threw up while watching TV coverage of the WTC plane crashes when Fox News gave time to the two liberal Democrat senators (Hillary Clinton was one) sharing their "feelings,'' even though they and their party were responsible for denuding much of the intelligence community by reducing budgets and field operatives. I couldn't help but notice when CNN had author Tom Clancy on the air; they cut Clancy off after he started explaining how prior press reports and political actions had always criticized the CIA. Their actions had reduced support and funding for field intelligence operations (a.k.a. spies) to a point where... Read more →

Orlando Sentinel Publishes Update on Constitutionality Lawsuit against North Lake County Hospital District

Tavares, FL - Sept. 14, 2011 - This morning, Sept. 14th, the Orlando Sentinel published reporter Steve Hudak's update on the taxpayer lawsuit against the North Lake County Hospital District, claiming it is unconstitutional (Florida Constitution). After two court hearings, Judge G. Richard Singletary will soon issue his decision. Tax reformer Marilyn Bainter filed the lawsuit because many residents never got to vote on the tax. You can monitor issues regarding the Hospital Tax District at these websites: http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/ - Implemented by the tax reformers. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FixNorthLakeCountyHospitalDistrict - for reformers Click HERE to see all FiscalRangers.com articles on this Tax District, including links to Orlando Sentinel and other articles. vj Read more →

Call to Action: Attend the Wednesday evening Meeting of the North Lake County Hospital District!

Update: This morning, Sept. 14, the Orlando Sentinel published THIS article by Steve Hudak on the Constitutionality lawsuit mentioned below. Tavares, FL - Sept. 13, 2012 - Yup, Wednesday night, Sept. 14th, at 6pm in the round Lake County Administration Building in Tavares, is the second required meeting for the Board of the North Lake County Hospital District to vote to give away $8-million of property tax funds without any rules on how the funds are to be spent, and where many affected taxpayers never actually got to vote on the tax. Currently there is a lawsuit challenging the Florida Constitutionality of the District, and there is an investigation of the District by the Lake County Legislator's delegation, plus a investigation of all Florida Hospital Tax Districts by a Committee initiated by Florida Governor Rick Scott. Last Wednesday was the first of two required meetings where the Board must approve to collect (through the County taxpayer) 1 mill of property taxes, or to vote to not collect ANY mills (0 mill rate). The Hospital advocate controlled Board has NEVER voted NO mills, and always voted for another annual 1 mill tax. We encourage you to attend the meeting. Most likely... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers Alert: Political & Government Events This Week in Lake County, FL

Tavares, FL - Sept. 11, 2011 - Here are upcoming events this week and calls for action (especially for the SECOND Hospital District meeting this Wednesday evening). Yes, I know it is late notice for School District meetings today, so next time, check out their agendas yourself on their website!! Monday, Sept. 12: Lake County School District - THREE meetings today - find them at the School Board website HERE - scroll down to see the "Calendar Events" but ALSO click at the TOP of the left column on "Board Docs" to get the detailed agendas and attachments. The Calendar and Board Docs are two separate systems, and they may not be consistent. 2:00 pm today: School District Workshop at the LCSD HQ on HWY 441 (The Calendar says 2:30 and no agenda will open, but the Board Docs agenda says 2pm - they rarely reconcile these to be consistent) They will be reviewing Charter School applications for two proposed charter schools (you can actually see and download the applications from the Board Docs agenda section), an update on the Florida Virtual (online) School program, a budget review (the final approval is tonight at 5:30 pm), a Reorg of the... Read more →

Lake County Redistricting Maps Get Shuffled Again - What are the Motives?

Tavares, Florida - Sept. 5, 2011 - Tomorrow, at Tuesday's 9am Lake County Board meeting (see agenda and addendum HERE), the Board will discuss a revised map for district boundaries, but there are a number of issues that residents need to understand, and I really believe the discussion should be tabled another week because staff removed a map from Jimmy Conner from the website, so the public can't evaluate proposed changes. Here is a link to the 9am meeting agenda AND redistricting addendum page for Sept 6. Click to see other agenda items you might want to know about, LIKE the Budget approval. Last week, the Lake County Board of Commissioners reviewed and discussed five proposed district boundary maps since they must draw new County Commissioner district boundaries with fairly equal population every 10 years (or more often). They argued over selecting Jimmy Conner's proposed map and revising one from Sean Parks. Kinda like verbal kangaroo combat. The current district boundary map is HERE, so you can compare it to the new proposed maps below (they were not linked on the SAME page). You will need to print it to compare the current districts to the revisions in the maps... Read more →