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
5:30 pm - Agenda does NOT contain location, but we assume it is the round County Admin building.
Subject is to QUICKLY approve the final schools millage rates and the final budgets. The TOTAL Schools budget is $567-million, including $301-Million in General Fund, and other sources like grandts, Federal food service programs, capital funds from dedicated revenue sources, etc. These have been discussed before at prior workshops, so they are pretty much a done deal. Since property values have DROPPED, the Schools will get less revenues and the they are holding the millage rate as is, but it is LESS than the roll back rate. They didn't try to increase any rates, so this is not controversial.
6pM: Normal Lake County Schools Board meeting at round County Admin building - see Board Docs for the agenda -
- Tab 6.02 - Once again, the $10-million "energy savings contract" where the Schools will pay Progress energy to install lightbulbs and other energy efficient equipment comes to the Board. I think it might be beneficial, but if you think staff should do all the same work, provide public input, and I am sure they might hire the people needed (with lifetime benefits...).
- Tabs 8.12 & 8.13 - They will approve the new job descriptions for the new Business Process improvement manager and the new District Auditor position. They are letting the contract with the current District Auditor to expire on Oct. 3, and have already had a special meeting to discuss reorganization. His office assistant position will be eliminated while the new business process improvement manager will be added, but reporting to the Superintendent.
Tuesday, Sept. 13:
9am - Lake County Board meeting in the round County Admin building in Tavares on Main St. is a WORKSHOP (see agenda and location HERE) which means Chairman Jennifer Hill will not allow public input except during the "Public Hearing" topics for Tab 2,3, & 4. Also, due to lack of planning or intentional "human error" (my opinion) staff and the Board tend to add last minute addendums without much notice on the weekend or Mondays, so you have to watch the website page for Board agendas to catch them HERE. As of 8am Monday, there was no addendum.
Tab 1 - Online permitting system: Presentation by the Growth Management Dept. on the new online permitting process for single family dwelling units. This is a good thing. However, it streamlines COUNTY permits for houses in unincorporated areas, but what about integrating it with cities? Ask them that - ooop, Hill doesn't allow public input, so ask her by email or in person.
Public Hearings (public input allowed):
Note: Lake County is still using a stupid agenda management system where they don't use clear descriptions for attachment file names, and the files don't open, but have to be downloaded, saved, then opened to see what is in it. One of these days they will fix this 1980's software design. (I have written several emails to County staff about this, but no answers or action.)
Tab 2: Fire Assessment (tax) approval: Hearing and approval on Fire Assessment (taxes) - these were discussed at prior meetings and if I remember right, they actually reduced the rate for commercial properties, but residential rates went up slightly due to better data analysis, so there wasn't much controversy. However, the agenda for THIS meeting only included the proposed resolution with the NEW rates, but NO COMPARISON TO PRIOR RATES OR EXPLANATION OF THE CHANGES. So, since prior discussions were at offsite workshops (at least one, I was there), most of the public has no clue about changes or reasons for the changes. So, if you give public input, ask why that information was not on the website.
Tab 3: Approvals of 2012-2016 Road Impact Fee Transporation Construction Program, grants and rnewal sales tax capital project for Roads. Fiscal Impact is $26-million. They have had prior hearings on this. Included in the attachments is the 16 page Powerpoint provided at earlier meetings that shows plans. Basically, you could give input on project priorities, but the work was all done at prior workshops. They will spend the $26-million anyways.
Tab 4: Approval of assessment fees totaling $12-million. The resolution is attached, but NO ATTACHMENTS PROVIDED SHOWING PRIOR FEE LEVELS OR EXPLANATIONS FOR CHANGES. This also was discussed at prior Board workshops which the public doesn't always get to view or attend, so here is the final vote, and no clear information is attached explaining changes, trends or reasons.
Reports: The Commissioners, County Manager and Attorney give reports, and you never know what some Board member might suddenly propose and push through (Sean Parks does this).
Wednesday, Sept. 14:
Wednesday, Sept. 14 - 11:30 -1pm - Lake Federated Republican Women's Club lunch at the Tavares Community Center - both men and women Republicans are invited. Contact President Lou Brown for details at [email protected] .
Wed., Sept 14 - 6-9pm: Fiscal Rangers ACTION ALERT - BE AT THIS MEETING: North Lake County Hospital District - in the County round Admin Building in Tavares on Main St. - This is the SECOND required meeting for the Board to approve a 1 mill hospital tax where about $8-million will be given to three local hospitals without ANY rules on how to use the funds, no method to ensure proper spending takes place, and many North Lake voters NEVER got to vote on this 1 mill tax anyway. Look for my separate article distributed tomorrow just on this Hospital District, with an update and more details. But if you attend one meeting this week to represent local taxpayers, this is it. I will send out my update on Tuesday.
Thursday, Sept. 12:
Thursday, Sept. 12 - 9:30 am - Lake County Capital Facilities Advisory Committee ( CFAC - formerly the Impact Fee Committee) meeting (see agenda and location address here) : This specific meeting is to recap all the possible alternative and possible ADDITIONAL taxes to pay for roads. Finally, after my writing memos and making public input statements about errors as large as $500-million in their forecasts, the County staff last week drastically improved the organization and presentation of data so the committee could at least make informed decisions on a roads revenue plan for the next 20 years. I will issue an update with details on Wednesday that includes documents and an overview. At this point, it seems there is a huge backlog of road projects not funded in the past, and ignored by Commissioners. So, I expect the data to be used to prioritize possible new funding sources since the Board previously waived Impact fees for two years, causing more of a backlog of unfunded road projects. Read more on Wednesday.
Thursday, Sept. 12 - 5-8pm, Clermont - "Lake Vision 2011" - This is another (about the fourth one) meeting arranged by local developers and builder advocates to show presentations on various Lake County Land use and planning issues. There is no charge for the meeting, and this is the first one held in South County. I find them very interesting, and if you are interested in zoning, commercial and land development issues, you should go. They seem to focus on "mixed use" land planning issues, and that is what was used in the new plan for a large land area along the south border of Lake Dora. You will probably see several elected officials there also, who are probably being invited to be "educated" about this method of land use. There are several speakers and I have conflicting lists of names, so I am not sure who will be there. It is at the LSCC SOUTH Lake campus in Clermont Building 1, room 204. Contact John Brandeburg if you want more info or get on the list at [email protected] - (352) 391-9998 office .
