Tavares, FL - Lake County, FL - Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012
UPDATED to today, Sept. 4th -see UPDATE section at the bottom of this document from Integrity Florida regarding Lake's late filers.
This information was sent out by email yesterday to some local officials:
Below is a link to a list of numerous Lake County officials who will soon face fines for not submitting required financial statements.
I received this notice below from a local officer of the North Lake Tea Party.
He received it from IntegrityFlorida, which apparently tracked people in public positions who have not filed required annual Financial Disclosure statements that were due July 1, 2012.
I have not verified the accuracy of this list or how
Since today (Sept. 3) is a holiday, I can’t contact the Elections Superintendent to determine if her office is even involved in ensuring compliance, since the reports are due tomorrow. I know, that as a previous candidate for County office, the elections staff DID notify me if I was about to miss various deadlines. But these folks appear to be incumbents, not candidates, and the process may be entirely different.
One name is Jeremy Martin, who WAS the Internal Audit Director in the Court Clerk’s office, but he left his office months ago, so some of these could be similar situations. However, there are some zoning board members and other County employees on the list.
I am sending this to local press, selected Lake County officials and elections officials to see if they know how to handle this.
Anyone able to describe why this happens to so many people should let me know.
Contacts to verify this information should be to Dan Krassner from Integrity Florida, listed below. Any ideas to ensure Lake officials don’t meet this deadline in the future should be sent to me.
Click here to go directly to the Florida Ethics Commission page listing delinquent Lake County filers or scroll down to read the memo from Integrity Florida
You can also go directly to the website of the Florida Commission on Ethics and search the website or call them: http://www.ethics.state.fl.us/
Update: Marilyn Bainter, current Board member of the North Lake County Hospital District says these forms are due the year following the END of terms. I am not sure if it is filed more frequently.
Vance Jochim
Lake County Fiscal Rangers
Chief Fiscal Watchdog
Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management, Efficiency & Effectiveness
PO Box 1042
Tavares, FL 32778
Mobile: 352-638-3578
TWITTER: @FiscalRangers
"FiscalRangers" page on Facebook
YouTube: NEW 6/2012 - Videos of local political candidate forums and other meetings, like North Lake County Hospital District & Lake County Legislators' Delegation annual forums - visit the youtube channel "FiscalRangersFlorida"
CLICK HERE to see recommended internet links related to Local Lake County government fiscal issues.
From: "Dan Krassner"
<dankrassner@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 3, 2012 4:24:29 PM
Subject: Lake County officials could face fines for late disclosure
Wanted to bring to your attention that the Lake County officials named on the list linked below could face fines for late financial disclosure reports to the state ethics commission if they do not file by tomorrow (Tuesday, September 4):
According
to the Florida Commission on Ethics, 1,240 state and local officials and
government employees have failed to file their 2011 financial disclosure
reports that were due July 1, 2012.
These 1,240 late filers (as of August 29) will begin facing fines of $25 per late day (up to a $1,500 cap) if they fail to send their required financial disclosure forms to the Florida Commission on Ethics with a postmark on or before tomorrow (Tuesday, September 4, 2012).
Read
more here: http://www.integrityfl.org/late-filers-financial-disclosure/
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Dan
--
Daniel B. Krassner
Executive Director
Integrity Florida
(850)
321-0432
dan@integrityfl.org
IntegrityFlorida.org
| Facebook.com/IntegrityFL
| @IntegrityFL
715 N.
Calhoun St., #4, Tallahassee, Florida 32303
Integrity
Florida is a nonpartisan research institute whose mission is to promote
integrity in government and expose public corruption.
===============================================================
Updated Info as of Sept. 4 from Dan Krassner directly to FiscalRangers.com
Vance,
State and local government officials/appointees/staff must file financial
disclosures with a postmark of today or they will be fined $25 per late day up to
$1500. Here is the Florida Commission on Ethics database with the most current
information to search the status of financial disclosure filers http://public.ethics.state.fl.us/.
I just did a quick review of Lake County compared to surrounding counties by
population and late financial disclosure filers, according to data from the
Florida Commission on Ethics website this morning. Lake County definitely
stands out as a county with a disproportionately high number of late filers
based on its population. Polk County has more than double Lake's
population with less than half the amount of late filers (Polk has 16 compared
to Lake with 37). Orange County has more than triple the population as
Lake with about the same number of late filers (Orange with 44 compared to Lake
with 37). Lake County has 37 government employees and officials in the
community who failed to file their financial disclosure by the July 1 deadline
and risk being fined if they do not send them in with a postmark by today
(September 4), which is the end of the two-month grace period.
Here is the county-by-county data I pulled together this morning based on
counties surrounding Lake, population and number of late filers:
Orange County 1,169,107 44
Lake County 301,019 37
Polk County 609,492 16
Volusia County 494,804 11
Marion County 332,529 4
Osceola County 276,163 0
The Florida Commission on Ethics and County Supervisors mail all of the
officials several times and at least twice after they miss the July 1 deadline
at a cost of more than $20,000 to taxpayers statewide just for notifying the
late filers. The Ethics Commission is even trying to call late filers,
which they are not required to do.
Former employees and officials still have to file if they meet certain
requirements.
Open to your ideas on what could be recommended to the Ethics Commission and
County Supervisors of Election to improve the process.
Thanks,
Dan
--
Daniel B. Krassner
Executive Director
Integrity Florida
(850) 321-0432
dan@integrityfl.org
IntegrityFlorida.org
| Facebook.com/IntegrityFL
| @IntegrityFL
715 N. Calhoun St., #4, Tallahassee, Florida
32303
