Leesburg, FL - Jan 5, 2012
Yesterday, Jan. 4th, Lake County's three Florida Representatives ( Larry Metz, Bryan Nelson & Marlene O'Toole) and two Senators (Alan Hays & Dorothy Hukill) held their annual "Lake County Legislators' Delegation" meeting to listen to "pitches" from over 20 people from different government and other agencies asking for funds, legislation changes or other Florida State Support for their issues.
The publicity for the meeting was so bad that hardly any members of the public attended. Details on meeting locations were confused with three different sites being described by different people. Agendas were stacked at the side and there was no table to greet attendees or get their names to send out follow up documents. I only found out about the meeting in the morning and had to cancel a dental appointment to attend. Hardly any members of the public or press attended. The only member of the press there was from Lake Sentinel. The picture shows you what I mean - this was halfway through the meeting after first speakers all left. If taxpayers and conservative groups don't attend these types of meetings and make their positions known, don't cry when nothing is done. I am surprised the
The weakest presentation was by a "volunteer" from AARP reading a canned list and asking for money for several projects, including sales taxes on internet sales. Sen. Hays lectured her about asking for money. You got the impression because there was limited State funds available, he didn't want to hear pitches from anyone asking for money. Perhaps someone should look at what funds Hays HAS approved and compare their importance to what the agencies asked for.
Sen. Dorothy Huskill and Rep. Bryan Nelson are new to Lake County due to redistricting, so they didn't say much. Marlene O'Toole gets kudos for picking up on several issues and taking notes and indicating serious notice that she would help solve some problems - the others did not really commit to much. You would think the Delegation would respond to speaker requests with answers, reasons or action plans, but that was not done much. Even if they said their staff would respond with more specific info, that would have helped, but it was not done much. Since they did not collect emails of attendees, they couldn't send out any type of update. So, the impression is that the meeting is required, but presentations are not taken very seriously.
I have posted a video of the entire meeting here on my FiscalRangersFlorida YouTube page.
However, the pitches were routine requests and no fistfights broke out. There were no controversial issues like prior meetings when oversight of the North Lake County Hospital District was disputed. Not one City was represented in the presentations, which is unusual.
Meeting Chair, Sen. Alan Hays, mandated speaking limits of 3-minutes per person, which I think was impolite to the larger agencies like the School District Superintendent and the Lake County Board Chair Leslie Campione who had specific legislative priorities to discuss. However, we know the big groups (like the two Hospitals, which gave "updates") all schedule and meet with the legislators separately.
A mistake amateurs make at these meetings, like the guys from the homeowners group, is to make a request for legislation and hope something happens. Based upon my experience with the North Lake County Hospital District, just asking didn't work for three years. It is only when activists asking for oversight got Rep. Larry Metz to write a bill to be processed that things happened. Thus, you either have to create the proposed legislation and get a Representative or Senator to file it as a bill, or get one of them to write the bill and file it. Another barrier is that Representatives are only allowed to file 5 bills, which they fill up usually with their own priorities, so it could take years to get into their pipeline of planned bills. However, Senators can file unlimited bills (but not local bills, I am told). Thus you really need to visit the legislators in their offices and discuss the issue and get a bill into the process. Last year, perhaps 1400 bills were filed, and only 300+ were approved.
None of the presenters brought extra copies of their presentation documents for the press or attendees and Hays did not offer to scan and provide them to attendees or the press.
Attached is an electronic version of what the Lake County Board wanted to discuss. I got it from the press office of the County.
Download 2013-01-04 LegislativePositions
My Public Input - I gave a 3-minute talk, focused mostly on the need for an improved focus on oversight by the State - here are my topics, with some background, and not all was discussed due to the 3-minute limit.
- The Legislation needs to track and eliminate all unfunded mandates, like rules for Schools that cause expenses not funded by the State.
- The Lake County legislators need to form an investigation committee to determine why Lake County Schools are 65th out of 67 counties in receiving funds from the State. Lake County schools are being shortchanged and why aren't the Legislators more active in solving this problem?
- Establish legislative Committee to Investigate Agenda 21 Damage to Counties - The Lake County Board's priority list (see above attachment) includes a recommendation for the Legislators to create a committee to review damage caused to Florida Counties by the UN Agenda 21 stealth project implemented by the American Planning Association. I told them I support that. If you want more information on Agenda 21, visit my webpage: www.tinyurl.com/HaltAgenda21
- Agenda 21 damage should be reversed by legislation like Alabama's - Sen Alan Hays and other legislators have TALKED about filing a bill similar to one in Alabama to reverse Agenda 21 impacts, especially related to land use and damage to property rights. I told them to support such a bill. I recommend they use the model bill created by the Agenda21Today website at: http://americanfreedomwatchradio.com/?page_id=1880. You can also sign or see the petition they are gathering to give to the Florida Legislators.
- Prohibit Foreign Law - I support Rep. Larry Metz's continued efforts to once again file a bill to prohibit the use of foreign law (i.e. like Sharia law) in making legal decisions in Florida.
- Florida has over 1500 special districts that need formal oversight for efficiency, effectiveness and economy. I recommended that oversight be expanded over all the districts to protect taxpayer interests. One way to do that would be the below Inspector General recommendation.
- The legislature should create mandatory County Auditor or Inspector General departments for each County. Fat chance, but it needs visibility due to all the snafus I constantly see in County and City governments from lack of performance audits or oversight on fiscal transactions.
- Oversight and transparency over Constitutional Officers needs dramatic expansion. Right now:
- There are no public hearings over budgets or financial decisions of Constitutional Officers.
- No audit agency has authorization to conduct performance audits, and none of the Lake County Constitutional Offices have ever had a performance audit. The Sheriff has around 50% of the total County budget and has no public hearings on his budget, does not post budget details like the County or School District do, and has never had a performance audit. That needs to be done in every district.
- Constitutional offices get a budget from the County Board, but can refuse to reduce spending due to economic conditions, resulting in other County departments being cut more than needed to offset the lack of reductions. The County Boards need legislative authority to completely allocate and approve Constitutional Department budgets, especially in economic downturns.
- No sales taxes on internet shopping should be implemented. I added this to the list after listening to speakers from AARP and the Lake County League of Women Voters (both are "progressive" or liberal groups) ask that the legislators approve sales taxes on internet transactions. Thus the progressives are already starting a campaign to raise another tax, while no conservative groups were at the meeting to pitch tax reduction, etc.That's it.
Will Next Year's Meeting Be More Organized, Transparent & Publicized?: Rep. Larry Metz was selected as the Chair of the Delegation to organize next year's meeting, and I expect it will be better publicized and organized. I have been to about five of these annual meetings and the BEST one by far was run by former Senator Paula Dockery, who had very good publicity, didn't restrict large agencies to 3-minutes, scheduled hearings from the agency in the afternoon, and public input from the public AFTER dinner so working people could attend. Prior meeting transcriptions were available and their meeting minutes were available fairly quickly. The attendance of the public was dramatically higher and really gave the impression that at least Dockery wanted to hear all sides. And, she wasn't even based in Lake County.
Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers AT comcast DOT net
