Note: This is an older email that was sent out June 23, but not posted to
the blog until now. The County Board took no action, but did hear that
there was a major shortfall and that staff proposed raising the millage rate
by about 18% to pay for items in the budget.
vj
Tavares, FL June 23, 2014
You can find our blog article HERE
, or read it below. Updates will be placed on the blog
page.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, the Lake County (FL) County Board will have a budget
workshop in their Board Chamber room at 1pm.
There is NO detailed budget proposal online, Powerpoint or any hint what
might be discussed at the 1pm workshop.
They will most likely be discussing not only the upcoming budget and
updates, but how to fund projected shortages AND how to fund a $3-million
budget hike request from the County Sheriff, Gary Borders. The Sheriff and
Board (especially Jimmy Connors) have conducted a publicity campaign on the
Sheriff needing to increase taxes to pay for increased wages.
There have been articles placed with friendly writers in the local press,
including both the Daily Commercial and the Lake Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie.
There may be a good case for salary increases, but NOT using tax increases
when:
- The Sheriff has never had public, detailed hearings on his budgets. For
some magical reason, Florida State does not require budget transparency or
performance audits of Constitutional officers. In comparison, the County
Board, the County School District Board, the Lake County Water Authority and
even NOW the formerly secretive North Lake County Hospital District have
public hearings on proposed and final budgets and allow public input.
Again, the Sheriff's budget is about the same as the Lake County Board's
budget ($50-60-million), but there is no transparency.
- The Sheriff does NOT post detailed budget proposals or final versions on
his website or print them. His own website just gives you the page number
in the COUNTY budget where they have only TWO pages to describe his total
budget. The other 400+ pages focus on the County budget.
- The Sheriff has never requested or had a performance audit, which is
common for both the County operations and for the Lake County School
District. Such audits are designed to review departments for efficiency,
effectiveness and economy, but the Sheriff has never done so.
Our Recommendation:
The Lake County Board should not raise taxes or give budget increases of any
type to the Sheriff until he:
- Posts detailed proposed and final budgets on his website for the last five
years so details and trends over time can be examined.
- Holds at least two public hearings with staff presentations on budget
details and allowing public input.
- Requests a schedule of operational audits with at least one departmental
performance audit per quarter, from the Court Clerk's Inspector General
Department (which also audits the County operations). As part of the
request, the Inspector General should be requested to develop a "risk
analysis" database of all areas subject to performance audits and prioritize
them over a three year cycle.
If the Lake County Board does not require the above conditions for approving
any budget increases for the Sheriff, then I consider them to be
mis-managing taxpayer funds since they are not requiring budget and
operational efficiency transparency expected of most other government
agencies. This is especially important when the Sheriff budget may exceed
$50-million and the public has no idea what operations are inefficient and
could be streamlined to pay for wage increases.
Concerned taxpayers should inform their Board members to implement the above
conditions.
Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers.com
Vance Jochim
Lake County Fiscal Rangers
Chief Fiscal Watchdog
Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management,
Efficiency & Effectiveness
Tavares, FL 32778 (Lake County)
Mobile: 352-638-3578
[email protected]
"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.
