Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell asks that voters monitor LOCAL elections as much as National elections

Great idea by Scott Maxwell.   Here is his article:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-op-read-local-news-scott-maxwell-20200306-i6zsee4xxbea3g5vekpoekhsou-story.html   

As a local government watchdog in Lake County, I encourage voters and taxpayers to attend local City Council meetings. Here are some changes needed in local City Council and County Board member attitudes and policies to improve visibility of their actions and agency "performance".

 

1. Every city and county should join the Florida Benchmark Consortium to develop & compare department performance metrics, not just list activity totals.

2. Every city and county MUST provide LIVE & online videos of Council/Board meetings plus Planning & Zoning like Eustis does. "ADA" issues over video captioning, etc. should NOT be an excuse to not provide meeting videos.

3. Every city and county MUST provide ALL election candidate info and reports ONLINE like Mt. Dora does.

4. County Boards should post online graphical reports comparing key ratios like debt per resident between cities.

5. Every city and local government agency MUST provide online copies of the full Board/Council packets given to Boards and not just provide limited versions online, again claiming ADA compliance costs as an issue.

I would be happy if these changes were made in all the Lake County cities and the County.

 

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com