Fiscal Rangers

James O'Keefe of Project Veritas was just fired by the Board. This is his final statement to the staff today, Feb. 20, 2023

James O'keefe spent 49 minutes today, Feb. 20, 2023 explaining in a video the entire, not well known, train of events leading to his departure from his investigative watchdog group Project Veritas. It happened strangely forced by a hostile Board just days after their huge expose of the Pfizer executive admitting apparent improper actions related to their Covid vaccines.   Read more →

Police Chief & Two others "mis-appropriate" $80,000 from tiny city in Oklahoma

Elected government officials can learn from reported cases of fraud in local government. This link is to a story where a police chief and two others in the small town of Tryon, OK, population 500, embezzled over $80,000 over several years. The city's total annual budget was about $200,000. One lesson is that the elected officials apparently didn't exercise any type of oversight on the spending. "Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd released her audit of the town of Tryon, between Stillwater and Chandler, on Thursday. She identified a total of $95,000 in misappropriated town funds via unauthorized and personal charges, according to a news release." Funds were withdrawn from city accounts via local casinos "In her audit, Byrd faulted not only the employees who benefited from the misappropriations but also the governing board for the town." "This "Town" Board was just asleep at the wheel." The Police Chief, Jered Pricket, is alleged to have made most of the personal transactions, including $3,700 in "questionable credit card expenditures," including deer hunting supplies. The "misappropriation" was 13% of Tryon's annual budget. “Donations made to the Tryon Police Department, totaling $3,960, were not deposited into the Town’s bank account,” Byrd wrote... Read more →

Recall Florida is a new group focused on passing Florida legislation to allow Recalls of corrupt LOCAL City & County Officials

Florida statutes only allow citizens in 20 cities and counties to initiate recalls of corrupt local officials. A new group, RecallFlorida.com, is pushing 2021 Florida bills to correct that and allow citizens in ALL Florida cities and counties to recall corrupt local officials. Read more →

Clermont, FL Taxpayers protest City Council decisions and rampant development at City Hall

Citizens showed up at the Clermont City Hall on July 22, 2020 to wave signs and discuss issues with those passing by. Led by local Clermont watchdog Dani Page, the group waved signs for two hours. This is a 30 minute segment. Read more →

Liberty County, FL Supt. of Elections suspended by FL Gov. Ron DeSantis due to $40k fraud

The FL Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended an elected Supt. of Elections in tiny Liberty County, FL (near Tallahassee) for an alleged $40 in fraud (not voter or election fraud) AND Google search has suppressed finding any articles or news about it if you use their search engine. But, Bing found many recent articles. See my updates also. Read more →

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

Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell encouraged taxpayers to attend local city council and other local agency meetings to monitor what they are doing, and also monitor who are the best candidates for their local government agencies. Here are my additional ideas for reform of City Councils and policies. Read more →

Two Jacksonville City Council members were indicted last year for fraud, and local officials should ensure they don't do the same.

This is just a friendly reminder from our Watchdog keyboard that Lake County, FL and other elected officials need to ensure they make ethical and objective decisions, and don't practice favoritism, bribery, etc. Read more →

Updated: Eustis, FL City Council overpaid for historic building, sell it for much less to Mayor's friends

The Mayor of the City of Eustis, FL pushed through a $250,000 city purchase of a historic building and adjacent lot appraised at $175,000 and over paid $75,000 for the buys. Then the city will keep the lot valued at $35,000 and sell the building for $160,000 to friends of the Mayor without advertising for any other buyers at the sweetheart price. AND, the city will finance the $160,000 (plus imputed interest of $27,000) sale of the building over five years and only require $500 down and no credit checks or due diligence to ensure ability to pay the taxpayer funded mortgage. This is small town cronyism at it's best. Read more →

Florida Huckster State Practice #33 - $500-million South Florida Commuter Rail Contract Dispute Illustrates Poor Contracting Procedures?

Florida Huckster State Case #33 A Florida Commuter Rail Contract for $500+million was awarded using possible Crony Capitalism and Bid Manipulation politics There just seem to be weak standards for ethical contract selections procedures in Huckster Florida, especially in independent agencies in Florida. In this case, the deciding agency, the South Florida Regional Transit Authority (SFRTA - aka Tri-Rail) is also partially funded with Florida taxpayer funds. Suspicious methods were used to award a $500+million contract to a company whose bids were much higher than other competitive bidders who were deemed "ineligible". AND, back in 2011, SFRTA was tied up on a lawsuit over another $100-million contract dispute. Politico.com - Jan. 26, 2017 - " The winner of the South Florida Regional Transit Authority (SFRTA) contract operates Tri-Rail, a commuter rail service that runs on 70.9 miles of track between Jupiter and downtown Miami. The contract could be up a 10-year term." "The public authority that oversees a South Florida commuter rail service is set to award a more than $500 million contract to a company whose bid was tens of millions of dollars higher than its competitors, each of whom was deemed ineligible for the same technical flaw." "Officials... Read more →

View this excellent interview of Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe

Oct. 28, 2016 If you like James O'Keefe undercover Project Veritas videos exposing crooked Hillary campaign law violations, you will like this 20 minute interview with him to learn what makes him tick. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Weekly FiscalRangers Update: Election Hijinks, Drug Smuggling, Supt. of Schools Search & More

Here is the FiscalRangers.com weekly update of local government and political issues in Lake County, FL. Read more →

Palm Beach County Audit Discloses Favoritism & Cronyism in Selecting Contractors

Tavares, FL April 17, 2015 This is older news, but a relevant example of local government cronyism, bribery, and waste in Palm Beach County, FL Source: Orlando Sentinel: "Lunches, golf outings and vacations involving a Palm Beach County official and government contractors created a potential perception of favoritism in awarding $9 million in publicly funded work, according to the county's inspector general. The inquiry raised questions about Deputy County Engineer Tanya McConnell's role in directing county contracts to three firms represented by people she described as "friends." While Inspector General John Carey found that no laws were broken, he did call for changes to the county's contracting process. He also forwarded the case to the county's Ethics Commission for further review, which rules on potential violations of the county's ethics code." READ more HERE. The above article provides an example of how a strong County Director can bluff staff into giving business to favored vendors who are "friends". It is amazing she was that stupid when the County hired an Independent Inspector General several years ago due to political corruption. Link to Palm Beach Inspector General's website - which has link to the above mentioned 4/16/2015 "Engineering Department" audit. Vance... Read more →

Lake County School Board and Superintendent Restrict District Audit Director from Auditing Certain Functions

Today the Daily Commercial published a front page article about recent actions by the Lake County School Board to restrict the ability of the District Internal Audit Director from reviewing "teaching and learning" processes. We comment on why that is a bad idea. Never forget that government is a monopoly, so extra oversight and transparency is needed to ensure operations are efficient, effective and economical. One way to do that is have an independent internal audit function with full and unfettered access to all employees, vendors, and records. Read more →

How to Use Common Law Grand Juries to Investigate Government Officials

Who knew there is a method defined in the US Constitution and descended from the the British Magna Carta on how citizen activists can convene a Common Law Grand Jury (CLGJ) to investigate local Governent corruption. A well known conservative talk show host and author, Jason W. Hoyt, visited Lake County, FL recently and explained how to setup a CLGJ. Read more →

Florida Gets a D- and is ranked 30th in National State Integrity Investigation Report

Florida ranked a D- in a new, national study comparing all states in 13 "integrity" or accountability categories. A well known national watchdog, Center for Public Integrity ( http://www.publicintegrity.org/ ), published their annual "State Integrity Investigation" report comparing how each state ranks in 13 categories related to transparency, oversight and accountability. A partner, www.GlobalIntegrity.org was also involved in the report development. Florida, like MOST states, ranked near the bottom with a D- and only three states had higher C or B rankings. Based on points, Florida "achieved" a 61, and was 30th out of all 50 states (or 57 states if you are Obama). Read more →

City of Opa-locka, FL suffers from Corruption Scandal, fails to pay phone & other bills

Tavares, FL Nov. 5, 2015 A corruption scandal in the city of Opa-locka, FL has caused the city to run out of cash and they aren't paying their bills. "The city even stopped paying life insurance premiums for its workers. You know it's bad when their phone service is shut off for not paying the bills. I will write more later, but here is an initial story on it: Miami Herald On brink of financial collapse, Opa-locka seeks state help For Opa-locka government leaders, the signs of financial distress came abruptly last month: The phone service to City Hall was shut off. Then came the complaints: The city owed thousands in rent payments for police satellite offices and $100,000 to a contractor who walked off the job while restoring the historic City Hall. The city even stopped paying life insurance premiums for its workers. Just two weeks after a corruption scandal embroiled Opa-locka's leaders, the city is faced with another grim development: Opa-locka is edging toward financial collapse. http://www.miamiherald.com/…/miami-gar…/article43040772.html vj Read more →

Blogger Article takes down Chicago Schools CEO Indicted for Funneling No-bid contracts to former employers for kickbacks

Tavares, FL Oct. 13, 2015 "Last Thursday, former Chicago Public School CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted by a federal grand jury for funneling $23-million in no-bid CPS contracts to former employers in exchange for kickbacks." Here is a local, Chicago TV video report. The CEO was appointed by Democrat Rahm Emmanuel Read why watchdog bloggers, internal audits and oversight are needed on all government agencies. A blogger's article was read by the Schools' Inspector General, who investigated further, and then the FBI took over. "Beginning in April 2012, the federal indictment says, Byrd-Bennett, Solomon and Vranas “knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property from CPS” by fraudulent means. Byrd-Bennett is said to have agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks that would be paid by $127,000 being deposited into each of her twin grandsons’ “college tuition accounts” when she returned to SUPES as an employee–even if for just a day." VJ Read more →

Small Town California Newspaper gets Pulitzer for Investigation Series on Local School District Corruption

A California school district with only four schools and 6600 students suffered huge fiscal losses due to cronyism and corruption and overpayment of salaries. The local paper published a 10-part investigative series and won a Pulitzer. One of the lessons is the corruption that can occur when contracting firms support elected school board members to get huge school bond issues totaling $200-million and related projects approved. Additionally, the District Superindant was paid $663,000 in salaries, benefits and perks, which was much higher than the Superintendant of the much larger Los Angeles School District. Read more →

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer in Tennessee embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014 Read more →

SOME of Palm Beach County Cities (but not all) Sue to NOT fund County Inspector General

When you see a headline like this, you assume the Inspector General Office in Palm Beach County, FL is screwing up, but not in this case. The IG was created about 3 years ago by a Palm Beach County citizen referendum vote, with authority over Palm Beach County (also previously known as Corruption County), School District and all the cities. But a number of the larger cities sued a few months ago to NOT be invoiced for their share of the IG costs. No other reason seems to exist other than not wanting to pay for it, or they don't want some of their actions to be subject to review by an independent IG. But, there are quite a few cities that did NOT sue to stop funding, so maybe this issue will die as the cities suing not to be subjected to audit find out the public might not be happy with that approach. That was the point of the editorial below. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/let-good-cities-do-the-right-thing/nPN7C/ vj Read more →

Florida County Activists Ask Lake County FiscalRangers for Help to Resolve Corruption

Activists and TeaParty members in other Florida Counties are aware of FiscalRangers. We just got a query from one County activist group asking how they can stop corruption in their County. They listed a number of officials and issues, so here is what I sent them, and I expect to talk to them later. Vance Jochim ================================================== The Florida Grand Jury published a big report on Corruption in Florida last December and Pam Bondi has done nothing to market it to the legislature to get the recommendations implemented, even though her Attorney General Dept. runs the Grand Jury investigations. The Florida Auditor General has no “resources” to initiate citizen requests for audits. They mostly focus on CPA type financial and regulatory compliance audits, and not audits for efficiency, effectiveness or to detect and fix corruption. Almost all local government oversight is left up to local County agencies and officials. The legislative Audit Committee will not initiate citizen requests for audits, which are sent to the Auditor General, BUT they will do so if asked by a legislator. So, you need to have a legislator request an audit like what you want, and the AG may do it . But, the... Read more →