Fiscal Rangers

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 →

Voting Fraud Update: US Agency that certifies voting machines was hacked, Russian selling their logins

US Agency responsible for certifying voting machines is hacked and staff login credentials are offered for online sale by Russian hacker. Just another example of the loose systems used for US voting. Read more →

Video of Lake County, FL Elections Canvassing Board "Audit" of vote machine counts vs manual count

The Lake County, FL Elections Canvassing Board performed an audit on Nov. 21, 2016 to compare a sample of paper ballot counts to machine generated totals. This is an overview of the process and a link to the video of the 3+ hour process. This includes some observations about loopholes in the "audit" process. Read more →

Voters Challenging Elections Processes More Often - Tampa Bay Times

Tavares, FL Oct. 30, 2016 The Tampa Bay Times posted an article about how local voters are challenging vote integrity and questioning processes more than before. The concern was enough in Hillsborough County that last week Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Craig Latimer printed " a flier titled "Let's talk about safe and secure elections" for staff and volunteers to give out at voting sites. It includes a list of 10 safeguards his office employs to ensure that only eligible voters cast a ballot and that they only get to do it once." I think all this questioning is a good thing. Here in Lake County, the Republicans have undearthed several absentee and sample ballot screwups forcing the County Elections Supt. Emogene Stegall to answer them. She still hasn't answered my last email questions about incorrect absentee ballots sent to residents of one community. If you have not voted yet, be sure to inspect your ballot to ensure you got the proper one with the candidates you expect to see on it. If you encounter any disparities, let me and the Lake County Republicans know about it so a possible larger problem is not buried. PS: Unlike the Lake County Elections... Read more →

Tavares, FL Candidate Forum for City Council Candidates on Nov. 8 ballot - view the full video

Tavares, FL Oct. 28, 2016 Tavares, FL City Residents who are Registered Voters: Candidates for Seats 1,3 & 5 of the Tavares, FL City Council The Tavares, FL Chamber of Commerce, led by Executive Officer J. Scott Berry, held a Tavares City Council candidate forum on Oct. 26 for candidates for three City Council Seats that will be on the Nov. 8th ballot. Moderator was Vonda Parker. We made a video of the entire event, without edits or comments, which is HERE. Candidate names are in the video description. Observations: All three seats up for elections have incumbents running for re-election, and they have challengers. I have attended many Tavares City Council meetings in the last year and know the incumbents. There are some good candidates running, however, some may be there because a rumored slate was initiate by a local landowner. I was not impressed with the challenger's knowledge of issues. Most seem to have jumped in "for change" or they were asked to run. Thus when questions came up, they were naive, or just speculated "I will certainly look at that..." when responding. The only candidate that seemed to do her factual homework was Malanie Vachon but she... Read more →

Updated FiscalRangers.com Conservative Voting Recommendations for Lake County, FL voters

Here are my recommendations for candidates and issues on the Nov. 8, 2016 ballot for Lake County, FL voters. Read more →

Today Trump gave a mind blowing, specific policy speech in Gettysburg, PA with many specifics.

On Oct. 21, 2016, Donald Trump gave a historic policy speech in Gettysburg, PA that was very specific about the programs he will implement in his first 100 days in office. Watch the video or read the article or pdf - links are provided. Read more →

Evil and corrupt Clintons theft of Haitian Earthquake aid funds described here by Dinesh D'Souza

Hillary and Bill Clinton siphoned off billions in aid dollars meant to help Haiti after a disastrous earthquake. This article really tells you what they did. 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 →

Here is a $90-million REASON to vote out Lake County, FL Commission Incumbents - they ignored discussing a new $90-million liability

Here is a reason to vote out all three incumbent Lake County Commissioners on the August 30 ballot, and vote for Lake County Commission Candidates Wendy Breeden, Josh Blake and Tim Loucks (or Mike Levine) by August 30, 2016. Lake County staff and elected Board members are whining about lack of funds to pay for roads. But we describe how current Board incumbents ignored a new NINETY MILLION DOLLAR liability for retired employee pension and retiree health insurance benefits. We describe how more money would be available for roads, but instead, County staff and incumbent Board members are allocating increased pension costs first in the budget rather than reduce retiree or employee health insurance coverage to match rates spent by private sector employers. This is one of many reasons to vote out all incumbents and vote in new blood for County Commissioners like Wendy Breeden, Tim Loucks and Josh Blake. Read more →

North Lake County, FL Candidate Hob Nob Results - Leesburg, FL

Here are the results of over 700 straw poll votes for Lake County local, State and Federal elections taken at the Leesburg, FL Hob Nob. Read more →

FiscalRangers.com 2016 Lake County, FL Election Recommendations AND RESULTS for the August 30 Primary Ballot

This is the FiscalRangers.com Guide to Recommended Candidates for local Lake County, FL primary elections held on August 30, 2016. Does not include cities or special districts. Read more →

Lake County, FL Results of South Lake County Hob Nob Straw Poll - Aug. 10, 2016

Below are the results of yesterday's August 10, 2016 straw poll of Lake County voters at the south Lake County Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob last night in Clermont. You have to click the three images to see them in a separate window. It seems at least 435 straw votes were cast, but not for all positions. These votes should NOT be considered accurate or related to the population at large because more experienced or better funded candidates will swamp the event with free tickets to vote for their supporters. We know one candidate got many local retirement community supporters to vote just for them. Another issue is that unlike the real upcoming August 30 primaries, this Hob Nob let all party members vote without identifying themselves, thus their votes could distort what the true results will be when only single party members can vote for partisan candidates in their party. For instance, in this HobNob, many Democrats could vote for OR AGAINST a Republican and skew the results which would not be possible in the primaries. Then, there are some positions that are partisan, such as the "State Committeeman" which are for the Republican Party, but other party members... Read more →

New Video: Republican Candidate Forum for FL Senate Dist. 12 in Lake, Sumter & Marion Counties

This is background and a link to a video of a Republican Candidate forum for Florida Senate District 12, held in Tavares, FL on August 3, 2016. The event was sponsored by the Lake County Republican Party, the North Lake Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Woman's Club. Video by Vance Jochim from the Lake County fiscal watchdog blog www.FiscalRangers.com . The candidate forums held by these groups are renowned for tough questions on conservative issues. Read more →

Conservative Jason Hoyt starts Florida PAC to fight solar industry corporate welfare & Florida Amendment 4

A new taxpayer advocate Florida PAC has been formed to fight corporate welfare, including efforts to get voters to vote NO on Florida Amendment 4 (2016) on the August 30 ballot which would give property tax exemptions benefitting just the solar industry. Read more →

Lake County, FL Commissioner Leslie Campione Opinion on Jimmy Conner's Re-election Claims.

Lake County, FL County Commissioner Leslie Campione wrote an opinion article about how "fellow" Board member Jimmy Conner is spouting half truths about a local sand mine in order to frighten people into voting for him. Read it to understand why many residents are supporting his opponent, Wendy Breeden. Read more →

Lake County, FL Republican Sheriff Candidates Vie for support at Candidate Forum

Last week, on July 21, 2016, three Republican candidates for Lake County Sheriff answered more than 20 questions in a public forum. Here are details with links to pictures and a video of the event. Read more →

Insider Details released on Schedule for July 25 Democrat Presidential Convention

Breaking News: The Democrat Presidential Convention in Philly starts on Mon.,July 25, and WE have the SECRET INSIDER schedule for the first day thanks to James Krakowski in Clermont, FL. Read more →

FBI Announces Damning Evidence of Hillary use of unsecure email servers, but no recommendation for prosecution

July 5, 2016 The FBI Director James Comey just announced their findings in an investigation of Hillary's use of a private email server. As a person who worked within the US Embassy Baghdad in 2004-2006, and saw where a military man was arrested who copied a SINGLE classified document to an unsecure email and file system used by the reconstruction program, I find the FBI decision not to recommend a prosecution to be ludicrous. I used that reconstruction server, and it was shut down for a week while the investigation took place in the Embassy. Comey cited damning evidence such as examples of 7 "Secret" email chains on the server, but their info goes to the Justice department "for action" with no recommendation for prosecution. Gee, that is the Justice Dept where the head just met secretly with Bill Clinton. Democrats should be ashamed of Hillary and her cavalier attitude to national security. The FBI said they could not prove hostile nations accessed her email, but she used unsecure Blackberries in foreign countries, ignoring security issues. She should be in Gitmo for 10 years for her actions. See the 5-minute press conference on C-SPAN here. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Pictures & videos of Lake County, FL Republican candidates assembled for Flag Day and speeches

Many Republican candidates for elected office showed up Saturday, June 25, 2016 to make speeches and talk to voters during the Flag Day celebration held by the Lake County Republicans in Tavares, FL. We posted pictures and videos will soon be uploaded to YouTube. Read more →

Video of Candidate Forum for Lake County, FL Board of County Commissioners

The video of the full candidate forum held on June 16, 2016 in Tavares, FL is now on our FiscalRangersFlorida YouTube channel HERE. Read more →

Lake County Candidates or Supporters Violate Campaign Sign Placement Rules

Tavares, FL June 25, 2016 by FiscalRanger Vance Jochim Illegally posted election campaign signs collected by the Tavares Code Enforcement staff are behind the Tavares Police Department. Already, election campaign season started, and two County Judge candidates, Cary Rada & Ben Boylston, or their uneducated supporters, placed signs in illegal places in Tavares and the signs were impounded and stashed behind the Tavares Police Dept. who act as code enforcement officials for the city. Typically, they either placed it on private property without permission, or they placed it in road right of ways which is a no-no. Every two years, we have an election cycle and 60 days before a primary or general election vote, campaign signs popup all over Lake County. And, every year, naive candidates or uneducated supporters place campaign signs that violate local city or County sign placement rules. Each city has their own rules, and some require deposits and then stamp the "approved" signs before placement. One year I visited the Minneola City Hall and there must have been 100 impounded campaign signs as large as 8 feet in size stashed inside a room there. You have to know where each city and county code enforcement... Read more →

Eustis, FL Watchers - List of Applicants for vacant City Commission position

The City of Eustis closed applications for a vacant City Commission position today, Friday, May 27, 2016. Here is the list of known applicants. At least one other will be known on Tuesday. Read more →

Video of Lake County, FL School Board candidate forum held on Apr. 21, 2016

I have posted the video of the entire candidate forum on Apr. 21, 2016 for Lake County, FL School Board member elections on my FiscalRangersFlorida YouTube channel. Read more →

Breaking news: Secret schedule for upcoming Democrat Convention disclosed

Secret schedule of the upcoming Democrat Convention disclosed by local conservative. Read more →

Breaking: Jimmy "Chainsaw" Conner, Lake County Commissioner, resigns to run for Elections Supervisor

Lake County, Florida's County Commissioner Jimmy Conner is resigning and running for Lake County Elections Supervisor. Here are all the details. Read all the article before posting comments. Read more →

Lake County, FL Sheriff Borders drops out of re-election race

Lake County, FL Sheriff Gary Borders has dropped out of his re-election race. Read more →

Election Campaigns Indicate Buzzwords are the norm in Lake County

US Congressional campaigns for Florida Dist. 6 are ramping up but we mostly saw buzzwords from three announced candidates. STOP the Buzzwords - provide actual objectives and plans to achieve them. Read more →

Lake Sentinel Columnist Lauren Ritchie picks on County Commissioner Tim Sullivan

Lake County, FL Political News: Columnist Lauren Ritchie from the Lake Sentinel is picking on incumbent Lake County, FL Commissioner, Tim Sullivan, about his living in Jimmy Conner's district but renting an empty apartment in the District he represents as a "residence". Read more →

Lake County, FL Candidate Meet & Greet Notice: Feb. 18 in Tavares

The North Lake County Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Women’s Club is hosting a local candidate election meet and greet event on Feb. 18 at 6:30 pm in Tavares, FL for ALL new and re-election partisan and non-partisan candidates for any party or office in Lake County. The event is open to all voters. Read more →

Just Retired Lake County Public Services Director files papers to run against Incumbent Lake County Board member Jimmy Conner

Lake County, FL Politics: Just Retired Lake County Public Services Director Wendy Breeden files papers to run against Incumbent Lake County Board member Jimmy Conner. Read more →

Lake County 2016 Election Cycle starts with Margie Eaton filing to run for County Elections Supervisor

Lake Countians (FL): Republican Margie Eaton has filed papers to run again for Lake County Supervisor of Elections against 50+ year incumbent Emogene Stegall. Margie ran against Democrat Stegal in 2012 and barely lost. Read more →