Fiscal Rangers

Will Eustis, FL become Lake County, FL's first Sanctuary City? Left leaning City Council members could do it!

Tavares, FL Oct. 26, 2018 A shorter version of this opinion commentary by Vance Jochim was also posted on CityGrader.com. Updated Oct. 27, 2018 with more facts. The opinions in this commentary are all my own, based upon observations at meetings and my research. Will Eustis, FL, controlled by liberal or RINO (Republican in Name Only) City Council members, become the first Sanctuary City in Lake County, FL? As an active Republican and fiscal watchdog blogger in Lake County, FL, I rate this City a C due to the Democrat or liberal sympathizers on the City Council. I live in nearby Tavares and the contrast of "vision" is quite strong. The City staff are quite competent, and the historic ambiance is great, but the elected leaders with a liberal bias are not helpful. I am a watchdog blogger in Lake County, and have been monitoring Eustis politics for years. They keep electing liberal or do nothing Council members under the cover of "non-partisan" elections, leading to disputes with residents. Under the right circumstances, they could become Lake County's first Sanctuary City. City Elections for City Council candidates are now in progress for the Nov. 6, 2018 elections. The positions are... 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 →

Reputable Watchdog Group Report says "Florida Finances Slide Further into the Red" with a "C" Grade and shows Deceitful Practice of not funding $9-billion in Retiree Health Insurance Benefits.

The credible watchdog group Truth in Accounting just published their ratings of different state fiscal management ratings and Florida got a C. One deceitful practice used by Florida is to promise government employees big health insurance benefits, currently totaling over $9-billion, but NOT FUNDING it at all. Thus future taxpayers will inherit the bill for these unfunded benefits. Read more →

Oregon Federal Landgrab over years leads to 150 militia taking over Oregon Wildlife Refuge Building

January 3, 2016 Tavares, FL Property Rights Issue - Another Feds landgrab - This is happening right now in a remote Oregon area, and the mainstream media may not be telling you the story. Neither print newspaper that service Lake County, FL told you about this growing Federal overreach issue in Oregon, but 150 militia folks have taken over a Federal Wildlife Refuge building to protest the arrest and imprisonment of two property owners. Read all the BEST details here - the amazing history of how the Federal government forced out or impoverished many ranchers and now they are fighting back. The Clive Bundy family, who stood up to the Feds attempt to seize land in Nevada are there and this seems to be another property rights issue. Read the details here from conservative sources, not the main stream media. Here is the NBC News video on this. Here is the Washington Post article. Watch for more news on this. Will this be another Waco tragedy led by Obama? Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com 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 →

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 →

For Profit Colleges Under Investigation by Congress, and this one shouldn't receive funds

Tavares, FL Nov. 3, 2015 Billions of US taxpayer funds flow to private, for profit colleges, and many overcharge, lie to students and the students run up school debt from Federal loans and don't pay it back. How do these colleges qualify to get the Federal student loans? They are approved by private accreditation firms, and if they don't implement tight standards, the colleges get away with fraud and students, not the colleges, are on the hook for debt for poor education. Read this story and watch the video of Senator Warren grilling the head of one of the accreditors and you will get mad at the Federal government for allowing some of these accreditors and colleges to get ANY Federal tax dollars. VJ Read more →

HUD Loan Guarantee costs taxpayers loss of $4.5-million in Colorado

Oct. 27, 2015 Tavares, FL HUD Waste Report: Colorado Springs, CO taxpayers lost $4+-million when HUD guaranteed $10-million on property loan valued by the local County at $4.5-million, which then failed and shut down. Another HUD fiscal fiasco - this time in Colorado. http://watchdog.org/…/hud-backs-9-5-million-loan-on-propert… Read more →

Federal Government Issues New Ethanol Standards for Fuel & other rules

Tavares, FL June 2, 105 WE are against ANY ethanol in gasoline, but we are still stuck with 10% due to corn industry lobbying that benefits form methanol production. Ethanol DOE damage older car engines as well as outboard motors, lawnmowers, etc. I have to get ethanol free fuel at Harris oil in Mt. Dora to prevent damage to my boat's outboard engine. BOO Iowa! So, read the details here about all the new standards - at least they are not requiring E15, or 15% Ethanol because car manufacturers told the feds they would not honor warranties on existing vehicles in they were forced to run on 15% ethanol. Read more →