Fiscal Rangers

Is your County Supervisor of Elections Intelligent Enough to Prevent Phishing attempts to get office logins?

Election thieves are targeting Superintendents of Elections and employees with fake emails in phishing attempts to get their office login info. Are Florida SOEs smart enough to prevent their logins being hijacked? This article explains it and the notice sent out by the FBI warning them. And, HERE is the official FBI notice to SOE's. The question is, is your Florida SOE and staff intelligent enough to avoid such phishing attempts to get their password? In my opinion, as a retired information systems auditor and anti-corruption manager, I personally do not think so. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com [email protected] Apr. 4, 2022 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 →

60 Local Government Employees based in Tavares, FL Earned $100k or more in 2017 per OpenTheBooks.org database

A government spending watchdog, OpenTheBooks.org, tracks wasteful government programs and also tracks local, state and Federal employee wages over $100k. We examined their reports for local cities in the Lake County area, and found 60 employees working in the Tavares, FL area for government that earned over $100k. OpenTheBooks.org also launched an initiative to encourage the Congress to launch a "War on Waste" by listing wasteful, stupid Federal programs and asking the government to publish budget details for transparency, and then eliminate the uncovered, wasteful programs. Read more →

TODAY - How to ask your Florida legislators for FREE STUFF, or maybe some agency oversight!

Visit today's Town Hall of the Lake County, FL state legislators to ask for FREE STUFF, or just ask for fiscal Sanity and new or less legislation to improve life and transparency and oversight in Florida and Lake County. 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 →

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 →

10+ Reasons to Vote AGAINST Lake County, Florida's $800-million "Infrastructure Sales Tax" Referendum on Nov. 3

On Nov. 3, 2015, the ballot in Lake County, FL will have a referendum asking voters to renew an existing one penny sales tax for another 15 years that will generate between $450-800-million in taxes. The funds will be for capital spending like buildings or computers or vehicles and split in thirds for each of these three groups: 1) Lake County government, the 14 cities in Lake County, and the School District. This article covers 10+ reasons to vote NO on the referendum and conditions needed to save taxpayers $100-million plus by prohibiting use of bonds to run up government debt. 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 →

Why aren't Florida Consitutional Officers Required to be Transparent about their Budgets?

Feb. 3, 2015 Tavares, FL - Lake County Why aren't Florida Constitutional officers required to be transparent about their budgets and have public budget hearings like the County, School Districts, cities and Hospital District? Florida requires little oversight on elected Constitutional Officers like Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Sheriff, Elections Superintendent - I have periodically asked that Constitutional Officers be required to have public hearings over their budget details and to post a DETAILED proposed and then approved budget each year. Instead, they have no requirements to do so. As an example, the Lake County Tax Collector has a 2014-2015 budget of $5.5-million, but his website only shows this very vague, one page proposed budget dated Sept., 2014. Why aren't Constitutional officers required to have public hearings, budget workshops, and post DETAILED budgets on their websites like the County and schools do? What is going for software vs facilities vs utilities vs wages vs benefits? We don't know and are never allowed to provide public input. Ask your constitutional officer AND your Florida legislator why they don't do that. http://www.laketax.com/forms/2014-2015_budget.pdf and, the Tax Collector has only ONE page in the 484 page Lake County Budget book HERE (scroll to page 384).... Read more →