Fiscal Rangers

Texas Sunset Commission Challenges Reason for Government Agencies

Tavares, FL - April 15, 2011 - This is what we need in Lake County and Florida. A commission like one in Texas with a responsibility to review the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission questions the need for more than 150 agencies, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. The Commission seeks public input through hearings on every agency under Sunset review and recommends actions on each agency to the full Legislature. In most cases, agencies under Sunset review are automatically abolished unless legislation is enacted to continue them. I found out about this Commission while reading THIS story on how the North Texas Tollway Authority is facing fraud allegations, and people are calling for this commission to review them. There is even a menu item "How to Participate" which describes specifically how the public can become involved. This is a great idea for some Lake County Board member to build their fiscal conservative chops. Create a commission like this for Lake County, and implement it to question departments and programs. UPDATE:... Read more →

Understanding Local Corporate Welfare & Identifying True Fiscal Conservatives

Tavares, FL - April 13, 2011 - Today, I gave a presentation at the Lake Federation Republican Women's Club in Tavares. It was on these two topics: - Understanding Corporate Welfare and Local Lake County Examples - Identifying Behaviors of True Fiscal Conservatives (vs liberals or Republicans in Name Only). Attached is the Powerpoint slide presentation. It has over 20 specific fiscal conservative actions that I recommend for elected officials to show they actually are fiscal conservatives. Download 2011-04-13 LFRWC Preso Enjoy. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers AT Comcast DOT net Read more →

Senator Paula Dockery on Sunrail Railroad Subsidy

Tavares, FL - Apr. 13, 2011 - The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners voted recently to subsidize the repairs of the privately (not public) owned CSX rail lines that run from Apopka to Eustis. They voted to spend over $1-million of their funds for the project which will cost taxpayers a total of over $16.5-million (Florida State kicks in about $13-million). The firm leasing the CSX line, Florida Atlantic Railway, will only pitch in about $1.5-million. We call that corporate welfare. We received the following memo from Sarah Hardy, a Legislative Assistant in Senator Paula Dockery's office on a related subject - the Sunrail subsidized rail project. Dockery has voiced objections to earlier attempts to use taxpayer funds to subsidize railroads. vj ================================================ Hi, Mr. Jochim, Thanks for your continued fiscal vigilance on behalf of the taxpayers. I really enjoyed your “on the hunt” illustration in the email. It’s great. Remember to mention that Orange County Commissioners recently voted to spend $18 million taxpayer dollars for infrastructure improvements on a private railroad corridor between Apopka and Eustis. This is the rail line that The Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Executive Director, TJ Fish, keeps asking for support from... Read more →

Florida Governor Rick Scott's State of State Speech - March 8, 2011

March 8, 2011 - Tallahassee Florida - Governor Rick Scott gave a rousing 30+ minute State of the State speech that was very clear, results oriented and quite good to those who want fiscal conservative approaches to State Government. The link below is the Florida Channel page for the full speech, plus responses from Democrats: http://thefloridachannel.org/video/3811-coverage-of-governor-rick-scotts-state-of-the-state-address/ This is the link to get the official transcript of the speech: http://www.flgov.com/2011/03/08/florida-governor-rick-scott-delivers-state-of-the-state-address/ I won't try to summarize it - you should read or view it yourself. But, it is clear that new ways of doing government's business are moving forward. For instance, Scott makes economic development calls every day to business leaders to try and get them to expand business in Florida, or locate new operations here. He introduced four company leaders who have done so. Gee, maybe some Lake County Commissioners might make some calls also - they have an economic development staff to give them leads, and they pay $300,000 each year to the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. But, I have never heard of any of the Commissioners recruiting any new businesses into the County. Instead, we heard how two earlier Commissioners refused to meet with leaders of prospective relocation... Read more →

County Attorney Overspends Impact Fee Funded Land Buys by $28-million

Jan. 28, 2011 I always read the Saturday papers in detail because they usually contain articles about government screwups, and the government agency releases the information late on Friday, hoping no one reads the Saturday paper or watches the Saturday TV news. Oooops...I found a BIG government screwup... But, fortunately, this $28-million attorney caused screw up was not in Lake County, but in Osceola County. We have written or provided public input about the lack of business sense in Lake County attorney led contract writing issues in Lake County (and recently the Lake County School District construction contracts), but this one in Osceola takes the cake. The Osceola County legal department cost their taxpayers about $28-million more than budgeted for road project land buys. It seems Osceola County wanted to launch seven road projects using local property based impact fee taxes for a total of $200-million. So the Osceola County Attorney's office somehow decided that all land purchases should be accomplished not by negotiations, but by suing the owners of 360 parcels of land they needed. AND, the Assistant Attorney followed that plan without she or anyone keeping track of the running costs or comparing the final costs of all... Read more →

Florida's Miami-Dade County to repay $3.6-million to HUD for lousy accounting

If you are a County government, and get a Federal grant from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban development (HUD), you better keep good records to show where you spent it. Apparently the staff at Miami-Dade County flopped the accounting test, and had to repay $3.6-million. This is apparently in a long string of accounting screw ups in that County. Watch out for those Federal audits, Lake County! vj Posted on Thu, Jan. 20, 2011 Miami-Dade must repay $3.6M in Housing and Urban Development funds BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN [email protected] In the latest sign of weak financial controls in Miami-Dade government, the county must pay back $3.6 million in federal grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after a federal audit found that county officials couldn't show the money was properly used. The county's latest problems with HUD -- which administrators unveiled at a County Commission meeting Thursday -- come just two years after the federal agency returned control of the troubled Miami-Dade Housing Agency to county hands after 15 months under HUD supervision. The disclosure angered several commissioners -- particularly in view of unrelated financial woes at the Miami-Dade Transit Agency, which has seen... Read more →

Florida Grand Jury Report issued on "Public Corruption" - Will Governor Scott Implement It?

Note: A Florida state wide Grand Jury established by Charlie Crist just issued their "First Interim Report" on "A Study of Public Corruption in Florida and Recommended Solutions". A number of case histories in the report are related to corruption committed by County officials in various Florida Counties. I am posting a link to the full report here and a short news article, and will add my comments HERE later. Note: The full 127 page grand jury report is HERE. vj ================================================================= Will corruption grand jury bring charges, change or just hot air? Interim report reads as a plaintive cry of frustration January 05, 2011|Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist When a grand jury issues a report instead of indictments, it can be seen as running a white towel up the flagpole. For nearly a year, a Fort Lauderdale-based grand jury has looked into statewide public corruption. So far, the only tangible result is a 124-page "interim report" released during the holiday lull. Reading it is a depressing reminder why few arrests might follow, even if Gov. Rick Scott extends the term for another six months beyond February. The report is informative, filled with concrete proposals to toughen penalties, close loopholes... Read more →

Will FL Gov Rick Scott's Efforts to Run Florida like a Business Work?

The Orlando Sentinel had a front page article HERE on Scott's aim to run Florida like a business. Here are my comments about the article: After four years of writing a blog ( www.FiscalRangers.com ) on encouraging the local Lake County government and School District to be more efficient and run like a business (better contracts that don't give away the farm, use of metrics to evaluate cost per service, no sole source contracting, use of sound economic data to make decisions, etc), I suggest that Scott will have problems with the entrenched staff who won't change internal processes unless fired. He can appoint leaders over the various Departments, but unless they have some experienced business process troubleshooters who find the internal process problems, define solutions and monitor implementation, there won't be much progress. They will constantly tell him "there are no resources" to track spending effectiveness, and 3 years down the line he will find no improvement. As an example, the local Lake County government lists "work measurements" in their departmental budget sections, but they only report activity counts like phone calls received or fire report incidents , but don't calculate trends of costs per service, expect plans for... Read more →

Nascar Sells Out Car Buffs by Pushing Ethanol E15 in Auto Gas

I used to watch Nascar races periodically, and identify with them since I watched Bill Elliot ("Million Dollar Bill") win at Daytona years ago with the purse for him at $1-million. But, Nascar has sullied their reputation by apparently putting profits ahead of the interests of car buffs by agreeing to push Ethanol at the 15% level as ok for automotive gas. But it isn't, as the following article and earlier posts on this blog have discussed. A friend of mine, Jerry, located here in Lake County with a "classic" Pontiac has come unglued about the damage caused to many engines by the existing 10% ethanol mix approved in Florida by Charlie Crist, and he is circulating petitions around the County. You can sign them at Harris Oil in Mount Dora, and it is in some other auto related stores. The existing 10% mix is considered borderline for older cars, and is known to damage two cycle engines used on Motorcycles, lawn equipment and boat outboard engines. Apparently Honda and other makes of small engines NOW state that the warranty on the engines is VOID (read the fine print) if ethanol is used at all in them. They even have... Read more →

Cost Reduction Ideas We Have Submitted to new FL Governor Rick Scott

Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott has a transition website and a webpage to collect ideas from the public to reduce Florida government costs. It is HERE at http://www.scotttransition.com/send-your-ideas/ . Here are some ideas I submitted - I will add more as I do them. 2010-12-09 - Establishment of Independent and Elected County Auditors is Needed Florida counties have no County level department assigned full oversight over performance areas like efficiency, economy or effectiveness. The Auditor General does superficial, low quality financial audits, and the Counties brag about "award winning" CAFR reports and financial audits, but NO ONE is assigned independent review (unlike corporations) of operational metrics, efficiency, and effectiveness to reduce measurable costs. Florida needs to establish tough, mandatory departmental performance metrics, AND establish an independently elected County Auditor like other States have with authority to initiate performance audits of County, Schools, Constitution Officers, Special Districts and Cities. (Note: Some Florida Counties have had so many problems that they established their own County Inspector General - but they are usually run by ex-law enforcement or attorneys and are focused on after the fact investigations of wrongdoing, and not reviewing and improving performance measurement systems BEFORE problems can occur.) 2010-12-09 OPPAGA Needs... Read more →

Governator Elect Rick Scott Establishes High Level Education Reform Committee

In the past, we wrote about actions by then Washington DC Chancellor of Schools, Michelle Rhee, who was turning around the DC schools by firing poor teachers, using merit pay, standing up to union demands and other drastic actions. Now, Rick Scott has selected her as a member of the Education reform transition team for Florida. Wanna bet she is appointed head of the Florida Education system? I would think poor teachers, and teacher unions will get aggravated over this. So, wouldn't you know, the local Lake County School District unions are already asking to start bargaining sessions for next fiscal year's budget allocations for wages and benefits. Unlike businesses, which base wage increases on merit and comparison to economic and competitor statistics, the unions start out by asked how much is in the budget, then go after as much as they can get. It will be interesting to watch what happens, and see if Board members actually use REAL wage and economic data to evaluate the "merit" of any wage increases. (If they did, the wages would be rolled back or benefits reduced and employee contributions for benefits increased.) Here is Scott's transition website and the press release on... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers Endorses Larry Metz for Florida State Representative, Dist. 25

Yesterday, the main editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Metz. Then today, the Lake Section had a "front page" article reviewing Metz and his opponent Rick Joyce. My endorsement is based not on what they said, but my observations of Metz as School Board member and Chairman while I have been attending School Board meetings for four years. The guy has a steel trap for a mind. He is able to mentally organize facts (just like an attorney, which he is), and describe the factors to make a decision in a logical manner, then make a recommendation based on those factors. Emotional reasons without substance don't get past him. I have also met and know Rick Joyce through the Republican Executive Committee, and his appearance at some candidate forums, although Metz attends many more REC meetings than Joyce. I have not been able to observe Joyce in leadership positions like Metz. Both Metz and Joyce have their own law firms and specialize in mediation. At Lake County School District Board meetings, I have watched as he Metz championed the creation of an internal audit function AND wrote the policies for both it and the related audit committee (which I... Read more →

Are You Angry at the Florida Sunrail Boondoggle - then read this

Florida isn't the only State with railroad boondoggles. I lived in Southern California where they spent billions on commuter trains that are extremely costly. It would have been cheaper to give each rider a new car. And Florida taxpayers are mad at legislators for passing the $600-million plus railroad boondoggle called SunRail, although there are even more rail projects around the state to reward the firms who paid lobbyists to bribe legislators to get approvals. So, here is a link to a story about a similar railroad boondoggle in Fairfax County, Virginia that is further along. This is a website to fight the rail plan, and the link is to an article analyzing all the hidden and unknown costs. When will we elect politicians who do not accept campaign bribes to pass such projects? vj Read more →

Why Florida & Lake County School Districts & Teachers May Lose LOTS of funding to Rail Systems

Matthew Falconer is running for Orange County Mayor, and his fiscal mind meshes with us here at FiscalRangers.com. Falconer sends out periodic emails on stupid fiscal practices there, and the one below is important. He basically says that the State's plans for Sunrail spending and a number of other rail lines may drastically reduce education funding. It seems the Rail vendors have better lobbyists and State legislators are switching funds to rail that will reduce the pot of funds left for education. The teacher's unions should be going after this issue - they went after SB6 on merit pay, but this may affect them more than any other issue. I would even suggest they closely watch local spending plans for a commuter rail from Orlando to Tavares/Eustis. My experience from California is that rail systems are boondoggles that soak up HORRENDOUS amounts of funds and never payoff. They are corporate welfare for all the firms that subsist on building rail systems and equipment. I don't spend much time on State issues, but Falconer does, so I suggest you get on his mailing list. vj From Matthew Falconer - candidate for Orange County Major: The biggest threat to education and public... Read more →

Lake County Sheriff Should Request Performance Audits to Prevent $600,000 Problems Like in Maryland

We all like to think that police and sheriff departments are free from fraud, but in Maryland's Montgomery County (Annapolis), the County Inspector General (we don't have one in Lake County) found that questionable training programs for Sheriff and police employees cost the County $600,000 because they avoided central procurement systems and were issued without bid to companies that "had ties" to county police officers. As described in the Washington Post article below, it seemed the connected training firms enticed police and sheriff employees to sign up for courses of questionable quality by offering 80% or so off on brand name handguns like Glocks (see pictures), and then billed the county for invoices up to $59,000. But, I assume the training was also on employee time, so the cost was both time and the invoiced cost. This is the type of thing that can happen in ANY type of department, but here, it was the police and sheriff employees that incurred the questionable charges. Fortunately, the poor training programs were "outed" by the local Sheriff, which then resulted in an investigation by the Inspector General. We don't have an inspector general in Lake County. The "County Auditor" does not have... Read more →

Why Don't the Chambers of Commerce Host Panels of Elected Officials to Answer Questions from the Public?

Here is an idea for an event that each of the local Lake County chambers could hold. It is an open meeting hosted by the Chambers to have the public ask direct questions of elected officials (as opposed to candidates). Right now, there is nothing like this in Lake County, but the one below is held by the Chamber of Commerce in Fountain Valley, CA where I used to live. They do it just for State and Federal officials, but I think the local one should include elected officials from County Government, the School Board and local cities. So what if it goes 3 hours - I think they would get a big crowd. Since Welton Cadwell hardly ever lets the public provide public input at County Commissioner meetings, maybe this type of meeting may provide an alternate version of transparency. How about it, Chambers? OR, what about the TEA Party or the local Republican Executive Committee (they are planning several for current candidates, but not incumbents who are not up for re-election) vj In the Local section of the OC Register, in the “Our Towns – Central” column, you find the following announcement. This is a fun annual event.... Read more →

Florida Legislators from Broward County to Create County Inspector General

Another Florida County is considering establishment of a County Inspector General. This is the first time I have read where it seems the County State Legislators are moving to set it up. We posted earlier about one in Palm Beach County, but that was initiated by local voters (and probably made into law by the County legislators). Inspector Generals are usually setup to investigate reports of wrong doing, and may or may not also act as operational auditors to evaluate efficiency, effectiveness or economy of operations. All Florida government agencies DO get financial audits, but that really is the routine CPA type of audit to ensure the annual financial report is correct and accurate. Such audits do not evaluate efficiencies or cost controls like many corporations do. As we have mentioned before, the oversight here in Lake County is fragmented and restricted because the County Auditor only works for the Court Clerk, and cannot initiate audits of the County Board operations or other Constitutional Officers without "negotiating" with the County Manager and getting approval of audit topics and timelines. In contrast, other states have elected County Auditor-Controllers who not only independently process accounting transactions, but also audit County wide departments... Read more →

Broward County, Florida - Next County that is Victim of String of Fraud & Corruption

Recently we reported on the corruption schemes in Palm Beach County (Florida) which resulted in the County citizens, encouraged by a local Tea Party group, to establish a very strong Inspector General program which is planned to end up having authority over all County government entities as WELL as cities. Palm Beach County corruption cases followed massive cases in Miami-Dade County before that. Now, as reported in the article below, it is Broward County, Florida's turn (Fort Lauderdale area), and more elected officials are being prosecuted and going to jail. It seems they now are uncovering a string of corruption cases as well as a large Ponzi scheme run by a big political contributor. My observation, as a former internal auditor, is that Florida does NOT have an adequate oversight program over local counties. Some other states have elected Auditor Controllers for each County who provide oversight, but here in Florida, there is no such thing. As I have posted earlier, Lake County's "County Auditor" works for the County Clerk, and does not have authority or a charter to initiate audits of other County departments, including the Board's operations or the Sheriff. You can't help but wonder which Florida County... Read more →

Example of County being Audited by Feds for Proper Grant Documentation

This is an example of what the Federal government can audit in a local County program that received Federal funds. This illustrates why Lake County government leaders need to make sure proper controls are used in documenting state and Federal program spending. In the case described in the article below, the Federal Government auditors will audit a $10-million FEMA grant received by a local Missouri County in 2007 to make repairs during an ice storm. It seems this may be a routine audit, since no information was provided of possible wrongdoing. Notice at the end they hired a "debri removal" firm that knew FEMA documentation rules, which was wise. Hopefully, Lake County government managers are doing the same for Federally funded programs and grants. If they don't, and the documentation is not adequate, they would be forced to repay the funds. vj January 1, 2010 Federal agency to audit Greene County's ice storm funds Wes Johnson From the Springfield, Missouri News-Leader HERE The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will conduct a weeklong audit of Greene County this month over $10.2 million in FEMA money the county received after the 2007 ice storm. Although the City of Springfield and City Utilities... Read more →

Lake County Jobless Rate Leaps to 12.7% in November While Lake County Board Parties in Bella Collina

So, while the Lake County Commissioners party in Bella Collina, Lake County "burns" through more layoffs and unemployment goes up to 12.7% (which doesn't include all the people who have given up or who don't ask for unemployment compensation). Besides the jump in the jobless rate described in an article below, earlier this week, several of the County Commissioners (except Elaine Renick, who publicly stated it was not a good idea) went to a party hosted by the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC) in a fancy country club in Bella Collina (remember those $7-million homes they had in that big open house 2 years ago?). They did it to give awards to people who worked on Lake County economic development. However, no one I know thinks that any economic development success has taken place in Lake County. Do you? (See Lauren Ritchie's commenatary about the party below) Of course, you might get as angry as I am if you read several of Lauren Ritchie's columns (Orlando Sentinel) this last month about the EDC, and how they use inaccurate data and job counts to report results, or if you knew that the Board approved a FOUR year contract to pay... Read more →

Drastic Hikes in Florida Unemployment Insurance Start January 1, Reducing Funds for Other Agencies

Most Florida businesses will get an unexpected hike in employee unemployment insurance taxes starting January 1, 2010. This problem will cascade into another fight for the total remaining Florida tax revenues, thus reducing the remaining funds for other agencies, including Schools, etc. (and, remember, Charlie Crist just approved the $600-million SunRail system, which will also compete for funds. Additionally,if Obama's health plan passes, it mandates drastic hikes in Medicaid payments for Florida and other states that have low Medicaid payments, thus that will "suck" more funds out of Florida State cash). Below is a briefing sent out by the Eustis Chamber of Commerce that gives a good description of the tax hike, which significantly increases bottom line costs for each employee. If you are business owner, you need to know about this tax, and perhaps take the actions requested by the Chamber. If you are an employee, you need to understand how the State has used up their unemployment insurance fund to pay unemployment insurance, and has been borrowing $300-million per MONTH from the Federal government to continue paying unemployment payments. The tax hike means that your employer's cost will go up, which means that there will be another reason... Read more →

New FiscalRangers.com Page on Lake County, Florida's 2010 Elections

Tavares, FL - The 2010 Lake County, Florida State and Federal Election cycle is ramping up, so I created a separate page to track the incumbents, candidates, issues and media sources. It is titled "Elections 2010 for Lake County, FL" and is in the "Pages" section in the right hand column, or you can reach it with THIS LINK. I will be adding details on the candidates as it comes, and will later rank the candidates and make recommendations regarding their support of fiscal conservatism and initiatives they have taken to improve efficiency, economy and effectiveness of government operations. I plan to create a vetting process with interviews to also extract background on fiscal skills of incumbents and candidates. A candidate who does not even know how the budget works for the agency they are running for will receive an F. Vance Jochim Chief Fiscal Watchdog... [email protected] Read more →

Election for Florida State Agriculture Commissioner Heats Up Right in Lake County

The Orlando Sentinel blogger, Lauren Ritchie, posted a blog describing how one candidate for FL State Ag Commissioner, Congressman Adam Putnam, made a speech at a local Republican Women's Federation lunch (I was there), and also announced endorsements from three GOP groups. The article basically said the meeting and announcement was a slam to his opponent, local Lake County resident Carey Baker, who is currently a State Senator. READ her blog here (also added at the bottom of this posting). Also read the comments, which contained some more issues related to Baker. I wrote this response to Ritchie's column on her blog, but the Orlando Sentinel gave the following message, and would not accept my response: So, here is my response - I decided to stop waffling and come out against Baker - he doesn't do anything that supports local taxpayers...unless they are gun owners or have "Bull's Balls" hanging from their trailer hitch. Baker has also angered the volunteers who were trying to get more oversight and voter approval for the North Lake County Hospital tax district that costs local property owners 1-mill in taxes without ANY specific conditions on how the funds are to be spent by the... Read more →

Government Pension Double Dippers in the OTHER Orange County

I moved here in 2006 from Orange County, California - the "Other" orange County, or known as "The OC" due to the TV show with the same name. I frequently get emails on political issues from the OC. There have been periodic articles in the local central Florida press about Florida government pension double dippers, but here is a very good watchdog article from the OC Register newspaper in California, preceded by a comment from a local County Supervisor (like a Commissioner here) John Moorlach. The key point that Moorlach makes is the Orange County County government just increased the retirement age and reduced the government retirement contribution... for their 30,000 or so County government employees ( in California, the local agencies enact such rules, not a central State government). Here is my favorite quote from Moorlach about the change: "The answer? Raise retirement ages. This is low hanging fruit. This is what the County of Orange just did with its largest employee bargaining unit. New hires will not automatically go into a “2.7% @ 55” formula. They will adopt a “1.62% @ 65.” They will be able to adopt the higher benefit, but they will be paying the higher... Read more →

Florida State Pension TimeBomb - facts from Orange County Mayoral Candidate

This is very good information about the pension liability and unfunded liabilities faces by Florida taxpayers. It is reason enough to vote out every incumbent elected official in Florida. A similar problem exists in the OTHER Orange County, in California where the 3% unfunded pension just for Sheriff deputies is about to force the County to declare bankruptcy. I moved here in 2006 from that "OC" and get frequent emails from one County official on the issue. vj This is from an email sent out by Matt Falconer, who is running for Mayor in Orange County, FL: Most taxpayers are not aware that virtually every public employee and elected official is part of the Florida Retirement System. Every year taxpayers pay up to 23% of the employee's salary into the FRS fund. The FRS is a "defined benefit" system which means the members are guaranteed levels of income regardless of the performance of the retirement fund. If the fund loses money, the taxpayers make up the losses. It is a great system, unless you are a taxpayer. Pensions were designed to keep older people from having to work late in life and starving. But in Florida, I have seen a... Read more →

Florida County Agrees to Full Time Anti-Corruption IG over ALL County Operations

It seems that Palm Beach County has had a number of corruption scandals that has led to three of the seven County Commissioners being put in jail. So, the local businesses pushed for a State Grand Jury hearing and the results were a recommendation for an Office of Inspector General who had authority over ALL county operations, inlcuding School Districts, Sherrif, etc. In contrast, in Lake County, we haven't had any corruption scandals, but the lone Count "Auditor" Office does not have authority to initiate performance audits of the Sherrif, etc. So, it seems you needs some scandals, convictions and State Grand Jury hearings to get full operational audit oversight of all County operations. Note: All County operations have annual financial audits, but that only means the financials are correct, but not audited for operational efficiency, effectivenes, elimination of sole source procurements, etc. And, the School District does have an auditor to do such audits. So, we just need some corruption scandals and convictions and maybe we can get an IG also! vj sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/sfl-corruption-palm-beach-072109,0,7467841.story South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Palm Beach County gives go-ahead to corruption watchdog By Andy Reid South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 21, 2009 WEST PALM BEACH Trying to restore... Read more →

Expose on Former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt

I received this information from Stan Bainter, who was formerly a member of the Florida legislation. Below is his letter, and a direct link to the expose website he mentions. http://psldirt.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html From Stan Bainter This is very long and you may not have time to read it all. Please fast forward to the end and click on the blog PSL-Dirt (which is above, or click HERE.). I served many years in the House w/Senate Pres Pruitt. You may have read recently that he abruptly resigned after the 2009 Session. Now we know why. In l996 when the Rep’s became majority in the House, Dan Webster violated the Republican House Rules that prevented a Leader to succeed himself and got the rule changed. Rep Pruitt was one of Webster’s favorites (among others known as the God Squad) to pull this off. Pruitt was rewarded and appointed Appropriations Chairman. Until this day and reading the attached I always held Ken Pruitt in high esteem. Just proves again the ole saying “Do not believe what a politician says but judge them on what they DO”. IT LOOKS LIKE THE GOOD OLE BOY NETWORK MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE, READ NOT ONLY THE STORY BUT... Read more →

Greetings from Kabul, Afghanistan - the new FiscalRangers HQ

Well, I did it. I am in Kabul, Afghanistan helping to setup internal audit programs in various government ministries. I am working for a consulting firm known for doing this type of work, and I knew some of their staff when I was in Iraq. I will be here 12 months. Naturally, of course, just after I left on May 19th, I got email weather notices that there were tornado, then flood warnings for Tavares. So, already I have found out some interesting things. The US Government has programs to assist the Afghanistan government in improving accounting and budgeting, and a colleague is rolling out program budgets for the different ministries here. That is interesting because neither the Lake County School District or County have the more modern program budgeting that includes performance benchmarks for various departments. Instead, if you look at the detailed budgets from either Lake County agency, they are still using the kindergarten level line item budgets that don't measure or show productivity, efficiency or effectivenes. Basically, Lake county administrators only look at whether the annual budget approved by the elected officials has been exceeded or not. So, it seems Afghanistan will soon have more modern government... Read more →

California Employees to Suffer Fate of Overtaxing the Population

The news is full of discussion about the California legislature failing to set a new lower budget to match expected lower income. Below is just one article. As always (I am from California), they threaten to layoff masses of employees, and it may actually happen this time, with up to 20,000 State Government employees losing their jobs. Additionally, like in Florida, they are reducing funds to local governments, which have overpromised fire and police pensions, throwing them into a possible default position. The house of cards of overtaxation and excess government wages is about to collaps, starting in California in a big way. Florida can't be much behind, because they don't have an income tax, but the employee groups have usually managed to get wages higher than the growth of gdp or long term tax income trends, thus we will see the same collapse here. That means constant turmoil in elected offices, government managers, etc. because they all ignore basic economics related to the taxpayer's ability to fund excess government spending and wages, thus causing a constant turmoil. You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the School District SEIU is pitted against the Teacher's union, and fire department funding is... Read more →

Orlando Government reform group discloses excessive pension costs

This is an interesting email from another local government reform group called "LowerTaxesNow.org" about Orlando and their excessive pension losses and costs. They talk about how the taxpayer is getting stiffed by the excessive and growing pension costs, which makes you think that local School District and County government pensions may have the same problem because I think they all use the same central pension "investment" fund for Florida governments. It may be normal for the value of the pension fund to drop in down economy, but reading that that Orlando must kick in enough to not only MAKE UP the loss (employees should share some of the loss, but apparently not), BUT, they say that the taxpayers are on the hook to GUARANTEE an 8% growth in the value of the investment fund, which is unbelievable to me. Thus, the pension is a guaranteed investment program that pays more than most investments, and means the taxpayer is funding a growing pension scheme where the employees don't share in the losses. (needs further research...) NO privage employer any more provides such "defined benefit" pensions, but instead provides 401k type of programs where the employee decides which investments to make, and... Read more →

Property Tax Cheats Caught in Florida's Broward County

This is a pretty clear cut issue of tax cheating by homeowners in Florida who do not live in the home enough to earn the homestead exemption. 237 home owners falsely claimed a homestead exemption when a review by the Appraiser's office compared city utility bills (in just one city, Sunrise) to homestead roles and uncovered the false filings. And, the schools could use the extra income. vj Homestead exemption cheaters targeted in Sunrise 237 owners kept $22 million off tax rolls by claiming exemption illegally By Susannah Bryan |South Florida Sun Sentinel March 10, 2009 SUNRISE - Look out, tax cheats. Investigators with the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office have uncovered 237 homeowners in Sunrise who were illegally claiming homestead tax breaks. Next stop: Pompano Beach. The crackdown will add nearly $22 million in property value to the county's tax rolls. That translates to $726,000 in tax money that will be shared among the Broward County School District, Sunrise and other taxing authorities, Property Appraiser Lori Parrish said Monday. Sunrise will receive more than $181,000. Sunrise officials worked with Parrish's office to uncover the fraud by cross-checking city utility bills and tax records. "We will continue to do this... Read more →

Volusia County Tax Reform Newsletter & Video Website Discusses School Funding "Crisis"

The Volusia Tax Reform committee sent out the email memo below AND also included our earlier FiscalRangers.com news release on the North Lake County Hospital District, so we are getting exposure outside of Lake County. Their committee also tapes issues and puts them on YouTube. I REALLY recommend you go to http://kenneytv.com/ and watch the 90 minute Volusia "school crisis" video as well as some of the prior programs. Apparently the 60,000 student Volusia School District is having "town halls" and planning to cut sports, music & other programs AND making emotional appeals to find new revenue ways to make up a $13-million shortfall, when critics point out student attendance has dropped 7% (unlike Lake County, which has a slight growth), thus the Administration should cut 7% of the employees to match the drop in student attendance and related revenue. They also report tricks being used by the School Teacher's Union to gather names by creating a group sounding like it is a parents group, but it is run by the teacher's union. As the Video producer says, "Everything is a crisis with the school district, and I didn't see anywhere that they said they will "cut administrators" to match... Read more →

Florida State Dept Sued for improper Terminations

The article below is about lawsuits filed against the Florida State Dept of Environmental Protection for possible improper terminations of employees. My first job in the 1970's as an internal auditor was at the County of Los Angeles, and even THEN we knew you had to follow regulations and a step by step process for firing and employee. I know, because I followed that process twice, and the other managers who made improper statements were named in an improper termination lawsuit, but I wasn't. I include the article here as reference on what can happen when a Lake COUNTY Dept. improperly fires employees, like documented by Lee Johnson's research report we filed here earlier. Word is, the Orlando Sentinel will have a story on the Lake County activities TOMORROW, so maybe they will FIX the alleged problems with improper hiring, firing, promotion and demotions rather than set themselves (and us taxpayers) up for a lawsuit like the one described below. vj from Environmental News Whistleblowers Sue Florida Eco-Inspector General TALLAHASSEE, Florida, October 24, 2008 (ENS) - The office that was created to serve as watchdog over the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is facing two lawsuits filed against it this... Read more →

Florida Taxwatch Quote on Budgeting in Government

BUDGETING WITHOUT DISCIPLINE: A FINAL THOUGHT Just as the Rule of Law is critically essential in a civil society, so is the integrity, transparency and accountability of the budget process to ensure the highest and best use of the taxpayers’ hard earned money. Source: www.FloridaTaxWatch.org vj Read more →

Deltona Failure to measure advertising results

This entry was triggered by an article today in the Orlando Sentinel about the city of Deltona in Volusia County using professional models for their city website designed to attract new businesses. The website is at: www.deltonameansbusiness.com But, I am not writing to discuss the models, but a single statement in the article that illustrates the lack of management skills in the government sector. Taxpayers deserve professional managers that measure performance just like businesses do. Here is the quote using information from Deltona's Assistant City Manager Sally Sherman: "Sherman's economic development colleagues acrass the state called Deltona's site attractive and colorful. The site doesn't have a way to TRACK visitiors, but people are responding to it, said Sherman, who has been working in economic development for more than 20 years. "Numerous" companies have contacted the city with questions, she said, adding: "That's exactly what you want." So, we have an economic manager who says an ad is worthwhile because colleagues (not customers) say it is colorful, AND she has NO MEANS to track the number of visitors (i.e. a hit count meter which is COMMON on most business websites), or apparently NO OTHER way to measure website effectiveness in attracting... Read more →

Columnist Scott Maxwell's Tips for Ticked Off Citizens

Scott Maxwell writes a good column on politics in the Orlando Sentinel. Today's column explains how he wakes up and gets ticked off at government and political shenanigans after reading the papers. So, he provided tips to his readers on how to get more involved to fix government and politics. They are below... his reasons are some of those that agree with why I will soon start a group of Fiscal Rangers to provide another avenue to implement change and improvement in government and politics in Lake County vj ========================================== from OrlandoSentinel.com at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-maxwell0908apr09,0,7825472.column and the list of his columns is at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-maxwell,0,134788.columnist OrlandoSentinel.com COMMENTARY TAKING NAMES Mad? Get vocal, get informed -- and get involved Scott Maxwell TAKING NAMES April 9, 2008 Most mornings, I wake up around 6 a.m. -- and am ticked off by 6:15. It comes from picking up the newspaper and reading about the latest shenanigans in Orlando, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. And it's been that way most of my life -- which is probably why I'm a newspaper columnist. What's interesting, though, is that more and more Central Floridians seem to be waking up as well. They're fed up -- and finally ready to... Read more →

Charter School in Orange County, FL might be shut down

The Orlando Sentinel article below describes how the Maitland charter school in Oranqe County, FL might be shut down because they are almost broke after paying $520,000 to only four administrators. It appears there was a complete breakdown in fiscal oversight by the OC School District and the staff gave themselves raises and siphoned off the funds for the 325 student school. In Florida, this is one of the risks of allowing charter schools to exist. The school district is required to allow formation of these schools, which take 95% of the funding per student that the District gets, and then the District doesn't have any authority to manage them. There was a series of earlier Orlando Sentinel articles and exposes which can be seen at www.OrlandoSentinel.com/onlineextras . The reporter didn't specify who did the audit that reported the problems, and we will attempt to get the audit report. Notice that the eight member board was clueless about the spending excesses and was not provided with any info on the unapproved spending. Favorite Quote: According to both the audit and Claire Olds, a co-founder and the chairwoman of Summit's board of directors, none of the spending -- including the salaries,... Read more →

PEW Center on the States Issues Report Grading State Government Performance

The Pew Center on the States is a foundation that just issued a big report ranking the performance of the states by various criteria. We talked about it in the previous post about the article from David Broder. You can find the full pdf version at www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp . Florida received a B- which may sound good, but that is a ranking of 5 out of 10 measurement levels, with D being the lowest. Florida was listed as having a weakness in financial controls, and some other categories. Attached below is a pdf of just the Florida page. Download pew_center_gradingthestates2008_florida.pdf Now, we will keep looking for a similar ranking system for County governments and K-12 School Districts - so far most articles on K-12 focus on grades and student performance, and not fiscal management of operations to ensure the non-instructional departments are efficient, effective and economic. If working performance is not measured and ranks, non-instructional staff shouldn't receive raises or have salaries at the level of business until their work performance is measured and tracked like business employees. vj Read more →

Florida State BUNGLES Hurricane Disaster Center

Below is the Orlando Sentinel's story about how the Florida legislature approved $151-million to buy large generators, build a disaster center warehouse in Orlando, but bungled and mis-spent the money. I was in Iraq for 23 months, and this situation reminds me of what we encountered with the way the Iraqis work. Read the article, then return to this list of "lessons learned". If the article makes you mad about Florida government waste, then contact your Florida legislator or Senator. The "responsible" department is the Florida State Dept. of Emergency Management (i.e. FDEMA, like FEMA), run by Craig Fugate. Even the article writer, Aaron Deslatte, said "The generators, however, have been a first-class foul-up." I have emailed requests for responses to Florida State Senatory Carey Baker and State Rep. Alan Hays, and will post their comments here when received. Below is the Fiscal Ranger's list of FDEMA Lessons to be Learned, based upon our analysis of the facts in the article: - This was a new program, and the legislature should have had an oversight specialist participating in the program to ensure it was set up right, but they didn't. In some businesses, internal auditors will participate in planning sessions... Read more →