Fiscal Rangers

Huge Medicaid Fraud Scheme Unveiled in California

This is a clear reason why government shouldn't get responsibility for managing any program, since they do not institute financial controls to prevent situations like Federal Medicaid and State Medi-Cal Fraud. The NY Times article below describes how homeless people with Medicaid and California Medi-Cal health insurance cards were recruited daily and taken to one of three provate hospitals for bogus or non-existent medical problems so the hospitals could use their Medicaid card to file insurance claims. When I lived in California, it was common for rolling xray labs to arrive at business locations and xray people to generate false reasons to provide overpriced medical care to file against employer insurance. As a corporate audit manager, we tried to get our insurance company, MetLife, to provide a list of the known scammers to warn employees not to use them. But, the lawyers lobby and their friendly Democrat officials had passed laws that would allow the scammers to file liability lawsuits against any employer who tried to restrict which medical providers were used by their employers. So, we couldn't do it, but the insurance company stopped the claims during their review process. However, many firms, including local government agencies and school... Read more →

Federal EPA Tells Staff not to talk to Inspector General staff and others

A key requisite for proper operation of internal audit and inspector general staffs is the unfettered access to all people and records in the organization subject to audit. But, here is an example where the Environmental Protection Agency leadership sent out a memo to managers saying NOT to talk to IG's, reporters (that might be ok), or congressional investigators without clearing it through a central office. Instructing staff NOT to talk to IG's is a no-no, and indicates a defensive posture that might be a red flag of some problems they are trying to hide. BAD EPA, BAD! vj ============================================ EPA tells staff don't talk to investigators, press By DINA CAPPIELLO – July 28, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is telling its pollution enforcement officials not to talk with congressional investigators, reporters and even the agency's own inspector general, according to an internal e-mail provided to The Associated Press. The June 16 message instructs 11 managers in the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the branch of the agency charged with making sure environmental laws are followed, to remind their staff members to keep quiet. "If you are contacted directly by the IG's office or GAO... Read more →

July 16 Was Cost of Government Day - after then, your income is yours

The Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced that this year, over half the year's income from average citizens is dedicated to paying government taxes. However, as of July 16, anything you have left is yours... see www.CAGW.org for more. CAGW Observes Cost of Government Day, 2008 CAGW observed Cost of Government Day on July 16 by expressing outrage at the federal, state, and local governments’ continued waste of hundreds of billions of tax dollars on outdated, ineffective, duplicative, and non-essential programs and agencies. Cost of Government Day is the date on which the average American worker has earned enough to pay off his or her share of the tax and regulatory burdens imposed by all levels of government, according to the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation. “Today taxpayers have been released from state servitude and can begin to provide for themselves and their families,” CAGW President Tom Schatz announced. Americans now work more than half of the year - 197 days - to pay their share of the cost of government, with 84 of those days due to federal spending alone. This year, the average American needed to work an additional 16 days to pay off his or her cost... Read more →

GAO Recommends Three Key Management Practices for Fed Management

Below is an overview of the GAO's testimony to the US Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management and other committees on government performance measures for programs they measure. Attached below is the one page highlights document, plus the full 28 page titled "Lessons Learned for the Next Administration on Using Performance Information to Improve Results". These are good concepts for the new Lake County school district administration to consider. vj Download gao_govt_performance_1_pg_highlights_d081026thigh.pdf Download gao_govt_performance_full_28pg_rept_d081026t.pdf ======================================= from the GAO (Government Accountability Office) Government Performance: Lessons Learned for the Next Administration on Using Performance Information to Improve Results Over the past 15 years, legislative and executive branch reform efforts have attempted to shift the focus of federal government management from a preoccupation with activities to the results or outcomes of those activities. Based on over a decade of work in this area, GAO has found a transformation in the capacity of the federal government to manage for results, including an infrastructure of outcome-oriented strategic plans, performance measures, and accountability reporting that provides a solid foundation for improving the performance of federal programs. However, agencies have made less progress in getting their managers’ to use performance information in their decision making. GAO was asked... Read more →

Massachussets Centralized State School Building Authority Cleans up School Building Messes

It seems that Massachussets had a problem with School District making a mess of school building projects awhile ago. So the State created a central School Building Authority to control building costs and quality, and it seems to have been effective. But, some of the wealthier school districts now want to spend State funds on fancy "field houses and pools" (remember, Mass. gets lots of snow, so they need buildings for outdoor activities in the winter.). And this editorial preaches constraint on using State funds to build "fancy" field houses. The lesson we get from this is that maybe central management of various school programs might be a good thing. For instance, right now, in the County, the County and the Schools don't have a consolidated purchasing system, so even at the County level, they don't get the best volume pricing vs consolidation. Maybe central services for many government functions should be examined. Why should there be separate IT, accounting and procurement departments for the County, and Schools? vj ============================================== from the Bostonglobe.com GLOBE EDITORIAL Smart schools, not edu-palaces July 22, 2008 THE STATE School Building Authority, which provides partial payment for school construction or renovation, is not obligated to... Read more →

Federal Medicare Scammers Received $92-million Due by Using IDs of Dead Doctors

We normally talk about fiscal mis-management at the local government level, but here is a story of a Federal government screwup that cost millions. What is interesting is that the problem was discovered in 2001, but then never fixed by the responsible agency. And, they specifically looked at the scam applied to Florida. "a perennial leader in Medicare Fraud..." and here is what they found: They examined separate data for Florida, home to many retirees and a perennial leader in Medicare fraud. They found that more than a quarter of deceased Medicare doctors there still have active ID numbers in Medicare's system. And, this brings up a point - the scams are mainly focused on provision of "medical equipment" to patients. So, when you see all those $9,000 electric wheelchairs and scooters, a bunch were paid for by Medicare (or Meidcaid), thus draining the Medicare funds available for medical procecures. Some people even get Doctor approval for hot tubs, and when I asked about this at a local hot tub shop, the "medically approved" tubs were mostly more than $8,000. And, after a disclosure like this, there still isn't any mention that any Medicare officials were fired for their lack... Read more →

High Cost of Health Care for Illegal Immigrants is Disclosed in two videos

View these two YouTube videos on the HIGH cost of health care for illegal aliens that is passed on to US taxpayers. The second video is testimony of a Florida hospital official before a government committee. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSe3C5vMafM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJxmJZXgNI The problem is that hospitals by law must take anyone in for emergency care, regardless of ability to pay. Then, if the patient requires ongoing care, the hospital is stuck with the cost, which in the one case in the videos was $1.5-million. Now, they do the same for US citizens who don't have insurance, but the question is, should we taxpayers also have to absorb the medical cost for illegal immigrants. Notice that the one testifier says that a "large percentage of babies born in the hospital are from illegal aliens". So, we are paying for babies, who are then immediately US citizens. The problem with that is the babies grow up, and once they are adults, they can bring their parents to the US and they qualify for funds from the SSI fund, which is paid out of YOUR social security funds. Now you know why the Social Security fund is running out of money. So, when you get that... Read more →

Stupid Government Mistakes - Massachusetts Edition

It seems the State of Massachussets bought some software from $13-million that only some workers were qualified to use, but they rolled it out on the PC desks of 20,000 workers, triggering higher licensing fees than planned. The State IG also found the administration rushed the bid through and bypassed bidding rules, effectively eliminating competition. Now the contract has been canceled. Cognos is a software firm owned by IBM and the software is used to create business management performance online and printed reports. So, it was a good move to get it, but a bad move to roll it out to everyone. That is like paying to give Oracle to every employee when they don't know anything about databases and would never use it. Lessons Learned: - When buying software, always seriously review just who gets it. I remember years ago when a company would buy dBase database software and install it manually on every desktop when many people couldn't even use the word processor. - Don't "rush" an order and bypass bidding rules, or the IG will getcha. ========================================= Experts say Patrick administration overspent on canceled contract (State of Massachusetts's) By Associated Press | Tuesday, July 1, 2008 |... Read more →

Amazing - Cook County, IL (Chicago) to get Inspector General

Everytime you hear people talk about corruption in a local government, I think of the Chicago area government, always known as a hotbed of corruption, graft and bribes. Well, now, Chicago area's Cook County is about ready to select an independent Inspector General, and they are down to the final 2-3 candidates. Unfortunately, they are letting the BAR (attorneys) select the candidates, and one of the last two is an attorney. My belief, as a professional auditor, is that is why many problems are never fixed after an attorney is put in charge of an audit function. They focus on publicity and prosecutions, and don't have the background on accounting and controls to research, define and fix the work process problems that allowed the corruption or bribes to happen in the first place. That is the weakness of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), who I worked with (sometimes - reviewing their publicity generating reports) in Iraq. But, at least they will know how to prosecute the guys they do find. Good luck, Chicago! AND, as for Lake County, FL - having a central county wide auditor or inspector general would be a good move. The School District... Read more →

Ross Perot is Baaaaack with MORE Charts!!!

We mostly focus on local government fiscal management, but when Big Daddy Ross comes back, we need to discuss it! Remember Ross Perot and his charts when he ran for President? I still have a box of tshirts and caps from those days. Now he is back - again with a website www.PerotCharts.com which, amazingly, has more charts! Again, Ross is pushing the idea that the US is overspending and out of control with big budget deficits (who knew?) Until now, no one was really focusing on the budget deficit except David Walker, former head of the Federal GAO ( Government Accountability Office) who made numerous presentations on the subject. Walker, however, left the GAO recently to run a new, billion dollar private foundation setup by the founder of the Blackstone private equity company. So, apparently Ross has been planning this and has spent some $300,000 to setup the website and he has returned with some new research and new charts! Read the article below and then go to http://perotcharts.com/ and be educated about the new budget deficit. vj ======================================= from the Sacramento Bee David S. Broder: Ross Perot is back with more charts By David S. Broder - Published... Read more →

Tampa area County Loses $2-million Grant and Asked to Return another $827,000 in Federal Funds

An apparent mistake made by Tampa County administrators resulted in them losing a $2-million HUD grant due to missing a deadline, and being asked to return another $827,000 to HUD. This is an interesting tale how County staff relied upon a verbal statement from a Federal HUD employee and an internal email to implement an action to sell some apartments that had previously been rehabbed with HUD grant funds if they remained "affordable" AND apparently the units could not be sold without HUD approval. Unfortunately, a staffer said he received a verbal OK from HUD when they should have received the approval in writing, and sold the apartments. Lessons learned: - Don't miss deadlines for grant funding. - Don't violate a grant condition based upon a verbal discussion without specific written approval. vj =============================================== Two are blamed in rehab debacle By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer Published Monday, June 9, 2008 11:47 PM TAMPA — First, Hillsborough County's Affordable Housing Office was forced to forfeit $2-million in federal grant money for missing a deadline. Then the office was asked to return an additional $827,000 for mishandling an apartment rehab project. Now, reports blame a past and current employee of the... Read more →

Los Angeles Times: Vallejo files for bankruptcy

California City of Vallejo files bankruptcy due to excessive union benefit agreements. Read more →

NJ Governor Nominates a new Medicaid Inspector General

New Jersey apparently passed a regulation last year to establish a new post of Medicaid Inspector General, and their Governor appointed an experienced Medicaid fraud prosecutor. Now, I don't like attorneys being appointed to audit jobs that should be run by experienced auditors, but just having a group focused on Medicaid fraud is a big jump in governance. Medicaid fraud is a huge growth industry, and it needs more attention. (Remember, Medicaid is the State run healthcare program for indigent and seniors, and it is partly funded with YOUR social security funds). Congrats to NJ and read more below. vj Link: GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR | Politicker NJ. GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR By Governors Press... - May 19, 2008 - 5:25pm Tags: Governor Jon S. Corzine, Release Date: May 19 2008 GOVERNOR CORZINE NOMINATES VETERAN PROSECUTOR AS MEDICAID FRAUD INSPECTOR TRENTON – Governor Jon S. Corzine today tapped a veteran federal fraud prosecutor to serve as New Jersey’s first Medicaid Inspector General. Governor Corzine nominated Mark Anderson to fill the newly-created position. Anderson currently serves as an assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, an office that... Read more →

Florida State Rolls Out Ethanol Which can Damage Car & Boat Engines

This post varies from our normal subjects, but is about a consumer related item that you need to know about. The State of Florida quietly forced gasoline distributors to start distributing gasoline with 10% ethanol about two weeks ago, even though many articles have appeared in the past about the damage that Ethanol causes. Ethanol has been used in other states trying to reduce smog, thus there is already experience with the damage, and Florida has no smog. Most gas pumps now have decal that says up to 10% ethanol will be in the fuel mixture. I have a 1965 Mustang with an expensive rebuilt engine, and I don't want the internal systems damaged. Read the articles below, then call your State legislators AND Charley Crist if you also believe the use of ethanol is stupid and can reduce the value of any vehicle or engine in Florida. Below are articles I have found so far, and I will add more as we find them. You can find them also - just do a google search on "ethanol damage" and you will find 510,000 hits (although many are related to ethanol binge drinking!) vj ========================================================== from http://www.amlibpub.com/liberty_blog/2006/09/ethanol-damage.html Monday, September 04,... Read more →

California Public Employee Pensions May force more Bankruptcies & Lawsuits

This is interesting. As we said in earlier posts, California city and county elected officials caved to demands of unions during good economic times to award them more benefits and pensions. Now the bill is coming due. This article below is written by a CPA, Marcia Fritz, who says that Vallejo, and maybe San Diego may have to file bankruptcy due to excess pensions that are underfunded. One interesting thing is a former congressman of mine (in California), Chris Cox, is now head of the SEC, and the SEC has filed suit against five San Diego officials for using misrepresented accounting to hide the true cost of the pensions. Fritz also mentions the new US accounting standards that will force all government entities to show the true cost of pensions and other liabilities in their new financials. I don't know about Florida, but California employee unions are getting worried since some government entities are getting close to filing bankruptcy from the excess pension costs. We will have to examine how Florida government pensions are affecting the future stability of local government agencies. vj ================================================ from the Sacramento Bee Editorial Page Marcia Fritz: Unions must lead the way in pension reform... Read more →

Ritchie Lays Out Needed Government Spending Cuts

Columnist Lauren Ritchie from the Orlando Sentinel is at it again - she has great tenacity in using public record requests to unearth some interesting ideas... meanwhile, the County Commissioner Chair, and two staffers went to Washington, DC to ask for funds to build two more buildings - one that would be used for the emergency task force but would sit empty for most of the year, and another as a transit center for the County bus service. I personally watch the quality of internal management systems more than individual spending issues like maintenance of plants. If you have a good management reporting system, you can easily see the effects and costs of a project, building, or program, and make informed decisions if some cuts are needed. Reliance on staff recommendations would be reduced. One of the problems I see, partly described in Ritchie's column, is that government reports spending on a line item budget basis, and not a program cost basis. Most corporations will have the line item consolidated financial statements to satisfy CPA's and investors, but they also have completely separate cost accounting, or metric tracking showing costs by project, location, or program (i.e. if you build a... Read more →

Clinton & Obama Hide $265-$333 Billion Cost of Promised New Programs

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been making many promises to start new programs, but not specifying where the funds would come from. So, the Washington Post added up the costs of all the promised new programs and both candidates come up short of fiscal integrity. It isn't sexy, as the second editorial below the first one says, but failing to explain the source of funding for new programs seems to me to be unethical and a reason why any candidate should be voted out or down. vj ===================================================== from WashingtonPost.com at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042402917.html Who'll Cover the Checks? The Democratic candidates' tax and spending plans are costly and ambitious -- and probably short on fiscal realism. Friday, April 25, 2008; A22 THE DEMOCRATIC presidential candidates have some big plans -- with big price tags attached. By our calculations, using figures supplied by the campaigns, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has proposed new spending and tax breaks that would amount to almost $265 billion a year when fully implemented, while the initiatives proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) total nearly $333 billion. Those initiatives, which would be phased in over time and which the candidates say they have identified ways of funding,... Read more →

Toledo, Ohio Taxpayer Funded Pool Cost Calculations

A reader sent me this link. It seems a City of Toledo Bureaucrat was trying to justify the expense to rebuild a local swimming pool and a taxpayer and blog writer did calculations on how much per person it was costing. It gives a clear indication of how local government bureaucrats get carried away with "feel good" spending that costs the taxpayer a bundle. vj ====================================== http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2008/04/14/swimming-pools-marked-as-necessity-in-cash-strapped-toledo/ Swimming Pools Marked as ‘Necessity’ in Cash-Strapped Toledo April 14, 2008 Warner Todd Huston Maggie Thurber over at Thurber’s Thoughts has a story that reveals the nanny state foolishness we are so woefully stuck with these days. Apparently, the City of Toledo, Ohio is sinking over half a million dollars into keep their city swimming pools afloat all the while the city is whining that they are out of cash and need to raise taxes. Naturally, the excuse is that the city is somehow obligated to provide entertainment for its citizens. You’d be excused if you thought that a little idiotic. The Toledo Blade reports that director of Toledo’s department of neighborhoods Kattie Bond told the paper that, “It is important to provide recreational opportunities for citizens. We live in a city where... Read more →

Comments Submitted to HUD Requiring new Home Purchase disclosures

HUD (the Federal Agency Housing & Urban Development - which defines Federal regulations related to home buying, etc. ) has issued a proposed new requirement regarding the disclosure and good faith estimate documents used in the home purchase process. In my experience, after moving to FL and buying a home here in 2005, Florida is inept at the disclosure of future estimated property taxes and insurance costs. Below is the comment I filed with HUD regarding the new document design: The failure by HUD and the States to require accurate estimates of future property taxes and insurance costs for new home buyers is a major factor that causes economic distress to them about 12-15 months after closing the transaction. I wish to ADD a suggested component to the home buying process. The problem is that the good faith documents always use out of date property tax and insurance estimates, if at all, and yet here in Florida, everyone gets hit with much higher taxes and insurance than expected because the prior homeowner paid taxes and insurance based upon his original purchase price, which could be much lower. There is NO specific, professional requirement to calculate an accurate estimate of property... Read more →

Education & Government agencies are big sources of ID Theft

Lets talk about the bbigest culprits that allow identity theft to occur. As an experienced information systems auditor, I always get apprehensive when I have to deal with a government agency unit that demands personal information that I do not think is relevant, when I know they don't take very good care of the data. Examples are local agencies like the tax collector or community college asking for social security numbers on handwritten forms, or my recent experience with the Lake County dept that provides classes on measuring water quality for lakes. They asked for Driver license, personal references and birthdate details on a manual form just so I could be certified to create a water quality report by one lake. (They run a background check for some insane reason). The problem is that government employees don't take data security seriously, and periodically you read where some government employee lost a laptop computer that had thousands of employee social security data records on it. A friend who had worked in Georgia just received a notice that they had lost control of a large employee database and were paying for credit monitoring services for all employees involved. So, here is a... Read more →

Managing Government Operations in a Disciplined Manner is Growing

Businesslike management of government operations is being practiced more, according to David Broder, who wrote recently in his Washington Post column (see below) about a joint report on the "2008 Government Performance Project". It seems a foundation, the Pew Center, and Governing Magazine just issued their second report after the first was issued in 2005, and businesslike management of government operations is growing. He cited several examples, and described how some newly elected State Governors (not Florida!) with management experience are setting a new tone of expectations on how government should work and be "managed". They even state that performance auditing was rare in 2005, but is now routine if four fifths of the states. The report ranks states, and Florida is neither at the top of bottom of the list, so I will look it up and add it back here later. The full results of the study are in the March issue of Governing magazine, as well as at www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp . I will read the report and see what can be applied here in Lake County. For instance, we have been talking on this blog about adding performance benchmarks for the Lake County School District (which has NONE),... Read more →

Issues Surrounding Pending Bankruptcy of California City

Below is an extract from an email I received from a County Commissioner in Orange County, CA, John Moorlach. It is about the California city of Vallejo which is about to declare bankruptcy, and there are also some details about the local School District, which also apparently went bankrupt a few years ago. A major reason is that the City is paying about 80% of its income for fire and police and their excessive pensions pushed through by the unions in the past. Now, during the economic decline, Vallejo doesn't have enough funds and will run out in April, 2008 and won't have funds to pay employees. Orange County, CA went through bankruptcy in the 1990's due to risky investments, and I lived there at the time. Earlier posts on this blog cover that situation. I am adding this as a background statement on what can happen when elected officials cave in to unions like fire and police and pay high wages or promise excess pensions that lock the city into excess spending that leaves nothing for other city responsibilities. Moorlach covers this because the County of Orange County, CA has huge unfunded and growing liabilities for sheriff pensions promised... Read more →

New Chemistry Element, Governmentium, Discovered

FYI - this is an important scientific discovery that affects government impact on the public... If you don't understand this scientific treatise, then you know another reason why science education should be emphasized in schools! vj ============================================ Amazing science A new addition to Chemistry's Periodic Table Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years; It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each... Read more →

Mismanagement Technique 405 - Ignoring Action Deadlines

This article below is about mismanagement. It seems the Director of Hillsborough County (FL) affordable housing programs in the Tampa area ignored deadline notices from HUD to correct some program "deficiencies" so they cut him off and the Tampa area lost $2-million in Federal funds for affordable housing. This points out a key best practice management technique, which is to have tracking or "tickler" systems to ensure important deadlines don't pass without required action. When I audited corporations or government programs, I could assess how disciplined a program office, or the Chief Counsel's office (attorneys must track expiration dates of important contracts) was by checking to see if they had a disciplined approach to tracking and meeting all deadlines. In one case, a $200-million corporation left environmental paperwork deadlines up to plant managers and one missed some deadlines in Florida and they lost renewal of environmental permits for a rock quarry used to extract sand and gravel used as a component in ready mix. Once you lose an older permit, you have to follow newer guidelines, and it took two years to get the new permits, requiring investment in newer equipment, etc. It also blocked the sale of the quarry... Read more →

Update on Crash of Florida Investment Pool

This is an update of my Dec. 29 posting about the crashing short term investment fund run by Florida State for local governments. It seems a lot of agencies didn't get out, and now they are being asked to take 90 cents of each dollar invested if they pull their funds out. Guess what - they now aren't so trusting of the State. Just like my comments about California's Orange County's similar $2-billion loss, the Florida agencies will go through a whole long process of talks and negotiations just trying to get 100% of their fund balances back. Even the Wall Street Journal article below discusses the Orange County 1994 bankruptcy, and explains how the new sub-prime investments were risky, but qualified for higher investment ratings so government agencies could again buy them. Below are some articles - this subject is now showing up as a major topic in the "business" section of Google news, and listed 53 articles on the subject. Meanwhile, the Daily Commercial did a good job of calling most Lake County government agencies to see who still had money in the State Fund. The City of Tavares is one of them. And, here are some juicy... Read more →

UK Governement Agency Loses Personal Data of 7-million citizens

It always seems that government agencies don't prioritize citizen data privacy - here we have the big case where the UK (Britain) tax office LOST two CD discs with privacy data on 7-million UK citizens by sending them in internal email without any receipts or controls. It also turns out that the intended recipient, the National Audit Office, had specifically requested a version of the data that was "de-sensitized" where private bank data and other data would be removed. The tax agency didn't want to pay the extra processing fee by the outsourced data managers (EDS - the firm founded by Ross Perot - remember them?), thus they sent all the data without removing the sensitive data. Now, as political investigations start up, there is an accusation that high level tax agency managers approved the uncontrolled process, and it was not just a mistake by a junior level employee (whose name has not been released yet. Finally, my experience is that if they could put the data on a CD, then many intermediate level professionals could have opened the database, filtered out the sensitive data, and THEN sent the CD out. Which brings up another issue - many government employees... Read more →

Example of Left Coast County Govt. Mismanagement costing billions

California County government approaching bankruptcy because politicians RETROACTIVELY increased sheriff pension contributions 50% when money was easy during earlier real estate price runup. (this is called buying votes...) In Orange County, California, they were getting tons of extra property tax income during the recent property value increases. So, the Sheriff Deputy's union pushed through a spending bill that promised them a 50% increase in the fixed pension funding they did have and now, after the real estate bust, that bill has resulted in a $2-billion UNFUNDED liability for future pensions just for the Sheriffs. Below is the email newsletter I get from one of the County Commissioners (because I used to live there), and related newspaper articles as he pushes a lawsuit to try and reverse the costly pension benefit. It is important to mention that most corporations stopped giving fixed pensions years ago, and only some governments still try to increase future taxpayer costs with unfunded liabilities like this instead of using 401k programs where the employee must contribute a percentage of their salary. The lesson to be learned here is that the public must demand proper and accurate forecasting of such spending bills, and not let them be... Read more →

US Comptroller General slams US Govt. "Fiscal Irresponsibility"

Notice the quote from David Walker, head of the Federal GAO (Government Accountability Office) saying that he "has embarked on a mission to take his message to the people because, he says, politicians don’t want to hear about it, much less act.". Sounds just like Anna Cowin at the Lake County, FL School District. I once talked to Walker in 2005 when giving him information about fraud problems in Iraq. See Walker's "Fiscal Wake Up Tour" info at: http://gao.gov/special.pubs/longterm/wakeuptour.html vj ============================================= from CBS.com - full transcript of 60 Minutes show on Walker U.S. Heading For Financial Trouble? March 4, 2007 (CBS) When the stock market plunges like it did this week, everyone pays attention. The man you're about to meet says hardly anyone is paying attention to what really threatens our financial future. Like an Old Testament prophet, David Walker has been traveling the country, urging people to "wake up before it's too late." But David Walker is no wild-eyed zealot. As Steve Kroft reports, David Walker is an accountant, the nation’s top accountant to be exact, the comptroller general of the United States. He has totaled up our government's income, liabilities, and future obligations and concluded the numbers simply... Read more →

Lake County, INDIANA articles on Government Efficiency

Although this blog covers government efficiency issues related to Lake County, FL, we found a long series of articles written by research groups and published by local papers in Lake County, Indiana. It seems that in 2002 and 2003, there were new laws passed that drastically changed tax revenues for local governments, and there wasn't as much money, creating a great interest in government "efficiency". See the index of articles at: http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/LakeGov/article1.pdf Notice item #5 is on School Districts. Although a short article, it does describe the percentage of total School District employees "in the classroom" (teachers and assistants) to the total number of employees, which is interesting. I will research how our Lake County District compares. These articles give a good overview of government efficiency issues in all types of agencies. vj Read more →

School District Best Practices and the Concept of Finding and Using Them

Guess what - the US Conference of Mayors has a MASSIVE "Best Practices" database with articles on management and administrative best practices. This first article below is about the Kansas City School District and how they handle students who are behavior problems. The lesson here is that work practices can adopt best practices from other Districts, AND there are sources where these ideas for best practices are located. A second article posted below is on how Pembroke Pines, FL financed construction of needed schools. Searching on "School" in the best practices database found 326 articles. One way to evaluate the effectiveness of government management and elected officials is to determine if they actually know about these sources, the best practices, and have adopted some of them by developing policies or implementing the practices. An even better situation is if the local government agency management is known for developing best practices adopted by others, and winning published kudos on their ideas. So, where do Lake County government managers fit in this equation and best practices? We will look for more and over time compare them to existing practices of local government in Lake County. And, they should post any publications or... Read more →