The Lake County, FL Board of County Commissioners needs to refund and re-implement a public Law Library for residents like most other Florida counties have. Read more →
The Lake County, FL Board of County Commissioners needs to refund and re-implement a public Law Library for residents like most other Florida counties have. Read more →
Buyers of residential, rental or commercial property in Lake County, FL can SAVE 50% on property taxes if they pick the right, low millage rate city in Lake County. This article describes the 2020 millage rates for all 14 cities plus the unincorporated Lake County areas so you can decide to buy in a LOW or HIGH property tax location. Read more →
Posted at 06:46 PM in Cities in Lake County, City - Clermont, City - Eustis, City - Fruitland Park, City - Groveland FL, City - Howey-in-the-Hills, City - Lady Lake, City - Leesburg, City - Mascotte FL, City - Minneola, City - Mount Dora, City - Tavares, City - Umatilla, Conservative Issues, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Planning & Zoning Issues, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Carey Baker - Lake County FL Property Appraiser
Tavares, FL City Council to finally start making videos of meetings Read more →
Posted at 09:26 PM in City - Tavares, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Tavares FL
The Town Commissioners of Lady Lake, FL had two meetings on Oct. 19, 2020 and FiscalRangers.com wrote an overview and made a video of the meeting. Read more →
City Councils in Lake County, FL are RAISING taxes while claiming credit for reducing tax RATES. The problem is property valuations are leaping, and multiply them by barely reduced millage tax rates equals TAX INCREASES. We discuss this manipulation of public information by elected officials. Read more →
Posted at 04:49 PM in Cities in Lake County, City - Clermont, City - Eustis, City - Fruitland Park, City - Groveland FL, City - Howey-in-the-Hills, City - Leesburg, City - Mascotte FL, City - Mount Dora, City - Tavares, City - Umatilla, Conservative Issues, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
A commentary in the Orlando Sentinel blasted most local City Councils and the County Board for trying to say they reduced property tax millage rates, but since they did not reduce them to the rollback rate, total actual taxes will go up significantly once those officials vote in September to NOT approve rollback rates. Confusing? Yes, so read my article and the linked commentary by Lauren Ritchie. Read more →
Posted at 05:44 PM in Cities in Lake County, Elections 2020, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, Federal Government Issues, FiscalFiasco, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Government Pensions & Benefits, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Republicans, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Josh Blake, Tim Sullivan, Wendy Breeden
Citizens showed up at the Clermont City Hall on July 22, 2020 to wave signs and discuss issues with those passing by. Led by local Clermont watchdog Dani Page, the group waved signs for two hours. This is a 30 minute segment. Read more →
Posted at 11:31 AM in City - Clermont, Conservative Issues, Consumer Activities, Corruption in Local Governments, Elections 2020, Ethics in Politics & Government, Land grabs, Planning & Zoning Issues, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Dani Page, Diane Travis
An incumbent on the Lake County, FL School Board had announced months ago that she was relocating and would not run for re-election this year. Thus two candidates filed for the position and spent over $2400 each on their campaigns, THEN at the last minute, Burns filed to run again, and stay here. Our opinion is this last-minute flip in position is unethical unless Burns at least reimburses each candidate for their spending. Burns has not collected or spent anything yet on her campaign. Read more →
Posted at 12:10 PM in Elections 2020, Lake County School District, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: Dr. Kristi Burns, Jim Miller, Patricia Nave
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 →
Posted at 12:27 PM in Corruption in Local Governments, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FiscalFiasco, FL Constitutional Officers, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Fraud Examples, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Liberty County FL fraud
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell encouraged taxpayers to attend local city council and other local agency meetings to monitor what they are doing, and also monitor who are the best candidates for their local government agencies. Here are my additional ideas for reform of City Councils and policies. Read more →
Posted at 08:47 PM in Central Florida government agencies, Cities in Lake County, Conservative Issues, Corruption in Local Governments, Districts - Special, Water etc., Elections 2020, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, Government Management Effectiveness, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Taxes - Impact Fees, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt, Water Issues | Permalink | Comments (0)
A small non-profit that received Florida taxpayer funds, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV), refused to disclose spending documents for over a year. Then it was found they paid REALLY excessive income to the CEO, leading to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis initiating reforms and requiring reviews and oversights over ALL non-profits receiving Florida taxpayer funding. Read more →
Posted at 07:00 AM in Audits, Districts - Special, Water etc., Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FiscalFiasco, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV), Ron DeSantis, Tiffany Carr
A South African equity capital firm may be buying the non-profit firm that controls .org internet domain addresses, which could lead to increased fees or censorship, since many leaders in the firm have Arabic names. Read more →
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis needs to clean up the obtuse appointments process he inherited. I really believe it was carried from a prior Democrat and is a deep state operation to only let insiders get information on openings, criteria and appointments. Did Charlie Crist holdovers design this clutterd system? See my video and recommendations to clean up the process. Read more →
Posted at 12:47 PM in Conservative Issues, Conspiracies, Districts - Special, Water etc., Ethics in Politics & Government, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Water Authority (LCWA), Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tonight's Oct. 1, 2019 Minneola, FL City Council meeting is not very transparent because they only posted a 4 page agenda online, have no meeting videos, and don't tell citizens that you have to email the City Clerk and specifically ask for a link to scattered documents (not in one pdf) supporting agenda items. That is not very transparent. Is this agenda method intentional to obfuscate what is happening at meetings? Read more →
Posted at 01:22 PM in City - Minneola, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
The 2019-20 Lake County, FL property tax TRIM notices are out. We provide an example and some analysis, and tips how to analyze YOUR rates to understand if hidden increases are included. Read more →
Posted at 08:51 PM in Central Florida government agencies, Cities in Lake County, City - Tavares, Conservative Issues, Consumer Protection, Economic Development, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FiscalFiasco, Florida the Huckster State, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Lake County School District, Lake County Water Authority (LCWA), North Lake County Hospital District, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Carey Baker, Lake County FL Property Appraiser
Tavares, FL residents need to read this about pending millage rate tax hikes at a City Council workshop on July 24, 2019 at 4pm. These issues of escalating taxes are affecting ALL city and county residents in Lake County and the rest of Florida. If you don't act now, then hold out your wallet for tax day. Read more →
Posted at 01:53 PM in Cities in Lake County, City - Tavares, Conservative Issues, Districts - Special, Water etc., Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FiscalFiasco, Florida the Huckster State, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Lake County Water Authority (LCWA), Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Roads & Transportation, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Amanda Boggus, Kirby Smith Tavares City Council, Lori Pfister Tavares City Council, Roy Stevenson Tavares City Council, Troy Singer Mayor of Tavares FL
A Florida City just paid $600,000 in bitcoin ransom to get access to their computer systems and files after a police department employee opened an email with ransomware code in it. I hope no Lake County, FL city or government agency wastes taxpayer funds by being a future victim of ransomware. Read all about it HERE. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →
Posted at 03:43 PM in Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Local cities and government agencies in Florida, including Lake County, FL, are reducing public transparency by removing most published documents, even for upcoming meeting agendas and staff packets, or annual financial reports or budgets. They are doing it to avoid nuisance lawsuits by roving bands of attorneys suing them for not spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to comply with Federal ADA laws related to "accessibility" for sight and hearing limited users. Read more →
Posted at 01:45 PM in ADA, Cities in Lake County, City - Fruitland Park, Ethics in Politics & Government, Federal Government Issues, FiscalFiasco, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Florida homeowners may be blindsided by developer requests for questionable projects next to them like the proposed 4-story rental apartment complex on the shores of Lake Saunders near Tavares, FL next to the single story, single family residences. So we created a 36 minute Florida Homeowners guide to the land development process to understand how to make your voice heard or oppose outlandish land use developments. Read more →
Posted at 10:18 PM in Central Florida government agencies, Cities in Lake County, City - Tavares, Florida State Issues, Florida the Huckster State, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Land grabs, Mobile Home Issues - FL, Property Rights, Roads & Transportation, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (1)
We reported on the April 3, 2019 meeting of the Tavares, FL City Council, plus a link to our video of the meeting. See the description for topics and links. Highlights were gripes about not allowing public input on upcoming development proposal hearings, update on the Tavares Performing Arts Center and the Great Dumpster Enclosure Debate. Read more →
Posted at 02:37 PM in City - Tavares, Taxes, Transparency of Govt, Water Issues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Amanda Boggus, John Drury, Kirby Smith, Lori Pfister, Robert Q. Williams, Troy Singer
The Clermont City Council lost a legal action to allow a charter school to build on a five acre lot with terrible traffic issues and neighbor complaints. Neither city staff or the Lake County School District wanted the project approved. Now the City attorney convinced the clearly vague Council to approve an expensive appeal of the legal decision. Neighbor opposition leader Dani Page made a video of that meeting which you can watch. The saga continues at taxpayer expense. Read more →
Posted at 05:28 PM in Cities in Lake County, City - Clermont, Clermont Charter School Fiasco, Consumer Activities, Education, FiscalFiasco, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County School District, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Property Rights, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (2)
Tags: Dani Page
We created a watchdog blog video of the convoluted, confusing and non-transparent process used by the Florida Governor's Appointments office to find filled and vacant positions and apply for them. Watch it - it took us 44 minutes to explain the whole bureaucratic "we always have done it this way" process. Read more →
Tavares, FL March 11, 2019 Federal and Florida regulations on compliance with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) are causing excess costs and reduced public transparency over local government meeting videos, agendas, budgets and even annual financial reports (CAFR's). Essentially, some scummy lawyers found that ADA requirements can be interpreted to require that any local government has to provide online information in a format that can be read by ADA software tools used by the disabled, such as vision limited or hearing limited. Apparently, the tools use screen "scanning" to find text or picture captions that can then be converted to audio so the disabled can "read" or "hear" the online information. We wrote an earlier story about this in January 2019 HERE, after the Orlando Sentinel published a story about it. It contains more about the scummy lawsuits, so I did not repeat it here. The Jan. 6, 2019 Orlando Sentinel story is here. And very few local governments have the funds to revamp their websites and file systems to comply with the lawsuit demands. Now, a city like Orlando could afford to get the software and modify all their files so they can be read by the ADA tools,... Read more →
Posted at 05:33 PM in ADA, Budgeting for Govt Agencies, Central Florida government agencies, Cities in Lake County, Federal Government Issues, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Lake County Water Authority (LCWA), Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, School Districts - General Info, Transparency of Govt, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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 →
Posted at 12:06 PM in Cities in Lake County, City - Tavares, FL Constitutional Officers, Florida State Issues, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Taxes, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: OpenTheboooks.com, War on Waste
Local governments like cities are being sued because their websites are not completely designed to comply with ADA requirements that were written before the internet was created. For instance, cities cannot post meeting videos if they don't incur the expense to provide captions that software for the blind or deaf can read and translate so they can understand it. Thus the benefit of transparency for 97% of the populations are shut down for 3% who complain. Read more →
Posted at 03:35 PM in Cities in Lake County, Consumer Protection, Districts - Special, Water etc., Ethics in Politics & Government, Federal Government Issues, FiscalFiasco, Florida the Huckster State, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Judicial Activism, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Lake County Water Authority (LCWA), Transparency of Govt, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wunderbar - the newly elected Lake County, FL Court Clerk, Gary Cooney, has Appointed a new, QUALIFIED, Inspector General, Terri Freeman. Read more →
Project Veritas uncovered on video a FEDERAL GAO staffer and card-carrying member of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) admitting he works to destroy capitalism using work time. As a retired internal audit manager this makes me really angry so I submitted this video link and other information to Trey Gowdy's US House Oversight & Reform Committee and asked for a public investigation. Read more →
Posted at 02:23 PM in Audits, Conservative Issues, Conspiracies, Ethics in Politics & Government, Federal Government Issues, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Socialism & Communism, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: GAO waste fraud & abuse
At the last moment, a new candidate filed to run for Lake County, FL Court Clerk vs a favored insider who was named by the retiring Court Clerk AFTER potential candidates could collect and submit petition cards to qualify for the ballot. Instead, the new candidate will have to pay over $8000 in fees to qualify. We tell you all about it. Read more →
Posted at 01:12 AM in Central Florida government agencies, Lake County Board & Government, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tavares, FL Mar. 11, 2018 I uploaded a video to YouTube of the Tavares, FL City Council meeting held on March 7, 2018 which is HERE: https://youtu.be/AWMAe7TYQC0. The agenda location is on the 2nd slide. Length is 1 hr, 17 min. The short link to THIS blog page is: https://tinyurl.com/TavaresFLMarch7 I have decided to write some comments about the actions seen in this meeting video which are below. Tab 7 - Annexation and Rezoning related to Shirley Shores Road / Hidden River Lakes proposed 222 acre development. THIS WAS POSTPONED DUE TO IMPROPER NOTIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC BY THE DEVELOPER'S REPRESENTATIVES. See overview starting at 3:55 on the video then more later. Probably at least 60 neighbors were there for this issue and for the 3rd or 4th time, the procedures were botched, so the issue was postponed to a future meeting. Apparently the developer representatives must follow certain steps and the city staff does not ensure they are followed, then the opposition attorney raises the issue and ONCE AGAIN, the issue is postponed. I am flabbergasted the City staff has no sanctions or fines to apply when zoning/land use change requesters don't follow the rules. So everyone will have... Read more →
Florida is home to the largest consortium of cities and counties tracking performance benchmarks, called the Florida Benchmarking Consortium. The Lake County government, plus three cities, Mt. Dora, Tavares and Clermont joined FBC last year (2017). The first annual FBC report showing performance measures for more than 30 members was just published in Dec., 2017 for fiscal year 2015-16 and they are in it. We review the overall program here, and will cover specific results in a future article. Read more →
Know any Lutherans? Their national group, Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Serices (Lirs) managing about $70-million in mostly Federally funded refugee resettlement programs just exploded in accusations of fraud, mismanagement, etc. Read more →
Posted at 08:35 PM in Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Refugee Resettlement Programs, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Mayor of the City of Eustis, FL pushed through a $250,000 city purchase of a historic building and adjacent lot appraised at $175,000 and over paid $75,000 for the buys. Then the city will keep the lot valued at $35,000 and sell the building for $160,000 to friends of the Mayor without advertising for any other buyers at the sweetheart price. AND, the city will finance the $160,000 (plus imputed interest of $27,000) sale of the building over five years and only require $500 down and no credit checks or due diligence to ensure ability to pay the taxpayer funded mortgage. This is small town cronyism at it's best. Read more →
Posted at 12:18 PM in City - Eustis, Corruption in Local Governments, Elections 2016, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FiscalFiasco, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (6)
Tags: 1884, 1884 Restaurant, bad real estate deals, Carla Gnann-Thompson, City corruption, City of Eustis FL, Cronyism, Eustis sweetheart deal, Michael Holland, Michael Holland, Search terms: Acie's Barber Shop
The election ballot for Nov. 8, 2016 for Lake County, FL will contain a referndum item that asks voters to vote Yes or No to continue the 1 Mill North Lake County Hospital District property tax for another 10 years. The Lake County Republican Party held a forum of proponents and opponents of the ballot issue, and members voted over 2/3 to recommend a NO vote on the ballot. This article describes the issue and forum in more detail with links to the formal resolution to vote NO, the REC press release, video links, etc. Read more →
April 10, 2016 Tavares, FL BAD Democrat Sen. Harry Reid even has a poster about how bad he is.. BAD Senator Harry Reid (D), the US Senate minority leader, has been blocking a bill, S.579, to allow Federal Inspector Generals to access all records and employees of Federal Agencies in IG inspections and audits. This is the same Senator involved in bad land deals in Nevada and who blocked many Senate bills from being voted on. Due to Reid's efforts to block S.579, the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), named Reid as "Porker of the Month". As a former Internal Audit manager in Fortune 500 firms, and an anti-corruption manager in Iraq, I fully believe that Inspector Generals should have full independence and have full access to all records and employees of the agency under their jurisdiction. Reid's actions are a flagrant disregard for proper transparency needed over government activities. But GOOD Sen. Chuck Grassley has still been pushing the bill, S.579, that would mandate transparency and openess for IG activities, even with Reid blocking the bill for 5 months. So a Las Vegas newspaper wrote a story about it on Mar. 27, and here is a 15... Read more →
Posted at 09:52 AM in Ethics of Elected Officials, Federal Government Issues, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Inspector Generals, S.579 Inspector General Empowerment Act, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Harry Reid
Today's Daily Commercial published an AP story on open record law status in "every state". Then the editor chopped it off after only describing status in Alabama, Alaska and Arizona. They left out all the other states including Florida. So here is the intro, the Florida section and a link to the entire article Read more →
Posted at 11:19 AM in Florida State Issues, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Florida open records, Florida transparency, open records laws, state government transparency, Sunshine Week, transparency
The North Lake County Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Women’s Club is hosting a local candidate election meet and greet event on Feb. 18 at 6:30 pm in Tavares, FL for ALL new and re-election partisan and non-partisan candidates for any party or office in Lake County. The event is open to all voters. Read more →
Posted at 02:45 PM in Cities in Lake County, Elections 2016, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Tea Party, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Lake County FL Candidates, Lake County FL Elections, Lake County Florida, Lake Federated Republican Women's Club, NLTP, North Lake Tea Party
Following a University of Texas admissions scandal, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an investigation into admissions favoritism at 13 top public universities Sunday. They found Florida State Unversity to be dropping entrance admission criteria for connected students, and up to 40 times, connected leaders or alumni contacted the admissions office to "follow up" on specific admissions, unlike several universities which did not allow such actions. Read more →
Posted at 03:31 PM in Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Florida the Huckster State, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Taxes on Florida Property / Homes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Florida the Huckster State, FSU admissions waivers, University of Texas admissions waivers
Florida has a tourism promotions agency, Visit Florida, funded with tax money that promotes tourism in Florida. They paid a rapper, Pitbull, to promote Florida tourism on his Twitter account, but will not disclose the payments. Here are links to an Orlando Sentinel article and editorial, and our comments. We consider this to be another example of Florida as a Huckster State, with low level oversight and transparency. Read more →
Posted at 10:07 AM in Budgeting for Govt Agencies, Florida the Huckster State, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Florida oversight, Florida the Huckster State, Florida Transparency, Huckster State, Rapper Pitbull, Visit Florida
Every year the five Lake County, Florida Legislators hold their annual Lake County Legislators' Summit to hear three minutes of public input from local agencies and citizens. Yesterday, Dec. 9, 2015, they held the annual meeting for three hours with 53 speakers. They use the input to set their priorities for the upcoming Florida legislation session that starts in January, 2016. Read more →
Posted at 06:13 PM in Budgeting for Govt Agencies, Central Florida government agencies, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: FL Rep Jennifer Sullivan, FL Rep Larry Metz, FL Rep Marlene O'Toole, FL Sen Alan Hays, FL Sen Dorothy Hukill, Lake County FL, Lake County FL Legislators' Delegation Hearing, Leesburg FL
Today the Daily Commercial published a front page article about recent actions by the Lake County School Board to restrict the ability of the District Internal Audit Director from reviewing "teaching and learning" processes. We comment on why that is a bad idea. Never forget that government is a monopoly, so extra oversight and transparency is needed to ensure operations are efficient, effective and economical. One way to do that is have an independent internal audit function with full and unfettered access to all employees, vendors, and records. Read more →
Posted at 01:19 PM in Audits, Corruption in Local Governments, Education, Ethics in Politics & Government, FiscalFiasco, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County School District, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Bill Mathias, Debbie Stivender, Dr. Susan Moxley, Internal Audit, Lake County FL School District, Marc Dodd, Rosanne Brandeburg, Stephanie Luke
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 →
Posted at 08:17 PM in Corruption in Local Governments, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, Federal Government Issues, FL Constitutional Officers, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Government Management Effectiveness, Grand Jury - Common Law, Lake County Board & Government, Land grabs, Property Rights, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Common Law Grand Juries, Consent of the Governed, Jason W. Hoyt, Lake County FL, North Lake Tea Party
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 →
Posted at 12:56 PM in Audits, Conservative Issues, Corruption in Local Governments, Elections & Voter Fraud, Ethics in Politics & Government, Ethics of Elected Officials, FL Constitutional Officers, Florida State Issues, Florida State Waste & MisManagement, Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight, Transparency of Govt, Voter Fraud | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Center for Public Integrity, Florida corruption, Florida election oversight, Florida State Integrity Investigation, Florida waste fraud abuse
Tavares, FL Oct. 13, 2015 "Last Thursday, former Chicago Public School CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted by a federal grand jury for funneling $23-million in no-bid CPS contracts to former employers in exchange for kickbacks." Here is a local, Chicago TV video report. The CEO was appointed by Democrat Rahm Emmanuel Read why watchdog bloggers, internal audits and oversight are needed on all government agencies. A blogger's article was read by the Schools' Inspector General, who investigated further, and then the FBI took over. "Beginning in April 2012, the federal indictment says, Byrd-Bennett, Solomon and Vranas “knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property from CPS” by fraudulent means. Byrd-Bennett is said to have agreed to accept bribes and kickbacks that would be paid by $127,000 being deposited into each of her twin grandsons’ “college tuition accounts” when she returned to SUPES as an employee–even if for just a day." VJ Read more →
Posted at 08:32 PM in Corruption in Local Governments, Lake County School District, School Districts - General Info, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
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 →
Posted at 06:18 PM in Budgeting for Govt Agencies, Central Florida government agencies, Cities in Lake County, City - Clermont, City - Eustis, City - Leesburg, City - Minneola, City - Mount Dora, City - Tavares, City - Umatilla, Conservative Issues, Economic Development, Economy, FL Constitutional Officers, Government Management Effectiveness, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Lake County School District, Taxes, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: Bill Mathias, Jimmy Conner, Lake County Florida, Lake County Infrastructure Sales Tax, Sean Parks, Welton Cadwell
The Lake County Board of Commissioners meeting agenda for Tuesday, August 4, 2015 contains a consent agenda item to approve a Federal CDBG grant plan. That plan contains a condition to comply with AFFH or Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing which can result in damage to existing property values of full neighborhoods. The Board should pull the agenda item and schedule it for a full staff presentation at a public workshop with public input to understand all the negative implications. The CDBG grant should be rejected due to the requirement for AFFH implementation. Read more →
Posted at 11:49 PM in Agenda 21 & socialism schemes, Cities in Lake County, Economic Development, Federal Government Issues, Housing programs, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County Lifestyle, Land grabs, Liberal & Democrat Initiatives, Property Rights, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: AFFH, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, CDBG, HUD, Lake County FL Board of Commissioners
Leesburg, FL - Jan 5, 2012 Yesterday, Jan. 4th, Lake County's three Florida Representatives ( Larry Metz, Bryan Nelson & Marlene O'Toole) and two Senators (Alan Hays & Dorothy Hukill) held their annual "Lake County Legislators' Delegation" meeting to listen to "pitches" from over 20 people from different government and other agencies asking for funds, legislation changes or other Florida State Support for their issues. The publicity for the meeting was so bad that hardly any members of the public attended. Details on meeting locations were confused with three different sites being described by different people. Agendas were stacked at the side and there was no table to greet attendees or get their names to send out follow up documents. I only found out about the meeting in the morning and had to cancel a dental appointment to attend. Hardly any members of the public or press attended. The only member of the press there was from Lake Sentinel. The picture shows you what I mean - this was halfway through the meeting after first speakers all left. If taxpayers and conservative groups don't attend these types of meetings and make their positions known, don't cry when nothing is done.... Read more →
Posted at 09:45 AM in Agenda 21 & socialism schemes, Central Florida government agencies, Florida State Issues, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, North Lake County Hospital District, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Lake County FL
Tavares, lake County, FL - Thursday, Dec. 20,2012 The City of Orlando CFO, Rebecca Sutton, signed a major software contract for $8.7-million without requiring any bids on the new software project. Then she flew with several other staff members to Las Vegas using $20,000 in City funds to announce the contract at the software developer's conference. All this without any bidding. The Orlando Sentinel provided many details HERE. (Note - READ the comments, which are more blunt than I am). I was a software developer for seven years, and before that I was an internal audit manager in large firms like Nissan, ARCO (the oil company) and the County of Los Angeles. A big red flag to an auditor is lack of competitive bidding, called sole sourcing, for large contracts. The Orlando CFO completely skipped that process because some sales people got to her and convinced her there was no need for competitive bidding. YOU NEVER DO THAT IF YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL. You always go through the bidding for several reasons: - The competitors ask questions and flush out details or issues you did not consider. Picking just one vendor allows them to snow you with only favorable features... Read more →
Posted at 09:29 AM in Central Florida government agencies, FiscalFiasco, Government Management Effectiveness, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tavares, FL It seems that the CITY of Boca Raton, FL (not County) is slipping into heavy deficits, and like Lake County, the elected officials are ignoring the steep costs of pension and benefits for employees. In this case a new watchdog group was formed to disclose facts about excessive pensions and benefits and wages for city firefighters and EMS employees. We also added a link at the bottom of this posting to a story about how San Diego and San Jose referendums were passed to drastically reduce government employee pensions costs. Here is the Boca Raton story: http://www.bizpacreview.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&ArticleId=738070&returnTo=dale-king And, attached below is a VERY GOOD graphic 12 page Powerpoint that clearly shows the effects of excessive pensions and benefits for the firefighters. Watch the Powerpoint first - it is very good, then read the story. This is very clear analysis that should be an example of the type of visual analysis required of EVERY government agency about the effects of their pension, wages & and benefits. Download 2012_BCFRGoalSetting AND, here is a story how both San Diego and San Jose citizens pushed through referendums to drastically reduce government employee pensions. One city eliminated "pension spiking" which is the common... Read more →
Posted at 06:40 PM in Florida State Issues, Government Management Effectiveness, Government Pensions & Benefits, Lake County Board & Government, Lake County School District, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: government benefits, Government pensions, government union pensions
Tavares, FL - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - (Updated June 3rd with video links) Since this is a holiday week, neither the Lake County School Board or Lake County Board met last week, and the County Board is not meeting on Tuesday. So, I decided to cover the secretive Bilderberg meeting in Virginia, with an article each day on our Facebook page ( FiscalRangers ) through the weekend on this secretive "One World Government" group behind many international decisions affecting our banks, freedom, support for sustainable development, etc. The annual Bilderberg secret meeting will be held this weekend, May 31 to June 3 in Chantilly, Virginia. Yes, normally you probably want to watch FoxNews or Glen Beck this weekend, but I suggest you also watch some of the online coverage on Bilderberg, which is one hub besides the United Nations in the One World Government plan. Your local "mainstream media" outlets rarely challenge or cover Bilderberg, although many of their media leaders attend the actual meetings. This will be educational, since many independent online videographers are attending the meeting this weekend and will be live streaming what they find. After the "What is Bilderberg" section, I provide a link to... Read more →
Posted at 11:16 AM in Agenda 21 & socialism schemes, Environment & Global Warming, Federal Government Issues, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Bilderberg Conference, NAU, North American Union, One World Government
Tavares, FL - March 13, 2012 This is National Sunshine Week, and Lake County received an award for how the County website provided information to improve "transparency" over local government actions. Congratulations to Lake County, FL Government for receiving the "Sunny Award" from Sunshine Review, a journal on government transparency located in the Washington D.C area. They ranked 6000 government websites and only 214 received the Sunny Award, and Lake County's website was one. Lake County's website was scored an "A" transparency grade on Sunshine Review's Transparency Checklist. It goes to show, that Lake County will do anything to keep me from providing public input at a Board meeting!! I notice that their winners list also included many School Districts, including nearby Orange County. Here is the website page listing all 214 "A" Sunny Award winners, including Lake County: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/2012_Sunny_Awards Here is the webpage describing the "Transparency Checklist" and method used to determine Sunny Awards and rankings. They have checklists for cities, countys, school districts & state agencies: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Transparency_checklist However, I couldn't help notice that one of the checklist items isn't followed much at Lake County. They post financial audits, but not performance audits and there are no evaluations of... Read more →
Posted at 03:44 PM in Lake County Board & Government, Transparency of Govt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Lake County FL government
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