Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Local Lake County Group Accuses Two County Commissioners of Sunshine Law Violations

This is a pretty well researched article, which if true, indicates that there is some "inappropriate" use of lobbyist's for the environmental movement by Lake County Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart.  It seems they have had lots of meetings with some environmental lobbyists without recording the meetings, and they are using the lobbyists to write laws that affect all Lake County residents.

This is the same thing where pharmaceutical firms use their paid publicists to write articles issued by "scientists" to claim a medicine is safe, without disclosing the affiliation.

In addition, I don't like having paid, professional lobbyists on volunteer boards steering the discussion to benefit themselves.

And, as the column says, the lobbyists then recommend studies that benefit their pockets...which to me smells of an ethics violation.

Finally, I remember when Renick and Stewart used to come to Republican meetings, claiming to be Republicans, but once they were elected on an anti-growth movement, they dropped any pretense of being Republicans and you don't see that at all (especially now that I am in AFghanistan...).

So, read, and remember these tales below when the next elections come up.
vj

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 THE BLOGS..........

 

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2009/07/email-describes-sansom-as-kingpin-of-airport-deal.html

 

---

Comparing Lake County to Kabul, Afghanistan

I am sitting here in Kabul, Afghanistan, reflecting on how Lake County compares to Kabul. This country is the size and population of Texas. Most ministries have two budgets – one is for their own tax funded programs, and the other is a “development” budget for programs provided by the US and other donor agencies like the UN, etc. Thus the government leaders (aka elected or appointed officials ) are constantly asking donors for funding (sounds like the School District ). The average government worker gets about $100 per month, Open storm “ditches” on the mostly dirt roads make navigation hazardous, and most college students go out of the country for education if their family has funds. My admin assistant visited her mother in a private hospital where all the Doctors are from India and her family pays “much” to have her go there because the government provided health care and hospitals are sub standard.

Construction firms building some government projects may not get paid for months and go bankrupt. Some government workers in provinces may not get paid for weeks or months. Then I remember about the last time inflation really hit the US in the Carter years. Government revenue in California skyrocketed from inflated home prices and resulting tax revenue until they passed prop 13, which limited tax increases like Florida’s Save Our Homes law.

So, what happens when the predicted inflation hits Florida? The government won’t try to control costs, but it will do everything it can to remove the Save our Homes limits to benefit from rising, inflated prices of goods and homes. Sales tax revenues will be extended to services unless voters stop them. Perhaps this will be the perfect storm and Lake County voters will dump all incumbents that don’t have an active track record of REDUCING and controlling the cost of government. Or, voters may cave to more emotional appeals from Charlie Crist and charismatic politicians, and vote higher taxes. Which will you support?

Note:  This comment was also posted on the "Right Side of the Lake" blog in response to their pretty stiff prediction of inflation for Lake County and the US)
vj (currently in Kabul helping improve internal audit departments in the Afghan government)

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 reporting systems than Lake County, and possibly other Florida agencies. 

The colleague rolling this program budget out was high in Finance in the State of Minnesota, and then has done this for US government foreign aid programs in several countries.

Gee, maybe I will get his book on program budgeting and send it to Lake County elected officials and administrators!

Ok, you Orlando Magic fans might want to know there is another Magic fanatic in my boarding house, and he gets up a 4am to watch their games on the local satellite tv.

Cheers,

vj in Kabul - 9.5 hours ahead of Florida time.

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 pitted against the Sherrif for the few remaining dollars in the future.

No surviving business would do what the local government and State agencies do, increasing spending beyond objective forecasts of revenue.
vj

20,000 jobs may go in California

Cash-strapped California is to start notifying 20,000 state workers that they may lose their jobs.

A spokesman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made the announcement after California lawmakers failed to approve a $40bn (£28.2bn) budget.

California, the world's eighth biggest economy, has been hit by the housing crisis, unemployment and falling consumer spending.

The jobs on the government payroll would be cut in June.

It would be done in preparation for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

"In the absence of a budget, the governor has a responsibility to realise state savings any way he can," said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Republican governor Schwarzenegger.

"This is unfortunately a necessary decision."

The budget would include spending cuts and tax increases to close the state's budget deficit.

California has already laid off state workers for two days a month, put 2,000 public projects on hold and delayed tax refunds.

The state controller predicts California will run out of cash by the end of February if lawmakers do not solve the budget crisis.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7893965.stm

Introducing School District Fiscal Reform Activist Peyton Wolcott

If you live in Texas, and some other states, you probably already know about school reform activist Peyton Wolcott, who has a website a http://www.peytonwolcott.com/  . 

Peyton started several grass roots school fiscal and policy reform groups in Texas and is nationally known as the leader to get schools to publish their entire check register online to provide transparency over spending.  Peyton also reads this blog and periodically sends me tips.  Today I got another one regarding the Monroe County School District $180,000 fraud we have been covering.

If you go to Peyton's "Faq" page, it will give you a detailed history.   She also has now broadened her objectives to provide tips and info to other school reform activist groups, and she just might be eying Florida as her next fixit task!  

So, I don't need to rewrite what is on Peyton's website - go check it out.

And, I have always planned to start recommending that local agencies start online publishing not only of DETAILED budgets, but monthly "financials" (really kindergarten level budget status reports) and online check registers.   There is too much money being spent by the staff and or elected officials without much transparency in Lake County.
vj

Here is an extract of one single article written by Peyton in 2007, followed by a response from Peyton about the value of requiring online check registers, with an example from Miami Dade County.

Most parents and taxpayers
are rational beings whose lives
work because we operate in
them rationally.

When we experience a
precipitating incident which
warrants our dealing with our
local school districts, most of us
generally approach them armed
with facts and the same rational
thinking that enables us to pay
for our houses and cars and the
property taxes that fund our local
schools.  

Generally this is our first
mistake.  

If we compound our mistake by
also being angry, we might as
well go stand in front of the
administration building and
shake a big bag filled with
rattlesnakes; no good acting
surprised when the rattlesnakes
react by hissing and trying to
bite us.

Watching pushback from
schools, especially here in
Texas, escalate over the past
few years (more at right) leaves
me troubled; I believe based on
my own experiences and
observation of others' that many
of the difficulties parents and
taxpayers are experiencing can
be avoided by changing our
approach.

Heads-up to citizen journalists, bloggers The Internet is a tremendous gift.  We've seen changes here in Texas public education in the past five years which I do not believe would have been possible without the Internet.   Many parents and taxpayers are finding themselves pressed into service as citizen journalists who have no formal journalism background.  Most often, it is these well-intentioned folks who appear to be getting into the most trouble.  We've seen here in Texas in the past two years alone one SLAPP suit filed and another on the way, plus an amicus curiae by a third district.   Worse, we've had onerous anti-sunshine legislation encumbered on all of us as a result during this past Lege. Citizen journalism 101:

How to change
rattlesnakes
into teddy bears
It starts with changing our
mindset.  

After trying rational thinking, facts
and figures, reports and studies
with our local administrators, all
to no avail -- including a
memorable detainment by three
armed public school district
police officers for taking photos
in an administration building
during summer with no
schoolchildren present -- I
realized a new way of doing
things was necessary.

Because of my experiences over
the years as a volunteer
organizing other volunteers for
charity fund raisers, it was a
natural next step for me to
organize friends into a group...  the rest is Texas history...

================================================================

Recent memo from Peyton to FiscalRangers.com regarding value of requiring online check registers for school districts with an example from Miami-Dade County in Florida:

I'm all for audits, and in fact spent a year of my life lobbying (successfully as it turned out) for a fancy state audit of our local schools despite fierce opposition from the top three school administrators and three strongest and longest-serving elected trustees.  Within ten days of the state Comptroller's announcement she was going to start the audit the supe and ass't supe had resigned, and a few months later the three trustees suddenly decided not to run for reelection.  The third administrator left a year or so later.  So from this personal experience I know audits can be a strong accountability tool. 

 

Please tell me where I'm wrong on this next:  Online check registers accomplish the same thing as audits and faster, because they are easier to bring into being, and the entire sentient population can get online at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. and peruse their district's checkbook, start asking questions and bring about necessary changes.  Also, online checks can cure problem situations sooner than audits; with an audit you have to wait for the fiscal year to end, then the audit itself especially if you're going for a real one -- a forensic audit -- might take another year.  Then it takes them a while to formulate and release their preliminary findings to the governmental entity which takes some more time back and forth before the public actually gets to see anything.  Whereas with online registers, checks to the superintendent's son's new employer who also happens to be a district vendor show up the next month. 

 

This last was a real-life situation in Miami-Dade County Public Schools just last year and the checks were to Scientific Learning; after they came to light the superintendent despite having achieved the highest accolade in the national world of school superintendency just months earlier was by July-August scrambling to negotiate the best exit package possible.  There was lots more such an an election which I don't mean to gloss over; there are currently 70 Google hits for my name and "Rudy Crew" if you'd like a fuller picture.  And he still hasn't landed another superintendent position. 

 

Also, audits generally bring to light bad business practices, especially situations where superintendents are doing business with no-bid vendors, or districts are doing business with "friends" and relatives of trustees.  These are ethics issues.  We had exactly this situation in my own local district, the one where our property taxes go, several years ago.  At one point six of the seven trustees were doing business with the school district, all legally.  While such questionable deals are a problem in themselves, it leads to a climate of trustees rubber-stamping the superintendent's recommendation in order to solifiy their own business positions.  And with our situation the trustees appeared to be doing side deals with each other for votes. 

 

So we organized a group and found five candidates for the empty spots coming available -- yes, it was that bad that in addition to the normal due to normal term-end rotation two other trustees resigned -- and got all five to sign a public pledge that they wouldn't do business with the school district during their term.  Our idea was to hold them accountable in the most effective court of all, the court of public opinion.  It worked, and all five not only won their spots but also honored their publicly signed promise.  There's a button on the tool bar on my site linking to an article in Human Events with more.

You have an accounting background -- and thank you also for your service to our country (my husband is a retired Marine) -- and likely have a much neater and tidier mind than mine.  I'm a word person, not a number person.  

 

So having worked for all three -- tough outside school audit, online checks, and ethics pledges, the latter two have achieved a great deal more, and sooner, in the way of ending corruption, which I assume is your primary goal. 

 

Looking forward to your insights and feedback at your convenience --

 

Peyton

 

Update on Monroe County (FL) School District $180,000 Grand Theft & Fraud case

Below is a follow up article on the $180,000 fraud case in Monroe County in the School District.
- People are calling for the resignation of the School Supt because his wife is accused.
- High School students running for office are doing so on a "fiscal integrity" ticket.
- They are barely starting investigation into misuse of school credit cards...

This is a good example of how ignoring cash and finance controls at a school, possibly due to nepotism,  can really cause problems not only for a School District Board but the Superintendent.

Note:  In the Lake County (FL) School District, there have been two past audits of school accounts where it was found that Lake County high schools had very poor controls over game tickets.  They could not match the ticket "sold" count to the cash collected.   I was in the audit committee meetings for one of the audit presentations, and we tried to get the issue added to the personnel file for the Principals who ignored earlier audit findings, but it went nowhere.  The problem was that if you cannot account for serially numbered tickets "sold" or distributed at football games, etc. then it means either someone is stealing some of the cash collections, or they are giving free tickets to friends or VIPS without accounting for them.  (I once was an auditor for the County of Los Angeles and their golf courses, which had the same problem).  I don't know what happened in the most recent audit of school accounts, but I bet there wasn't much improvement, since the period in question would have been while Anna Cowin was superintendent.  Hopefully the new administration will take cash controls over game tickets more seriously and fix the reported weaknesses.   One weakness under Cowin was that the CFO didn't seem to have authority over cash controls at schools, when that should be the normal practice.   My recommendation to the current Board and Administration:  Don't mess around, and ensure proper cash controls are in place in all schools (inlcuding Lake Tech), including installation of safes to put funds into (which was another earlier recommendation that may or may not have been implemented).
vj

Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000

Updated May 1, 2009 to better explain weak vs strong cash controls that should have been used.

vj

Florida School District Superintendent's Wife Skims $180,000

In our never ending quest to find examples of poor or weak government financial practices, here is another one regarding a school district, and some lessons we can learn from it.

Nepotism struck a Miami area School District big time when the wife of the Monroe (FL)County School Superintendent allegedly skimmed $180,000 from fees PAID IN CASH for an adult cosmetology class she ran, and also by improperly using a school district credit card over many years.

Magically, the lady flew away to North Carolina right after the finance director started asking some questions, and they are trying to get her to fly back.  And, they haven't been able to get the husband and Superintendent to come in for an interview...

This illustrates how important it is to have quality internal controls and audits, AND GOOD CASH AND COLLECTION CONTROLS especially when any employee related to high ranking school district administrators have access to ANY funds or assets.  In a well controlled environment, any fees for classes would be paid directly to a separate finance office, which provides a receipt that would be good for the class.  Imagine if police were allowed to collect traffic fines on the spot in cash, and the police only reported  what tickets they wanted, but instead you get a ticket and must pay it at the county clerk to ensure payments are received. 

But in this case, the District let students pay CASH for classes directly to the instructor who apparently kept it in her desk (and didn't turn most of it in).  The Board needs to have hearings to investigate why an instructor was allowed to collect cash fees for classes without requiring that payments be made to a separate department like Finance, and why the number of enrollees were not compared to the expected fee income for that number of students.  Those are both common financial controls that should have been used.

And, let's talk about nepotism here.   There always seems to be a tendency for employees to "overlook" or avoid reporting transgressions by other employees who are connected to, or related to senior officials.  This is why you need a confidential reporting hotline, AND a very strong audit and financial controls program to ensure this doesn't happen.   I have seen this happen three times, and in two of them, the senior individual was fired as well as the transgressor.

Read the full article at the link below.
vj

Favorite quotes:

Acevedo also could face more charges at the conclusion of an investigation of the school district's finances by the State Attorney's Office, state and local law enforcement, state school auditors and an auditor hired by the school board.

''Absolutely, there probably will be a few more charges that come out of it,'' Ward said. ``We have not even started looking at credit card spending and purchase orders. There also could be obstruction charges.''

In less than two years, Acevedo spent more than $95,000 on her school district credit card for items she claimed were for valid school purposes. The list included: pink silk ties, bar stools, spear-gun accessories, a table saw, a chandelier and the complete DVD box set of Six Feet Under.

''Were there dishonest people who looked the other way?'' he (an officail) said. ``We still don't know how the catastrophic breakdown occurred.''

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 they, not the employer, win or lose based upon the success of the investment.

So, one more thing to research... any elected official in Florida should ensure there is complete transparency on the pension programs, because that is what is bankrupting California and some of their cities because of excess pension funding.
vj

The financial house of cards that is the Orlando government is falling down. The same people who gave the key to the city to convicted embezzler Lou Perlman have spent the city into insolvency. It is time for the taxpayer to wake up and demand real reforms.               Let's start with some facts. Orlando's 2009 budget is $926,090,108 (in 2005 it was $604 million). There are roughly 200,000 residents in the City. That comes out to approximately $10,000 for each working taxpayer living in the city not including the $1.5 billion spent in Orange County schools or the $3.5 billion spent in Orange County. But we know about this burden. Here is the part most people do not know.               The City of Orlando lost $150 million in its "defined benefit" pension plan in 2008. What defined benefit means is that you, the taxpayer, need to pay that money back even though you already paid it once. But it gets worse. The Orlando pension plan guarantees an 8% annual return on the fund investment (which was approximately $1 billion). So you, the taxpayer need to dig out of your pocket another $75 million just for the pension fund losses in 2008 (Orange County lost over $1 billion in its pension fund last year, but that is another story). It makes this deficit up by increasing the pension contributions for employees. Did you know the average annual pension contribution for a police officer exceeds the annual salary of a taxpayer earning minimum wage?             Sorry, but it gets worse. The City borrowed $100,000,000 to fund the new Magic Arena. The interest rate on the arena is higher than expected so the arena will cost $100,000,000 more than expected with debt service. The city is even borrowing to pay for the design work for commuter rail. At the same time the city gave a developer $6 million for a downtown movie theater and millions more to subsidize a speculative office project in a low income area. Taxpayers have twice subsidized the purchase of Church Street Station which is again in foreclosure (is the third time a charm?).             People are upset the City of Orlando is paying twenty-seven year olds $131,000 annually plus benefits, but the real problem is the City of Orlando is on a collision course with bankruptcy. The same people that brought you the venues and the $1 million Ambassador scooter program will not prevent the City of Orlando from this fate. What the city needs is a new group of leaders who are willing to stand up and say we have a pension problem. Leaders who are willing to say civil servants should not make double the wage of the taxpayer. Leaders who will turn our local government from its current bureaucracy to a model of efficiency. Leaders who will give government back to the people.                        The hard working taxpayers of Orlando deserve better. A lot better. Take a look at General Motors to see the future of your local government. Our local government has the same business model as General Motors and government as usual is not sustainable. Orlando has already raised real estate taxes in a recession, doubled parking fees, raised utility fees by 18%, installed red light cameras that generate $10,000 a day in fines, and increased every fee it can. This burden creates higher unemployment in the private sector but enables the City to keep 165 unionized workers on the payroll in permitting and economic development at a cost of $100,000 per employee. Permits are down over 80%. What are these people doing?             The fee increases will continue until we, the taxpayer, put a stop to it. Unemployment in Orlando has gone from 3.3% to 9.9% in five years. The primary regulator of business is our local government. Unless we force government to serve the people instead of enriching itself our economy will not improve.  The question is when will we fix it and who will step up. Please JOIN www.LowerTaxesNow.org. Send this to all of your friends.             The future of government will be dramatically different from our current model. If the taxpayers unite it will come sooner than later. The sooner we reform our government the sooner our economy will recover. I have almost finished my book; "Building a Better Local Government." It is a road map for fixing the problems with our local government and an economic recovery plan. Don't give up.  The problems are many but the solutions are within our grasp if we unite as taxpayers.              Join me July 4th at the next Tea Party in Orlando tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Amway Arena. I will outline a plan to reform local government and give government back to the people.              Matthew Falconer Orange County Taxpayer Budget Review Board www.TaxpayerBudgetReviewBoard.org www.LowerTaxesNow.org matthew@LowerTaxesNow.org

Our Take on Orlando Sentinel Opinion Article about Need for Local Government Internal Audit Functions

Earlier today I sent this out as an email to elected County Commissioners and School Board members and staff, but then Ralph Smith and Fred Johnson quoted it on today's Lake County Round Table radio show on AM790, so here it is.   I added a few sentences not in the original email to clarify some issues.
vj

The Orlando Sentinel opinion article is at:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpmyword22chambers042209apr22,0,6792959.story

Basically, the President of IIA (based in Altamonte Springs), Richard Chambers, is writing about the problems at the Orlando-Orange County Expressway authority, and how the lack of support for internal audits by the Board resulted in the new internal auditor resigning.   The IIA establishes worldwide internal audit standards, and issues the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) certificate after two day exams.  I am a CIA with 18 years internal audit management experience.

I suggest you read the article and the reasons why Chambers said such a position is needed to improve transparency.

My favorite quotes from Richard Chambers: 

It's often said that government can be effective only if it maintains the public's trust. With this in mind, internal auditors in government play a pivotal role in reinforcing that trust. Their work provides assurance to taxpayers and citizens that resources are deployed effectively and that public officials are good stewards of taxpayer dollars, such as toll money.

Although most government officials welcome the insight that comes from an effective internal-audit program, an increasing number appear threatened by the scrutiny that accompanies critical audit results — lashing out at the messenger. This might have been the case with the Expressway Authority.

First, every government agency receives “financial” audits of their annual financial statements by CPA firms, but they are useless to determine if the leadership of the agency is effective, efficient or economical.  And, they may get a limited "performance audit" every 2-3 years from the State Auditor General.  But the audits that IIA and I talk about are more advanced operational or performance audits following IIA standards that evaluate operations for efficiency, effectiveness, economy, regulatory compliance and integrity.   And, I am talking about LOCAL internal audit functions, and not those from the State or CPA firms, which with my 18 years audit experience, I don't consider as useful.

 have been going to many School District meetings for almost 3 years, and have watched a number of County Commission meetings on tape and read budgets from both agencies.

In Lake County, it is important to note the differences in oversight attitude between the Lake County School Board and the rest of the County agencies.  I

For instance, School Board member Larry Metz wrote a strong internal audit policy and the Board hired a strong internal auditor after also creating a strong internal audit committee.  Then Board member Cindy Barrow , who is the Board representative on the audit committee, supported by the rest of the Board, initiated some internal audit reports to publicly disclose some problems in three areas.    The School Board is in the final stages of modifying a pending ethics policy to also establish an independent hotline to receive employee or citizen (or vendor) complaints about impropriety, waste, fraud, abuse or violation of ethics.  It is interesting to note that I have not been able to find ANY Florida State agency that has such a hotline, which is common in the Federal government and many corporations.

In contrast, the Lake County (FL) Board of Commissioners keeps trying to defer or hide audit results.  Currently, they have no CFO, no audit committee, have extensively delayed responses to a SHIP (grants to remodel low income homes) audit,  extensively delayed acting on questionable personnel issues disclosed in a research report by local resident Lee Johnson, and they  hide behind a Collier County court case and don’t give permission to the County Clerk auditor to conduct performance audits of their operations.  Additionally, none of the other elected County Constitution officers have requested or been the subject of performance audits available through the County Clerk’s audit office.    Finally, neither the County Board operations or other Constitutional officers have a publicly disclosed waste, fraud and abuse reporting hotline like is normal in the Federal government and many corporations.

So, without the support of leadership for common performance management (that are used in business to measure efficiency) or internal audit functions, the public is right to question the ability of the responsible public officials in receiving future votes, due to their lack of concern for fiscal controls and practices.   If they don’t support performance audits and public disclosure, you just have to wonder what is really being hidden, which has continually been the case with Orlando’s Expressway Authority.

So, if you meet Lake County School Board members from the current Board, and from last year (Jimmy Conner & Scott Strong), thank them for improving the oversight process over the school district spending.

But, if you meet a Lake County Commissioner (Welton, Jennifer, Elaine, Linda or newbie Jimmy), you might ask them why 1) They don’t issue an open request to the County Clerk’s audit office to independently plan and initiate audits of all County operations without question, 2) They don’t freeze funding to other Constitutional officers until they also issue written, non-restrictive requests to the same audit office to plan, initiate and issue performance audits of their operations.

And, if you meet Lake County STATE legislators (Marlene O’Toole, Carey Baker, Alan Hays), ask they why there are so many barriers to routine performance audits of County government operations, and why Florida State agencies do not have waste, fraud and abuse reporting hotlines for all complaints (not just consumer complaints) about government practices.

Until that happens, I personally would recommend that Lake County voters not return the responsible officials to any office in the future.   And, any new 2010 Lake County candidates for these offices just might want to add this issue to their campaign objectives!  (One just emailed he will do so...)

We have seen many government losses and failures from lack of oversight, and more is needed.

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers@comcast.net

Tavares, FL

www.FiscalRangers.com