Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Florida Grand Jury Report Recommendations on Public Corruption

One of the last reports issued by the Florida Grand Jury under outgoing Attorney General Bill McCollum was this report issuing anti-corruption recommendations regarding State and local government. Much of it focuses on public corruption related to elected or appointed officials.

Update June 4, 2011:  Local Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell wrote a column on this same Corruption Report HERE.

I have summarized the findings of the Corruption report below, since they did NOT provide a summary, index or table of contents in the 127 page report.

"Since 2000, Florida’s three federal United States Attorney’s Office districts had more public corruption convictions than any other state’s combined district totals.  Florida led the nation in the number of federally convicted public officials from 1998 through 2007.  According to this testimony, Florida leads the next closest state, New York, by over an 8% margin. (pg 120)".   In a chart on page 120, Florida had over 800 "Convicted Public Officials from 1998-2007" compared to almost half the other states had less than 100 convictions in the same time period. (Ed note:  However, that could mean the laws in some states made it HARDER to convict or prosecute public corruption.)

One press article denounced the report for not actually indicting anyone for corruption.  See HERE.

This Grand Jury report was a follow up to a 1999-2000 Public Corruption Study Commission established by Gov. Jeb Bush where many recommendations were

DROP Program in Florida Keeps Reducing Employment

Here is an Orlando Sentinel editorial on Florida's DROP program which lets Florida government workers "retire", then take their old job again while collecting full retirement PLUS the State puts an amount for more pension contributions into a fund that earns a HIGH rate of interest.

Most people call this double dipping.

The result is that one person is receiving both full pay, and a full pension, when if they REALLY retired, another person could be employed.  This program is automatic, and not based on a rationale justification system where only truly needed employees are granted the DROP beneifts. So, the DROP program shovels more taxpayer funds at senior and high paid Florida government workers and prevents another person to fill the briefly vacated position, which keeps unemployment higher than necessary.

You wouldn't find anything like this in the private sector.  About the only comparable method would be hiring of retired staff as consultants, and definitely for a contracted FIVE YEARS.  And, in the private sector, there is a complete separation of the former and future employing firm's benefits programs, and usually the re-hiring is based upon cost justification analysis. 

In the case of Florida's DROP program, it eliminates the ability of new employees to get a job, since the former employee is

Florida Government Workers gripe about paying 3% towards Pensions, but in Louisiana, it is 11%

Florida Governor Scott recently passed a budget that included a requirement that Florida State and most local employees, who all belong to a central pension fund, finally start contributing 3% of wages towards the pension fund.

Maybe they haven't checked other states before they gripe - Louisiana government employees were paying 8%, and now it has been bumped up to 11% in a budget plan by the Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal.  They also stopped giving automatic 4% merit increases.  Both changes are in the budget plan, but we don't know if it will actually pass.

"Under the ( Louisiana State ) plan, state workers would pay more toward their pension plans, with their contribution rising from the current 8% to 11%, a move anticipated to save $24 million.^[18]"  

vj

http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Louisiana_state_budget 

We Visit the First Tallahassee Meeting of Governor Scott's Hospital District Tax Reform Commission

Tavares, FL - May 29, 2011 -

You might call it Vance and Stan and Marilyn's "Excellent Adventure" driving up to Tallahassee on Thursday for the first meeting on Friday, May 27th of the Florida State Commission to Review Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts (FSCRTFHD ?).  We will refer to it as the Commission or HDC (Hospital District Commission).  The Commission was established by Gov. Scott in an Executive Order.

(Updated below on May 31 to add clarifying text and indicate audio recordings have been posted to the official website)

Most website links we found are listed below in the text, or a links section at the bottom.

Note: Due to the holiday weekend, only one news article has been published on this meeting as of Sunday.  I will add updates to this page after more appear.  They will be in the LINKS section at the bottom of this page.

Summary:

You can read a news article HERE about the Commission meeting, with quotes both from Lake County's Marilyn Bainter, a member of the North Lake Hospital District, and Vance Jochim, writer of this blog.  Bainter and Jochim were the ONLY parties providing public input at the end of the meeting.

This Commission was created by Governor Scott to investigate Hospital Tax Districts in Florida and make recommendations.  We first wrote about it HERE in an earlier post.  Members of the Commission seem to be

Florida Hires Louisiana Based Firm to Help Reduce Medicaid Fraud & Costs

If you are concerned about Medicaid fraud and costs, this article might be of interest.  It describes the firm who was hired for a $50-million contract to reduce the problems.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/company-helps-fight-medicaid-fraud-one-visit-at-1488373.html?page=2&viewAsSinglePage=true   

vj

 

 

 

How do Lake County Schools Compare to South Carolina in Spending Transparency?

Updated 8:30 pm with new information from the CFO of Lake County Schools.

Tavares, FL - May 24, 2011 -  A South Carolina blog just reported that South Carolina last year required that School Districts disclose their budget details and spending details, and now, all but two districts are doing so.  One of the two holdouts has a $195-million budget, but refuses to pay the $2000+ setup and $2000+ annual costs to produce the reports unless the State Controller pays the costs. 

In comparison, until last year, Florida had not implemented any such budget or spending transparency requirement of School Districts, although a pilot program was being planned. Before March of this year, the last time I asked, the Lake County School District's (LCSD)  CFO refused to even provide us

Lake County School Board Will be Asked to SUPPORT the Orlando Sunrail program, considered to be a tax boondoggle by many

Updates added at 5 and 8pm Friday.

Tavares, FL - May 20, 2011 - The Lake County School Board has been asked by the local MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) to discuss issuing a resolution at their Monday evening meeting (May 23) supporting the Sunrail railroad corporate welfare program (my opinion) and sending it to Governor Scott.  Lat night, the City of Eustis killed a similar resolution brought to them.

Here are the details and what you can do about it, if you have concerns about Sunrail.

The Lake County School board posts the agenda for their next meeting on their website in the “Board Docs” section.  That agenda can be found by clicking the May 23 date HERE: 

http://www.boarddocs.com/fla/lake/board.nsf/Public

Some members of the Tea Party, who do not support Sunrail, noticed that agenda item 4.04 was for a resolution related to supporting Sunrail, which is not favored by many locals.  If you use Board Docs, and click on agenda entry 4.04, you will see some background, plus a cover memo and a draft resolution are attached.  READ them first to understand what the Board is being asked to approve.

Update 8:30 pm:  If you want more background on why Gov. Scott is "considering" Sunrail, read THIS article from SunshineStateNews.com . It gives a clear, historical perspective how some Florida GOP officials have boxed him in, and why Scott may not really be the bad guy if he is forced to approve Sunrail by the situations setup by officials.  Below is a quote from Sunrail opponent FL Senator Paula Dockery, who also provided a list in the article of ways that Scott could still reject Sunrail.

"State Sen. Paula Dockery says SunRail's price tag is already ballooning, and points to an FDOT document that pegs the 30-year costs at $2.66 billion -- double the advertised figure. She said such expenses, as well as an estimated $130 million in SunRail-related line-item allocations embedded in the current budget, should have the governor reaching for his veto pen."

I contacted Lake County School Distric Board Chair Debbie Stivender, who had prepared the School Board cover memo for the Sunrail resolution, to get more details about whose idea it was to add the Sunrail support resolution, and why the School Board would be considering such an issue.

Her response (at the bottom of this document) indicates, as I thought, that she was asked to add it to the agenda by the local MPO head (I assume it was TJ Fish), and the MPO favors just about any railroad project.  It was NOT added to the agenda because it is a pet project of someone on the Board.  

MPO’s website is here (  http://www.lakesumtermpo.com/  ), and TJ Fish makes many presentations to local Lake County Boards and groups to get support and funding for various regional transportation planning and funding programs.  He is the one who pushed through the approvals for the $18-million Lake County railroad rehab project.  Some observers, after reading and watching MPO activities, will notice their objectives are similar to the UN’s Agenda 21 philosophy, including regionalism, central population centers and extended use of mass transport, central planning vs property rights, “sustainability” and “smart growth”, which all involve expanded government programs, regulations and funding.  There are numerous regional MPO’s throughout Florida and other states.  I attended several of the Lake County MPO planning meetings for the public in 2006/07 and the sales pitch was towards all the benefits of centralized population centers, use of mass transit, and requirements to limit development of areas between the planned high density, high rise population centers.  Basically, they don’t want free land development, and their way is actually how Singapore was developed, which centralized everything in order to grow their economy cheaply.  For instance, Singapore had huge taxes on cars, forcing most people to take mass transit and live within walking distance of train stations.  The tradeoff is central control vs liberty.  HERE is an excerpt from the minutes of one of the MPO committees from last month.  If you search on "Sunrail" on the MPO website, you will find at least two committee minutes with this paragraph:

Resolution of Support for SunRail
Due to Gov. Scott’s recent action to delay contract review on three SunRail contracts until
July, partners throughout Central Florida are adopting resolutions of support for SunRail.
The MPO has previously adopted a resolution of support for SunRail and for other rail
projects. Staff will discuss the issue with committees and will forward a recommendation
to the Governing Board should recommendation be provided.

It is my opinion that the School Board Chair was asked by MPO to discuss the resolution, and this is the only way the Board can publicly discuss whether they even want to support the MPO provided resolution and send it to Governor Scott, and nothing more.  Chairperson Stivender says the prospective resolution actually was in the wrong agenda location and will be moved to the discussion section, and the public can provide input. 

Update May 20, 7pm - I was told that a similar resolution for Sunrail was voted DOWN by the Eustis, FL City Council last night.

My Opinion

I personally believe most railroad taxpayer subsidy projects are corporate welfare that expand government control, and they never break even, thus governments (and the taxpayers) end up paying overbudget expenses, maintenance, bond interest etc for 30 or more years.   Generally, it would be cheaper for the taxpayers to give each prospective rider a new electric car than create a commuter railroad system.  That is what I saw with many railroad projects in California when I lived there before 2005.  Sunrail is predicted to create many jobs, but why should taxpayers pay for a project or go into debt just to create jobs for big construction companies, unions others?  And, remember, the Sunrail approval will result in taxpayers making HUGE payments of $432-million to CSX railroad to use (maybe buy?) the existing rail lines.  If increased commuter rail was fiscally feasible, why isn't CSX allowing the project to use the rail lines for free or for mileage and maintenance fees only???

But, in case you want the other side of the story, read the agenda resolution mentioned above and HERE is the official Sunrail website:  http://www.sunrail.com/ 

So, if you have an opinion on whether the Sunrail resolution should be passed by the Lake County School Board for submission to Governor Scott, read the agenda attachments, and then either contact your School Board members HERE, or attend the Monday evening meeting in the County round Admin building at 6pm to provide public input.  (There is no daytime workshop on Monday).   Keep the feedback sane, because I have no information which way any Board members will feel about this.  I am betting they will determine that it isn’t an area of their responsibility, and not take any action.   However, since any rail program will siphon taxpayer funds away from possible education uses,  they could decide to formally oppose it also, or someone could pose some reason to actually support it.

Also, watch and see whether the Board allows TJ Fish more than 3-minutes to talk.  His job as head of MPO (which receives funds from many local agencies) is to sell plans and objectives of MPO.   If he does talk more than three minutes, you might ask for a comparable time for public input.  It is my opinion that many Boards and Committees tend to allow Mr. Fish long periods to present MPO viewpoints, but no time for alternative viewpoints.  He is a REALLY good, smart  salesperson for centralized mass transit & transportation issues and is REALLY good at interjecting MPO advocacy viewpoints in many meetings.  He is probably smarter than many elected officials.

Additionally, the North Lake Tea Party has encouraged the public to contact Florida Governor Rick Scott to voice objections to his approving Sunrail.   His feedback website is HERE.

If I hear of any changes, I will post them as an “UPDATE” at the top of this blog posting before the Monday evening meeting.  I will also add an update after the meeting on the results.

Lake County School District Chair Debbie Stivender’s response is below:

Vance,

I put it (the proposed Sunrail resolution) on the agenda for discussion purposes since this is the only time our board can discuss the issue as a group. The MPO forwarded the request to me as chair and I placed it on the agenda to get the board's feedback.

It appears the confusion may be that the item should have been placed under Discussion Items and not under Representations. At the meeting, I will explain this to the board and citizens and we will have public comments before the board makes a decision for or against the proposed resolution.

Vance, I hope this clarifies the issue. If not, please let me know.
Thanks,
Debbie

Vance Jochim

Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Chief Fiscal Watchdog

Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management, Efficiency & Effectiveness

Mount Dora, FL 32757

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CLICK HERE to see recommended internet links related to Local Lake County government fiscal issues.

Update on Florida Septic Tank Issue from Florida's Tea Party Network

I provide this update on the Florida Septic Tank Issue Courtesy of Dave Von Gunten and the North Lake County Tea Party. 

There is now the Florida wide "Tea Party Network" of over 170 Independent Tea Party organizations and our own Lake County activist, Patricia Sullivan is Chair of the network.

They had established Florida wide issue coordinators and this information is from the one for the Florida Septic Tank issue, which is a previous, very onerous law that would require every home owner with a septic tank to have it inspected and incur excessively high expenses.  The law was pushed through by environmentalists and septic tank cleaning firms.  Be sure to read the consumer tip below:

vj

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

Septic Tank Issue:

Here is the latest on the Septic Tank Issue from Sharon Glass, the Tea Party Network coordinator on the issue

Dear Patriots,

Current Status of SB550 and the Ban on Treated Septage

SB550: I am sorry I have not sent anything to you on what happened to SB550 the last day of session. I have been out of town, arrived home yesterday and have just now been able to wrap my brain around all that happened. I am happy to report that this law is NOT likely to be implemented on July 1, 2011 even though it was not repealed during the legislative session.

Why will it not be implemented? The legislature's new requirements for approval by the Legislative Budget Commission (LBC) will delay the rule making procedure for the implementation date because of the financial impact. It is likely that it will be brought up again in the 2012 legislative session, so we have several months to work on a plan.

Warning: Unscrupulous septic tank companies in other parts of Florida are already telling homeowners they can get ahead of the law being implemented July 1, 2012 by pumping out their tank now. Please don't fall for this as there is more to the law than pumping out the tank. If you get a call from a company, please let me know. I also understand that some DOH office are giving out wrong information. No one can enforce this law until LBC does something with it.

Ban on land application of treated septage: A bill was passed in the house to repeal the ban, but the Senate did not vote on it this session. This will likely come up again in the next session.

What do we need to do next? First, take a deep breath you have all worked so hard this session and this is not a defeat. Representative Marti Coley and the House of Representatives did not sway one time for a full repeal, we also had senators (such as Senator Evers and Senator Gaetz), who worked really hard to get a repeal bill. It is my understanding that it was teamwork that was responsible for SB550 being delayed further. I will try to put together a list of all of the senators and house members who worked so hard for us so we can personally thank them. They deserve it! I will also get something out to you as soon as I meet with those who know what we need to do next.

Personal Note: As state lead on the septic tank issue I want to give a big thanks to all of the regional/area Septic Tank Issue leads and Regional Coordinators for getting out the alerts, action items etc. to your members. It has been a very hectic time for this issue and other issues, and we will get busy again. This may seem like a defeat, but it isn't, it is just a battle that has been delayed. Let me be the first to assure you that in my many trips to Tallahassee since November of last year, it is very evident that we have made a difference! In 2012 we will do even greater things.

Fellow patriots, as you rest your weary fingers and minds for a short time (all warriors have to take a needed rest)...let me remind you that we will prevail, because We Are The People.

God bless,

Sharon Glass

Public Awareness Coordinator

Santa Rosa Tea Party Patriots

A Further Update:

Dear Patriots,

This came from Senator Evers today, thought you might like to see it. He has stated that repealing the septic tank inspection program will be his Number 1 priority the next session, so lets all support him in this endeavor.

Weekly Update - May 13, 2011

Dear Friends, We must repeal the septic tank mandatory inspection program.  I have opposed this terrible program all along.  Back in 2010 when Senate Bill 550 first established the septic tank program, I voted NO. In the 2010 December special session, I co-sponsored the legislation that postponed the implementation date of the program from January 1, 2011, to July 1, 2011, with the intent, hope and belief that we would repeal the entire program during the 2011 legislative session.  The very first bill I filed for the 2011 legislative session was Senate Bill 168 - a complete and total repeal of the septic tank inspection program.  I fought hard for this legislation, but I was only able to get my colleagues to pass it through its first committee of reference. Another bill that would have partially repealed the program, Senate Bill 1698, was also filed this session. I opposed Senate Bill 1698 because I felt that it did not go far enough in stopping the mandatory inspection program for all impacted Northwest Floridians, and because I did not believe it was based on sound science. When Senate Bill 1698 came to the floor of the Senate on the next-to-the-last night of the legislative session, I filed three amendments to the bill, all of which would have stopped in full the mandatory septic tank inspection program. Senate leadership postponed consideration of the bill and my amendments and we never came back to the issue before the session concluded. While I was, much to my regret, unable to get my Senate colleagues to join me in passing a complete repeal of the septic tank inspection program this session, I am still 100% committed to stopping this program.  The 2011 budget bills contain language that will have the impact of continuing the moratorium on the program through June 30, 2012.  I have also personally had numerous conversations with, and secured commitments from, the Department of Health that the Department will not move forward on implementing the septic tank inspection program without affirmative legislative approval. Most importantly, I have already begun moving forward on legislation to permanently repeal the septic tank inspection program during the 2012 legislative session. I will fight for the total repeal of this program with everything I have, and it will continue to be my Number 1 priority until I have succeeded.  I encourage you to keep fighting with me by reaching out to all members of the Florida Senate and urging them to repeal this expensive, outrageous and unnecessary expansion of government into people’s private lives.  Together, I firmly believe we will succeed in stopping this. If I can be of any further service to you, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Sincerely,   Greg Evers

Our Thoughts on Hurricane Readiness in Lake County

Tavares, FL - May 7, 2011 - The Daily Commercial just published an article about the need to plan for possible Hurricanes in the coming Hurricane Season.  It is at:

http://www.dailycommercial.com/localnews/story/050711shelters  

I have two thoughts regarding Hurricane readiness in Lake County:

1.  What is amazing to me is that the County Government is in Tavares, but there are no public hurricane shelters in Tavares.  The article had a whole listof shelters in Lake County, but nowhere is there a shelter in Tavares.  Where are all those Tavares restaurant customers and visiting Seaplane owners supposed to go between meal courses when a hurricane or tornado is expected?

2.  Also, the article talked about weaknesses of mobile & manufactured homes.  There have been three major changes in mobile or manufactured home "tie down" procedures since the 1970's, so the latest are much less prone to being flipped, shifted, moved or damaged.  But, the County has no program to publicize upgrades or encourage older mobile and manufactured home owners to upgrade the tie down systems on the home to prevent shifting and flips.  Builder magazine had a long article on that subject about 2-3 years ago.  I asked a Lake County building inspector (not recently) if they were approving mobile and manufactured home remodeling or expansions, whether they recommended needed tie down improvements, and they did NOT have any process to do so.  They also could publish recommended upgrades to reduce damage to carports, screen rooms and window awnings, but there isn't anything.  For instance, if carports lift due to weak hold down bolts in columns from an earlier building code period, then specify what the new standards are so local owners know about them and can upgrade.

Some of the recommended upgrades for mobile and manufactured homes should reflect current building codes and would include:

- Better tie down straps and more current installation techniques to prevent loosening or breaking.

- Better installation of tie down straps so they are not twisted, which creates a possible stress and breakage point.

- Make sure homes are not just sitting on supports (really old homes) without tie downs.

- Shorter spacing between tie down straps.

- Better methods to attach the roof to the house walls.  Less space between fasteners.  Longer fasteners or side brackets.

- Better fasteners for awnings and stronger awning material or ability to collapse or remove it.

- Window coverings like the ones from 3m that prevent penetration by flying objects.

- For ALL homes with garages, make sure the garage door has internal wind braces.  Older homes do not have them, but the largest reason for lifted roofs is weak garage doors that do not have strong wind braces and they collapse, letting the wind in to lift the garage roof, and peel back the rest of the roof.

- Thicker shingles and closer nailing patterns with correct nails for re-roof jobs.

- Homes with plastic or metal siding need better fastening and closer fastening patterns.

- Upgrades of carport and screen room columns and bolts that hold them into the driveway or foundation.

So, why doesn't Lake County have a voluntary upgrade program with the above suggestions to start?  Why haven't the building inspection departments of Lake County and the cities had a workshop to develop a checklist based upon their inspection of previously damages homes AND review of current wind damage prevention building code sections?   And, then publicize the checklists and consider adding some of the upgrades to home inspection routines when home owners get building permits for other upgrades.

vj

We Launch Campaign to Get Serono Labs officers Prosecuted

We normally focus on Lake County or related local government issues.

This issue doesn't really affect most regular Lake County Fiscal Rangers readers, but if you want to see details of what can be done with social media to get government to actually prosecute wrongdoers, instead of just paying a fine, read on.

I am separately involved in research related to a new "CCSVI" treatment for multiple sclerosis - MS (I don't have it).   This week, the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) posted a press release about a drug company Serono Labs, that had paid unreported bribes and other expenses for many doctors to market an MS drug called Rebif. The press release said bribery, money laundering and kickbacks were involved to get doctors to push Rebif to MS patients.   Most MS drugs are REALLY expensive and many prescriptions are paid by Medicare or Medicaid, thus the Federal involvement.

DOJ issued a press release that they had settled with Serano paying a fine of $40-million, but NO officers were prosecuted.   This has upset the MS "community" evidenced by many postings on MS related Facebook pages around the world, especially since Serono was the subject of an earlier prosecution that resulted in them paying a $705-million fine.  So, they weren't naive.

Since I understand the Federal investigations systems, I have launched a campaign via Facebook to generate MS community, public and Federal Congressional pressure to have an investigation why DOJ did not prosecute anyone.   I even called the specific US Attorney's office that settled the case, and they would not explain why there were no prosecutions.  I am learning more details, and the US Dept of Health & Human Services Inspector General's office told us that the CEO and other officers may be subject to being added to an "exclusion" list which means they cannot be affiliated with any organization that receives Federal payments for Health services (i.e. Medicare reimbursements to clinics, etc.).  Another wrist slap - they can still collect parachute funds and retire without problem.

So, if you have further interest, you can visit my separate Facebook page "CCSVIUSA" and in the Notes will be a document containing the Serano Labs case details as it unfolds.   The interesting thing is that using Facebook Page Notes, you can post an article on Facebook that goes out to selected groups and pages, and mine went to about 130,000 MS patients.

Read the note here:

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=160462850683248  

vj