Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Call to Action: Please Attend Tomorrow's (Wed) 1pm ANNUAL Meeting of Lake County Legislators

Tavares, FL - Sept. 27, 2011 -  Readers of FiscalRangers.com are encouraged to attend tomorrow's (Wed) 1pm ANNUAL meeting of the Lake County Legislator's Delegation forum at Lake Sumter Community College

Here is the meeting agenda.  Unlike last year, where part of the meeting was held in the evening so the public could attend, this one is all during the day from 1-5pm.

Download 2011-09-28 Legil Del AGENDA   

 This agenda was only sent out today.  Van Zant's office didn't return phone calls or the requested minutes, and could not tell us which building the meeting was in.

UPDATE:  I was told by an attendee that "The meeting is in the Fine Arts Auditorium in front of the gym."

However, we obtained the minutes of January's meeting, and they are ATTACHED.  It is a long Word document.

Download 2011-01-05 FLORIDA DELEGATION MEETING MINUTES

Thus, we assume the meeting is in the AUDITORIUM of the Lake Sumter Community College campus and is at  1pm.  Please arrive early to ensure you find the right building (not the conference center).  We will try to post some signs.  Enter the campus on the west side by Cracker Barrel restaurant on Hwy 441.

AGENDA

LAKE COUNTY LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION

September 28, 2011

1:00-5:00 p.m.

• Welcome-Chairman,  Charles Van Zant, State Representative

• Invocation-Senator Alan Hays

• Pledge of Allegiance-Representative Larry Metz

• Roll Call, Mary Jo Marjenhoff, Legislative Aide, Representative Van Zant

• Introduction of  Legislative Delegation and Staff

Representative Charles Van Zant, Chair

Senator Paula Dockery

Senator Alan Hays

Representative Larry Metz

Representative Marlene O’Toole

Representative Stephen Precourt

• Introduction of Elected Officials-Representative Charles Van Zant

• Welcome Delegation- Ms. Margo Odom, Chair, Board of Trustees

• Local Government Presentations
  • Dr. Dan Holsenbeck, Vice President of University Relations-University of Central Florida
  • Mr. Richard Scott, Vice President for Business Affairs-Lake Sumter  Community College
  • Ms. Jennifer Hill, Chair-Lake County Board of County Commissioners
  • Ms. Debbie Stivender-Lake County School Board
  • Mr. T.J. Fish, Executive Director-Lake Sumter Municipal Planning Organization

• Public Presentations & Testimony
  • James Lowe, Executive Director-Lake Community Action Agency
  • Joe Helme, Volunteer-American Lung Association
  • Kathy Williamson, Volunteer- AARP
  • Ann Griffin, Volunteer-Water Authority, Nutrient Reduction Facility, dredging
  • Katina Mustipher, Director of Program Operations-Elder Options
  • Mark Middlebrook, Executive Director-St. Johns River Alliance

• Local Bills
  • Phyllis Baum, Senior Vice President-Leesburg Regional Medical Center
  • Ken Mattison, CEO-Florida Hospital Waterman
  • Representative Larry Metz-North Lake County Hospital District

• Final Remarks from Delegation Members

• Adjournment

Appearance cards are located at the door for members of the public who wish to address the Delegation.

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

Below is the text of the email I sent out to our email list:

Please attend this meeting tomorrow (wed. Sept 28) at 1pm at Lake Sumter Community College if you can to support Larry Metz and Marilyn Bainter in reform proposals for the North Lake County Hospital District.

This is the annual meeting of the Lake County six member Florida legislator’s delegation.  Two will be absent.

The meeting will be from 1pm to 5pm in the Auditorium (we assume, no one would respond with the actual location, so probably not the Conference Center – look for signs if any).

Unlike the last meeting in January, there is no evening meeting to enable more working people to attend. 

Attached is the agenda AND the minutes from the last January meeting.  We were not able to get an agenda until TODAY from Rep. Van Zant’s office.    Van Zant’s office did not answer the phones or return calls or provide the January minutes. 

This meeting let’s you see the annual parade of various public agencies requesting funds form the Legislators (don’t expect much).

Additionally, Rep. Larry Metz is proposing a local law regulation regarding reforming of the North Lake County Hospital District.  That is the one where about half the taxed residents NEVER, in 40 years, have been allowed to vote to approve the tax.   Additionally, there are NO RULES in the existing regulation to specify how the three receiving hospitals will spend about $8-million of taxpayer funds.  It is time for reform, and you can provide public input on the issue.   We encourage you to do so, since representatives from both larger hospitals, Leesburg, and Waterman, have been given time on the agenda to plead their case for continuing this 40 year subsidy of the two private hospital corporations.

Be there!   Please send this to any friends concerned about paying taxes without any conditions on how the funds are to be spent.

You can see my prior FiscalRangers articles on this Hospital District Issue at:

http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/north-lake-county-hospital-district/ 

And, you can visit our website WE created for the District issues since the BOARD so far has refused to provide a phone number, office location, email or website for taxpayers to locate information about them.

http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/       (not updated as much as the FiscalRanger blog)

And, you can LIKE our Facebook page related to this issue at:

https://www.facebook.com/FixNorthLakeCountyHospitalDistrict  

Vance Jochim

Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Chief Fiscal Watchdog

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

Tavares, FL 32778

Mobile:  352-638-3578

FiscalRangers@comcast.net

www.FiscalRangers.com   

Fiscal Ranger's page on Facebook

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

 

West Palm Beach Health Care District so badly managed, it was put under control of County Inspector General

Note: See also our update below on Leesburg Commission resolution related to local Hospital District.

Tavares, FL - Sept. 27, 2011 -  If you think Lake County has problems with lack of oversight over a measly $8-million given to our local North Lake County Hospital District, read about the one in West Palm Beach.

That is the Florida county that had so many government scandals the voters pushed through a new Inspector General Dept.

Then, the Board members of their local Hospital District screwed up so much that three members are quitting and they cut a deal to put the management of the District (which apparently owns or runs local health care facilities, unlike ours, which does not) under the direction of the new Inspector General.

Read here:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/health-district-oks-inspector-general-pact-spending-on-1881602.html 

Leesburg City Commission votes 4-1 for resolution to Support Tax Payments by Hospital District to Leesburg

Meanwhile, our local "Right Side of the Lake" blog, based in Leesburg, is lobbying the Leesburg City Council to pass a resolution supporting continued funding to our own North Lake County Hospital District, even though they don't have ANY rules on how about $8-million given to three local hospitals is spent.  

Read that info HERE:

http://lakecountygov.info/2011/09/26/leesburg-city-commission-who-do-you-trust/ 

Update:  The Leesburg City Commission voted 4 to 1 to approve a resolution supporting payments of Lake County taxes to Leesburg Regional Hospital without any rules on how funds are to be spent, or noting that about half the involved taxpayers NEVER GOT TO VOTE on the Hospital Tax. 

vj

 

 

 

FiscalRangers Event Alert: Florida Republican US Senate Candidate Craig Miller to "Work" for four hours in a Tavares, FL Tire Store on THIS Monday, Sept. 26 between 11am to 3pm

Tavares, FL – Sept. 24, 2012 - One of the four Republican candidates for Florida US Senator, Craig Miller, will be in Lake County, Florida THIS Monday, Sept. 26^th, to “work” for four hours at a local Tire Dealer in Tavares, FL.

Miller calls these events “Miller on Main Street” where he works in REAL jobs for four hours to get feedback from citizens.  The picture shows an earlier event when Miller worked in a local gunshop, A.W. Peterson Gun Shop in Mount Dora

Miller and the other Republican candidates are running to replace incumbent Democratic Florida US Senator Bill Nelson.

The public, press and local officials are invited to visit the shop to meet Miller, have him check their tires (or more…) and lobby for issues.

Miller’s campaign website is http://miller2012.com/  .

Here is his webpage on his “Miller on Main Street” workday program.

Miller has been visiting different businesses in Florida and this one in Tavares, Lake Tire & Auto, is owned by local radio personality and conservative political pundit Ralph Smith.  Smith has a radio program on WLBE AM 790 on conservative political issues and arranged the visit during this week’s Presidency 5 campain conference in Orlando.

Smith has a Facebook page HERE.   Here is what Lake Tire & Auto owner Ralph Smith posted on his Facebook page:

Monday between the hrs. of 11 AM and 3 PM, we are going to have GOP Senate candidate, Craig Miller performing manual labor at Lake Tire & Auto in Tavares. He will sweat, get dirty and get tired working for me(He'll be tempted to quit). But it will pale in comparison to the heavy lifting and getting his hands dirty he'll have to do in DC to clean up that cesspool, if elected. As my Gov. says, as of 11 AM Monday Craig, "Let's get to work"

The Google map location of Lake Tire in Tavares, FL is HERE.    The address is 812 W. Burleigh Blvd (HWY 441), Tavares, FL at the “Triangle” fountain area at the intersection of Highway 19 going south.

Everyone is invited.  Refreshments and Republican and conservative political hyperbole will be freely available.

 

 

Photos of Herman Cain visit to Lake County are Posted on Facebook

Tavares, FL - Sept. 21, 2011 - Presidential Candidate Herman Cain visited Lake County and the Republican Executive Committee and other fans at a morning meeting today at the Mission Inn Resort in Howie-in-the-Hills.

I uploaded about 100 edited pictures to my personal Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150324934173288.368530.692013287 

Find your photo there, or tag pictures also.  The picture shows myself at Cain's bus.

I also took a complete video of his speech, which was very rousing, and will ADD a link to it HERE when I have time (might not be until this Sunday) to edit and upload it somewhere.

Cheers

Vance Jochim

Lake County Government AGAIN Fails to Provide Adequate Notice of Meeting Change

Tavares, FL - Sept. 21, 2011 - Today, I was planning to attend the quarterly meeting of the Lake County Tourism Development Council meeting, as posted on their website (see below).

So, I called the office before 4pm to confirm the time and location, and was told the meeting had been CHANGED to last Monday, and it was "properly advertised".

However, there was NO mention of the time change on the Committee webpage, which is what I rely on, because I don't have time to scan newspaper ads EVERY DAY to read government legal notices.  The public needs a more reliable method of meeting notices than the 50 year old, pre-internet method of newspaper notices (and you don't even know which paper).  

However, one benefit of the canceled meeting is I had time to write this posting.  Isn't that special?

Here is an email I just sent to the Lake County Board and County Manager.  File it under "Lack of Transparency".   This is not the first time this has happened, or the first time I have notified the County Manager and Board of this poor procedure:

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

To:  Darren Gray,  Lake County Commissioners

Today, once again, I find a committee meeting was changed without any notice on the Committee website page.   In this case, it was the Tourism Development Council meeting, which I think included a lunch, and was apparently held last Monday instead of today.   I found out when I called the TDC office today to confirm the time of TODAY’s expected 4pm meeting, AS POSTED on the Committee webpage.   Then, Debi told me it was CHANGED (and I am sure it was legally advertised, which is not longer an acceptable excuse).

The current webpage, located HERE, for the TDC says only:

Meeting times: Quarterly on the third Wednesday of December, March, June and September at 4 p.m., or more as needed

Meeting location: Board of County Commission Chambers located on the second floor of the Lake County Administration Building, 315 W. Main St., Tavares

I tried to see if it was in the Calendar Events listing, but you cannot lookup prior dates.

I consider this to be inexcusable, and unprofessional to not post changes to Committee meetings in the most obvious place to look, which is the homepage for the relevant committee.

Recommendations:

- Maybe the County can hire a sled dog team to deliver meeting change notices?          

- Notify Committee support staff and relevant Directors to ALWAYS post meeting dates and changes on the webpage.

-          Implement a “sign up” email system for taking emails of any interested people and notifying them of changes, agenda, minutes, etc.

-          Stop using the excuse that “we advertised it” – that may be the legal requirement, but you need to appear more professional than that with the existence of webpages and email notice systems.

-          Committee Minutes and links to audio files should be also posted to ALL Committee websites, similar to the main Board meeting agenda page.

 I have established a Rangers meeting notice watchdog team, and I am now tracking these incidents and they will be given to any opponents of incumbent commissioners because I consider this lack of notice to be a lack of transparency and a possible attempt to hide meetings from the public and press. 

vj

Sept. 11, 2001 Flashback from the Past - My letter to a newspaper 9/13/2001

I moved to Lake County, FL from Orange County, California in 2006.  

The libertarian based newspaper back there, the Orange County Register, just published letters to the editor from September 13, 2011, two days after the Twin Towers collapsed.   I remember I was watching the news almost immediately and watched most of the tragedy live.

Apparently, I wrote the following letter to the paper, and they republished it this last week with many others HERE. 

Here is my letter:

IRVINE, Vance Jochim: As a former computer operator for a U.S. Army intelligence center in Saigon in 1969-70, I almost threw up while watching TV coverage of the WTC plane crashes when Fox News gave time to the two liberal Democrat senators (Hillary Clinton was one) sharing their "feelings,'' even though they and their party were responsible for denuding much of the intelligence community by reducing budgets and field operatives.

I couldn't help but notice when CNN had author Tom Clancy on the air; they cut Clancy off after he started explaining how prior press reports and political actions had always criticized the CIA. Their actions had reduced support and funding for field intelligence operations (a.k.a. spies) to a point where we have no idea what is happening in terrorist organizations. According to Clancy (who actually wrote a book in which Japanese terrorists crash a plane into the Capitol), the CIA has 20,000 people, but only about 600 are involved in clandestine operations to detect political and terrorist plans.

Liberals and the press need to understand that not all the world is a nice place, and we need much-better-funded intelligence activities to detect terrorist plans. I would bet that the Texas Rangers may have more people than the CIA and maybe GW can use them to clean up terrorism.

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

Maybe that was the germ of an idea that led to FiscalRangers.com ?  (And my separate blog on Corruption).

vj

Orlando Sentinel Publishes Update on Constitutionality Lawsuit against North Lake County Hospital District

Tavares, FL - Sept. 14, 2011 - This morning, Sept. 14th, the Orlando Sentinel published reporter Steve Hudak's update on the taxpayer lawsuit against the North Lake County Hospital District, claiming it is unconstitutional (Florida Constitution). After two court hearings, Judge G. Richard Singletary will soon issue his decision. Tax reformer Marilyn Bainter filed the lawsuit because many residents never got to vote on the tax.

You can monitor issues regarding the Hospital Tax District at these websites:

http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/    -  Implemented by the tax reformers.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/FixNorthLakeCountyHospitalDistrict   - for reformers

Click HERE to see all FiscalRangers.com articles on this Tax District, including links to Orlando Sentinel and other articles.

vj

Call to Action: Attend the Wednesday evening Meeting of the North Lake County Hospital District!

Update:  This morning, Sept. 14, the Orlando Sentinel published THIS article by Steve Hudak on the Constitutionality lawsuit mentioned below.

Tavares, FL - Sept. 13, 2012 -  Yup, Wednesday night, Sept. 14th, at 6pm in the round Lake County Administration Building in Tavares,  is the second required meeting for the Board of the North Lake County Hospital District to vote to give away $8-million of property tax funds without any rules on how the funds are to be spent, and where many affected taxpayers never actually got to vote on the tax.  

Currently there is a lawsuit challenging the Florida Constitutionality of the District, and there is an investigation of the District by the Lake County Legislator's delegation, plus a investigation of all Florida Hospital Tax Districts by a Committee initiated by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Last Wednesday was the first of two required meetings where the Board must approve to collect (through the County taxpayer) 1 mill of property taxes, or to vote to not collect ANY mills (0 mill rate).

The Hospital advocate controlled Board has NEVER voted NO mills, and always voted for another annual 1 mill tax. 

We encourage you to attend the meeting.  Most likely the four Hospital advocates will

Fiscal Rangers Alert: Political & Government Events This Week in Lake County, FL

Tavares, FL - Sept. 11, 2011 - Here are upcoming events this week and calls for action (especially for the SECOND Hospital District meeting this Wednesday evening).

Yes, I know it is late notice for School District meetings today, so next time, check out their agendas yourself on their website!!

Monday, Sept. 12:

Lake County School District - THREE meetings today - find them at the School Board website HERE - scroll down to see the "Calendar Events" but ALSO click at the TOP of the left column on "Board Docs" to get the detailed agendas and attachments.  The Calendar and Board Docs are two separate systems, and they may not be consistent.

2:00 pm today:  School District Workshop at the LCSD HQ on HWY 441 (The Calendar says 2:30 and no agenda will open, but the Board Docs agenda says 2pm  - they rarely reconcile these to be consistent)

They will be reviewing

Lake County Redistricting Maps Get Shuffled Again - What are the Motives?

Tavares, Florida - Sept. 5, 2011 - Tomorrow, at Tuesday's 9am Lake County Board meeting (see agenda and addendum HERE), the Board will discuss a revised map for district boundaries, but there are a number of issues that residents need to understand, and I really believe the discussion should be tabled another week because staff removed a map from Jimmy Conner from the website, so the public can't evaluate proposed changes.

Here is a link to the 9am meeting agenda AND redistricting addendum page for Sept 6.  Click to see other agenda items you might want to know about, LIKE the Budget approval.   Last week, the Lake County Board of Commissioners reviewed and discussed five proposed district boundary maps since they must draw new County Commissioner district boundaries with fairly equal population every 10 years (or more often).  They argued over selecting Jimmy Conner's proposed map and revising one from Sean Parks.  Kinda like verbal kangaroo combat.

The current district boundary map is HERE, so you can compare it to the new proposed maps below (they were not linked on the SAME page).  You will need to print it to compare the current districts to the revisions in the maps below.  The Board did NOT provide the current map with the new maps, so ti was hard for the public to know what had changed.

The final decision was 3 to 2 for option map 2, which had been submitted by Commissioner Jimmy Conner and was designed to keep changes of existing community relationships with Commissioners to a minimum.

Or they could have redrawn everything and many cities would have new Commissioners representing them.

During public input last week, there were numerous residents of the large retirement communities south of Leesburg who voiced support for Conner and his map, because they did not want to be lumped into a south county district (i.e. with Mascotte, Groveland and clear down to four corners which are not high income areas).

But, Leslie Campione asked for postponement of selecting the final map until she had a chance to modify the option 2 map with other boundary changes.   I was never clear on the reason why.

The new map from Campione's revisions was posted Friday on the County website HERE, but the "option 2" map from Jimmy was REMOVED from the website even though it had the 3-2 vote.   There is some political hanky panky going on...     TIP:  The map that shows on the webpage is very vague and not easy to understand, but if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can click on "download maps" and download a much more detailed version which you can print.  HOWEVER, the "Current" map tab has a download link which only downloads the revised C map, and NOT the current map.  Got that?  Well, this is just to let the staff know they need to be more precised when posting links.

Fortunately, I have a printed option 2 map, and could compare all three maps (current, option 2 from Jimmy Conner, and Campione'Parks new version.  However, there is NO online version of Conner's Option 2 map - it was removed from the County website.  This reason alone of lack of transparency is a reason to postpone the map decision to a future meeting.

So, lets call them maps A, B2 & C.

A is the current map,  B2 is Conner's option 2 map, and C is Campione's revised map that is now the only proposal on the website.

Here are some issues I see and some rumors:

- Since only Campione's new map is on the District website, and Conner's is not, I think they should postpone the discussion on the maps to a future meeting, especially when today was a holiday and no staff were available to post Conner's map. 

- The current map really only gives one District to South County and Clermont, and Minneola.   Either new map will provide verticle districts that split Clermont away from Groveland and Mascotte, and do provide TWO districts to South County.

- Sean Parks has been pushing for two South County dedicated districts, and Campione's map C, a revision of his earlier map, does do that, basically providing two districts South of HWY 27 except for some of the retirement communities that complained (and they have a Leesburg address).But, it disrupts Conner's district much more than his proposed map.

- Map C takes away some clout from Tavares because they would have to share the new District with Leesburg. 

- Rumor -Leesburg resident Timothy I. Sullivan, a well known Leesburg resident, is rumored to be running for Hill's district because she is not running again.  He apparently lives in Leesburg on Park Dr.   In map version B2, and he would be in Hill's "new" district, but not in Conner's district.   However, the new map C extends Conner's District into Leesburg and Sullivan would be running against him in the same new district.  It is my observation a number of people in Leesburg who would like to control County government, push through waivers of impact fees, and do not like Conner because he has been a strong force in reducing budgets for big building projects, or there are other reasons.  Thus, it seems they may want Sullivan to run against Conner, which should upset many Conner supporters (who are not usually from Leesburg).  Of course, I may be completely wrong, but the Leesburg "leaders" seem bent on controlling county politics.   They funded both Campione and Parks, and if they get one more Commissioner, it will be easier to push through changes they want.  Retirees who moved to Lake County may not like their spending or tax plans.  (I love speculation...).

- The new Map C takes Howie in the Hills and the Mission Inn area, and puts them in the new lower income South County District with Groveland and Mascotte.   I wonder how the Mission Inn residents will like that?

- The restructured map C seems like a gerrymandered map to put even the low income area of Leesburg and other County low income areas all in one District running from Leesburg down to four corners.   That might be interesting and the result, since there is no current Commissioner in that District, could open up elections to hispanic candidates or others from Mascotte or Groveland.   OR, it was redesigned to let someone from Howie to run?  I have no idea, so watch who announces for candidacy once the final map is selected.

 So, what is my recommendation:

- The map discussion should be postponed until BOTH Conner and Campione's maps are on the website and Campione explains the logic for her revisions to Park's map.  Making a final decision at tomorrow's LONG Board meeting with or without public input will appear to be a ploy since Conner's map magically was removed from the website for comparison, and you have to hunt in another place to find the current district map that CAN be downloaded and printed.

- I have not seen any sound reasons for map C, so I am assuming there are political objectives I don't know, and thus I believe voters should tell their commissioners to stick with Conner's "option 2" map.  I support Conner's statement that his map disrupts existing poltical relationships less than other proposals.   South County still gets two districts that drop into their area vs the current one District.

- Residents of Howie-in-the-Hills and Mission Inn will learn the  lesson of not following Lake County Board meetings when they might end up in a District with four corners, Mascotte and Groveland.

vj