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:

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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

Comments

[John Smith]

Did you really suggest to them that they should hire a sled dog team to deliver notices? That doesn't seem very fiscally responsible....

I appreciate that you are trying to keep the government accountable, but when you attack them and post negative information towards them, do you really think that will encourage them to change? You know they are just human and make mistakes. Yes, they took the time to post the information in the newspaper and didn't post a notice on the committee page because they don't post regular notices there. Go easy on them. They aren't trying to hide information.. What is the Tourism committee going to hide anyway??

Come on Vance, we're all a little leery of the government and know they waste a TON of money all of the time, but Lake County has done A LOT to cut back spending in the process has cut a LOT of staff. So let's cut them some slack now and then when a mistake is made. Bring it to their attention but don't flip out. We'll all fair better that way.

I hope you approve this comment and not moderate it away, lest you have something to hide?