Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Lessons for Lake County? Georgia City of 100,000 Outsources EVERYthing and is NOT broke.

Tavares, FL - May 21, 2012

by Vance Jochim

Here is a great video from the Florida Tea party network about Sandy Springs, GA, population 100,000 (bigger than the Villages), which started outsourcing all their programs in 2005 after incorporating as a new city  in Fulton County, GA, and now has NO debt.

Watch the EIGHT minute video first, then return for my comments.  The video was created by Reason.org which is a Libertarian think tank in California.   Then ask your Lake County officials why they are not examining outsourcing services, and why unincorporated Sorrento - Mt. Plymouth is not incorporating as a city and outsourcing services?

http://theteapartynetwork.org/2012/05/a-great-vision-of-municipal-government/   

This city was initially a large unincorporated area in Fulton County, GA, and was taxed by the County for funds spent elsewherein the County.  The County rarely paved or repaired roads.   Democrats controlled the legislature and prevented Sandy Springs from incorporating as a city until 2005 when Republicans took control and allowed the City of Sandy Springs to be established. So, this was all done since 2005.

"Companies are better than managing projects than government, and one contractor provided services for $25-million vs $50-million if run by the county government."

Sandy Springs did not fall into the government "pension trap" and avoided worker defined benefits pension and benefits programs that bankrupt municipalities.

Local Lake County & city officials should have this type of outsourcing on their meeting agenda as part of the budget approval process.  If they don't, aske them why.

References:  Books by Oliver W. Porter

Creating the New City of Sandy Springs

Public/Private Partnerships for Local Governments

Vance Jochim

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

FiscalRangers Alert: City of Tavares, FL to Install 12 foot Mermaid Sculpture in Lake Dora

Tavares, FL - August 11, 2011  -  Tavares city officials announced today a new "Art in the Lake" program which will feature a new 12 foot high sculpture called the "Grand Mermaid" in Lake Dora in the front of Al's Landing Restaurant.  

We floated a new $3-million bond issue, so we thought, instead of using it for sidewalks or train tracks, why not? says an official.

Kayaker's will use it as a boundary in new Kayak races between Mt. Dora and Tavares.  "We will show up those &*&^(%$# Dragon Boats..." said one Kayaker.  

A city spokesperson said "We need a UNIQUE, singular image for the City, and Seaplanes aren't it.  We need an image that only one city would dare to have - a mermaid in the water."  

The sculpture, currently residing in Hamburg, Germany, will be shipped via Taiwan and then to Tavares during a city officials' "business development" trip which will only cost taxpayers $143,000.  Last year, they visited Taiwan, but have a more ambitious program this year.

Of course, none of this might be true, or Lauren Richie would have already written an expose on it, but knowing the Tavares city officials who like to work on the "next big thing", you never know... if Apopka doesn't kick in money to help subsidize that new train track, then what next?

Here are more pictures... it really does exist in Germany, and is being removed tomorrow, so maybe Eustis might go for it.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-08/04/content_13052331.htm  

vj

 

Channel 9 TV Quotes FiscalRangers in Report on Impact Fee Waivers by Lake County Governments

Tavares, FL - July 20, 2009 -  Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

Here is a Channel 9 report by Bernt Petersen on the issue of the value of waiving impact fees by local Lake County Governments.

They got me questioning the value of the waivers, and they have quotes from local officials and staff supporting the waivers.

http://www.wftv.com/news/28601741/detail.html  

What this all comes down to is whether you believe developers of new homes and business buildings should contribute impact fees EARLY towards the roads, schools and other infrastructure growth needs caused by that construction.  Or should there be no impact fees attached to new construction, and ALL existing taxpayers keep getting taxed via sales taxes, property taxes and fuel taxes to pay for additional infrastructure needed by residents of the newly constructed buildings.  Keep in mind that "new Infrastructure" is not the same as maintenance costs on existing roads, etc. which SHOULD be paid by property taxes, fuel taxes and sales taxes.   Developers don't want to pay for any of those upfront costs, they want you to pay for it.

Read it and post a comment.  The video clip would not work on my computer, but the text is there and at the bottom of this document.

Comment

One problem with TV news reports is that they do not have enough time to clarify complex issues, which is the case here.  

They mix up waivers of commercial impact fees, which ARE onerous and excessive , and new home construction impact fees, which are the current method to fund some of the county infrastructure, including roads and schools.    They don't mention that the commercial waivers are highly variable and excessive for some businesses, like banks, and much lower for others.   They don't mention that the former Impact fee committee had recommendations to drastically reduce the number of commercial business waiver categories, AND reduce the excessive category fees to a much more reasonable level, which would eliminate the problem with high impact fees for specific businesses.   They also don't mention that the recommended changes in commercial fees and categories have NOT been brought to the Board by Chair Jennifer Hill or current committee liasion Sean Parks.   So any griping about excessive fees for new business buildings like banks or doctor offices is not valid, since the Commission has not demanded a discussion on those 18 month old recommendations.  If they modified the commercial impact fee rates to the recommended reasonable rates, much of the pressure they cause on businesses would go away.

I would really like to see the evidence of where the claimed "630 jobs" came from.   If you look at the permits filed for Lake County, they are very low.

As for Tavares, their success may be elimination of their own CITY impact fees, including formerly excessive fees for "change of use".  Those types of fees were charged if you changed a commercial building's use from one category like office, to that of a restaurant.   Those waivers, PLUS the aggressive marketing of Tavares by Tavares officials and staff have to be the reason for their improved businesses.

Actually, since some old Tavares buildings ARE falling apart, there SHOULD be a waiver on impact fees.

I didn't see any clear evidence cited that showed a direct correlation between specific fee waivers and "increased valuations".

This is a very complex issue, and the report didn't really talk about how the waived fees would be replaced, so it will be interesting to see when the former impact fee committee (which meets tomorrow in Eustis) will start formulating OTHER and NEW taxes to replace to lost impact fee revenues.   Thus when I say impact fee waivers are "builder welfare", I mean that their selling costs are reduced, but the funding need for infrastructure is still needed, so there is an effort to shift that funding requirement to ALL taxpayers with possible increases in fuel taxes, property taxes, or sales taxes (the School District is looking at that one).

Vance Jochim

Here is the Channel 9 report text:

http://www.wftv.com/news/28601741/detail.html

Local Governments Suspend Impact Fees

Posted: 6:54 pm EDT July 19, 2011Updated: 7:21 pm EDT July 19, 2011

TAVARES, Fla. -- Local governments are giving up millions of dollars they used to collect from developers and they suspended impact fees to encourage new construction. But WFTV learned on Tuesday why critics call it "builder welfare."John Drury's City Hall office is a room with a view ."I see eight new restaurants,” said Drury.It’s part of the business boom in Tavares. In 2009, there was $11 million worth of new construction."After we passed the impact fee waiver ordinance, that tripled,” said Drury.The impact fees pay for new roads and services required by growth, but cities and counties across Central Florida have stopped collecting the fees. Government watchdog Vance Jochim said he doesn't like it."It was pushed through by the builders. It does benefit them,” said Jochim.Jochim, and other conservatives like him, said they love tax cuts, but he said this is different.

It’s nothing more than builder welfare."How would you respond to that kind of criticism?” asked WFTV reporter Berndt Peterson."It's really up to the consumer,” said Andrew Knutt, Homebuilders Association President.Knutt insists the buyer saves the money, not the builder. He said suspending impact fees has led to more work."And with that work there are jobs,” said Knutt.Six-hundred-thirty new jobs, according to Lake County Commissioner Jimmy Conner, who said impact fees were standing in the way. They can add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home and tens of thousands to a business."When you charge a doctor $90,000 of transportation impact fees, they don't build the office,” said Conner.Critics said local governments will miss out on millions.

The Lake County School Board is giving up $4 million that was supposed to pay for more classrooms."And so the question is, where are the taxes coming from to pay for what they used to pay for?" asked Jochim.  

For Tavares, it was a loss of $1.8 million, but Drury said they're getting it back."For every buck that we waived in impact fees, we had $17 in new construction,” said Drury. Also, a better view from Drury's City Hall office. Lake County officials said they've seen a $10 million increase in taxable property value, since they suspended the fees. Some local municipalities have waived impact fees through the end of 2012.

 

 

 

When will Lake County, Cities & School District Integrate Purchasing Efforts?

Tavares, Lake County, FL:  The picture at left shows a typical paperwork based purchasing process - and we ask: do we in Lake County need to repeat that convoluted process with duplicative and separate systems (and several may be manual, not computerized) in each Lake County government Agency?  Why don't they all share a single, internet based purchasing system running in the "internet cloud"?  Why don't they consolidate County wide purchases to achieve economies of scale like corporations do on a daily basis?

Local government purchasing departments have an annual fair for vendors to talk to representatives from the purchasing departments of many local Lake County agencies.

I have attended the last two.   I registered as a vendor (consulting) at the first fair, but never heard anything for about a year, but now I get a notice about once every two months for a request for proposal that is not relevant.

The "leaders" of the purchasing fair created a "Pooled Purchasing" website called "Procurement Offices of LAKE" (POOL) within the Lake County website at http://pool.lakecountyfl.gov/ , and it is listed on the County's "Doing Business in Lake County" website.  BUT, if you look at it, it hasn't been updated at all - it contains old events and not ONE purchasing "opportunity" for vendors to apply for.   Good idea, but they either lost their champion or funding.  So that went nowhere.

One of the holy grails is for all the purchasing departments to have a consolidated purchasing systems, but I learned at the Fair that:

1) NO elected leaders or Senior managers (County or City) in the County or Cities were concerned, helpful or supportive of this practice (maybe it was too technical for them?? ).  The existing efforts were purely from purchasing professionals.  Thus there was no political champion to push for collaboration and funding of a centralized purchasing program.  There would need to be a visible official who pushed for conversion to such a system, but there isn't anyone doing it.

2) In order to consolidate purchasing programs, a central, shared purchase request and requisition system would be needed, but most of the cities and County used DIFFERENT methods to code their "commodities" and services, so many of them would have to change their whole system of purchase coding to a central system, and none of them seemed willing to give up their old system or fund the costs to switch.  Also, some purchasing departments were using an external purchasing website that others did not respect.

3) There may be some resistance of local leaders or staff to give up the "power" of deciding who got contracts or purchase awards.   Thus, they are putting self "power" ahead of reduced costs for the taxpayer.  An example would be to use a single distributor of electrical parts at a lower price than each agency selecting favored (and not necessarily most efficient) vendors.

So, here is a challenge to all you elected officials.  You can talk the talk about consolidating purchasing to achieve better prices at reduced "acquisition" costs, but you need to walk the walk by:

1) Providing active support to a phased consolidation of purchasing systems.  Have meetings and workshops with purchasing managers to drive the process with the goal to shift 10% of purchases to a consolidated system every year.  Make it the number one work objective of each Purchasing department and ensure they get IT and other needed support.   We don't need or should have to fund separate purchasing departments for the County, School District, special districts and all cities in Lake County.  I once worked for major companies with offices all over the US, and they ALL had combined, centralized services including Purchasing to achieve economies of scale.  Lake County taxpayers deserve the same approach and efficiency.  If you all use the same electric provider, think in similar terms of creating a consolidated purchasing service agency for the entire County. 

2) Assign a barn burner cost reduction and cost consolidation Czar.  Hire someone from the Manufacturing Industry to run the program since they REALLY understand the need for efficiency.

3) Budget for a centralized system of requisitioning and absorbing the costs of shifting to a central system of purchasing codes for commodities and services.

4) Give up local power of purchases to allow more efficient and reduced cost for government operations.

5) Find out why no one is using that POOL system and get it running or remove it from the websites.

vj

 

 

Roadside Snipe Signs & Political Sign Capers Abound in Lake County, and our Cheerleader Solution

Aren't you tired of all the advertising signs on roadsides?  We have some sign caper stories and a proposed solution involving CHEERLEADERS.

City or County ordnances define what is legal regarding business signs, and what is not, but it seems more and more businesses, and even politicians, are ignoring the rules. There are usually separate ordnances defining when political signs can be posted and where.

We will describe the two types of signs, and some capers going on, and maybe a possible solution  involving CHEERLEADERS (which increases our readership also!  We could not find pictures of local Cheerleader car washes).

1 Commercial business signs - posted illegally

Lake County towns like Tavares are infested with "snipe" roadside signs... you see them sprout like mushrooms on corners, medians and anyplace where drivers might see them.  They are placed there by businesses that would rather trash the roadsides with signs selling printing, medicine, real estate, or signups to private kids sports programs.  My understanding is that such signs are illegal if placed in roadside medians, which are usually defined as the space between roads (median strips), or in the grass between sidewalks and curbs.  On some highways, like State roads, the state property might be 6-8 feet from the curb, even on the other side of a sidewalk.  You can usually tell where the line between government right of way and private property is located because the responsible government will mow the grass more often, leaving a cut line indicating the median setback.

Recently, at two different times, while driving, I spotted people setting up illegal business signs on HWY 19 near 441 and told them

Updated: City of Tavares to Fire Three Employees for Hacking Emails of top staff

UPDATED 5PM:   I added a couple of war stories about a similar experience I saw while in Baghdad, Iraq.

Is this too good, or what.

It seems the IT Director and the network administrator at the City of Tavares hacked into management's emails and read them.  Then, the department assistant used the information to send out anonymous emails slamming the city.   

Recently, there were articles in the press about the Tavares, City Manager, John Drury, requesting a salary increase, and apparently the articles were based on the anonymous emails sent out.

Somewhere, someone got suspicious and the Administration hired a consultant to track down who was using the inside info, and they...