Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Upcoming Lake County Impact Fee Decisions Could Result in NEW Taxes for YOU!

Tavares, FL - Lake County, FL - Monday, Nov. 26, 2012

After taking a 3-week period to recover from the election results, we are back at it!

Your taxes could be raised next year if the Lake County Board decides to continue waiving local Impact Fees on new construction.  By waiving the impact fees, the Board is giving up tax revenues that will need to be provided by another source, like property taxes, sales taxes, etc.

The Lake County Board and the Lake County School District Board are in the process of deciding whether to renew suspension of impact fees for County transportation (roads) and Schools on new construction of homes and commercial buildings.

If you read about or see Lake County (not city) roads being overcrowded, or schools not being able to buy new buildings, computers or school buses, one reason is that impact fees for them were waived by the County Board the last 2-3 years.

The resulting County & School Board impact fee decisions in the next 1-2 months could re-enact transportation and school impact fees on new construction waived by the Lake County Board for the last 2 years.  The homebuilders and commercial construction firms don't like impact fees and want them gone.  But, if not reinstated, the waivers could be extended another year.  If they are waived, look for different taxes to be proposed or initiated to cover the missing revenue since all tax revenues are falling.   Thus, rather than homebuilders and owners of new buildings contributing up front via impact fees to the cost of new roads and school facilities needed for the new residents and businesses, ALL taxpayers could be taxed to subsidize the homebuilders and owners of the new construction.

In general, impact fee revenues are dedicated to NEW assets for separate uses like parks, roads, schools, fire services and libraries.   Their use is limited to capital spending, like building new roads or school buildings, or buying "capital" equipment like school buses, new or replacement computers and vehicles. Impact fees can't be used for salaries or normal operating or maintenance uses.   You can see the Lake County list of uses for impact fees, and how much is levied on new construction for each purpose HERE.  You can also read prior Impact Fee committee reports which were ignored by both Boards. 

Cities also have their own impact fees, which we are not discussing here.  This article is only about County level impact fees.  Thus a home built in Leesburg would be subject to any impact fees defined by the city, but not county.  And, a home built in Lake County unincorporated areas would be subject to the impact fees we are writing about here.

Impact fees are collected on all new construction, not on existing homes or buildings.  The theory is that since new construction results in the need for wider roads, new school student stations, school buses, etc. that the owner of the new construction should pay "impact" fees to help pay for new infrastructure (in this case, for roads and schools).

1:  Transportation Impact Fees

These are fees on NEW residential and commercial construction designed to pay for new road and other needed infrastructure generated by the new construction (like road widening, intersections).   The Board received a presentation on the issues at the last Board meeting, but will discuss what to do at an upcoming meeting.  Watch for it, because the general consensus  seems to be they will need SOME impact fees to offset other revenue losses, but it might be linked to unemployment figures.   It might mean the end of completely caving to the home and commercial construction builders and reinstatement of some impact fees to cover new infrastructure costs for growth.  The alternative is alternate taxes, and they have recommendations in earlier reports (at the above website link) which were ignored.

Here is last year's CFAC report on Transportation Impact fees, which once again was ignored by the County Commissioners, because they ignored a previous Impact Fee recommendation report also.   Why does anyone bother working on their committees??

2: School Impact Fees

These fees on new residential and commercial construction are used for School Capital spending (like buildings, some repairs, enhancements and purchases like classroom computers) and were waived by a WEAK School Board (our opinion) who caved to the Homebuilder’s industry instead of maintaining the revenue stream (estimated at $2-4-million per year) for the school system.   I was at the meeting where the Board majority of Debbie Stivender, Kyleen Fisher and Rosanne Brandeburg sold out to the homebuilders and declined to demand continuation of the impact fees. So, by default, the County Board, who had the final vote, continued their support of economic development over education financing and enacted a waiver of the School Impact fees two years ago.   The School Board & the County Board ignored results from an Impact Fee report, AND they did not implement any method to offset the tax waived.   Instead, what the School Board does is force the Administration to defer maintenance and capital spending.  That is one reason (State mandates and budget reductions are others) why you hear staff complaining about bad air conditioners, overcrowding, etc.   

So, if you want to follow the SCHOOL Impact Fee meetings, the next School CFAC meeting is this Thursday at the School District offices.  The County CFAC (Capital Facilities Advisory Committee) will meet this Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:30 A.M.  Location:   Board Room, Lake County School District Office, 201 West Burleigh Boulevard, Tavares, FL.  I don’t know which area will be covered, but there is a possibility the committee will finish more meetings, write a report and it will be ignored by the School Board and County Board who seem to only listen to the homebuilders without creating any revenue alternatives to make up for lost impact fees.   Thus there is a REAL possibility they will try to ask for more taxes to shift the cost of capital spending from new construction to all property owners (or other taxes, like fuel taxes, etc.)   

Let members of BOTH Boards know what YOU think – should they retain impact fees which tax those who create the need for new infrastructure, or should they shift those waived revenue needs to ALL taxpayers a different way.   For instance, if a developer builds a tract with 100 homes, it results in the need for more student seats, road widening, student bus transporation equipment, etc.   Should those new homeowners pay impact fee taxes on the new homes right when they move in, or should ALL taxpayers pay those fees and subsidize the infrastructure costs of the new homes.   Some people might call this income redistribution – you already have property, so the original owner might have paid impact fees on your property, but should you now also pay for the new homeowner infrastructure?    The homebuilders don’t want impact fees because it increases the financing costs of their products vs existing homes, so which will it be?  Equitable re-distribution or a requirement to pay new home and building costs up front?

My prediction is that since both Board Members Debbie Stivender and Rosanne Brandeburg were re-elected, they will join with Kyleen Fischer and side with the homebuilders again and do nothing, thus the County Board may once again waive their impact fees without a immediate plan to offset the reduced revenues.    As Tod Howard, a rational Board member said once (I paraphrase him) “Our job is to ensure properly funded education for students, not subsidize homebuilders by reducing a tax revenue stream…”. 

So if you voted to re-elect Stivender and Brandeburg, you now know the possible effect of that vote.  

The Impact Fee Bottom Line

The bottom line is that if you notice COUNTY roads are out of repair, and schools are running short of funds for capital spending on assets (including replacement equipment like School buses, vehicles, air conditioners and computers), both the County and School District Boards caved to homebuilders and waived the impact fees (which are one of several revenue sources) without implementing an alternate revenue method to offset the reduced impact revenues.  That to me is bad resource management when we all know next year will be fiscally worse. 

Recommendation:

I encourage you to visit the CFAC meetings, and also give public input at the County Board meeting when they discuss impact fees.

 Want to Read More about Lake County Impact Fees?

HERE are all of OUR earlier FiscalRangers.com Reports on local Lake County Impact Fees

The City of Tavares (as of today, Nov. 26, 2012) has a list of all residence fees, including the County Impact Fees HERE.  They show the Schools Impact Fee to still be $9324 per home with NO mention of the fees being waived.

Here is an article about the School Board reviewing an impact fee study last year, but then they refused to make any recommendations to the Lake County Board, thus the County Commissioners moved ahead and suspended the School impact fees for one year.  Then earlier this year, the County Board again suspended the School impact fees because the School Board didn't take a stand.  So, don't blame the County Board for waiving the fees, blame the do nothing School Board majority for not taking a stand.

Here is a 2010 article from Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell also explaining how waived impact fees result in other taxes.

And, HERE is a 2010 column by Lauren Ritchie on the results of waiving impact fees when that was first proposed by Lake County Commissioner Jimmy Conner.

 

 

Lake County FL Republicans Request County Officials to NOT Increase Property Tax Millage Rates

Tavares, FL - Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012

We recently wrote how many Lake County, FL government agencies are planning to increase property tax millage rates even though property values have dropped about 5.9% in Lake County according to the Lake County Property Tax Appraiser (see earlier article about our planned community meeting on Sept. 6th).

Lake County Republicans voted on August 28th to have the Chairman, Mike Levine, write & send a letter to Lake County tax authorities, including the Lake County Board, with the recommendation NOT to increase millage rates as proposed by many entitites. 

However, the Chairman in my opinion added several personal requests not discussed at the meeting, such as tax abatements. 

The original emphasis approved by members was to have the Chair write a straightforward request not to increase property tax millage rates.  Normally the Republican Executive Committee (REC) would process a written resolution and approve a written document, but time was short, so they authorized the Chair to write and send a request. 

So, in my opinion, the purpose of this letter was to only request that millage rates not be increased, thus the government agencies would live within the revenues received from the current, unchanged millage rates. 

I agree with that original objective.

Download 2012.09.04.RECmemo.Property.Taxes

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com 

Forbes ranks 650 Colleges based on "Results" and UF is top Florida College at 80th

You can also go to a link to look up any college.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/uf-80th-florida%E2%80%99s-top-school-forbes  

vj

FiscalRangers Opinion on the $1.2-million Lake County Investment in Regional Marketing Group

Update:  We updated the link to the Fox Orlando interview of our opinion, also wrote more on this issue and were interviewed by Channel 9 two days later - look for a later July 2 article on this blog.  But read this one first.

Tavares, FL - June 29, 2012

by Vance Jochim,  FiscalRangers.com

I believe that the Lake County Board needs to sever relations with the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (MOEDC) and spend the $288,000 budget on more productive areas.  I am not against Economic Development funding, but I am against a taxpayer funded regional agency that uses, for example, a marketing program that only gets 138% return based upon projected TEN year data for Lake County when the total projected (not real) returns for all four covered counties gets an average of 457% return.  And, then you find Lake County is paying MORE per capita than other counties, and that the "return on investment" calculation is not based on real data.    Read below and see what I mean.

Fox Orlando 35 had a short video segment Wednesday where reporter Tracy Jacim interviewed me about thisissue. You can find it here:

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/video?clipId=7449297&autostart=true  

But it is hard to explain something like this in 1 minute, 38 seconds on TV.  So here is my take on the whole issue, and why Lake County is getting a raw deal, and why businesses, the Lake County Board of Commissioners, and taxpayers should care about it:

The Lake County Government pays $250,000-$350,000 or more every year to a regional economic development marketing group called the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (MOEDC).  The most recent Lake County budget for MOEDC was $288,000.  Their focus is to entice new employers to the Orlando region, which includes just four counties:  Lake, Seminole, Orange and Osceola.

And, each year for the last four years, I have complained about the lack of measurable returns on the funds, which Lake County pays along with several other counties to MOEDC, who spends them on trips to other countries and states plus other actions to drum up contacts with companies wanting to re-locate or open branches in central Florida, including Lake County.  They don't get very many recruits for Lake County. 

About four years ago, this issue was the reason I ran for Lake County Commissioner (and lost to Leslie Campione), because the Lake County Board approved a contract to pay about $350,000 to MOEDC without ANY stated requirements or metrics of performance.  Basically, they drank the MOEDC "Economic Development Kool Aid" and were tossing taxpayer funds into a bucket of cash and giving it to MOEDC and "Hope" for Economic Development "Change".  I worked in many large corporations over the years, and they would never have committed to such contracts without some measurable performance requirements.  At the very least, they should have required, for instance, that MOEDC had to provide at least 200 verified jobs for each payment of $100,000.   But, there were no measurable requirements in the contract.  

About two years ago, the Orlando Sentinel did stories on the MOEDC and reported they cooked the "jobs created" numbers and most participating counties were not receiving the return in "jobs" they thought.   Think about it - if a Metro Orlando group is recruiting new employers, wouldn't most want to move to Orlando, and not less sophisticated Lake County?   As a consequence, Volusia County dropped out of MOEDC and stopped paying them, but the Lake County Board still throws money at them.

During the last two years, the Lake County DEPARTMENT (not MOEDC) of Economic Development went through a leadership change and revamping to implement much more focused programs to entice employers to Lake County, or help build new or existing ones.  At this point, I think the Lake County Economic Development Department should get the funds, not MOEDC.

They even created a new website to attract employers to Lake County.

On May 8, 2012, the Lake County Economic Development Department (not MOEDC) staff gave a presentation on what they are doing, and you can see their presentation is much more specific, describing openings of two incubators, employer retention visits, etc.  Within the last month, they also provided three community sessions on what they were doing and asking attendees what else was needed to improve Lake County's economy.   In otherwords, you get a clear idea they are focused on Lake County and specific tasks, and not Orlando.   You can click the "backup document" link to see their presentation here:

http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/AgendaDocPop/connect.aspx?ParentTrackingNumber=6678  

About two weeks ago, MOEDC leadership came to the Lake County Board and gave a dog and pony show about progress in the last year.  They have a new CEO with stellar background at the Research Triangle in North Carolina, and he gave the update presentation on June 12, which was 24 slides you can see at the attachment below:

Download 2012-06-12 MOEDC udpate

You can also view the video of his presentation, but you might have to wade through other presentations first - go to this link and click the June 12 video link:

http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/board_agendas/board_regular_meetings.aspx  

Then, earlier this week, the Daily Commercial published TWO follow up articles written by Greg Jones on the MOEDC which are HERE:

http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/062612EDC1   

http://www.dailycommercial.com/062612EDC2     <<< This one describes three specific firms that closed.

Jones quoted MOEDC's CEO, Rick Weddle, from the earlier June 12 presentation where he talked about how much Lake County had paid MOEDC last year, which was $288,000, and how it generated a "Total Fiscal Impact" over TEN years of $398,496, or a "return" of $1.38 for each dollar paid to MOEDC by Lake County".   We should explain that the earlier days of cooking data to look better are over for MOEDC.  Weddle has discussed a much more accurate, consistent method to calculate the return on investment, and when watching his presentation, I think he was a little apologetic for the weak returns for Lake County, but his date is more realistic.   However, he was comparing an actual expense to a fictional forecasted return.  That is NOT REAL money.

That number and some other data came from this slide below. 

And, that slide (open it) is the key to why I think we are NOT getting the bang for the buck with MOEDC.  Notice the column saying Lake County.  At the bottom, it shows the $1.38 return (which is a 10 year forecast, not ACTUAL) for each dollar spent with MOEDC.  HOWEVER, look at the RIGHT column of all the MOEDC economic development "wins" and you can see the average return per MOEDC dollar for all the counties is $4.57 which is WAY more than Lake County got.    Now, compare the Lake County column and the "TOTAL" columns.  You can see we only got 3.9% of new capital investment but paid 17% of the MOEDC "public sector" costs.  MOEDC should at least get kudos for being honest and providing these numbers.

Not described here is that MOEDC also gets 70% of their total funding from private firms, besides just "public sector" (or government entities).   

Additionally, although not in the slide show, Lake County is being charged a higher per capita fee than other counties, which makes the "return" even worse.  Weddle did say they are looking at reducing the Lake County rate to be comparable with other counties.

Another factor is "Regionalism" - this is the concept used by organizations to create regional groups like MOEDC with appointees from various interest groups where the voters have no direct control over their activities. Examples are the Lake Sumter Metropolitan Planning Office (MPO) and the St. John's River Water Management District where Lake County doesn't even have a representative.  Remember the regional workforce agency where Governor Scott had to clean house, including the firing of the CEO and all the board members, including three from Lake County?   My observation is that elected officials get appointed to these regional boards and love the contacts and meetings, but nothing gets done, and there is NO oversight of the staff activities.    Or, spending and actions take place that favor "public private partnerships" and not the taxpayers.  These regional groups operate out of most media coverage and make many decisions against taxpayer interests, or their performance is not measured like corporations would do.   My view is most of them need much stricter oversight, or they should be shut down.  Let the staffs of the affected counties develop recommendations, and not a dedicated staff out of the control of the voters. 

Our elected officials need to be more accountable for these regional groups.

Conclusion:

Lake County is NOT getting a decent return on investment from MOEDC.  Here is my summary why we should either be much more assertive in performance requirements, or move the money to the internal Economic Development Department in the County.

- According to the MOEDC slideshow, Lake County is getting a paltry $1.38 back for each $1.00 spent with MOEDC, compared to the total average of $4.57.   MOEDC's Rick Weddle said he "would take that return on his 401k".  HOWEVER, THAT $1.38 IS NOT REAL MONEY - IT IS A TEN YEAR FORECAST (or promise).  That is like believing a stock salesman who tell you that Solyndra is poised to provide a 13% return every year for 10 years.  Thus we would not know if Lake County actually received  the promised return because, as the Daily Commercial articles said, a number of prior firms closed down within 5 years, losing hundreds of "promised" jobs.  Additionally, Weddle only talked about jobs created, and did not discuss the history of promised jobs that never were retained, which should be factored into any 10 year forecasts.  For instance, if 60% of new jobs were lost in the first five years, is that factored into new forecasts?  (If they DID include that factor, it was not disclosed).

- Lake County paid $288,000 or 17% of the total public sector contributions, but only got a 3.9% return on Capital investment (i.e. new commercial building construction generated by new firms locating in Lake County). 

- Lake County only grew by 40,000 sq feet of industrial or commercial space (I assume), which was only 7.6% of the four county total of 524,583 sq. ft.  Again, we paid 17% of total public sector costs.

- Lake County only got 230 jobs, or 5.7% while paying 17% of the public sector contributions.

- The average wage of jobs produced (the slide is not clear) appears to be $26,000, or only 60.7% of the four county average of $43,330.   Thus we are getting the call center jobs and higher paid jobs are going to the other counties.

- There were only two Lake County projects this last year, compared to 19 economic development projects in all four counties.  And, one reason could be the private funding which is driving the MOEDC to attract jobs to the areas providing the PRIVATE funding - it clearly isn't Lake County.

 - Another slide talked about film and TV production days - I know one small film was done in Lake County, but it appears we had so few days, MOEDC didn't want to show the data.

- Half the presentation was stroking the County efforts and Commission, indicating they figure if they build their egos, we will continue to fund them, even with these weak performance figures.

Conclusion:

Thanks to Greg Jones at the Daily Commercial and Tracy Jacim at Fox Orlando 35 for exposing this story.

My mantra is that Lake County and other government agencies should be as businesslike in their performance expectations of groups like MOEDC as a corporation would demand of a "marketing cooperative agreement".  That is not happening.

The Lake County Board AND the County Manager need to start analyzing MOEDC performance like the above, and making stronger decisions to improve returns.  They should know the difference between comparing $1 of actual costs to a projected 10 year forecast of $1.38.  They need to run ACTUAL, 10 year numbers vs MOEDC's promised "10 year return" of $1.38 payback for each ACTUAL dollar spent.  Where is the data to explain how accurate their forecast is, when the Daily Commercial found that in the last five years, 597 "new jobs" out of 974 "new or retained" jobs were lost, dramatically dropping any performance claims for the $1.2-million given to MOEDC in the last five years.

The Board needs to face the results of prior efforts that most MOEDC contacts will lead to firms wanting to move to the Orlando area, not Lake County.

The Lake County Board needs to assign a more active oversight role to the Lake County Manager to ensure some decent performance returns are received, otherwise, drop out of MOEDC.

- Either demand more specific performance measurables in the contract for the funds given to MOEDC, or cut the payments to MOEDC and give it to the internal Economic Development Dept.  

- Voters and Taxpayers should demand better analysis from the County Staff and the Board on issues like this.  By not doing so, we are getting a lower level of governance than expected in major corporations. 

Vance Jochim

Local Lake County Water Levels to Be Discussed tomorrow, May 31 in Leesburg

Updated:  To add longer letter from Diane Heitman about water level issues in the Superpond. vj

If you are concerned about the water levels in the "SuperPond" of Lake County, which are Lake Dora, Lake Harris, Lake Eustis, etc. then attend this 6pm Leesburg Meeting tomorrow night, May 31.   As you may know, Lake water levels have been dropping, partly because the St. John's River Water Management District turned off the water flow from Lake Apopka.  At the same time, until recently, dredging of Lake Beauclaire was also removing another 10 cubic feet per second (CFS) from the lakes.

Here is the info from Diane Heitman, who has been monitoring this - below the initial notice is an attachment for the meeting agenda, followed by a longer letter by Diane on the water issues in the Superpond.

vj

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

Harris Chain lake level management public meeting May 31 in Leesburg

The St. Johns River Water Management District will hold a public meeting May 31 in Leesburg to discuss potential water level management options for the Harris Chain of Lakes.

The meeting will include an update on minimum flows and levels development, and will be an opportunity for the public to provide input.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Paul P. Williams Fine Arts Center, 9501 U.S. Highway 441 in Leesburg.

The District's Governing Board will consider the proposed management options for the next year at a June 12 public meeting in Palatka.

Please pass on to all friends.

Diane Heitman

In favor of Waterfront Property Owners, Businesses and Municipalities who rely on our Superpond

Chain of Lakes for enjoyment, economy, employment and prosperity.

Feel free to call my cell:  352-343-8891

Below is the agenda

Download Agenda - Lake_Level_Mgmt_Public_Mtg_053112

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

From Diane Heitman:

Please read, do you agree?

Here we are again, way below the desired lake level elevations.

Let's make it a goal to never have to apologize when the rains don't come; this is not about praying for rain; it's about planning for the lack of rain.

How can we improve reliability of our lake water levels? Do not let the water out unless conditions show that an impending flood maybe eminent. Base the new regulation schedule and minimum flows (cfs) on a dynamic (actual rain event) versus a static, academic, unsuccessful regulation schedule.

Nature gives natural fluctuation; let's preserve every drop of life giving water in our lakes.

History shows a 5 year drought cycle. We cannot manage the water levels based on a model; each year is different. Holding maximum water is critical for the economic future, navigation, access and quiet enjoyment of lakefront businesses, owners, events and municipalities of Lake County.

The Harris Chain of Lakes is designated by the Federal Government to be a navigable waterway. Low water levels are interfering with navigation.

The Dora Canal is too low. Business operators, the Sheriff boat and numerous individuals hit logs or don't have enough room for other boats to pass in the narrowed, now shallow canal, causing damage and/or the need to replace expensive propellers.

Challenges with lower lake levels and being unable to navigate our waterways to businesses, public docks & residences are causing serious issues with jobs and financial security to our friends here in Lake County.

Year round waterfront attractions and events generate multitudes of economic prosperity, sales taxes & benefits to all of us. These benefits are being jeopardized by lower lake levels.

Our boathouses are high & dry; either land locked and/or we are forced to remove the boats to storage elsewhere. Neighbors are mowing the grass 30' from their sea wall out into the lake without getting their feet wet; ain't good. Waterfront property owners are highly taxed; they expect and should have continuous access to the federally navigable waterways. This benefit is unavailable during low lake levels; property values decline; however, taxes don't reflect this loss.

We feel great empathy for our Northern friends that have bought here as seasonal waterfront property owners.

During their time away, their tax dollars continue to work for us here. Why would seasonal, lakefront property owners come here without access to their boating enjoyment? Many of their boats are now landlocked in their boathouses and cannot be used until water levels increase.

We locals are forced to apologize to our family, guests and tourists who may have planned up to a year in advance to come here and enjoy our now compromised lakefront resources.

Some of we, older Americans, are challenged physically to manipulate our boats with the lower lake levels. Luckily, Mt. Dora, Tavares and Eustis have provided floating docks; however, the local business man such as Boondoggles & Hurricanes can't count on us being able to step up, out and off the boat. Instead of quiet enjoyment of recreational boating; extreme manipulation is faced as undesired; hence, not worth it; hence, loss of business.

Consumers don't come back or cancel plans with low water experience.

Let's make it a goal to never have to apologize when the rains don't come; this is not about praying for rain; it's about planning for the lack of rain.

Thank you for your support of our restoration and water management with an emphasis of maintaining and storing water for the use during drought years.

Diane Heitman

In favor of Waterfront Property Owners, Businesses and Municipalities who rely on our Superpond, Chain of Lakes for enjoyment, economy, employment and prosperity.

Feel free to call my cell: 352-343-8891

 

 

 

vj

Broward County, FL Inspector General Issues First Report and blasts County Economic & Small Biz Development

The new Broward County Inspector General just issued a report blasting the total mis-management of a County run small business certification program designed to give County contracts a local preference. Only local government could create a $750,000 fiscal fiasco like this (or State or Federal Government.).

I can't stop - there is a basic management rule cited by Ronald Reagan - "Trust but verify", but these county managers trusted, but didn't verify the vendors' true eligibility for local government contracts.

Best quotes:

“The OIG determined that at least $750,000 in public funds, and in all probability a lot more has been misspent as a result of gross mismanagement by the OESBD,’’ Scott said Friday. “Our office is going to work with county government to make sure this doesn’t happen.’’

In one instance, the Inspector General found that a county vendor, Everytrade International Company, was awarded 37 county contracts worth nearly $750,000 since June 2007. At least 35 of those contracts required the vendor to be certified as a Small Business Enterprise, which gives the designated company exclusive access to certain county contracts and preference in the procurement process.

But according to the Inspector General, Everytrade International is actually a brokerage with negligible business space, no inventory, no warehouse and no full-time employees other than its owner, Jose de la Riva Aguero.

And more:

The Inspector General’s report also singled out Norman Taylor, director of the county’s OESBD for improperly certifying brokers to participate in the SBE program.

“The OESB has failed to develop suitable guidelines addressing certification requirements for applicants; failed to ensure that those guidelines which were established were fairly and consistently applied to all vendors; and ignored evidence that brokers were exploiting their SBE certifications,’’ the report states. “In addition, the OESBD’s documentation and record keeping practices have been inadequate, further hampering enforcement and oversight of the SBE certification process.’’

Read the details here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/16/2549235/broward-inspector-general-finds.html 

This kind of reminds me of the Lake County fiasco regarding house renovation grants when the "program manager" was left unsupervised and gave grants to relatives, out of county vendors, etc. 

The Broward County Administrator should also be held accountable for not making sure that proper management control processes were in place, and verified.  But the article doesn't mention any such sanctions. 

vj

 

 

 

Reduced Foreclosure Data for Florida and Lake County IS Misleading

Tavares, FL - July 29, 2011 - The press has been reporting reduced foreclosures for Florida and Lake County.  For instance, the article below from the local "Right Side of the Lake" blog talked about an improving economy, and cited the following:

• According to RealyTrac, one out of every 167 homes in Lake County is in some form of foreclosure procedure, which is still too high, but foreclosure activity is down 59 percent in the four county Orlando metro area from the previous six months.

You can read the entire article here:

http://lakecountygov.info/2011/07/21/lake-county%E2%80%99s-economy-may-be-turning/

The problem with using statistics or economic data, is that you have to understand how it is calculated.  For instance, some US economic data showing improvements have been reported to be modified and manipulated by the White House to distort what is really going on.

But in this case of Foreclosure statistics for Florida and the US, you need to know that due to former Attorney General Bill McCollum's investigations earlier last year, they found that foreclosure processing firms were LYING about conditions they approved in writing as support for foreclosures.  As a consequence, the main processors were accused of falsifiying records for banks and owners of foreclosed homes, and the foreclosure PROCESS in Florida ground to a halt as lawsuits were filed, banks were forbidden to process foreclosures, etc.

You can read about that issue HERE as quoted from the Wall St. Journal in Florida Trend:

"Foreclosure filings down across state, nation

Foreclosure activity has fallen throughout the country, slowed by paperwork problems rather than an improvement in the market. During the first six months of 2011, 84% of U.S. cities with populations of 200,000 or higher posted declines in new foreclosure activity, according to a study released by RealtyTrac. Florida has fallen off the leader board almost entirely for foreclosure filings. While Florida cities claimed nine of the top 20 spots for cities with the most foreclosures last year, the only city to make the top 20 so far this year is Cape Coral at No. 12. "Florida is the most visible example of the effect of procedural and paperwork delays on the foreclosure market," said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac."   (See full text below)

The result is that prospective foreclosure cases have been sitting in the pipeline and building up a big backlog.   But that doesn't show up in normal statistics reports, thus the media reports that foreclosures are down, when they really still are building up, but just not moving through the pipeline until lawsuits and procedures are resolved.

So, don't always believe data reported by the media if they don't understand or explain the underlying components used for the calculated statistics.   Thus, if your Realtor tells you to buy now because foreclosures are down, know the real situation...

vj

Here is the full text of the Wall St. Journal article from HERE:

• July 28, 2011, 2:01 PM ET

Foreclosure Filings Down Across the Country

By Wesley Lowery

Getty Images

Foreclosure activity has fallen throughout the country, slowed by paperwork problems rather than an improvement in the market.

During the first six months of 2011, 84% of U.S. cities with populations of 200,000 or higher posted declines in new foreclosure activity, according to a study released today by RealtyTrac, a real-estate research firm. Foreclosure activity slowed in 178 of the nation’s 211 metropolitan areas when compared with last year.

Of the country’s 20 largest metro areas, Seattle was the sole market to post an increase in foreclosure activity, with 1 in every 98 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, up 10 percent from the first half of 2010. “Foreclosures have slowed down not because of a recovery of the market, but simply because of procedural delays,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Florida has fallen off the leader board almost entirely for foreclosure filings. While Florida cities claimed nine of the top 20 spots for cities with the most foreclosures last year, the only city to make the top 20 so far this year is Cape Coral at No. 12. “Florida is the most visible example of the effect of procedural and paperwork delays on the foreclosure market,” Mr. Sharga said. Las Vegas and Phoenix were number one and two on the list.

The foreclosure process has been under scrutiny since the fall when some banks temporarily suspended foreclosures to handle “robo-signing” allegations, in which employees were accused of approving legal documents without properly reviewing them.

As The Journal has reported, banks have dumped many law firms they felt were incapable of handling the large dockets of foreclosures, or were implicated in the robo-signing controversy. And finding new law firms to review foreclosure cases is time consuming, delaying the flow of many of these properties onto the market.

West Coast cities make up the bulk of the list of top metros for foreclosures, with California, Nevada and Arizona accounting for all but four of the 20 cities with the most foreclosures. (RealtyTrac’s report includes documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: default, auction and real-estate owned.)

In addition to slower foreclosure rates, falling new- and existing-home prices keep some buyers from snagging discounted foreclosure properties. Without being able to get equity on their current homes, many are choosing to stay put.

Home prices remain down across the country, off 4.5% in May when compared with the year-earlier period, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index. “Until pricing comes back, the move-up market is dead in the water,” Mr. Sharga said. “Which means fewer people will be purchasing foreclosed properties.”

Visit the WSJ website to see their "heat map" of foreclosures for the country.

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What Should Local Voters do When their Elected Officials Have no Initiative?

Tavares, FL - June 24, 2011 - I went to a meeting recently where about 20 concerned local residents (not the Tea Party) were gathered to discuss why their area was not improving economically.  Their businesses were slowly declining and nothing much was happening.   There was a lot of griping about the lack of action by the local elected officials and the manager of their local area (not the County).  

After lots of discussion, they came to the conclusion their elected officials were part of the problem by not pushing the manager to establish measurable economic development objectives and implement them.

It seems that one local high flying city does that, and their success is aggravating others without positive economic leadership.

As always, I threw in my suggestion that foreclosures were a big part of the problem.  Since I have not been able (yet) to get the Lake County County Commissioners to set up an action plan, I suggested this group add it to their list.  I think it got lost somewhere during the discussion about trees.

But, there were some heavy hitters from local bigger businesses, and the consensus resulted in the plan to do a survey and get feedback from local residents about their feelings on the local government "progress".  Then, to take that survey (assumed to be nagative)  to the local elected official's meeting and demand

US Federal Reserve Prints Money - Here is YouTube Video Explaining this Fiasco

This is a great, but depressing video cartoon that explains "Quantitative Easing" which is liberal speak for "printing money" which will cause inflation.

You may have read that the US Federal Reserve will "print" $600-million dollars in new money to buy bonds...which is a practice known for causing inflation.

 

This video explains this messy technique and the problems it causes...

Here is the URL on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k 

   

 

Announcing the Tavares Business Incubator for Lake County Entrepreneurs

Tavares, FL   August 16, 2010

Not long ago, I established a new business, Sunshine Medical Tourism, LLC.   I actually formed it in 2008 after six months of research, but shelved it due to the economy.

Anyway, I started it up two months ago, and I am in a new office at 921 West Main in Tavares, at the corner of HWY 19.   We are just down the street from the County Admin Building.

Separately, I had been following the UCF-run business incubator in Leesburg, and had talked to them and the City of Tavares about forming one in Tavares using the spare offices in the building I rent.   I even proposed we could be a branch office for the Leesburg Incubator, since their offices are full.    Incubators are office facilities with experienced business coaches for new, startup businesses.   The emphasis is on growth, then they move into their own offices in 18 months.  These are common in California.   UCF has established a number of them