Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Florida County Activists Ask Lake County FiscalRangers for Help to Resolve Corruption

Activists and TeaParty members in other Florida Counties are aware of FiscalRangers.

We just got a query from one County activist group asking how they can stop corruption in their County.   They listed a number of officials and issues, so here is what I sent them, and I expect to talk to them later.

Vance Jochim

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 The Florida Grand Jury published a big report on Corruption in Florida last December and Pam Bondi has done nothing to market it to the legislature to get the recommendations implemented, even though her Attorney General Dept. runs the Grand Jury investigations.

The Florida Auditor General has no “resources” to initiate citizen requests for audits.   They mostly focus on CPA type financial and regulatory compliance audits, and not audits for efficiency, effectiveness or to detect and fix corruption.   Almost all local government oversight is left up to local County agencies and officials.

The legislative Audit Committee will not initiate citizen requests for audits, which are sent to the Auditor General, BUT they will do so if asked by a legislator.    So, you need to have a legislator request an audit like what you want, and the AG may do it .   But, the problem with the Auditor General is they only have CPA’s, not Certified Fraud Examiners or Certified Internal Auditors, thus really don’t have the skills I would want them to have.

There is no Florida "audit" or oversight agency authorized to initiate performance audits of either State or County level agencies and programs.   Florida State has over 1500 Special Districts and no department has authority to initiate audits of them (water districts, hospital districts, CRA's, etc.)

At the local level, see if the County Court Clerk for the County has an internal auditor, and whether they would initiate something.  Keep peppering them with details on your concerns, plus copies to the County Board members and County manager.  Determine if the School District has an auditor and review their reports for quality.

County governments have poor oversight on non-financial issues.   They can get awards for how pretty and accurate their annual financial reports (CAFR's) are, but there might not be any reports showing efficiency, effectiveness or oversight to prevent corruption.  In Lake County, the controller and "auditor" are in the Court Clerks office and neither has authority to go into the County government or other Constitutional offices and review internal operations to improve efficiency, etc.   In corporations over $200-million, they usually have one or more internal auditors with a full charter to review any records or interview any employees and initiate audits on their own.

Search the internet for public internal audit reports by local governments on the issue you are concerned with.   For instance, you might find just one Florida Auditor General performance audit on the specific function (like CRA's), and it will give you ideas of what system procedures should exist in your local departments to prevent fraud, waste & abuse.   it is my opinion that most local government officials and staff have no clue how to implement fraud detection and efficiency tracking systems like business has, so you have to find articles of screwups elsewhere to point out local improvements are needed.

Research the corruption in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County.   It was so bad the citizens led a referendum to create an independent Inspector General, who is now issuing some reports and has authority to initiate investigations in all the cities, school districts as well as County operations.

Try to initiate getting a petition to create a similar Inspector General for your County.

 

If the targets of your questions get federal funds, then you could find out which department they get funds from, and send complaints to the Inspector General for that Federal Department.

You might also create a blog like I did at FiscalRangers.com , and report this stuff in the blog with copies to all elected officials.  Then give public input at public meetings and they start listening to you.  I have been doing it for six years.  I also send copies to about 30 press members – in the County, in the nearby major TV market (Orlando) and also to key press people (print, tV and online blogs) in Tallahassee.   This has helped start stories, such as several articles all over Florida about our initiative to reform the North Lake County Hospital District and then get HB-1299 passed to reform it.   That bill was signed last Friday by Gov. Scott. 

If there are Florida government committees of appointed officials, send email copies of articles to them.  I did that with Gov. Scott’s Commission to review the Hospital Districts in Florida, and several of my suggestions made it into their recommendations (and into HB-1299).

Also, if you can get Tea party or other public groups to attend a key local government meeting like County Board meetings or the annual meeting of the County legislators forum, with signs, etc.  – it gets on the TV and also shows officials they can’t keep avoiding your issue.

Attend Tea Party and other groups and give presentations, with a list of actions for them, such as three questions to ask politicians running for office this year on local corruption examples and what they would do to fix it.   Video them, and post it on websites or YouTube, so you have it in case they do not follow through.

Elect smarter officials.  It is hard to get an official who is a high school graduate to spend time to understand governance issues, etc.   Many don't even read documents given to them by staff.   The more educated the official is, the less they might be open to corruption plus they are used to reading professional reports and would understand your issues better.  If they have a Master's degree and some type of professional certification or license, that is even better, because they have been exposed to ethics policies, etc.

The key is to keep bringing up your recommendations publicly – using public input, website, blog, emails, Facebook page, send to press, send to elected officials, get people to attend meeting with signs and give public input.   Once they know you are watching and asking questions, some officials might start backing  your efforts to improve transparency, accountability and oversight.

I even got the local County Board to hire outside auditors to review the local EMS rather than use an inexperienced auditor in the Court Clerk’s office. 

You can call me at anytime to discuss this.

 

Vance Jochim

Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Chief Fiscal Watchdog

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

PO Box 1042

Tavares, FL 32778

Mobile:  352-638-3578

FiscalRangers@comcast.net

www.FiscalRangers.com   

TWITTER:  @FiscalRangers 

Fiscal Ranger's page on Facebook

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

 

 

Complexity of State Ballot Measures Affects YES votes, But Is Florida Affected?

An interesting study says that many ballot measures are written at the Master's Degree level and voters skip them due to the complex wording.

Wyoming requires that a majority of ALL voters must say yes to pass a referendum, not just a majority of those who voted on the issue.   They figure if a voter skips an issue, it is worded too hard to understand since the average American has an eighth grade reading level.

Here is an excerpt from the Wall St. Journal's review of the issue:

Another totally different new study rates the readability of ballot  measures.

The study is part of the plain language movement.

Note to Floridians:  "When Charlie Crist of Flordia took office as governor in January 2007, one of his first acts was to issue a plain langugage executive order. Florida now has an entire site devoted to plain language."  HOWEVER, the links now go to Gov. Rick Scott's website and go to an error page.  We did find that the FL DCS has a Plain Language page HERE.  We could not find if the Plain Language movement is required for State ballot measures, however.

Researchers with the Plain Language Action and Information Network ( http://www.plainlanguage.gov/  ) examined  1,112 ballot measures from states from 1997 to 2007. They were trying to find  out if the readability of the ballot language affected voters’ behavior.

They found that, regardless of the topic, the more difficult the ballot  measure was to understand the less likely citizens were to vote for it.

Wyoming voters have demonstrated the same reaction.

A ballot measure must get yes votes from a majority of the voters who cast  ballots in an election. Getting a majority of votes on the measure itself isn’t  enough to pass it.

When a tally shows that a large number of voters skipped the ballot measure  entirely it probably was too confusing.

According to an article in State Legislature magazine, the average reading  level for Americans is eighth grade.

The reading level of Wyoming ballot measures between 1997 and 2007 was at the  master’s level, grades 17 to 18.

So it’s not surprising that many voters here gave up on the measure and  didn’t vote.

Help is available, though.

Now the Legislature and staff members who write the ballot explanation have a  guide — the Flesch-Kincaid scale — available to Microsoft Word users.

The scale assigns the grade level needed to understand the reading.

Of the 45 states that had statewide ballot initiatives in the 10-year period  studied, none had measures at the eighth grade reading level.

Only three came close. The states of South Dakota, Oklahoma and North  Carolina had ballot measures with high school reading levels.

More than a dozen states had doctorate reading levels.

Anyway, Wyoming citizens will find proposed constitutional amendments on the  ballot when they go to the polls in November.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/wyoming-gets-f-for-corruption/article_72dec1f2-7cef-11e1-806b-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1r1AZxUmv

 

 

 

National Website Monitors "State Integrity" and Ranks States - Florida is a C-

Tavares, FL - March 20, 2012

I found a new website that is run by a number pf public integrity types of organizations, and they rank all the States by several categories and rank their "Corruption Risk".

Here is Florida's page, which shows abysmal rankings in most categories, and an average C- in Corruption Risk .  Even with that ranking, they are 18th out of all the states, which shows how much worse other states are.

http://www.stateintegrity.org/florida  

I noticed that they ranked "Internal Audit" as one of the only "A" categories, so I posted this comment:

As a former corporate internal audit director, Certified Internal Auditor and anti-corruption adviser, I was amazed to see you give Florida an A for internal audit.  I write a blog on local Lake County, FL government agency fiscal fiascos and mis-management at www.FiscalRangers.com .  After five years of monitoring issues here, I do not believe there is ANY oversight on about 2000 local government agencies comparable to what I saw in Fortune 500 firms, the County of Los Angeles or even the Federal government.   They may do nice, clean "financial audits" but the Inspector General has no authority to initiate performance or internal audits of local agencies, including water districts, hospital districts, special tax districts, etc.  

There are no requirements for independent County auditors and the audits conducted by the Florida Inspector General are conducted by CPA's, not CIA's or CFE's to catch performance and efficiency problems.

For instance, we had a local Hospital tax district that existed for 40 years without ANY spending rules on how more than $10-million would be spent by two named non-profit hospitals.  They could spend it on pink flamingos for the lawn and be legal.   It took locals 4 years to finally get a Legislator who wrote a much improved bill governing them, and it was barely passed recently due to insider tricks by a Hospital supported State Senatory.

You might find one internal "operational audit" of a single Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) by the Inspector General, but if lots of problems are found, they don't go out and review the other CRA's for similar problems.   Florida is still a Huckster State with little oversight.   The one benefit is a good sunshine law, so local people can do their own research to find stupid government practices.   My mantra is that government should be run as well as corporations, and Florida local government agencies lack professional oversight from the State or local internal auditors, and waste is rampant.  .

vj

Another Florida Special "District" Incurs Excessive Costs Without Oversight

Jan. 16, 2012 - A Mosquito "Control District" in Lee County, FL with a $22-million budget has run up such high expenses that a Florida Representative has filed a bill to abolish the district and shift its responsibilities to the Lee County government.   A retired executive director is the 11th highest paid retiree in the Florida State retiree system. He is collecting over $170,000 in retirement income, which is more than any Lake County staff earns working full time.   Here is their website.  The original article from SunshineStateNews.com is below.

FiscalRangers.com has consistently reported how the state of Florida does not provide adequate business controls or spending guidelines for about 2000 special local government agencies in Florida, including water districts, hospital districts, county and constitutional officer agencies, CRA's ( and now here is a mosquito district that overspends all others in Florida. We have periodically reported fiscal fiascos in Lake County operations, mismanagement or questionable practices in local agencies like the North Lake County Hospital District, and also reported problems found in other Florida Districts, including voter fraud allowed by Election Supervisors, CRA's and hospital districts.   

However, this article doesn't provide much information indicating serious problems, other than one legislator commenting about the highly paid retiree and their large budget (which could be justified according to a document on the district's top webpage).   At the very least, it seems an  independent performance audit is needed, and a salary review to determine if salaries or spending (such as for aircraft purchasing vs leasing) is appropriate.

In some cases, some special districts practice abuse of power, such as the recent issue where the St. Johns River Water Management District arbitrarily shutoff all water flow from Lake Apopka to Lake Dora.  They did it purely for water "quality" reasons and are not required to perform an independent, objective economic impact analysis on such decisions.

Basically, Florida State government provides a process for legislators to create these agencies, but there are no clear spending metrics, operational guidelines or periodic State level performance audits to detect problems early.   There isn't even a required, independent County wide internal audit function with full audit authority except for a few County Inspector Generals created due to excess corruption.

The next time you meet your local Florida elected official (Rep. or Senator) ask them why they accept any pay from taxpayers when they don't provide adequate oversight on these local organizations.   Or, maybe tell them they lost your vote until there is professional oversight and guidance over these organizations.

Additionally, as a result of reviewing this article, we found that Florida Gov. Scott has issued an Executive Order 12-10 "Review of Special Districts" which assigns his Office of Policy & Budget (OPB) to perform a review of ALL 1600 Florida special districts.  The Executive Order is HERE.  FiscalRangers.com will publish another article on just this Executive Order after I interview some people.  HERE is the press release on this OPB assignment.   

Vance Jochim

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http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/print/4364746   <<< Go to see article with picture

Lawmaker: Mosquito District Stings Taxpayers in Lee County

By: Kenric Ward | Posted: January 16, 2012 3:55 AM

Published on Sunshinestatenews.com  

Gov. Rick Scott's probe into expenditures at the state's special taxing districts might want to start at Lee County Mosquito Control.

With an annual budget of $22 million, Lee's mosquito district spends more than 46 other mosquito districts -- combined.

"There's no excuse for it," says state Rep. Paige Kreegel, who has introduced legislation that could abolish the district.

Scott last week directed his Office of Policy and Budget to review and make recommendations for cutting costs at some 1,600 special districts levying more than $15 billion in taxes each year.

The governor previously ordered investigations of hospital and water management districts, and has now expanded the scope to all special districts.

Mosquito districts have flown below the political radar because most operate on budgets under $2 million. Even populous counties such as Miami-Dade run their mosquito eradication programs on less than $3 million.

But Lee County, in Southwest Florida, is a glaring exception. With a seven-member elected board and 68 employees, the independent mosquito district's payroll works out to an average of $118,000 per worker.

The district also holds the distinction of having the 11th-highest compensated retiree in the state's pension system. Former executive director T. Wayne Miller, who retired in 1994, currently receives $172,027 a year.

Most counties place mosquito-eradication duties under public works or other departments. Kreegel has found that counties that operate independent districts, such as Lee's, "step up in price to do it."

"The personnel costs are $8 million, and that's a problem" said the Punta Gorda Republican, pointing to Lee's top-heavy staffing. The local mosquito board has two more members than the entire County Commission.

Operationally, Lee's district spends more just on spray, fuel and helicopter maintenance than the total mosquito budgets in neighboring Charlotte or Hendry counties.

Kreegel has introduced House Bill 1395 to require a referendum on the big-spending district. Lee County residents could vote to abolish the district and transfer all assets and liabilities to the Lee County Commission.

Wayne Gale, executive director of the Lee mosquito district, calls HB 1395 "a drastic measure to abolish a district that no local people seem to have a problem with.

"This was pretty much a surprise to us and the county as well.

"We are large because we have the largest mosquito problem in the state," said Gale, who explained that thousands of acres of state-managed salt marshes and islands within the district require aerial treatment.

"No other county has this type of topograghy. We do one-third of all the aerial larvae sightings in the state. Many areas are not accessible by vehicles," Gale said.

Gale reported the district maintains $5 million in reserves for self-insurance and has set aside $1 million for a future hangar.

"We have a lot of expensive aircraft," he noted.

Regarding the pending legislation, Gale said, "We've sent information to the local delegation to answer questions they've had."

Kreegel says "the [district's] defensiveness alone sets off alarms."

Kreegel, a physician, acknowledges it was the Legislature that authorized the creation of mosquito control boards, but says that times have changed.

"Back in the day, the work involved spraying diesel fuel and draining swamps. Now we have a mature industry. The chemicals that are used are generic and relatively inexpensive," he said.

"The governor has shined a light on the situation. It's time the taxpayers got some equity. Let the people vote whether they want this," Kreegel concluded.

Without specifically referencing mosquito boards, Clete Saunier, president of the Florida Association of Special Districts, predicted that the governor's investigation "will affirm that special districts are fiscally responsible, community-focused local government entities.

“Central to the discussions should be that special districts are created upon public demand, and help Floridians when local or state governments were either unable or unwilling to provide crucial services or infrastructure to a community," Saunier said in a statement.

Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.

 

Gov. Scott Issues Executive Order to "Examine" all 1600 Florida Special Districts

YAHOO!!!!

We found today that Florida Gov. Scott has issued an Executive Order 12-10 "Review of Special Districts" which assigns his Office of Policy & Budget (OPB) to perform an “examination” of ALL 1600 Florida special districts.  The Executive Order is HERE.  FiscalRangers.com will publish another article later this week on just this Executive Order after I interview some people.  HERE is the press release on this OPB assignment.   

The press release and the EO are similar to the earlier one establishing a Commission to Review Hospital Districts.   Last year I sent that commission numerous emails and articles about oversight weaknesses in not only Hospital Districts but other Florida Districts.   They just recently issued their final report of recommendations, including a number I agree with.

As our readers know, FiscalRangers.com has published numerous articles on weaknesses and problems in the various types of special districts, including CRA’s,

But, this is not a Commission to STUDY the issue, but a task order to the OPB to start a program to “Examine” ALL 1600 districts in Florida for performance, etc.    The objectives are in the EO and shortened versions are in the press release.    These are not the routine CPA type financial audits performed for most district financial statements, but much broader scope reviews to determine efficiency, justification, etc.

This policy means that in Lake County, there will be performance and oversight reviews of our special districts including the two Hospital Districts, the water districts (Lake County as well as the St. John’s River Water Management District), CRAs (Community Redevelopment Associations) and other districts.

I tried calling the OPB today before realizing all government offices are closed because it is the MLK holiday.   I will post another longer article on the blog by Wednesday or Thursday, and have more details, because to review 1600 agencies, they will stretch it out over several years and may be constrained by budget and staffing limits.

Finally, the State of Florida is taking oversight seriously over special districts.    And, FiscalRangers intends to be supplying information and ideas to the team conducting the examinations.  I am going to encourage that public hearings be part of the process for the examiners to receive feedback from the public on the justification and operations of the districts.    I expect many Districts to whine and complain, and they should get first priority.

Vance Jochim

Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Chief Fiscal Watchdog

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

PO Box 1042

Tavares, FL 32778

Mobile:  352-638-3578

FiscalRangers@comcast.net

www.FiscalRangers.com   

TWITTER:  @FiscalRangers 

Fiscal Ranger's page on Facebook

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

 

 

 

Final Report for Florida State Commission to Review Hospital Districts

Tallahassee, FL - Jan. 3, 2012 -  In 2011, Gov. Rick Scott established a commission to review taxpayer funded Hospital Districts.  

After many meetings and interim reports, the final report was issued today, as described in the notice below from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. 

The notice mentions that a version with links to pages will be distributed later this week, and when I receive it, I will post it on this page.

Later this week I will post my comments, since some of the recommendations can affect the North Lake County Hospital District.

vj

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The final report of the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts is now available on the Commission website.   The first link below goes to the main webpage for the Commission, and the second link goes directly to the report.

Click on the main page at the link “Final Report”:   http://ahca.myflorida.com/mchq/FCTFH/fctfh.shtml .

Jump straight to the report at this link:  http://ahca.myflorida.com/mchq/FCTFH/pdf/122911Meeting/FinalReportRF2.pdf

This week we are preparing an edition of the report that has embedded web links in it.  It should be available by the end of the week.

Jeff Gregg, Executive Director

Florida Commission on Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts

Florida Agency for Health Care Administration

2727 Mahan Drive, MS 28A

Tallahassee, FL  32308

(850) 412-4402

(850) 413-7955 (fax)

 

 

 

Governor's Hospital District Review Commission Publishes DRAFT Report of Recommendations

Tavaras, FL - Dec. 20, 2011 - Florida Governor Scott's Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts just published their almost final report draft.

This affects Lake County, because we have two hospital districts, the North Lake County Hospital District, and the South Lake County Hospital District.

This blog has published numerous articles on local efforts to reform the North Lake County Hospital District.

The Draft report, 30 pages long, includes several objectives that had been included in Rep. Larry Metz's reform bill recently approved by the six member Lake County Legislators Delegation (5 to 1).

 

 

The Commission recommendations included:

- Qualified hospital district board members should be

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

 

 

 

Palm Beach County School Board Resists Coverage by new County Inspector General

Gee, why would a government agency board NOT WANT an outside, independent watchdog group to look at their internal operations?

But, Palm Beach County has a new Inspector General with authority over the County operations and local cities, but not the School District.

So, the School District is now creating their OWN Inspector General and PROMOTING their existing internal auditor into the position.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/for-school-district-internal-inspector-general-weaker-than-2030290.html?cxtype=rss_editorials 

This editorial supports the idea of the County Inspector General having oversight of the School District, and we think it is a good idea.

What do you think?

vj

 

 

 

Broward County, FL Inspector General Office up and running...

In 2010, Broward County, FL Commissioners amended the County charter to create an Inspector General department, and in April, 2011, they hired an ex-US Justice Department manager to run it.   The IG department was setup after pressure from citizens due to excess government fraud and corruption.

They now have a website up and running and some background pages, but no reports yet.

The IG had independent authority over all County operations AND all cities in the County.

Lake County does NOT have an Inspector General, and the "County Clerk Auditor" in the County Clerk's department has no authority to open audits in other County or City operations.

Basically, there is no central auditor in Lake County with authority to audit or investigate County operations, Constitutional officers or cities.   And, you can't request an audit from the Florida Auditor General without approval by the separate Legislative Audit Committee (which rarely does give approval or funding)

So, this posting is a place marker to contain the website information on the Broward County Inspector General:

http://www.broward.org/InspectorGeneral/Pages/Default.aspx

vj

 

Here is a short SunSentinel.com article explaining the announcement of the new website...

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/12/broward_inspector_general_offi.html