Editoral

Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive ….

May 6, 2014
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Editorial by Robert Anderson, Publisher Lehigh Acres Gazette

Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive ….. The Taxpayers of Lehigh Acres. Should this be the calling card of the Fire Board now?

Fire Board Public Education Campaign $$$$ How Much is this going cost the taxpayers of Lehigh Acres for this education using our own tax dollars?

From the Lehigh Acres Fire Department Website:

“The Fire District will be instituting a public education campaign in the near future regarding the fee assessment methodology/process. The goal of the District is to provide each taxpayer with accurate information so they are able to make an educated decision on the level of Fire and Rescue Services that will be provided to the residents and visitors of Lehigh Acres, Florida in the future.”

So how much is too much.  The Fire Board has already budgeted $75,000 of your tax dollars for consultants and attorneys. They could have hired a new firefighter for that money!

President Abraham Lincoln once said, you can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

“We are transparent and have any/all documentation available to the public for review.”, Fire Chief John Wayne said by email.

But this is not 100% true, when The Lehigh Acres Gazette made a request for payroll information it was delayed for days and when we finely got it some of the key information was not provided to us. So where is the transparency?  Did the Chief violate the public trust when not providing all the information requested?

“Our information is based upon fact and is undisputable.”, Fire Chief John Wayne said by email talking about the fire assessment fees.  Really???? But their consultant and their special attorney both have been removed or resigned from other boards in Florida for giving bad advice. Currently their consultant faces seven different lawsuits and at one time the feds refused to continue pay on a 3 million dollar grant until the consultant resigned for questionable wrong doing.

So let’s talk about other more relevant items, how about the internal debt the fire board still owes the taxpayers of Lehigh Acres in the tune of 2.5 million dollars. Some prior years ago when money was flowing like river the board used the old concept – Rob Peter to Pay Paul. They used your tax money as impact fee money because they ran out of impact fee money to pay off the new stations (104 & 105) which caused a 2.5 million internal deficit in the budget and it’s still there today. Is the board planning to double tax us to pay back that debt?

And the story continues …….

6 thoughts on “Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive ….”

  1. The public is encouraged to call the Fire District at 239-303-5300 to make an appointment to speak with the Fire Chief if you have any questions and/or concerns about any information provided in these blogs. In addition, our public meetings are posted on the District’s website (www.lehighfd.com) and the public is also encouraged to attend to have their voice heard. Thank you.

  2. Salaries of fire an emergency personal seem to be extremely high now. I feel the raise is too high. Accounting of all monies seems to be in order. I will vote No.

  4. Now we have the first clarification from the Fire district board (or from the chief) that the proposed assessment fee will be INSTAED of the current ad valorem. I really wonder that the board agreed to such an ambiguous language in the addendum.

    Now let’s have a look to the other complaints: What kind of square feet will be used to do the calculation? In my mind the only kind of relevance for fire assessments is the TOTAL amount of square feet, including the garage, the lanai, the entry etc.

    Based on that let’s do the math (with numbers I got in 2011 from the Lee Property Appraiser’s office and the assumption is that they didn’t change much since then)

    unit:
    acres/sqft(*1) per unit tax
    ————————————————————–
    Vacant lots (DOR 00) 34,963 ac.(*2) $21.00 $ 734,223
    Resid. homes(DOR 01…09) 83,050,997 sqft $0.17 $14,118,669
    Comm. buildg(DOR 10…39) 2,252,052 sqft $0.40 $ 900,821
    Indust.buildg(DOR 40…49) 1,622,361 sqft $0.06 $ 97,342
    Agric. buildg(DOR 50…69) 317,971 sqft ??(*3) $??
    Instit. no tax (DOR 70…79) ?? sqft(*4) $0.58 $??
    Government, no tax (DOR 80…89)
    Miscelleounes, no tax (DOR 90…99)
    ————————————————————–
    total: $15,851,055

    (*1): “Total” square feet
    (*2): Rounded up to the next full acre
    (*3): Agriculture lots/buildings did pay ad valorem tax until now. Was not mentioned in new assessment fee (oversight?)
    (*4): Institutional never have been taxed so far, therefor no
    square feet available. (may be Agriculture and Institutional were mixed up? Check the DOR code!)

    The board’s estimated net revenue is $13,442,604.00, the calculation with “total” square feet is estimated to be $15,851,055.00 (see above)

    Both numbers are way too high compared to what we have today.
    Budget 2013/14: Revenue in ad valorem $7,429,440 plus grant $3,460,000 equals $10,889,440.00

    The new assessment fee would be an increase of 22% above today’s budget. If the “total” square feet will be selected it’s a 44% increase above today’s numbers.

    “The district needs approximately 15 Mio$ per year including approx 1.5Mio$ from ambulance transport fees”. Of course, if the board/chief make their “dream” calculation and tell us what they “need” is usually not what they get. It would be realistic to ask for a maximum of a 5 to 10% increase above today’s numbers. Everything else has to come from “good house keeping”. Make improvements, retire people, reduce expenditures. That’s what a private industry would do.

    Harry Kloppert
    239-368-2582
    hkloppert@embarqmail.com

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