North Lake County Hospital District

An Unofficial Website Created by Tax Reformers to Improve Oversight and Accountability of over $10-million in Property Taxes Received and Spent by the North Lake County Hospital District (NLCHD) in Lake County, FL 

This is not an official District website.  The Board has refused to create one for transparency.

 

North Lake County Hospital tax

This Website Helps You Ensure Property Taxes are Spent Properly!

North Lake County Hospital District

 (a Special Taxing District aka North Lake County Hospital District - NLCHD)

Objective: To improve oversight & transparency and flexibility of $10+million in taxpayer funds that are given by the North Lake County Hospital District to two local Lake County Hospitals.

new icon   Notice:  We post the latest NLCHD news on the FiscalRangers.com blog first.   So, you can always go to THIS website link to see the most recent list of our blog postings on NLCHD. 

Below is our new logo to reflect the insatiable taxpayer fund appetite of the District.

July 10, 2011 - UPDATE:  The second hearing in Marilyn Bainter's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the North Lake County Hospital District will be on Monday, JULY 18, 2011 at the Tavares Courthouse in Judge Singletary's courtroom at 1:30 pm.  This is the second hearing, and hopefully the last before the decision.  Be there to see the arguments from both sides.

HERE is the LINK to the Clerk of the Circuit Court's webpage on the lawsuit.

March 28, 2011 - Our recap of all recent articles on NLHCD.North Lake County Hospital District

NEWS:  Jan. 21, 2011 Tavares, FL - Yesterday, the first court hearing on Marilyn Bainter's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the right of the North Lake County Hospital District to collect 1 mill in property taxes was continued to a future date after three hours of presentations from attorneys representing both Bainter and the defendants (the District Board and the Hospitals receiving the taxes). 

See the Channel 9 TV article and video by Berndt Petersen HERE.  

Updated 1/24:  Read the Orlando Sentinel article by Steve Hudak about the court hearing HERE.

See more details HERE at FiscalRangers.com.

NEWS: Jan. 12th, 2011:  The hearing on Marilyn Bainter’s lawsuit over the Constitutionality of the Lake County hospital tax will be held next Thursday, January 20th at 1:30 in Judge Singletary’s chambers or courtroom in the Lake County judicial building in downtown Tavares.   Make sure to allow enough time to park in the parking structure and walk to the buildings.  Early birds get good seats – we do not know how many seats will be available.

Originally the court would only allow the lawyers at athe meeting, but after our lawyers’ intervention, anyone will be allowed in to hear the case. Please let everyone know.    Marilyn and the taxpayers need your support. 

Invite other taxpayers concerned about the legality of this tax, where there are NO requirements how the funds are to be spent to benefit taxpayers, and voters have not been allowed to re-vote on it for 20-40 years (or not at all).

Note:  The Judge had a recent phone conference for the attorneys and there was Marilyn’s single attorney and 14 attorneys for the other parties.   For some mysterious reason, the sound was not loud enough for phone listeners to hear the other attorneys.   These are the types of things we are combating in getting resolution of this issue.

Note:  There will be a formal meeting of the Board of the North Lake County Hospital Tax District later in this month (Jan, 2011).  Watch this website or our emails for details.

Note2:  The issue of violating Florida's Church & State separation regulations related to giving taxpayer funds to a Church owned hospital (Waterman) will be a future matter.

Vance

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 News: Dec. 9, 2010 - Minutes & audio CD's of TWO most recent NLCHD meetings on Sept. 9 & Sept 16 are now available.  We have uploaded the minutes to this website in the "reference docs" page.  You can borrow our CD copy of the official audio recordings of the meetings by calling Vance Jochim at vjtraveler AT comcast DOT net, or you can order a copy of each CD for $2 each from the Lake County Clerk by emailing us for instructions.

News:  Nov. 21, 2010 - A local blog, Right Side of the Lake, has published three "rants" about the need to keep spending over $10-million on "continued hospital services" but never addresses the issue of accountability or ability to define or verify appropriate spending.  Read our own FiscalRangers.com blog rebuttal HERE and updated lists of fiscal oversight problems ignored by the four hospital supporters on the six member board.

News:  Nov. 2 - Day after Elections:  Fran Grossi won in her contest to be on the Board of the North Lake Hospital District, but unfortunately, the other two candidates to improve oversight and accountability for hospital spending, Walt Dobruck & Richard Riker, did not win.  (Read the Daily Commercial story HERE) Grossi was active in walking neighborhoods, putting up signs, etc but the other two were not actively campaigning.  Below are the final voting results for the three open Board positions.  The winning pro-hospital spending candidates, Jerry Brown, and Bob Bone, will be added to the Board along with Fran Grossi.   The Result is that now there are two pro-oversight candidates, Marilyn Bainter and Fran Grossi, on the Board.     The next issue is the upcoming lawsuit over the Constitutionality of the tax, and what actions the new Board takes at the upcoming January meeting to even discuss or propose improved accountability over spending:

NORTH LAKE HOSPITAL DISTRICT - NE
(With 79 out of 79 Precincts Counted) Votes Percent      

Jerry P. Brown 29592 55.72 %      

Richard A. Riker 23521 44.28 %

NORTH LAKE HOSPITAL DISTRICT - NW
(With 79 out of 79 Precincts Counted) Votes Percent      

Gregory A. Beliveau 18554 23.28 %      

Bob Bone 20042 25.15 %      

Walt Dobruck Jr 15691 19.69 %      

Frances D. Grossi 25398 31.87 %

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