2011 - 09-19-2011 Reg. Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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September 19, 2011 Fellow Commissioners: While I am not against financial reviews and performance audits where and when they are clearly needed or required, please understand that 1 cannot vote for this proposition before us today which includes a financial review of Lee County Schools and a performance audit of Lee County. I cannot approve it because of my own sense of propriety and the fact that many citizens, and every member of the Board of Education who have spoken with me, have said the work is unnecessary, inappropriate and wasteful of county tax dollars, especially at this time. Allow me to explain why I cannot support this process going forward in its present form: First, as I said a month ago when it was agreed to move ahead with an RFP, I do not feel that this exercise is necessary or required for either the public school system or Lee County government since both independent, publicly elected, sovereign bodies have an abundance of audits and reviews required by local, state and federal government, every year, at no small cost in time, manpower and tax payer money. In the material I have placed before you, please see the list of 44 audits the local school district undertakes each year, as well as the list of audits Lee County government undertakes each year including the one for $40,200 we have already approved for FY 2011. Second, now that I have had an opportunity to look into the matter more completely, with the agenda material before me, it is clear to me, that the cost of the type and scale of audit and review, which some of you have in mind, the same one before us which the County Manager is recommending for approval, will cost at least