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