Some months ago an ex-employee of Martin County called us to report widespread mismanagement in the vehicle division of General Services. We were later put in contact with another ex-employee who was in a senior managerial position in this department and resigned. We talked with both of these people and found that they were just disgusted with the mismanagement of the department and thought taxpayers should know about this. Their stories were not just talk. We saw copies of detailed records showing the waste of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.

Since our primary objective is to promote efficient government in the county, we took our findings to Administrator Blackburn. He said he would look into the matter, that a consultant was coming in to investigate privatizing this operation and that the consultant could also investigate these allegations. The consultant's report did point out some rather serious flaws in the maintenance operation at the county garage. The report specifically did not cover any investigation of the matters we had discussed with Blackburn. Some taxpayer money had been wasted by mismanagement, but no effort was made to find out how much. We don't know if the consultant was qualified for such an investigation into the questions we presented. We do know he did not take the investigation very far and we suspect that no action will be taken. With luck, someone will pursue this matter.

The consultant, hired at a cost of $28 thousand, was primarily studying the possibility of combining the maintenance of department vehicles with the maintenance of Public Safety vehicles. Given the problems outlined above, some action is necessary. Consultants often avoid giving specifics in their advice that might return to haunt them, so the answer was hedged in many ways. Since both operations are working in sub-standard facilities, some money will have to be spent sooner or later and it might as well be spent on a combined facility. But that should be only the start.

Vehicle maintenance is labor intensive of course, and one clue to controlling costs is to have just the right number of people. The larger the operation, the easier it is to do this.

A substantial parts inventory must be maintained, but combining operations means having only one inventory, an obvious cost savings. If the operation is large enough, it can run three shifts, which means a 24-hour operation and someone always on duty for emergencies. If all county-owned vehicles and all school district vehicles were serviced in one location, Martin County could have that kind of operation with substantial savings to the taxpayer. We expect all kinds of turf wars from various individual operations, but increased efficiency at a savings should override such petty things. County leaders should see that it does.

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The City of Stuart approved the land use designation and the zoning for a 15-acre piece of county-owned property which will be used as the future home of the Public Health Department. This property was annexed into the city over two years ago, prior to the county purchasing it. By coincidence, the county government was advised by its attorney to do the same land use and zoning change. This took a great deal of staff time in public hearings and research to accomplish for both bodies of government, but the county had no jurisdiction because the property was in the city. The Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee said the county wasted its time. The county not only wasted it time, it wasted an undetermined amount of taxpayers money on these useless documents and meetings, yet these dollars will never show up as part of the county's annexation lawsuit.

Will the county ever stop this waste of tax dollars?

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The 2^nd Annual Taxpayers' Public Forum is being planned to begin at 8:30 AM on Friday, April 7, 2000 at the Blake Library in Stuart. The pros and cons of charter government, incorporation, annexation, and single district elections for commissioners are being reviewed. We are researching presenters for both sides of these issues. If you would like to participate in these discussions, please call the MCTA office. More details will be given later for those who simply want to attend this informal seminar.