IN YOUR CORNER

 

For your information, dear readers, the following is our mission

statement:  The purpose of the Martin County Taxpayers' Association is

to study the tax situation in Martin County, Florida; to work with the

Public Officials and Boards toward economy and efficiency in the

operation of the Government of Martin County and other political bodies

in the County; and to improve, extend and place upon a safe and more

permanent foundation the general tax program of the communities and

county.

 

**

 

The Martin County School Board, staff, and the Long-Range Planning

Committee have begun the unenviable task of deciding the attendance

zones for the county's schools. The new Jensen Beach High School is

scheduled to open in the fall of 2004 and the boundaries for the

existing high schools must be redrawn to divide the county's high

school population into three zones rather than two.

 

The elementary and middle school boundaries are also being reviewed.

Since there are no plans to build a new elementary school in the

district's five-year long range, several redistricting options are

being considered in those elementary schools approaching their capacity.

 

The school district has retained the services of Zabik and Associates

of Royal Palm Beach for $5000 to project future growth and identify the

impact of new housing developments on school populations. Fran Pickett,

a former Brevard County school board member has been hired for $20,700

to verify and clean up the FISH (Florida Inventory of School Houses)

data which is essential in determining the capacity of each school. She

will also assist in determining attendance boundaries.

 

To assist in the necessary collection, analysis, and interpretation of

pertinent data, the district's computer (MIS) department purchased a

software package, Mapinfo, for $2080, which included an electronic

street map for Martin County. The decision was based on the

functionality the program offered and, of course, the price.

Customarily, in these large redistricting projects a third consultant

is used to handle the MIS requirements. The district was approached by

a vendor who offered the same software program, along with their

services, for about $37,000. These services included geocoding (placing

students electronically on the map) and some additional software that

would aid in determining attendance boundaries. The MIS personnel

determined that even though Mapinfo was much more labor-intensive, it

was the kind of labor that could probably be done best at the local

level. For instance, the largest task was to resolve student addresses

to the electronic map. Since the school district has better access to

the data and to the students, they were able to geocode 98% of the

students fairly quickly.

 

We commend the school district, specifically Darrell Miller, the MIS

director for sparing the taxpayers $37,000 in consultant fees, by

purchasing a software program at minimal cost and using existing staff

to update and customize the package. We hope that school board and

county officials recognize and duplicate these efforts. We also

encourage parents, students, teachers, and administrators to support

the school board and the long-range planning committee in this

difficult but unavoidable redistricting endeavor.

 

**

At our last monthly board meeting, we were fortunate to have the

director of Growth Management give us a presentation on one of their

latest projects.  In an effort to more accurately assess fees for their

services, this department has hired a consultant, for $63,000, to

ascertain how much time is spent at various functions and at what cost.

  The end result was a table of rates for services performed.

 

Reportedly, the consultant did no time studies, but interviewed various

department personnel to gather information on the amount of time to

perform each of the tasks, without regard to how a task could be

performed more efficiently.  We expressed our concern about this fact

and also inquired about possible comparisons with neighboring counties.

 

The resultant report recommended an increase in fees for almost all

services performed.  This information has not been presented to the

commissioners for approval yet, and we were assured that our concerns

would be addressed before this happens.

 

**

 

Our Annual Dinner is on March 20, 2003.  Our guest speaker this year is

most interesting and we do not have the space here to inform you about

him.  Please look for our bi-weekly articles to learn more about this

event.  We promise you won't be disappointed!