Brian Massie, Citizen Journalist
LFC attended our first Lake County Narcotics Board meeting. Patrick Hengst, Executive Director, welcomed us to the meeting, and was very understanding of the public’s right to know what is happening at the Narcotic Board meetings since they are funded by taxes collected from taxpayers.
Our public records request asked for the approved minutes of the meetings held in October, November and December 2022.
It is worthy to note that the Narcotics Board has accumulated over $4 million in cash from the taxpayers funding.
Here are their approved minutes. Some redactions are necessary to protect the identity of officers and cases not yet completed.
The question we have is: “Does the Narcotics Board need $4 million in cash reserves to operate?”
Is this just another example of the Lake County Budget Commission not being able to be the watchdog of excessive taxation because of Prosecutor Charles Coulson’s edict that once the taxpayers vote on a levy, the Budget Commission cannot reduce any excessive taxation.
We have NO ONE looking out for the financial interests of the Lake County taxpayers! Why would we vote for any levy again in Lake County? How do we know that the political subdivision is not asking for more taxes than they need?
When trust is broken between the citizen and their elected officials, can it ever be repaired?….Only with new elected officials is our thought. If the 1/2% sales tax goes into the General Fund to pay for the proposed Public Safety Center without a vote of the citizens, we predict there will be two new Commissioners in two years.
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Categories: Lake County - General