Montgomery County Commissioner's Court 6/15/09

Background

The county commissioner’s court is composed of the county judge, elected county wide, and four county commissioners, elected within four commissioner precincts within the county. (See map.) The Montgomery County Judge is Alan B. Sadler. The four commissioners are Mike Meador (Precinct 1, North County), Craig Doyal (Precinct 2, West County), Ed Chance (Precinct 3, The Woodlands and Oak Ridge), and Ed Rinehart (Precinct 4, East County). Commissioners of precincts 2 and 4 are up for election in 2010.

The commissioner’s court controls the county budget and sets the county tax rate. It is responsible for maintenance of county roads, controls the budget for the sheriff’s department and district and county court system, funds the Montgomery County Library System and is responsible for indigent citizens. The members of the court are the core administrative structure of Texas government. In Montgomery County, the 2008 county budget was $200,702,107. Based on number of employees, the county is probably the second largest employer in Montgomery County. (The seven county school districts are first.)

Court Session

Agendas for commissioner’s court meetings and other county information are posted at the Montgomery County Web Site http://www.co.montgomery.tx.us. The June 15 meeting agenda may be viewed here.

Most county business is agreed to by all parties beforehand, thus most of the June 15 meeting involved a brief presentation by the interested party to transfer funds or approve a transaction, the County Judge asking for a motion to approve and second, those motions being made, and a 5-0 approval vote being given. Red flags are raised when:

1. 1. A commissioner feels a prearranged agreement has been misunderstood, forgotten, or broken. An example in this meeting occurred when an employee in a court position was recommended for promotion to a higher salary level. Mike Meador asked if the change he suggested had been made and the presenter of the suggestion said it had not. Questions were immediately raised by Meador and Sadler and the item was deferred until a change had been made. Reconsideration of the item later in the meeting resulted in the salary being approved at a lower level than was originally recommended. Lesson 1: Don’t ask for budget increases without doing groundwork beforehand with all commissioners. Blue Dog Democratic “Pay-As-You-Go” doctrine is alive and well in Montgomery County government regardless of commissioner party affiliation. If you want an increase you need to find the funds somewhere else in your budget. In public session, the court is Scotch with county money.

1. 2. Public testimony highlights a legal or public approval problem. An example occurred in this session on consideration of an order prohibiting certain fireworks in unincorporated areas of Montgomery County under certain conditions during the fourth of July fireworks season. A county employee requested such an order, but the largest fireworks business owner in the county pointed out in public testimony that the law requires such an order must be approved before the 15th of the month. Since today’s date was the 15th, the order would be legally void. Commissioners Chance and Meador focused on the “letter of the law” detail of the owner’s complaint until County Attorney David Walker asked for a deferral for a few minutes while his staff researched the law. Mr. Walker sent a member of his staff to research the issue. On his return, the item was addressed again and Mr. Walker quoted a section of state law indicating that expiration dates occurring on non-working days (the 14th was a Sunday) pushed forward the actual expiration date to the next legal work day, in this case the 15th. Given Mr. Walker’s legal opinion, the court approved the order prohibiting the fireworks under the required conditions. Lesson 2: Don’t put the court in a position where it could face legal liability or public opprobrium. Lesson 3: If you disagree with an issue before the court, get yourself on the agenda and state your position publicly.

Reflection

Most attendees at the meeting were public service employees looking out for their department and employees or interested private parties with financial interest in the transactions. I was and have been impressed with the professionalism of the public service employees of Montgomery County.

The preplanned nature of the meetings requires that members of the Commissioner’s Court be of high moral character. Any immoral “deal making” in the numerous items on the agenda will take place before the public session. Many such “deals” should leave tracks of a pattern of behavior that can be traced to an individual unworthy of the public trust.

If you disagree with an item before the court, get on the agenda and state your case.

Some cheese with that whine?

Montgomery County is earning a reputation for electing officials who don't know how to (or care to) comply with simple ethics laws. As if breaking the law wasn't enough, now these characters are threatening to cut off support for charity organizations if citizens continue to report them for breaking the law.

As The Courier reported, County Commissioner Mike Meador was the recipient of yet another TEC complaint. Among other things, Meador accepted contributions from corporations, which is not allowed. Meador's excuses read like a jr. high student whose homework was eaten by the dog.

"If it says 'incorporated' on the check, I don't take them" - Newsflash 2009: The majority of most corporations don't print "Incorporated" on their checks. This is not a viable way to check an organization's status.

"I cooked for the Chamber, and they paid me for the fish and cooking oil" - If that's the case, that should have been a personal reimbursement, not a contribution to the campaign. Or did he spend campaign money for fish and cooking oil for a Chamber event?

“We get tons of checks,” "It (the Twin Shores check) just slipped through. It wasn’t on purpose. To go and check every one would take days.” - I doubt he gets that many checks that have a questionable corporation status and even if he did, that's the cost of compliance. It's called following the law!

"I’ve had other elected officials tell me they’re going to quit giving to the fair and to schools. Who they’re (complainants) going to hurt here is the kids and schools.” I beg your pardon, but "complainants" are helping the Texas Ethics Commission enforce the law, correct? If he wasn't breaking the law, there wouldn't be any problem here. So either he is suggesting that he should be able to keep his illegal contributions for "the kids" or that the fines he is having to pay will come out of the campaign account he was using for "the kids".

1. The TEC has an obligation to enforce the law. If you don't like it, get out of public life.
   
2. Why are elected officials making charitable donations from their campaign accounts? Citizens make these contributions for a political purpose to help a candidate win an election. Why is the money being spent on an unrelated purpose? If someone wanted to give money to a fair or a school, they make a donation to the fair or the school.


3. If an official is being fined for their carelessness and disregard for the law, that official should be paying that fine from personal funds. It's not fair to the people who contributed to the campaign for their contribution to be wasted on a fine. If the official received a speeding ticket, would it be appropriate to pay that fine from campaign funds?


4. If an official is so concerned about the welfare of the charitable organizations they are contributing to, they shouldn't have a problem making these contributions from personal funds. To say that they can't make contributions because they're having to pay fines from their campaign account to the TEC is like saying you can't making your tithing at church because your brother didn't get his bonus check this month.
   

Continuing to fill tears into the river, Constable Don Chumley has had to hire an attorney and an accountant to keep up with all of the dough he's rolling in.

“It’s money I’m having to spend on that, that I could be giving to the fair and to schools,” “It will probably be $300 to $400 every time I go to the attorney; and the accountant, I have no idea.” - He's right about not having an idea.

First of all, the TEC laws are not complex. They ask you to complete a form, which can be done electronically to report what money you have received and what money you have spent from your campaign account. They require some very basic information on each contributor/payee, like their name, address, occupation and employer. To say that you have to hire an attorney AND an accountant to perform that task says that the Constable is incapable of keeping basic records. If he's incapable of keeping basic records, he needs to hang up his hat. But his complaints stem from not filing the semi-annual report on time. I guess he has to hire an attorney and an accountant to compensate for laziness.

Either these elected officials are incompetent, lazy, or unscrupulous. In any event, they should stop whining and simply follow the law that everyone else in Texas has to follow. If they can't do that, they should spare us the agony and let someone take their place who has enough respect for the law to send in a form twice a year with accurate information.

The Courier, 5/24/09