The Montgomery County Commissioners Courtroom unanimously handed a coverage this week to restrict the facility of “non-returning” elected officers.
Throughout their Tuesday assembly, commissioners for the county north of Houston mentioned and in the end handed a coverage that may not enable county and precinct officers to independently make choices concerning most property underneath their discretion throughout their lame-duck interval. The brand new coverage applies to officers who’re nonetheless in workplace after dropping a main or basic election, or who’ve determined to retire.
The coverage applies to “any car or motorized tools and some other merchandise having a worth over $5,000” that’s underneath the official’s management. Shifting ahead, the commissioners court docket should approve any choice concerning such gadgets.
Montgomery County Decide Mark J. Keough stated through the assembly that some sort of coverage was crucial to deal with considerations concerning how a lot affect lame-duck officers had on multi-year contracts that may lengthen past their time period in workplace.
“So, what now we have executed right here, is we have given you some choices,” Keough stated. “Any of those would work. My primary concern is that we shield the property of the group and the funds related to every of your departments.”
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The commissioners mentioned three totally different drafts of the coverage for roughly quarter-hour earlier than deciding to approve the primary draft. The opposite drafts would have gone additional than the primary by additionally limiting the unbiased expenditure choices of outgoing officers. Keough was the writer of the second and third drafts, whereas Keough and Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Grey co-authored the draft that in the end handed.
The commissioners have been torn on precisely how far the brand new coverage ought to go, with Grey arguing in opposition to one of many variations that didn’t cross. These would have required commissioners court docket approval for any expenditures exceeding $50,000.
“Whether or not I am a returning officer or non-returning officer, I’ve to do my job,” Grey stated. “If I am working with one other returning or non-returning officer, they’ve to have the ability to do their job and to place a timeline on it for 2 weeks for each time to make a purchase order simply doesn’t make sense for the taxpayers of the county.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley expressed an identical opinion to Grey’s, saying he was nervous about an official’s potential to get day-to-day operations accomplished underneath a extra limiting coverage.
“That is the primary time I’ve seen this, so what are we speaking about? We’re speaking about something over $50,000 to get permission?” Riley requested, referring to a different model of the proposal. “If I do 100 tons of asphalt in a day, I am unable to do it for $50,000 and I am not ready for 2 weeks to try this. That is not the best way this works.”
Keough, then again, stated that the extra aggressive language of that draft would forestall outgoing officers from beginning initiatives with out allocating the cash for them.
“I am simply involved that we do not get in the identical state of affairs we received in with Commissioner Wheeler, the place expenditures are being made and obligations to contract then come into the following finances and the cash has by no means been arrange or has been arrange from the previous,” Keough stated.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Ritch Wheeler, who was lately elected, indicated that the brand new coverage was predicated by a earlier county expenditure.
“The earlier administration went out and purchased one other division inside the county a $400,000 piece of kit,” he stated. “I am not going to name out a division and I am not even going to say that possibly we’re not going to learn from it. However, the straightforward truth of the matter is that they went out and purchased a $400,000 piece of kit simply to burn cash. And that is only one instance. That is not acceptable.”
Finally, the commissioners unanimously agreed to cross a coverage pertaining to property valued at $5,000 or extra. Nevertheless, Wheeler stated the court docket ought to revisit probably altering what financial gadgets should be mentioned in open court docket in order that gadgets couldn’t be hidden within the consent agenda.
“I can assist [the policy] so long as we come again with some form of an settlement on what goes underneath consent and what goes in open court docket,” Wheeler stated. “I believe if we’re going to signal a contract, renew a contract, lengthen a contract that places $60 million value of legal responsibility on our taxpayers, that must be in open court docket.”
