Flip Flop Season

(This is an article that was written for the Burleson Star, I said you probably won't see it due to its length, but the new publisher put the entire letter in his Sunday addition!  It is well over the 300 word limit, but then again so was Keith Kelly's letter. Seems he USED to get more space than anyone else in the STAR. )

I welcomed Mr. Kelly’s letter to the editor in the Sunday (6/12) Burleson Star for two reasons. First, it apparently  signaled the end to the Burleson Star’s requirement that letter must be 300 words or less and second, his comments completely contradicted those of the Chamber Board President when he said the use of the postage permit was not political, it was just a “perk” of being a chamber member.

It is America and we have freedom of association and the right to campaign and promote our causes. The problem is we should have to follow the law to do it. The Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit 501(c)6 organization. They can lobby for and promote their ideas to further business. What they cannot do is direct that effort into a campaign for a specific person. 

Mr. Kelly is a member of the Chamber board and therefore was involved and, in my opinion based on what I know of Mr. Kelly, he was probably the instigator of the use of the permit to mail campaign literature. He and the two members are also part of the Texas Patriot Tea Party in Burleson where Mr. Kelly also serves as a board member.  The Patriot Tea Party has made it no secret that they plan to take over all the elected yet non-partisan boards in Burleson, if not Johnson County.  Mr. Kelly counts himself as a political movers and shaker in campaigning. At least that is what his bio on the Tea Party website says.

While Mr. Kelly didn’t mention the Chamber fiasco in his letter he did describe in detail his views on the current City Council and his perception that they are a “tax and spend” bunch of liberals. He’s entitled to his opinion.  However, I would like to contrast his statements that elections have consequences with the subject that he uses as the basis for his complaint about the city leadership.

The city does have debt but, in part, due to city bond elections that were brought before the citizens of Burleson and passed. That is the consequence of people having a say about what they want to see happen in their city. Apparently, Mr. Kelly doesn’t like it when citizen have their say as to what they want in their city and even school district if it doesn’t agree with his agenda. You may remember Mr. Kelly as the chief prosecutor of the Burleson ISD administration and board during the last TRE election in October.

Mr. Kelly makes much ado about how taxes and spending are ruining our nation and I would agree with him, on some points, but I think that those things constitutional required on the federal and state level should be funded by the citizenry.  The Tea Party Movement would have you believe that any tax is un-American and deserved to be beat back as we have seen for the last nearly six months in Austin.  I have found their stance to be down-right fanatical on public education.  However, for someone that barks a good talk, Mr. Kelly seems to change his opinion about taxing whenever it suits him.

Consider that Mr. Kelly is also an appointed Commissioner on the Johnson County Emergency Service District board, commonly referred to as the fire board. In February 2010, he and his fellow Commissioners decided that they wanted to double the fire tax for country residents and called an election for May 2010. Not only did he apparently feel that doubling the tax was ok, he also felt that it was ok to allow publications on the ESD website promoting the passage of the doubled tax. He and the rest of the ESD board also allowed ESD broadcast equipment to be used to promote the call for all firefighters to pick up signs for distribution advocating passage of the tax measure. Mr. Kelly doesn’t let ethics rules get in his way either; so much for the “rule of law”.

 Less than three months after the ESD tax passed, Mr. Kelly became a board member for the newly formed Texas Patriot Tea Party.  It was at this point that he became a “no-tax” advocate. After being fed some disappointedly bad information, he began an assault on the tax increase proposed by the BISD. He was joined by a few of his pals, each with their own agenda, and proclaimed that the school district was lying about their deficit and were guilty of fraud.  (We will know soon if that deficit was real) As Mr. Kelly stated in his letter, the TRE was defeated by 8 votes, but he couldn’t leave it there; he wanted someone fired. This time he appeared before the BISD board and advocated a tax increase suggesting that if the superintendent was fired, he might support it. He then admitted to supporting the 2006 BISD bond program as a “friend of the district”.  So, is he a “no tax” patriot or what? How many times do you flip flop on your beliefs before you are found to be lacking in any?  

It is a sad day when a previously great organization that brought good press to the City of Burleson is reduced to a partisan, political operation. Those who have long stood proud to be a part of the Chamber and its true mission were displaced by those with a political agenda that will not serve all businesses of Burleson but instead will only be a mouthpiece for the Tea Party. 

What Goes Around, Is Coming Around - Part II

I have been waiting for The Star Group and the Cleburne Times-Review to publish a story about the audit of Johnson County financials. I have made phone calls for the last two weeks inquiring as to when those stories would be published. I have been told by Cleburne Times-Review it should be this week. The Star has made no such commitment. We'll see. This is basically the letter to the editor for The Star Group. The yellow highlighted section was added for this blog post and is not in the submitted letter due to word count restrictions.

I am aware that audit results for Johnson County were presented to the Commissioners’ Court on April 25, 2011. The audit, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, reported a significant increase in the unrestricted fund balance ($6 million was the number I heard) that according to the audit is due to rebounding property values. It is reported that Commissioners were unaware of this information until the report was released.

After reading the report, I found it oddly similar to the audit report issued for the Burleson ISD in November for the period ending June 30, 2010. As I recall, PCT 3 Commissioner Jerry Stringer was extremely vocal with his opinion of the BISD board and administration for not knowing about excess funds that were reported in their audit. I think that one would have to be totally blind to not notice how similar these two audits are unless there was some reason that prevented one from objectively looking at the situation.

While I find the audit reports of the county and the BISD perfectly acceptable in explaining why there was unexpected revenue, Commission Stringer must believe otherwise. When the BISD audit was released, Commissioner Stringer and friends took advantage of the report of under-projected revenue to make charges of malfeasance and mis-management. This leaves one to wonder how Mr. Stringer intends to spin the county audit report so that it doesn’t bring recriminations onto him and the rest of the Court such as he brought onto the BISD officials.

Mr. Stringer can say that he is not guilty of all I have laid out herein, but Commissioner Stringer knows it is true.  He sat behind me in the November BISD board meeting where the $5.1 million question was explained in public. I listened to his  rude, condescending comments made to another sitting nearby. He refused to accept any explanation for the excess revenue other than what he could condemn. . He left there with his notes and by December 1st, those notes were included in his friend and  ESD appointee, Keith Kelly's letter to the community published in the Burleson Star. Commissioner Springer and members of his family are known to have made disparaging comments around the community about how  our district officials. 

Commissioner Stringer became known by spending years at BHS as a Resource Officer. He then took the opportunity to turn it into an $80,000 job, attacking and besmirching the very district that gave him the public exposure to help attain his elected position. I call his actions extremely bad form. .

 

To make amends, it would be nice if Commissioner Stringer took the lead, compared the two reports and announced publicly that he had been wrong about the BISD.  However, it won’t undo the damage to those whose reputations and careers were affected by his unfounded accusations. What goes around always comes around.

Audit copy -

http://www.johnsoncountytx.org/webadmin/uploads/FY2010CAFR.pdf)

Just sayin...for the second time.

Ann Rose

What Goes Around...Is Coming Around.

Some interesting information came my way yesterday. Someone thought I might want to know about the goings on at the Johnson County Commissioner's Court meeting held Monday. I was informed that the Commissioners found themselves to be the proud owners of a previously "unknown" $6 million dollar addition to the County's fund balance. That's right, a governmental body found themselves in the position of not knowing that they suddenly had an extra pile of money.

Where have we heard this before?

OK, let's take this slow, refresh the grey cells a bit.  Imagine, an auditor makes an announcement that there is money in the bank that apparently the people in charge don't know about.  (In this case it was the County Judge and the Commissioners who didn't know it was there.)

For those of you who may have been living under a rock at the time, here's a hint. Last November when the Burleson ISD received an audit report that they had a $5.1 million dollar addition to their fund balance, with $2.8 of it coming from property taxes. (You might remember that the Superintendent of the BISD wrote a great letter explaining all that, but it didn't get published, so you may not have heard of it).

However, something different happened when this "found" money news was announced; no one announced it.

I called the Cleburne Times-Review and talked to reporter, Steve Knight. I asked if he was at  Commissioner's Court on Monday April 25. He said that he was. I asked if there had been any reporting of the previously unknown $6 million dollar addition to the county's fund balance. He said, "No, I"ve been busy with other things such as the beginning of the early voting and the funeral of the Sheriff Dept. deputy". However, he said he is planning on interviewing the Judge and will be getting right on it next week.

I then called the new publisher of the The Star Group, which includes the Burleson, Joshua, Keene and Alavarado Stars. I left a message and was called by Paul Gnatt. I asked if the Star Group had covered the Commissioners' Court on Monday. He said that they do cover the Court. I asked if there had been a story about the "found" $6 million dollars in the fund balance made up of mostly tax revenue? He said that they are going to cover that story but "they have just been busy with other things". I said, "Like the beginning of early voting and the funeral?". He said, "Yes, but we are going to get on that next week". (First let me say, the death of the officer is a tragedy and I bear no ill will that the story has been covered-they were right to do it).

But I would like to make a point: that was NOT the way the school district was treated when their audit report came out! Headlines were blaring that "found" money was sitting in the district coffers and no one knew anything about it. It was a big surprise to everyone!

Then a half-page Letter to the Editor appeared in the Burleson Star on December 1st charging that all the administration was corrupt and incompetent. There were calls for "heads" to roll if they had anything to do with the district finances. It didn't seem to matter that the Finance Dept had won awards celebrating transparency in government and "Excellence in School Accounting" someone had to pay.

There was talk about criminality, lying and disappointment was all over the community. Nice people were writing letters to say how offended they were and angry that they had "trusted" the district only to learn they had been hiding money.

Maybe you remember now without any further prompts.

I wonder how Commissioner's Court will explain this breach of fiduciary responsibility? After all, each Commissioner sits on that Court and makes decision about tax rates and assessments; they read reports and review collection data. Why didn't they know? Wasn't the money in the bank prior to the closing the books? Why did Johnson County tax payers  have to wait for the auditor to tell the people in charge that they had collected an extra $6-7 million dollars in taxes?

Oh Yeah, wasn't the Commissioner of Precinct 3, Jerry Stringer,  involved in questioning the professional ability of the school district to take care of their financial affairs due to their accounting mishap? I believe that he and his Emergency Services District appointee, were both out in the community proclaiming that our school district is being run by incompetents and someone should resign.

 Well, Commissioner, who should resign now? Whose fault is it that you and your fellow commissioners as well as the County Judge didn't know that the Barnett Shale was going to provide such an  increase in tax revenues? Tell me why you didn't know back in July that there would be extra tax revenue and it was going to be adding to your fund balance.


How do we know there wasn't some "back room" deal or sinister motive behind all that extra tax money? Wasn't it sitting in the bank all this time? Doesn't anyone in the County reconcile the county check book? What kind of accounting staff does the County have anyway, Commissioner?

I can almost hear the legal engines of the Texas Patriot Tea Party roaring! I'm sure they are already working with their Austin counsel to file a writ or something or another against these derelicts as I'm typing!! I'm assuming they treat all government officials the same, right?

Well, I look forward to reading next week's issues of the Cleburne Times Review and the Burleson/ Joshua / Keene/Alvarado Stars about where this surplus money came from and what excuse the County Commissioners have for not knowing about $6 million dollars lying around in their bank account for several months.

Whatever the excuse, it is probably the truth...

Just saying...

Ann Rose

Mountain out of a Mole Hill - The Ultra Right in Texas

The April 17th Ft. Worth Star Telegram presented a feature article or "expose" if you will, of the outlandish salaries of administrative assistants to the superintendents of Texas public schools.  Isn't it funny how most people think other people make too much money?

 The article discussed the salaries of several North Texas school districts and the salaries paid to those employees that work directly for the Superintendent. I find it humorous that the ultra conservative who was pointing out the waste associated with the inflated salaries being paid for this position was only talking about one or two employees per district!  Her other point was they are paid a lot more than teachers even with a Master's degree. Did it occur to her that administrative assistants have degrees too?

Teachers should be really enjoying the limelight for this brief moment in time. It wasn't too long ago that teaching was considered the career of last resort. Now, it's a profession that seems to be untouchable. Good for them. But, while saying that, must we demean other careers or professions that are honorable and also vital to the smooth operations of a school district? The truth of the matter is, behind every successful CEO or school superintendent is a great ad min. Someone has to have their backs. There are too many things that are too important to slip through the cracks. Many, if not most, ad mins have college degrees. Many have come up through the ranks and know the district inside and out. Many have years of experience and a lot of responsibility.

The ad min is not the first to go when superintendents change. Most smart new superintendents depend on seasoned ad mins to teach them the district ropes. Go out on the open market and see what an executive administrative assistant makes. It's not peanuts.

Also, another totally unfair salary comparison is to look at teachers on 187 day contracts and administrative assistants on 227. If a teacher makes $46,000 working 187 days, a comparison to the administrative assistant would be to take the teacher's $245.98 a day earnings and multiply it by 227. That would equal $55,837. It seems no one remembers that summer vacation.

For one to make a wholesale assumption that the work of an executive administrative assistant is somehow not important, as professional,  or as worthy as a teacher's is a wrong assumption. They are just different. Everyone should be compensated for their chosen profession as the market place will allow. Certainly the ultra conservative can find something better to hang their hat on than cutting the salary of one or two people in an entire district.

I have a suggestion. Why not start with the amount of money spent developing new tests for students to take every few years. Let's see, we started with the TAAS, then we got the TAKS and now we will have the STAAR. All this testing comes with a price, however.

In the year 2000, TEA paid $9.8 million a year for a five year contract to develop and administer mandated state wide testing to students. In 2009, it had grown to $93 million a year. No telling what it is for 2012 when they introduce the new STAAR end of course testing. Not only is it an outrageous amount of money on the state level, it has expensive implications for every school district. Testing days for high schools will potentially go from 25 a year to 40. That means substitute teachers so the classroom teacher can be out of class monitoring. It mean more training so that teachers can learn how to teach students to write with brevity after years of requiring that writing be descriptive. It also means that a classroom teacher will be preparing some students for STAAR testing and others for TAKS testing if multiple grades are in one class, which is the case in high school.

Schools are to be held accountable, but they should at least have a target that doesn't blow like the wind every time the legislature is in town!

Just for the locals - the Burleson ISD executive administrative assistant, Mary Ellen Burch,  is no light-weight. She has a BS in Elementary Education, with a minor in English and Math from TCU. She taught fifth grade in Arlington ISD for ten years where she was also GT certified. She has been in the BISD since August of 2003 when she assumed her current position after the promotion of Judy Brazeel to Assistant Director of Community Education. I didn't ask her pay rate, but I'm ok with what ever it is...

Just sayin'
Ann Rose

No Much Fact but A Lot of Fiction!

This post is an answer to the Letter to the Editor in the Burleson Star published in the 4/3/2011 edition. This letter is three times the length that the Star will publish but all the information is important so I'm posting it all here now. By Monday night.  Click here , download and print the letter in order to read it. All this is proving once again,"Figures don't lie, but liars figure"

.

There has been a lot of press these days about teacher layoffs, mainly due to those districts that incentivize retirement of those eligible and the termination of probationary contract holders. However, those were mainly maneuvers to decrease payrolls cost with less experienced and cheaper workers as well as reduce legal costs should the budget crisis intensify in the legislature as budget deadlines approach.

The real losers in this political rhetoric battle are the administrators that are being blamed for everything but the war in Libya.  One thing that should be noted is that all administrators were once teachers. However, just as any business model in America, there has to be a supervisor and  a CEO. Teachers cannot be successful in today’s educational world without a support group of other professionals, again, all who used to be teachers. 

Senator Shapiro would have one believe that the state provides a curriculum that comes ready to be distributed to teachers who then pops the top and applies evenly to every student. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In this day, every student has a right to learn in his/her preferred method, if they meet certain criteria for need. To insure this, each teacher will have multiple modifications to make to fit the different students who have individual educational plans to be implemented. Our own district has had an increase in students in need of remediation and extra services in the last 15 years.

However, to be fair, it would be good to look at the numbers that the 4/3/2011 Burleson Star  letter to the editor writer provided in a different context.

Professional public school employees are paid by the day. Teachers are paid for 187 days as a rule. Administrators are paid 207 or 227 days. Neither get any paid holidays or paid Christmas and Spring breaks. They don’t get paid except when they are teaching/administrating, in training or on leave. Their pay for those contract days is spread over 12 months, giving the illusion that they are paid for the same amount of time. In Burleson, a first year teacher is paid $231.02 a day. An assistant elementary principal on the minimum pay scale is paid $246.00 a day. However, that administrator has already been a teacher for 3-5 years, has a Master’s degree and has earned an administrator’s certification.

Also,  as evidence that Burleson has attempted to maintain quality teachers in the classroom they have put their money where their mouth is. Over the last 15 years, from 1995 to 2010, the average salary for teachers has increased 61%, more than for any other professional staff classification. Professional support staff were next at 50%, Central Office professional increased by 49% and the lowest increase was by Campus Administrators at 40%. While teachers comprise 47% percent of total staff in 2010, Central office and campus administrators make up only 4% combined. Professional support comprises 9% and educational aides come in at 10%. Ask any teacher if they would willingly give up their aides. It is also good to note that Central Office and Campus Administrators have not increased in percentage of staff in the entire 15 years from 1995 to 2010. Professional support (4%) and aides (2%) showed some increase with the largest being auxiliary staff by 7%.

 TEA’s website does not support the numbers listed in the Burleson Star’s 3-2-11 Letter to the Editor. The actual number for operating expenditures per student in 2005 was $6310 and in 2009, (most recent year that TEA has published) it was $7601. Certainly not a 247% increase as was stated. I would suspect that the writer took the liberty to misinform by using the total expenditures of the district in 2010 which included the total bond sale for five elementary schools and one high school . Should that be the case, the number would return to normal once all the bonds are sold and bills are paid. However, TEA reports per student costs on operating and instructional expenditures only.

Finally, one last erroneous statement needs to be addressed;  that some BISD neighborhoods have seen a 300% increase in taxes in the last 20 years. Perhaps, but if true, their property values have increased by as much. Taxable property value per student in 1995 was $131,400. In 2010, it was $361,903. Also, records on the district website indicate that from 2001 to 2010, the total tax rate for BISD was lower in the last 3 years than it was the previous 7 years;  $1.68, $1.82, $1.78, $1.75, $1.75, $1.74, $1.59, $1.41, $1.47, $1.54. It’s a certainty the owners wouldn’t want to sell that property today for what it was valued at 20 years ago.

Try as they might, those who want to find fault with the BISD’s efforts to be good stewards of district resources and provide the best education possible for its students, will fail. Our students are achieving and our schools are operating with efficiency. Anyone that says otherwise, just doesn’t know the facts.  Just sayin'   Ann

Death Panels in Texas??

How much will it cost us to recover from the financial impact of the cuts being made in the Texas Legislature? The Burleson Star actually had an interesting article by Lee Hamilton on their Editorial page Wednesday. Hamilton has served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Indiana. I didn't even look up if he was an R or a D. It didn't matter. What he said was the truth for either party when they win elections lately.

The article was about the general topic of pollitical "over-reach". My application of that concept is that the Republican win that created a huge majority in the Texas House is being interpreted by the Tea Party and those controlled by them as a mandate to do their extremist agenda in a extremely conservative state. Pre-legislative polls said what the people of Texas wanted and what they didn't want. They didn't want education and health care for children, elderly and disabled cut. Yet, what are these politicians doing; they are in Austin, doing exactly that. (To see info about these polls seem my February posts "....Make'm Listen".)

The issue of "no new taxes" applies to Washington because they have been spending like drunken sailors. That is not the case in Texas. The recession does not need to be dealt with the same in Texas as it is in Washington. Yet, the Texas Tea Party crowd wants more blood out of that ole turnip. Not one of their priorities involves education. Yet, they say they care about education. The Tea Party complained that Obama's health plan had provision for "death panels". Simply put, there would be groups of select individuals that would decide who got treatment and who didn't. Then those deemed too old, too insignificant, or too poor would get counseled that it was best to accept their prognosis and go on and die. This week, the Texas Legislature decided that the expected 2000 new HIV+ patients in the next bienium that need help paying for life sustaining medications will be out of luck - they won't be funded. It's the same "death panel" concept minus the counseling.

Why doesn't that outrage us?? Because it is HIV? Because their behavior led to their illness? You know, some people get HIV in a very unknowing and innocent way such as an unfaithful spouse, a blood transfusion, needle pricks, etc... Not everyone engaged in risky behavior that is in need of the very very expensive, life-saving drugs. Politically, it is easier to save Grandma's nursing home payment than an HIV+'s person's life. Both are important.

Interestingly, I've found that some  TexasTea Party groups  have prayer pages on their blogs and websites. Some posted prayers for God to bring back the principles our great County was founded on. I agree. But, maybe they should be praying that HE bring back their compassion as well.

Just sayin'

Ann

P.S. IF you haven't read my post about the truth about the Burleson ISD as opposed to the untruths told by the Texas Patriot Tea Party during the TRE election in October 2010, please read my post, "You Want the Truth?...". It's long but the links are important to read.

You Can Always Find a Knuckle Head When You Need One

Well, the Yong Republicans came out with the revelation of the entire 2011 Legislative Session, didn't they?
Yep, they announced that Teachers and Administrators are now at a 1:1 ratio! That's right, all those people in the lunch room, driving buses, cleaning the bathrooms, and mowing the lawns are now adminstrators. I bet they are wondering where their salary went. One thing for sure, the average administrator salary will be going down for the first time in years! Can you believe it? I'm sure the Tea Party crowd have been cringing all week wondering how they are are going to over-come this dufas act and be taken seriously again. Wasn't it bad enough that Lt. Governor Dewhurst thumbed his nose at them and announced this weekend that "they", I guess meaning the legislature as a whole, can fully fund education, and even add to it, fully fund higher education, Medicaid and keep all those prisoners locked up by just sweezing out a little more investment out of the Texas Land Foundation, sell off some unused state land and cut other things that he just knows they are gonna pull out of a closet no one has looked in for two years. Dewhurst just delivered that statement like he had never heard of a Tea Party. Shoot, the Tea Party doesn't even want the Legislature to use the Rainy Day Fund (the vote is tomorrow in the House, I think). You think they want to sell off land??? We might need that land when the dollar fails to build bunkers on to keep roaving New Englanders from stealing our beef jerky. So, I can't wait to see what is going to happen now with the Tea Party group. We will probably see an "encouragement rally any day now at the State Capitol". They use the description "encouragement rally" because they don't want to be confused with those rioting union thugs" when they threaten to break arms and knock heads if someone doesn't do what they say.... But I digress.

But, if you think the Tea Party crowd have it bad, just think about how embarrassing it is for the educators who taught those Young Republicans how to add, subtract, divide and multiply. The only spin that I can think of in this situation is, "Do you want our kids today to turn out like those Young Republicans that went to school when there was only one administrator for five teachers?" After all, they couldn't get a ride to school, no one fed them breakfast or lunch while they were learning, and they had to wade through all that trash and high grass  to get into the building.

Just sayin'

AR

You Want the Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!

 This is a long and involved article with links. Will you take the time to know the truth?

By now, many people have read or heard about the Financial Accountability letter written by the BISD Superintendent and read at the February 28th school board meeting. That letter went out the next day to every parent who has an email address registered with the district. I’m sure it has been forwarded to many others. Wednesday, March 9^th edition of the Burleson Star reported on its contents as well. The Star did a good job of balanced coverage, in my opinion, but didn’t report the entire letter. For those of you that want to read it, you can access it by clicking here. 

It appears that last week’s release didn’t spur any feverish letters to the editor so far, but who knows what The Burleson Star’s Wednesday's edition may bring. However, I’m sure the  Burleson STAR”s new editor’s stringent enforcement of the 300 word limit may be keeping some of the more prolific letter writers silent – it has me. But, I do feel that I need to make some statement about the letter as well as some other “truths” that have gone unsaid for too long,  so here goes-

 I am totally supportive of the content of Superintendent’s letter and view the fact that it was written at all as a milestone in the district. I've known Mr. Crummel for more than a decade and I believe the meeting when he read the letter and gave other recommendations to the Board was one of his finest hours.

Many say they want to know the “truth” yet they don’t feel they get the whole story sometimes. The reason for this feeling is that when governmental entities have political pipe bombs thrown at them by HATERS, those who have motives other than to be informed and participate openly and honestly in our governance system, district officials are reluctant to even defend themselves from such accusations or even to attempt to give explanation or factual information as to why such allegations are incorrect. This is because those who are just banging the drum to create noise rarely have any interest in the truth but only want to insure further chaos to confuse and frustrate. Sometimes engaging in the fracas comes across as defensive and can lead to even more misunderstanding and mistrust as Jeff Gill voiced as his opinion in the Burleson Star article. You should know that Jeff Gill is a former and CURRENT school board candidate running against JoAnne Smith.  But I digress.

Honest people want the truth but are mistrustful because they have been burned in the past. I am sure that some of those that voted "yes" in the district TRE feel betrayed because the newspaper and some of the most vocal people in town told them they were. I can't and don't blame them for feeling that way. It has taken me three months of research to come to the firm conclusion that they are wrong. It is my hope, that their faith can be restored so that our school district can continue to grow and be successful.  At some point, everyone has to move on.

Others that opposed the district, I call the HATERS, never will accept the truth because they have an agenda and they won’t let facts get in their way. Many times, this agenda is motivated by a personal or political agenda against someone or in an attempt to gain something they want (like a political office, perhaps). In this case, it is my opinion, that those that I call HATERS are motivated by a desire to see the Superintendent discharged from his position due to a personal agenda. They are joined by others that have a political reason, either to stay in office when they feel threatened or want to attain a position they seek. This is where I throw in my favorite quote from a Tom Cruise movie. Tom is hammering away at Jack Nicholsonm a superior officier,  in "A Few Good Men".  "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!". Of course Nicholson's character is about to get hauled away and court-martialed for bad acts, but it really is a good line and I wanted to use it!!

During the October 2010 TRE election a group of sundry elected officials decided to instigate an assault against the current school administration and board by disputing the validity of a deficit budget projection for the 2010-2011 school year. Because the State is in charge of providing the necessary funds to provide Texas children a free public education, many Texas school officials were concerned that formulas set in 2006, with no inflationary factors attached, were going to see no relief in the upcoming legislative session. They believed this because as early as last summer (2010), warnings had already gone out that Texas was going to have a huge multi-billion dollar deficit. As many districts, including Burleson, were already cutting budgets to deal with the lack of formula adjustments, they were rightly questioning what was going to happen if the State did not step up and adjust funding for the growing student population in the coming bi-ennium . Burleson is one of the fastest growing areas in North Texas, although growth has slowed for the time being. Burleson even had a citizen's committee that met numerous times to discuss the need for a TRE since the Fall of 2009. This was no "seat of the pants" decision. It started with the previous administration.

As the much discuss TRE began to become more certain, there were those who felt the State, as well as those that represent Texas citizens at the State level,  shouldn’t be blamed for the approaching school funding crisis. It was also an election year and certainly one characterized by a “no tax” chant of Tea Party members across the United States. Perhaps it was an honest quest for some people at first. Unfortuately, what could have been an opportunity to have a dialogue about our increasing revenue opportunities for BISD to weather the impending revenue crunch the district was going to face, turned into a situation where those who were attempting to avert any responsibility for the funding dilemma now joined the HATERS. They made use of the current "no tax" sentiment for their own purpose. That is why I do not critize those who voted "No" to any increase in tax as a personal philosophy but see them separately from those who used the "no tax" position as a political ruse to cover the real motivation. I believe this because one of the leading accusers and HATERS who wrote the damning letter to the Editor on December 1, 2010, and was instrumental  in the Patriot Tea Party filing the ethics complaint against the BISD appeared before the school board on January 24, 2011 and addressed the board in the open forum time. After taking time to make comments about the Superintendent's failure to be truthful with the community during the TRE campaign, this person informed the board that the community was distrustful of them and when they went into closed meeting that evening to discuss the Superintendent's contract they needed to make some "hard decisions" to win the community back.  In my opinion, the decision suggested was to fire the Superintendent. He further purported to be a "friend of the district" and reminded the Board of his support for the bond program.  He further added, "He thought it was time for another tax increase due to the State budget crisis". Again I assume this was intended to convey to the board that if they took the right action, he would not oppose another TRE effort "because the state is in a budget crisis". Click here to hear his statement (It should be Track 01 under unknown album). The unmitigated gall of a person that led a charge against the district due to a  personal bias,  pretending to stand on principle of "no taxes" and then come to the very district that he helped prevent a needed tax increase in just months before and suggest that they needed to have another TRE!!!! All of you that wrote "Letters to the Editor" charging that the district should "live within it's means" should be shocked by this wonton display of hubris!!

On this same topic ,  I was  told by someone that I generally have great respect for and an associate of the person mentioned above, "no one knew the state deficit was going to be so bad". So, I guess there is some regret with some people that the district was dealt such a hard blow in the TRE defeat.

On the matter of revenue projections. Because the Barnett Shale has increased property values over the last decade, it has been a slow steady, growth and somewhat under the radar. However, in the last few years, that growth, especially in personal property assessment accelerated. (Click here for a look at these property assessments over the last decade) The district had a more than decade old policy of not using protested tax assessments as part of their calculation for projected revenues. This had been a process that had worked for many years. It was a win-win situation. The district usually had sufficient revenues to cover expenditures and faced no end of the year shortages that had to come out of fund balance and if there were excess funds, it would go into the fund balance account as undesignated reserves. This is the ONLY way to increase the reserve toward the TEA recommended goal of two months plus of operating expense. It also was a God-send as it improved the district’s bond rating at the time when the district was engaged in the biggest bond sale in its history. This saved untold amounts of money in interest.  Click here to see a comparison of fund balances for Johnson County schools and others. Joshua certainly has a healthy balance for their district size.

The HATERS who have accused the district of deception have cited the most recent addition of under projected revenue to the fund balance as evidence of “sand bagging” and lying about having deficits in the last three years as reported during the TRE campaign. This severely undermines my belief that those who accuse the district really have any understanding of budgets at all. (I guess that SMU MBA was a waste!) . The Legislature has a list of expenditures for the next two years that the State Comptroller says can’t be covered with current revenue. They also have a type of “fund balance” it’s just called the “rainy day fund”. State officials say they are reluctant to use it because, “What happens if it rains harder the next biennium? Why can these BISD HATERS not see the similarity in the State budget situation and the one we have at home? Why is the BISD adminstation liars and the State officials are not? You can't have it both ways.

A fund balance does NOT prevent you from having a deficit; it only allows you to cover your short fall if you chose to use the money to do so. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a deficit such as the Patriot Tea Party members were chanting at the Admin Building on October 16^th. Click here to see how the fund balance was build since 2006 and the public documents that showed that build up that was always available for the public to see.

 I attended the board meeting in November, 2010 when the supposedly “found money” was discussed (click here to see the breakdown of this revenue presented at the November board meeting) after the 2010 audit release and I never heard the board president say that if they [the Board] had known  about the 2010 surplus of revenue, they would have not done the TRE. I heard the statement, “We might have made a different decision”.  I took that to mean that the board may have used some of the fund balance and asked for less in the TRE. I can’t foresee any Board averting a TRE by using $5 million of their fund balance when they still had a legal option for raising revenue on the table: that of setting a tax rate above the $1.04 level which would trigger the TRE. The HATERS would have you believe that raising your tax ceiling to $1.17 was equal to charging up all your credit cards. Baloney! The State Legislature made that the mandatory method for securing additional funding so school districts wouldn’t rush to get more money from the State at the next opportunity. Our own representative to Austin, told board members to go home and ask your voters for a raise. After two years of discussion, which included community members, there was a decision to adopt a budget that required setting a tax rate above $1.04. This action triggered the TRE.

There were other things that this group of HATERS didn’t like and attacked the district for that need to be set straight.

1.  The district didn’t lie about cutting staff from 2008-2010. Click here and see the information that will show how the district trimmed staff to insure that the increasing student enrollment was covered by the classroom teachers necessary. Click here to see a list of changing demographics in the BISD and why it is necessary to increase staff that work with at-risk students but yet keep their staff/student ratios stable.  Click here to see ratios related to spending on administrative staff relative to student enrollment. Adminstrative staff spending has been low and is lower in 2010 than it was in 2006.

2.  The district said they had not received increased “per student” funds from the state since the formula was set 2006. Representative Orr provided a copy of legislation that he says gave districts additional funding to begin in 2011. The amount is estimated to be $120 a student more if a complicated formula says you can have more). The failure to mention this funding was viewed as a lack of integrity on the part of the BISD. I have yet to hear one Superintendent mention this additional funding in any on camera interview. Perhaps, because by the time it was signed, it was basically a teacher pay raise bill and did nothing to assist the other costs of the districts as intended. In fact, 99% of the funding under this bill went straight to techer pay raises for 2009-10 and 2010-11.  Click here to read the legislation Representative Orr provided to me. Click here to read an interpretation of the entire HB 3646. Click here to read the opinion and summation of the effects of the additional revenue intended to assist districts but resulted in hurting them instead.
     
      Click here  to see information about the level of state funding given to BISD in the last 4 years. You can see that when property taxes move, state funding goes the opposite direction. The year where they meet in the middle was when the State was attempting to equalize funding between the state and local property owner.- ground zero. You can see they go in the opposite direction afterwards. Also please note the audited revenue column. You will see that the amount of state aid decreased in 2009 and 2010 just ask stated by BISD officials in TRE literature. There was documentation provided by our State Representative indicating that there was more state aid provided than the district represented. However, that printout included I&S funding as well as M&O funding which was the object of the TRE. Also, the state uses ADA in its ratio with FTE instead of Enrollment. However, teachers and staff have to be in place to teach students enrolled because you hope they show up. ADA only deals with the days that those students show up. I assume the incentive is to get them to come to school. However, it is not a true picture of the of staff justification.

3.   Another charge that was made by some in the community was that other districts in Johnson County were able to balance their budgets and BISD was not able to do so. Click here to see a comparison of Johnson County school districts and data supporting the claim that the BISD is not fairly compensated by the state (see percent of budgets from State formulas). Note that BISD has a lower percentage in state aid than other districts in Johnson County. The district’s M&O rate is also lower than some of the others but the over-all rate is higher.  This is because the I&S rate is set to  pays for the bonds that were sold with over-whelming voter approvals. Two replacement elementary schools, three new elementary schools plus one new high school are being paid for with that $.50. (Plus remaining bond on previous construction at BHS). Those individuals that complained about higher taxes to cover operating expenses (TRE), but voted for the bond program, need to take responsibility for their bond vote and stop complaining.

5.   The HATERS stated that the district "sand bagged" and tried to cover up revenue by under projecting revenue from local taxes. Click here to see documentation from the last four years showing where the district amended revenue projections up and state projections down (1), each year with the attempt to more closely reflect tax receipts. However, due to the size and suddenness of the increases, local revenues were still under projected.  (shaded areas reflect amended final budgets compared to original budget). The district has made it very clear that they have moved to insure that this cannot happen again.

6.   Gas lease revenue was never hidden. It was shown on the monthly budget report and available in the board packet provided to Trustees and available online after each regular meeting. Click here to see documentation. See end footnote.  The audited statements included mineral leases in “local and intermediate” income. However, this item was broken down for reporting on schedule B-1 and reported as “misc. local and intermediate sources”. Click here to view page.

7.   Other complains by the HATERS, including those made to the Texas Ethics Commission may or may not have basis for a complaint in regards to advocacy. There was one statement, such as the title of the brochure, initially. However, this was changed on the second printing to “Tax Ratification Election”. The HATERS cited the district as saying, “The district is asking for voter approval…”. That was a line from a newspaper story. The district didn’t write the story and they have no responsibility for how the newspaper reporter or editor reported it. Another allegation was the district lied when it stated that Joshua had a successful TRE. It was not a lie; there was a TRE and it did pass. The fact that they provided a “swap” wasn’t relevant. (A “swap” means JISD took $.13 off the I&S rate of $.50 maximum and move it to their M&O already at $1.04, leaving the district at $1.17 the maximum rate for M&O (with voter approval).  This allowed JISD to make use of some of the remaining I&S cap that was sitting unused.  By the way, Burleson was unable to perform this “sleight of hand” as they were already at the State maximum of $.50 due to the most recent bond passage.

8.   Another complaint was the fact the election was October 16^th instead of the general election day of November 2, 2010. The HATERS applied all kinds of motives to this decision to which the district responded with their own reasons. However, the district officials and board have a duty to do what is best for the district at large and as long as the decisions are within the law as clearly defined, and they were, it is just a matter of opinion. Love it or hate it, it’s your choice but the district did nothing unethical by scheduling it as they did.

9.   There was some upset that the district had early voting opportunities at various public school locations. The principals may have been asked or decided on their own to hold special events at their schools that coincided with those voting opportunities. On site early voting has been a practice used in the BISD since the 1995 bond program that built the new BHS. Yes, it gives more opportunity to vote to EVERYONE. Yes, parents of current students are more likely to attend. Yes, parents are more likely to know about the opportunity to vote at their local school. HOWEVER, all voting locations and times were public information. The information was printed on all the TRE brochures and in the newspaper. Public meeting were held throughout the community at churches, civic clubs, the schools, and other places so that anyone interested could be informed. There are those that claimed that this was still unfair and exclusive. They are welcome to their opinion but there was nothing exclusive about any polling site. Not all parents or teachers voted for the TRE. Many were very vocal about their opposition and were even members of the Patriot Tea Party group. There was no way to assure that anyone would vote for or against just because of where they voted.  There was nothing illegal or unethical about the practice of multiple voting sites. Love it or hate it-but get over it.

10. There was a claim that teachers and school employees were threatened with job lose and harassed. There is no evidence that any staff member or teacher was told how to vote in any format during the TRE. No teacher was told specifically that his/her job would be eliminated if they didn’t vote for the TRE. All staff were told they could not tell students or parents, on school time, on school property, using school equipment or in their official capacity, how to vote. However, school employees can, on their own time, using their own resources, participate in PACs that advocate for the passage or defeat of any measure, whether school related or not. There could have been some cases where staff members, feeling the strain of budget discussions, may have felt emotional panic about the potential of their job being cut due to the type of position in which they are employed being on a list of possible eliminations. There may have been a time when a teacher or coach improperly implored students or parents to vote for the passage of the TRE. It was never condoned, ordered or suggested. Any automated calls to staff or parents on the BISD call system were only encouragements to vote in the election.

There is more, but it will come later!

In the meantime, I'm just say'in....

Ann

Do They Hear What You Are Sayin? Make "Em Listen!

Yesterday I wrote an opinion about the State budget crisis and how it was affecting education K-12. Some online searching today gave me more information to back up my claim that if the Conservatives push too far on the cuts, they will find them selves in a Blue Capitol Dome in the next biennium. I might have to find me a bit more moderate Texan to vote for as well. Even a Texas Democrat can pass for a Republican in Congress.

This blah blah blah... coming out of Austin this week, such as David Dewhurst saying that he and Gov. Perry could be tied down, staked and tortured and they wouldn't raise taxes or  dip into the rainy day fund! That is nothing but lines from a bad movie script that ignores the duty they have to fund education as it should be in this State - a constitutional requirement.

How about taking the Education Stimulus money from the last Biennium that was meant for education and teachers and use it this year? That $3millioin + was supposed to be used IN ADDITION to the money the State was supposed to fund anyway. I worked on federal grants for seven years in the mental health field. The biggest no-no was to not use federal funds to supplant local funds.  Now, Perry is crying foul that the Fed's won't release education dollars unless he agrees to use the dollars as they are intended IN ADDITION to regular budget dollars.  I say, make sure the Governor doesn't have any more piles of money for his own use for "economic development"as he's had  for the last two years. Now that he used that money to bring all those Corporations here to create jobs, he needs to give some to the schools to educate the students that came with them.


Dip into the "rainy day" fund. Despite what some are saying about the purpose of the fund being for emergencies, like hurricannes, tornados, invasions from outer space; the fund was created for economic downturns. This is a downturn!
In the same poll cited below, 20% of Texans said use all or most of the fund to help the budget deficit. 43% said take a bit of it and 36% say don't use any of it (but save it for the space invasion). That's 63% that say use all or some of the fund to help weather this crisis. If Texas is truly is the healthy State that Perry says in his promos, it will rebound. But, it will not rebound if these drastic cuts are made. It will be like starting over again.

The only thing other than health care for the elderly, children and mental health care that I feel is more important than education spending is immigrations. It is because of poor illegal immigration management by the Feds that Texas has many of it's problems now. Health and Education are suffering due to the dramatic increase in those who are here illegally. Many are paid poorly by those who seek to misuse them due to their illegal status and use public medical facilities and ever district is required to education a child, legal or not, and can't even ask the question as to their status. The Hispanic population has grown so rapidly, more than half the state is now Hispanic. That's not a bad thing if they were all legal.

But back to the topic of education. State politicians cannot seriously tout improvements in education in Texas and then rip the financial footing that has provided the improvement out from under those that have been in the trenches working to improve student learning.

Each person that has a child in school needs to make their voices heard with their representative. Our State Representative has already picked up the water bucket and is carrying it for the most conservative GOP element. He has told me that teachers are over paid for the  supply and demand job market in Texas. He has cited examples of districts that are $8-10,000 behind on the entry level job pay scale for the Metro-plex and thinks its time to , if not reduce pay, let it simmer where it is for a while. 


State leaders are also passing the buck back to local school boards by telling them they have other options for income such as property taxes and " fund balances" to fall back on. Of course, some districts have Nuclear power plants and shopping malls, and the Barnett Shale, if they are lucky. Those that don't will just take a piece of those that do. Interestingly, many of these same Legislators are the ones that set up the finance system that we currently have in Texas that only gave districts a 4 cent ceiling to raise revenue from property owners without having a vote. That four cents has had to last five years and may have to last another two. In the economic climate we have today, the chances of passage is very small especially when the local representative gets involve and casts doubt on the veracity of the need for such increase. That's playing dirty ball and leave a lot of grim on his hands and a sick feeling in my stomach.

Texans believe that education spending is second only to medical care for the elderly, children and the mentally ill.  This is from a poll taken of 700+ Texas last Fall about the priorities for the 2011 Texas Legislature (see below). Texas lawmakers are ignoring this opinion. Someone has to make them listen.

Be that someone.

Just Sayin...

AR

Says it all:

"In a place [Texas] where government is already lean, there aren't many areas to make up that kind of cash [$27-31 billion]. The budget blueprint Texas' Legislature is mulling would mean layoffs for tens of thousands of teachers, closure of community colleges, and a severe reduction in state services for the poor and those with mental health problems". By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times  -  February 7, 2011 - Reporting from Austin, Texas  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-texas-budget-20110207,0,348... (I am loathed to quote from the LA Times, but truth is truth. I wouldn't be any better than those Democrats I criticize for refusing to speak the truth when it doesn't match the party line they play for. )

Texas Lyceum – State Polling of Issue Facing the 82^nd Legislature 2011

Q. 36 Which of the following would be your FIRST priority for maintaining or increasing

funding during the next round of state budget negotiations?

First Choice Second Choice

27% 26% Aid to public schools (K-12)

20% 22% Supplements to local school districts to offset property tax reductions

13% 11% Funding for universities and junior colleges

30% 33% Funding health care for the elderly, the mentally ill, and poor children

3% 7% Funding for prisons

6% 2% Don’t know/Refused/NA

http://www.texaslyceum.org/media/staticContent/PubCon_Journals/2010/Lyceum_Poll_Results_FINAL.pdf

Executive Summary of State Attitudes -

http://www.texaslyceum.org/media/staticContent/PubCon_Journals/2010/State_Issues_Executive_Summary_with_Charts_FINAL.pdf

Texas State Budget Woes Answer to Child Obesity

The First Lady has made child obesity her project just as Lady Bird Johnson championed the Texas Highways in her beautification efforts as the wife of President LBJ. Texas has found a way to implement her plan without even knowing it. Starve the public schools. That's right. Slit the throats of our public schools and the teachers will join the ranks of the unemployed  and those they support will certainly reduce the size of the obesity epidemic.

I don't usually highlight Democratic leaning quotes, but this one says exactly what I have been feeling for some time about the state of our Texas government leadership.

"In a place [Texas] where government is already lean, there aren't many areas to make up that kind of cash. [$27-31 billion]. The budget blueprint Texas' Legislature is mulling would mean layoffs for tens of thousands of teachers, closure of community colleges, and a severe reduction in state services for the poor and those with mental health problems." By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times

This is a quote that says it all for me. IF we are talking about the feds, there is real concern about what they have been spending millions on but that isn't true in Texas! Texas is not a "touchy freely" kind of state. When Grandma ends up living in your back bedroom and you have to lift her out of bed and to the toilet, you might rethink your battle cry of "no new taxes". You might also want to re-think your night time activities as it could be unsafe to go out at night when the prison population is reduced  by releasing "non-violent" offenders as part of the State budget deficit. You know, Al Capone was in prison due to tax evasion but it didn't mean he wasn't a bad guy.

This is the kind of thing that will silence loud mouth tea party conservatives over night.  Many "independents" can turn their vote on a dime and the State Legislature will be Bright Blue by the time they meet again. Most of our county officials are just RINO's, waiting for a chance to change their party affiliations back to Democrat. The Republicans take away and the Democrats give it back. You know what they say, "You only miss it when its gone". We'll all be saying that by the end of the summer and the politicians leave Austin.

 I am a Republican that has voted that way since Ronald Reagan. But, I believe there is a place for indigent care and I believe that the State has a constitutional responsibility to fund education. Certainly to fund education to the extent that they make laws requiring performance at a certain level and tasks beyond their mandate..

Take one of hundreds of examples: State required testing. Texas is changing to an "end of course" testing structure starting with next year's Freshman class, I believe. I sat in a meeting in our local district that gave an overview of the expected cost to implement that system, STARS, I think it is called. It was outrageous  how much expense is associated with implementing this new program across all grade levels. There are multiple times for students to test and each testing opportunity costs money-and lots of it.

So, are they going to just suspend testing? Is that what we want? Well, that would eliminate some administrative jobs but how are we going to know if students know what they are supposed to know? Do we really care? The state has made gains in the last few years in the area of student learning, but we still rank well below many other states; 45th in students completing high school and 47th in SAT scores according to a Democrat report on how Texas ranks in various areas of public services. called, "Texas on the Brink". (If the Repubs come out with something that conflicts with this information, I'll use their numbers. I seriously don't think they can find any numbers that will be any better than this, however.)

I had a conversation yesterday with a long time educator, now retired. His main concern was his retirement benefits and of course that is human nature and I'm sure I wouldn't be much different if I were in his shoes. (I'm just a step behind him). His opinion was that we can do without the 22-1 if we just got rid of all the needless requirements put on the schools by the State and the Federal government. He talked about having 35 kids in his class when he was a young teacher. He doesn't think today's teachers could deal with that because they are too soft( my interpretation). He may be right. I countered with my viewpoint that having 35 kids in an elementary classroom wouldn't leave much room for individualized attention and lead to drop outs. He countered back that we still have drop outs, not because of the class room attention they get, but because of the home environment that they are influenced by. That may be true.

Why do we still have dropouts when our system is geared to address every learning disability that a child evidences. Countless dollars are spent insuring that each child is offered instruction in the most meaningful way to them. One child can have one to two FTE's dedicated to their own personal educational effort. How is that equitable? Have we gone too far? Some say that "special education " is a scared word. I say, it should give a child an opportunity but not to the point that resource cost double or triple  per child  to the cost of a regular student unless completely compensated. We know that isn't going to happen.

Well, I don't have the answer, but I do know, the schools cannot be cut to the extent our state leaders are proposing and still provide the endless array of "services" that they are currently charged with providing.

The running joke used to be when one felt they were being blamed for more then they are responsible for, they would say, "I guess I'm now responsible for ending world hunger". Well, the schools have been told they are now responsible for curing world obesity -  by throwing them the bones in the state budget.

Just sayin...
AR

Hell Just Froze Over

Well, Hell has frozen over and I missed it. Yes, Monday night at the BISD board meeting, Keith Kelly addressed the board in the open forum (listen here) and just after he called the Superintendent a liar, he proceeded to tell everyone that he really did like the Burleson school district and thought it might be time for a tax increase in light of the Texas Legislature's budget deficit!! Is that rich? How confused would all those citizens that he convinced the district was rolling in dough be when they hear this?

Just over 3 months ago, Kelly was calling the BISD administrative staff criminals and liars and said they didn't need any tax increase they just "wanted" it.  I was half expecting Kelly to lead a charge against the State for saying they had a budget deficit before they had all of their revenue and expenses counted. He certainly told the citizens of Burleson that the BISD should have known all about their revenue surplus by May last year and certainly by July. Which was interesting since Kelly served as Treasurer of the Emergency Services District (EDS) for the last year of his two years on the board, he couldn't figure out how much revenue his board would have in order to put together a budget before mid September, 2010. Hummmm... sounds a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

So, what is the motivation for Kelly to appear before the board and make nice like that? Well, with everyone except the Superintendent. Some say that he was sounding the bell to run for the board. I find that unlikely but nothing would really surprise me as he is certainly appears to be unpredictable if he really is for a tax increase, NOW! I wonder what his fellow Patriot Tea Party board members think about that? I've not yet received a response to that question from Baker Graham, President of the TPTP.

I think it is unlikely that he will actually run for the school board as his re-appontment to the ESD this past Monday by his best friend Jerry Stringer as well as his prior re-election to the Treasurer's seat certainly should keep him busy especially since he enoys getting involved in day to day operations and making phone calls. With the amount of "funny business" uncovered in the most recent ESD audit, which was 100 days over due,  I would think he has his hands full.

I'm just sayin....

AR

Fiddling While Houses Burns

First let me say, I love firemen. Ever since the first grade in Borger, Texas when the big fire truck came to my school and a nice fireman gave me a red plastic fire hat, I have loved the idea of them. So, that said, I'll proceed.

Mr. Keith Kelly is part of the "ole boy's club" in Johnson County now. He was re-appointed to a two year position on the Johnson County Emergency Services District  #1- what most know as the Johnson County Fire Board.

 For a commissioner to oppose him would be to oppose one of the other county commissioners. That could result in a situation where one commissioner's own special project might be rejected sometime down the road. The Johnson County Commissioners chose the status quo because it is easier. I was especially disappointed in Commissioner Matthews for his lack of back bone. He did not reappoint his nominee, Mr. Reue, I believe because he knew that there needed to be a clean start with the new Executive Director and the last two years has not improved the situation with the ESD. He failed a crucial test by going alone and supporting Kelly's nomination.

No one  knew about the "problems" of the ESD for "years" we were told.  Mr. Kelly came on two years ago and has worked to "clean it up" according to his mentor and appointor, Jerry Springer. It's just a case of "kill the messenger" he went on to say. Mr. Kelly has a MBA and can work with the auditor to clear up years of problems with the ESD, THIS TIME.

Basically, anyone that has had two years to fix the financial situation of the ESD should have done so by now, unless they just made them worse. I hate to tell the commissioners this, but an MBA doesn't make you an accountant. It should count for something, but if you haven't gotten to the bottom of the problem that led you to be unable to complete your budget until the last minute, then you have a problem with where you got your MBA. I also took a little pleasure in hearing that the budget delay was due to problems with the board knowing how much tax receipts they were going to have. (This is an inside joke: Kelly was the chief prosecutor against the Burleson ISD when they were in the Tax Ratification campaign. He accused the school district of knowing how much money they had all along, when the audit released in November 2010 indicated there were more property tax revenue than had  been projected. Kelly even proclaimed to all the readership of the Burleson Star that the school district should have know how much income they would have in May. Funny that he didn't know himself in May about his own 3 cent tax levy. See here the violations of ethic laws in regards to political advertising that the ESD committed in their May 8, 2010 tax increase election. Amazing how similar they are to the ones he made agaist the BISD. I call it, "the pot calling the kettle black".)

 As for Commissioner Beeson's comment, that it was the responsibility of the executive director to submit reports on time should ask the 2009 Texas Legislature why they bothered to provide a means for  commissioners to remove appointees when they don't meet deadlines related to audits of the taxpayer's money!!  If Joey Reed, the former Executive Director was the one responsible for the audit delay, he should have been fired for it. However, he wasn't - Just as Mr. Kelly wasn't held responsible for the infamous phone message.

Basically, there were two laws violated in Mr. Kelly's message he left. One is under the Public Information Act. A governmental entity is "prohibited" from asking the purpose of an open records request. The other is in the Texas Government Code, "Misconduct of a Public Official". In his message of August 14, 2010 left on the recorder of Joshua Fire Chief Baker, Kelly said that the way the City of Joshua behaved [ by making an open records request for the previous year's audit] would decide whether they won the bonus of taxpayer money for "staffing". As I understand it now, this is referring to the employing of ESD firefighters to staff a volunteer fire department during the day and night so that someone is there to get the motor running when a call comes in. Since, the ESD says the standard staffing for a fire is six and the minimum is four- so that you can have two in the burning structure and two outside- I'm not sure what good it would do to have someone sitting there 24/7 ready to go if they have to wait for the other 3-5 volunteers to get there before they can respond. But, hey, I am a newbie to all this.
 It seems that right now, Commissioner's Stringer's home base, Alvarado is in the lead for the "pot of gold".  I think the last figure I saw for this feature was $880,000.00. I.m not saying there isn't reason for this status, it just seems odd that the newly re-elected Treasurer of the ESD (elected prior to re-appointment, too) is making an installment payment on that appointment.

The saddest thing to me is the woman that talked to me outside the court. She and her neighbors are the loser in Kelly's power grab. A neighbor's house burned to the ground recently as it took 45 minutes for the ESD to get the first responders to the fire, as they argued about whether to ask Joshua to do mutual aid. Joshua was staffed and and ready and were told to "stand down";  the ESD didn't need their help. Apparently, according to the fire chief of Joshua, they have mutual aid agreements with other departments but not with the ESD. That didn't suit the ESD, so they don't get to "play" when it comes to use of training facilities, and other amenities paid for by residents' taxes.

This is just an example of Mr. Kelly's threat on the phone, only this time, it was "if you don't play, you don't put out fires in the ESD territory". Someone needs a lawyer.

Just sayin'...

For another viewpoint on this subject, Read A. J. Mathiue's blog entry here.