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.
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