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
WoW....!
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