The Dallas County Commissioners’ Court is faced with a $17 million shortfall in the budget as the deficit is expected to increase to $34 million by the end of fiscal year, 2008. State law mandates the County budget be balanced. Meanwhile County Commissioners pledged to not increase tax rates.

This leads to a precarious dilemma. Yet, startling information was revealed during today’s public hearing of the County Commissioners’ Court; apparently, the Dallas County Collections’ Department had bungled efforts to collect over a hundred million dollars worth of traffic fines and Commissioner Mike Cantrell had been aware of this bureaucratic mishap for quite some time.

Commissioner Maurine Dickey revealed the North Dallas Government Center at Walnut Hill and Marsh Ln. is an office in chaos that stores uncollected traffic fines paperwork issued by the constables, but the tickets dumped into boxes under a filing system in disarray. Thousands upon thousands of papers are piled together in a mess. Mrs. Dickey produced pictures for the Court to prove she isn’t exaggerating.

Many traffic violators in Dallas County haven’t paid their fines without facing any consequences, since county collectors have carelessly handled their duties.

In another ironic moment at the Commissioners’ Court today, Dallas County Budget Director Ryan Brown discussed plans for a hiring freeze, while at the same time announced the County celebrated one of the largest orientations in Dallas County history yesterday with the hiring of 54 new employees.

A week ago, the Commissioners’ Court considered exchanging the vehicle model of a police car from a Crown Victoria to a Ford Focus, but the idea was nixed after the Commissioners heard of numerous complaints from the constables and employees of the sheriff’s department. Many police officers attended today’s meeting to show their disapproval of a Ford Focus cop car, but Sheriff Lupe Valdez was noticeably absent.

Instead a compromise was reached as the County will conduct a one-year test pilot of using the Ford Fusion for the constables and sheriff’s department. Nonetheless, some constables expressed concern that all the necessary police equipment can not properly fit into a Ford Fusion. County Judge Jim Foster commented that some heavy-set criminals my not fit into a Ford Fusion when they are taken into custody.

For the next few weeks, the Commissioners’ Court will devise strategies to balance the budget without raising taxes. Perhaps, county collectors could help fix the budget shortfall by visiting the North Dallas Government Center and start collecting payments for uncollected traffic tickets. But first, they would have to clean up the mess.

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