| Dallas County Budget Director Puts Taxpayers in the Dark |
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| by Tom McGregor | Tue, Jun 23, 2009, 01:33 PM |
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A public hearing of the Dallas County Commissioners' Court is held weekly on Tuesday mornings at 9 a.m. The meeting is open to the public, while copies of two documents called an "Agenda" and "Briefing Agenda" are placed on a side table for the general public and reporters. The "Briefing Agenda" contains hundreds of pages of minute details about items that the Commissioners' Court will vote on the next week. Yet, this document is difficult to comprehend unless a person is an expert translator of "bureaucratic speech" or a high-level official for the County government. Nevertheless, the "Agenda" document provides a paragraph summary of each item that the county commissioners vote on that week. It's written in an easy-to-understand style. Actually, the "Briefing Agenda" and the "Agenda" can be obtained by the public through the official Dallas County government website. Yet frequently, cost figures are not cited on the "Agenda" documents, which leave taxpayers in the dark when county commissioners vote on those items. For instance, today the Commissioners' Court unanimously approved "Court Order 28," which states: "Approving an Emergency Mosquito Control Aerial Spraying Contract between Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS), and Dynamic Aviation Group Inc., to protect the citizens from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, naming Dynamic Aviation Group, Inc. as the vendor in case of an emergency outbreak, for the period from June 29, 2009 through June 28, 2010, and authorizing the County Judge to sign the contract on behalf of Dallas County." However, this court order ommitted one important detail, the 'exact cost' of the contract, which seems more troblesome since Dallas County faces a severe budget deficit. The Dallas Blog approached Dallas County Budget Director Ryan Brown to ask why he didn't place a dollar amount on all contracts listed in the "Agenda" that county commissioners vote on. Mr. Brown attempted to blame the county clerk, Gary Fitzsimmons, whose obligation is to write down the 'court orders' for the "Agenda" documents. Yet, it was pointed out that he should feel a sense of obligation as budget director to place the overall financial details of the contracts listed on the 'court orders' in the "Agenda" document. Mr. Brown responded, "it is a non-issue, not something we thought to do." when asked why he considered it a 'non--issue,' he answered, "it's not been brought to our attention." After reiterating the satement, he suggested to refer all other questions to Shannon Brown, the county purchasing director. Mrs. Brown was specifically asked if the County pledged to write down dollar figures of the contracts on the "Agenda" documents in the future, which appears pertinent since county commissioners make public votes on those items. She said, "no comment." On the other hand, County Judge expressed grave concerns that the public is unable to obtain easy-to-understand County budget information through public records. He wants Dallas County residents to know how their tax dollars are getting spent. He told the Dallas Blog, "I am working on making this County government to be as open and transparent as possible." He also pledged to fight for the cause of placing the 'exact costs' of contracts that the county commisioners vote on in the "agenda" documents. To read more about Dallas County Budget Director Ryan Brown along with contact information, link here: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 
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Comments (6)
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written by Wouldnt you like to know , June 24, 2009 Perhaps if your tiny brain could comprehend this I will explain it..... The Briefing Agenda you talked about in the article, the "minute details" you mentioned ALWAYS list all sorts of detailed information, such as costs associated with each item on it for consideration. These items will be on the next weeks "Agenda", also known as a Formal Agenda for voting. They are summarized because the details on these items were already listed in "minute detail" the week before. SO, the public actually has TWO chances to be there, hear, and even speak on any item on the agenda(s), once for briefing, and once for regular formal agenda. To summarize: The items that you saw only brief paragraphs for with little information were discussed and/or listed in "minute detail" the prior week, its very simple. To follow any issue to completion, you must be there two weeks in a row. Really, the only thing minute here is your tiny brain. Once again we see you mis-informing the public as usual. When will Tom finally get tired of you making him look bad and making his blog look like a cheap tabloid...... I wonder.
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written by RAHinds , June 24, 2009 Judges should refuse to authorize any expenditure which is not clearly costed, labeled and traceable to a line item in the budget. If this is not done the outside auditor should not certify the books, and a criminal investigation should be initiated.
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written by Jonathan Green , June 24, 2009 According to the Children’s Defense Fund, a Black public school student is suspended every four seconds, corporally punished every 34 seconds, and drops out of high school every 50 seconds. A Black child is arrested every minute. A Black child is born into poverty every two minutes. A Black child is born without health insurance every five minutes. Add to that Justice Department statistics that show that nearly a third of Black men in their 20s have criminal records and 12.6% of all Black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars. Anyone with even blurry vision can see the storm that is engulfing Black America. Many of our nation’s public education systems are in trouble, characterized by crumbling infrastructures, atrocious dropout rates, and the graduation of too many students who are unable to compete for jobs in our new, globalized economy. Given the increase in immigration, those among us with poor skill sets have fewer chances for success since the end of de jure segregation. The drop out issue has particularly significant long-term implications because nearly 70% of all prisoners in state penitentiaries in America are high school dropouts. The prison route is too often a losing proposition because it serves as a graduate school for criminality and dysfunction rather than a place where one can be rehabilitated and move on to a productive life. And, oh by the way, Black women comprise America’s fastest growing inmate population. The Black higher education picture has taken a turn for the worse too. According to the American Council on Education, of the 1.8 million Black men of traditional college age–18 to 24–only 25% were seeking higher education in 2004. Moreover, a significant gender gap has emerged among African American college students. Black males comprised just 40% of all first-year, full-time Black students attending four-year institutions in 2004. That figure is five percentage points fewer than in 1971, when most Black college age males were either in or recovering from the Vietnam War. When one considers tuition increases that far outpace inflation and recent congressional cuts in federal student loans (including a $12.7 billion cut in December) one can conclude that mechanisms that helped African Americans establish social and economic gains are now in peril. The impact of all these and other variables on the Black community frames a crisis in which we all, regardless of our race, religion, or politics should be concerned. Consequently, while focusing on past contributions is important and necessary, attention to our present perils will have more to do with our future.
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written by citizen , June 24, 2009 I agree totally with Wouldn't You Like To Know's comments above. Also, John Warren is the County Clerk. Gary Fitzsimmons is the District Clerk. Check you facts before you write such an idiotic article you moron.
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written by Peter Wrench , June 24, 2009 When I worked for a County Judge in another county, it was the responsibility of the administrative Aide to the Court to create the Agendas, subject to instruction from the County Judge's Office. The County Judge decided what went on the Agenda after consulting the Commissioners, and the Aide to the Court typed it up and distributed it to Commissioners, department heads, the media, and other interested parties. Now every County does things slightly differently, but first of all I seriously doubt that the Dallas County Clerk, the Dallas County District Clerk, or any Dallas County department head like the Budget Director or Purchasing Director is responsible for creating the Commissioners Court Agenda. The Court would not relinquish that responsibility to another elected official, much less a department head. If this is true, then it is irrelevant what “sense of obligation” the Budget Director might feel towards the public because he or she has NO say in what the Agenda look like. Secondly, from my experience it was the responsibility of the Aide to the Court to draft the Court Orders and, when signed, deliver them to the County Clerk as the custodian of all official county records. So I seriously doubt that John Warren’s Office has the responsibility to draft all the Court Orders, as this article implies, but even if they do, they cannot and would not just put whatever they want on there without approval from the Court. In other words, asking department heads about the Agenda or Court Orders is an exercise in futility, because the Commissioners Court have the final and only say in the matter. If they wanted those contract amounts on either the Agenda or the Court Orders, those amounts would be there. Period. Write comment
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Some Dallas County residents may want to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are getting spent by the Commissioners' Court. They may even desire to see the specifics of how the County government uses every penny. Yet, it's difficult for ordinary citizens to analyze County budget figures by obtaining documents on public record.
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