Commissioners Court: The $4 million Precinct 2 office building deception

Tuesday's “parade of compelling witnesses” in court was simply prelude to a predetermined 5-0 vote on yet another unnecessary construction project that the citizens of the county will be paying on for 20 years

Editor's note: It's beginning to look like the new crop on the Hays County Commissioners Court do not know the difference between "conservative" county government reform and refried beans. If fiscal austerity is what County Judge Bert Cobb and Commissioners Ray Whisenant and Mark Jones campaigned on, then fiscal austerity is what they should deliver.

The proposed Precinct 2 office complex is a product of the old court. That should not give it a free pass from the new court. We understand the county is in a bind since the City of Kyle has requested the county to vacate office space owned by the city. The engineer says there is no appropriate alternative office space available for the county to lease, so it appears commissioners are buying the recommendation that the only option is construction of a costly brand new building to be located in the Plum Creek Development in Kyle.

Not long ago the county announced the opening of new space at the transportation department building off Yarrington Road, a couple of miles down I-35 from Plum Creek. The place is next door to Kyle and a short hop from Buda. Why not utilize the current space, or possibly expand it, to fit Pct. 2 county offices and save the taxpayers some money?

From a February 2011 county press release: "Two Hays County offices are relocating this week to a new building at 2171 Yarrington Road in San Marcos, next to the County’s Transportation Department. Customers can now find the Development Services Department (formerly environmental services) and the Fire Marshal’s Office in a nearly 14,000-square-foot building that was authorized by the Commissioners Court in the summer of 2010 to help the County consolidate office space, ease crowding in some offices and better serve the public doing business with the County."

Hats off to Sam Brannon for keeping the county's fiscal issues front and center with the citizens.

Send your comments and questions to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Brannon at sam_brannon@hotmail.com, to Judge Cobb at bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us, to Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones at mark.jones@co.hays.tx.us, to Pct. 4 Commissioner Whisenant at ray.whisenant@co.hays.tx.us or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story

Open Letter to Hays County Commissioners Court

Judge Cobb, and Commissioners Jones, Ingalsbe, Conley and Whisenant:

I was very disappointed in this week’s Commissioners Court meeting.

To begin, I can hardly believe that Judge Cobb expressed aloud in court that the concerns of well informed Hays County taxpayers are of no interest to him. He said something along the lines of “There are 157,000 people in this county. We’re supposed to care what 60 people think?” My answer stands, “Absolutely.”

Most of the 157,000 are not aware that the county is facing $400 million in debt by the end of the year due to unrestrained spending. Given 1) that those of us who are aware are very concerned, and 2) the extent to which many Hays families are struggling, yes, you are supposed to care what 60 informed taxpayers think. Absolutely.

Campaigner Mark Jones
now Pct. 2 Commissioner

But instead, this court just slammed through a decision to move forward on a new $4 million-plus office building for Precinct 2 under a deceptive agenda description that stated there was no money to be committed. This deception appears to be very deliberate.

Judge Cobb made it very clear to everyone watching that a vote in favor of this item is a commitment to move forward to completion on the building project. He said that 2 or 3 times. I’m not interested in technical arguments on the legality of the deception – I’ll leave that for others to consider. I’m more concerned about the deception itself. This is the very same type of behavior Judge Cobb campaigned against.

Tuesday's “parade of compelling witnesses” in court was simply prelude to a predetermined 5-0 vote on yet another unnecessary construction project that the citizens of the county will be paying on for 20 years. Broaddus & Associates, the court's paid consultant advising the county on the 17,000 sq. ft building stands to profit handsomely from the development management contract while they would make little on a lease/renovation of available space in Precinct 2. Broaddus' conflict of interest is obvious, except perhaps to the court.

Both the court and Broaddus & Associates appear to have falsely testified, presumably under oath, that a lease-buy analysis had been performed. I requested a copy of it. On the break shortly after the vote moving the project forward, a Broaddus representative told me in front of Commissioner Jones that a lease-buy analysis had not been performed after all.

This is terrible behavior.

I and 62 other Hays County residents call for full-on Public Hearings on the financial health of the county. We want them to take place in each precinct before April 15th. We have valid questions, and we want them to be answered directly. We have reasonable requests, and we want them to be acted upon. We expect you to act in the interests of those who are footing the bill on the checks you cash each month, rather than the special interests promoting this spending.

I and 60 other Hays County residents expect you to stop the Precinct 2 building project now, before any other money is spent or contracts signed. Until Public Hearings are completed, we expect you to stop any other capital project that has not yet gone into construction, and to stop all right-of-way purchases.

We expect these items to be put on the agenda for discussion at the next Commissioners Court meeting on March 22nd. The people will ultimately hold the entire court accountable for what is going on. We expect you to fully engage in a public discussion. No stalls, no spin.

I and most of Hays County are looking forward to more honest, accountable and responsive government from this court, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see it. Until we do, you can count on me and a growing number of others to continue to bear witness to what we see. I suspect these next few weeks will tell us a lot.

Best – Sam