Follow up to the Commissioner's Court meeting 9/12/22

 

Ignorance or Arrogance or Both?

Yesterday at the Aransas County Commissioner’s Court meeting, the Navigation District had an Agenda item for the Court to approve its budget as is their legal requirement.  What Harbor Master Keith Barrett attempted to present had no supporting documentation including the prior year’s results nor the year-to-date numbers comparing actuals to budget.  That is their MO and has been for years.  When questioned, Mr. Barrett’s response was that his office was small and does not have the ability to provide that on short notice.  What a crock!

 

ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES, Town of Fulton, City of Rockport, Aransas County Appraisal District, Aransas County and Aransas County Independent School District produce monthly budget and financial reports for their elected officials and the public to review and study.  Every governmental agency that is except the Navigation District.  Theirs is a conscious decision to keep the public in the dark – what arrogance!  They do not even produce an annual financial statement or completed budget that the public is allowed to see – if they produce one at all.  There is no record that they do.

 

The Commissioners were reluctant to approve the District’s budget based upon my remarks and the District’s inability to answer budget related questions.  Keith Barrett made the statement that they did not have the staff to produce such a set of reports on short notice.  Tommy Moore, who had arrived late, completely lost his temper and asked the Court “who were they to question an elected official?”  County Tax Collector Anna Marshall attending on Zoom, called and through the County Attorney told the Court that she could not delay the approval of the tax rate or she would be in violation of the law.  The Commissioners approved the tax rate with the requirement that the District support their budget with analysis and actual results.

 

The simplest form of any accounting software takes input from an employee or employees who keypunch the receivables, payables and checkbook function and produces these reports with a simple keystroke - on demand.  And they reside on the same system until someone specifically deletes them.  The story on the Navigation District is that they choose not to take part in electronic bookkeeping, relying instead on paper entries.  If that is true, it is no wonder that they cannot produce timely reports.  It also explains why when I asked for the same reports with an Open Meetings Act Request in February of this year, they could not produce them.  In any event there is NO EXCUSE for this behavior.  Don’t we deserve better from our elected officials?

 

These people need to be held responsible.  For far too long, they have thumbed their collective noses at the public and our right to know.  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” Edmund Burke.