County judge updates residents with 100-day report, Part 2

2 You put your trust in me as County Judge, and I wanted to give you a 100day report to update you on how hard your Commissioners Court is working to get things done.

STRONG FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY MEASURES:

I promised to ensure our taxpayer dollars are protected & stretched, especially with all of us having to stretch our dollars in today’s economic climate. The prior Commissioners Court entered a contract (giving $500,000 of our County’s ARPA dollars to Das Greenhaus, a 501(c)(3) public/private non-profit business incubator organization and project of the Kendall County Economic Development Corporation).

That contract required that experimental project urged by Das Greenhaus to use the donated County funds to renovate a public building (former City of Boerne public building).

Without notice to the County, Das Greenhaus elected to forgo renovating the public building identified in the contract &, instead, to use County funds to rent a newer private building (& pay for other overhead needs). This change of direction, done without consultation with the County, was a breach of the contract agreed to by our former Court. Importantly, had the identified public building been renovated as promised, the County’s contractual rights reserved the ability to use & benefit from the public building.

After the contract breach, the Court ensured Das Greenhaus returned the $500,000 to the County. A project like Das Greenhaus is a creative project that our local citizens & businesses may desire to financially support with their own private donations; however, I do not believe it is my job, as your elected official, to take your taxpayer dollars (whether county, state, or federal) decide for you which causes or charities (among the many) are worthy of a County donation. As to Das Greenhaus, I encourage all County businesses, private enterprises, & citizens to check into its mission, as well as all of the many other non-profit groups in our County, all of which have brought forth creative ideas of how to benefit the lives of local citizens, whether those most vulnerable citizens or those wishing to establish a business here.

The way I see it, if you, the individual taxpayer, find a project worthy of your private donation, please do so. According to a recent study, our county’s citizens are the most generous in the whole State of Texas. The best way I can further benevolent intent of our citizens is to leave as much of your own money in your wallet by using your tax dollars wisely & for only necessary, essential County services. This then allows you, each individual citizen, to decide for yourself if & how you choose to donate those dollars left in your wallet.

UPDATED COMMISSIONERS COURT PROCEDURES:

While campaigning, I was told over & over again that some of you have lost trust in our state & federal government. To show you that you can trust our county government, I have made a point to create new procedural & filing requirements in our Commissioners Court.

These changes are designed to create even more transparency in the County business to be addressed in each of our meetings. They are also intended to make sure our duly elected Commissioners receive in advance all information & supporting documents about agenda items so that your hard-working Commissioners are given the ability to dig into the details of the items to be voted on & cast an informed vote.

I have also added to our meetings a “consent agenda,” which streamlines the handling of matters that do not require separate discussions; however, should any Commissioner wish to have an open & complete discussion on a consent agenda item, they have the absolute right to do so. Additionally, I have added a procedure requiring a declaration of conflict of interest by your elected officials that must be made on the record at the start of each court proceeding.

We are also now having the Engineering Department provide monthly updates, in Court, on each development going on within the County. To me, good government is transparent government, whereas much of the details of the debate happens in open court before the citizens & where citizens are encouraged to use the public comment period of each meeting to express the important facts that have been shared by so many of our fellow County citizens each meeting.

DEPARTMENT HEAD ROUNTABLES & ENHANCED COUNTY OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES:

In an effort to get to know my fellow County co-workers & hear directly from the boots on the ground regularly, I have organized a Roundtable Discussion that occurs each month for all Department Heads. This type of get together builds collegiality among those who serve the County day-to-day.

It also helps reinforce that our County is a chain of protection around our county’s citizens, so we must help each link in the chain get what they need & assist them in carrying out their essential service duties. I am proud that these Roundtables have been well-attended.

This meeting allows for the free exchange of ideas & concerns from our County’s most important asset: those employees on our front lines. Communication is critical as we move our County forward & tackle the challenges we will face in this difficult economic environment.

In addition to the Roundtables, I have devoted quite a bit of time to identifying & solving deficiencies in some of our operational procedures. Our loyal employees have been openly sharing ideas for where we can improve in our departments to become more efficient & best serve our citizens, as well as planning for future issues.

Multiple of our Commissioners have had the chance to participate firsthand working side by side with our boots on the ground as they perform operational duties. Our employees & Commissioners, after putting their heads together, continue to arrive at changes designed to make the County more efficient & accessible to the citizens.

The County has hired a new IT Director & General Counsel to meet the needs of the County (these are not newly created positions, but rather vacancies filled). With the help of our new employees, I will continue to pursue the creation of policies & update procedures to stay on top of all compliance issues mandated by the state & federal laws moving forward.