COUNTY TO HIRE TEMPORARY WORKERS FOR CLEANUP EVENT

  

The Spring Cleanup Event at the Citizens Collection Station is going to end up costing county tax payers more this year.  County Commissioners voted this (Tuesday) morning to hire 5 temporary workers to help at the Cleanup Event during both the city and county days.  The estimated cost of the temporary workers from Personnel Services is $3873.  In the past, the County Sheriff has supplied jail inmates and a supervisor help at the Citizens Collection Station.  County Environmental Health Director Mark Marzahn said he received an email from Sheriff Hanak about a month ago saying the he would be unable to supply inmates this year due to liability issues.  County Judge John Brieden said after the meeting that this was a total political move on the Sheriff’s part.  When asked if people who have been sentenced to community service could perform the work, Brieden said they had looked at that with the adult probation department and it wouldn’t work out.  He said that community service hours are done on Saturday due to most of those involved having Monday through Friday jobs, and the Cleanup Event is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

KWHI contacted Sheriff Hanak for his side of the story.  Hanak said that he declined to provide inmates this year for two reasons.  He cited the liability issues of having inmates at the event, not only to the public but to the inmates themselves.  He also said that in the past several years he has had to eliminate two outside work crews because the supervisors, who are also jailers, were needed to work inside the jail.  Hanak says the state mandates how many jailers are needed for the number of inmates housed at the jail and because he is short staffed, he had to move the work supervisors into the jail.  He said because of this, he couldn’t guarantee that the inmates and a supervisor would be available on the days of the Cleanup Event.

What’s your Reaction?
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0

13 Comments

  1. Not a big deal. Why not:
    A. Just not have Spring Clean-up, life will go on and you’re not looking for government to solve your problems, or trash.

    or

    B. Ask not what your county can do for you- Volunteer for the clean-up crew.

    Like our national and state budget, we grew accustomed to services and pork when we had a strong economy (consistent (3+% GDP), an easily serviced debt, a trade surplus, and overwhelming cultural majority population that provided a tax base rather than a tax siphon. Now we really have none of those things yet somehow still want the same services it seems.

  2. The Sheriff’s Dept. does a great job, but sadly, litigious society rules. Health care costs the average working American $12,000 a year. It costs an inmate $0 per year.

  3. Very sad that Sheriff Otto Hanak made this decision. Hopefully he will reconsider next time, when more funding is provided in the county budget for the sheriff…. by a new county judge who will be a positive communicator! This story proves that sheriff department has been starved of the money they need by current county leadership, who have not spent enough.

  4. How about just not throwing trash out of your car window or letting your junk fly out of the back of your truck (feed sacks)? The sides of the roads in WC are embarrassing with the amount of accumulated trash that is thrown out all year and only when the wildflowers start to bloom is it a problem. But who doesn’t love a good political fight over county dollars and cents when there is an opportunity to bring out the same “I’m a taxpayer” curmudgeons that post on these articles time and time again. We all live here – how about just picking up the trash as a community to send the message that we care about where we live? We vacation up north in a state that you just won’t find any trash on the sides of the roads or even in the town (same size as Brenham). What’s the difference? Apathy and finger pointing vs. proactive community involvement.

  5. Why can’t the county employees help out during these clean up day instead of hiring employees . There would no difference of the county employees cleaning the sides of the road or sitting behind a desk or unloading trash from somebody pickup or trailer. The current county judge is all about saving every penny, why didn’t they consider this. I’m not just talking about the road and bridge dept. employees.

    1. Ohh, you know darn well they are not gonna get out of all the paint they put on daily and those pretty pressed clothes!
      That is an excellent idea but they don’t ask our opinions before making decisions so all we do is keep complaining until they hire a great consultant to screen the county’s choices and decisions before they are final!
      #2good2getdirty

      1. Based on ugly attitudes like Washington County Line is displaying -I hope the county just completely does away with “free dumping”. It is not a required event. I don’t mind paying for taking my refuse to be dumped. I also don’t save it all up for a once per year free dumping. This insures that our place stays neat and clean – year round!
        #prettyinpaint8-5
        #heels2boots

  6. The State says you have to have X jailers per Y inmates, just like teachers and students. It’s not really up for debate or interpretation.

    Didn’t the Commissioners eliminate or reduce a salary, or otherwise effectively make it impossible for the Sheriff to keep up that many work crews? I don’t see the article on here at the moment, but it seems like that was reported within the last couple of years.

  7. Hardly seems like politics in the jail. Minimum staffing so no extra jailers to do field work. Perhaps the politics is why don’t we staff up to allow field work so we can extract the benefit of the prisoners working. Can you imagine the outcry if something happened at the jail while we had less that mandatory staffing.

  8. Sounds like pure politics. These are INMATES in the county jail. These criminals are there for a reason, they committed a crime against society. What a better way to collect on all the amenities they are given in the county jail then to have them work it off HELPING the county residents. Instead they will get to lay around and sleep, watch tv, or whatever else they do in jail. LIABILTY!!?? Politics is more like it!!!!!!

    1. The Sheriff’s Office has participated in every past clean up, cut trees on the road and assisted in a multitude of other community events. These efforts were rewarded by the current Commissioners and County Judge by taking away 2 of the 3 Work Crew Supervisor positions. Now that was a political move. In addition since 99% of the inmates in the Washington County Jail haven’t been convicted of any crime you cannot force them to work. The problem sounds simple and it is easy to criticize and give simplistic answers when you truly have know knowledge of what your talking about. Before we cast stones we should gather all the facts and then address issues.

  9. Why doesn’t the sheriff actually give us a full description of all mandates? Very disappointed in his decision. If community service persons can work on a Saturday, and that is a cleanup day, then probation department should arrange. The real issue is the supervisors do not want to work on Saturdays. A good probation dept. manager would give them a Friday off so they can work Saturday. The non taxpayer funded jobs people work on weekends, why can’t they?

  10. I find it hard to believe that there would not be any individuals needing to complete community service hours that would not be available on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Today’s work schedules are not all Monday though Friday 8-5 hours. Using community service workers would be a win/win for all involved.

Back to top button