THE SPECTATOR: QUESTIONS ABOUT THE JAIL GENERATOR AND JUSTICE CENTER PROJECTS
In the continuing saga of the Washington County Commissioners Court and Judge John Durrenberger, I’d like to address the jail generator project. What began after the Big Freeze of February 2021 when the County Jail lost power and the temperature inside dropped into the 30’s, has turned into one of the biggest boondoggles I’ve ever seen.
In reading the email trail of what occurred over the past two and a half years I was disgusted at the mismanagement and incompetence by so many of the parties involved. And “yes”, I know there has been a supply chain problem in getting large generators. But that doesn’t explain the delays caused by the Judge and Commissioners Court changing their mind numerous times, the delays caused by the engineering company, and now the delays caused by the contractor’s mistakes. First the contractor failed to apply for a City of Brenham building permit, which shut down work on the project for a couple of weeks. Then the contractor failed to call to have any underground utilities located before starting to dig the hole for the concrete pad. Work was halted again when the City inspected the site and found the hole within seven inches of the main gas line serving the jail. Luckily the City has determined that the gas line doesn’t have to be relocated, so work can continue. While Judge Durrenberger stands by the contractor’s estimate of a completion date around mid-November, I’ll believe it when I see it.
The final question that I had asked the Judge concerned why there was no video of the emergency County Commissioners meeting in late August to address the walkout in the County Tax Assessor’s office. The media was also not notified about that meeting. His answer was that the State doesn’t require for them to notify the media, who would in turn let the public know about it. He said they only notify the media as an additional courtesy. As for the missing video, he said “At this time, only regularly scheduled meetings are video recorded. So, what the Judge is really saying is that whenever the Commissioners need to call an emergency meeting where they might not be fully prepared or might embarrass a County official, they’d rather the media and the public not know about it.
Now that we’ve completed those questions, I have one more for Judge Durrenberger. What is the status of the planned County Justice Center to be constructed near the Jail. The Justice Center was planned long before the Judge took office, and the first step of moving the County Road & Bridge Department somewhere else was completed over 3 years ago. Once complete, criminal trials would be held in the Justice Center instead of the Courthouse. So Judge, has that project been put on the back burner since the inception of the Air Ambulance Division?
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
Your next investigation should be the appraisal district. They keep spening and spending more taxpayer money. But the end product is getting worse. Before this chief appraiser the district almost always got roll value not anymore. Protest are not complete by July like before. They don’t have a licensed appraiser doing ag. application and letting anyone that applied get ag. Now here it’s the 14th of October and the tax bills are not out. Taxpayers can’t pay their taxes for the county tax discount.
Thank you Judge. I appreciate these answers and except that having an excellent county government with world class EMS does cost significant money. I would rather have bold leadership with my county commissioners court – people who spend the necessary funds to provide everything county government needs to do than have a judge or commissioner who is a frugal tightwad. People relocate here from larger cities for the very nice government amenities and an excellent EMS and are prepared to pay their share in property taxes to receive it or utilize the many affordable housing projects in the area. Thank you again for being able to spend what is needed to provide for everyone living here!
Michael its like this that world class EMS can not do anything but sit till the scene is secured by the Law enforcement or the Firemen which is the departments getting the short stick. So apparently your are one of the city people who put the cart in front of the horse and expect to get to town. I want this matter put to a vote of the people that’s all I ask. The worst part of this EMS has no competition they have a monopoly on ambulance service and that’s not fair to the consumer. That is why we pay for used car like we bought from it Ben Dover auto group. So lets vote on it.
Our Sheriff must have the patience of a Saint. You can only fumble the ball once or twice before your either benched or we don’t give you the ball. Thanks Spectator glad someone is keeping score.
Thanks Spectator for a very informative plain English explanations of the commissioners courts boondoggles.
The business about the generator screams incompetence on so many levels. But that also falls back on the voters who elect the incompetence election after election. Even if a well qualified financially conservative candidate outside the majority party were to run, you can bet the folks at the Cannery will find “ any warm body” to run against them.
And the walk out in the tax assessors office, we the taxpayers, pay the salaries, pensions and benefits ( which most people in the private sector do not have). We are entitled to be informed about these matters. I remember many years ago when the city council had an “ emergency” meeting to buy a very large and expensive property on 290 east ( taxpayer expense) for a landfill which never happened. Thankfully.
And the Justice Center, I guess the court house will have to increase the number of arrests for weed to pay for it. The parking issues for downtown businesses are a real issue Monday thru Thursday due to courtroom activities. But hey, the wealthy folks who live far from town have their air ambulance service in exchange for campaign contributions.
Ouch……..
::grabs popcorn and waits for part 3::
Well went all over town to try to find popcorn all sold out so a thank it’s not going away till the judge is gone.