THE SPECTATOR: THEY JUST DON’T CARE
For generations, families have come home to Washington County for Thanksgiving, and seen the familiar Christmas lights on the top of the courthouse in Brenham. But not this year. Washington County officials say the courthouse exterior construction project, which they started just two weeks prior to Downtown Brenham’s annual Christmas Stroll, prevents the lights from being placed atop the courthouse this year. And I guess the huge dumpsters and fencing add to the “Vintage” Christmas look of downtown. Why did they not push back the start of construction until after the Stroll? Washington County has become similar to a well-known big corporation. As my brother Mark once said about AT&T, “They just don’t care”!
Now I’d like to address an even bigger issue...transparency in government. When Precinct 3 County Commissioner Kirk Hanath announced his resignation on November 18th in order to run for County Judge, not a word was said about that triggering an election for his seat in March. County officials had certainly done their research in determining that Hanath could remain in his position and continue drawing his salary. But neither Hanath nor County Judge John Durrenberger mentioned that the Precinct 3 Commissioner’s seat would be on the March 3rd Primary ballot. With the deadline to file coming up on December 8th, that might have been an important detail to note. It wasn’t until KWHI researched how Hanath’s seat would be handled, and discovered that it would be on the March ballot, did Durrenberger issue a statement about it on November 26th. That’s eight days after Hanath’s announcement and just twelve days before the filing deadline. And where were our county party chairs? They both should have been making an announcement about Hanath’s position being open for election.
Unfortunately, this situation is just “par for the course” in local government these days. It has become standard practice for governmental bodies like commissioners’ courts, city councils, college boards, even committees to decide on their successors behind the scenes. Someone up for election will wait until the last minute to announce that they are not running, with just enough time left for their preferred candidate to file. Boards and committees will decide among themselves who they would like to appoint to fill a vacated seat, in order to give that person a “leg up” in the next election. Happens all the time. But in this case with Hanath’s position, it was a very blatant violation of transparency. Shame on the County for having to be pressured into announcing the opening on the ballot. And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.