For The Record

The award of the contract to run the health clinic for every county employee was on this agenda, going to a company that does not run it now. The Chair pulled it in one sentence, gave no reason, and moved on. Five weeks ago the company that does run it stood in that room and gave this Court a promotional year end review.

The county’s lawsuit against members of the North Central Texas Council of Governments executive board is now in Tarrant County under a new cause number. Fourth closed session on it in 15 days. Fourth time back with no action. Still not one word in open session about any of it, including the move.

$167,347 in Facilities transfers rode the consent agenda, $110,000 of it pulled out of the HVAC supply line for things that are not HVAC. Four weeks ago this Court pulled $23,874 out of that same line for ice machines.

Item 2.A, Order Making Appointments, had no appointments in it for the second time in three weeks. The packet still carries the page swearing that appointments “have been posted and advertised” and that interviews were conducted.

And an assistant district attorney stood at that podium and explained a hiring request in plain English for four minutes, unprompted. It is the best documented thing this Court did all morning.

A standing authorization is exactly the kind of thing this brief has complained about all year. Pre-approve a hire, and the Court never sees it again.

Then an assistant district attorney walked to the podium and explained it, unprompted, at length, on the record.

That the office is not asking for a new position, because the Court already granted the positions about two years ago. That entry level misdemeanor prosecutors are hard to recruit in Denton County and across the state. That the Texas bar exam is given in February and July and results take about three months. That the internship lets the office hire a graduate at reduced pay during that wait and move them into a real vacancy if they pass. That the position would never be used unless a Misdemeanor Prosecutor II vacancy already exists. That the office has two such vacancies right now. And that one bar card intern who took the February exam has already passed and moved into a licensed position.

That is what an authorization request is supposed to look like. Nobody made her do it. There is no county rule requiring a department head to explain a personnel item in open session, and this Court has approved plenty of them this year with nothing but a caption.

Which is the point. On the same agenda, an assistant district attorney spent four minutes justifying an internship, and the award of the contract for the county’s employee health clinic got three pages and 14 words.

What was in it: three Facilities Management budget amendments worth $167,347 together.

$57,347 consolidating landscape expenses from individual buildings into one line. $40,000 out of HVAC Supplies into County Building Repair and Maintenance. $70,000 out of HVAC Supplies into Service Contracts for exterior lighting, fire extinguisher inspections and other maintenance.

Look at where two of those three came from. $110,000 out of the HVAC supply line in one morning, for lighting, extinguishers and building repair. On April 14 this Court moved another $23,874 out of that same line to buy ice machines.

$133,874 out of one supply account in four weeks, and none of it spent on what the account is named for. Either that line was budgeted far past what the county needs for HVAC supplies, which is a budgeting problem, or it is being used as a place to park money for whatever comes up, which is a different problem. Both of them get fixed in the budget, in public, not four at a time on a consent agenda.

Item 2.A came in empty again. The Chair said it out loud: “there’s no items on number 2A.” That is the second time in three weeks.

And pages 6 through 8 are unchanged. The same routing form, the same caption printed twice, and the same page swearing that appointments “have been posted and advertised” and that “interviews were conducted as set forth in the Denton County policies adopted by the Commissioners Court.” Nothing was posted, nothing was advertised, nobody was interviewed, because there were no appointments. The paperwork said it anyway, for the second time in three weeks, and it passed anyway.

Print what is in the order. Read it before the vote. And when a line item stops meaning what it says, fix the budget instead of the paperwork.

14 of the 17 have come from a member of this Court, a county department head, the Sheriff, or his chaplain.

What the prayer said is not the issue and it has never been the issue.

The issue is a standing item at the top of a public agenda that has gone one direction 17 times out of 17, given 14 of those times by somebody the county pays.

A moment of silence takes the same minute and leaves nobody out.

That is the clinic every county employee uses. Right now it is run by a different company.

Here is what happened to it, in full: “I respectfully pull item 6E to discuss at a future meeting. We’ll do 6E later.”

No reason. No date. No motion, because a pull does not need one. The item that decides who provides primary care to this county’s workforce came off the agenda in 14 words.

The packet behind it is three pages. A routing form, the caption printed a second time, and a blank court order. No memo. No fee. No evaluation summary, no scoring, no list of who else responded. The caption carries the note “CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL AFTER CONTRACT APPROVAL,” which is lawful under Local Government Code 262.030 and which also means the public will not see the comparison until the decision is already made.

Now put it next to April 7. Five weeks ago the company that runs that clinic today presented a year end review to this Court. It ran through engagement rates, biometric improvements and a net promoter score. It described one county employee by name, named that employee’s department, and walked the room through a heart scan and the bypass surgery that followed. The presenter floated a future regional investment. Nobody on the dais asked a question about any of it, and nobody mentioned that the contract for that clinic was in procurement.

Whether that RFP was live that morning or not, this Court knew what it had coming. A vendor presentation on the vendor’s own performance is not a status update when the contract is in play. It is a pitch, and this Court took it without saying so.

When a solicitation for a service is pending, say it out loud before the incumbent presents. And when an award gets pulled, say why and say when it comes back.

Item 15.B was a real property deliberation under Section 551.072, which is what that exception exists for.

Item 15.A is the one that matters. It is the county’s own lawsuit against members of the North Central Texas Council of Governments executive board, and something changed about it.

On April 28, May 5 and May 6 this Court took that case behind the door as cause number 26-3611-431 in the 431st Judicial District Court of Denton County. On May 12 it is cause number 141-377-160-26 in the 141st Judicial District Court of Tarrant County.

Different court. Different county. Different cause number. Same parties.

The Chair read the new caption out loud, because it was on the agenda, and that is the entire public record of the change. Nobody said the case had moved. Nobody said why, or who asked, or what it costs to move it.

That is now four closed sessions on this lawsuit in 15 days, four times coming back with no action, and eight weeks since this Court hired counsel for it with no rate, no cap and no total. In that whole stretch, not one sentence about it in open session.

This county sued people. It is paying lawyers by the hour to do it. The case has now changed courthouses. Residents are entitled to know that much without reading an agenda caption for the difference between two cause numbers.

Say where the case stands. Say what it has cost so far. Once a quarter would do it.