Spin cycle

We read in the Log Cabin that Sheriff Marty Montgomery threatened to pursue legal action against JP Catherin Blankenship over what he called malicious and slanderous comments. Montgomery says his records show the department was never in the red, but rather turned $112,000 back to the county after the end of the year. We find this hard to believe and it’s really kind of funny how the sheriff's office needed $87,000 in October and got offended when the committee asked why some line items were in the red. Then in December they needed $37,000 more to make it through to the end of the year because once again they didn’t spend the money as appropriated and once again got offended. This time they refused to show up to answer questions raised by the committee.

Now Montgomery says they returned $112,000 back to the county at the end of the year, so we have to ask where did the money come from? Was it in some kind of special account that no one knew about? If the money was there then why did they come to the F&A committee with their hat in hand asking for more? Maybe it was revenue made from selling confiscated property. Does any of this make sense to anyone?

Rachel Parker a Log Cabin reporter writes,

[Montgomery] said lowering the appropriation to one quarter is "(the committee's) attempt to micromanage the sheriff's office and only the sheriff's office."

Montgomery appealed to the rest of the court, pointing out the authority is with the full court and not with subcommittees of the court.

"If you want to go to the quarterly, it will not affect the way we do business. It's just another way to micromanage the sheriff's office," he said.

He said the costs associated with running a jail and a sheriff's office are unpredictable.

"Returning $100,000 means we've been pretty frugal," he said.

Montgomery encouraged any of the members of the court to come by the sheriff's office and spend time with his staff to see how the financial process works.

We really think the sheriff misses the point of quarterly appropriations, it is being done TO micromanage the sheriff's office because the committee is concerned about how the financial process works, or in this case doesn't work. The law says it is illegal to spend appropriated tax dollars on items that have not been appropriated but in November we discovered that there were 4 line item categories that were in the red by between 238% and 580%. The correct procedure would have been for the sheriff's office to notify the F&A committee BEFORE the any line item category goes negative so that more money can be appropriated. This is a standard accounting procedure for county government agencies and is what the quorum court is trying to get to.

Sheriff Montgomery goes on to say that JP Blankenship actions and comments were "politically motivated" because she is running for the office of County Judge in the upcoming election. But how does the sheriff explain why the other members 10 members of the quorum court voted for the quarterly appropriation, were they politically motivated?

Actually we think Sheriff Marty Montgomery has a point, the search for answers into the spending issues IS politically motivated. After all isn't it good politics for an elected official to stand up in defense of our county tax dollars? This is something that JPs Kelley and Thessing ought to consider while they try and defend the actions of a friend.

One does have to wonder why Sheriff Marty Montgomery is so worked up over quarterly appropriations and questions about spending within his department. After all there was an audit last year that revealed thousands in misspent money that has led to the F&A committee to seek reimbursement. Why all of a sudden has Sheriff Montgomery come out of hiding and is flex his muscles? One local forum member says, "it seems to me to be an effort to intimidate into silence," which is a valid assessment of the situation. Personally we think this latest spin is a prelude to some upcoming announcement by Sheriff Montgomery, it will be interesting to see what happens as this plays out.