Update #2: Harris County Commissioners and the County Attorney did an about face on this matter. They decided not to take Sheriff Adrian Garcia into their executive session to discuss his budget. Why the turn around? The Insite is still digging for that answer!
The Insite has learned Harris County Commissioners will go behind closed doors (Executive Session) Tuesday to address Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s alleged spending problem.
Sources with the county say Garcia’s spending could put the county’s budget into a crisis.
I’m told the County’s Purchasing Agent, Auditor, and County Attorney have all met with the Sheriff to ask him to get his spending in line with other county departments.
One source says while all other county departments have seen a decrease in their annual budgets Garcia has seen an increase.
So how bad is his alleged spending problem? One unnamed county official said Garcia is expected to to be $11 million dollars over budget at the end of the fiscal year ending in February.
Officials from the Sheriff’s Office disagree with idea that Garcia has a spending problem.
A representative with the law enforcement agency provided the Insite with some solid numbers they say clearly shows Garcia does not have a spending problem.
That rep says at the most the Sheriff could come in over budget by as little as 1%.
We’re told that is the lowest it has been in 6 years and lower than previous administrations.
That rep also says there has been a year to year decrease in spending for the Sheriff’s Department since Garcia came into office.
Here’s the information provided by the Sheriff’s office:
FY 12 begin March 1. The HCSO budget for FY 12 is $386 million, an
increase of about 3 percent from the previous year.
As the table shows, real spending went up average of 16.5 percent per
year for the last three years of the previous sheriff’s administration.
During Sheriff Garcia’s administration, real spending has gone down –
for the first time in 20 or more years.
The previous sheriff overspent his budget by 16 percent in his last year
in office. I leave it to you to find out what the county government said
and did about that. Now, any disagreement is about overspending of
between 1 and 3 percent.
(Note: Table coming soon)
Adrian got bailed out on this little fiasco. The newest problem is the lack of step and incentive pay. We have now been told by numerous sources it was not even figured into this current budget. The current budget is larger than previous budgets but without the pay the employees have earned. Adrian may be keeping within his budget but he is doing so on the backs of his employees.
The sheriff has been runnnig for office since at least 2010. We are just now finding out which office. We do not know much about Sheriff Babeu, or where his political leanings are. We do know that he came out in Senator McCain’s corner in his successful run for re-election in 2010, and therefore carries the McCain Stain .I predict he will swerve to the right, or maintian that he has always been a Constitutional Conservative for purposes of a primary election. After that, we will either be pleased or very angry with another phony Conservative.I caution jumping on a bandwagon before seeing who else will be in the race. We have seen a bandwagon wave with Jeff Flake, another McCain stained Apostle.Hold on to your money, and your support.
Earned pay incentives and step pay have been stopped for over a year now but the budget is the same as when those were in place. Where is the money going now since the administration is refusing to pay the money the employees have earned?
Screw Adrian Garcia & Tommy Thomas! They are both BAD candidates! If you want someone that really cares vote for Remmington Alessi!