County Jail Administrator to get new office space
GILMER, TX, Jan. 30, 2009 -- Upshur County commissioners agreed today to renovations in the jail building, designed to create a new office for the County Jail Administrator.
In other business, they approved and accepted the plat filed for the Eagle Ranch Subdivision, and reappointed David Stevenson as Upshur's representative on the board of the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
Commisioners split, though, on whether to accept two private roads, PR-1198 and 1199, into the county maintenance inventory.
Commissioner James Crittenden argued for accepting the roads, saying in effect that residents who live on the road had fulfilled their two year obligation to maintain the roads.
But Commissioner Joe Ferguson argued against acceptance, saying the roads did not have school bus turnarounds. His argument was helped by Bubba Pendarvis, Road Administrator, who said the roads did not meet county specifications.
Crittenden said he had spoken with Gilmer ISD Superintendent Rick Albritton, and had been told buses currently picked up and dropped off children at the corners of the two roads and Golden Eagle Road. Crittenden said Albritton had confirmed that the routes would't change, even if the county accepted the roads.
Ferguson, seizing on Pendarvis' statement, said the county "might as well throw away our specifications", and worried that accepting the roads would set a precedent the county would have to live by in later actions.
In the end, Commissioner's Crittenden and Glenn Campbell voted to accept the roads, and Ferguson, along with Commissioner Lloyd Crabtree voted against it. County Judge Dean Fowler cast the tie-breaking vote against accepting the roads, saying he based his vote on Pendarvis' comments.
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Texas Comptroller Susan Combs takes the measure of online financial reporting by counties, and finds Upshur to be one among many counties not posting all of it's records on the web.
Texas counties are not legally required to post financial records online. Under the "Open Records" law, county financial information is available to the public, in paper form, upon request. Some counties go a step further though, and post the information online, making the information far easier for the public to access.
That open approach is known as transparency, and it makes it easy for citizens to examine documents, question decisions, root out inefficiencies and hold officials accountable for the way tax dollars are spent.
Texas Transparency Check-up is a website launched by the Comptroller earlier this year to gauge just how open and user friendly each county in Texas is.
The site looks online for a county's budget, financial report and check register.
According to the site, 109 counties currently post no records online, and only 3, (Collin, Grayson and Tarrant) post all three record sets. Upshur posts it's budgets and financial reports, joining the majority of counties that post some records, but not check registries.
Another website, Texas Budget Source, tracks the financial postings of the state's Independent School Districts. Like counties, online posting is not a legal requirement for school districts.
While fairly comprehensive, the site is in error in several regards:
- It reports in error that Harmony does not post it's check registries.
- It reports in error that Union Grove does not post check registries. The ISD posts budgets, financial reports and check registries in it's "Board Book" Agenda Packets.
A search of that site for Upshur County ISD's reveals that our local school districts can, for the most part, be judged fairly transparent.
Union Grove ISD leads the pack, posting all three record sets. Ore City and Harmony follow by posting their budget and monthly check registers.
Union Hill post only it's budget. New Diana has a budget site, but the posting is outdated.
No financial records could be found on either Gilmer or Big Sandy's website.
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