While every other department is proposing budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs in an effort to meet the budget requirements of Harris County, one elected official has refused to do so. (Correction -- as noted by the Sheriff Department's official spokesman in the comments below, departments are supposed to submit such cuts but have not done so yet. Thanks, Alan.)
Sheriff Adrian Garcia said at a news conference last week that he cannot find a 10 percent cut from his current budget of $376 million. Garcia said he will not propose layoffs or furloughs."If I institute a 10 percent reduction without being ordered to conduct layoffs, then operations can come to a screeching halt pretty quickly," he said.
* * * Harris County instituted a hiring freeze about a year and a half ago. It likely has saved millions of dollars, but strained departments whose leaders, like the sheriff, say they are understaffed.
Hmmmmm.....
But I reported on this matter last month.
District Clerk Loren Jackson, who was defeated by Republican Chris Daniel last month, will likely stay in county government when his term expires on Dec. 31. Sheriff Adrian Garcia proposes hiring him as his chief of information technology.Jackson is not named on the Commissioners Court agenda, but he is "the special assistant" candidate the sheriff has submitted for the Court's approval.
That would be a six-figure salary for a guy who was fired by the voters of Harris County, but immediately rehired by his political buddy. I know where we need to start the budget cutting in the Sheriff's Department -- with the "special assistant" for information technology. After all, there is a hiring freeze on.
Here's the other shoe dropping.
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Corrections: All departments were asked to fill out a worksheet showing the effects of a 10 percent cut, but you do not know what every other dept. is saying. The hiring freeze has already cut the sheriff's workforce 10 percent and additionally the sheriff has cut spending $18 million a year in total costs. An additional 10 percent cut would equal $40 million. Loren Jackson's salary would probably equal a fourth of 1 percent. And Commissioners Court approved Loren Jackson's switch to the HCSO.
|| Posted by Alan Bernstein, January 23, 2011 04:31 PM ||Gee, Alan, notice that I said that I could make a suggestion as to where to start -- your point merely affirms that the cut I proposed would be 1/40 of the amount requested. You've got to start somewhere.
And I've already made it quite clear that I believe the commissioners screwed up in permitting Loren Jackson to be hired immediately after his defeat during a hiring freeze. It reeks of politicians feathering each other's nests.
|| Posted by Rhymes With Right, January 23, 2011 07:44 PM ||Oh, and Alan, should I assume your comment was made in your position as the official spokesdrone of the Sheriff's office?
I guess you'll be back soon, after I blast the your boss about his latest unethical new-hires during the hiring freeze.
|| Posted by Rhymes With Right, January 25, 2011 05:56 PM ||Yes x2.
|| Posted by Alan Bernstein, January 25, 2011 06:05 PM ||And what about your other errors? For example, your statement that "Every other department is proposing budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs in an effort to meet the budget requirements of Harris County" is false.
|| Posted by Alan Bernstein, January 25, 2011 06:07 PM ||Post a comment