Collin County commissioners need to set real schedule

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

Even dedicated court watchers aren't sure when the next meeting will be held.

For almost all of its citizens, how Collin County is governed is a mystery.

The county, more than any other local government body, acts with little public awareness or participation.

Most would agree that citizen oversight is necessary to the proper functioning of a Democracy. For that reason our city councils and school district boards are made up of largely unpaid citizen public servants - they meet in the evening and in facilities designed to accommodate a reasonable number of citizen observers. Many cities have also enacted term limits to encourage new leadership.

No so with Collin County. Our elected leaders are professional politicians who fully expect and do serve for 20 or more years. The current commissioner's salary is well over $100,000/yr, and the County Judge makes over $130,000.

The commissioners generally meet during the business day, and they meet in a room that barely hold the staff and press. Usually there is seating for less than 10 or 12 visitors.

There has been a long running discussion on how to involve more of the citizenry into the process of county government. During the 2006 campaign, Judge Self ran in part on a promise to open the meetings to the public, at hours and in a room convenient for the public.

Self also promised that workshops would be held twice a month, thereby giving even more access to the public in the decision making process.

The court has not kept even one of these commitments.

In February 2007 the first workshop was held, and for three months, the court sat in bi-monthly workshops. Sadly that schedule of four meetings a month created too many scheduling conflicts for our commissioners, and by May of 2007 twice a month workshops were a thing of the past.

In years past, the court has met at 9 AM on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. In October 2007 the start time was changed from 9 AM to 1:30 PM. However, even that schedule causes too many conflicts for these "full-time" public servants.

The scheduling of the commissioners court meetings has become so confusing that even dedicated court watchers aren't sure when the next meeting will be held. Lately, it has become common that time is taken during the meeting break for commissioners to look at their calendars in order to come up with mutually convenient dates and times for the next month's court sessions.

Recently, I looked at the court calendar for all of 2007 and 2008 (through August). I did not find a single instance where the meeting schedule was consistent 2 months in a row. Not one.

No one I know can keep up with this bouncing ball schedule. It would seem that the commissioners make enough salary that they can darn well clear their calendars so that public meetings can be scheduled at regular times convenient to their constituents.

It's a matter of priorities. Their actions over the last 20 months show that the commissioners' personal calendars are more important than the public's business.

Oh yea, and the regularly scheduled meeting for this next Tuesday will meet at 9:00 AM instead of the usual 1:30 PM. It seems there is a big dinner and party in Austin Tuesday evening. Several members of the court, along with staff, will be attending at taxpayer expense. They're in a hurry to leave.

Bon voyage!

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