Collin County auditor - the media catches on, Rep. Madden doesn’t

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

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Last night, WFAA, Channel 8's reporter Brett Shipp broadcast a 6 minute "investigative" piece on the Collin County vs. Collin County Auditor lawsuit.

Since April of 2008, The Collin County Observer has been the only news source covering this expensive ongoing turf war. We're happy that WFAA and Mr. Shipp's investigative skills have finally 'uncovered' this ongoing waste of taxpayer dollars. (We're also happy to include WFAA among our regular readers.)

In fairness, Shipp and Gloria Campos did a fine job of reporting. They even almost got it right most of the time. The video and accompanying story are posted on WFAA's website.

On Monday, the Texas House County Affairs Committee held a public hearing on Rep. Jerry Madden's HB561 which would prohibit the auditor from accessing software.

At the last minute before the hearing, Rep. Madden replaced his bill with a watered down "committee substitute" bill. The committee substitute still removed authority from the Auditor and gave department managers a veto over his ability to audit software. Madden told the committee that he wasn't finished rewriting the bill, and he would submit another rewrite.

I testified at the hearing, which lasted almost 3 hours. There was a good representation of auditors from around the state who testified against the bill.

The only people who spoke in favor of HB561 were Collin County Judge Keith Self, 2 county employees and Donald Lee, from the Texas Conference on Urban Counties (CUC).

You might remember that it is the CUC who is selling the Odyssey software to Collin and other counties around the state.

Testifying against the bill was the former Collin County Auditor, Pasco Parker, the current auditor Donald Cozad and 2 of his staff. Also offering testimony against the bill were representatives from El Paso County, Tarrant County, Travis County, Gaines County and the Texas Association of County Auditors.

By the end of the hearing, it seemed clear that the committee members believed that the bill would attempt to, in the words of one committee member, "change the rules for all 254 Texas Counties - only because the Collin County couldn't find a way to get along with their own auditor". Several committee members seemed embarrassed that this bill was brought before them.

My prediction is that HB561 is DOA - dead on arrival.

The hearing was recorded, and can be seen on the Texas Legislature's website.

The commissioners can drag this on at even more taxpayer expense. They have an appeal pending at the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas. Their brief is due by April 15.

They can drag it on, or they can save us a whole lot of money by making peace with Mr. Cozad. They should give him the access he needs, and if they feel like suing someone, let them sue Tyler Technologies, who wrote the Odyssey program that couldn't be audited in accordance with state law.

Then, instead of paying the $600/hr that Peter Vogel is charging them, I'm sure Mr. Cozad could refer the commissioners to a good $250 an hour attorney.