If local news is not considered carefully, the way it has been served up to the public could give a skewed view of the results of recent negotiations with the company providing the county with management services for our jail.
The fact that County Judge Craig McNair’s leadership ultimately reduced the size of the proposed increases by CEC is imbedded in the negative tone of all of the news accounts. It is in there, but it appears in no way like anything successful or praiseworthy. Why, one might wonder?
Always suspicious of a liberal bias one might conclude that those who articulated the story follow their old habits of not wanting Republicans to look good. After all, despite Commissioners Todd Fontenot’s and Melvin Hunt’s election year attempts to sound like elected officials who are protective of government waste, both seemed in a hurry to sign off on the contract that would cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars more. To analyze the new contract in comparison to the proposed one that Democrat were anxious and eager to sign would give Republicans some kudos, but it also would remind the voters of just how poorly democrats have managed the county’s fiscal affairs over the years.
But anti-Republican media could have taken a shot at a Republican if they had wanted to. Or at least they could have taken a shot at an elected official that ran one time as a Democrat and one time as a Republican. Re-read media accounts and the information that the media has provided is troubling. The potential for some bad hank panky is right there in news accounts. And it points squarely at Sheriff Henry Patterson.
Patterson according to quotes in local news accounts, did some deciphering of his own on the cost of managing the jail. And he claims it would be too costly for the Sheriff to add managing the jail to his day to day responsibilities. The interesting part of Patterson coming up with this higher figure is what did he do with it. He is a good friend to the warden of the jails, Timothy New.
According to sources, contract negotiations were at $57 a prisoner. Why did they go up to $64? Waller County pays less than $38 a prisoner for the same services and has almost exactly the same number of prisoners. Sheriff Patterson went out of his way to thank some people for their efforts on this matter, but I am not so sure we should be thankful for his input. Did he give Timothy New the cost projections he turned into the county? Did he cause the bids to go up? Or better yet, did Timothy New tell Patterson what to bid? It would be interesting for the commissioners’ court to demand his work product that shows how he calculated what he turned in.
Even with the bid inexplicably going up nearly 12% and reducing the amount we saved from the original proposal, we salute Judge McNair. True conservative leadership is long overdue in this county. As for CEC and Patterson, explain Waller County and expound on your analysis on the cost of running Liberty County’s jail or know that there are many of us that look forward to the day we have nothing more to do with you.
10 comments:
If it can be proven that Patterson shared what he was going to tell the commissioners was the cost of the county taking the jail back, is it a crime?
My commissioner, Todd Fontenot, is a poor actor in all of this and I think it is time to get someone else in there to represent me. He would have signed the contract quickly and obligated me to help pay the managing company top dollar.
You will never convince me Sheriff Patterson "worked" up any figures to see if it was better for the county to run the jail. It was reported not too many days earlier that Patterson had not even asked for data to consider the proposition.
The people who write stories and the people who write comments on this website are as stupid as this theory about Henry Patterson revealing his estimated cost of running the jail to CEC. Sure it is a possible explanation for the numbers suddenly going back up during negotiations, but what in the hell would be Henry's motivation? I am a personal friend of Henry Patterson and I told him he would never fit in with Republicans if he left the Democratic Party. I was right.Most Republicans are not his friends.
Let me slow down and explain this to "Henry's Democrat friends". Henry is a good friend of the warden CEC over our jails. Henry probably would not like to see his friend lose his job. Also it was very very obvious to everyone in court that Henry did not want the jail back. Take a deep breath and reread this if it was too much the first time Donkey Lover!
LD: show the right figures, please. What's this 12% nonsense??? Anyone with a calculator, will find that the new contract is 25% higher than the old one (3.2 million, upped to 4 million)!
The smoke and mirror, per prisoner number, is just a scam- to cover the HUGE cost increase (for apples to apples- the same jail, same vendor, and the same prisoners.) The fact is, CEC gets a 25% raise! Pure and simple, the taxpayers get fleeced.
This is similar to the recent scam used by a local city council, to decide manager's salaries... paying "similarly, to a 'comparable city, our size.'" The smoke and mirror, you ask? They chose FRIENDSWOOD, as the 'comparable city, our size'!!! (not New Waverly, not Woodville, not Livingston, not Dibol- but mega property rich, NASA employed-Friendswood.) Again, the taxpayers got fleeced.
Lets see your figures Patterson, just more lies...
That little feller Patterson sure can eat.
I thought they paid Jay Arnold $2K for an analysis? Now that's someone we could have trusted.
sure, he can eat. He's getting wined and dined, BIG TIME, for helping CEC get that 25% raise!!!
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