Pots and Kettles

1. Poor revenue projections
2. Tax increase
3. Questionable election ethics

These are the points that a Mr. Keith Kelly brought against the Burleson Independent School District over the last few months.  Serious issues.  Mr. Kelly's letter to the editor in last week's Burleson Star outlined most of those points well and his conclusion is spot on for any government entity:

"As Burleson Residents, we must raise our level of vigilance regarding financial information provided by the BISD board and administration.  Burleson residents deserve a satisfactory explanation regarding the miraculous discovery of the $5.1 million and assurance that the people responsible for these inaccuracies are appropriately dealt with and that processes are in place and staff are fully qualified to ensure that taxpayer dollars are managed effectively and information is communicated accurately."


The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is how in the world Mr. Kelly can come to these conclusions and remain on the Johnson County Emergency Services board where he was appointed to serve by Precinct 3 Commissioner, Jerry Stringer.

Not more than 6 months ago when the City of Joshua was talking to the ESD about increased funding we were told that the ESD might be facing a budget deficit for FY2010-2011.  That seemed preposterous to us at the time since the ESD was sitting on a couple million dollars in reserve.  How was it that they were so far off on their revenue projections?

In May of this year the ESD got the voters to approve a tax increase and in September the ESD board voted to adopt a 100% tax increase on the residents of the district.  Because they thought they'd have a deficit if they didn't?  No, that was cleared up before the certified tax rolls came out in July.  I guess someone must have hit a wrong button on the calculator to have thought they wouldn't have enough money.  I'm still having trouble understanding how Mr. Kelly can sit on the board of directors of a local TEA (Taxed Enough Already?) Party and rail against the BISD on a tax increase while having fully supported a tax increase for his organization earlier this year.

As far as having financial information available I think the ESD could take some cues from the BISD.  Anyone can go to the BISD website and access several years of budgets and audits. You won't find any financial information like that on the ESD website.  They're six months behind on even posting meeting minutes and they have trouble even getting audits done let alone making them available for the tax payers to view easily.  That's subject to change since they've been known to get things changed once I write about it.

Finally to election ethics.  Mr. Kelly filed a formal complaint with the state accusing the BISD of using taxpayer funds to promote passage of the Tax Recall Election that recently failed.  See if you think the letter from the soon to be previous director of the ESD advocates passage of the tax cap election from last May.  I wouldn't be surprised if it disappears from their web site very soon after this is published so you can also read it here.  You can bet the ESD website is paid for with tax dollars.  A request from the ESD director to the county fire chiefs to get fire fighters to put out signs advocating passage is also questionable.

So as an ESD board member and treasurer should Mr. Kelly be held accountable for the problems with his organization as he suggests should happen within the BISD?  I previously wrote about an even more alarming reason that Mr. Kelly should be removed from his position.  What can we do about that?  Vote him out?  I'm afraid not since he was appointed to his position and not elected.  What accountability does he have to the tax payers of the ESD?  None, and his appointing advocate, Commissioner Jerry Stringer, thinks Mr. Kelly is doing a fine job.  In fact he said he'll re-appoint him again when his term ends on December 31st.  Anyone that thinks Keith Kelly should go will have to vote out Jerry Stringer first.  You can do that in 2012.

A.J.