Corridor News Answers Opposition On Jail Bond Article
Corridor News’s information and facts have recently come under scrutiny in an article we published yesterday, November 1, Inside the Hays County Jail Bond.
We pride ourselves on our factual and accurate reporting of our research and sources. The 2016 bond election raised questions throughout the community that we sought to answer with our article.
Some local individuals and a local group of individuals who are fighting against the passing of the Hays County Bond Props 1 & 2 in the community have questioned the sources and validity of our information.
We had been asked to investigate why the county had proposed adding to its current $353 million debt. A majority of this debt was voter approved to improve local parkland and other county projects.
The Hays County Bond article presented the facts of the current conditions of the county public safety facilities, which were to benefit from the bond election.
In an Editorial from Will Conley and Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe we published on Oct. 31 stated that the county had budgeted roughly “$1.53 million to pay for inmate overflow.”
These bond opponents have asked us why we only spoke with Hays County officials for our most recent article.
Let us answer that: We spoke with Hays County officials because they are the only people who have the answers to the questions that needed to be answered.
We chose sources, people and officials, who would have the most accurate and factual information and were the best sources of this specific information.
The current condition of the jail, the current occupancy and overflow numbers could only be provided by Hays County. The facts provided were unbiased with no indication of support or opposition to the election. We were permitted to record the interviews to ensure accountability for all parties.
If you have any additional questions for the county, you can contact the auditor’s office
Marisol Villarreal-Alonzo, CPA | marisol.alonzo@co.hays.tx.us | Hays Government Center, Suite 1071 | 712 S. Stagecoach Trail | San Marcos, Texas 78666 | (512) 393-2283
If San Marcos Corridor News can be of any additional assistance, you can contact us at News@SMCorridorNews.com.
Below you will find documentation of expenditures by Hays County jail filed with the 2017 FY Budget. You can view the full budget here. You can also view before and after photos of the Hays County Jail as repairs and improvements were made. Photos provided by the Hays County Sheriff’s Department.
[gview file=”https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/6.FY2017Expenditures-CCAdopted-papes_1-20.pdf”][gview file=”https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/6.FY2017Expenditures-CCAdopted-papes_13.pdf”][gview file=”https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Jail-Before-and-After-Repairs.pptx”]
Why did you not publish the comments and questions from people asking questions about the bond proposals? It would have been interesting and enlightening to read
both the questions, followed by your answers. This vague invitation to scrutinize
the County Budget throws a needless burden onto readers which you could easily have fulfilled.
If the only people you ever contact about this are the officials at the County, then all you will ever hear is their in-house “facts” they use to push unwarranted spending on the taxpayers.
This is like a snake eating its own tail. You are asking the very people who stand to benefit from more money being pumped into the County coffers, though in this case, borrowed money, not real money.
The interest alone on a debt of this size is daunting, and we are still paying off the last road bond of $200 million in 2008.
Will Conley, and the rest of the Commissioners have taken on the challenge of providing massive new influxes of money into the hands of various contruction and finance firms, without consulting the citizens as to whether these projects are the ones they would really like to see their money (and credit) used to pay for.
You are not doing journalism at all. You are simply asking the same people who proposed the bonds to tell you their self-interested reasons for doing so.
Ask your average citizen on the streets of Hays County how they feel about Will Conley, or Ray Whisenant or Bert Cobb or the rest of them, and ask them if they really trust these guys, who prop up construction companies as part of their “job,” ask them if they really want to keep doing this.
Just ask…you will get a very different reply than the drivel that comes out of the Courthouse.
I just received this in my email today, from the good folks at SaveHays.com
Subject: Who wants to help get Prop 1 & 2 passed?
Have you ever wondered what groups and funding sources are behind the push to get the bonds passed here in Hays County? Apparently, a fellow Hays County citizen wondered too.
He looked it up today, and it is frightening.
By the way, just to help you keep a tally on dollars spent so far to promote & support Prop 1 & 2:
“Better, Safer Hays” campaign PAC – $59k (funding source: special interest donors, see below)
PR campaign by GAP Strategies to promote/”educate us on these pricey bonds:$35k (funding source: we, the taxpayers)
Using elected officials and giant sales toolbox at their disposal i.e. their e-mail lists, built-in sales force (county employees + family), value ad of speaking on county time to local groups: PRICELESS
Now, for the break-down. The push for government welfare of corporations funded by the tax payers of Hays County looks like this:
$5,000 from American Structurepoint Inc;
$5,000 from HDR, Inc,
$3,000 from Binkley & Barfield Consulting Engineers;
$2,500 from Brown & Gay Engineers Inc;
$3,000 from CP&Y Inc;
$3,000 from Cobb Fendley;
$3,000 from Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation;
$10,000 from HNTB Corporation;
$2,500 from Half! f Associates Inc;
$4,000 from Klotz Associates Inc;
$5,000 from Murfee Engineering;
$1,000 from Pape-Dawson Engineers;
$5,000 from Vanir Construction Management Inc;
$500 from K Friese & Associates Inc;
Virtually all of the $59k collected for the pro-bond PAC comes from Construction Companies and related fields (many from out of state).
Then a quick peak of individual contributions reveals:
Mike Kaiman $2,700 (Turner Construction Company)
Brenda Jenkins $2,500 (ECM, Inc.)
Jeremiah Hudson $200 (Turner Construction Company)
James Garcia $100 (Turner Construction Company)
Glen Allan $200 (Nossaman LLP)
Lee Crump $500 (Turner Construction Company)
Kyle Weller $500 (Turner Construction Company)
You can view this for yourself at:
http://204.65.203.5/public/100648273.pdf
Do you wonder if any of our local elected representatives have received or will receive campaign contributions from any of the ‘folks” listed above?
Do you wonder if our county has done or plans on doing future business with the “folks” listed above, using our tax dollars for said business?
Also, no one doubts that repairs may be needed at the current jail. But the $62.4 million asked for in Proposition 1 — just for renovation and EXPANSION of the jail — could pay for any needed repairs MANY times over. Jail populations are falling in Texas and elsewhere as court systems doubt the need to incarcerate perpetrators of minor offenses (who should not be detained, in the first place). Hays County doesn’t need a larger jail; instead it should hire competent (and perhaps more) lawyers who will expeditiously attend to the inmates assigned to them — not attorneys who put those inmates at the very bottom of their client lists. Taxpayers would not then be paying $82 per day to house those inmates in the County jail, or $50 per day to send them out of county.