According to today's paper (link), Lucas County Sheriff James Telb is over budget.
So what's new?
The Sheriff Department is consistently over budget. When I was a commissioner (years 2003 through 2006), it was a constant concern because any savings other elected officials might have had in their budgets was used to cover his overages.
The county's Office of Budget and Management constantly informed him throughout each year that he was overspending in multiple line items, but Telb always counted upon the practice of just covering his costs when the county closed out the books at the end of the year.
No matter how loudly I complained, little media attention was given to the fact that this elected official just could not live within his means. Even during election years, the lack of fiscal management never really made it into the discussion, despite valiant attempts by some challengers.
While I'm glad to see the coverage today, I'm wondering why it's taken so long to inform the public of Telb's long-standing 'tradition' of spending more than was/is allotted.
But I'm sure you have your own theories about that...
So the question now is this: What will the commissioners do? Will they complain and then just cover the costs as they've done in the past? Or will they tell Telb 'no more money' and let the consequences prevail?
What do you think?
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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3 comments:
Maggie.....I hope this is the start of making him accountable for his actions and wasteful spending...let the chips fall where they may...
This team of 3 Commish...not unlike the 3 monkeys...speak no evil...etc.
No chips will fall...again.
That's interesting. There was an article in the local paper about the Medina County Sheriff having a similar problem.
I was going to call his office and suggest that they abandon those ridiculously fuel inefficient police cruisers. Police almost never need the power/acceleration, particularly because high speed chases are strongly discouraged if not prohibited.
Every police car in this state needs to be a Toyota Prius. The fuel cost savings will be in the tens of millions of dollars.
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