Commissioners Court and County Auditor feud spills onto public meeting
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
During a special meeting of Maverick County Commissioners Court held on Tuesday, April 22, 2014, the ongoing feud between Commissioners Court and County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz was displayed in public.
It is well-known that Commissioners Court are dissatisfied with County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz and are seeking to have him replaced. However, Commissioners Court does not have the authority to hire and fire the County Auditor as that responsibility falls on District Judge Amado J. Abascal, III, who appoints the County Auditor.
Earlier this week, County Judge David R. Saucedo gave an interview to a Mexican radio station in which he stated that Commissioners Court expected District Judge Abascal to take action in the coming days regarding County Auditor Ortiz and blamed Ortiz for causing the County not obtain funding on several state and federal grants.
Maverick County financial problems are well-documented with both the 2011 and 2012 Audits reflecting a $2.3 Million deficit each, totaling $4.6 Million during these two years. The 2013 County Audit is overdue and not completed and approved yet by Commissioners Court.
County Auditor Ortiz denies responsibility for the County not obtaining funding on some grants from state and federal agencies. Commissioners Court and the County Judge are responsible for the County Budget.
During the special meeting, Commissioners Court entertained and accepted the month of March 2014 reports from both the Offices of the Maverick County Auditor and Treasurer.
During the presentation of the monthly report from the Maverick County Auditor’s Office, Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo raised concerns regarding some inaccuracies in the report. Judge Saucedo first raised the monthly Auditor’s report was filed and provided to Commissioners Court on the day of the meeting, Tuesday, April 22nd, at 1:15 P.M. without adequate time to review it. County Auditor Ortiz replied that his office had had problems with the Maverick County Detention Center funds received and documenting them in the report, causing the late filing.
Judge Saucedo asked County Auditor Ortiz where in the documents presented could they find what each Commissioner has remaining on their Precinct Budget?
“Are we supposed to look at this and say that this is accurate?” asked Judge Saucedo.
Ortiz replied that the March monthly report was as accurate as it could be.
“Our problem was with the detention center,” said Ortiz.
“If you look at the Road and Bridge Department, they have received 90 % of their revenues. That is seen on the column marked budget remaining on the revenues side of the report,” said Ortiz.
Judge Saucedo then stated that those numbers were seen but what he wanted to make sure was that the County Commissioners are not stopped from providing the services to the people that they serve due to a lack of funds.
“As far as the budget, there is plenty of budget, the problem is cash. This is going to start to happen as it was discussed the other day. Most of the cash for the Road and Bridge Department has been received. They only have about 9% remaining in revenues not received. From the general fund they have received close to 47% . The Road and Bridge have received quite a bit of money and if you look into their bank account they have over $1 million dollars,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz then stated that if you break down what is expected to come in for the Road and Bridge Department, they have to make it last until September(end of year budget).
“There will be some money coming in for the Road and Bridge but on a monthly basis they are coming in at $200,000, yet they are spending $200,000 per month. What is coming in they are using it up,” added Ortiz.
Commissioner Asalia Casares intervened and asked if Ortiz could clarify the percentage number from her budget and if the most recent use of $20,000 from Precinct’s 2 account for matching funds for the $397,000 TxDOT grant for the Old Mines Road project were reflected in the report.
Ortiz confirmed that was the case and that the percentage left in the Precinct 2 budget would increase once those funds were made available to be put back into that account.
Judge Saucedo then stated that the way that Road and Bridge was spending , that they would still remain under budget even if they remained at 90% of collections.
Ortiz stated that there was an analysis done and that the Road and Bridge Department would be spending between $205,000 to $218,000 per month and that currently they are spending $9,900 per day.
These numbers would leave room for the Road and Bridge Department to come in under budget both Saucedo and Ortiz concurred.
“My concern is that I want to make sure that the Commissioners are not caught up in a situation where they are left without funds to operate,” said Judge Saucedo.
Commissioners Court then addressed an issue in Precinct 4 where it appears that County Commissioner Ruiz has no funds left in his budget due to paving of streets.
Ortiz answered that there were indeed no funds left in that particular budget.
Commissioner Jerry Morales then questioned the accuracy of the numbers being reflected on the report.
“Based on the numbers that are reflected here, it is different. If Mr. Ruiz didn’t have any money left I would expect for them to be reflected here,” said Morales.
Ortiz stated that it all depended on what invoices had come in and what had been paid or not.
“What does Precinct 4 have in their budget? Because if we need to come back with a budget amendment to move funds from the machinery and heavy equipment budget we can do this,” said Saucedo.
The Auditor’s Office clarified that Commissioner Ruiz had been notified of the situation and was also informed that there were funds available from the machinery and heavy equipment account.
“How long ago was that?” asked Saucedo. The Auditors Office answered that it had been a month ago.
You are showing me a report but I want an accurate report.” stated Saucedo
“You are showing us a report that indicates that there is still $52,000 left at 60% of the budget left.” Added Saucedo
“You said over a month ago, this is a report that ends in March,” said Saucedo.
Maverick County Assistant Auditor Luis Rodriguez expressed that they had not yet accrued the remaining Purchase Orders.
Further discussion took place on the accuracy of the monthly report that was presented to Commissioners Court.
“ I want accurate figures. And one of the things that we are not getting obviously are accurate figures,” added Judge Saucedo.
Saucedo then addressed Maverick County General Counsel Poncho Nevarez on correspondence that he had received from the County Auditor. “Does this not fall under an accurate scope of having accurate work as job duties?” Asked Saucedo
Nevarez answered that those were duties that would fall under the statute.
“ Does this Commissioners Court not have the authority to do a vote of no-confidence? “ asked Judge Saucedo. Nevarez replied that it was assumed that it could be done on anybody.
“ What is the consequence of this court taking a decision that they do not feel that the information that is being turned into them is correct, or that they have lost confidence on the job that is being done by the auditor?” asked Judge Saucedo. “Are we allowed to do that?” asked Saucedo.
“ If there are consequences for discussing the figures or the lack thereof , other than the perception of people or what they might think of it I can’t see any consequences other than that,” answered Nevarez.
“ I’m telling you here is a request, by law you are required to turn in a monthly report , so we started getting those in , and then it turned into I’m not going to be able to get them to you until the third meeting of the month. The Statute doesn’t dictate that, it states that it has to be turned in during the regular monthly meeting. So we come here today and we receive this report at 1:15 pm today and we are already in the last week of April and we hadn’t received the information. I think that we have a right to bring an item that states that we need something to happen because we don’t have confidence in our auditor. Do we not have the right to do that?” asked Judge Saucedo.
General Counsel Nevarez concurred that the Commissioners Court had the right to express an opinion on anybody that is working for the County.
The Maverick County Auditors monthly report for March 2014 was unanimously tabled to allow Commissioners sufficient time to review the information on the report and be presented at a future meeting for approval.
Interestingly, the Maverick County Treasurer’s monthly report of March 2014 was unanimously approved by Commissioners Court without asking a single question despite the fact that County Treasurer Rito J. Valdez, III was not present at the meeting at the time of this agenda item.
