Fees of Office and Expense Reimbursements

At the last meeting we were presented with the annual audit of the District's finances. Thought I would share one page with you, that reflects the amount of money the Board members were given for both Fees of Office and expense reimbursements. Fees of Office are the amounts actually paid to a Director during the District's fiscal year (April 1, 2011-March 31, 2012) for attending to District business. Example: Attending a regular Board meeting = $150.

According to the Texas Water Code, section 49.060, the limit on Fees of Office that a Director may receive during a fiscal year is $7200. The Board could choose to cap it at less than that amount by resolution, but the maximum allowed by law is $7200. On July 19, 2005 the WCID#89 Board passed a resolution to allow the maximum permitted by law.

So, what was the amount given to each Director for the past fiscal year? The first figure is for Fees of Office, the second for expense reimbursements, and the final number is the total amount.

Sharyn Smalls           $6450       $3439      $9889
Arthur Washington   $5550       $3018      $8568
Byron Watson           $5100       $2623      $7723
AK Babers                $4650       $2554      $7204
Jeraine Root              $3000       $  209      $3209

WCID#89 holds two regular Board meetings each month, so 24 times $150 = $3600. Directors also receive Fees of Office for the days that they spend attending conferences or other educational seminars, and for tending to the business of the District.

As you recall from a previous post, I had major surgery in the summer of 2011 and had to miss a few regular Board meetings. My expense reimbursement was much less than the others because I did not attend the 2011 AWBD Summer Conference in Ft. Worth nor the Mid-Winter Conference in Dallas. We do receive mileage reimbursements for travel to/from regular meetings.

District Building Update

Only the District residents can make sure that integrity, accountability, and transparency be reflected in all the Board’s dealings.  This can be accomplished by going to the polls on November 6, 2012 and voting for candidates who put the community’s interests above their own. Will you go vote?

As you may recall, the special meeting that was held on the bids for the District Building brought many things to light for the first time. Secrets of the Administration Building Revealed. At the end of that meeting, I joined the Building Committee and promised to keep an eye on how the money was being spent and make everything about the District Building Project more transparent. A few days after that meeting, I called the engineer to find out what the $145,476 had been spent on and asked why they had used an unlicensed architect.

He told me that most of the money had been for the permitting, plans, necessary soil studies to get the permits (which were used in the bids put out by our current architect, Mr. Moseley) basically everything that was needed to bid out the job, and they were ready to roll in 2009. His story about the unlicensed architect was quite a bit different than the one that Sharyn Smalls relayed at that meeting. Since I wasn’t on the Board when all this happened, I figured it was a “he said/she said” situation and decided to just let it be water under the bridge. I then asked him for Mr. Moseley’s contact information. All he had was the phone number, which I called and left a voice mail informing Mr. Moseley that I was on the Committee. He never returned my call.

Chris, our attorney, then provided me with the original contract between the District and Moseley's firm, along with the plans from the 2009 project. Not much has changed from those original plans. Chris gave me Mr. Moseley’s e-mail, so I sent him the same message I’d left on his voice mail with a cc: to Sharyn Smalls. I informed him that I was now on the Committee, and asked that any information regarding the District Building be shared with me. No reply.

The next week we had our regular monthly meeting and the engineer asked if anyone had questions about what went on at the special meeting. I didn’t ask any, and neither did anyone else on the Board. At the very end of this meeting, Sharyn Smalls announced that I was no longer on the Building Committee because Arthur Washington had changed his mind about stepping down. This caught me totally off guard, and I protested that I did not want to be kicked off the Committee. Argument ensued, but I prevailed. Sharyn made it clear that as Chair of the Committee, she would be the sole contact with Mr. Moseley. I asked her if that was why he had not responded to my voice mail and e-mail. She said that there was no reason for him to contact me.

I sent another e-mail a week later asking Moseley to send me an update on his progress since the special meeting. No reply. The following week there was an agenda item about the District Building, and Sharyn announced that Moseley was working with consultants on how to reduce the cost to fit into our budget before the next bid process. I asked why that information hadn’t been shared with me as a member of the Committee. Sharyn stated that I had no need to know as she was the sole contact for anything related to the Building, and she would bring any information to the Board.

I appealed to Chris, as our attorney, to intercede and tell Mr. Moseley that he would have to answer questions from ANY Board member. After all, the contract was between the District and the Moseley Architectural firm, NOT just between Mr. Moseley and Sharyn Smalls. Chris suggested that we move into Executive Session to discuss this problem.

By moving into Executive Session, which is just the Board Members and the attorney, nothing we say is subject to the Open Records Act. In other words, all discussions in Executive Session are off the record. It’s like going to Vegas. What happens there, stays there. So, I can’t tell you what happened. Suffice it to say, I was so upset that I walked out of the Executive Session and left the building.

I was told that when the Board Members returned to the meeting, a motion was made by Byron Watson to allow all Members access to all District contracted vendors, and that it passed. But why, I ask you, would such a motion even be necessary???????????????????????????????????????

Sharyn Smalls has often stated that I am “too new” on the Board to really understand the business of the District. That she has been there for many years and knows how to deal with the issues. My response? Sharyn Smalls has been in power too long. Please read the first paragraph of this posting again.