Two weeks ago there were two things on the agenda for McLennan County Commissioners’ Court that concerned me. There is a trend in McLennan County of reducing services to the public.
The first item concerned an amendment to existing policy governing pauper burial. Seems more than a few grieving families had placed headstones for their deceased loved ones on pauper graves. The solution is to remove the headstones because they impede maintenance of the gravesites. I thought surely there would be some discussion by members of the court of other solutions. Say offering to leave the stone if the family paid for the maintenance. The item was on the consent agenda and did not warrant any discussion.
The second item was modification of the indigent health care services agreement. It seems some patrons of the system have become belligerent and abusive of staff members responsible for processing the applications for service. I expected to hear about how extensive this abuse was and how unreasonable the demands were. Like before, no discussion. The court just rubber stamped the proposal provided by the director Eva Cruz.
Ms. Cruz proposed a process where the person denied services could appeal to the County Judge or his designee. At least that is better than the grieving people get. Last year the company that takes care of elderly shut-ins proposed to the court to take a lump sum in exchange for taking care of all of their charges. Judge Jim Lewis recommended no change. The result was a 100% increase in the budget for last budget year and the current budget year. Cost to taxpayers was about $50,000.00 annually.
Inspires all kinds of confident doesn’t it?
