The Sheriff's Office has no such reports.

It is interesting that McLennan County Commissioners’ Court, this year, approved a $12,000.00 a year increase for the Sheriff.  There is a contract requiring the Sheriff to make twice monthly inspections of the Jack Harwell facility. The curious thing is there is no record of any inspections. If the Court required the Sheriff to file reports, this would not have been a surprise.

Immigration agency pulls inmates from Jack Harwell jail www.wacotrib.com

The federal immigration agency has stopped sending inmates to the Jack Harwell Detention Center and moved all existing detainees out of the facility, citing concerns about housing conditions and inmate medical care.

From the above article:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Nina Pruneda:

“We’re no longer using it, and from what I understand we have no intentions of using it in the future,”

In addition, some county officials said they were not informed there were complaints about care at the jail.

County Judge Jim Lewis said he talked with officials from CEC about ICE’s decision and said he has a meeting scheduled with CEC in the coming weeks to discuss the matter further.
Lewis said he had “only heard rumors” that ICE raised complaints about inmates’ medical treatment.

Commissioner Lester Gibson, the court’s liaison for jails, said while he noticed the ICE population slowly dropped to zero at the Harwell facility, he was not given a reason for the change.

Commissioner Kelly Snell learned about the lack of ICE inmates at Harwell from Gibson. He too said he would have wanted CEC to inform the entire court about the issue, but said in general he finds it difficult to get information directly from CEC officials.

Commissioner Ben Perry said he asked the sheriff’s office about the decline in ICE inmates, and officials there speculated that ICE simply was moving the detainees to a cheaper facility.

Commissioner Ben Perry said he asked the sheriff’s office about the decline in ICE inmates, and officials there speculated that ICE simply was moving the detainees to a cheaper facility.

Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 11:47 PM
To: 'Lynne Lockwood'
Cc: randy.plemons@co.mclennan.tx.us
Subject: Request

I am requesting access to and making application for the following information:

This is a public information act request for any reports filed by the Sheriff in relation to this clause of the agreement.

Randy,

Please consider this a request of the Sheriff for documents not in the possession of the County Judge but maintained which are responsive to this request. This request is intended to include requests for additional information which resulted from the on-site inspections, and requested remediation or related correspondence. Please consider this as redundant for reports filed with the Commissioners’ Court.

Thank you,
R.S. Gates

_________________

From: Lynne Lockwood
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 11:34 AM
To: R.S. Gates
Subject: RE: Request

Scott – Your below open records request has been received and reviewed.  Based on our best attempt to interpret your request with relation to a clause of an agreement relating to monitoring of the detention facility by the Sheriff, the County Judge’s Office has no responsive information. No such reports were identified.  L2

___________________
From: Randy Plemons
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 3:56 PM
To: R.S. Gates
Cc: 'Lynne Lockwood'
Subject: RE: Request

The Sheriff's Office has no such reports.

The director of maintenance of building recently told the court a local vendor refused to work for CEC because they could not get paid. Dr. Wells, the jail Dr., told the court he was unable to resolve an expensive medication issue for taxpayers because the new warden had problems to deal with.
More coverage from The Legendary: http://downdirtyword.blogspot.com/2011/11/mclennan-court-continues-housekeeping.html

But this is supposed to be a surprise to the court…..

Magistrate makes application for golden parachute

It’s a good job if you can get it.

Britton was hired sometime in 2007. The compensation sought appears to date back some 4 years. That is quite a nest egg.

We ran across this document as a result of a public information act request. Commissioners will vote today on whether or not to grant the golden parachute to the magistrate.

It is interesting that no documentation was included to indicate how much tax dollars are involved. The item is buried in the consent agenda which is normally approved with one vote approving several items. 

The departure of the magistrate is another issue. There was documentation from the District Attorney’s office indicating the employment of said magistrate was in violation of the Texas Constitution.

Will the Commissioner’s approve yet another sweet deal? Court begins at 9:00 a.m.

An example the double standard in local political reporting of elections?

On December 2nd 2011 the Waco Tribune-Herald published an article titled Tax Assessor candidate pulls endorsement from website. In the article by political writer Michael Shapiro, the paper pulled out the stops and blasted the former city manager of the city of Lacy-Lakeview. Shapiro points out the candidate was not aware of the allegations against the manager until the Trib pointed it out.

Here is the part I think most people missed. The city manager was never charged with a crime. In the article, like the original coverage of the purchasing irregularities, there was innuendo tying the questionable purchases to the city manager. The city council voted by majority vote not to pursue a criminal investigation related to the purchases. They kind of acted in the capacity of a grand jury.

Now contrast that with the recent endorsement announcement by the local Sheriff’s Officers Association. The association endorsed Randy Plemons. Mr. Shapiro's article pointed out that Sheriff Larry Lynch endorsed Plemons.

The Texas Ethics Commission fined Sheriff Lynch a few years ago. So the Trib will crucify someone who was not only never convicted of a crime but, like the former city manager, was not even charged with a crime, and at the same time promote an endorsement by someone who was found to have violated the law.

Remember that the Trib did not cover the news of Lynch’s violation of the law. Only KWTX-TV covered it. The common story was that the only way laws were broken was by committing clerical errors. If you review the document linked from KWTX you will see the violations took place in three different years and happened after Lynch had been in office for 6 years. It was neither a one time omission or a rookie mistake.