Sheriff’s Office Treating Taxpayers Like a Piggy Bank
KENS 5 did some outstanding investigative reporting and uncovered some major overspending by the Sheriff’s Office. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office spent $54,932 on new chairs. That doesn’t sound too bad if they replaced every chair in the different buildings. They are big buildings but that’s not what happened. They only replaced about 69 chairs. The reason so few chairs were replaced is because they bought chairs that cost almost $800 a piece ($773) and one chair that cost $1,072. And they wouldn’t show the reporters the new chairs. So much for transparency.
Bobby Hogeland, the Deputy Chief over the Detention Center, became very defensive and belligerent over the purchase. He blamed the previous administration for not replacing the chairs. The Sheriff’s Office did have photos to show and yes the chairs were in terrible condition but did they really need to be replaced with $800 chairs? Are they seriously trying to say they couldn’t find good quality chairs at a lower cost? This is Bexar County. We are not exactly rolling in money here.
Just recently Commissioners Court voted on the cost of living raise for the employees which is usually 3%. This year they only gave them a 2% cost of living increase. The consumer price index has gone up 2.9% over the last 12 months which means Bexar County employees didn’t even break even. They will have less money to live on than they did this past year. That includes employees at the jail. What a slap in the face to them.
I’m sure officers appreciated getting new chairs but I doubt that the low moral at the jail was due to ratty chairs as Chief Hogeland tried to insinuate. But even he couldn’t truthfully make that claim when pressed for an answer as to whether he thought there was a direct correlation between the chairs and the problems with the officers. Watch the video to see Chief Hogeland flounder and have to be rescued by someone off camera who says they can talk about that at another time.
Great reporting KENS 5. Thank you for looking out for us taxpayers.