More Abuse of Taxpayer’s Money by Constable Barrientes-Vela



Precinct 2 Constable
Constable Michelle Barrientes-Vela

It seems that Dillon Collier has no intentions of cutting Constable Barrientes-Vela any slack.  Excellent.  That’s what a good reporter is supposed to do.  The constituents need to know what their elected officials are doing.  In the latest article by KSAT 12’s Dillon Collier, he tells us about an additional discovery of wasted taxpayer funds by the constable.

In July of 2018, the constable’s office filed to be reimbursed $460.89 for registration fees for a TCOLE conference that she and two others, Chief Deputy Anthony Castillo and Captain Marc Garcia, did not attend.   These are the same three people who went to Austin in 2017, for open records training, renting very expensive rooms, and didn’t go the full second day of the training but charged the county for meals on that day.  We never did find out what they were really doing on that second day.

According to Barrientes-Vela in a statement she released, “As the head of my Office there are unforeseen circumstances that periodically arise.”  She also says in her statement, “I was unfortunately needed elsewhere to fulfill my obligations as Constable…”  The problem with that is her Facebook page shows her at human trafficking event here in town, on one of the days she should have been at the conference.  That human trafficking event was not something that came up suddenly and the pictures show her in street clothes, not her uniform, which I find strange if she’s claiming that she was acting in her official capacity.

More than likely what happened, at least in this case, was that the conference sounded like something she should go to so she signed up and paid the fees.  But when it came time to actually attend, she didn’t really want to go.  It’s so much more fun to walk among  people and talk to them about how wonderful you are than to sit in a class room type setting and learn.

For someone who loves being in front of a camera almost as much as Sheriff Javier Salazar, it’s funny that she refused, several times, to be publicly interviewed about this further waste of taxpayer funds.  You can click the link in the first paragraph to see her full statement but it obviously was not written by her.  It’s too professionally done.

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