Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Hiring Bubba in Bandera

Bandera County is hiring new jailers to staff an expanded detention center, but according to Judith Pannebaker at the Bandera County Courier:
In Bandera County at least, it appears the best hedge against a still-failing economy is to have a relative or friend already hard at work for the county. Using information obtained by the Texas Open Records Act, the Courier has learned that seven of the newly hired jailers are related to or friends of current employees of the sheriff’s office. ...

The fact that the majority of the hires are related to or indicated a friendship with BCSO employees – in addition that most lack previous jail experience – has rubbed some citizens the wrong way.
Ouch! Read the rest. Pretty darn good coverage for a rural county paper.

The Sheriff is an elected official; whaddya think? Is this okay or should the hiring process be more democratic?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you expect anything different?

Anonymous said...

A rhetorical question, I guess. But, I’ll answer anyway. “This doesn’t pass the smell test.”, is correct

Blaine said...

Not really a shock since the entire population of Bandera County is aroun 18,000.

Anonymous said...

The use of county sheriff's departments for political patronage in small counties has been a common practice in Texas. It is on of the major sources of political influence available sheriffs.

This should not surprise anyone familiar with Texas.

Anonymous said...

What is the big deal? What does not pass the smell test. AS I see it, (4) out of the ten have previous or current experience supervising inmates. One has experience in the Army and running a special operations center. One has previous experience in security and patrolling. One has previous health care experience. Furthermore, if I hire someone, and they can provide me with names of people I personally know who will vouch for them, they are way a head of the game. This article seems to be misleading. Especially in a town of 18,000 people, it is not hard to believe that people know each other.

Anonymous said...

The Masons run the county,what did you expect. If you want a honest county government stop electing masons.

Anonymous said...

Let's Talk About Corruption;
When a county Judge by the name of Richard Evans can walk into a bank and withdrawal 10,000 dollars of the tax payer's money and give it to a private law firm for Kerry Schnieder's defence for the crime's that she has commited while in office with out going before the commishioner's court for review and vote is nothing short of a slap in the tax payer's face.Oh, by the way, Richard Evan's is a Mason.Hey people,wake up,before Evan's steal's more of our money.Thank God that commish Bobby Harris has the courage to call on Richard Evan's and make him accountable for this crime.