Consistent. Principled. Action.

Citizens,

Job growth and continued economic development are crucial to the future of Collin County. Our continued population growth and the challenges with future transportation funding mean that we must grow our employment base by almost 100% over the next 22 years, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

Collin County has some tremendous assets that are very attractive to major employers. I hesitate to name any assets because I cannot list them all. However, in order to give you just a small sample, consider the Natural Science and Engineering Laboratory at UTD, a world-class research lab located in Collin County; the excellent sports venues in several cities; the Collin County Regional Airport; and the Forbes magazine article of July, 2007, that rated Collin County schools as a whole as the second best "bang for the buck" in the nation. This very short and partial listing demonstrates the wide range of assets within Collin County that will attract employers.

I have asked the county staff responsible for our county web site to add a major section to our site that consolidates all the assets of the county in one place. This will cost almost nothing, yet will provide a single location for prospective major employers to discover the wide range of quality of life assets that are located in every city and across the county. This addition to our web site will complement the excellent marketing tools developed by our individual cities and their economic development organizations.

Sincerely,

Keith

Citizens, I want to follow up on one of my comments in my last blog about weak state law for awarding contracts.

The county has now received the professional qualifications for the companies that want to receive county contracts for architectural and engineering services for the projects that you approved in the bond election last November. There is a wide range of company sizes, from small, local firms to national and even international firms represented. I'm sure that all are outstanding companies that bring a wealth of architectural and engineering excellence to the table. My comments below and in court yesterday, February 19, in no way reflect on these companies - they are operating within the environment in which they find themselves.

As I reviewed the qualification packets submitted by the companies, it became obvious that many contributed money that was used to buy the print media, radio, and signage that advocated passage of the bond initiatives last November. As far as I can tell, approximately $19,000 was contributed by the companies that are now standing in line to receive the contracts for bond projects.

My comments in court yesterday concerned the integrity of the county process to determine which companies are awarded contracts. It is a very simple concept that when a company gives money to support bond initiatives, and then submits qualifications in hope of winning the bond projects, it gives the perception of buying influence in the county. Or perhaps the companies consider their contribution just the price of admission to win county contracts. Either way, it brings the integrity of the process into question. This is not complex - there is a perception that companies give money in hope of winning contracts.

This brings us to state law. The law does not authorize direct price competition for architectural and engineering services, even when choosing among many obviously well-qualified companies. The sole use of price competition for engineering and architectural services is illegal. Amazingly, the last paragraph of the applicable law states, "This section does not prohibit competitive bidding in the private sector." Thank goodness for that, but for the life of me, I do not understand why state law does not allow competitive bidding in order to reduce costs to taxpayers.

In our case, the county develops a subjective scoring system; a county committee then scores the companies' qualifications, and negotiates a price with the highest scoring company. This system is full of danger and far too subjective; particularly in light of the money contributed by the companies to support passage of bond funds in the first place.

My comments in court yesterday should be available on the webcasting link shortly at http://collin.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

I encourage you to go to the webcasting site and "jump to" agenda item #4 on the workshop agenda in order to listen to the discussion.

Sincerely,
Keith

Citizens,

After thirteen months in office, I want to make some observations on what I see as your county judge and as a member of the Executive Board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. I will not address individual issues in depth, but will instead cite examples as I reiterate my foundational beliefs in individual freedom and limited government. These observations represent, in my mind, the single most important trend in local and regional government today. I am not addressing federal level issues; only local and north Texas regional issues.

We are sliding toward socialism.

Many in government today agree with the statement, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." And of course, government decides who gets what. Some of you will recognize these words popularized by Karl Marx in his writings on communism, and they apply directly to the softer socialism that is growing in America today. However, these words do NOT describe America down through its history.

But today, most in government advocate unfettered yearly increases in your property appraisals; not in order to reflect market conditions, but to ensure constantly increasing tax dollars for government use. Most advocate a new transit tax. Most advocate an increase in the gas tax. All of these taxes are meant to feed the growth industry of government in north Texas. Even our county government was scheduled to grow at 13% each year for six years from 2006.

Another example includes the very close call that the Collin County Commissioners Court had this past year when a proposal to fund a $15 million building with public funds for use by private organizations was pulled from voting at the last minute. I fully expect this proposal to reappear in the future.

Even our bond programs are built on socialism. The county is responsible to build very few of the roads contained in the recent transportation bond election. The majority of the funds approved by the voters will be collected by the county from one set of taxpayers and distributed to a different set of taxpayers for spending.

Competition in government contracting for certain services is weak. For example, it is illegal to have direct competition for public contracts for architect and engineering services. Illegal! Lack of competition in public contracting leads to higher costs for services and cozy relationships between companies and government officials.

Some of our governments are building businesses that directly compete with local commercial businesses. Why would government compete with successful local businesses? It not only costs tax dollars, but reduces the commercial tax base.

However, there is no general discussion about reprioritizing expenditures in order to fund the most important core functions with the taxes already collected from you, the taxpayer. Prevailing thought is that every new "need" requires a new tax.

Central planning was a key precept in the former Soviet Union. And it was a colossal failure. Yet central planning is also a key function of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG.) What started with the federal mandate that every urban region have a Metropolitan Planning Organization has grown to encompass many other areas of planning on a regional scale.

For example, many tens of millions of dollars pass through the NCTCOG in grants each year to regional governments, primarily federal tax dollars that you, the taxpayer sent to the federal government. Our estimates, which we are working to verify, suggest that Collin County receives approximately 4% of the grant funds distributed, although Collin County represents approximately 11% of the regional population. That is a direct application of the mantra by Karl Marx, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." This also brings to mind another great historic quote, "Government is the great fiction by which everyone attempts to live at the expense of everyone else." Working within the established NCTCOG system, I recently nominated six Collin County representatives to one of the NCTCOG committees that decides one area of grant funding, but only one Collin County representative was chosen. I will continue to press the issue of adequate Collin County representation with the NCTCOG.

Government should not be a growth industry. Government should stick to core functions and encroach as little as possible on the freedom for its citizens. Ronald Reagan once said, "We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around." The Constitution's core function is to preserve individual freedom and to limit government; and authority flows from the people to the government, not the other way around. Freedom is the first responsibility of government, including national defense, but includes much more just national defense. Freedom. Freedom is not the government coordination of every aspect of life. Nothing is better than freedom. Nothing is more productive than freedom. Nothing is more protective of our citizens than their individual liberties.

Socialism is a pessimistic outlook to government; an approach that assumes that individual citizens are not capable of managing their own lives. Freedom, on the other hand, recognizes that individuals are innovative, independent and resilient. The American Dream is not dependency on government, but is instead reaping the rewards of individual effort and achievement.

There are ways to stem the tide of socialism. Be involved. Educate yourself on the actions and activities of your government. Take responsibility for maintaining your own freedom by carefully watching government actions that limit your freedom to control your dollars and your life. For example, the Collin County web site provides webcasts of Commissioners Court meetings. Watch them at your convenience in your own home. Hold your elected officials responsible for the taxes that they put on you. Hold us accountable for spending your tax dollars wisely.

Sincerely,
Keith