By Emily Ramshaw
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Tex. — High-ranking Texas Youth Commission officials have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for hiring new corrections officers on renovating and relocating offices -- even though lawmakers turned down their request for such spending.
The TYC’s acting executive director, Dimitria Pope, said the expenditures on furniture, renovations and telecommunications equipment, which total $550,000, were necessary to restructure the office, accommodate dozens of new employees, and improve operations in the aftermath of last year’s prison abuse scandal.
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Jay Kimbrough, right,Special Master of the Texas Youth Commission by Gov. Perry, talks with Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, left, in the Texas Senate, Monday, March 5, 2007, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck) |
Agency officials said the money was left over because they couldn’t find enough applicants to hire as many new guards as the budget allowed.
Lawmakers, who refused the TYC’s request to include relocation and renovation costs in this year’s budget in favor of funding 500 more juvenile corrections jobs, said the expenditures are at best an inappropriate use of funds.
At worst, they said, they’re an affront to legislative authority.
“We have extreme needs within that agency in guard hiring, in training, in treatment programs for youth,” said Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, chairman of the House Corrections Committee. “Those are the expenditures the Legislature felt we needed to spend money on — not this.”
Ms. Pope, who joined the TYC in June to help rehabilitate the agency, said all the purchasing decisions were made with the state’s reform legislation and its bottom line in mind. Some supplies and equipment were purchased from other state departments to save money. Only furniture that was damaged was replaced.
“Given the serious circumstances surrounding existing operations, the agency was expected to act swiftly,” Ms. Pope said in a written statement. “All actions taken were done in accordance with the state’s building and procurement laws and standards.”
Richard Nedelkoff, who was appointed as conservator, the TYC’s ultimate boss, last month by Gov. Rick Perry — did not oversee any of the expenditures, but he agreed that many of the purchases appeared to have been necessary. He said getting more office space and setting up new employees with cubicles, phones and computers were priorities.
But, he said, the agency probably could’ve done without several of the expenditures — namely, thousands of dollars in new carpeting for the executive offices and new furniture in Ms. Pope’s office.
“There are a lot of costs that seem to be very legitimate for a move of this magnitude,” he said. “There are others that it’s very possible for folks to look over and question the timing of.”
Asked whether Ms. Pope would be a permanent part of his leadership team, Mr. Nedelkoff answered after a long pause.
“She has been an acting executive director. The agency needs a permanent one,” he said. “My plan is to identify that person in the near future.”
Relocation costs
Questions about the spending are the latest controversy for Ms. Pope, who has been criticized for an order that increased the use of pepper spray in youth prisons, and whose top lieutenant at the TYC, Billy Humphrey, was forced to resign by Mr. Nedelkoff this month.
Among the relocation and refurnishing costs approved by Ms. Pope and other TYC officials since September:
-- $30,000 to move 207 employees and their belongings into new offices
-- 315 square yards of new carpeting in the TYC executive office, at a cost of $15,000
-- $11,000 in new furniture for Ms. Pope’s office, including a $1,300 desk, a $1,600 bookcase, two $1,200 file cabinets and a $600 swivel chair.
-- $190,000 in telephone, wiring and computer setup costs associated with office relocations
-- Office renovations -- including construction of new walls and cubicles -- totaling $60,000
The TYC has already paid $370,000 for these expenses; the agency has not yet been billed for $180,000 more in purchases.
TYC officials say lawmakers knew they needed to make these purchases. After reform legislation was approved last spring, agency officials asked them for $14 million -- money they said they needed to reorganize their offices and accommodate new hires.
But lawmakers were loath to pay for the relocation, stripping that request from the budget. Instead, they allocated $29 million to the TYC to hire 516 new corrections officers.
Even after hiring recruiters and publicizing job openings, TYC officials have struggled to bring in new guards. Since September, they’ve hired 418 new corrections officers but have lost some existing guards to a hefty turnover rate. Today, they’re still more than 500 guards short -- the equivalent of millions of dollars in unspent salaries. The vacancies caused the TYC to use up its entire budget for overtime last year.
Major expenditure
Agency officials have used some of this money, as well as $50,000 left over from last fiscal year, on their office relocation expenditures. How else, they ask, were they expected to set up offices for the inspector general, the ombudsman and the community relations officers -- all posts created by the TYC reform bill?
“It’s pretty typical of organizations to shift funds if it’s impossible to spend all the money,” said Mr. Nedelkoff, who expects to have that same flexibility as conservator of the TYC. “If we, in the future, end up using lapsed or unexpended salary dollars for something like staff training or development, I’ll make that decision.”
Lawmakers said Friday that they believed a little leftover money would be spent on office organization and relocations -- but not nearly this much, and not until all the new guard positions were filled.
“We didn’t see [the relocation] as a major expenditure,” Mr. Madden said, “and no one ever told us we weren’t going to get the guards we needed.”
Robert Black, a spokesman for Mr. Perry, said that if taxpayer dollars have been misspent at the TYC, either intentionally or unintentionally, “the governor expects that the conservator will take appropriate action to remedy the situation.”
Costs for agency’s new office space
A breakdown of Texas Youth Commission spending for office relocations and renovations since Sept. 1:
--Telephones and computers: $190,000
--Construction and renovations: $60,000
--Lease for extra office space: $50,000
--Moving expenses: $30,000 --New furniture: $25,000
--New carpet: $15,000
--Expenses budgeted but not yet billed: $180,000
Total: $550,000
What the TYC asked the Legislature to budget for office reorganization: $14 million
--Amount budgeted for office work: $0
--Amount approved to hire new juvenile corrections officers: $29 million for 516 new officers
--Number hired so far: 418
--TYC officer vacancies: 500
Copyright 2008 The Dallas Morning News