The Collin County Observer

A hearing was held Monday before visiting Judge Jerry Calhoun in the case of Collin County vs. Collin County Auditor. While the Auditor, Donald Cozad, won on most of his points, the judge left open the possibility of a trial on new motions to be filed by the county commissioners or by the auditor.

Here is the abridged tale:

May
The Collin County Commissioners Court filed a suit for "Declaratory Judgment" against their own auditor, Donald Cozad on May 22 to stop the auditor from obtaining an Attorney General's opinion on his efforts to gain "read only" access to the county's large software programs. (See County seeks declaratory judgment against auditor.

Cozad then filed a counter suit alleging that the commissioners actions were in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act and that these commissioners had no legal right to stop him from consulting the State's Attorney. (see CCO, Auditor alleges county Open Meetings violations)

June
Then the real fun began! (at taxpayer expense, of course)
Cozad appeared before the commissioners on June 10 to ask that the court pay for his attorney. With smirks all around, the commissioners denied his request in a 4-0 vote.

July
On July 30, Peter Vogel, the attorney for the commissioners deposed Don Cozad. During the deposition, Cozad's attorney, Homer Reynolds, refused to allow the auditor to respond to most of Vogel's questions, calling them irrelevant and harassing. (ain't we having fun?)

August
Then on August 4, Dallas County, the Texas Conference Of Urban Counties and the County Judges and Commissioners Assoc of Texas filed amicus briefs in support of the county commissioners.

On the same day, the commissioners filed a 20 page response to the auditors claims. In their response the commissioners claim that Cozad wants to take over the county's IT department, because he, "seeks to vastly increase his influence and power in the Collin County Government". Whoa! Now we have the makings of a colossal turf war!

The commissioners claim that the access Cozad is seeking could cause the county "millions of dollars".(emphasis in court document).

(Interestingly, the commissioners make mention that the new Odyssey system that is being installed to run the court dockets and most court functions, has cost Collin County over $7 million. No mention was made of the total cost of PeopleSoft, but its a sure bet the cost for it is much, much higher.)

Monday, Judge Calhoun granted the auditor's motion for a summary judgment and temporary restraining order forbidding the county from interfering in his right to ask for an Attorney General's opinion. The retraining order will have no practical effect however since the AG refuses to issue an opinion when the same questions are being addressed in a lawsuit. Calhoun also refused to require the auditor to submit to more depositions.

At the same time, the court refused Cozad's request that he dismiss the county's suit, leaving the door open for either the county or the auditor to file new motions asking the court to rule on the real heart of the matter - "Does Cozad have the authority to audit computer systems, security and software?"

In other motions by the auditor, Calhoun refused to grant Cozad's request to quash the two amicus briefs and the affidavit of County IT Director, Caren Skipworth. All three of these documents were highly critical of Cozad's motives and intentions.

The judge did not rule who was to pay the auditor's legal bills. As of now, the county has refused to authorize any funds for Cozad's legal representation. Calhoun did mention that payment of the legal fees might have to be decided in a trial.

This case will go on for another month or two, and very likely much longer, and with it goes at least one more month's worth of legal fees and lost productivity... at your expense.

All this could have been avoided. For several years now, Cozad has been asking the court for permission to hire a "Certified Information Systems Auditor" to monitor and audit all the county's financial software. Had the court agreed, and brokered a workable compromise or arrangement between the IT department and the Auditor, then this lawsuit never need to have happened.

Instead, the commissioners court files suit portraying their own auditor as some evil, power-grasping demon.

We the taxpayers are paying hard tax dollars to pursue this ego driven turf war.

Bill

Notes:

County auditor won’t have to answer deposition questions - McKinney Courier-Gazette august 12, 2008

Officials meet today in court over county's suit against its auditor, Don Cozad - McKinney Courier-Gazette August 11, 2008

Auditor alleges county Open Meetings violations - CCO June 11, 2008

Auditor asks for an attorney - CCO June 9, 2008

Who authorized the suit against the Auditor? - CCO May 28, 2008

County seeks declaratory judgment against auditor - McKinney Courier Gazette May 23, 2008

I protest yet another secret meeting - CCO May 20, 2008

Who's watching the store? (And the disk drives?) - CCO April 26, 2008