The Insite has learned Harris County Commissioners will go behind closed doors (Executive Session) Tuesday to address Sheriff Adrian Garcia's alleged spending problem.
Sources with the county say Garcia's spending could put the county's budget into a crisis.
I'm told the County's Purchasing Agent, Auditor, and County Attorney have all met with the Sheriff to ask him to get his spending in line with other county departments.
One source says while all other county departments have seen a decrease in their annual budgets Garcia has seen an increase.
So how bad is his alleged spending problem? One unnamed county official said Garcia is expected to to be $11 million dollars over budget at the end of the fiscal year ending in February.
Officials from the Sheriff's Office disagree with idea that Garcia has a spending problem.
A representative with the law enforcement agency provided the Insite with some solid numbers they say clearly shows Garcia does not have a spending problem.
That rep says at the most the Sheriff could come in over budget by as little as 1%.
We're told that is the lowest it has been in 6 years and lower than previous administrations.
That rep also says there has been a year to year decrease in spending for the Sheriff's Department since Garcia came into office.
Here's the information provided by the Sheriff's office:
FY 12 begin March 1. The HCSO budget for FY 12 is $386 million, an
increase of about 3 percent from the previous year.
As the table shows, real spending went up average of 16.5 percent per
year for the last three years of the previous sheriff's administration.
During Sheriff Garcia's administration, real spending has gone down --
for the first time in 20 or more years.
The previous sheriff overspent his budget by 16 percent in his last year
in office. I leave it to you to find out what the county government said
and did about that. Now, any disagreement is about overspending of
between 1 and 3 percent.
(Note: Table coming soon)
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