When you work in taxpayer supported job like City Government or Del Mar College or CCISD, the employee, the Sherriff or the auditorium manager can only do what his bosses, politicians, regents and administrators enable him to do. As I understand it the maintenance and service people were not under the control of the Sherriff. At Del Mar College, I was the auditorium manager and supposedly the responsible party. I could beg for repairs and be totally ignored. Physical Facilities was responsible for repairs and maintenance. They would loose the paperwork or get bogged down in the bidding process or couldn’t or wouldn’t purchase the parts. When I was finally given control of my budget, spending the money was incredibly difficult. They were constantly changing the procedures or reinterpreting the procedures so that even with the money in my budget, I could not get things fixed which is why I eventually decided that the safety experts who told the college to shut down the auditorium were right. I came forward and said shut it down and don’t reopen until you’re ready to deal with all the issues. The response was to put me on administrative leave and keep the building open. In the case of the jail the Feds forced the issue.  I don’t know what the Sherriff has to go through to get the building maintained and fixed but, I can imagine. Even as the acknowledged expert on the auditorium when I requested a fix be done in a manner appropriate to the auditorium, I was often overruled by maintenance and their supervisors for the cheap or the simple solution even if it didn’t apply to the auditorium and often came back to haunt us.. I was responsible for the safety of student’s employees and the general public and I had regents like Gabe Rivas calling me a liar because I was embarrassing incompetent and corrupt administrators and regents who had allowed the auditorium to degenerate to such an unsafe and unhealthy condition. They wanted me to applaud them for putting band aids on major safety issues that were too little and too late and I wouldn’t do it. In the end by going public, I forced them to face the fact that the auditorium needed to be renovated. Only by forcing me out of my job they could cut corners and cover up the problems and do a face-lift instead. Makes you wonder what is going on at the jail? The DMC regents want to fool the public, it will look great, but the students and the performing arts community have been short changed and if you have a weak bladder you better be able to hold it because they didn’t add the required amount of rest rooms needed for a full house. That hasn’t stopped the DMC Foundation from producing the Come Home to Del Mar Event and marketing it to an older crowd who need those rest rooms. You think the politicians gave a dam about convicts?

In my particular case for many years on the job I was denied even petty cash. Lucky, I am pretty handy and I could fix many electrical, mechanical and carpentry problems, sometimes with money out of my own pocket. After I was forced to become a public whistleblower, I finally was given control of the budget but first VP Alaniz cut the budget by more than half in retaliation and as punishment. At Del Mar for years they would put money in the auditorium budget to fool the taxpayers, but it was never intended to be spent on the auditorium. The accounting at the DMC was so muddied that funds from the auditorium budget would be siphoned off for other projects and it was impossible for me as an employee, let alone the public to trace them and find out where they had really been spent. They claim the audits show what a good job their doing but the audits aren’t designed to look for the stuff I’m talking about. Getting back to your original question you can do the job as best you can as a public servant or you can rock the boat and blow the whistle. In the end I lost my job and I was forced to retire. What happened to me at Del Mar College isn’t unusual. They just did the same thing to the EEOC officer because she tried to do her job and sometimes doing ones job is not the popular thing to do. There are laws to protect public employees but it is costly and in the end the DMC will use taxpayer money to pay off the EEOC officer for violating her rights. It cost the taxpayers half a year of my salary to put me on administrative leave and that doesn’t include the investment this community had in my professional education that was partly paid for by Del Mar College. One reason I am running for public office is to help other public employees from not having to go through what I went through. I also want to see the students and the taxpayers get a fair deal for their investment. In a sense the Feds blew the whistle on the jail, but can you blame the Sheriff? I think not.