Seemingly Innocuous Bill Causes Controversy Among County Auditors

A seemingly innocuous bill (HB 561) to remove the authority of county auditors to mandate the use of certain software in county departments has met some resistance from county auditors across the state.

The bill by State Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson) caused quite a stir Monday before the County Affairs Committee. The McKinney paper has some of the highlights:

A new bill filed by State. Rep Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, attempts to clarify the county auditor’s scope of access to software and information technology data, something Collin County Auditor Donald Cozad claims would wipe out everything he has accomplished in the District Courts.

Madden, along with Collin County Judge Keith Self, Collin County Information Technology Director Caren Skipworth and Collin County Human Resources Director Cynthia Jackson, testified on behalf of House Bill 561 before the Texas House’s Committee on Community Affairs Monday in Austin for the bill’s first public hearing. Several county auditors from across the state including Cozad as well as representatives from the Texas Association of County Auditors and the County Treasurers Association of Texas also filed their opposition to the bill.

Madden met with Collin County’s Commissioners Court before the start of the new legislative session towards the end of 2008 to discuss issues they hoped he would address in the House. Madden said the meeting touched on several topics, including the issuing surrounding HB 561 that he filed the following January.

“One of them was this idea they had that the commissioners of the court think they have a legitimate responsibility to control the costs of the county,” Madden said from his office in Austin, “as far as concerns over the ability of who can select various programs, and various software and hardware that needed to be purchased and concerns they have about the sanctity of that data.”

Madden said he was not aware of the lawsuit between the Commissioners and their county auditor until “a couple of weeks ago.”

It looks like Madden stepped into the middle of a controversial civil lawsuit. The only reason we bring this bill or the controversy up isn’t because of Madden or even the subject of the bill. It is just because it is an excellent example of the kind of controversy that can be crated by a seemingly innocuous piece of legislation. It’s all part of the legislative process.