The Tarrant County staffer tasked with overseeing fairness and equity in vendor contracts lost a layer of oversight this month with approval from many of the county’s top elected officials.
Republican officials described the change as largely administrative and intended to maximize efficiency in county purchasing. County commissioner Alisa Simmons, the lone Democrat to publicly oppose the change, said it announces to vendors, contractors and voters that “Tarrant County is now a pay-to-play county.”
Melissa Lee has worked in the county’s purchasing department for about 30 years and led it for the past five, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Until this month, Lee’s role as purchasing agent was considered independent of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court. She reported to a five-member volunteer board appointed by the county’s 11 district judges and five-member commissioners court.
That board no longer exists. Lee now reports directly to the county administrator, Chandler Merritt, who is hired and fired by the commissioners court.
“I don’t think that changing the structure is necessary or even advisable, or in the interest of taxpayers,” said Simmons, who served on the board. “You can do it … but this was set up this way for a reason.”
County commissioners voted unanimously Feb. 10 to appoint Lee as “purchasing director” — essentially the same role as “purchasing agent” with the same salary, employee benefits and retirement options. That vote came the day after the Tarrant County Purchasing Agent Board met to abolish Lee’s former role, leaving the board defunct.
Lee, who was in attendance, did not speak publicly at the commissioners meeting. She did not return a request for comment.
County Judge Tim O’Hare, who served on the board, said he introduced the change to eliminate “redundancy” and provide Lee and her department with more administrative help.
“Multiple elected officials and department heads” asked him to provide the purchasing department with more support because of unspecified “issues,” he said during the Feb. 10 commissioners meeting.
“The actual support provided by this purchasing board was none — not one ounce of support provided to purchasing in any way, shape or form from that board,” O’Hare said.
Under state law, Texas counties may hire a “purchasing agent” to lead purchasing departments that solicit bids from contractors, request proposals, provide equipment and services, inventory county assets and maintain property surplus.
Purchasing agents are typically appointed by an independent board, made up of three elected district judges and two members of the commissioners court. In counties with populations of more than 100,000 residents, such as Tarrant, commissioners may appoint a purchasing agent to “serve at the pleasure of the commissioners court” rather than a board, according to the Texas Government Code.
As of Feb. 24, Tarrant County’s website states: “The county purchasing agent is charged with the responsibility of assuring fair and equitable treatment to all vendors without regard to political pressure or discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, handicap or sex.”
How do other Texas counties manage their purchasing agents?
In Dallas, the purchasing director reports to the commissioners court. In Harris, Travis and Bexar counties, a purchasing agent reports to a board independent of the commissioners court.
Judge John Chupp of Tarrant County’s 141st District Court, who served as chairman of the purchasing board, voted in favor of the change so as to improve efficiency, he said at the Feb. 9 meeting. Anything reviewed or approved by the board was still subject to approval from the commissioners court.
“We seem redundant to me, to what you do on the commissioners court,” Chupp said. “We have these meetings, but we have no power to do anything.”
County Clerk Mary Louise Nicholson said she was one of the concerned elected officials and department heads O’Hare referenced. She told commissioners she and Lee sought to address needed changes within the department but without success. Nicholson said she’s hopeful the change helps, although she did not specify what changes were needed.
“We worked very hard to give her a chance to help bring this along,” Nicholson said. “But when we’re in the middle of contract negotiations and trying to get things to happen, if the organization is suffering, we all suffer.”
County purchasing needs an “independent pair of eyes,” Simmons said, arguing that the board provided that oversight. She warned that moving the purchasing agent under the county administrator — who reports to commissioners — would leave the position “no more than a tool of this commissioners court.”
Simmons had “no clue” about the proposed change until it appeared on the board meeting agenda, she said. She questioned why O’Hare and Chupp introduced it “during election season,” claiming the change opens the door for elected officials to cut deals with contractors or vendors donating to campaigns.
“Our forefathers — both legislative and constitutional — were determined to prevent an abuse of power in Texas,” Simmons said. “They did so by distributing power.”
Both O’Hare and Simmons are seeking their party nominations for the county judge seat in the March 3 primaries. O’Hare is campaigning for a second term as judge, while Simmons is seeking to challenge him after her precinct was redrawn last year to favor GOP candidates.
O’Hare called it “literally ludicrous” that the change to Lee’s position would have any impact on the ethics and oversight of county purchasing.
“Purchasing has a ton of laws that the state requires people to follow,” O’Hare said. “Those laws will still be followed. Those laws are still in place.”
Simmons was the lone “no” vote at the Feb. 9 board meeting. The next day she voted in favor of moving the role under the county administrator to ensure that Lee still had a job, Simmons said.
Merritt told commissioners he informed Lee of the change to her position after she returned to work from vacation Feb. 6, the Friday before the volunteer board’s meeting. That Monday, Lee signed a tentative offer letter contingent on the votes of approval, he added.
O’Hare said he wished Lee was given more notice of the change but noted there were “attempts made” while she was on vacation.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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