Austin, where money is no object except for grocery shoppers and taxpayers, is offering weekend rides on its MetroRail train for just $2.2 million a year, according to a story today by the Austin American-Statesman.

The Food Safety News was denied records by the state of Texas to find out exactly which restaurant was linked to a national salmonella outbreak last fall, but other states complied, pointing to Taco Bell as the culprit.

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Dallas’ finest have been knocked offline by that most sinister of all criminals. No, not a crazed violent felon or a serial predator.

Rep. Kay Granger’s tireless work in Washington has delivered nearly 52 million dollars to downtown Fort Worth redevelopment. Taxpayers can rest easy knowing she has put that money in the hands of her son, JD.

We relayed to you yesterday the stellar reporting of the El Paso Times on political donations from a felon to some high-ranking state figures.

It is Texas Watchdog’s privilege to extend a laurel and hearty handshake to the El Paso Times for dogging state politicians given more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from convicted felon Bob Jones.

If the response by Houston schools officials to past audits is any indication, district parents and residents could see major changes to the school system’s procurement practices during the next few months.

• Substantial financial errors

• The program had been operating without annual budgets, standard contract forms or budget evaluations.

• The program had no set timelines for the completion of projects and lacked standard guidelines as to how projects would be established, evaluated and completed.

• The program had no tracking system of amendments to projects that enlarged their scope and price tag, and that district staff had “no understanding of the impact” of such changes on costs.

• Merging the previously separate construction department and facilities department. “Before, they were totally independent,” Dadoush said. “They were two silos and didn’t communicate with each other.”

• Cultivating a pool of custodians similar to substitute teachers. “Back in 2010, it was not unusual to have 12 to 14 percent of our custodial staff absent,” Dadoush said. “We covered that with overtime, spending about $11 million annually. Since we created the (new system), we’ve saved HISD about $6 million.”

• Re-establishing the district’s preventive-maintenance program. Now, Dadoush said, HISD is 27 percent more productive, acting on 139,000 work orders, as opposed to 110,000 prior to the council’s 2010 audit.

• Starting an employee-evaluation process for contractors and consultants to hold them accountable. “The council’s 2010 report showed us that many employees didn’t receive evaluations,” Dadoush said. “Now, we articulate goals and objectives, and what are our performance measures, as well as the consequences for not meeting them.”

• Hiring spot checkers to examine performance.

• Becoming a “data-driven organization, where we analyze the cost-per-square-foot relative to others in our industry,” Dadoush said.

Texas Watchdog's Mike Cronin talked with radio newsman Scott Braddock this morning about his story regarding the Houston schools paying for two audits of its procurement practices.

In Fort Worth, the school district has decided that rather than let voters decide who will fill a vacant trustee seat, the sitting board is better qualified.

The board claimed an election would be expensive, therefore it would do the selecting for the people. It will meet Feb. 21 to discuss who will join its ranks.

At least one board member, though, believes that the process should be closed to the public.

Fort Worth ISD Trustee Ann Sutherland feels that holding a public forum with the applicants would create a scenario where some could "jam up" the process.

"It's going to be huge and ugly if we do," Sutherland said, according to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Sutherland also wanted to keep the names of the applicants private, but the district’s counsel advised that would be illegal.

But the school district attorney, Bertha Whatley, believes the board can interview applicants and discuss its choice behind closed doors. Whatley said the Texas Open Meetings Act allows such, citing Texas Government Code Section 551.074.

Ann Sutherland

Today, the Star-Telegram weighs in with an op-ed on the situation, predictably – and reliably – coming down on the side of transparency.

Sutherland has been at times a foe of transparency. She was loud in her protest last fall of the public availability of e-mails sent by elected officials and public employees.

And an account last summer, also in the Star-Telegram, noted that Sutherland was texting with the representative of a potential vendor during a meeting on whether to hire the vendor to handle the district's collections from delinquent taxpayers. The representative's firm won the contract.

Of course Sutherland may have texted him in he past; he and his firm, Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, had helped her campaign in the past.

And she’s not afraid to defend her stance.

My, my, my, the hands of begging bureaucrats are out awfully early.