County dispute over buying $3,000 in snacks for sex offenders
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Is Montgomery County spending thousands of dollars on snacks for sex offenders?
Commissioner James Noack was dismayed that the adult probation director wanted to spend nearly $3,000 of public money to feed probationers while they performed community service.
Noack said in commissioner's court today that he was denied the ability to pay for food for Precinct 3 employees during Hurricane Harvey.
"I called the auditor's office to buy some food for the men and women who work for Precinct 3 who were keeping the roads open, keeping the roads safe, and I was told we couldn't use the county credit card to buy food," Noack said. "And then we have the adult probation officer seeking to spend $2,600-and this out of his own mouth-snacks for sex offenders. It's hideous, it's disrespectful to the victims."
Adult probation director Ron Leach said there was a miscommunication, and that taxpayer money is not used to feed probationers.
"The money is generated by fees paid by the probationers. There are no Montgomery County tax dollars being used to buy either drinks or food items for this program," Leach said.
Leach also said that money is used to feed employees during training and that he'll look into ending the practice of feeding probationers.
Leach says the total request was $2,600, but only $261 was used to feed sex offenders. The rest was used to feed county employees during training sessions
