Lubbock Co. official behaves as private bank executive of old

Robert Pratt

Last week a story broke about an odd habit in the Lubbock County auditor’s office. We learned the highly paid Lubbock County auditor, one Jackie Latham, has an office with full kitchen facilities in the break room and has a part time county employee cooking breakfast for the office on county time.

“The county auditor, who is hired by the Board of Judges, is the second highest paid Lubbock County employee, making more than any county employee except the medical examiner,” the story reported. So not only does the auditor, whose job should be about as bland as no-salt crackers, luxuriate in nice offices on the seventh floor, enjoy a salary of around $127,000 per year from taxpayer pockets, she has breakfast cooked in-house by a part time employee on taxpayer time.

Many in Lubbock will be upset with the story, which you can read at SandstormScholar.com but, there is more to this that affects us all. It is emblematic of just how arrogant government officials have become from local government to Washington, D.C.

Many of the officials I’ve known over the years wouldn’t even carry an ink pen out of the courthouse for fear of such ruining their reputation. But today, in counties across Texas we are confronted time and again with charges of commissioners and others helping themselves to county fuel, gravel, and equipment. And in Lubbock we see an auditor’s office using taxpayer dollars to have meals cooked in-house like big bank executives of old.

Human nature hasn’t changed much but, local press coverage has. Years ago, there would have been a newspaper reporter, and possibly radio and TV reporters too, assigned to the courthouse who would wander around and watch what was happening. That media coverage is largely gone, and combined with questionable security barriers and policies, these officials are far less easy to scrutinize today.