The Sunset Advisory Commission met on November 10th to report decisions on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, and Office of the Independent Ombudsman. The Commission also heard public testimony on the limited review of the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
Opening Comments
- Chair Schwertner – Will be voting on each agency’s decisions in a blanket motion before moving on, accepting motions to remove items to consider individually
Decisions on Sunset Agency Recommendations
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission
- Issue 1
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 2
- Rep. Holland – Moves to remove 2.1 from blanket
- Motion to remove 2.1 from blanket motion adopted, remaining recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Rep. Holland – Moves to adopt staff rec 2.1 with proposed mod, adding language directing TCEQ to assess current compliance history rating formula and develop alternative when history is complex enough to warrant it
- Modification to 2.1 adopted
- Issue 3
- Sen. Perry – Moves to remove 3.2 from blanket, adopted
- Motion to remove 3.2 from blanket motion adopted, remaining recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Sen. Perry – Motion to remove 3.2 requiring ground water study meeting in a public setting; already have a process and needs to be technically done
- Motion to add 3.2 fails 9-1
- Issue 4
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 5
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 6
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Motion to adopt all 11 new recommendations
- Sen. Johnson – Motion to remove Rec 6 from the blanket motion
- Remaining motions adopted
- Sen. Johnson – Rec 6 is moving penalty from $25k cap to $50k cap, discussion led to another recommendation to reduce cap from $50k to $40k
- Motion to amend Rec 6 by reducing $50k cap to $40k adopted
- Motion to adopt recommendation 6 as amended adopted
Texas Juvenile Justice Department
Office of the Independent Ombudsman
- Issue 1
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 2
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 3
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 4
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Issue 5
- Recommendations adopted as blanket motion
- Motion to adopt 20 new recommendations
- Rep. Holland – Motion to remove new rec 1 from the blanket motion, adopted
- Sen. Johnson – Motion to remove new rec 15 from the blanket motion, adopted
- Other new recommendations adopted in blanket motion
- Rep. Holland – Motion to amend new rec 1 to change Board qualification reqs for 3 members
- Motion to amend new rec 1 adopted
- Sen. Johnson – Motion to extract new rec 15
Closing Comments on Votes
- Rep. Canales – Need to increase pay for TDCJ staff to stabilize staffing, votes today are step in the right direction but need to continue to discuss how to improve system; children can lead healthy & constructive lives
- Sen. Johnson – Saw increase to TDCJ funding over interim, long overdue; important to examine salaries of these employees, even with 15% increase still under average rate for juvenile justice officer
- Sen. Perry – 71% turnover in these positions, struggling to meet future capacity and to handle current capacity; seeing similar issues in all agencies
State Board of Veterinary Examiners Limited Scope Review
Steven Ogle, Sunset Advisory Commission Staff
- Unique review, 3rd Sunset evaluation within 6 years; focused on data management issues, evaluating implementation of new database system & processes and procedures
- Agency failed to implement new database and modify processes, tried to procure new databases twice, but did not succeed and failed to provide Sunset with proposed contracts
- Until agency has centralized database system, agency will continue to struggle to perform its function
- Chair Schwertner – Multiple reviews show agency is one that cannot seem to function, can you highlight some of the other problems the agency has had?
- Like to see agency keep data on licensure, complaints, legal process, etc.
- Appear to have problems with agency functions according to data, but data is unreliable
- Prescription drug diversion problem is serious in the state, Vet Board doesn’t have to participate in PMP so oversight will be one of the major deterrents to prescription drug diversion
- Sen. Schwertner – Have seen media reports on inability to find basic licensure and complaint data on the website, functions are down, complaint investigations are falling, average complaint resolution is 500 days, well above 180 days
- Sen. Schwertner – Executives resigned in April after the media reports
- Sen. Perry – How many enforcement officers do they have and how many licensees?
- 5 enforcement officers, 12k licensees
- Sen. Perry – Could you look back at appropriations process to see if agency asked for additional personnel?
- Sen. Perry – Did they take some self-correcting actions before issues were reported on?
- Not before the executive leadership stepped down, under new leadership there have been some actions taken
- Sen. Perry – Needs work, best practices software already exists; would like to know if they saw this problem & if we didn’t give them resources to solve it
- Can look at past LARs; as to the database, this LAR is the first time they’ve asked for IT money
- Sen. Johnson – Agency stated they entered into a second contract, paid money, but wasn’t able to produce contract; how do we know there was a contract?
- A lot of circumstantial evidence there was one, but no evidence there was one
- Sen. Johnson – Lots of people being paid to do work?
- Yes, see payments, see conversations with InLumon, but no evidence of what InLumon was providing
- Sen. Johnson – Did we reach out to InLumon?
- Review is limited, emailed InLumon
- Sen. Johnson – Would like to ensure we have contracts before proceeding with a contract in the future
Keith Pardue, TBVME Chair
- Appointed to the Board in June after other executive team resigned, took action as soon as issues were discovered
- Making progress, software not yet in place, but expecting it will be with proper funding
- Understand mission to ensure high standard of vet care in TX
- Chair Schwertner – You’ve been on the Board for some time?
- Yes, originally appointed in 2014
- Chair Schwertner – So you’re aware of concerns raised by prior Sunset reports; is it your feeling that the Board is now more involved?
- No question that Board is more involved, Chair is more involved, aware more now of the issues
- Chair Schwertner – Have been a number of recommendations to TBVME that have not been followed up on, missing basic features on website, and have larger issue of veterinarian being able to procure, administer, and prescribe all in one chain; if it’s not properly regulated has huge potential for diversion and misappropriation
- Chair Schwertner – Concerned about Board’s ability to address the issue based on where we are now
- Inability to find complaints, etc. is due to software system put in place by the last Exec. Dir. Which didn’t work; have been working on this since being appointed
- Sen. Schwertner – Can you speak to reduced inspections and higher resolution times
- Defers to Brittany Sharkey, TBVME
Brittany Sharkey, TBVME
- FY21 inspection reduction was largely due to statewide travel restrictions, FY22 low numbers were agency trying to fill in staff after resignations
- Chair Schwertner – How many did you do in FY20?
- Over 800
- Chair Schwertner – You had COVID issues in both 2020 and 2021?
- Normally team tries to get inspections done at the beginning of the year, got these done early in 2020
- Chair Schwertner – Contract mismanagement issue, did this not flow through your general counsel office?
- It did not
- Chair Schwertner – So you were completely removed from the process
- Yes, informed at the same time as the rest of the staff
- Sen. Perry – Is there a second contract with InLumon?
- Cannot find a contract, seems to be an informal arrangement with the vendor
- Sen. Perry – No formal RFP process? Finance and ED making the decision with Board knowledge?
- As far as I understand
- Sen. Perry – Asks Pardue, you’ve been there since 2014, have been hammering TBVME since 2017; when were you aware there was a problem?
- Pardue – Aware of 2017 Sunset issues when they were raised, 32 issues, 31 of which were solved
- Wasn’t aware software was the problem until this year
- Sen. Perry – Is there a best practice software in existence?
- Sharkey – Yes, asked for additional funds in LAR to fund software system, the one used by majority of Health Professions Council agencies
- Sen. Perry – What would be the time frame after approps? Two years?
- HPC has assured us there is a 90 day startup timeframe
- Sen. Perry – So if there is another review next session, you will be ready?
- Yes
- Sen. Perry – And this has been discussed?
- Yes
- Sen. Perry – Board ready and engaged?
- Pardue – Yes
- Sen. Perry – Professional requirements on the Board makeup?
- 5 veterinarians
- Rep. Holland – What type of involvement do Board members have if you weren’t aware of the issue? How new is some of the Board?
- One new member
- Rep. Holland – How often does the Board meet?
- Have met frequently to discuss this issue currently, but typically quarterly
- Rep. Holland – Agency has undergone 3 reviews in 6 years, you’ve been there 8, Board was unaware of these problems?
- Only been in the last year or so that things happened that made it untenable
- Rep. Holland – You would be able to tell if someone wasn’t doing a good job; how good of a job do you think this Board is doing?
- When the Exec. Dir. came in, he earned confidence of the majority of the Board, things started not making sense 2-3 months before we terminated him
- Investigation ongoing right now
- Rep. Holland – Of 19 FTEs approved, how many do you have right now?
- Sharkey – 18 FTEs
- Rep. Holland – Turnover?
- Lost 52% of employees over last FY, had to replace and reorg; before this generally agency had been stable
- Rep. Holland – 5 investigative staff? Approved for 6?
- 5 currently, are approved for 6
- Rep. Holland – Outside of the investigation and complaints, how do you handle licensees who have a counter to complaints? Strong negative opinion of the agency among veterinarians, what can we do to address this?
- Have noticed an issue with communication during the complaints process, typically falls off after investigation is complaint and legal steps; looking into communications with licensees and public
- Rep. Canales – On the contract, you investigated if there was one; there wasn’t a contract?
- As best as we can understand in talking to vendor and in our documents, there was no contract
- Rep. Canales – Pardue is essentially at the helm, what are your qualifications?
- Pardue – Attorney, much of what the Board does is sit in on enforcement conferences, evaluating complaints, etc.
- Rep. Canales – What is the makeup of the Board? If there is an agency problem, then there is a Board problem
- Sharkey – 5 veterinarians on the board, 1 new, 1 licensed vet tech, 3 public members, 1 CPA; good mix of professional experience
- Sen. Springer – 5 investigators go out at the beginning of the year to hit numbers, then come back to agency; seems like investigations could be avoided in the last 9 months of the year
- In order to maximize funding, try to send out an investigator and cover a particular area all at once
- Sen. Springer – My understanding is InLumon works with SHI, was the problem with SHI?
- Understanding is that InLumon was not able to build out the software
- Sen. Springer – Did SHI have a contract with InLumon? We paid SHI
- Have not been made aware, but can request that
- Sen. Springer – Taxpayers paid SHI, if they aren’t doing their job of managing InLumon, why didn’t we go directly to InLumon? Need to make sure we’re going after that & would like to hear more back on this
- Will follow up
- Chair Schwertner – Who signs vouchers and payment authorization?
- Exec. Dir. and CFO
- Chair Schwertner – $108k invoice, any record at DIR?
- No
- Chair Schwertner – Discussion has raised further questions; need to do more work here, will be reaching out to other stakeholders and offices
- Schwertner moves to direct Sunset to identify options to address systemic issues with TBVME and submit options before January meeting, adopted
Closing Comments
- Chair Schwertner – Next meeting on Dec. 6 & 7 will be lengthy, incl. river authorities, PUCT, ERCOT, etc.