“How did it get so late so soon?”

I recalled the above Dr. Seuss’ quote when I suddenly realized today marked the 23^rd week since the City Council awarded a "14-week" contract to Matrix Consultants to perform an independent audit of the Kyle Police Department. Before Spectrum, my anything-but-efficient internet provider, threw a wrench into its e-mail system Sunday night making it impossible to sign in to read or send e-mail (as of an hour ago, the wrench has yet to be removed), I managed to dash off a "what gives?" plea to city leaders. Today I received the following response from City Manager Scott Sellers:

"… the time has drug out longer than initially estimated. We asked the consultant to do a little more work during subsequent visits that took them more time. This work did not increase the budget" (translation: work they should have done as a matter of course, but failed to do).

"This said," Sellers continued, "we received the draft last Thursday and are in the process of reviewing it now. It will definitely be made public as soon as we get the final draft, which, hopefully, will be in the next several weeks" (translation: this could take twice as long as was originally scheduled).

However, all will be forgiven if the audit answers one simple question: "Are taxpayers getting the best bang for their bucks?" The real purpose of an audit like this is to determine if the department being audited is spending tax funds judiciously, efficiently, economically, without any waste — spending the funds we pay in taxes in a manner to obtain the highest possible value for its constituents.

I have absolutely no reason to believe the audit will reveal anything nefarious or even slightly out of whack. But even if it just makes some suggestions for additional operational efficiencies, it will have been well worth the time, effort and expense.

More on that planned police department audit

Earlier this week I wrote that during a brief intermission in Tuesday’s city council meeting. I asked City Manager Scott Sellers whether the Matrix Consulting Group’s planned audit for the Kyle Police Department that the council had authorized just moments before "would reveal whether (1) the police department was operating at peak efficiency, (2) the department was effectively serving its customers and (3) was the department wisely spending taxpayers’ dollars" and that Sellers replied "Absolutely." (He elaborated further you can read in his entire response in the first bullet item contained in this story.)

But I decided to pose exactly that same question to Richard Brady, the president of the Matrix Consulting Group and the person in charge of the company’s government consulting practice and he replied: "The simple answer is yes, our study will address all three objectives."

The company’s web site says much the same thing.

"Our overall approach to evaluating law enforcement services is one which strives to balance community demands for service with the equally strong need to provide services efficiently," it says. "To accomplish this we work with our clients to clearly define their service level expectations so that our analysis can show the cost and service implications of each decision regarding staffing, deployment and operations."

So there’s that.

For the record, Brady holds a doctorate from Oxford and, according to the company’s website, his "experience encompasses over 30 years in the analysis of every local governmental service in hundreds of jurisdictions throughout the country."

So there's that, as well.