Lawsuit settled out of court

By Misty Shultz/Staff Writer

March 09, 2007 11:46 am

— The Johnson County commissioners decided Thursday after an executive session to sign a settlement from County Auditor Kirk Kirkpatrick, granting him the ability to determine which financial software the county will use for accounting. Kirkpatrick sued the commissioners court when it voted to switch software away from the program Kirkpatrick wanted.
“The commissioners court realized that we were right on the law and recognized independence of the county auditor’s office from the commissioners court,” Kirkpatrick’s attorney, Ralph Duggins, said.
With the case settled, the county will continue to use GEMS software, but Kirkpatrick said he would also continue to evaluate the county’s needs.
“Today GEMS works well on the ledger side, and we are going to keep working on the payroll,” Kirkpatrick said.
Both Kirkpatrick and County Judge Roger Harmon said they were glad to settle the dispute out of court.
“I’m just glad we can go on and get about doing the work of the county,” Kirkpatrick said.
Harmon shared a similar sentiment.
“We just didn’t want to drag this out in court,” Harmon said. “Some people in the county are still having issues with GEMS, but we just don’t want to spend the money to fight this. We have no motives other than to do what is best for the county.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner John W. Matthews agreed.
“We just had to put an end to spending the taxpayers’ money on this,” Matthews said.
Harmon said the commissioners decided to follow the precedent established in a similar case, Harris County v. Fullerton, that took place in 1980.
The Harris County Commissioners Court argued it had the power and authority to limit their county’s general budget, according to www.fastcase.com. Their county auditor, S. Grady Fullerton, argued he alone was authorized to establish his accounting system and provide himself the supplies and equipment necessary to do his job within his budget limits. The auditor argued that, besides an abuse of discretion, the court’s approval of supply and equipment requests was only ministerial.
“The auditor won, the case was appealed and the auditor won the appeal,” Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick filed the lawsuit because he claimed commissioners overstepped their bounds by making a resolution Feb. 12 to discontinue use of GEMS software and convert back to NetData software because they had gotten several complaints from county employees about GEMS.

Misty Shultz can be reached at 817-645-2441,
ext. 2336, or reporter2@trcle.com.