I Make It Really Easy For Polland to Give Me His Side of the Story

Reprinted from the August 26, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Gary Polland is a very busy man. He barely has time for his political work, all of his court appearances, home visits I am so sure he personally performs, meetings with investment bankers, etc. So, I sent Polland a fax that should make it easier for him to reply to my questions quickly and accurately, so that his side of the story can be shared with you:

Mr. Polland,

I know you are a very busy man and perhaps you lack the time to respond to my questions about the work you have done as an appointed attorney ad litem in CPS cases. I am therefore providing you the following answers to my questions so that you can take just a few seconds to check the appropriate responses and fax your answers back to me. I truly do want to be fair to you and deal with facts instead of rumor or supposition. I know there are almost always two sides to every story and I really want to get your side of this story and share it with my many readers. I need you to correct me if my facts are wrong or if I am misinterpreting the data and documents I see in your cases.

Question: Do you personally conduct all of the home visits with children in CPS cases before each court appearance as required by law and as shown in your billing invoices to the county?

Answer: (check all that apply)

____ Yes, I do go myself and conduct the home visits with children as shown on my bills to the county. I do not send other attorneys or a social worker I employ. You are barking up the wrong tree Enos.

____ No, I do not go personally to conduct the home visits I bill the county for. I send: __ other attorneys __ these non-lawyers: ___________________

Question: How is it that you almost always bill the county for 5.0 hours for each home visit?

Answer: (check all that apply)

____ All of my pay vouchers are 100% accurate and I strongly resent any implication that they are not. I stand by my fees and hours on all of these cases.

____ Almost all of the children I am appointed to represent coincidentally live the exact same distance from my office and house and therefore the travel time is always the same. I always spend the same amount of time (_____ minutes) on each home visit, regardless of the age of the child or the issues involved. Thus, I am accurately billing the county when I charge 5.0 hours for almost every home visit.

____ Actually, every home visit takes more than 5.0 hours, but to be fair to tax payers, I always round my charge down to just five hours. I am really a bargain!

____ Okay, I admit it, I might fudge the hours on my pay vouchers, but my buddies the judges presumably know I am doing it and they don’t seem to mind, especially at election time when they so desperately need my endorsement.

Question: Why have you been filing pleadings with private information about the children you are appointed to represent without putting at the top of each document,”this document contains sensitive data” as required by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure? Did you know that people on-line could see the names, birth dates, and photographs of the children you represent and even potentially identify where some of the children were in foster care because your home visit reports were filed without that required privacy statement?

Answer: (check all that apply)

____ Supreme Court rules do not apply to me, as those justices must also run in Republican primaries and they need my endorsement.

____ Typing five words at the top of every pleading is so time consuming and I do so much for these children as it is. Asking me to protect their so-called privacy is simply asking too much.

____ No other attorneys were doing it in CPS cases in family courts, not even the County Attorney, so why pick on me?

____ Other excuse (please specify): ___.

Gary – if you have done nothing wrong in these CPS appointments and your billing to the county, then just please say so and let me share with my readers your side of the story.

I will stick to my promise to issue a special edition of this newsletter to print verbatim what Mr. Polland sends me so that his views and corrections can be shared with my readers without editing. I promise there will a lot for Polland to reply to in my next newsletter!