False Allegations

Lynne’s Opponent in the Primary Runoff has made a number of false and misleading accusations against Lynne. Here is the truth:

He alleges that Lynne “Worked only 31 days in 2020…but got paid for 365.”

Lynne worked diligently as the Collin County District Clerk during ALL of 2020. The District Clerk manages a staff of over 70 employees and a budget in excess of $5 million dollars.
During the Covid-19 crisis, Lynne was able to manage the Office of the District Clerk and leverage technology to ensure the uninterrupted ability for the District Clerk’s Office to provide mission critical services to Collin County Citizens, while protecting the health and safety of the Citizens and County Employees.
During the Covid 19 Crisis, the head of each County Department, working in conjunction with the County HR and IT departments, created an operational plan for their office. These plans were developed to ensure the ability to provide mission critical services to the Citizens during the pandemic, while affording the maximum protection practical for County employees.
Each operational plan was reviewed by County officials, and approved by the County HR department.
In common with the Other County departments that worked in the Collin County Courthouse, the Operational Plan for the Office of the Collin County District Clerk provided for approximately half of the employees of the District Clerk’s office to work remotely during the height of the Covid Pandemic, including all high risk and immunocompromised employees, including Lynne.
Lynne suffers from Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease. People with autoimmune disorders are more likely to get seriously ill from COVID-19 and have a significantly increased risk of death because of the immunosuppressive medications used to treat them.
As a County employee and Collin County Citizen, Lynne was subject to County Judge Chris Hill’s March 24th, 2020 Stay at Home Order, which stated:
1. “All persons in Collin County are hereby ordered to stay home, except for travel related to essential activities. Entertainment activities are not considered essential activities.” and
2. “COVID-19 is a new disease, and there is limited information regarding risk factors for severe disease. Based upon available information to date, those at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 include… Persons who are immunocompromised”
As a County employee with an autoimmune disorder, Lynne was subject to County Judge Chris Hill’s March 24th, 2020 Stay at Home Order which also stated:
1. “Persons at higher risk for severe illness have a responsibility to take actions necessary to protect their own personal physical health and well-being and to mitigate their own risk and potential exposure to COVID-19. Any person who believes he or she is at higher risk for severe illness and who believes he or she may be compromised from exposure to COVID-19 is hereby ordered to stay home…”
As a lifelong Texas Citizen, Lynne was also subject to Governor Abbot’s March 31st, 2020 Executive Order No.GA-14, which stated:
1. “In accordance with guidance from DSHS Commissioner Dr.Hellerstedt, and to achieve the goals established by the President to reduce the spread of COVD-19, every person in Texas shall, except where necessary to provide or obtain essential services, minimize social gatherings and minimize in-person contact with people who are not in the same household.”
As an elected Official managing an office that provides services to the Judiciary, Lynne was subject to the provisions of the COVID-19 Operating Plan for the Collin County District Courts, County Courts at Law, and Justice Courts, which expressly ordered that: “Judges and court staff who can perform the essential functions of their job remotely will telework when possible.”
Lynne Finley provided the County with a letter from her Physician documenting her autoimmune disorder, her increased risk from Covid-19, and Physician’s orders that she work remotely.
Lynne took the extra step of submitted an application to the County HR department for an ADA accommodation, but was informed by the County HR department that as an independent elected official, the County HR department had no authority over her, and which employees of the District Clerk’s office could work remotely was at the sole discretion of the District Clerk..
Between March 10th, 2020 and September 14th, 2020, approximately half of the employees of the office of the Collin County District Clerk, including Lynne, worked remotely as part of the Covid 19 Operational Plan for the Office of the District Clerk with the full approval of the County Commissioners and County HR department.
Lynne worked EVERY weekday between March 10th, 2020 and September 14th, 2020, AND usually weekends as well, via phone, email and zoom conferences.
Between March 10th, 2020 and September 14th, 2020, Lynne personally handled more than 7000 emails and phone calls as the Collin County District Clerk.
In addition to working every weekday, Lynne conducted supervisor meetings via Zoom at least every Friday. Lynne also coordinated with HR, IT and County Elected Officials and Departments on a daily basis to ensure that the District Clerk’s employees had the support, resources, and training needed to successfully do their jobs.

He alleges that Lynne “Left the state to Washington state between March 2020 and September 2020…the only elected official to vacate their office in the time of crisis.”

Lynne Finley did NOT vacate her office during the summer of 2020.
As explained above, Lynne Finley worked remotely from March to September 2020, along with more than half the employee’s of the District Clerk’s Office, in accordance with the County Approved Covid 19 Operational Plan for the Office of the District Clerk.
Between March 10th, 2020 and September 14th, 2020, Lynne personally handled more than 7000 emails and phone calls as the Collin County District Clerk.
During all of 2020, Lynne managed the Office of the District Clerk and leveraged technology to ensure the uninterrupted ability for the District Clerk’s Office to provide mission critical services to Collin County Citizens, while protecting the health and safety of the Citizens and County Employees, just as she did in the years before and after Covid-19.

He alleges that Lynne “Denied an employee the right to work remotely while undergoing stage 4 cancer treatments thereby forcing her to resign and forfeit county benefits.”

Lynne went above and beyond to advocate for EVERY employee who requested an accommodation.
County records contain an email dated Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 11:10 AM from the head of the County HR department to Lynne Finley stating unequivocally: “you have followed HR’s advice on all the accommodation requests in your office.”
Where the County HR Office ruled that an accommodation could not be granted under existing County policy, Lynne advocated for a change in policy or an exemption to County Policy.
During Covid 19, Lynne granted EVERY request for an accommodation that was within her legal power to grant, and argued with County officials to go beyond County policy in extending accommodations to those who might not strictly qualify.
All health related documentation for a county employee seeking ADA or FMLA accommodations is handled between the employee and the County Human Resources Department.
The District Clerk is not provided with HIPPA protected documentation or information from the County Human Resources Department.
The District Clerk reviews the recommendation from the County Human Resources Department regarding ADA accommodations and receives notification of coverage dates for FMLA from the County Human Resources Department.
The Human Resources Department prepares the letters that are sent to the employee requesting the accommodation to either grant or deny such an accommodation because HR is the only one that has access to the medical information that the recommendation is based upon.
The District Clerk has ALWAYS followed the advice of the Collin County Human Resources Department.

He alleges that Lynne “Had the passport services taken away from her office by the State Department and ruining an otherwise great long-standing relationship with that government entity”

This is a very long and complicated issue involving issues and people over a period of more than 10 years, but in summary, operations at the local Collin County Passport offices were suspended December 21, 2018 as a result of an ongoing investigation related to events that took place before Lynne took office as the District Clerk in 2016. At the conclusion of the investigation, Lynne Finley and the Collin County District Clerk’s Office were officially cleared of any wrongdoing. However, the passport offices were not re-opened. The Federal Government is increasingly moving to close Passport offices not operated by the Federal Government. Several Counties surrounding Collin County have also had their locally operated passport offices closed by the Federal Government.

Clerk Finley and Bob Davis met with special agents with Consular Affairs to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation into passport fraud.
The agents presented documents to review dating back to 2010, long before Lynne was elected in 2016.
The agents explained that the investigation began about 5 year prior to Lynne’s election, and involved almost a decade of applications. The passport fraud scheme involved a Nigerian gang of drug traffickers.
Upon reviewing the documents with the agents, Lynne identified a private expediting company as the common thread in the documents that dated back to 2010.
That same day, December 21, 2018, the District Clerk received a letter from the Dallas Passport Agency suspending the Collin County District Clerk passport services.
Congressman Van Taylor and the District Clerk discussed the suspension that day and began working to lift the suspension.
Within a week, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn joined the Congressman and the District Clerk in seeking resolution with the State Department.
The Office of Consular Affairs officially cleared the Collin County District Clerk, and her office, of any wrongdoing on January 30, 2019. Despite clearing the Collin Clerk and her Office of any wrongdoing, the Federal Government declined to re-open the passport offices at the conclusion of the investigation.
In response to inquiries from Congressman Van Taylor, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn, in February 2019, the United States Department of State, through its Managing Director for Support Services, Passport Services, Mr. Barry Conway, provided a summary of concerns identified by the State Department.
On February 25, 2019, the District Clerk responded to Mr. Conway’s concerns with extensive supporting documentation.
On February 27, 2019, the District Clerk sent a letter to Mr. Conway confirming that the Diplomatic Security Services criminal investigation had completely cleared the Collin County District Clerk’s Office of any misconduct or wrongdoing.
On March 19, 2019, the Department of State declined to re-open the regional Collin County Passport Services Offices. There is no appeal from this decision.
The official reason provided by the State Department for not reopening the Collin County Passport offices at the conclusion of the investigation was the identification of “a potential conflict of interest/inappropriate relationship between staff from the District Clerk… and a local passport and visa expediting company.”
The “potential conflict” turned out to be a report from a citizen who believed his credit card had been charged by the Collin County District Clerk’s passport office for services actually provided by a passport expediting company. Further investigation revealed that the citizen was confused, and the charge had in fact been processed by the Passport expediting service processing the Citizen’s passport, which was located in the same office building complex as the District Clerk’s passport office.
On April 11, 2019, Congressman Van Taylor sent a letter to Carl Risch, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, expressing his displeasure that the Collin County passport offices would not be reopened, despite the Collin County District Clerk’s Office being cleared of any wrongdoing by the Diplomatic Security Services Criminal Investigation division.
The four passport clerks in Plano relocated to other Collin County positions without any loss in wages or jobs.
The District Clerk continues to use her best efforts to re-open the two local Collin County Passport offices, but the decision to do so is entirely within the discretion of the Federal Government. Lynne will be working closely with Collin County’s future Congressman Keith Self on the issue.

He alleges that Lynne: “Refused to provide the administrative support for the Collin County Magistrate Judge that is required by Texas state law.”

Prior to October 1, 2019, Criminal Magistration in Collin County was provided by the elected judges, and had been since the creation of the County.
The Collin County Commissioners took over direct control of Criminal Magistration in Collin County effective October 1st, 2019.
As of October 1, 2019, the District Clerk provided and continues to provide the legally required administrative support for the Collin County Magistrate Court as well as additional duties and personnel not budgeted for the Magistrate Court such as the functional analyst.
When the County Commissioners took Magistration away from the elected Judges and placed it under the direct control of the County Commissioners, they failed to provide for adequate staff in the budget for the Magistrate Court, thereby creating an unfunded mandate for the District Clerk, who was made the Clerk of the Collin County Magistrate Court.
The County Commissioner’s did not provide funding for a Court clerk, a Court reporter, or any of the support staff necessary for creating and maintaining a docket, handling hearings or the various other daily activities of the Magistrate Court. (A mistake not corrected until April 18, 2022, when the Commissioner’s finally approved the addition of four full-time clerks and made the existing part-time clerk position full time, but only after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on temp workers and non allocated employees.)
The District Clerk was forced to use staff assigned to other Courts, and supervisory staff to cover the manpower shortage and provide services to the Magistrate’s Court.
On December 19, 2019, the Collin County Magistrate appointed by the County Commissioners requested a clerk to be present for all hearings.
The District Clerk explained that her office did not normally have a clerk present for Court hearings, and did not provide scheduling of hearings, court interpreters, or court reporters to the District Courts. The District Clerk explained that those functions were provided to the District Courts by Court Clerks and Court Coordinators, assigned to, and under the supervision of, each District Court.
The District Clerk explained that the District Clerk would be unable to provide those services to the newly created Collin County Magistrate Court, because the County Commissioners had not provided funding for a Court Coordinator, Court Reporter, or Court Clerks to manage the day to day operations of the Court, as with the District Courts.
The District Clerk further explained that at least 3 clerks, preferably 4, would be required to provide direct support for the day to day operations of the new Collin County Magistrate Court, and that as the County Commissioners had not funded any new positions for the new Court, the District Clerk did not have the staff to provide those services to the newly created Collin County Magistrate Court.
The District Clerk explained that there was no budgeted staff to cover Magistrate courthouse hearings and the magistrate could not come to the courthouse for hearings while still preparing and completing all the legally required documentation and preparation for the morning and evening arraignments at the jail.
Local Administrative Judge, Ben Smith, clearly informed the County Commissioners that the District Clerk was performing all of her duties for the Magistrate Court, despite the unfunded mandate created by the County Commisioner’s lack of funding:
1. “I’m not aware of a statutory duty that requires the district clerk to be present for hearings. I believe that the county clerk provides clerks for hearing in the county courts, but the district clerk does not normally have a clerk present for district court hearings. Additionally, the scheduling of hearing, court interpreters, and court reporters are traditionally duties of a court coordinator, not the clerk.”
The District Clerk informed the County Commissioner’s in December 2019 that additional staff would be needed for the Collin County Magistrate Court, and that without additional staff, the District Clerk would be unable to provide adequate support for the Magistrate Court.
The District Clerk performed, and continues to perform, her duties mandated under the statute with no budgeted staff for the duties as the clerk of the court for the Magistrate Court.
As mentioned above, the Collin County Commissioners FINALLY corrected the lack of funding for the necessary positions to perform the day to day operations of the Collin County Magistrate Court on April 18, 2022, when the Commissioner’s finally approved the addition of four full-time clerks and made the existing part-time clerk position full time, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on temp workers and non allocated employees to provide the essential Court services the Commissioner’s neglected to budget for when they assumed control of Criminal Magistration in Collin County in October 2019.