I feel like I've read this story about part-time drivers for Sheriff Adrian Garcia and County Judge Ed Emmett before. It reminded me of this one about state Senate staffer salaries, and this one about City Council expenditures. In each case, it involved a sizable fuss over a relatively small amount of money that was being spent on something that was (to my mind, at least) justifiable. I understand the reason for the fuss, and I don't have a problem with anyone who wants to kick it up, I just think it's not that big a deal, but rather is one of those things that looks - or at least, can be made to look - worse than it is. I figure in return for 20% or so of two deputies' time, we can all rest assured that a couple of busy guys won't be working their BlackBerrys while driving. I don't know about you, but I've gotten worse trades than that. So put me in Judge Emmett's corner on this:

Emmett said he believes the commissioners spend too much time worrying about minutiae like his driver and not enough time deliberating over multimillion-dollar projects.

"If the commissioners really want to pitch a fit and say this is the wrong thing to do and they're not going to approve it, fine. I don't care," Emmett said. "But that, to me, would be nonsensical."