That's the crux of Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia's argument when approached on the subject of "pay to play" in the Harris County Court....
Harris County Relies on Contractors, Commissioners Rely on their Cash. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
“If you look at my voting history over the years, I’ve made decisions and taken votes that worked against some of the interests of people that contributed to me,” said Garcia, who previously served as a Houston city councilman and Harris County sheriff.
Uh huh.
This is an issue that seems to pop its head out of the mud occasionally and it's certainly not just limited to Garcia, or Democrats. The prevalence of pay to play deals is part and parcel of a governmental authority with non-existent ethics rules and little to no oversight. We're asking the wolves to guard the chicken coop, with nothing more than a vague promise from the wolves that they've actually sworn-off chicken, just ignore the feathers around their mouth.
Despite her office having no direct say on spending of the type mentioned in this story, it was hoped that Lina Hidalgo's commendable step of refusing campaign money from firms with county contracts would prod the other commissioners to up their game and end what is clearly a bad-governance practice.
So much for hopes and dreams.
Of course, an easy fix to all of this would be to change the rules and force all of these awarded contracts to go through a bid process, but that might prove detrimental to the people currently rigging the game, and they're the ones that would have to enact those changes, so it's doubtful it would ever happen.
Yes, the Texas Legislature could act, but the County spends tens of thousands (if not more) every session for lobbyists to descend on Austin and lobby against the taxpayers, and there's never much, if any, push for real reform from a State Lege that NEEDS County support to handle their unfunded mandates.
They say the closer you get in government to where you live the greater the corruption really is. Cities are by nature more corrupt than counties and counties more corrupt than State government and the States are more corrupt than the Federal Government. Judging by what we're seeing at the Federal level it's a miracle green slime isn't spewing out of some of our electeds mouths on a day to day basis.
But hey, trust them. Because at one time in the distant past they may have cast a vote on an issue that goes against the wishes of their campaign donors. Given the make-up of the donor's list that's highly possible.
It's also likely that the votes Garcia would use as an example go against every day citizens who donated or was a case where one donor won and another lost.
Oh well, give more money to me next time and we'll see if we can't have a make-good session later on. There are always more projects in the kitty.
Which, ironically, is why these offices are so coveted. They control a lot of money and provide Commissioners with a LOT of unchecked power.
It's GOOD to be in the ruling class.
