Houston-area officials keep getting busted

While Americans increasingly distrust state and federal institutions, local governments somehow continue to enjoy higher approval ratings. Polls from Gallup and Pew consistently show local governments earning 60% to 70% public trust, compared to just 20% to 30% for the federal government. That trust makes sense in theory: Local officials are closer to our day-to-day lives, especially when it matters most, like during hurricanes or blackouts.

But in the Houston region, where political dysfunction too often meets low accountability, we might want to ask: Is all that trust really earned? At city and county levels, voters’ trust has routinely been betrayed by questionable ethics and criminal behavior.

In February, a city public works employee was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for funneling more than $400,000 to her brother’s business. In March, a Houston ISD board member testified that she received bribes in a Walmart parking lot. In April, the district’s former chief operating officer was convicted on federal charges of conspiracy and bribery.

But it’s not just straight-up crime that erodes public trust. Even worse are the perfectly legal betrayals that eat away at the foundations of our civic institutions. Nobody will face criminal charges for half-truths told from seats of authority; for wantonly lax oversight of our resources; or for a lack of accountability for those who abuse their power. But research finds that broken promises and bad behavior fuel distrust even more than partisan fights.

Consider that in June, the Harris County Flood Control District told Commissioners Court that the $2.5 billion flood bond overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018 is now $1.3 billion short — jeopardizing the completion of 80% of its projects. Until that moment, county leaders appeared unaware that this was happening. But let’s set that aside for the moment.

Shouldn’t the admission by flood-control executive director Tina Petersen have prompted real accountability? Instead, the public got a new dashboard, a project schedule, some performative outrage and a reshuffling of “high-need” projects to the top of the list. That last action begs the question: Why weren’t “high-need” projects at the top to begin with?

Two weeks later, Petersen was back in the spotlight: An ABC13 investigation, prompted by questions from Commissioner Tom Ramsey, revealed that she submitted an out-of-state travel request exceeding $8,000 for a three-day conference in California. The request included inflated expenses: a hotel listed at close to $1,200 per night when the going rate ranged from $249 to $525; a $1,700 conference fee that actually cost $1,070; and a $1,500 round-trip flight when average fares were closer to $200. This T&E splurge may be a drop in her department’s billion-dollar budget, but it is a major charge for a county already running low on trust.

Taxpayers have already seen a 60% increase in the county’s flood control tax rate. We deserve to know that those funds are being spent on infrastructure, not hotel upgrades. But rather than standing up for their constituents, Judge Lina Hidalgo and County Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis approved Petersen’s travel expenses.

It should come at no surprise that 57% of Harris County voters feel that the county is headed in the wrong direction.

This sort of legally hazy but absolutely inappropriate misuse of institutional authority has also grabbed headlines at Houston City Hall. Council Member Tarsha Jackson was recently under the spotlight after being caught asking for personal favors from city contractor and developer Al Kashani.

Jackson admits that Kashani did repair work for her aunt at her personal request. Less clear is whether Jackson’s continued attacks on a dilapidated Kmart site that Kashani owns — and has been trying to redevelop — have anything to do with his refusal to help Jackson with other requests, such as helping to buy a $250,000 property for her nonprofit. (The purchase never happened.)

As the Chronicle has reported, Jackson’s behavior may have violated the city ethics code and state law. But beyond the legal specifics, voters should be outraged to see an elected official make personal requests of a developer — especially one who’d been involved in another public corruption scandal.

The checks and balances that we rely on to resolve these sorts of concerns failed to kick in. Like the county failing in its oversight of flood control funds, the city has turned a blind eye to this brewing scandal. The City Council Ethics and Governance Committee has taken no action and shows no interest in doing so. Nor has the Houston Ethics Commission, composed of local appointed leaders, stepped up.

When public officials fall short, we expect to hear from the powerful civic and business institutions that claim to champion the region’s wellbeing. Instead, their silence is deafening.

At the very least, public trust rests on a simple promise: that those we elect, and those whose salaries we fund, will act with integrity, stay accountable to the communities they serve, and make sure that government does what it’s supposed to for citizens. Right now, our officials can’t even manage that.