Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Houston City Council to Meet in the GRB

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The regularly scheduled Wednesday 9:00 a.m. Houston City Council meeting will be held in the George R. Brown Convention Center. Today, I drove past city hall and city workers appear to be pumping water out of the building. I can only imagine what the basement, parking garage, and ground floor look like post Harvey. I will attend tomorrow morning’s meeting at the GRB with several friends.

Houston has suffered a horrible blow. I am heartbroken as I look at the city where I was born and raised. I started the day delivering supplies to the GRB and helped secure food for some in the law enforcement community working really long hours. Many officers are staying in downtown hotels because they could not make it home to their families. Please hold Sergeant Perez’s family in your thoughts and prayers. He died as he attempted to report for duty while traveling from his home.

Big Jolly has written at length on the flooding issues over the years. This includes Stephen Costello’s rain tax, which has been much discussed here on this blog. I never supported this tax and often criticized the campaign as disingenuous and misleading.  The courts have agreed with me and have ruled the language misleading.

We have had lots of floods since the rain tax was implemented. Memorial Day, Tax Day, and now Harvey. The good folks of Meyerland have suffered greatly. They are not alone. There has never been an accounting of the hundreds of millions of dollars collected by Costello and Annise Parker’s rain tax and I intend to get one. We have asked many times with no answers.

Remember this guy . . .

Costello, rain tax author, is now Sylvester Turner’s spokesperson and expert on flooding issues in the city. Sylvester may want to rethink this appointment.

Further reading on flooding

Renew Houston-Prop1, and the Politics of Flooding

Downtown Houston Pachyderm Rebuild Houston guest tries to sell ice to Eskimos

Stephen Costello, the Flood Czar

Interim Charges

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Percentage of Debt Approved by Voters

Senator Lucio (Chair) and Senator Paul Bettencourt (Vice Chair) held a hearing of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, on Monday August 15. The purpose of the hearing was to take testimony on the interim charges set forth by the Lieutenant Governors’ Office dealing with the petition and referendum process, management districts, and public housing. The years of local government abuse of the petition process by the City of Houston culminating in the Texas Supreme Court’s rocket docket and the management district shenanigans  were center stage, liberals were squirming.

The First Interim Charge was proposed by Senator Bettencourt Court’s office and reads as follows:

Local Ordinance Integrity: Examine the processes used by home rule municipalities to adopt ordinances, rules, and regulations, including those initiated by petition and voter referendum. Determine if additional statutory safeguards are necessary to ensure that ballot language accurately describes proposed initiatives. Identify ways to improve transparency and make recommendations, if needed, to ensure that local propositions and the means by which they are put forth to voters, conform with existing state law

In hearings on interim charges the committee will often include invited testimony from panelists. This panel included Andy Taylor, Bruce Hotze, and Dave Welch. You knew from the composition alone that Annise Parker was not going to have a good day. Senator Lucio stopped Mr. Taylor early in his testimony to remind him that he was under oath. Senator Lucio made the quick assumption that Andy Taylor couldn’t possibly be telling the truth and stopped him. Unfortunately, for Annise Parker et al., Andy was telling the truth – I wrote about it here. I do not blame Senator Lucio because Andy’s recounting of the events surrounding the HERO ordinance sounds like a season of House of Cards. Andy was followed by Dave Welch, Executive Director of the US Pastor Council, who described the City of Houston’s attempts to subpoena the sermons of Houston clergy who opposed the HERO ordinance. Senator Lucio couldn’t play the “you know you’re under oath” game with Welch because the sermon subpoenas were widely reported. All of this goes into the “you cannot make this up” category.

Mr. Taylor went on to describe how local activists fought the government’s attempts to undermine petition drives involving the rain tax, HERO, and Bruce Hotze’s property tax cap, which passed 11 years ago and has yet to be implemented. Taylor outlined the legal talent hired by the City of Houston in these fights – large law firms who “donated” their time to the city. In reality, these firms receive large payouts in bond advisory roles or other litigation involving the city.  If you live in Houston, you have seen these abuses by our elected officials – and Annise Parker was one of the worst. Thankfully, the Texas Supreme Court has rebuked the city’s behavior and Andy Taylor set the record straight during this hearing. Houston has been fortunate to have citizens with resources to fight city hall.

My friend David Furlow also testified about his battle over red light cameras. David represented our local heroes, the Kubosh family, in their very expensive battle to ban red light cameras. The Kubosh family also held a petition drive to put the issue of banning red light cameras on the ballot. The Kubosh battle was different because they won the initial fight of placing the proposition on the ballot and they won the election. Mayor Annise Parker defied the voters and tried her best to leave the cameras in place – a public display of local officials behaving badly. To their credit, the local press covered the story. Mayor Parker finally acquiesced and took the cameras down and Michael Kubosh was later elected to the Houston City Council.

The Second Interim Charge:

Municipal Management Districts: Study the means by which the Texas Legislature reviews the creation of municipal management districts (MMDs) by special law to determine if different processes should be used to evaluate new MMDs created within populated or developed areas from those created over undeveloped areas. Identify ways to better assess how the services and improvements of a proposed Page 5 of 5 MMD within populated or developed areas will supplement and enhance those provided by other local governments, as well as if the territory of the proposed MMD encompasses or overlaps area that is already within other assessment or taxing entities. Make recommendations, if necessary, to improve the notice provided to individuals and businesses within populated or developed areas proposed for inclusion in an MMD.

Management districts, one of my favorite subjects, are one of the most insidious tax mechanisms imaginable. Think of legalized racketeering with the force of government seizure and you begin to see the true nature of management districts. The first panel on management districts included Joe B. Allen’s successor, Trey Lary. Allen is the father of Texas management districts and their proliferation throughout the state is attributable to his law firm – now Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP. Those that have fought against the management districts often refer to Allen as the Darth Vader of taxes. I always enjoyed following behind Allen at the capitol and trying my best to undue this insidious tax on business.

The fight goes back many years and an uneasy truce was finally implemented. After some combative years, law firms and consultants who practiced in this arena realized that certain business interests would continue to win the battle at the capitol; so, they switched their focus away from large industry (like car dealers) and began preying on small business owners who generally do not have the financial or legal resources to do battle against this group of lawyers and lawmakers trying to grab revenue streams in the dark. Many of these business owners do not realize until it is too late that they are in a management district. Before anyone can say boo, law firms have sold bonds, lined their pockets, and the pockets of various other shady consultants, and the victimized business owner is obligated to make bond payments for the next 30 years.

Management districts are a huge scam and must be reined in. Once again, and it is always the same cast of characters, there is an effort to form a new district with a twist. There have been past attempts to form districts that include residential areas that have been shut down. One such district is St. George Place, off of Richmond in Houston, just west of the Galleria. Paul Bettencourt previously killed this district at the legislature because of the awful precedent it will set. A group led by Hawes Hill Calderon LLP, a company specializing in the management of management districts, circumvented the legislature and is now trying to form the management district through the TCEQ. What is so dangerous about St. George Place precedent is that all the management districts will then try to tax residences – as if Houstonians property tax bills are not high enough. It is all about the revenue stream and the quantity of bonds that will it support. The idea of placing residential areas in these districts is not new. Circumventing the legislature using the TCEQ to create one is a new tactic and Bettencourt seeks to end the practice this session.

The interim charges are a beginning to help reign in abuses by local government. The speakers offered suggestions on legislation to strengthen a citizen’s right to petition their government. I especially like the suggestion of reimbursement of legal fees for citizen activists. Another idea is to allow a member of a management district to remove themselves from the district after a three year period if they did not want to participate further. This would make districts more responsive to the needs of their members. Remember, management districts are unelected boards with the power to tax and spend.

The hearing was a long awaited event by conservatives and activists alike. There is a growing movement to effect change through initiative and referendum and charter amendments. Most of these fights can be traced back to the work of Barry Klein and the Houston Property Rights Association. Barry has led many fights over zoning, Metro, and red light cameras going back decades. Barry’s tireless pursuit for honest government often goes unrecognized. Many of the speakers before the committee coordinated their appearance through Barry who did an excellent job of organizing the presenters for the hearing. On most Fridays, Barry can be found at the Houston Property Rights Association meeting discussing, debating, and arguing over local issues in our area.

City of Houston Pension Problem

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There is nothing that strikes fear into our local public safety pension officials more than local control of the pension system. I have long since given up on the idea that the City of Houston is salvageable. For several years, I have written that the only way out is bankruptcy and property owners and business leaders need to plan accordingly. I believe this because no one can explain how we pay off the massive city debt. This year alone, the city added over $350 million to the pension debt. The total pension debt is estimated between $5.6 billion and $12 billion. Please understand that if the City of Houston increased your taxes one hundred percent, it would take 10 to 20 years to pay off the accumulated debt. This assumes that the city neither spent nor borrowed any more money. This situation is beyond ridiculous and the people in charge of this mess put Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling to shame for their Enron-style accounting tactics.

I do love reading articles about how the legislature is going to address the problem. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Senator Joan Huffman is encouraging City of Houston pension officials to work out the problem with the mayor. When these little nuggets of information appear in the newspaper, you have to understand that Senator Huffman’s admonishments are not only self-serving but also representative of how we got into this situation.

Imagine if you had the opportunity to negotiate your salary and benefits with a committee of your choice. Who would you select for the committee? Maybe your spouse? Or your parents? That would be too obvious. What about placing your employees on the committee and hiring an administrator. Let’s pay the administrator $450,000 each year and put them on the committee too. For $450,000, the board member lies to the taxpayers about the real costs and benefits from their own decisions. Then, let’s have our union groups line the pockets of politicians who might ever think about changing this crooked operation. What a system!

People need to get their minds right about the City of Houston and its finances. Houston has seen a succession of career politicians in the mayor’s office. I don’t expect Sylvester Turner, yet another career politician, to handle the pension system any differently. Of course, Turner made a deal with the devil when he was endorsed by all three city employee unions. You can expect Turner to line his pockets with a generous pension too. Suckers.

 

Pension debt and the Collapse of the City of Houston

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Exxon Campus

The fake government economy is at a crisis point in Houston. All of the accounting gimmickry has been used and there is nothing left but a mountain of debt. Now, how do the pension tricksters fool the state again? I am not sure what Turner is looking for in the form of a fix; but, one thing is for certain, the taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. A big question to come – who is to blame? Turner’s strategy is yet another attempt by a mayor to kick the proverbial can down the road. The unfunded pension liability estimates range from 5.6 billion to 12 billion. Our municipal debt mirrors our national debt in many ways with one distinct difference: the City of Houston cannot print money.

State Pension Committee Chairman Dan Flynn brought his Pension Committee to the Houston Council for a hearing on June 13. Highly overcompensated city pension officials arrived with their own form of Enron accounting and glossed over the true financial condition with pretty PowerPoint presentations. A match was struck some time ago to the city finances and that match has now morphed into a blow torch. At the hearing, pension and union officials tried to paint a picture of stability when describing their system; but, it is anything but stable. Democrats on the committee sought to aid pension and union officials with covering laudatory comments. The salaries and benefits paid to Houston public employees are not real. I say this because their Madoff-style accounting system is designed to fool the taxpayers while giving political cover to elected officials tasked with hiding the massive fraud. All of this trickery is designed to keep the City of Houston paying out-of-market salaries and pension benefits.

Dan Flynn, a supposed conservative Republican, also praised the city pension officials during the hearing. Flynn was chairman two years ago when Annise Parker complained that she could not get the legislature to give her “local control” over the city’s pension system. The city’s pension system has been in crisis for the last five legislative sessions. Parker made these complaints after signing an agreement with the police union to refrain from lobbying for “local control” of her own pension system. You really cannot make it up; but, it does show the lengths that elected officials will go to perpetuate the fraud. Former Mayor Parker was endorsed for reelection by the police union the year she signed this agreement to not advocate for local control.

Chairman Flynn will be tasked to come up with some legislation fix. Speaker Strauss, also a big beneficiary of union political largess, will attempt to give cover to Flynn and his committee. The risk for Strauss and Flynn: how to give the unions what they want without making the legislature appear responsible. Of course, the legislature IS responsible. They, of course, are liable because state representatives were scared into thinking, by the unions, that big bad liberal politicians in Houston might one day want to undue the fraud and corruption. The legislature subsequently enacted  “Mother, May I” legislation, preventing the City from cutting union benefits. The question for Flynn will be whether he attempts to land the plane or jump out with a chute allowing the unions to auger in what promises to be a spectacular crash at this point. Flynn may attempt to captain this ship all the way to the ground – don’t expect it though.

At this point, the City of Houston has no possible way to pay off the massive pension debt. Pension officials will continue their party line: no problem here – look out thirty years to see the true picture. This position does not account for thirty-year-old rose colored glasses that could not possibly see over the mountain of debt. We will continue to hear the argument that we must honor our obligations, even though crooked politicians made them. And, we will have to except fewer services than we already receive in an attempt to perpetuate the fraud. Turner will continue his sleight of hand with the claim that he has fixed all the potholes and the taxpayers need to pay more money to feed the beast.

Liberal idiocy will be the governing thought process as Houston is smothered in a mountain of debt. It really is way past time to file for bankruptcy. If you are a Houston business, get out while you can. Halliburton, Schlumberger, and Exxon have all bailed. More businesses will continue to get out as they are expected to pay more for a less safe, less accommodating, broken city infrastructure. The city finances are not real. Save yourselves.

Further Reading

A Greek Tragedy in Houston

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Stephen Costello, the Flood Czar

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In 2010, Stephen Costello, Annise Parker, Brenda Stardig, and other politicians sold the rain tax as a mechanism to improve drainage and reduce flooding in Houston. On the weekend of April 15, 2016, the city experienced the second catastrophic flood in the last year. Many families in the Meyerland area were just getting back into their newly repaired homes when the Tax Day flood hit our community. Social media and our local media outlets filled our screens with tragic stories and pictures. And, the City of Houston and Mayor Sylvester Turner decided to respond to this tragedy with a surreal gut punch – Stephen Costello will serve as the city’s Flood Czar.

Just when we thought we had said adios to Costello, he returns to fix a problem that he claimed to solve with the rain tax. Costello, et al. led the most disingenuous and fraudulent political campaign ever seen around these parts – and that is saying something. Thankfully, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the rain tax ballot language was fraudulent.

Remember this guy from the Prop1 campaign?

Houston floods. It always has and always will. Much of Houston’s history is timed by flooding events. Just think about your lifetime. Alicia. Ike. Allison. Memorial Day. Now, Tax Day.

Meteorologists and hydrologists often refer to the one hundred year floodplain, which is a flood event that has a one percent possibility of occurring in any given year. So, why are we experiencing one hundred year flood events with such frequency? There is an answer. Of course, the deceitful rain tax campaign never told you this information.

The Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) is a governmental entity and you pay a tax for it. This county agency is responsible for flood mitigation in our area. So, Harris County is responsible for maintaining our streams and bayous NOT the city.

watersheds_web

Houston is broken into different watersheds and the study of the different watersheds is key to understanding Houston flooding. The most studied watershed in our region is the Brays watershed. I say this because of the work of Dr. Philip B. Bedient from Rice who sought to correctly identify the watersheds and build an alert system for the Texas Medical Center, which is in the Brays watershed.

The study of a watershed system is a detailed analysis of the drainage system of a particular watershed. The variables of how a watershed system works includes rainfall amounts over the watershed, barriers to drainage, drainage capacity of a system, and saturation.

The idea and thought behind a flood alert system was to give people notice of an impending flood event. The damage done to the Texas Medical Center in Tropical Storm Allison was enormous, think billions. Dr. Bedient had an alert system in place that day; but, because of the newness and the late hour when Tropical Storm Allison overwhelmed the watershed, it was not successful in preventing the massive damage that occurred. Many of the flood gates were left open. While there was a lot of finger pointing by the political and TMC administrative types, the system did work as designed. The system Bedient designed knew that the Texas Medical Center was going to flood before it occurred. Notice of an impending flood can save billions in damage. Dr. Bedient’s revolution was a turning point in our flood history.

His model is now used by Harris County emergency management types to warn and deploy forces when flooding is likely. Dr. Bedient’s work ultimately developed into the Harris County Flood Warning System.

I became interested in Dr. Bedient’s work after Tropical Storm Allison. As the Immediate Past President of the Braeswood Place Homeowners Association, I sought answers and solutions for the over 400 homeowners in Braeswood who experienced flooding during Allison. At that time, I convinced myself that surely an engineering fix was available. Although I was right, I had no idea at the time that the answer was almost incalculable in terms of cost. Neal Meyer wrote about this recently in his post in Blog Houston and was entirely correct.

I remember finding Dr. Bedient’s office and I told him where I lived and my interest. He knew my neighborhood well because of his detailed analysis of the Brays watershed. It was above the Harris Gully where he mounted cameras to actually see the major drainage outlet for the TMC. Dr. Bedient pointed out the barriers we had protecting Braeswood Place. One example is the railroad track that trapped water to our west but flooded Bellaire. Another example is the low bridge on 288, which acts as a dam backing water up into the Texas Medical Center – a design flaw by TxDOT. During the Tax Day flood, 288 flooded again. The flooding generally starts at the bayou and the bridge design flaw shuts down 288 rather quickly during flood events along Brays and cuts off access to the Texas Medical Center from 288. The system where you live will have unique characteristics too.

Harris Gully

The most important thing I learned from Dr. Bedient is that the floodplain will change as the watershed is built out. It’s going to rise and flood faster the more impervious surfaces are built in a watershed. I remember Dr. Bedient saying that Brays Bayou itself was built to move the water out for a one hundred year storm assuming 40{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the watershed was built out, which was done in the 1950’s. Now, 95{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the watershed is built out, which means that the base flood elevation is rising and people who once thought they were out of the floodplain are now in it. A calculation is made after each flood and a new determination is made as to the new location of the floodplain; but, this does not mean new flood maps are drawn after each new determination. These are often contentious and political fights. The City of Houston wants people to rebuild in Meyerland and Braeswood Place because there are a lot of property tax dollars from those neighborhoods flowing into city coffers.

The latest flood impacted two new or little known watersheds, Cypress Creek and Little Cypress Creek. Over four inches an hour will overwhelm our watersheds. People who have never experienced flooding before were left wondering how this happened. It happened because the watershed was overwhelmed and the new impervious surface coverage is exasperating the problem. Think about an overflowing bathtub and not draining fast enough.

Many of the homes affected by the rise of Cypress Creek and Little Cypress Creek did not exist ten years ago. The most studied watershed is Brays followed by Buffalo Bayou. Buffalo Bayou was dealt with years ago with the construction of the Barker and Addicks reservoirs. Make no mistake, the flooding would have been disastrous if these two reservoirs did not exist. Both the Addicks and Barker dams do their job and have done so for years.

I always find it interesting how the media and politicians react to flooding. While Stephen Costello is the father of the rain tax, he needed help in this quest. Council Member Brenda Stardig made the motion for the City of Houston enabling legislation for Prop1. Meyerland has seen disastrous flooding twice since Prop1 was created. Many Meyerland residents who flooded in Allison believed Costello’s nonsense. Also, the ballot language was misleading – the Texas Supreme Court concurs. More importantly, Harris County is in charge of flood control. The city, at most, is responsible for water in their streets. It is clear that the rain tax was nothing more than a money grab for contractors and city folks, which is why I and a number of other folks fought hard to stop Prop1. Now, the Prop1 funds are being used for everything but flood control, mostly city salaries.

People need to understand that Costello and his engineering company represent developers and businesses who are building out the watershed. This, of course, is making flooding worse in Meyerland. Costello’s job is to go into city hall and convince city engineers, who may be paid with rain tax funds, that his client’s projects will not cause flooding. So, when you think of Stephen Costello as the Flood Czar, you are looking at the guy who has caused a lot of the flooding problems. To make the point clear, Costello has made a living of not mitigating for his client’s projects. Mitigation is expensive and if you hire the Flood Czar, you get the benefit of his graft and corruption in the city engineering department. The displaced water winds up in the homes in Meyerland or maybe your home if it floods. Costello needs to use his position to advocate for the suspension of the Prop1 tax for all homeowners whose homes have flooded since the rain tax was enacted. I would argue that the city should suspend the property taxes of flood victims altogether until they are back in their homes. When you see the Flood Czar ask him about this.

Skip Devon Anderson

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Reverend Patrick Mahoney speaking at the Operation Rescue Press Conference

Last Thursday, Lifesite News, Operation Rescue, Thomas More Society, and Texas Right to Life, joined in a press conference to denounce Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson and call for her to dismiss the indictments against citizen journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Operation Rescue presented 100,000 signatures gathered in just a few days in support of dismissing these indictments. Reverend Patrick Mahoney spoke eloquently and at length on the impact of silencing journalists opposed to Planned Parenthood’s operations. His message was that all journalists are at risk when the First Amendment is attacked. The press conference occurred at the same time that David Daleiden was in Houston to surrender himself and make a court appearance. Merritt appeared in court the previous day.

The local media coverage of the event missed the boat and failed to recognize Reverend Mahoney’s worldwide efforts to defend Christian journalists. Reverend Mahoney referenced the recent 60 Minutes piece, Anonymous, Inc., on lawyers and money laundering. This story followed a nonprofit group that secretly filmed 16 lawyers to see if they would consider moving suspicious funds into the United States. The secret videos depicted an investigator for the nonprofit group posing as a representative of a government official from a poor West African county who wanted to move millions of dollars in suspicious funds into the United States. This nonprofit spent time and resources creating the background and identity of the fake representative in order to investigate American lawyers.

How did we get here? In August 2015, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would investigate Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos were released by the Center for Medical Progress – a group of citizen journalists, including Daleiden and Merritt. On January 25, 2016, the 232nd Grand Jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for the felony offense of tampering with a governmental record. Daleiden was also indicted for the misdemeanor offense of offering to purchase human organs. The felony cases were filed in the 338th District Court with Judge Brock Thomas, the former law partner of Devon Anderson.

Judge Brock Thomas
Judge Brock Thomas

Anderson was elected to the 177th District Court in 2004. Thomas served as judge of the 338th District Court from 2002 – 2008. Thomas and Anderson both lost reelection to their District Court benches in 2008 and formed Anderson & Thomas LLC and practiced criminal defense.

In October 2015, the grand jury that “investigated” Planned Parenthood and indicted Daleiden and Merritt was impaneled by Mary Lou Keel, presiding judge of the 232nd District Court. Keel is currently running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is the highest criminal court in the state. This is the court that will make the decision on Kelly Siegler’s misdeeds in the David Temple case.

At this point, there are more questions than answers. Some of the questions . . . How in the world did a grand jury tasked with investigating Planned Parenthood indict the two witnesses? Did the witnesses testify before the grand jury? Were they offered immunity? Were they given target letters to let them know that they were under investigation? And, most importantly, why didn’t the grand jury vote on whether to indict Planned Parenthood? Why did Mary Lou Keel extend this grand jury? And who asked her to extend it?

As you likely know, a grand jury presentation is one sided. The only people present in the grand jury room are the grand jurors and the prosecutors. The prosecutors may present witnesses. If they do, only the prosecutors and the grand jurors may question these witnesses. A witness goes into the room alone – without counsel.

The timeline is crucial to understand Devon’s lack of integrity.

Sunni Mitchell
Sunni Mitchell

On December 20, 2013, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, led by Devon Anderson announced that a grand jury no billed or refused to prosecute Douglas Karpen, an abortion doctor. Three whistleblowers came to Operation Rescue and alleged that Karpen was aborting babies beyond the legal time limit. These allegations were brought to the DA’s Office in May 2013 and were “extensively investigated” by the Houston Police Department Homicide Division, the Texas Rangers, and the DA’s Office. Following a two-month grand jury presentation, the grand jury declined to prosecute Dr. Karpen. The lead prosecutor in this investigation was Sunni Mitchell.

The filing deadline for the 2014 election was December 9, 2013; so, Devon waited until the filing deadline passed to announce the Karpen decision. If you don’t understand why this timing is important, ask Don Sumners – he defeated an incumbent in 2010. While defeating an incumbent is difficult, if a Republican Primary challenger can obtain the three major endorsements, Hotze, Lowry, and Polland, an incumbent may be defeated.

The filing deadline for the 2016 election was December 14, 2015. The 232nd grand jury was extended past their original December deadline and indicted the two whistle-blowers on January 25, 2016, which again gets Devon past the filing deadline. Again, it is important to understand this timeline because I guarantee you that Devon would have easily drawn a primary opponent if these indictments had occurred before the filing deadline. According to Planned Parenthood’s attorney, the grand jury did not even vote on whether to indict Planned Parenthood. So, what were they doing for four months?

Devon has been burning up the phones to pro-life political folks. She is trying to explain away her actions yet again. Comments by Karpen’s attorney, Chip Lewis, have assisted in the understanding of this situation: “I told them [DA’s Office] ‘Don’t hitch your wagons to this. They’re [Operation Rescue are] crooks, and it’s going to be exposed.” Lewis has donated over $30,000 to Devon Anderson’s District Attorney campaign. What kind of access does he get from these donations? Suppression of certain investigations? Favorable results?

Unfortunately for Devon, there is a fundamental flaw with the runaway grand jury argument that she is trying to spread with political pro-lifers concerning the Daleiden and Merritt indictments:  if the grand jury produced a wrong result and meritless indictments, it is Devon’s obligation to dismiss the indictments as the elected District Attorney of Harris County. It is really that simple.

Sunni and Devon
Sunni and Devon

Devon may soon create a pro-choice division at the DA’s Office led by Sunni Mitchell because Devon again put Mitchell, her ace abortion prosecutor, on the Planned Parenthood case. Yes, the same prosecutor who led the no bill against Karpen has now led a grand jury to indict Daleiden and Merritt. Word on the street is that Mitchell was assisted by Inger Chandler, Chief of the Conviction Review Section, and wife of disgraced former Houston Police Department detective Ryan Chandler who was fired from HPD after failing to investigate murder cases. Big Jolly has covered that scandal extensively.

Ryan Chandler & Ingwe Hampton at Mike Anderson victory party
Ryan Chandler and Inger Chandler at Anderson victory party

At the end of last week, Daleiden and Merritt posted  bond and made their first court appearance. At their first appearance, Mitchell announced that the DA’s Office is offering pretrial diversion to both Daleiden and Merritt.

Pretrial diversion is an informal agreement or contract between a defendant and the DA’s Office where the prosecutors agree to dismiss the case after a period of time if the defendant stays clean and abides by certain conditions, watch out for the conditions. Prior to 2008 in Harris County, pretrial diversion was limited to select private school students charged with possession of small amounts marihuana. Pat Lykos expanded the use of pretrial diversion to possession of marihuana, theft, and DWI first offenders. The Andersons criticized the DIVERT program created by the Lykos administration, which offered pretrial diversion to first time DWI defendants. Then, Mike and Devon offered the same program under a different name. All that being said, it is extremely rare for a pretrial diversion to be offered to a felony defendant; but, that is exactly what Devon is offering to Daleiden and Merritt. Dan Cogdell, representing Merritt, said it best: “I’ve never had an offer of pretrial diversion on a first appearance.”

Devon and Ann Johnson
Ann Johnson and Devon Anderson

Although Devon claims to be pro-life, actions speak louder than words. Devon refuses to answer this simple question: have you ever granted a judicial bypass? This question would not violate the privacy of children seeking to bypass the parental notification laws. When you see Devon ask her why she won’t answer whether or not she granted judicial bypasses. There is no judicial cannon preventing her from answering whether she reviewed a judicial bypass application. The Texas Supreme Court in no way bars her from answering whether or not she has granted a bypass application and you can cite this as your source.

Simply said, you are who you associate with and Devon seems to find herself in troubling company. In her re-election bid, Devon is touting her human trafficking efforts, which are led by Ann Johnson, the human trafficking “expert” hired by Mike Anderson. In 2012, Johnson was the Democratic Party’s opponent to Sarah Davis. After graduating from law school, Johnson served as a briefing attorney to Leslie Brock Yates when Yates was on the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. It is important to understand that the Democratic Party sought a more pro-choice candidate than Rep. Sarah Davis. Ann Johnson was that candidate and was heavily supported by Planned Parenthood and their board members. Chip Lewis, Karpen’s attorney, contributed to the Johnson campaign and hosted a fundraiser for her in the gay community with Justin Wood, a Harris County prosecutor and Devon’s legislative liaison. While human trafficking is a laudable cause, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office is not providing results. It seems like there is a neon “massage” sign on every corner. We can certainly do better.

Leslie Brock Yates, Johnson’s former employer, lost her job in 2010. The dynamic duo of Devon and Susan Brown found a soft place for Yates to land – visiting judge in a special capital murder court. This court takes capital murder cases from the 22 District Courts for trial. How fair is it to a defendant to be tried by a judge with no accountability to the public? I digress. You may recognize the name Yates – the husband of Judge Yates, Terry, is Mr. Daleiden’s attorney . . . along with Jared Woodfill.

After Mike Anderson’s death, Woodfill, then Harris County Republican Party Chairman, nominated Devon to replace her husband. This was really disappointing to me because Woodfill was well aware of Devon’s reputation concerning judicial bypasses and he nominated her anyway. The executive committee of the Harris County Republican Party rejected her nomination 263-0. Two days later, Rick Perry appointed Devon to complete her husband’s term. The Executive Committee is to be congratulated for rejecting Jared’s nomination of Devon Anderson.

Bryan Vaclavik.phpDevon’s hiring decisions are important to note because it demonstrates her true character and lack of integrity. In 2014, Devon hired Lauren Reeder, a Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast board member. Devon has created a pro-choice environment that is not only favorable to Planned Parenthood, it is now being used to destroy the pro-life movement. The damage nationally to the pro-life cause is tremendous and is fuel for the civil suits brought by Planned Parenthood against David Daleiden. Devon is willing to sacrifice the pro-life movement for votes in the general election.

The story gets worse, when Mike Anderson was elected, he immediately rehired Lester Blizzard and Bryan Vaclavik. Both men were charged with DWI offenses in 2011 and were represented by their buddy Chip Lewis. Devon has kept these folks and touts Blizzard’s work with money laundering operations. Contemporaneous with the indictments, Devon sent out a “vote for me in the bar poll” email that lists her “accomplishments”: (1) human trafficking efforts; (2) money laundering prosecutions; and (3) the prosecution of Harlem Lewis [a capital murder on video]. Yet, Anderson fails to provide specific details that demonstrate the successful prosecutions by her office and the feds are forced to prosecute people like Hortencia “Tencha” Medeles, who was convicted in April of operating a sex trafficking ring . It is also a bit odd that Blizzard’s investigations often involve defendants represented by Lewis. See Ricardo Baca, and Katherine Le.

In 2012, Lewis and Blizzard represented Dwayne Jordon and used Bryan Vaclavik as a witness. The issue is the appearance of impropriety. Just as his large donations provide access to the DA’s Office, the relationship that Lewis has with employees like Blizzard and Vaclavik provide access.

Following Judge Stacey Bond’s ruling about prosecutorial misconduct by two Harris County prosecutors, Ms. Merritt’s attorney, Dan Cogdell spoke to the media about his own interaction with these same prosecutors. Cogdell said “there is a cancer in that office that needs to be cut out.” Devon continues to defend these prosecutors even though their conduct is objectively inexcusable. For now, it is a good thing to be a Friend of Devon.

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The Texas District & County Attorneys Association (TDCAA) certainly has Devon’s back. TDCAA is a non-profit organization that advocates for Texas prosecutors. Apparently Devon does not believe this organization does enough because she also sends her own lobbyist prosecutor, Justin Wood, to Austin for each legislative session.

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The question here is one of judgment and integrity. The liberals are thrilled with Devon’s prosecution of Daleiden and Merritt. Lisa Falkenberg, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Annise Parker are tripping over themselves to support Devon. These indictments were no accident and targeted to this audience. The praises for the liberal elite continue to pour in for Devon and this was her intended purpose by the indictments. Devon thought that she had the Republicans wrapped up and needed to broaden her base and the prosecution of Daleiden and Merritt fit that bill. Ladies and gentleman, the verdict is in and Devon Anderson is pro-choice, no question about it. She certainly is willing to let the pro-life movement suffer in order for her to broaden her base.

In recent years, I have found myself in sharp disagreement with Terry Lowry over local political issues and his endorsement of certain candidates. This season, Brother Lowry invited me to write an Op-Ed in his Link Letter, which is mailed to 195,000 Republican households in Harris County. After some contemplation, I accepted this invitation and I told Terry I wanted to ask the readers to take action, which I never do on Big Jolly. My Op-Ed discusses Devon Anderson and her persecution of two brave anti-abortion activists, Daleiden and Merritt, and I ask the readers to skip Devon Anderson on the primary ballot. There is something that you can do – SKIP DEVON on March 1, 2016. Although Devon thought that she would box Harris County Republicans in to voting for her by delaying her conduct until after the filing deadline, you can still send her a message.

Harris County, we deserve better.