Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Harris County DA race: Mike Anderson – Justice? You mean "just us", right?

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Mike Anderson

I have to admit that when I first saw Felicia Cravens’ complaint against Judge Mike Anderson, I was half, oh well, and half, hey, that is Judge Denise Bradley’s courtroom, I need to warn her. I mean, I’ve seen this stuff so often through the years that I’ve come to accept it. Yeah, I know shame on me and good on Felicia for not. And as for Judge Bradley, she had been very nice to me during her campaign and I thought that I was returning the favor. Although I was never able to contact her directly, I was able to get word to her through an intermediary.

Lot of good that did. I couldn’t have protected her because Judge Anderson himself hung her out to dry. In a blog post on Chron.com, either Chris Moran or Brian Rogers got this from Judge Anderson:

“Whether it’s the Cub Scouts or the South Texas College of Law doing mock trials or (Houston Bar Association) doing (continuing legal education), those are public courtrooms and you seek permission from the judge, which I did,” Anderson said. “It’s just been customary at the courthouse, for the 30 years I’ve been around, that if you want to use a courtroom, you ask the judge.”

He said Bradley even signed the group in and watched them go through the metal detectors at security.

Let’s review the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct:

Canon 2, B.     A judge shall not allow any relationship to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others; nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge. A judge shall not testify voluntarily as a character witness.

Great. Wonderful. Now both judges are guilty of judicial misconduct. Sad state of affairs down at the courthouse. And this is what people want to go back to?

No, Judge Anderson (and Judge Bradley), you don’t just “ask the judge” if you want to use a courtroom. Here is how it is done:

SECTION 7. NON-OFFICIAL USE OF PUBLIC AREAS

7.1 In accordance with this section, those Public Areas suitable for meetings or gatherings may be made available for Non-Official Use after regular business hours provided such Public Areas are not needed for official business. However, such Non-Official Use may not be scheduled between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m..

7.2 Any Entity desiring to meet or gather in such Public Areas for a Non-Official Use shall submit a written request at least ten days prior to the initial proposed use. Each request shall be valid for a period not to exceed ninety days. All requests shall be submitted to the FPM Customer Service Section at 1310 Prairie, Suite 140, Houston, Texas 77002. The request shall provide: (1) the full name, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number of the Entity, and the Person representing the Entity, desiring to make the Non-Official Use; (2) a specific description of the Public Area to be used; (3) a general description of the nature of the Non-Official Use (i.e., meeting) and the expected number of participants; (4) the dates and hours during which the Public Area is to be used; and (5) a promise to pay any cleanup or other costs.

7.3 Use is allocated by the County or District on a first-come, first-served basis, and is subject to the availability of the requested Public Area.

7.4 The Public Areas provided herein are primarily for official business, and in the event of a conflict, the need and use for official business shall take priority.

7.5 The County or District reserves the right to preempt or interrupt the scheduled use of the Public Area if the Public Area is needed to conduct official business.

7.6 A Person who makes Non-Official Use of a Public Area Surrounding a Public Building may hold, carry, or display as much material as that Person can hold, carry, or display on his or her Person at all times. Any excess material or any material found in the Public Area after the Person has left shall be removed.

7.7 A Person may use a portable chair or table while holding, carrying, or displaying material, but a Person may not place articles in or on Premises that give the impression of permanent or semi-permanent occupancy or residency (for example, a bed, cot, filing cabinet, sofa, desk, heater, refrigerator, stove, or portable bathroom facilities). Any excess articles shall be removed.

7.8 Activities may not interfere with or disrupt the conduct of official business, or interfere with the free ingress and egress to the Premises.

And here are copies of the forms that are supposed to be filed ten days prior to expected use:

Reservation
Indemnity

 

Perhaps judges do not have to sign in when they enter the courthouse on weekends because neither Judge Bradley’s or Judge Anderson’s names are on the log in sheet.

Sign In

Makes you wonder: who else entered the courthouse that day without signing in? Hard to believe that Judge Anderson would film an ad without his sleazy consultant around. I half expected to see the members of the 185th Runaway Grand Jury on that list.

Let’s go back to Cravens’ complaint:

Anderson’s use of the 262nd State District Criminal Courtroom to film his campaign advertisements is a clear violation of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct because it undermines, rather than promotes, public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and clearly involves a judge lending the prestige of judicial office to advance their private interests.

I pay my taxes so government can carry out a few narrow, legitimate purposes. Establishing a judiciary to promote justice is one of them; but providing a no-cost set that politicians can use to film campaign commercials is not.

And she is exactly right.

I guess what bothers me most is not that Judge Anderson broke the rules and didn’t follow the law, although that is not a good thing. What bothers me the most is that Felicia filed her complaint over a week ago. Judge Anderson had plenty of time to huddle up with his consultant, figure out a game plan, and do the right thing by reimbursing the county for the cost of his use of the 262nd courtroom and issuing an apology.

But no, that isn’t what he does. He defiantly claims that he did nothing wrong even as the facts are staring him straight in the face. Not only is he defiant, he implicates another judge to go down with him.

Why? I’m glad you asked. I think it is clear that Judge Anderson has a pattern of doing what he wants, regardless of what should be done. Supporting Judge Bill Harmon’s dismissal of DWI cases rather than have the defendants go through a rigorous intervention program. Allowing felony DWI’s to be pled down to misdemeanors at the same time his is publicly admonishing the District Attorney for an intervention program for first time offenders.  Wanting the courthouse to revert to the good ol’ days of the frathouse.

Does Judge Anderson understand the meaning of justice? Or does it mean “just us” to him and his friends?

If you haven’t voted yet, think about that.

Harris County Sheriff race: Heuszel takes straw poll

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Well, I guess I can’t say that I’m shocked because I told you that Harris County Sheriff candidate Harold Heuszel had substance but when I received the results of the straw poll held after the forum at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club today, I was surprised. Here are the results:

Harold Heuszel 34.8{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
Louis Guthrie 32.6{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
Daniel Lemkuil 10.9{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
Ruben Monzon 10.9{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}
Carl Pittman 10.9{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}

 

Randy Kubosh

Straw polls are but a snapshot in time from the people that happened to be at a specific meeting but it is still good news for the Heuszel camp, I assure you. I’d guess that perhaps 80 or so people attended the meeting but only club members were allowed to vote. It is easy enough to be a member, just click here and sign up. They meet weekly and are the fastest growing club in the city under the leadership of new president Randy Kubosh.

As for the forum itself, each candidate was given 4 minutes to introduce themselves, timed by Ken Shortreed, candidate for the 215th Civil District Judge seat. After the introductions, candidates answered questions from the audience – each candidate was given an opportunity to respond to each question. Here is my take on each candidate, in the order they were standing during the question period. I’ll skip their opening statements because I’ve already told you about them with the exception of Mr. Lemkuil.

Louis Guthrie

Louis Guthrie – There is something about Mr. Guthrie that I like (not an endorsement). He has a “command” presence when he speaks. It is hard to explain, you’d have to be there to see it and perhaps you wouldn’t get the same impression but you’re paying me to tell you what I think. He speaks with an air of authority, maybe that is it. Anyways, he demonstrated a solid grasp of the issues that were asked and was quite open and honest when asked about consolidating many of the smaller LEO agencies in the county into the Sheriff’s office – it ain’t gonna happen because the Harris County Commissioner’s Court won’t let it, even though there are efficiencies to be gained.

He also reiterated that the Republicans are going to take Harris County back in November because of an anti-Obama wave (I’m not so sure about that but he is).  About the problems with the Harris County 911 system, he said that they had a lack of manpower and that the center was mis-managed. He would not remove LEO’s from the center – he thinks that is a bad idea and it should be staffed with LEO’s so that they can prioritize the calls. On a question about the 287G program to deal with illegal aliens, he reminded the group that he lobbied for the program in 2008.

His website is LouisGuthrie.com.

Harold Heuszel

Harold Heuszel – Our poll winner turned in another substantive performance. As I noted earlier, his is getting more and more comfortable with the role of a candidate and his easy going style no longer seems timid. In somewhat of a reversal of roles from the first forum I attended, he was the one attacking current Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia the most, stating that he wasn’t here to beat the other guys but to beat Adrian Garcia.

In a statement that would get him fired from ESPN, he told us that we could trust him ethically, that there was no “chink in his armor” for the Democrats to exploit in November. He agreed with Guthrie that combining LEO agencies wouldn’t get past Commissioner’s Court and added that he didn’t know if it was a good idea anyway – it might save a small amount of money but would lessen the impact of voters. He told us that the department was severely undermanned, with one deputy for every 5,000 citizens. I didn’t realize it was such a high ratio. He was a bit skeptical that Secure Communities would be a good replacement for the 287G program, noting that it takes a week or more to get fingerprints into the FBI’s database.

His website is HaroldHeuszelforSheriff.com.

Ruben Monzon

Ruben Monzon – I get the feeling that he has so much knowledge about law enforcement and management that he sometimes thinks the questions are elementary. The good thing about that is that he gives short, direct answers. The bad thing is that he gives short, direct answers and it leaves those of us that are in elementary befuddled.

He brings up his experience a lot and it is vast. One of his best answers at this forum was about how we can address the growing drug cartel violence, talking about infiltrating these groups and the need for someone who understands them. On local issues, he isn’t as well versed, saying that the 911 system’s main problem was a lack of good management. I think that there is probably more to it than that. But it is clear that the man knows how budgets affect field staff and how to prioritize available money- he just needs to work on putting his experience in context with the HCSO – if he and his team can work on that, he’ll reach more people.

His website is Ruben Monzon.com

Daniel Lemkuil

Daniel Lemkuil – I haven’t seen Daniel since he ran for a family court judge seat in 2010. He told us this was his first time to speak in this race and went through his qualifications – he is a past president of the club, he’s been a “consumer” of the jail system (clients!), and he has a MBA and understands budgets, specifically zero based budgeting. He stated that under the leadership of Sheriff Garcia the institution was so run down it had become a joke.

I think he made a mistake on the 911 system, saying that HPD ran one and the HCSO ran one. I think that there is only one system for the county and that the problem is more along the lines of cell phones, prioritizing, and routing to the nearest agency. As for why the middle ground voters that usually decide elections would choose him over Sheriff Garcia, he stated that his fiscal message appeals to all sides and that would bring them aboard. In saying this, he joins Carl Pittman as the only candidates that think the current budget is bloated and can be cut. About not being a LEO, he told us that the position of Sheriff is more of a managerial position – they don’t do the investigating, arresting, and booking, they put resources in the right places and provide discipline to insure that public safety is paramount.

Carl Pittman

Carl Pittman – I thought Carl did a solid job answering the questions and was surprised that he finished in the “second tier” of the staw poll. He was his usual confident self, the kind of confidence that Marines carry daily. Maybe it just wasn’t the right day for his supporters to come out.

He touted his very long list of endorsements and, when answering the question about why voters would choose him, he once again talked about being able to go into any neighborhood in the city without alienating people and that he would be a bridge that brought people over to his side. One of his answers made me laugh and was picked up by both Guthrie and Heuszel. The question was about combining the HPD and HCSO jails and Carl said that there might be an opportunity for efficiency but that he would make the City of Houston put the money upfront in an escrow account because they are broke and are notorious about not paying their bills. Too funny.

His website is CarlforSheriff.com.

You owe it to yourself (and the rest of us) to make it to one of these forums. There will be plenty of them before the primary – if we ever have one! I think that you will see that we have some fine candidates vying for the opportunity to take on Sheriff Garcia.

And just because I can’t resist pictures of children and candidates, here is one with candidate for the 339th Criminal District Court Brad Hart and his two children, Savannah and Hunter. One of my favorite pictures from the 2010 campaign was of Savannah tuckered out when her mom Cary was running.

Brad Hart with his children Savannah and Hunter.