Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, Adrian Garcia was just you know, Morgan at home.
I guess on personal business, that'd be one thing. But
to be on the board of a Golf Coast Protection District,
whatever they do at the Gulf Coast Protection District, to
be on that board serving on another government job that
(00:22):
taxes people who are also in Harris County, which is
part of what he does as pre pre Sainct Two
Commissioner Texas says you can't do that now. He has
since quit, but that doesn't matter. Our next guest has
filed a lawsuit. He wants to see a special election
because he says the pre Scinct two Commissioner's office has
been vacated. Jared day wais an attorney a Chalmers and Adams. Interesting,
(00:46):
interesting lawsuit you have going here, sir. Does the fact
that Adrian Garcia stepped away from that board step down
this past year, does that complicate matters for your lawsuit?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Or not know it?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Does it not at all? It's long standing law. This
goes back more than one hundred years. That as soon
as somebody So, if you're a public office holder in
Texas and you accept a second position, if that position
conflicts with your duties that you currently have, then you
(01:21):
automatically it's it's a deemed resignation from the first position.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
And that makes sense. You know.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The policy is you can't have an office holder sitting
on both sides of the negotiating table or you know,
when when entities like this might have an interlocal agreement,
which is something that you know is certainly potential here,
and you can't be taxing people in the same you know,
jurisdiction for two different government bodies.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, So that being the case, you deem, according to
Texas law, that he, whether he said it out loud
or not, he resigned basically as Precinct two commission the
moment he took this other position, right.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, and he you know, and so Harris County needs
to acknowledge that, and they need to hold an election.
This seat is vacant as a matter of law since
actually August of twenty twenty three. And you know, I
don't know if the Harris County Attorney's office was aware
of this when they or if the county commissioners, you know,
(02:25):
Lena Hidalgo and her team ever consulted with their attorneys
about this. If not, they should have. I mean, this
is not a new.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Rule of law.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Have you been just out of curiosity? Have you been
to a commissioner's court meeting and you know, made them
aware of not only your I'm sure they're aware of
your lawsuit, but made them aware of what Texas law says.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, I haven't gone to a meeting myself. I didn't
have any need to do that when we, you know,
realized this, I followed a lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I mean first I told told him that the lawsuit
was coming with an email to the County Attorney's office,
and then we went ahead and filed. Because the fact is,
it doesn't matter, you know, if we had told him
in a meeting or not, or you know the fact
that now after we follow the lawsuit, they pulled, well,
they replaced Garcia on the Gulf Coast Protection District with
(03:21):
another person as the Harris Kunty representative. But nothing, you know,
that doesn't change the fact that he resigned when he
accepted that second position, and there's nothing that they can do,
you know earlier, I mean after he accepted that position,
as a matter of law, he resigned as commissioner and
the commissioner seat became vacant.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I guess there was nothing that they anyone could do
about it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I guess the reason I'm curious as to whether or
not you've been to a commissioner's meeting is is it
assuming that your case is valid? And that's exactly what
Tesla's law says. Adrian Garcia is not qualified to vote
on Harris County issues, in which case he shouldn't be
sitting there voting on issues like taxpayers.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, that's right, that's and that's actually so there's two
things we're asking for in this lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
And I would point out we filed this.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Back in June originally, so over the summer in my
so that original suit was filed on behalf of another
plane if Mark Gullaby, who was a taxpayer activist Harris
County resident, and he sued as a taxpayer seeking to.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Because this is actually the twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Reappointment was actually the second time that Garcia had been
appointed to this body by Harris County.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So he's currently vacated his seat in his current term,
but he.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Also was appointed to and accepted this position during his
first term as a commissioner in twenty twenty one. And
folks will remember I'm sure there was a lot of
controversy in Harris County at that time.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Because Commissioner's Court was divided three to two.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
So from August twenty twenty one to December twenty twenty two,
all of those three two votes, when Lena Hidalgo and
her folks were passing crazy stuff, handing out money like
water to their you know allies. Right, if it was
a three to two vote, then then it was it
(05:17):
should be voided.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It should be avoidable now.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
And so we're part of the problem is we're trying
to uncover in this lawsuit what what spending might still
be an issue undertaken on by those votes, and so
that we can try.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
To enjoy it all right, Well, Jared doing do us
a favor, please, sir, keep us posted here on how
your lawsuit is progressing, because obviously there's a lot of
taxpayer money on the line over this one. Jared a
war joined us, So he joined us, turning it Chalmers
and Adams