Tom Ramsey - Precinct Three Commissioner Joins Houston Morning News, July 2nd, 2024

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's the most important. This isthe most important election this year. It
is believe that stay with your mostimportant station, News Radio seven forty KGRH
seven twenty two is their time herein Houston's morning news. There's a lawsuit,
as they said, alleging Harris CountyCommissioner Adrian Garcia is illegally holding two

(00:21):
public offices after Commission's appointed Garcia toserve on the Gulf Coast Protection District Board,
which also wields taxing authority, sodouble taxation. I'm not sure how
this works. But the attorney whofiled the lawsuit joins us to talk about.
His name is Jared and Navar.Welcome to the show. Counselor,
why did you file the lawsuit andwhat is he doing illegally in your opinion?

(00:44):
Yes, sir, well, thanksfor having me on well Texas law
for over one hundred years. Youknow this is not a new principle has
held that the same person cannot simultaneouslyhold two public offices if they're in conflict
in the sense that they present aconflict on the person's loyalties. So this
is called the conflicting loyalties doctrine,and basically it means, you know,

(01:08):
you can't serve in two different positionsif you're going to be conflicted, you
know, and whether you're serving oneor the other on any given matter that
you might have to vote on.And taxation authority is the paradigmatic authority that
puts the office holder in conflict.And so the problem here is that of

(01:30):
course, as a as a commissioneron the Commissioner's Court, Garcia has to
vote on property taxes for Harris County. Well, the Gulf Coast Protection District
was set up basically specifically to taxin order to fund the local contributions for
you know, basically the Iike Dyke, and so both of these bodies have

(01:53):
to tax the same residents of HarrisCounty. And that's just a straight up,
you know, presentation of this conflictingloyalty, Yeah, conflicting loyalty and
service to the representative the citizens ofHarris County as opposed to the broader citizens
of other counties that make up theGulf Coast thing, which is also pledged

(02:15):
to represent. Well, that's right, yeah, and I should say so
the Gulf Coast Protection District covers notonly Harris County, but it's it's five
counties that are included, Galveston,Orange County, you know a few others.
So it's and it's not just thetaxing authority. You know, these
two bodies will will inevitably come intoconflict in myriad ways because they're they're expected

(02:38):
to sign interlocal agreements, you know, So there's going to be contracts centered
into between the counties that are involvedand the Protection District. They both have
emminent domain authority, which isn't theobvious conflict, I mean, and and
the Golf Coast Protection District even hasto consider whether to exercise eminent domain over
public property, which could include HarrisCounty property. So there's all kinds of

(03:01):
ways you know that this could comeinto conflict. And the same officeholder basically
cannot sit on both sides of thenegotiating table, so to speak. So
design understand that these fellow commissioners appointedhim to the Gulf Coast Protection District Board.
Were they not aware of this potentialconflict? Do they not know the
law? Well that's the question ofthe day, which we'll find out in

(03:23):
this case. You know, rightnow, I don't know. I think
it's fifty to fifty chants they eitherdidn't know or they knew, and the
county attorney just told them, youknow, for some reason, we don't
need to worry about it. Maybethey think because he's appointed and not elected,
that this doesn't apply. Well,I mean, if that's what they

(03:44):
thought, that's certainly not the case. This this applies to a point and
elected officials. Is it truly hischoice? Is it truly his choice if
he has to remedy the situation bygiving up one of the positions, that
he gets to make the choice eventhough one was appointed and one was elected.
What is that saying to the voters? Well, right by well,

(04:04):
this is this is where he's ina really impossible spot. I would say.
There's nothing they can do to fixthis. The Texas law says and
has said for a long time,that by virtue of accepting the second office,
when he said okay, I'll acceptthis appointment, and when he was
when he qualified for the new office, he automatically, as a matter of

(04:25):
law, resigned as precinct io commissionerand there's nothing they can do to undo
that. Okay, so we havea commissioner opening. They just don't realize
it yet. Is what you're sayingthat's right, and that's why you know,
that's why we want. We wantthe court to declare that. You
know, obviously we're in the HarrisCounty District Court. We had to start
there, but I don't expect toend there. So you know, the

(04:48):
we won't let this court drag thingsout delay of ruling. You know,
if I need to go to theCourt of Appeals on an expertiited basis,
we'll do that because I don't expectto get, uh, you know,
a friendly hearing in the Harris CountyDistrict Court. I wouldn't think you would,
but hey, listen, you know, follow it through to the end,
sir, and we'll keep checking inwith you. Thanks for the update,
appreciate it. That's Attorney Jared Navar