Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Despite the fact that Republican Harris County Judge Ed Emmett campaigned on a platform of open government and ethics reform, he has once again failed to make good on his promise to bring real change to county government. Harris County Commissioners Court is set to review a watered-down version of Emmett’s “ethics reform package” today — over a year after Emmett promised reform with his ethics “task force” that was months late delivering its recommendations.

“Ed Emmett has given nothing but lip service to meaningful ethics reform, and today’s weak proposal is more of the same,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie.
During a 2008 debate against Democratic challenger David Mincberg, Emmett purposefully misled voters when he stated he was not a lobbyist, despite the fact that he reported receiving tens of thousands of dollars for lobbying services.

“Unfortunately, an ethics proposal that only requires voluntary lobbyist registration is about what one would expect from a Republican County Judge who once misrepresented his employment as a lobbyist,” Richie continued. “Emmett has refused to address the real ethics and corruption charges facing his fellow Republican county officials and left the clock ticking on the so-called ethics “task force” that led to this proposal that’s a day late and a dollar short.”

Emmett’s flimsy ethics proposal comes just days after Governor Perry’s veto of a Harris County ethics bill that passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. SB2468 would have required county employees to wait two years before benefiting from their contracts as county employees or lobbying the county, but like Ed Emmett, Gov. Perry showed he is more interested in taking care of his lobbyist cronies than cleaning up the corruption in Harris County.

“If Emmett was serious about cleaning up this mess in Harris County, he should have encouraged Gov. Perry to sign the bill that passed the legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support,” Richie concluded.