Lina Hidalgo, Basking in National Praise, Faces a Potential Scandal at Home in Houston
By the time candidates began announcing for the 2022 Texas primaries in mid-November, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, chief executive of the county that includes Houston, seemed to have safely weathered a controversy that had dogged her a few months before. In June, the Harris County Commissioners Court, over which Hidalgo presides, had awarded an $11 million contract to Elevate Strategies, a Houston-based consulting firm, to conduct outreach services meant to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates. In August, the two Republicans on the five-member court alleged that Hidalgo had improperly funneled the contract to Elevate, which is run by a Democratic political operative, even though another bidder rated higher in a review committee’s assessment. After weeks of controversy, Hidalgo urged the commissioners to cancel the deal with Elevate, while remaining insistent that no impropriety had occurred and that criticism of the contract reflected partisan politics. Her “nothing to see here” attitude seemed to work, as public attention to the issue faded.
Then came the subpoenas to the commissioners’ court, issued by district attorney Kim Ogg, on November 12, the day before the filing period for 2022 primary candidates opened. “GREETINGS,” the six-page document begins, before stating that a grand jury of Harris County is “inquiring into certain offenses liable to indictment.” The subpoenas set a December 6 deadline for their recipients to deliver a broad array of documents related to the commissioners’ court vote to award the vaccination outreach contract to Elevate. The deadline was later extended by a week, according to attorney Rusty Hardin, who represents commissioners Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia.
Representatives of commissioners Ellis, Garcia, and Jack Cagle confirmed to Texas Monthly that their offices had received subpoenas. Hidalgo’s aides declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for the final commissioner, Tom Ramsey, said that she was “not aware of any” subpoena. Hardin said the issuance of the writs directly to officeholders, rather than to their records custodians, was unusual. The subpoenas do not specify what criminal laws might have been broken in the awarding of the vaccine outreach contract, but law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, told Texas Monthly that several statutes might apply: official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor; abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony if more than $300,000 in public funds is involved; and misuse of official information, a third-degree felony. The county paid Elevate Strategies more than $500,000 before the contract was terminated.
Reached Tuesday, Ogg provided the following statement to Texas Monthly: “Out of fairness, it is our policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation until and if a criminal charge is filed, but as you have asked for my thoughts on public corruption, I will tell you, that it should be fought on every front; evidence should always be followed wherever it leads, and government contracts and spending should be designed in the best interests of the public.”
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/lina-hidalgo-vaccine-outreach-contract/
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