In the wake of several Republican scandals within county government two years ago, County Judge Ed Emmett campaigned on a platform of transparency and ethical reform. But his recent campaign finance report is just the latest reminder that Emmett was anything but genuine in his stated desire to bring reform to Harris County government.

“From watering down his own ethics task force’s recommendations to failing to disclose the vocations of every single donor on his finance report, Ed Emmett has proven time and again that he can’t be trusted when it comes to government transparency and ethics,” said Gordon Quan. “This wasn’t some oversight; Ed Emmett wanted to make it more difficult for the public to see how much contractors with business before the county are dumping into his campaign.”

The contribution and expenditure report recently submitted by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett included several contributions from businessmen who have significant financial interests with the county. Media reports [1] indicate that there were tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from those individuals. None of those donors have their occupations listed in the field provided on the reporting form. In a statement released more than a year ago [2] Emmett sought to assure county residents that county officials and county government would “be as transparent as it can be.”

“We need a county judge who will give more than lip service to transparency in government,” said Quan.“What Harris County does not need is another career lobbyist and politician, like Ed Emmett, in charge. That’s like a fox guarding the henhouse.”

In July of last year the Harris County Commissioners Court received a report containing ethics reform recommendations from an ethics task force. The report from the task force included a list of principles for standards of conduct for county officials. The first principle listed was: “The public has entrusted us, as stewards of County time and resources, to exercise our public duties without the influence or appearance of influence of our private interests.” [3]

That list of principles was approved by commissioners court as part of an ethics reform package which also included voluntary lobbyist registration, immediate Web posting of all required personal and financial disclosure forms, adoption of a Statement of Ethics, establishment of a Harris County Ethics Committee, and implementation of employee ethics training. Though Emmett made ethics reform a major piece of his 2008 campaign, the majority of the task force recommendations have still not been acted upon [4].

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[1] Houston Chronicle 7/16/10
“Emmett’s list of donors is replete with construction industry players, many of whom do business with the county. Emmett received $45,000 just from Doug Pitcock, CEO of Williams Brothers Construction, which has built portions of the county’s toll road system. Construction company owner C.M. Garver, developer Bob Perry and construction company CEO George Pontikes and the Houston Contractors Political Action Committee each gave Emmett’s campaign $10,000.”

[2] Office of County Judge Ed Emmett Press Release 6/22/09
“I want county residents to rest assured that their employees and officials have the most up-to-date training and that their government is as transparent as it can be. It’s time for us to take this significant step forward.”

[3] League of Women Voters of the Houston Area Update on the Issues: Ethics Reform 9/2009
One of the attachments of the recommendations was a proposed set of ethical principles, which would apply to all county officers and employees. The principles are stated below:
“Certain broad principles apply to the standards of conduct that we expect from Harris County Personnel. Because all standards of conduct and behavior cannot be specified in advance, we have listed these principles as guidance for Personnel in the execution of their positions as public servants.
Specifically, we believe the following:

The public has entrusted us, as stewards of County time and resources, to exercise our public duties without the influence or appearance of influence of our private interests.

[4] Texas Democratic Party Press Release 2/11/10
http://www.txdemocrats.org/2010/02/11/what-you-can-expect-not-to-hear-in-harris-county/

IAPAC, the political voice of Indian-American Houston, had already a fundraiser for Republican nominee and incumbent Judge Ed Emmett.

IAPAC President Rameesh Anand and Board member and founding member Jagat Kamdar introduced Quan, a successful immigration attorney and former City Council member and Mayor Pro-Tem of Houston. They spoke about Quan, an immigrant himself, and his association with the South Asia community.

Businessman Ramesh Bhutada said he has known Quan for nearly three decades and was impressed by his honest and sincere work as well as professional ethics.

Quan, who is a partner at Foster Quan, the second largest immigration firm in the nation, explained the role of the judge in Harris County and said that the judge, who presides over the Commissioners Court, is largely an administrative post. The judge also acts as the spokesperson fro Harris County.

If elected, he said he would streamline the functioning of various departments, speed up the process of prison reforms and find a cure instead of a temporary fix for problems facing the county.

He said he was optimistic about his race due to the voter swing toward the Democratic Party as seen in the recent elections. This year, the turnout may be less, but [Quan] hopes to get 350,000 votes, the expected winning number.

A question and answer session followed. Quan was asked about the high tariffs on Harris County toll roads, compared to other toll roads in the nation. He promised to take up the issue with relevant authorities.

The fundraiser was attended by leaders of several Indian American organizations as well as members of the Small Independent Motel Owners Association (SIMA).

“A lot of people worked very hard to bring the Dynamo’s stadium to this location,” Quan said. “I’m glad that the deal is finally done. I believe it will serve as a linchpin for future development to revitalize the East Downtown.”

As chair of T.I.R.Z. 15, Gordon Quan has been working to bring new development to the area which has qualified as a Regional Center by United States Immigration and Citizenships Services to facilitate foreign investment for the purpose of job creation. Unlike other stadium deals that depended on hotel occupancy and car rental taxes, the Dynamo Stadium will be financed through the incremental increases realized by the TIRZ and by investment by the owners of the Dynamo.

“We have been presented several models for economic expansion of the area but many depended on the development of the stadium as a center piece for attracting new development,” Quan continued. “Investors have found Houston to be an attractive city, this will help us sell the East Houston as a future destination site. As we seek to increase revenues for the County, we need to work to revitalize areas that have fallen in disrepair and bring in good paying jobs.”

Gordon Quan lobbied actively to promote downtown’s East End as a stadium location. And he has taken special pride in helping to revitalize this area because he grew up there working in his parents’ grocery store.

Aside from the economic revitalization of the neighborhood, Quan was pleased to see the agreement included a commitment by both the City and the County to designate $1 million annually from their affordable housing budgets as required by certain TIRZ’s to address the problems of housing for the homeless. Quan, who chaired the City of Houston’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Ending Homelessness, noted that this marks a real commitment to address a problem that has long plagued the area.

“This agreement displays everything that is great about Harris County residents,” Quan said. “We are forward looking when it comes to the health of our economy but we don’t want to leave anyone behind. For once we will have a stream of income that we can bank on to build or renovate housing for this vulnerable community.”

Quan easily outpaced Ahmad Hassan, who was also the runner-up in the 2008 Democratic primary, in early voting.

Contacted minutes ago about early voting results, Quan said, “I guess I can declare victory.”

Quan served six years on the Houston City Council. When asked why he appeared to be headed to such a convincing victory, Quan said, “Even though I left council four years ago, people still remember the work I did and have a favorable opinion of me.”

Quan said he will continue to focus on the issues of homelessness, immigration reform and criminal justice as he campaigns for the general election.

(Houston, TX) – As Republican County Judge Ed Emmett prepares to give his state of the county address today, Harris County residents can expect one thing to be missing – real ethics reform. Though Emmett made ethics a centerpiece of his 2008 campaign, promising to push for legislation requiring lobbyists to register with the county and close the revolving door, he has failed to follow through on his promises and deliver meaningful reform, instead passing the blame to the State Legislature.

“Two years ago, Ed Emmett promised Harris County residents that he would clean up a county government that was plagued with scandal and corruption because of numerous Republican officials,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie. “But it appears all Emmett’s campaign promises were really just lip service. When it came down to it, Ed Emmett wouldn’t go to bat for Harris County in Austin and provided only half-hearted leadership at home.”

A look at the timeline of Ed Emmett’s record on ethics reveals a campaign promise pushed to the backburner, despite the rampant corruption in Harris County – from County Commissioner Jerry Eversole, who predicted his own removal from office in the face of an FBI investigation, to District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who resigned in disgrace after having an affair with his secretary to Sheriff Tommy Thomas, who cost the county millions in legal fees for his department’s numerous violations of Harris County residents’ civil liberties.

A Look at Two Years of Ed Emmett’s Broken Promises on Ethics Reform

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Here’s the video: KPRC Local 2

Phillip McNutt, Acting Chair for DFH remarked: ” DFH did not vote to endorse in every race nor did we vote to endorse anyone simply because they asked for our vote. We have a large field of candidates to choose from. Our progressive values, along with the candidate’s credibility and electability are reflected in our slate of endorsed candidates, from the bottom to the top of the ticket.”

After a month-long process of screening interviews and considering candidate questionaires, the DFH membership voted tonight to endorse candidates with a MINIMUM vote of 70% approval of the member’s present.

http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=25414

Though Quan must win the Democratic nomination in March for the county’s highest-ranking elective office, he acknowledged that he is already looking toward a November face-off with Republican incumbent Ed Emmett.

Quan, 61, an immigration attorney who lives near Memorial Park, said he will push for reform of the county’s criminal justice system.

“We’ve got to be more progressive in our thinking,” Quan said. “Let’s look at investing in affordable housing and support systems as opposed to running the same people through our jails and through our emergency rooms.”

He also supports a new central processing center to handle city and county prisoners. Voters rejected a jail bond measure in 2007 that would have provided such a booking center, but the plans have been revived recently by Sheriff Adrian Garcia, a Democrat.

Businessman Ahmad Hassan also seeks the Democratic nomination for county judge. He ran in the Democratic primary in 2008 but lost to David Mincberg by a 3-to-1 margin.

Emmett was among the few Republican politicians in the county to survive last year’s near sweep of the county’s elective offices by Democrats. Emmett’s victory allowed him to serve the remaining two years on the term of Robert Eckels, whom he was appointed to replace after Eckels resigned.