A couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle‘s Kristen Mack reported on a bit of political gamesmanship/fiscal leadership (the term you prefer depends upon your loyalties, I suppose) from selected-not-elected County Judge Ed Emmett:
At last week’s Commissioners Court meeting Emmett slapped the hand of potential rival District Clerk Charles Bacarisse, who is eyeing a run for county judge. Emmett delayed a vote on Bacarisse’s annual leadership retreat by questioning the cost to taxpayers.
This year would be the district clerk’s eighth retreat to Moody Gardens for 23 of his staffers.
“It’s a boondoggle trip down to Galveston,” Emmett said. “Spending $8,000 to take county employees down there and miss two days of work for something called leadership could be perceived as a bad (use) of taxpayer dollars.
This week, the Friends of Charles Bacarisse fired back. Here’s an excerpt:
Despite adding at least three newly created positions to his own staff, at an additional annual cost of roughly $197,000 to county taxpayers, newly appointed County Judge Ed Emmett has recently led the Harris County Commissioner’s Court in denying a comparatively modest amount of funds for basic operations by staff members in the Harris County District Clerk’s office run by Charles Bacarisse — a potential, but as-yet unannounced, GOP primary opponent to the little-known Mr. Emmett.
Let’s first look at how Mr. Emmett is lavishly spending additional county tax dollars in his own office. To start, Mr. Emmett has created two new “policy” positions in the office of county judge: his new policy “director,” who used to work for him in Washington, DC and who now makes approximately $85,000 a year (based on her $41.05 hourly wage at a full-time rate); and Emmett’s new policy “analyst,” who used to work for The Emmett Company and who now makes roughly $42,000 a year (based on his $20.19 an hour wage). These two new hires alone make for as much as $127,000 in new salary costs for policy advisors that Mr. Emmett’s predecessor, Robert Eckels, did not require.
A third new hire by Mr. Emmett, director of his newly created “placement and employment” department, makes another $70,000 a year based on her hourly wage at a full-time rate. As with policy advisors, Judge Eckels likewise did not require a “placement” director, nor did he need the three different personal “assistants” of various stripes that Mr. Emmett now has. In fact, according the County Auditor’s office, the county judge’s staff under Mr. Emmett has expanded from 45 full-time positions at the end of February 2007 to 51 in the current pay period. We also understand there are significant renovations on the fourth floor of the county administration building at 1001 Preston to accommodate Mr. Emmett’s growing empire. The total cost for Mr. Emmett’s spending spree to local taxpayers is not yet clear.
We suspect that these developments have Friend of Bill and likely Dem Harris County Judge candidate David Mincberg smiling.
Incidentally, did anyone see our selected-not-elected County Judge on television discussing the flooding, in his lovely green Harris County polo shirt, with “County Judge Ed Emmett” featured on one side (link to KTRK-13 video)? I felt a little embarrassed for the guy, who either has trouble remembering his name or is really feeling insecure about being the selected-not-elected incumbent.
BLOGVERSATION: ABC13.com Political Blog.
