CITY& COUNTY
News from Harris County & Jersey Village
QUOTEOFNOTE
3Harris County senior employees facing felony indictments HARRIS COUNTY Three Harris County senior employ- ees are facing indictments for the felony charges of misuse of official information and tampering with record as of April 11, according to Harris County District Clerk online records. The indictments come one month after search warrants were first executed in connection with a contro- versial county contract. BY EMILY LINCKE FOLLOWING THE CONTROVERSY Harris County’s $11 million contract with Elevate Strategies for COVID-19 vaccine outreach sparked controversy, leading to the recent indictment of three county employees. June 2021: Harris County Commissioners Court approves an $11 million contract with Elevate Strategies.
CITY HIGHLIGHTS HARRIS COUNTY More than $10 million in tax credits were claimed by low-income families in Harris County through a partnership with BakerRipley, according to a news release regarding the county’s adoption of the federal government’s expanded child tax credit. Officials said this money may otherwise have gone unclaimed but will now be put back into the local economy. Commissioners in October approved $500,000 to educate residents on applying for and receiving additional tax credits. The program helped more than 6,000 families file their taxes at no cost. Officials said about half of the tax credits claimed were for expanded child tax credits and the other half for earned income tax credits. JERSEYVILLAGE City Council members unanimously approved an ordinance to amend the Jersey Village Code of Ordinances concerning permitted and specific uses in the city’s industrial district at the April 18 regular meeting. The ordinance added and deleted certain types of businesses to the list of allowable uses based on recommendations from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Bail bond services, concrete products manufacturers, food processing and packaging, jewelry manufacturing, produce markets, mini storage lots and tattoo shops, among other types of businesses, are permitted in the industrial district with a specific-use permit, according to the ordinance. Jersey Village City Council Will meet at 7 p.m. May 16 at 16327 Lakeview Drive, Jersey Village. 713-466-2100. www.jerseyvillagetx.com Harris County Commissioners Court Will meet at 10 a.m. May 10 at 1001 Preston St., Ste. 934, Houston. 713-274-1111. www.harriscountytx.gov MEETINGSWE COVER “TODAY, 1 IN 5 CHILDREN INHARRIS COUNTY LIVE IN POVERTY. ALMOST HALF OF THOSE LIVE INDEEP POVERTY, MEANING THEY LIVE WITH FAMILY INCOME BELOWHALF OF THE POVERTY LINE.” HARRIS COUNTY JUDGE LINA HIDALGO
September 2021: Republican commissioners share concerns about the integrity of the contract awarding process, and the contract is canceled. October 2021: Texas Ranger Daron Parker begins his investigation into the contract. March 2022: Search warrants are executed for laptops, phones and Google files of Harris County employees. April 2022: Three Harris County employees are indicted for criminal felonies related to the contract. SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS RANGERS, HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT CLERK/ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER A third warrant was executed for 14 digital Google files, according to a March 10 affidavit by Texas Ranger Daron Parker from the district clerk. The search warrants were granted based on evidence provided by Parker in his investigation of the county’s canceled contract with firm Elevate Strategies, which Harris County hired to conduct community outreach encouraging county residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Commissioners voted unanimously to termi- nate the contract Sept. 14.
Aaron Dunn, Wallis Nader and Alex Triantaphyllis are each facing warrants for their arrests for the criminal charges, according to the district clerk’s records. Dunn, Nader and Triantaphyllis serve as the senior adviser for public safety and emergency management, policy director, and chief of staff for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office, respectively. Hidalgo posted a statement to her Twitter account April 12 stating the indicted employees will not be removed from her team. “I do not and will not cave to bullying or political dirty tricks,” Hidalgo said in the statement. “I have not seen anything to suggest that my staff did anything but work tirelessly for the people of Harris County.” Search warrants were first executed in connection with the investigation for electronic devices March 11 and March 16 by the Texas Rangers. The investigation began in October over the county’s canceled $11 million COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract with Elevate Strategies.
Federal funds set aside for prosecutors
2020Annual Community Survey shows Harris County residents’ median income increased
BY DANICA LLOYD
BY CYNTHIA ZELAYA
Civilian employed population age 16 years and over 2015 2020 Management, business, science and arts 34.7% 37.4% Harris County’s workforce increased by 120,000 from 2015 to 2020. EMPLOYMENT BY OCCUPATION
HARRIS COUNTY Commis- sioners approved the allocation of federal pandemic relief money to fund prosecutor positions at the district attorney’s office at their April 5 meeting after hearing an update on the county’s criminal court case backlog—which consists of 24,000 misdemeanor cases more than six months old and 18,000 felony cases more than one year old, officials said. About $7.5 million will cover additional prosecutors and salary increases for existing prosecutors. District attorney’s office officials said they need to be fully staffed to retain prosecutors and continue chipping away at the backlog. While the district attorney’s office budget has increased by $12 million over the last two years, Chief of Staff Vivian King said during the meeting 50 previously approved positions were not funded and would have put the office at a $6 million deficit.
HARRIS COUNTY The U.S. Census Bureau published its Annual Com- munity Survey 2020 5-year estimates on March 17, showing changes in the number of commuters on Harris County roads and an increase in tele- commuters. Although the pandemic caused a disruption in predicted trends, the U.S. Census Bureau went on with its survey collection, adjusting its methods to account for bias and unresponsiveness. The average and median income of Harris County residents increased from $54,457 in 2015 to $63,022 in 2020, while the average income rose from $81,214 to $93,184. The number of employed people has increased by 7.7% in Harris County, while the county’s overall population increased 7.44%. Management, business, science, the arts, production and transpor- tation industries all saw an increase in workers. However, the service industry, sales and construction all saw fewer workers.
Sales and office
23.5% 21%
Service
17.4% 16.8%
Natural resources, construction and maintenance Production, transportation and material moving 12.9% 13.4%
11.5% 11.4%
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY/ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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CY-FAIR EDITION • MAY 2022
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