Can you imagine having employees – trusted and empowered to sign contracts on your behalf – who refuse to share the details of a particular agreement with you? They would soon be ex-employees, wouldn't they?
You'd be astounded and outraged at their impudence. How dare they think they can act in your name and not give you a full accounting of their actions and the obligations they've contracted to impose upon you! You'd reasonably suspect that they were acting in their own interests instead of yours.
That's what the citizens of Bexar County had to contend with in District Attorney Nico LaHood and his cohorts.
On Feb. 28, LaHood asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to declare that “portions of the requested materials may be withheld from disclosure.”
What materials were requested – regarding the activities of public servants who work for us and whose employers we theoretically are – and what “portions” of them did LaHood prefer to keep hidden from public view?
Good questions. Which citizens of Bexar County have the right and duty to ask and demand answers for.
Last December, four Texas law firms – Phipps Anderson Deacon, Watts Guerra, the Gallagher Law Firm, and Fibich Leebron Copeland & Briggs – submitted a contract to represent Bexar County in an opioid lawsuit. In January, LaHood presented that contract to the Commissioners Court, and a county judge approved it the same day.
Around that time, Mikal Watts of Watts Guerra donated $10,000 to LaHood's campaign for reelection. Martin Phipps of Phipps Anderson Deacon donated $100,000.
For some reason, LaHood and other Bexar County officials have been reluctant to respond to requests for contract details.
In the meantime, despite the influx of funds from favored friends, LaHood went down to defeat in the March primary. To that extent, he's been held accountable. But “portions of the requested materials,” details of a contract whose negotiation coincided with contributions to LaHood's failed campaign, are still being “withheld from disclosure.”
Citizens of Bexar County should ask questions and demand answers.