Lina Hidalgo, eager to improve Harris County government (Houston, Dallas: attorneys, house)

[Double L]

Lina Hidalgo, eager to improve Harris County government
By Zach Despart Updated 9:07 am CST, Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Lina Hidalgo wants the behemoth that is Harris County government to work more efficiently. The county judge wants the criminal justice system to be fairer. She wants flood control projects to benefit rich and poor neighborhoods equally. She wants to organize her administration to best accomplish these goals, and is willing to hire outside experts to help her get there.

Echoing her campaign last fall, she said the county has been stuck in old ways of thinking for decades and could use fresh perspectives.

“I’m not going to sit here and come up with the best ideas by myself,” Hidalgo said. “And the folks that have been here 10, 20, 30 years aren’t going to either.”

Hidalgo is eager to tackle a policy portfolio ranging from broad goals, such as improving the county’s public transit system, to the more narrow, like cutting the cost for jail inmates to place phone calls.

County employees and commissioners describe her energy as limitless. In an interview in her downtown office Tuesday afternoon at the end of a seven-hour Commissioners Court meeting, Hidalgo’s enthusiasm had not waned. The room remains sparse, as if she has yet to give a single thought to its decoration, and instead devotes most of her waking hours to pondering the county’s vexing problems.

“It’s easy for us to do good work right now, because there are so many low-hanging fruits, because nobody was coming with a critical eye,” she said. “Now imagine if you had a trained, critical eye.”

The two highest-paid HR&A consultants will bill the county at $420 an hour; the remaining two are paid $315 and $145 per hour. Converted to an hourly wage, Hidalgo earns $91.76 per hour as county judge and commissioners earn $87.77, excluding benefits.

“These were not the most expensive ones,” Hidalgo said of the firm. “We went with people whose values aligned with my values, and who in that world of consultants were a reasonable price.”

In an unrelated discussion during the court meeting, Hidalgo criticized the county for paying as much as $600 per hour for outside attorneys to fight a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the county’s cash bail system. She said in an interview she did not believe a comparison could be made between this cost and the HR&A consultants.

The Harris County attorney’s office, she said, could have handled the bail suit in-house, whereas the HR&A consultants are a one-time, fixed cost who can propose solutions to problems previous county administrations have failed to solve.

Hidalgo first hired HR&A in November and paid the firm using her campaign funds. Commissioners Court on Tuesday shifted that cost onto the county’s books . Hidalgo will pay the firm, which also assisted New York City mayor Bill de Blasio with his transition, out of the county judge’s budget.

Hidalgo said HR&A has allowed her to carefully fill senior positions in her administration. She said as a politician in her first elected office, she wanted to seek expert advice on hiring. After a vetting process that included examining more than 1,000 résumés, Hidalgo’s staff said they are preparing to announce hires for communications director, legal counsel and community engagement director.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle asked Hidalgo whether hiring a firm that previously worked for her campaign would be proper, and court members unanimously agreed to direct the county attorney to review the arrangement.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said in an interview Hidalgo has the right to use her budget to hire whomever she chooses, but wondered about the message it sends to county residents wary about her inexperience.

“If she feels she needs to spend that kind of money importing people into town, it seems she needs that kind of help,” Radack said.

Hidalgo, in an interview, dismissed grousing from commissioners as nit-picking and a distraction from the work her office is trying to accomplish.


zach.despart@chron.com

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...y-13572017.php

[bu2]

The negative of that is that she is dismissing the value of experience.

A new look every now and then is a good thing. But you have to value those who have seen some of those ideas and know why they don't work or why unusual things they do actually have a purpose. Its a failure most of us have when we are in our 20s and inexperienced.

Hiring expensive consultants who worked with her campaign is just a really bad look, regardless of the propriety.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by bu2

The negative of that is that she is dismissing the value of experience.

A new look every now and then is a good thing. But you have to value those who have seen some of those ideas and know why they don't work or why unusual things they do actually have a purpose. Its a failure most of us have when we are in our 20s and inexperienced.

Hiring expensive consultants who worked with her campaign is just a really bad look, regardless of the propriety.

I respect that view but disagree. Harris County is probably somewhat more effective than the city of Houston as a governance structure, but really, what have they given us but a region with huge infrastructure problems that only get fixed reactively? I don't feel that the county has been run all that well at all historically, and some house cleaning is probably long overdue. Most of the unique, innovative ideas regarding governance, regional cooperation, and infrastructure management come out of Dallas and Austin, almost never here. The Harris County decision makers and their processes aren't good enough to protect imo.

[MAROON79]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Most of the unique, innovative ideas regarding governance, regional cooperation, and infrastructure management come out of Dallas and Austin, almost never here.

Any examples you would care to share from these well run counties?

[Houston parent]

Empty rhetoric by an elected official with no qualifications and absolutely NO idea how to solve any of these issues. She's a deer-in-headlights who only got elected because of straight-ticket Beto voters.


BTW, the cities of Dallas and Austin are run by imbeciles that make the city of Houston look like a finely tuned Swiss watch by comparison.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

Empty rhetoric by an elected official with no qualifications and absolutely NO idea how to solve any of these issues. She's a deer-in-headlights who only got elected because of straight-ticket Beto voters.


BTW, the cities of Dallas and Austin are run by imbeciles that make the city of Houston look like a finely tuned Swiss watch by comparison.

Austin has been head in the sand for a long time. That's why they are more expensive and have worse traffic with 1/3 the population.

[Mr. Krinkle]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

Empty rhetoric by an elected official with no qualifications and absolutely NO idea how to solve any of these issues. She's a deer-in-headlights who only got elected because of straight-ticket Beto voters.

So why not see what she has or has not accomplished by the next election and decide then, rather than critique after one month on the job? Or are you just going to vote for the next candidate with "R" next to their name?

[usc619]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

I respect that view but disagree. Harris County is probably somewhat more effective than the city of Houston as a governance structure, but really, what have they given us but a region with huge infrastructure problems that only get fixed reactively? I don't feel that the county has been run all that well at all historically, and some house cleaning is probably long overdue. Most of the unique, innovative ideas regarding governance, regional cooperation, and infrastructure management come out of Dallas and Austin, almost never here. The Harris County decision makers and their processes aren't good enough to protect imo.

Couldn't agree more.

[mingna]

What Houston region-specific insights will these highly paid HR&A consultants from NY bring to Harris County that will help solve our specific regional problems? None are mentioned, but it seems they have experience helping Bill de Blasio with his transition as mayor of NYC.

Per the Chronicle article, they may also cost us taxpayers $15,000 in travel expenses alone, from NY to Houston. Hopefully they will be flying coach.

[Dopo]

I think is hilarious how republicans dismiss her just because she's a young minority woman.

If she magically changed to an old white guy, same people would be praising her.