Here Comes the Sunset Commission
January 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
When Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst released his list of appointees to the Sunset Advisory Commission last week, there was something of a surprise and — at least to the public, something of a mystery.
The sunset commission makes recommendations for reauthorizing legislation for Texas agencies usually every 12 years. Up for sunset in 2009 are the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Youth Commission and its ombudsman, Texas Parks and Wildlife, as well as the Texas Departments of Public Safety, Insurance, and Agriculture (along with a host of others).
The surprise was that Dewhurst decided to further stack this critical body in favor of the GOP — despite the fact that the two senators rotating off the commission are Democrats. Dewhurst replaced Sens. John Whitmire (D-Houston) and Elliott Shapleigh (D-El Paso) with Sens. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) and Juan ‘Chuy’ Hinojosa (D-Mission). That makes Hinojosa the only Democrat on the senate side. He and Rep. Ruth McClendon (D-San Antonio) are the only Democrats on the 12-member commission, period.
Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) brought up Dewhurst’s partisan move during his speech to Travis County Democrats Friday night as the party held its biennial campaign kickoff dinner.
“He had to work to avoid appointing a Democrat,” Watson said. He told me this week that he thought it was “wrong” to lose the opportunity to keep “a sense of balance” on the commission. “We need to make sure that all points of view are being addressed,” he said.
The mystery was just who in the heck Dewhurst’s public appointee was (granted, he’s a Republican), but he was announced only as “Mr. Michael Stevens (Public Appointee), Houston, Texas, Chairman, Michael Stevens Interests, Inc.” For those who don’t concern themselves with who gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to the top dogs in the Texas GOP, Stevens’ name appears oddly ‘public’ — seemingly civilian.
However, Stevens, a Houston apartment mogul, is one of the Republicans’ top-five money men. He has lots of experience on state boards and commissions, as well as a history of opposition to rail, and an inner-city ‘revitalization’ agenda in Houston.
“He’s a very smart guy,” says Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston). Coleman said the sunset commission appointment process has always been political.
Stevens also serves or has served on the Greater Houston Partnership, the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, the Houston Housing Finance Corporation, the Governor’s Business Council, the Baylor College of Medicine, and the governor’s task force on appraisal reform. That’s in addition to his work in the 90’s for Texans for True Mobility, the group that tried and failed to sideline commuter rail in Houston, as well as his work for former Houston mayor and former TxDOT chair Bob Lanier on the inner city. Roll Call reported that former U.S. House Speaker Tom DeLay turned to Stevens for counsel when he was worrying about being indicted by Ronnie Earle. Stevens is certainly a player on the grand Texas GOP stage.
It will be interesting to see what kinds of recommendations such a Republican squad will have for agencies like TxDOT and the TYC (and the Texas Racing Commission and Commission on Jail Standards). It’s fair to assume that even the basketcase agencies won’t see the sun set on their operations, but, as Watson noted, this should be an opportunity for reform.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Many of the appointments are folks that have been critical of TxDOT’s private toll road deals in the past:
Sen. Glenn Hegar ran against TxDOT’s TTC
Michael Stevens was part of task force that released critical report on TxDOT in 2006, that said we didn’t need to toll more roads if we indexed the gas tax.
Rep Linda Harper-Brown had a couple battles with TxDOT
Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst has been one of the most outspoken against TxDOT’s TTC and privitizing our public highways.
Sal “The Muckraker” Costello
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/