Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is pushing back against an accusation that she is an absent county judge after having reportedly missed more than a third of meetings in 2024.
Houston’s KPRC2 broke the story after reviewing last year’s Commissioners Court meetings and noting that Hidalgo was absent for 36 percent of the meetings last year.
Hidalgo quickly responded, saying that her move to create “Business Court” days separate from regular Commissioners Court meetings accounted for many of the absences. The Business Court days are shorter meetings that don’t require all of the commissioners and are intended to offload work to make regular court days more efficient and keep day-to-day county business flowing. She also blamed an emergency fire and her honeymoon for missing two dates.
“My administration designed Business Courts to be quick, less-than-five minute meetings with only three members present as a solution to keep routine county business moving in between regular meetings of the Commissioners Court,” she said in a statement. “It’s a mischaracterization to equate these quick five-minute, three-member Business Court meetings with regular Commissioners Court meetings. Any of the few regular Commissioners Court meetings that I have missed have been for disaster recovery efforts or for milestones like my wedding. I’ve seen what happens when county leaders don’t show up for necessary votes, and I take that responsibility seriously.”
Hidalgo has long been criticized for extensive out-of-county travel, having been out of town as Hurricane Beryl approached Houston, but to be fair, making it back by landfall. In January of 2023 when a tornado ravaged Pasadena, Hidalgo was absent, saying upon her return that she was visiting a sick family member in Colombia. There was also her much-publicized leave to an inpatient facility for mental health treatment.
Democrat Commissioner Rodney Ellis defended her, saying that her attendance doesn’t capture the wide breadth of the role and all that it encompasses, while Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey emphasized that it was important to be at all meetings, saying he looks at all of the meetings as valuable and worthy of attendance. Democrat Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Lesley Briones did not comment.
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