From the Austin American Statesman: Travis County Public Integrity Unit still reels from Perry’s budget cut

This was, of course, the subject of the court case below. Who now investigates Texas government?


- Click here for the article.

On the sidelines of the dismissed criminal case against former Gov. Rick Perry stands the Travis County district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit, which has lost staff and struggled to remain afloat after a political firestorm over the past three years stripped it of much of its budget. The unit, its officials say, has had to start turning away cases and no longer has the resources to provide counties with the investigative support it once did.

“We are a shell of our former selves,” said Gregg Cox, the Travis County prosecutor who oversees the Public Integrity Unit. “We might be able to prosecute certain cases more effectively. We probably have more experience and a better track record of handling those cases, but we are still having to tell those agencies, ‘Sorry, take it to county X, we just can’t do it.’”

The Public Integrity Unit’s troubles began during the 2013 legislative session, when Perry threatened to veto its funding in an attempt to force District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg from office after her arrest and conviction for driving while intoxicated. When Lehmberg declined, Perry cut all of the division’s $7.5 million from the state budget, trimming the staff from 35 to 17 employees.

Perry was indicted a year later, and the Public Integrity Unit remained front and center in a clash between lawmakers, some of whom saw its duties as essential and others who believed its prosecutions were partisan and politically motivated.

The division, created by the district attorney’s office in 1978, mostly handles fraud against state programs, insurance fraud and tax fraud. But it has grabbed the most headlines for its investigations into the ethics abuses of officials at the highest levels of government, less than 5 percent of its caseload.

The state budget didn’t restore any of the vetoed money the unit lost for 2016-17, and the 2016 county budget allocated $363,000 of about $1.4 million requested to keep the unit intact, forcing officials to cut an additional seven jobs for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1.

Cox said that to deal with the losses, officials have had to dissolve and reorganize the unit, which now falls under the Travis County Special Prosecution Division. The latest cuts include two investigators and a forensic accountant. The Public Integrity Unit has to share the three remaining investigators and support staff with the white-collar crime unit, which handles financial crimes with losses of at least $50,000.

Cox, director of the special prosecution division, said the Public Integrity Unit has been further hurt by at least four prosecutors and investigators who have left voluntarily amid the funding battles. With no receptionists or support staff, the office on the second floor of the Granger Building in downtown Austin now seems abandoned.

The unit could once provide forensic financial analysis and contract expertise to counties that didn’t have such resources, its officials said, and it could consolidate cases from multiple jurisdictions, making it easier to prosecute agents and corporations stealing from the state. It can now only take those cases that have been almost fully investigated by local law enforcement agencies, the FBI or the Texas Rangers.

Evidence of its financial struggles surfaced last month when Travis County prosecutors said they were no longer leading a criminal investigation into the Austin tech firm 21CT and its controversial technology deal with the state that spurred sweeping contracting reforms. “It gives me heartburn to think we could not prosecute that case,” said Susan Oswalt, chief of the Public Integrity Unit.

In April, it rejected a request from the Department of Public Safety to reopen an investigation into controversial border security contracts, telling DPS Director Steve McCraw the unit doesn’t have “sufficient staff or resources to accommodate your request at this time.”

Appeals court dismisses Rick Perry’s criminal case
Timeline: Rick Perry indicted
Rick Perry: From Texas governor to Florida lobbyist

From the Texas Monthly: Widespread Political Corruption May Be Just A Pen Stroke Away

For 2306 students - I'll have a written assignment on this in a couple weeks.

The 84th legislative session passed a bill which changes how ethical violations - code or corruption charges - are prosecuted in the state. They will no longer be conducted in the Travis County's DA office, but rather in the home town of the accused. The bill was signed by the governor but needs to be ratified by the general population since it requires amending the Texas Constitution.

The author argues this will facilitate political corruption.

- Click here for the article.

The Battle over the Public Integrity Unit

The Public Integrity Unit investigates public corruption statewide, but since its run out of the Travis County's District Attorney's office - which tends to be run by a Democrat - Republicans in statewide office have attempted to control it.

Senate Bill 10 would move it to the Texas Attorney General's office, which may make it less likely to investigate state office holders. That's the concern of critics anyway.

Here's content on the controversy:

- Tribpedia: Public Integrity Unit.
- Wikipedia: Ronnie Earle.
- Texas Legislature Online: SB 10.
- Interview with Rice prof Mark Jones.
- Bill to move Public Integrity Unit stalled in Senate.

Update: Analysis: Moving Integrity Unit Won't Curb Conflicts.

Some state lawmakers are unhappy with the public integrity unit, which is housed in the Travis County district attorney’s office. They want to take its state money away and give some other office the job of prosecuting state officials for ethics and campaign finance violations. Republicans, who control state government and therefore are more likely these days to be charged with corrupting it, contend the Travis County gang is packed with Democrats who have partisan motives for their prosecutions. When Democrats ruled the land, their rap was that the Travis County gang was trying to undermine anyone in state politics who wasn’t part of the Travis County gang.

Maybe they were all correct and the unit ought to be moved. Relocation of it is front and center this legislative session.

But relocation is like putting someone new into the dunking booth: It’s difficult to remain independent while policing the same public officials who provide your funding. It is hard to justify spending on independent prosecutors when you think those prosecutors are not doing their jobs.

Moving the unit simply means lawmakers can get mad at someone else for a while.

What is the Public Integrity Unit?

It's the unit at the heart of the dispute which led to the indictment of the governor.

Here's a description from the Texas Tribune:

The Public Integrity Unit is a state-funded division of the Travis County District Attorney's Office. It investigates public corruption, insurance fraud, and motor fuels tax fraud.

The Travis County DA holds the chief responsibility for enforcing the government and election code statewide. The unit was created under the leadership of Ronnie Earle, who served as the Travis County DA for three decades until his retirement in 2008. Earle captured national attention with his investigations into U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and became the poster child for what Republicans view as the unit’s politically motivated prosecutions. He told the Texas Tribune that he started the unit in the early ‘80s because “it made no sense to me to see an aggravated robbery case next to a case about a state employee cheating on travel vouchers.” At the time, Earle says the investigation of government crimes was “mostly left to the newspapers” because the Travis County DA spent most of its time fighting street crime.

Dismantling the unit is a perennial platform plank of the Texas Republican Party, and numerous members of the GOP, included DeLay and Hutchison, have criticized what they view as its politically motivated prosecutions. According to Earle, between 1978 and when he retired, in 2008, he prosecuted 19 elected officials, just five of whom were Republicans. Cathie Adams, the former Republican Party of Texas chair, filed an equal protection lawsuit over the issue in federal court last year. Her argument: Why should the voters of Travis County get to elect an official who has the power to prosecute offenses statewide? A frequently proposed solution — and one that state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, put forth unsuccessfully during the last legislative session — would be to put state corruption probes under the statewide-elected Attorney General.

Click here for stories related to it.

Perry uses line item veto authority to cut funding for the Texas Public Integrity Unit

The Governor has been threatening to do so unless the Travis District Attorney - who had been arrested for DWI earlier this year - resigned. She didn't, so he did. This means the unit - which is responsible for investigating fraud and corrpution in state government - will lose $7.5 million. It doesn't shut it down, but it compromises its ability to carry out its mission.


The Texas Tribune decribes the impact of the cut here.
Click here for the governor's message on all line item vetoes. This is the part that relates to the Public Integrity Unit. 

Article IV - The Judiciary

Judiciary Section, Comptroller's Department
D.1.4 Strategy: PUBLIC INTEGRITY UNIT, $3,742,829 $3,830,597
TRAVIS CO & UB

Public Integrity Unit, 53rd Judicial District.

Despite the otherwise good work the Public Integrity Unit's employees, I cannot in good conscience support continued State funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public's confidence. This unit is in no other way held accountable to state taxpayers, except through the State budgetary process. I therefore object to and disapprove of this appropriation.

Click here for information about the Public Integrity Unit from the Texas Tribune.

And here for a list of stories related to the unit from the same source.
The Texas Republican Party has sought to eliminate the unit for many years. It highlights the political conflict that exists between the liberal leaning elected officials of Austin and Travis County and the more conservative officials elected state-wide. The unit had investigated Tom Delay among other prominent officials. The current DA's arrest may have simply given the governor cover for accomplishing a goal he has sought for some time. If she resigns, he gets to appoint a replacement - which woudl certainly be a Republican less anxious to investigate the governor.

Here's a story about a past attempt to get rid of the unit in 2011, and to remove the authority to investigate fraud from the Travis County DA's office to the Attorney General's office.

Texans for Public Justice have filed a complaint about the governor's veto, but the complaint was filed with the Public Integrity Unit, which creates some obvious problems. They argue that the governor's actions overstepped his authority.