AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County commissioners have established a $500,000 security fund to help local elected officials protect their homes – a move prompted by growing concerns about personal safety.
The unanimous vote, made during a public meeting last month, will assist approximately three dozen elected officials, including probate judges and the county tax collector, by covering expenses such as monthly security system fees.
The decision follows recent controversy surrounding a secret $115,000 security allotment granted to District Attorney José Garza earlier this year.
The creation of the new fund came at the request of State District Judge Julie Kocurek, who survived an assassination attempt in 2015.
“As judges, as you know, we are in the center of legal disputes in our county every day,” Kocurek told commissioners at their Oct. 22 meeting.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who joined Kocurek in making the request, noted that several colleagues have experienced litigants showing up at their front doors, underscoring the need for enhanced home security.
Kocurek told the KVUE Defenders – who first revealed Garza’s security allotment in August – that she made the request to commissioners after learning about the money Garza received.
“When I saw that they had granted the district attorney’s request, I thought it was only fair for us to make our request for all elected officials,” she said.
The transparent manner of their security fund request stands in contrast to Garza’s approach earlier this year, when he asked commissioners behind closed doors for money to help protect his home.
The district attorney has since resisted releasing records about his security expenses, even suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week to block their disclosure.
Paxton had ordered the county on Oct. 9 to release at least some of the records sought by the KVUE Defenders.
The Travis County Attorney’s Office has indicated intent to release some of the documents, though none have been made public 42 days after the attorney general’s initial ruling.
Thomas Leatherbury, the director of the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, criticized Garza’s refusal to release records, stating, “The spirit of the law and the spirit of good government is to lean toward transparency. This is the opposite of that.”
This is the second time this year the county has sued Paxton regarding Garza’s security expenditures. A separate pending lawsuit involves a $26,000 payment to a Houston-based private security firm.
Recently, Kocurek was honored in Washington with the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, recognizing her advocacy for judicial security. In 2015, she survived a shooting outside her home by a defendant, Chimene Onyeri, who was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.