Travis County commissioners have established a $500,000 security fund to help protect the homes of local elected officials, a decision driven by growing concerns about their personal safety. The unanimous vote, passed during a public meeting last month, will benefit about three dozen elected officials, including probate judges and the county tax collector, by covering expenses such as monthly security system fees.
This new initiative follows controversy surrounding a secret $115,000 security allotment granted to District Attorney José Garza earlier this year. The move to create the fund was made at the request of State District Judge Julie Kocurek, who survived an assassination attempt outside her home in 2015. Kocurek emphasized to commissioners at their Oct. 22 meeting that judges, who are at the center of legal disputes daily, face unique safety risks.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who also made the request alongside Kocurek, pointed out that several of their colleagues have had litigants show up at their homes, further highlighting the need for enhanced security measures.
Kocurek explained to the KVUE Defenders—who first reported on Garza’s security allotment in August—that she made the request after learning about the funds given to Garza. “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.
Their transparent approach to securing the fund stands in contrast to Garza’s request earlier this year, which was made behind closed doors. Garza has since refused to release records related to his security expenses, even suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block their disclosure. Paxton had ordered the county on Oct. 9 to release some of the requested records, but the county attorney’s office has yet to make any documents public, despite the ruling being issued 42 days ago.
Thomas Leatherbury, director of the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University, criticized Garza’s refusal to release the records, saying, “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 over Garza’s security-related expenditures. A separate lawsuit is pending regarding 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 in recognition of her advocacy for judicial security. In 2015, Kocurek survived a shooting outside her home by a defendant, Chimene Onyeri, who was later sentenced to life in prison.