As the winter storm hit North Texas this week, crews from Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia’s district spread sand across icy parking lots and ramps while Commissioner John Wiley Price shared a photo of him and his team preparing to clear snow in unincorporated roads.
Even so, the county’s role in severe weather is limited, with cities and the state handling most of the response with shelters and roads. The county judge is responsible for county emergency coordination, including with city, weather and utility officials – but this time he delegated from Costa Rica.
As of Wednesday, county officials still have not produced records showing who formally held the county judge’s emergency powers while Clay Lewis Jenkins was out of the country, despite a state law requiring such an order.
Jenkins’ absence has drawn online comparisons to past storm travel by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, surfaced a jab he once made at the senator’s vacation and prompted a former county judge to say the role requires being on the ground during emergencies.
Political Points
Jenkins departed Friday for a pre-planned vacation to Costa Rica, one day after Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for Dallas and 133 other counties. Chief of staff Lauren Trimble said Jenkins had ensured emergency coordination was in place before he left and that Chief of Emergency Services Scott Forster was overseeing the response.
Jenkins, a Democrat whose role as county judge is administrative, not judicial, did not respond to phone calls and emails from The Dallas Morning News to discuss the county’s operations during the storm or answer when he would return.
Trimble said she was empowered to sign emergency orders in Jenkins’ absence, but she did not respond to requests to provide a copy of the delegation order.
State law requires county judges to file an order with the Commissioners Court, identifying who is granted authority and what types of orders they can sign. The statute also allows for a standing order to remain on file.
But neither Trimble, County Clerk John Warren nor County Administrator Darryl Martin responded to phone calls and emails this week seeking a pre-Costa Rica order or a standing order.
From Costa Rica, Jenkins has shared cold weather tips to constituents on social media and ordered county offices closed, as warm, sunny conditions prevailed where he was staying.
Travel backlash
That contrast set off online criticism and fresh references to Cruz’s family trip to Cancun during the state’s deadly 2021 winter storm. After a public backlash, the Republican senator changed his return ticket and was back in Houston less than 24 hours after leaving.
In a 2021 interview with MSNBC about Cruz’s getaway during the emergency, Jenkins said: “We need to be here, we need to be in the battle, we need to be helping Texans,” according to a Reuters story.
Jim Foster, a Democrat who served one term as county judge and lost reelection in 2010 to Jenkins, said the county judge should be present to oversee emergencies.
Dallas County fared better than expected without mass power outages like those in 2021. But Foster said Abbott’s disaster declaration should have been enough to cancel a planned vacation because Jenkins “knew what potentially lay ahead.”
If a major crisis had hit during Jenkins’ travel, Foster said, the situation could have been worse.
“You can delegate all you want to but then you can’t just walk away and leave those you delegated the responsibility to be in charge,” he said. “That’s not what it’s all about.”