Sarah Grunau/ Houston Public Media
Harris County Precinct 2 commissioner candidate Richard Vega
The Supreme Court of Texas has denied a Harris County commissioner candidate’s petition to remove Democratic Commissioner Adrian Garcia from office, whose appointment to a local flood resiliency board was previously determined to be illegal.
A Sept. 9 ruling by the Texas Supreme Court denied Richard Vega’s lawsuit against the Harris County Commissioners Court, which argued Garcia effectively vacated his seat on commissioners court in 2021 when he was appointed to the Gulf Coast Protection District, a local government entity.
In a statement to Houston Public Media, Scott Spiegel, a spokesperson for Garcia’s office, said the ruling proves the effort has been a “waste of taxpayer resources and everyone’s time from the very beginning.”
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Vega, a Republican who is seeking to replace Garcia on commissioners court in November, and Mark Goloby, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, originally filed a lawsuit against Harris County in 2024 arguing the appointment should’ve triggered Garcia’s immediate vacancy on the court. The First Court of Appeals in April agreed with former County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne, who argued Garcia’s appointment to the protection district was not legal to begin with, making it void. The appeals court ultimately ruled Garcia could maintain his seat on the court.
“It’s bad enough that they petitioned for relief that is not allowable under the Texas Election Code, but also, those who filed this garbage appeal further embarrassed themselves with now three courts effectively saying their case was nonsense,” Spiegel said on Monday.
Vega’s lawyers have asserted in legal filings that Garcia’s move to assume a second office conflicted with his loyalty to the commissioners court, a position he has held since 2019. The Texas Constitution generally restricts an elected officer from holding more than one public office at a time — accepting a second office can act as an immediate resignation from the first office.
“Another last-ditch politically motivated attempt to remove Commissioner Garcia from office has failed,” Roxanne Werner, a spokesperson for the county attorney’s office said in a statement. “This is a matter of clear black-letter law, and any suggestion otherwise is nothing more than a political smear campaign.”
Vega, who did not return a phone call and email seeking comment, previously hoped for a vacancy on the court before a vote on the county budget and tax rate this month. In a statement in June, he said a vacancy would add another Republican vote to the Democratic-controlled commissioners court during budget discussions.
He has publicly spoken against rising property taxes in Harris County.
“This tax proposal that’s about to hit Harris County is going to effect everyone, not just the people that own property,” Vega said during a recent Harris County Republican Party press conference. “Good working people, people that contribute to our community, are moving out of our community because we are being taxed out of our homes.”
RELATED: Harris County commissioners advance 7.6% property tax hike in 2027
Harris County commissioners last week advanced a property tax hike on Tuesday, expected to cost Harris County homeowners an additional $198 this year. Commissioners will still need to finalize a proposed $3.1 billion budget and take a final vote on the tax rate Thursday before the county’s next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.