Republican State Rep. Guilty Of Bribery ?

It looks like another Republican in the Texas legislature is at the very least guilty of ethical violations and may very well be guilty of bribery. The politician in question is State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving). The Texas Values in Action Coalition has filed a complaint against the extreme right-winger from House District 105. Currently, she is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and the Travis County District Attorney.

Harper-Brown (pictured) has been a supporter of red light cameras since she was on the Irving City Council. When she was elected to the state legislature, she was appointed to the Appropriations Committee and actually chaired the Appropriations Interim Subcommittee on Transportation Issues. She used her position on the committee to slip a provision into the 2003 Transportation Bill that allowed cities to use red light cameras as evidence in issuing traffic citations.

That would be OK, except for the fact that Harper-Brown seems to have financial ties to at least one company owned by Jeffrey C. Bryan of Duncanville, Texas. Bryan owns two companies -- Paradigm Traffic Systems and Durable Enterprises. Through these companies, Bryan has millions of dollars in state transportation contracts and earns millions more from red light cameras systems that it operates in many Texas cities.

The company has definitely profited from the actions of Harper-Brown on the subcommittee dealing with transportation issues (for getting the red light camera law passed if nothing else), and it could well turn out she has helped the companies in other ways. The ethical problems come into play because it seems that Harper-Brown has been taking secret in-kind payments from at least one of those companies.

Harper-Brown has the exclusive use of two new and fairly pricey vehicles -- a 2010 Mercedes ME550 sedan and a 2010 Chevy Tahoe. She has asked for and received special legislative license plates for both vehicles. The problem is that she does not own either vehicle. Both are owned by Durable Enterprises. The question now is are these vehicles a pay-off for helping the Bryan companies get legislation and contracts from the state. If so (and it looks to be the case), then that would be bribery and could result in a prison sentence.

What is already known is that Harper-Brown has never reported this vehicular compensation in any of her financial reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, and that in itself is a violation of state disclosure laws. There is no doubt she is guilty of that. Now if it can be shown she performed any service for Bryan's companies for the vehicular compensation, then she will also be guilty of bribery.

At the very least there is a perception of wrongdoing here. As a state employee for over twenty years, I am shocked at her acceptance of the expensive gifts. Any state employee who accepted any gift (no matter how small) would be immediately terminated, and that is how it should be. It is important that the public know it's employees are honest and not selling the authority given them by the state.

It should be even more important that elected officials maintain at least the standard required of all other state employees. These officials were elected to do the people's business, not use their elected position to feather their own nests.

Boyd Richie, chairman of the state Democratic Party, has demanded that Harper-Brown be removed from her position on the powerful Appropriations committee and the subcommittee on Transportation Issues. This makes sense. We know she violated state ethics laws, and there is at least a strong perception she may have committed bribery. She should be removed from her committee assignments until the investigations are complete and she has either been convicted or cleared.

In the eyes of this former state employee, Linda Harper-Brown was wrong to accept anything from a company doing business with the state. Hopefully, the voters in Irving will rectify this smelly situation when they go to the polls in November.