Make no mistake, Liberty County is still…Liberty County. As most of you know by now, Commissioner Bruce Karbowski was indicted on nepotism charges. Now, this charge alone deserves discussion. However, we must go further back and talk about what has been a concerted effort to remove commissioners that voted unfavorably on some powerful folks on a tax collection contract. A move that started prior to the election and persisted through the outcomes we have today.
It should surprise no one that they have pinned a flimsy nepotism charge on Mr. Karbowski if one knows the underbelly of county politics. Further, would it surprise anyone that this is not their first attempt to do so, but the second? The first first attempt that failed involved the Liberty County Office of Emergency Management.
First, most of the anger at Commissioner Kabowski stems from a tax collection firm vote taken by the court last year. Those who are tasked with collecting delinquent taxes and properties. It is big business for law firms and is worth a mighty big haul for those involved. Also, let’s not forget that we are talking about taxpayer money here. The players in this game were the old local firm that always had the contract, a new firm that wanted the contract (local and a favorite of Liberty elites), and then the out of town firm who eventually got the contract. From that fact alone, we are certain most can see the stage being set for some very unhappy folks when this was all said and done. The easiest player to deal with was the old firm that formerly had the contract. No one, not one commissioner, wanted to keep that firm. For those individuals to be angry would be pointless (though they still were). They were not going to get the contract again. The rift was that many immensely powerful folks wanted a different local firm to get this contract. One of high favor to those in the cabal up in the courthouse. Of course, that did not happen. Mr. Karbowski and Mr. Arthur did not vote that way, while one commissioner voted for the local favorite of this said group of individuals. This vote started the ball rolling. Primary challengers came on, and in the background, the move to remove those “unfavorable” votes from the court. Most in the public only noticed the stories of these commissioners hired that “evil out of the county” firm. A narrative pushed as this was an unacceptable outcome. It was talked about all through the election to stop Mr. Karbowski’s re-election. It failed. The voters in Liberty County Precinct 1 re-elected Mr. Karbowski in the July runoff.
Second, during the primary election, someone also pushed extremely hard for a story to put both Mr. Karbowski and Mr. Arthur in a bad light. Some were practically salivating at the prospect of being able to charge one of them with breaking and entering or possibly theft. This scheme was fraught with error and embarrassment for the County and the Office of Emergency Management, which is one reason few ever heard much about it but for rumor and only half the story. In fact, several local news sources were approached and asked to report it, even a big Houston news station made some calls about it. Clearly, someone was pushing back, and hard. The story never mustered enough evidence to be a real story. See, some county employees had to work at the very beginning of the pandemic. Some commissioners were concerned that county employees at the junkyards did not have any PPE, gloves, or N95 masks. The Office of Emergency Management made it clear to one of the local fire departments, as well as to these commissioners, that there was no PPE to be found in the county. Of course, some commissioners knew better. Let us just say, in front of the county judge, one employed with the Office of Emergency Management assured there were no masks. The problem? Well, many flood buckets had been donated a while back, and most of them contained these masks and gloves. OEM stored these buckets in Precinct 1’s connex. Of course,Commissioner Karbowski knew that, as did Commissioner Aurthur . Now, what is quite interesting is that after this employee lied about PPE for county workers, a lock appeared on that connex. As you know, this connex is paid for by the taxpayers of Precinct 1. However,the commissioner of Precinct 1 did not place that lock nor did he give anyone else permission to place it. Someone was aware of what was in there and did not want it discovered. Now, here is where it gets muddy, someone cut that lock and got those masks out to county employees. Well, now these schemers felt they had the case of the century. “Someone broke in and stole PPE!”, they claimed. You know, the PPE that was alleged not to exist? However, those who cried foul immediately ran into several issues. First, if they wanted to blame Mr. Karbowski, well it was Precinct 1’s connex, which he has jurisdiction of, and someone unlawfully locked it. If an employee of Precinct 1 did cut the lock or even Mr. Karbowski himself, can one break into a building he has jurisdiction over? Second, if they wanted to jam up Mr. Arthur over it, they had no proof. But their biggest conundrum was, what PPE was “stolen” after all? OEM stated there was no PPE in the county. How can something not there be stolen? Why was it stored in the Precinct 1 connex? Why was it locked as soon as they realized a few knew the PPE was in there? This ended up being a bad route to achieve their goals of getting rid of Mr. Karbowski and Mr. Arthur. Everyone knew that. And how embarrassing for OEM that they held PPE from county employees during a health pandemic. Now the schemers needed some other way at Mr. Karbowski and Mr. Arthur. They had already failed to get him ousted in the primary and now failed with this bogus story. They needed a new scheme.
Now, we have come full circle to the nepotism charge. The nepotism statute is one that raises a lot of questions as it is vaguely worded on how it should be properly applied beyond that of obvious nepotism, such as hiring a direct family member. Now, Mr. Karbowski did hire Mr. Arthur’s son to work as a welder. However, the County Attorney was asked prior to the hiring if he saw an issue with this in regard to nepotism, and he did not, at least not at the time he was asked by Mr. Karbowski. Giving opinions to the commissioners court over legal questions on actions they take is one of the extremely basic functions of the County Attorney. Now, let us also realize no one else even applied for the job, there was no special consideration for this individual, and he was qualified. We live in a county with already a limited number of people with skill sets to assist our infrastructure, now we want to punish people for finding good, honest people to do the work well. So now, at the behest of powerful people, we are to the point of wasting taxpayer money to prosecute and attempt to make the case that one of our commissioners might have engaged in nepotism, which he was told was not nepotism. The kicker? The County Attorney himself does not even know if a law was broken. In his request for an opinion from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, he himself admits there are contradictory findings on the application of this statute. Now that leaves us with even more questions. Who rushed for an indictment when the County Attorney is still unsure if a law was broken? Why not await the opinion return from the Attorney General?
One thing is for certain, we know Mr. Karbowski will have excellent legal counsel. Because the Liberty County courthouse cabal is in full steam to remove commissioners by any means necessary and ensure that, in the end, their favorite attorney ends up with that very profitable contract. It is sad. But as has often been the case in Liberty County, we do not so much want decent, good commissioners here as much as the powers that be want the ones who will do their bidding. As usual, this is about money and personal gain, over the citizens of this county.