Hidalgo, apparently frustrated with commissioners’ refusal to fund several early childcare programs on the chopping block as part of the county’s annual budget process, left the meeting around 6:50 p.m. — 40 minutes before a Hans Zimmer concert was scheduled to begin at the Toyota Center.
“I don’t know what we’re doing here for not standing up for children,” Hidalgo said before leaving. “Shame on you.”
Hidalgo later posted an image of herself at the concert, but never explicitly stated that her departure, which came roughly one hour before the meeting ended, was planned.
A Sept. 8 text exchange between Hidalgo and her chief of staff, Angelica Kaufman, indicated the judge initially intended to leave the meeting around 5:45 p.m. to get to the concert in time to purchase merchandise.
“(A friend) wants us to get there by 6:30 p.m. if possible because he wants to buy some merch,” Hidalgo wrote in a text message sent Sept. 8 at 8:43 p.m.
Her departure from the Sept. 9 meeting came amid a monthslong dispute between Hidalgo and her fellow commissioners over a proposed package of cuts intended to bridge the county’s $270 million project deficit. The deficit has since been filled, but the rift remains between Hidalgo and Democratic Commissioners Lesley Briones and Adrian Garcia, as well as Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey.
Garcia said in a statement issued shortly after Hidalgo’s abrupt departure that she was failing the residents she represents.
“The Judge has let down the nearly 5 million Harris County residents she serves by leaving court to go to a concert. Budget discussions are hard. No one gets everything they want. My fellow Commissioners Ellis, Ramsey, and Briones all were denied funding priorities they advocated for, as was I,” Garcia said. “However, none of us left work early when we didn’t get our way. And none of us chose a concert over our constituents. The behavior is disappointing to say the least.”
While Hidalgo and Ellis were aligned in their support for rolling back sweeping law enforcement raises approved by commissioners in May, the Precinct 1 commissioner did not directly attack his colleagues as Hidalgo did in multiple statements and social media posts made during the budget process and immediately following its approval.
Hidalgo has variously dubbed the bipartisan trio the “GOP Three” and the “Three Callous Commissioners,” with many of her jabs focused on her two fellow Democrats.
“I know that many of us have sunk costs in supporting these commissioners, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon our values or bury our heads in the sand,” Hidalgo wrote in a Sept. 10 Facebook post. “Make it make sense. These three commissioners refused to negotiate, refused to take actions that could have given raises and saved programs.”
Much of the controversy between Hidalgo and commissioners centered on their refusal to take a tax increase proposal to the voters, which the judge argued would have enabled the county to save programs previously funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and provide raises for county law enforcement.