Harris county and Houston received over 1.5 billion in federal COVID relief in March of 2021. How did the county blow through such a large sum of money in a matter of 8 months?
I was reviewing the commissioners court agenda items, when I noticed that the county has been using the PIC (public improvement contingency) funds for COVID expenditures. I found this to be a bit alarming since Harris county had received 1.5 billion in COVID relief in March of 2021.
On September 14th, 2021 the Public Health Services department requested an additional 250k to fund the counties vaccine incentive gift card program, for some reason the county decided to use our PIC funds for this expenditure. Link: Public Health Services vaccine incentive
Ten days prior, on September 4th, the county had just approved 8.6 million for the vaccine incentive gift card program (Link).
On September 12, 2021 the Public Health Services department requested another 17.7 million to create a COVID-19 division which funded 69 new position over a 6 month period. I found it to be a bit bizarre the county needed to create a COVID division if Pandemics are normally supposed to phase out. Did the counties Public Health Department anticipate more variants?
The county just approved another 10.6 million for the COVID-19 division for only a 2 month period. This seems to be a lot of money to be spending in just 2 months..
On November 30th, Sheriff Ed Gonzales requested 16.5 million to offset COVID expenditures and to operate the jail and jail health. Link to 16.6 million agenda item
On June 29, 2021 the county awarded the Public Health Services department 10.3 million for one month for COVID expenditures.
Thank you for all your hard work in exposing corruption in Harris County. Highly encouraged to see that there are people out there fighting corruption! From what I have learned from my fight is that corruption is not a victimless crime. Its a weapon of mass destruction, can kill freedoms, laws, justice & take lives! It's a crime against humanity! How did Harris county ever become so corrupt is beyond belief but it is filled with corrupt officials from bottom to the top! And it seems like they all want to normalize corruption! But corruption is wrong and should never EVER be normalized! The whole Houston covid numbers/graphs seem to be all questionable!
Raising awareness is the beginning of the fight against corruption and in this fight, accountability is the END. ALL corrupt thieves of state should be held accountable!
Thank you for all your hard work in exposing corruption in Harris County. Highly encouraged to see that there are people out there fighting corruption! From what I have learned from my fight is that corruption is not a victimless crime. Its a weapon of mass destruction, can kill freedoms, laws, justice & take lives! It's a crime against humanity! How did Harris county ever become so corrupt is beyond belief but it is filled with corrupt officials from bottom to the top! And it seems like they all want to normalize corruption! But corruption is wrong and should never EVER be normalized! The whole Houston covid numbers/graphs seem to be all questionable!
Raising awareness is the beginning of the fight against corruption and in this fight, accountability is the END. ALL corrupt thieves of state should be held accountable!