Harris County Choose Lina Hidalgo isn’t any stranger to crises or controversy. By way of all of it, Hidalgo says her guiding mild has been easy: observe the info, converse the reality, and heart the folks’s wants.
Since taking workplace in 2019 as the primary girl and Latina to steer Texas’ largest county, she has overseen disasters starting from Hurricane Harvey restoration and the COVID-19 pandemic to the 2021 winter freeze and, most lately, a derecho that battered Southeast Texas.
Hidalgo opened up about her immigrant upbringing, the teachings she has realized managing emergencies, and her most bold push but: placing early childhood care on the poll for Harris County voters this November.
Born in Colombia through the peak of the drug warfare, Hidalgo vividly recollects her dad and mom’ determination to flee their homeland after a automobile bomb shattered the home windows of a senior dwelling whereas she was inside.
“I do know what it’s prefer to be secure and what it’s prefer to not be secure,” she informed the Dendender. “We ended up in Peru and Mexico and I noticed the federal government not work in these locations. I all the time thought the U.S. was actually the mannequin.”
These formative experiences, she says, gave her a deep respect for American democracy.
“All of us see lots of points with our authorities and limitations, however even with all of that, to me it’s the shining metropolis on the hill,” Hidalgo added. “It’s a land of alternative.”
Emergency administration
As Harris County’s emergency supervisor, Hidalgo has needed to navigate the twin pressures of uncertainty and political blowback. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, she made the decision to limit in-person studying, a transfer she now concedes might have neglected college students with studying disabilities.
“It might have been carried out otherwise, much less restricted and definitely with a deal with these youngsters,” she stated. “However we didn’t know higher and that was the info we have been getting from the researchers at Rice who have been trying all around the globe to strive to determine what the very best reply was.”
She has additionally confronted criticism for her daring public warnings throughout occasions just like the 2021 freeze, which she famously in comparison with a Class 5 hurricane. Some accused her of fear-mongering.
“I don’t need to cry wolf, however on the identical time, I don’t need to be scared to inform the group of a threat simply because I don’t need to be seen as crying wolf,” Hidalgo defined. “If the explanation I don’t get reelected is as a result of I informed those who there was going to be a hurricane that turned out to be a last-minute one, I’d relatively that be the explanation than discover myself in a scenario the place I used to be scared to deliver it up after which there was a lack of life or property.”
Early childhood funding
Hidalgo has been pushing for a property tax improve to fund early childhood providers, the Early REACH program, which offers little one care help for working households. She needed to provide voters the selection to approve or reject the proposal on the November poll, even amid the county’s price range deficit. Different members of the court docket stated they have been blindsided by her initiative, which might value $60 million and cost owners $10 extra per 12 months for each $100,000 of dwelling analysis. After a chaotic Commissioners Court docket assembly on August 7, the proposal didn’t move and won’t seem on the poll after lacking a key deadline.
“Extremely unhappy and dissatisfied. Early childhood schooling is one thing that we’ve been working efficiently for 4 years,” Hidalgo stated. “It’s merely a request to let the voters resolve. It’s very disappointing that my colleagues not solely don’t imagine youngsters are price a penny, they don’t imagine in asking voters whether or not they suppose youngsters are price a penny. I’ve been preventing for this since I took Workplace in 2019, and I’ll proceed preventing for these youngsters and households who’re about to lose their early childhood schooling. I’m not carried out.”
Main initiatives
Hidalgo launched a first-of-its-kind open transition course of in early 2019, together with a countywide survey (with over 11,000 responses) and public workshops, to determine residents’ most pressing considerations and form early priorities. She additionally launched a $84 million Brighter Futures for Harris County Children Initiative, the most important county funding in early childhood applications supporting maternal well being, childcare and early studying and created the $26 million Early REACH Program to supply 1,000 new high-quality childcare slots in underserved areas of Harris County.
She additionally created initiatives, increasing the Public Defender’s Workplace and growing funding by 91%. She additionally adopted a managed assigned counsel program to enhance the standard and accountability of indigent protection (for people who can’t afford their very own legal professional in legal or civil court docket circumstances). Per Hidalgo’s workplace, she oversaw the development of recent juvenile detention services.
The County additionally invested over $11 million to construct an air monitoring community, elevated the dimensions of the air pollution management division by over 50% and added assets for HazMat First Responders.
Navigating political tensions
All through her tenure, Hidalgo has butted heads with fellow commissioners and, extra lately, with Houston Mayor John Whitmire over coordination throughout disasters. Whereas she describes a “strained relationship” with the town, she says progress has been made.
“We [Whitmire and Hidalgo] nonetheless haven’t had a gathering, however we’ve gotten to the purpose the place he’ll take part and take my calls and our workers will work collectively throughout emergencies,” she stated. “Town and the county have traditionally had a strained relationship and I’ve by no means needed that. Actually not the connection that I had with Mayor Turner. I’m all the time more than pleased to construct a stronger relationship with the present mayor.”
She additionally defended her typically combative model on the Commissioners Court docket, saying she’s not guided by politics however by precept.
“I’m not prioritizing potential political outcomes. That’s the place we conflict typically,” Hidalgo added.
A call on reelection
With political opponents already declaring campaigns for the 2026 election, Hidalgo is beneath rising strain to announce whether or not she’s going to search a 3rd time period.
She informed the Defender she’ll resolve “quickly,” citing a ballooning price range shortfall and looming federal cuts to Harris Well being as components prompting her to reassess.
“We’re nonetheless early,” Hidalgo stated. “A few of the candidates are very, very, very, very early in asserting…I had 15 opponents in 2022. I don’t know if it could be potential or prone to break that report, however I do know I can deal with at the very least 15.”
No matter whether or not she runs, Hidalgo says she has unfinished enterprise: increasing early childhood applications, investing in psychological well being and flood infrastructure and persevering with her work on homelessness and public security.
“I by no means signed as much as be a wartime county choose, however we’ve carried out all of this along with managing just about any form of catastrophe you possibly can consider,” she stated. “It’s been nice and I nonetheless have a 12 months and a half left, so I feel, regardless of whether or not I’m capable of win reelection, I need to deal with the psychological well being a part of issues after which check out clearly all the time flight management investments.”
