Elections
Profile: Doug Greco for mayor
First-ever opportunity to elect appraisal board members
They’re off and running for council
Hays County Judge, Commissioner Candidates
Six Candidates Vying to Win Jobs as
Hays County Judge and Commissioners
Research Provides Voters With a
Better Sense of People on the Ballot
Investigative Research by George “Trey” Hatt
© The Austin Bulldog 2010
Editor's Introduction: The Austin Bulldog is stepping off the beaten path of how to cover an election. We will point you to some of the stories written by other publications, but we will provide information that journalists seldom take the time to dig up and assemble.
Rather than selectively quote from our background research, our approach is to use an extensive, organized plan to find, copy, and publish source documents that you can explore to form your own conclusions about people seeking elective office.
Caveat: We found that the officeholders and candidates in Hays County are not required to submit an important document that their counterparts in Travis County must complete and file: Personal Financial Statements, per Chapter 159 of the Local Government Code.
That didn’t seem right, as these statements provide a tremendous amount of information, including sources of occupational income; investments of every kind; debts; business interests; trusts; board and executive positions; and a whole lot more. This is the kind of information that the public needs to be able to monitor the conduct of their elected officials for possible conflicts of interest.
