Hilary Green

Kristin Mack reported last Friday that Hilary Green, wife of City Council Member Ron Green, was being considered for an appointment as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 7, Place 1. That's the JP Court formerly presided over by Betty Brock Bell, who was convicted of document tampering back in 2005, and finally stepped down recently after exhausting her appeals. According to Isiah Carey, she got that appointment during yesterday's Commissioners Court meeting.

Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee says Green was chosen out of five contenders for the position. She was officially selected Tuesday morning during executive session of the Harris County Commissioner's Court meeting. Lee says there is no official date as to when Green will be sworn into the position. She'll have 6 months to serve before she will have to run for the position in January 2008. Green is a graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston. She's been practicing law for ten years now.

I'm a little bit torn about this, mostly because I've gotten to know Loren Jackson, who was planning to run for that JP seat. (I am also acquainted with Hilary Green, as Tiffany and Ron Green went to elementary school together.) I feel bad for him, because this pretty much eliminates his chances to win that seat - I'd bet he won't even try to run now. It might have been nice to have appointed someone who wasn't interested in running for re-election, as I and others suggested for the County Judge position after Robert Eckels took a powder. But realistically, this sort of appointment happens all the time (the County Judge situation was much less common). As such, it's hard to argue for that. But I still feel bad for Loren Jackson, and I hope an opportunity comes up for him elsewhere.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 20, 2007 to Local politics