House Rep Making Bank on Gov Contracting
Got any more of these jobs?
A state representative is making bank while working for a quasi-governmental entity in a sparsely populated rural area west of Katy in the Houston area. It’s apparently legal, and many people are saying it must be nice to get a cushy government job like that.
State Representative Stan Kitzman is apparently using a loophole that allows an elected representative to continue collecting city municipal taxpayer dollars while being an elected representative.
In 2015, Rep. Kitzman was hired to work for the Brookshire-Katy Drainage District (BKDD) and was eventually promoted to the district’s top management role as General Manager.
In 2022, Rep. Kitzman resigned from his position as he won his seat for HD85 (a large district between Houston, San Antonio, and Austin).
Due to Article XVI, Section 40(d) of the Texas constitution, Kitzman was forced to resign from being General Manager of BKDD, leaving the already tiny employer without a manager.
“No member of the Legislature of this State may hold any other office or position of profit under this State, or the United States, except as a notary public if qualified by law.”
However, Kitzman was able to (legally) get around this law and continue working for the district by simply forming an LLC and his company being hired as a contracted consultant.
Kitzman’s LLC, Fisk & Buller, is currently receiving payments of around $11,000 per month from Brookshire-Katy Drainage District.
Current Revolt reached out to Rep. Kitzman who confirmed the timeline and arrangement with BKDD. Kitzman also confirmed his contract with BKDD runs from October 1 through September 30th.
Additionally, Kitzman’s workload for BKDD appears light considering the amount of taxpayer money being spent on the work.
Rep. Kitzman’s LLC arrangement is not without legal precedent. In December of 2005, Attorney General Greg Abbott penned an opinion on the legality of an elected official working for a municipality as an independent contractor. Abbott determined that it did not violate the law. Attorney General Ken Paxton also came to the same conclusion in 2019.
On a 1-10 scale of corruption, this is maybe like a 2. Probably, most people are just jealous that ol’ boy landed a ditch manager job. Sounds chill.
The LLC workaround exposes how easy it is to follow the letter of anti-corruption rules while completely undermining their spirit. Article XVI Section 40 was obviously designed to prevent dual loyalties and conflicts of interest, but if you can just incorporate and contract back into the same role, the constitutional guardrail becomes theater. What gets me is that both Abbott and Paxton blessed this arrangement, which suggests either the statute needs tightening or enforcement discretion is just gone. The $11k monthly for 'light workload' at a drainage district is the kinda thing that corrodes public trust incrementaly over time.
Reminds me of this classic from the South Carolina legislature in 2023, where a Republican state Congress hack essentially argued that they should keep being allowed to funnel tax payer money to friends and family (there's like 4 video clips in a thread):
https://x.com/andyroth/status/1616242570949951488