Throughout his career, Judge Clay Jenkins, head of the Dallas County Commissioners Court, has allegedly walked a tightrope over ethical gray areas, raising concerns about his ethical integrity. Yet, after all these years they are still only allegations.
After taking office, Jenkins convened the Elections Committee, which had not met in over 20 years, in order to seemingly replace Bruce Sherbet, the long-serving incumbent, with someone “more friendly” to Jenkins and his political allies.
Sherbet resigned, claiming that an overtly hostile environment had been created by leadership. When a crowd of local constituents held a rally to call for Sherbet’s reinstatement, Judge Jenkins left the building without addressing the crowd’s concerns.
Jenkins insisted that he was not attempting to force Sherbet out of office but merely wanted to conduct a performance review.
“I believe in performance reviews,” the judge said. “The only mechanism for a performance review for this office is the Election Committee.”
During the FBI investigation and case against County Commissioner John Price for alleged influence-peddling and bribery, disclosed documents showed that Jenkins donated several thousand dollars to Price’s campaign before Price, in turn, spent over $13,000 to support Jenkins in a tight race. A jury found Price not guilty after nearly 10 years of federal investigations.
It is important to note that Jenkins himself was not investigated, and no action was ever taken against him during the course of the investigation into Commissioner Price.
In 2016, Judge Jenkins allegedly sought to add two companies to city contracts in private meetings, including one led by a donor to his election campaign.
Former County Commissioner Mike Cantrell claimed that the judge’s action in that instance “goes directly against what the purchasing code of ethics is all about.”
Jenkins pushed back, claiming that his personal connections to the companies had no impact on his attempt to get them added to the contract. He pointed to “a 30-year track record of [the businesses] getting [the County] the best price.”
During the meeting on the subject, the judge further said, “I see value in adding firms that we’ve done business with for decades, that are based here in Dallas, that employ thousands of people.”
Allegations of impropriety continued, and in April 2020, County Commissioner J. J. Koch struck out against Judge Jenkins, highlighting instances of perceived political patronage.
“The friends of Clay are fat and happy,” the commissioner accused in a post that appears to have been removed. “He cannot get away with this.”
Koch posted on social media, “I first encountered this when [Jenkins] tried to pay James Hamilton (manager of his 2010 campaign) $80,000 for a $40,000 trucking job. Now he is trying to pay Philip Haigh (manager of his 2018 campaign) and Miguel Solis (close pollical ally) $76,000 each for roughly 3 months’ work that can be (and is partly) done by county employees.”
Jenkins did not respond directly to Koch’s allegations, and there was no investigation or action taken against the judge.
Tensions between the two men flared again, however, when Commissioner Koch sued Judge Jenkins in August 2021 after the judge had Koch escorted out of a council meeting for refusing to wear a face mask.
In turn, Jenkins sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott over his executive order preventing governmental agencies from mandating masks. To pay for the legal fees, Judge Jenkins issued a court order attempting to divert over $250,000 that had been donated to a charitable COVID response fund.
Koch condemned this, calling the proposal “self-dealing of the most vicious kind.”
“There’s no moral reason for using charitable donations for Judge Jenkins’ personal lawsuit against the governor,” he said.
Jenkins defended his actions at the time, claiming, “The purpose of the fund is to provide funding for the Dallas County needs for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. … This clearly does that.”
He continued, “When you give to a charity, you give up the right to micromanage how the money could be spent.”
Ultimately, the Commissioners Court rejected Jenkins’ plan to pay for his legal expenses out of the charitable funds but did allow money to be taken from the county’s general fund for the lawsuit.
Citizens have begun to express discontent with the judge’s record, and an online petition advocating for Judge Jenkins’s recall has reached over 3,000 signatures. Organizers allege that “Jenkins’ only motive is to further his political career.”
The Dallas Express reached out to the office of Judge Jenkins for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
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For more Dallas County judge-related news, see how Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was arrested at Baylor in 1983 for a blackface break-in.
