Last week, the Dallas County Commissioners Court tabled a motion to allocate $263,150 of COVID-19 relief funds to pay legal expenses related to County Judge Clay Jenkins’ lawsuit against Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting county mask mandates.
Jenkins and Dallas County Commissioner J.J. Koch (R-District 2) have been at odds for months over the county’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak — particularly its vaccine policy.
Jenkins’ removal of Commissioner Koch from a commissioner’s court meeting in August precipitated the lawsuit, which is now pending in the Texas Supreme Court. Koch filed a lawsuit against Jenkins, who then filed a lawsuit against Abbott over his statewide ban on mask mandates.
“It’s disgraceful that Mr. Koch led the charge against science,” said one of Jenkins’ lawyers, Andrew Sommerman, who is currently running in a Democratic primary to face Koch in the general election. “Judge Jenkins has used reasonable and scientifically sound measures against Covid. J.J. Koch chose political theater over science. We have asked that the money that would have been paid to us be used to remedy the harms caused by J.J. Koch and the Governor.”
The Communities Foundation of Texas manages the COVID-19 fund, which was established in March 2020. The county’s website requests donations, stating that the money “will go directly to the front lines of the fight in Dallas County as directed by its executive, Judge Clay Jenkins.”
Jenkins pointed to the official documents governing the fund, which say that “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,” Jenkins said. “When you give to a charity, you give up the right to micromanage how the money could be spent.”
“There’s no moral reason for using charitable donations for Judge Jenkins’ personal lawsuit against the governor,” said Koch, as he is opposed to the use of funds by Jenkins. “This is his deal, and he has to handle it from his campaign funds or his own pocket.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Koch has challenged Jenkins due to the fact that the mask mandate was not enforced, but COVID cases decreased. Koch claims that Jenkins’ choices would soon cause Dallas officials to lose credibility because neighboring counties with higher numbers of instances have repealed their mask mandates.
A vote of 3 to 0 during the meeting ended in the motion being tabled. Both Koch and Jenkins were away from the meeting because of their involvement in the lawsuit.
