Commissioner Justin Rodriguez (Pct. 2) sat out the open Bexar County judge race in 2022, and he hasn’t picked a side in this year’s heated contest between incumbent Peter Sakai and former Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
But as he gears up for a new role leading Texas’ urban counties legislative strategy next year, Rodriguez sat down with the San Antonio Report to explain why county governments across the state are becoming more of a political battleground.
Unlike home-rule cities, which have viewed themselves as a backstop against policies promoted by the state’s Republican leaders, Rodriguez said counties traditionally haven’t had that reputation because they were created by the state to manage state functions like the justice system, elections and infrastructure.
“Generally, we are arms of the state, and so our duties are essentially defined by that,” Rodriguez said in a Jan. 12 interview. “[But] when we think of the front-porch issues that keep people up at night, it’s safety, it’s transportation. Those are the things that I think are driving … a bigger spotlight on counties.”
Population growth is booming outside of the land-locked urban core, both in San Antonio and elsewhere he said —making county law enforcement and emergency response more critical.
Meanwhile, a global pandemic put county leadership in a new light for many people, and led to an influx of one-time federal money that allowed counties to innovate in their approach on issues they wouldn’t have had money for in the past.
For example, Harris County Judge Lina Hildalgo, a young progressive who defeated a longtime Republican incumbent for the job in 2018, created a guaranteed income program for vulnerable residents, which was quickly challenged by the state. She also tried to pursue an early child care initiative that was shut down by colleagues due to the tax increase it would require to pay for it.
Now Hidalgo is stepping down, and Texas GOP leaders are preparing to pour money into an expensive race to replace her in 2026.
“What makes it challenging is that there are responsibilities we have as a county … we are tasked with making sure the community is safe, the courts are operating, but we don’t get any real significant funding from the state for that,” Rodriguez said. “… that’s where we have to put our heads together [as Texas counties] and think about, how do we work smarter and more efficiently?”
Such dynamics are at now at the heart of a Bexar County judge race where local voters are being asked to choose between a Sakai, a longtime district court judge who believes Bexar County has for too long neglected its core responsibilities, and Nirenberg, an ambitious challenger who says the county could be taking on so much more.
“I think the answer is probably somewhere in the middle,” said Rodriguez, who gave up a seat in the Texas Legislature for his current role, when then-County Judge Nelson Wolff appointed him to replace the late Precinct 2 Commissioner Paul Elizondo in 2019.
“We’ve got core responsibilities, and I think we need to be the best at those … But I think where we can, we also need to be partners in economic development.”
Rodriguez sat down with the Report to talk about how Texas counties are changing and innovating, their challenging relationship with state GOP leaders, and his new role as chair-elect of the Texas Conference of Urban Counties.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When we think about the big conflicts between a Republican-controlled state and its big blue urban centers, it’s usually more about the cities than the counties, but that seems to be changing some in recent years. Can you explain the dynamics here?
Unlike a city that has home rule or they can set up their own ordinances, we don’t have that kind of ability. We have to essentially enforce the laws. We have to abide by what the legislature has given us in terms of any authority. As an example, we don’t have land use authority. So whereas the city has zoning within the city limits, we don’t have that same kind of authority at the county level.
What makes it challenging is that there are responsibilities we have as a county — the administration of justice is probably the main one — we are tasked with making sure the community is safe, the courts are operating, but we don’t get any real significant funding from the state for that.
One example is this last budget, when it came to flood control, we were proactive in working with the [San Antonio River Authority] to set up a NextGen warning system. We’ve not been notified that we’re getting any state funding for that at all.
The Texas Conference of Urban Counties is a way for us to get together collectively and think through, No. 1, how do we learn from each other and figure out what the other urban counties are doing? But also, how do we [approach] the next legislative session so that we can prioritize our asks, whether it be for funding or for more authority.
I’ll be chair-elect in 2026 and then I’ll be the chair in 2027, which is kind of critical, because that’s when the next legislative session is, so they’re going to put me in the hot seat for that.
Where are counties innovating that it might be replicated here?
I think the overlap I see significantly is in behavioral health. I can tell you that when we looked at part of those dollars that were coming in from the federal government, the [Specialized Multidisciplinary Alternate Response Team (SMART) initiative that we began a few years ago … I don’t think we were necessarily trailblazers in that, I think there are other smaller communities that were doing that as well, in terms of addressing how law enforcement reacts to a crisis. Does it have to be someone in a uniform with a gun? Can it be someone that is more trained in examining whether or not there’s a mental health crisis as opposed to a public safety crisis?
That is an area where I’ve seen more collaboration, not just within [the conference of urban counties], but intergovernmentally, like cities and counties figuring out, how do we beef up our diversion program so that folks are getting the help they need, and they’re not just being locked up in the jail for 90 to 120 days.
Those are the things that we’re focusing on from Bexar County’s perspective, particularly now that our jail population has skyrocketed, and we know that there are folks sitting in there who, their main issue is either mental health or substance abuse. There’s going to be a huge focus on that going into the next legislative session, because we don’t receive a lot of funding for that … we all hope there’s relief around the corner, but we don’t have any indication it’s coming.
Is it the state’s perspective that counties shouldn’t be taking on these projects in the first place?
I think that they know these are issues that have to be addressed, I just think that their priority is not necessarily coming up with the funding for it. We’ve seen the state even try to limit how counties and local communities can raise revenues, and they want to put caps on how we can do that.
Part of you know the issue is, from the state’s perspective — having been there — there is a viewpoint that it’s one-size-fits-all when it comes to counties.
In some cases, it maybe makes a lot more sense for a rural county to be at the forefront of public health, where you don’t have a large city like we do.
From an urban county’s viewpoint, I think it’s more incumbent upon us to be collaborators and make sure we’re covering — whether it’s on housing assistance or public health — the unincorporated areas first, because the city’s Metro Health is covering significant parts of the city limits.
The state doesn’t really view [it that way]. They just say, ‘Here is the formula. You guys figure it out.’ And I think that hurts from a policy making perspective.
Large Texas counties have seen an influx of more partisan, early-career candidates vying for top leadership roles. For example Lina Hidalgo unseating a seasoned Republican incumbent for the Harris County Judge role in 2018, and former Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Tim O’Hare replacing longtime County Judge Jason Whitley when the latter retired in 2022. Why do you think this role is becoming more of a political launchpad?
It’s a good question … In general, particularly with the urban counties, that’s where the growth is. We’ve seen it here. To a certain degree, the City of San Antonio is becoming landlocked, and so the growth is happening in the unincorporated areas. That’s happening all over, in Dallas County and Harris County. So I just think maybe there’s a little bit more of a spotlight on counties because of that growth.
In the seven years I’ve been here, the number of calls we get from constituents in unincorporated areas has grown, just because that’s where the rooftops are going up. When there’s more density, it’s harder for folks to move around, and so the planning for some of the infrastructure is behind, and we can’t catch up.
That growth plays a big role in a largely property-tax driven budget, as we saw last fall, when the county was still collecting more revenue than the year before, but the city was at a deficit. Does that mean the county can afford to keep going on the projects it started with pandemic relief dollars, like creating its own public health department, integrating mental health programs into school and law enforcement response systems?
I think we would be the first to acknowledge that there’s growth, but it’s not as steady growth as it has been over the past few years … We’ve got the [federal pandemic relief] dollars that are coming off the books soon, and we’ve got ARPA programs — SMART is one of them, mental health for our youth — that we’ve got to figure out how we sustain because they’re making an impact, from our perspective.
I don’t think it’s going to be like a day of reckoning. We have to be measured in preparing for that. We’ve asked staff to take a hard look at some of these programs to give us an idea of the efficacy, the impact. Certainly there’s going to be tough choices involved, and I think we all realize that there are probably going to be some disagreements on those priorities.
But, we also knew that going in, right? At the time, you’re just thinking about responding to a crisis. That’s what we all did with the information we had at the time, try to address what we believed were the biggest issues.
There’ll come a time where we’ll have to figure out things like, maybe we lean on our partners like University Health for a little bit more on the public health piece. I know folks don’t want to hear this, but do we have to look at potentially increasing the property tax rate? Not just us, but University Health.
I’m not saying that’s going to happen in this next cycle or the one after, but at some point, you’re in a community that is over 2.1 million in population and growing at a steady clip. How can we continue to live within our means, but also prepare for that growth?
This evolving view of a county’s role seems to loom large in the Bexar County judge race right now. Judge Peter Sakai had a long career as a judge and campaigned on a platform of making the county better at its core responsibilities. Then you have former Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is running against him in the Democratic primary, saying the county could do so much more. Who is right?
We’ve got to figure out making sure we take care of those core functions first, and those aren’t easy. I lose track of how many different elected officials that we have now hold the purse strings for, either their courtroom or their department, their office. Those are constituents as well, and I think we rely on them to tell us what they need.
Where we can, I think we also need to be partners in economic development, like we have been, whether it was the [Missions’ Minor League Baseball] development or what we did this fall for the Spurs’ [new downtown basketball] arena.
I’ve never subscribed to the kind of “stay in your lane” perspective. We have a responsibility to step up and respond to our constituents’ needs. I think that we can be good at those core competencies, but also make sure we’re being visionary, and that we’re being a part of solutions for improving the quality of life here in Bexar County.
You passed on the open judge race in 2022 when Wolff retired. Now you’re sitting on close to $1 million in your campaign account, and running for another four-year term. What should we make of that?
I think [then-Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff] made it pretty clear he wanted me to do it [in 2022] … it just didn’t seem like it was the perfect time. I wanted to give this job a few more years, and I’ve always believed you do it in your own time.
I am gearing up for reelection at this point. I’ve always been pretty consistent about raising money. We’ll run a campaign like we need to to stay in office this year and then look at things after that, we’ll see. I never look past the next election.
It’s a great job. I’ve had the honor of serving now at four different levels of government [SAISD school board, San Antonio City Council, the Texas House and county commissioner]. To me, this one is like a hybrid of all of them, where you can really work on things that are so important to your community.
I just penned an op-ed on some of the health disparities in 78207, which is a Pct. 2 ZIP code that is one of the poorest in the state, maybe even the country, when it comes to health disparities, economic disparities. I often think about … how we can continue to invest, whether it’s infrastructure or public safety or opportunity, so that it advances the ball for those kinds of constituents, for those people who I think are some of the neediest in our community. I think that’s what inspires me.
