The last big hurdle in the administrative realignment of the Texas Youth Commission has been overcome in the debate over Senate Bill 103.
A deal was struck in conference committee between bill author Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and House Corrections Committee Chair Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, when they came up with something like a compromise. For the next two years, TYC will be run by an executive commissioner, appointed by the governor and confirmed by Senate. They’ll be backed by a nine-person advisory board – three members each appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker. After Sept. 1, 2009, the seven-person citizen’s board takes over again and appoints a new executive director.
This represents a middle path between the two. Hinojosa publicly criticized the board as unresponsive and wanted a single figure who was readily accountable for problems in TYC (accountable to Senate, that is). He wanted the executive commissioner to be a permanent position with the post-holder and their new advisory board to be reconfirmed by Senate – or fired – every two years. The theory was that a commissioner could move faster and reform quicker than a board that could suffer from infighting. Hochberg, on the other hand, wanted to ensure that there was still public oversight of the state’s imprisoned children and had always opposed a commissionership.
Yet the deal seems predicated on the idea that the commissioner can fix the agency in two years – optimistic since, after the Morales scandal of the 1970s, TYC admits it took them 17 years to complete the reform process.
However, TYC comes up for Sunset Commission review before then, and Hinojosa is pushing to get on the review board, to make sure that the structural changes made this session have some real impact. If the executive commissioner proves to be effective, it’s not impossible that the powerful Sunset report could recommend the continuation of the post – as it’s rare for the Lege to completely disregard its recommendations.
This article appears in May 18 • 2007.
