ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF DAVID JENNINGS’S BIG JOLLY POLITICS BLOG INTERVIEW OF CHRIS DANIEL.

AUDIO AVAILABLE ONLINE AT

http://www.bigjolly.com/images/stories/audio/chris-daniel-09302010.mp3 David Jennings: My name is David Jennings with Big Jolly Politics. We’re here

today with Chris Daniel, the Republican nominee for Harris County Clerk, as part of our continuing coverage of the 2010 general election. How are you, Chris?

Chris Daniel: I’m doing fine today. David Jennings: Doing fine today, huh? Chris Daniel: Not too bad. David Jennings: Let me ask you something. Why, why did you decide to run? Chris Daniel: In investigating the needs and wants of the legal community as I

was going to night school for South Texas College of Law, it became apparent that the current incumbent was basically making a mess of the good works and the infrastructure that was in place for the last 16 years.

David Jennings: Really? Chris Daniel: And so, it – I found it a duty more than anything else that I need to

get in there and make sure that we put structure back into this county office.

David Jennings: And this is as you were going to law school? Chris Daniel: As I was going to night school working full time, work, working

full time as an engineer for what is now National Oilwell Varco. David Jennings: National Oil Arko? Chris Daniel: National Oilwell Varco.

David Jennings: Varco – okay. What’d you do there? Chris Daniel: I designed drill bits, drill pipe, tubing casing, managed research

projects, managed production projects, and managed basically streamlining production flows. And what I mean by that, to give you some detail, is if a project would take X number of weeks and it would require X number of staff, we found ways of cutting costs and efficiency so that we could make it the, the fastest possible at the best quality at the lowest cost.

David Jennings: And while you were working full time – Chris Daniel: Yes. David Jennings: – did you go to law school? How did all that work? Chris Daniel: I went to night school about three days a week at South Texas

College of Law for three and a half years and was also elected to the Board of Trustees in 2006 for Lone Star College System and would perform my duties for that board as well. And I, I joke that the only way I got done with all that is that I didn’t have any kids.

David Jennings: Yeah, ****. You were a, a busy guy. I can, I can attest to that.

Well, let me ask you something. What, what were your duties at Lone Star College because one of the criticisms of, of you is that you have no experience in government.

Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: And so, what, what were your, what are your current

experiences, I guess, and, and can, can you kind of relate how that would, would lead into public service as a district clerk?

Chris Daniel: Sure. The Board of Trustees is basically the – is the equivalent of

a board for a Fortune 500 company. We manage a budget of over $252 million. We have over 5,000 employees. We have seven major campuses, eight satellites with more on the way, and two university centers. And so, while we don’t get paid a dime to be on the board, the purpose of the board member is to serve in a

similar function of being behind the scenes of the chancellor who is the de facto CEO and the presidents which would be the division heads of the various campuses. And so, we set the policy, we set the direction, and we set the budget for the entire system.

David Jennings: So, do you have a full vote in that or, or how, how does that

work **** – Chris Daniel: We are all large and so we have a full vote. So, I don’t just vote

for CyFair. I vote for the entire system. David Jennings: And how big is that budget? Chris Daniel: That budget is currently $252 million and growing. David Jennings: Out of curiosity, how big is the District Clerk budget? Chris Daniel: The District Clerk’s budget, last time I checked, was about $30

million. David Jennings: Okay, so you’re going to, to working full time, you’re going to

law school, you’re seeing that there’s some, some, some things that you’re not liking about the way the, the incumbent that was elected in 2008 –

Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: – you’re not liking about the, the way progress is being made.

Can you explain some of that? Chris Daniel: Let me give you some examples. As online filing has come to

fruition under the current clerk, you have necessary holes in the system. For example, if you have an expunged record, that record should be off the books, off the system because it is necessarily expunged, yet everything in that document is still online, on the system for the District Clerk’s office. If you are in a family law case and you have a child who is a minor, their information necessarily must be protected and yet that information can be found online at the District Clerk’s office, opening the door to child predators. If you have an old case at the District Clerk’s

office where your Social Security number, your banking accounts, your address, anything a thief might need to steal your identity – that is available today online at the District Clerk’s office.

David Jennings: Okay, now, we, we met probably what, a year and a half ago

now, something like that? Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: It was a, a rough primary. Is this what you talked about during

the primary, this, this sort of online system that, I guess, at, at your computer terminal certain information is blocked, but if you want that, you can go downtown, you know – explain that.

Chris Daniel: We have fleshed this idea out since the primary, but this was one

of the primary reasons why I began running, and during the primary we mostly talked about parking issues. Now, while Commissioners Court is responsible for infrastructure and so forth, the District Clerk may raise the issue so that they can address it. Otherwise, the Commissioners Court led by County Judge Ed Emmet won’t be aware of a problem unless the other elected officials that are part of county government raise the problem. And so, I am aware that there are numerous complaints with people trying to serve jury duty – that they drive all the way downtown, they pay an exorbitant fee for parking – once they’ve found their way, because most people don’t drive downtown – and once they’ve made their way from Katy, from Spring, from Kingwood, from CyFair, from Pasadena, from Alief, to downtown, they’re sitting in a cattle call room called the jury assembly room, only to be told roughly around noon, hey, guess what? We didn’t need you. Go home.

David Jennings: Well, isn’t that a traditional thing though? I mean, that’s been

happening – I mean, I’m a little bit older than you, but that – Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: – happened even in my time.

David Jennings: But we could use engineering analysis to address that so that we can streamline how many people we’re calling because right now, because too few people show up for jury duty, they basically send out about 10,000 notices and for every 10,000 notices, they get 400 back. And there is necessarily a problem if you have to send out 10,000 notices and 400 show up and you don’t even need the full 400. Not even close.

David Jennings: So, countywide – okay, so, so how could the District Clerk

exactly address that? You’re talking about engineering study. Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: How, how would you do that? Chris Daniel: Well, we could use statistical analysis to see how many people

would typically be needed on any given day for a docket size. And so, if we know that the docket has X number of cases that we were statistically going to need X number of people to show up and, therefore, we only need to send out X number of notices and not just a standard every day we’re going to send 10,000 notices and every day we’re going to get 400 people to show up.

David Jennings: Well, when are those dockets set? Chris Daniel: Those dockets are set by the judge and it varies. It doesn’t –

they’re not all set at the same time, okay, because the judge is individually in charge of their court.

David Jennings: So, how could you do a flexible system like that? Chris Daniel: Well, as they set their docket, because that’s now online, we can

immediately measure as the, as that gets input. David Jennings: And how much time would that take to notify the citizen and –

you see what I’m saying? What’s the timing of all of that? Chris Daniel: Well, thanks – David Jennings: Is there going to be enough time to, to actually do that?

Chris Daniel: I think there will and the reason is is that, without going into too

much detail, because remember, I’m not the District Clerk yet. I think that using technology today, using predictive analysis, using some of the technology that you – that I studied way back in 2000 at the University of Texas in just a few of the electrical engineering classes I took, we can easily implement a algorithm that would allow us to immediately take that data and immediately come up with a result and then immediately go to an auto dial or an auto email or an auto text and when it’s available to that citizen, say, guess what? We don’t need you. We thank you for being a citizen. We don’t want to waste your time. Don’t come all the way downtown for nothing.

David Jennings: You see something like that being implemented. What, what is

the term of your office that you’re seeking? Chris Daniel: Four years. David Jennings: Four year term. You see in, in four years being able to get

something, something like that done? Chris Daniel: I would like to. Now, to make that a campaign promise, I would

have to make sure that we would have the budget and that we would have to – that we had the IT staff available. I’m aware that we are in a recession right now and I’m aware that county government is trying to put the squeeze on every office so that they can survive this recession. Even Jerry Eversole’s talking about a tax hike, apparently, according to the Chronicle, but if we have the budget, if we have the staff, I think we can do it in four years or less.

David Jennings: Let, let’s go back to that online information real quick. I, I

looked back in my notes and in a Northwest Memorial forum, you did mention an online record system.

Chris Daniel: Yeah. David Jennings: But you’re saying now that you’ve matured that idea or?

Chris Daniel: We were talking back then that we needed to address combining online filing systems for the, for streamlining the various ways that you can file a document, whether it’s federal with PACER, whether it’s local with ProDoc, or E-Filing, or whether it’s with the county clerk’s office. And we want to make sure that we can basically come up with a one-stop shop filing so that it’s not only easier on the attorneys, easier on the judges, but lowers the cost for the average citizen that’s using an attorney, because if you have a case that’s a federal case and you have a portion of it that either gets removed or dismissed, you want to make sure that you can send those documents to the right place as quickly as possible without having to refile and reimage and redo whatever with the same document in three different places.

David Jennings: Okay, I get it now. Chris Daniel: So, we expanded that to now include the issue because this

intimately concerns the incumbent of protecting you from identity theft, protecting children from child predators, and overall just making sure that we have security in place so that as we move further and further online, that you, the citizen, are being protected.

David Jennings: Okay, I, I read in a Chronicle article, I think it was last week by

Chris Moran – Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: – and it seemed to be mocking that idea saying that he had a

quote from the incumbent, Loren Jackson, saying that it would be illegal to do that.

Chris Daniel: Now, what Loren was referring to is redacting the physical

documents. And I am a fan of Chris Moran, but at – he unfortunately misquoted me at – on that and he did submit an extra clarificational **** district court’s race online, but it was already printed and what I had said to him repeatedly is that we’re not redacting the physical documents, which is correct. It is illegal to redact the physical documents, but that we were going to have an online redaction system kind of like if you go onto Google onto certain documents it will automatically put in a black field over

certain areas, even though if you were to get that physical document from the Library of Congress or from wherever the source is, it would be unredacted.

David Jennings: I didn’t even know that technology existed, to be honest with

you. How’d you find out about it? Chris Daniel: Well, as an engineer, we have gone through numerous websites

and numerous sources of information to find what was available, what is the state of the art.

David Jennings: The state of the art. Chris Daniel: Yeah. David Jennings: Let me ask you something. You, you went through a very, very

tough primary – Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: – and now we’re hearing some of the same type of arguments

against you from, from the, the Democrat in this race, through surrogates, of course.

Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: Yeah, I just have to ask you, how, how do you, as a candidate

for office, this is a personal thing. How do you put up with all that on a day-to-day basis?

Chris Daniel: I respond by basically looking at two factors. One, if the

incumbent himself is not personally attacking me, but his surrogates are, why is the incumbent allowing that to happen? Why is the incumbent not making a statement that look, hey, they don’t talk for me. I, I don’t stand for these lies, these slanderous items, these misinformations. I look at that as a, as a question of character, but without going on the personal attack, I basically look at it as look, if they’re going to attack me on these issues, which are clearly false, or clearly misstated, therefore, they must be scared. If he’s doing such a good job, if the staff of his are such

wonderful folks that are doing the attacks for him, why are they doing these attacks? Why is that necessary? If you are doing such a good job, why is it necessary to even go down that road? And I, I remember that and I just keep that to heart because that allows me to persevere because then I know that I’m winning. Then I know I’ve got him on the ropes.

David Jennings: So, one of the reasons I ask you that question is that I criticized

you pretty hard – Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: – early in the primary because of the way the primary system

worked – Chris Daniel: Yeah. David Jennings: And, and actually your answer was, well, that’s the way it

works. I’ll never forget that. So, I actually thought that was pretty good. I mean, you have to play on the field you’re given.

Chris Daniel: Yup. So, so, but I, I try not to take it personal. I’ll give you an

anecdote. At the moment, my incumbent’s wife is in the hospital and I try not to, to play anything that would lead to a personal attack to him because she has to listen to it, too. His daughter may one day have to, to look back on all this as well and that personalizes it and then I realize that while we are in a rough and tumble Texas politics, we can rise above that and make sure that we’re not getting too personal. And up to maybe two weeks ago, my opponent and I had been very friendly and had not really gotten into any fisticuffs politically.

David Jennings: Let me ask you about, about another thing that, that sort of hits

you in the primary and I see that the surrogates are pulling that out again for the general. The charge that you are a Scientologist. Now, we talked about this back in I, I think maybe January, end of January, February.

Chris Daniel: Sure.

David Jennings: And, and you related to me the story of, of the, the entire background of that and I just thought it was a beautiful story about how a person comes to know Christ and gets back to their faith. Would you like to share that with us?

Chris Daniel: Absolutely. Look, when my dad was killed by a drunk driver, my

mother who, who you need to know is – she’s from, from Holland. She’s actually from the island of Curacao. She’s from Holland and she’s new to this country. She’s been here for about 28 years and she had no family. No real connections here in the United States other than the family friends that she and my dad had made prior to his passing. And she didn’t really have a way of overcoming grief, the loss of somebody maliciously killing my dad by taking a legal left-hand turn while driving drunk. And so, whatever she did to rise above that, I will never fault her on that because she raised two beautiful kids and she survived 15 years later making sure that she held it all together.

And on my own, through the Boy Scouts, and then also through the, through my local church and through the, the University of Texas Baptist Student Organization and then later on back here in just local Bible study classes and Second Baptist Church, I’ve come to know the Lord. And I think it’s a personal decision that everybody makes on their own. And that it has to be personal because you can grow up in anything all you want, but at the end of the day, your own decision is what makes it real.

David Jennings: Oh, I agree with you. And you know from my writing that, you

know, I just don’t like faith that’s expedient, and, and, and, and, and coming that way to, to, to know the faith that I have enjoyed. I fully understand it and it’s just remarkable when I think about it that, that people are attacking you for a few courses you took and, and for searching for yourself and, and for looking and finding that, that light, that, that, that is just – that, that shines through you. If anybody knows you – I’ve seen you, I’ve been – how many times have I been around you? A hundred?

Chris Daniel: Or more. David Jennings: I mean, you’re a busy dude.

Chris Daniel: ****. David Jennings: You know. Yeah, it’s, it’s just – I was just amazed that they

would attack you for that. Chris Daniel: It’s even amazing – more amazing that the surrogates of the

incumbent who are Democrats are choosing that path to attack, because the Democrats are supposed to be the Big Ten. They’re supposed to include everybody. Now, what are they going to say to their Jewish friends and their African-American friends when they’re going to attack somebody on religion in such a manner as to not only be considered bigotry, but to almost be considered exclusionary much in the same way that the African-American has been excluded from many areas of, of life and politics simply because of the way that they were born.

David Jennings: Yeah, it, it’s just an amazing thing when you think about it. So,

what, what is, what do you do? You’re a young guy. You have hobbies, anything like that?

Chris Daniel: Sure. I, I – David Jennings: In other words, who is Chris Daniel and why would I, as a

suburban voter, put you in an elected position? Chris Daniel: Well, I’m a native Houstonian. I grew up just north of Acre

Homes – Acres Homes off of 249 and Fallbrook and back then Fallbrook did not go all the way through behind the race track as it did today. I grew up enjoying Scouts. So, I still like camping. I still like travelling a lot. And the reason why folks really want to know me is that I have an engineering viewpoint, a graduate – a law graduate viewpoint, and an Eagle Scout viewpoint.

See, when my dad was killed, the community stepped up and the community made sure that my family was taken care of. I give the example of how Jerry Eversole’s office came unannounced with his crew to make sure the lawn was mowed and that we had food for the next three weeks and that anything that needed to be fixed around the house was fixed. He was probably one of the first

responder’s on the scene and had seen what had happened and made sure – we didn’t know who he was – that she was taken care of, that we were taken care of. And that put into me the idea of service, the idea that I need to give back to the community.

So, that’s why I run for office and I do thankless jobs on Lone Star College and other non-profit organizations to make sure that I’m giving back because it’s not about status or glory or anything else. I – everybody knows I don’t get paid a dime for Lone Star.

David Jennings: I bet you’re glad you brought that up because that’s another

criticism that oh, man, you’re just using these as stepping stones, you know. Is it stepping stones or is that, that inner desire that you have to be a public servant?

Chris Daniel: It’s an inner desire to serve others, to give back and I, I have a debt

to pay to Harris County that I don’t think will be paid for the rest of this life because of what people have done and what the City of Jersey Village did for me when my mother’s house was flooded for the first time and we lost everything we owned without flood insurance. They made sure that I had the materials and the, the tools I needed to finish my Eagle Scout project which had been approved the night our house flooded. They made sure that I was – had what I needed to succeed. Teachers that went out of their way knowing that I was waiting until 6:00 at night for various transportations to make sure that I had that extra tutoring or that extra tools I needed to make straight A’s to graduate on time, if not early, from high school, and, and so forth. They – the community – really made sure that I had to, to give back to them.

David Jennings: Okay. Let’s get back to the actual office of District Clerk. Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: Again, one of the criticisms is that you have no experience, but

obviously from what I’m hearing, you really do and that story just hasn’t gotten out there. Let, let’s think about, about this. Let’s say you do happen to get elected and, and you look back 10 years from now at your one or two terms, whatever it is in office. What

would, what do you want people to remember your administration by?

Chris Daniel: I want them to remember the administration by not having to focus

on it, believe it or not, because I want to be as behind the scenes as possible that the service is so smooth, the staff are so cordial, jury duty is as least painful as possible, that they don’t really think about it. It’s not to have my name plastered all over the place and that they remember that my name was plastered all over the place, but that the service was so good they didn’t think about it.

David Jennings: Let me ask you about that service. Your, your opponent, the

incumbent, has a very good PR machine. Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: Roughly about three months after he was in office, in 2008, you

know, he took a, an unexpired term, so he immediately took office. Roughly three months there was a, a giant puff piece about him that appeared in the – one of the journals, and, and it talked about a first day on the job he took a Sharpie and put a sign in the window that said Lawyers Only. Let me ask you something. Does that sound like he’s trying to put lawyers above people, voters?

Chris Daniel: What it really sounds like is that he understands one aspect of that

office, but to the detriment of the average citizen who is not an attorney. And I’ll give you an example. There are certain courts right now that are online filing only. Now, if you are poor, if you are an illegal immigrant trying to get legal status, if you are somebody who has to either rely on pro bono legal service or a court-ordered attorney, you have almost no access to the courts. You have been shut off from the courts. And for him to take this attitude Lawyers Only, really does close the office to the rest of Harris County.

David Jennings: Well, I’ll tell you what. He – it’s done a good job because the

lawyers love the guy. The, the Democratic lawyers, I guess, and even some Republican lawyers. Hey, I’ve had a couple Republican judges actively campaigning for the guy in silent, you know. So, that, that – the entire thing to me of a government

official putting one class of people above another, in this case, a paid class above a, an ordinary citizen, just strikes me as odd.

Chris Daniel: It is odd, but you have to look at also who he’s catering to. He’s

catering mostly to civil judges, civil attorneys. If you talk to a criminal judge, if you talk to a family law judge, or family law attorney and so forth, they are furious. There are certain judges who will remain nameless, who have files in their office solely because they’re afraid to send them to imaging because they know that if they send it to imaging, it will be online and it will ruin whoever’s file that is reputation. And these are folks that have since had their lives repaired, they’ve moved on, and they’re living normal lives. And yet if that file gets put online, it ruins their life.

David Jennings: Is this online filing that you’re talking about here, that

specifically the family court documents with, with private children’s information, is that a project that Charles Bacarisse or Theresa Chang had in process or is this something that Loren has done on his own?

Chris Daniel: The entire online filing process, to my knowledge, existed well

before the incumbent filed for office. And to my knowledge, it could not physically have launched the way that it did within the first nine months of him taking office without first it being approved by Commissioners Court, without some plan being in place well in advance. And I, I am told by several current and former district clerks that, that they had either submitted the ideas or requested approval for these ideas as long ago as four years ago.

David Jennings: Could it be that it was rolled out too fast as he came in and

that’s why the – no one bothered to, to think about this confidential information?

Chris Daniel: It is a symptom of something being released too early and we see

that with Microsoft Windows. We see that with various software iterations and computer, computerized devices including the iPhone, which I have right here.

David Jennings: Well, you know, I’ve taken up a lot of your time and, and we’re sitting in an airport which explains all this. This is my first time to do it.

Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: You’re, you’re the guinea pig because I, I like – again, I saw

you were so resilient and, and that you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t automatically hit me, basically. Let me just ask you –

Chris Daniel: Sure. David Jennings: What do you want to tell the voters of Harris County to assure

them that, that all of these, these, these, these, these rumors, the lies, the distortions, and, and to assure them that if you are elected, the world really will not end and, and, and that some of the things that you’re talking about will actually improve it and, and that it – your opponent was elected in a storm of straight Democratic tickets and that if you are elected in this storm of Republican straight tickets, that everyone’s going to be okay and the district court is going to run and, and people are not going to see a reduction of service.

Chris Daniel: I will tell you a story. When I was first elected to Lone Star

College System, they all thought that Hell was, was breaking loose on that board and since then, we’ve become the second largest community college system in Texas, graduating more students than any other community college in Texas and transferring to more higher education institutions than any other institution in Texas, including Hartford, Stanford, Princeton, and Yale, etc. UT and *** U of H, not to leave out the local schools, and that happened under my watch. We went from, we went from a middle of the road community college to being number two in Texas.

Now, as one board member, I don’t influence all decisions, but I could have screwed it up as well. And so, the point I’m making to the citizens is I have a proven record of doing the right thing to make sure that it is what is best for all concerned. Not just Republicans, not just the poor, not just some isolated group of interests, but everybody. And so, as the Eagle Scout, as the

engineer, as the law grad, as the business owner, I am aware of what’s needed and wanted for both the legal community and the average citizen. We are not going to cut down services. We’re not going to drastically change course on what the judges and attorneys have come to know and expect, but at the same time we’re going to make sure that we’re not leaving the citizens behind as well.

David Jennings: One of the things – I thought that was going to be my last

question, but one of the things that your answer reminded me of is during the primary I’ve talked with – obviously in a primary, you had the same kind of thing, so I’m going to rely on that a lot. One of the things that came, came through during the primary was – and I talked to numerous other officials because I – we all know it was a pretty dirty, nasty primary.

Chris Daniel: Yeah. David Jennings: Okay, one of the things that we learned through the primary

process in talking with some of the elected officials that you work with through the Lone Star expansions actually – people like Senator Dan Patrick, Representative Debbie Reynolds, those types – is that they, they – to a person, they said that you worked well with them. I don’t even know what that means other than they were very positive about it and they said that you were a guy that could help them get things done in that particular setting. Tell me about that.

Chris Daniel: Well, having worked for Gary Elkins in college part-time as a

staffer, I understood the legislative process. I understood what was needed and wanted by both a state senator and a state representative, and that’s why even Attorney General Greg Abbott, I’m proud to announce, has for the first time, has endorsed in my race for Harris County District Clerk exclusively and not just supporting all the Republican ticket. And that is because they understand that I, I know what’s needed and wanted and expected of a fellow elected official. I’m not out there with an agenda to throw all caution to the wind or to go to the far right, to the far left. I’m there to get results done. And that comes through as an engineer. We try to get results. We’re not trying to, to have a hill

to die upon, to quote Paul Pressler, on one single issue. We’re trying to make sure that we get results for everybody.

David Jennings: Excellent. Okay, Chris. One other question I had about the, the

Lone Star College, your position there, there’s been some criticism of you because I guess you missed a lot of meetings last year as you were running for the primary or something, but, but I know in Chris Moran’s article it was there.

Chris Daniel: Let me, let me clarify. What Chris Moran wrote was my

attendance record was worse before the primary started and that was because I was taking 17 hours in my final semester at law school trying to wrap it up early so that I could focus 100% on both Lone Star College and running the primary and perhaps preparing for the bar exam.

David Jennings: I remember you had to drop out of the bar exam. I remember I

was there that day and you were all sad, but you just, you just didn’t think you could do both and, and, and –

Chris Daniel: **** I couldn’t be 100% prepared and I didn’t want to give my

opponent any chance to criticize me for failing an exam which I know I could pass.

David Jennings: I will vouch for you that you were busting your tail during that

period. So, so we can get beyond that, but one of the – on, on the board meeting things, you know, it wasn’t only that you missed it, I guess, somewhere along the line there was a comment made that all the important business was done before the meeting anyway. Can you clarify?

Chris Daniel: Sure. I said that the meetings were practically ceremonial and

what I meant by that is that you get the board agenda a week in advance and all the questions and concerns that you have about each agenda item. You have to address the staff, the chancellor, the various presidents, whoever it affects beforehand and that is why I made that comment because I did most of my board work before the board meeting of finding out well, what is this agenda item, why do we need to spend X number of dollars on it, and who does it impact? We didn’t necessarily talk to any other board

members. No – the majority of the work was done with staff, with the chancellors, and the presidents and that –

David Jennings: Did you ever miss a vote on raising taxes or a critical

expenditure or what, what, what did you miss? Chris Daniel: I missed mostly, to my knowledge, meetings that didn’t really

matter to the voter because it wasn’t that we were at the meetings I missed that we were voting on spending a large amount of money, that we were voting on tax increases or tax decreases or that we were voting on budgets. I made the important meetings that mattered to the voters that elected me to office. And at the majority of the time that I missed a meeting, I still made the effort to find out what was needed and wanted on certain agenda items so that nothing snuck through even if I wasn’t there. And if there was a concern, we had that removed off the agenda before it would even get to the board meeting so I wouldn’t have to be there to vote against it because there is a concern with that item.

David Jennings: So, no open meeting violation – Chris Daniel: No open meeting violations. We’re not, we’re not taking that act

and turning it into toilet paper. We are making sure that everything that we need to address is addressed in open meetings and the legwork is done behind the scenes to make sure that we have the dollar figures correctly and that the agenda item is appropriate. Then the concerns and questions that we have about that once it’s set, we do that in open meetings.

David Jennings: Okay. Anything else you want to tell the voters? Chris Daniel: I just want to thank them for their vote in the primary if they voted

for me, and I, I truly hope they vote for me in the November election. And when I win, they can be rest assured that regardless of what side of the aisle they are on or where they’re from or who they are, we’re going to make sure that they are properly served by the Harris County District Clerk’s office.

David Jennings: All right. Thanks, Chris.

Chris Daniel: Thanks, Dave. Transcription by www.idictate.com