Muddy waters: Dunnam, top TYC critic, may sue agency

By Matt Pulle | Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Only in Texas state government can you spin a conflict of interest as a tale of personal oppression.

Jim Dunnam, the charismatic and brash state rep from Waco, serves as a member of the House Corrections Committee, where he has become one of the fiercest and loudest critics of the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission. More quietly, though, the House Democratic leader, who is also a lawyer, is representing a woman who may sue the agency.

That could set up the rare spectacle of a state legislator litigating a state agency that he directly regulates.

But Dunnam doesn’t see that as a problem. In fact, he blames the TYC for leaking his lawsuit letter, wondering out loud if someone there is trying to send him a message.

“Obviously TYC is trying to feed this story, and it’s an outrage,” he tells Texas Watchdog. “It tells me they are engaging in political actions, and they’re probably trying to stir up stuff, in that I aggressively went after them on the sexual abuse allegations at TYC. This is their feeble attempt at payback; it’s pretty pathetic.”

In fact, if TYC did shop around Dunnam’s complaint letter, no one there ever gave it to us.

Choppy waters run deep

Dunnam’s case against TYC isn’t exactly made for television. His client, Janet Bridgewater, alleges that a construction project at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility has diverted rainwater into her home, causing repeated flooding and more than $6,000 worth of damages. On Aug. 26, Dunnam wrote a letter to top-ranking TYC officials, giving them notice of a formal claim. That’s a precursor to filing a lawsuit against a public agency.

“It is my understanding that TYC has had knowledge of this information for some time and has previously told Miss Bridgewater that it would pay for the repairs,” he writes. “Although the state has actual and subjective knowledge of my client’s claim already, I want to send this formal letter and demand.”

If you’re asking if you can sue a branch of state government that you directly regulate, well, the answer is yes. The Texas Ethics Commission bans lawmakers who double as attorneys from representing clients in state administrative hearings — but does not prohibit them from taking public agencies to court. In a way, such a restriction would be too broad. It would be almost impossible for a state rep or senator from practicing law if they weren’t allowed to represent clients with claims against, say, the local police or codes department.

But Dunnam’s case is a bit dicier. Observers say that it’s almost unheard-of for a state lawmaker in Texas to file a claim or lawsuit against a state agency, not to mention one that he helps regulate. As a member of the House Committee on Corrections, Dunnam plays a key role in the oversight of the Texas Youth Commission, which has been overhauled by state lawmakers over the last 18 months.

Dunnam and the TYC

In early 2007, the Dallas Morning News and The Texas Observer broke a series of troubling stories about TYC detailing horrific cases of sexual and physical abuse, poor medical care and questionable business decisions. The picture that emerged was that of a corrupt and malicious agency. Perhaps the worst discovery was that high-ranking officials at the West Texas State School, a juvenile prison, were molesting young male inmates and no one in charge did anything about it.

Shortly after the scandal broke, Dunnam blasted Gov. Rick Perry’s lax handling of the crisis and called on the governor to dismiss the TYC board and place the agency under a conservator.

“We need to put a stop to all sexual abuse of kids in the care of the TYC, immediately fire the failed TYC board of directors, and get to the bottom of who knew what and when they knew it,” he wrote in a guest column for Texas Weekly, a political newsletter. “Unfortunately, by refusing to fire the TYC board and appoint an independent conservator, Gov. Perry is standing in the way of a bipartisan effort to do just that.”

As lawmakers scrambled to fix TYC, Dunnam played a leading role in the debate. Ultimately, the legislature passed a remarkably tough bill that practically dismantled the agency and started from scratch. Lawmakers also appointed a conservator to run the TYC. Since the news of the abuse broke in early 2007, the House Corrections Committee has held more than 10 hearings on the agency’s conduct.

Dunnam the lawyer v. Dunnam the lawmaker

Over the course of two interviews with Texas Watchdog, Dunnam points out that his case against TYC does not involve any of the agency functions that he oversees. It’s merely a complaint about a construction project.

“It could be any state agency that has a building. It doesn’t have anything to do with their core function,” he says.

But it does have a lot to do with the TYC leadership. In March 2007, shortly after the scandal broke, Dunnam pressed for Alfonso Royal, then an attorney working in the governor’s office, to appear before the corrections committee to discuss what he knew about the TYC abuse allegations. Royal had received specific reports of sexual misconduct at one of TYC’s facilities months before the story broke, but failed to tell the governor. For his service, Perry appointed him the chief of staff of TYC a year later. Somewhere out there, Mike Brown is envious.

In his role as a member of the corrections committee, Dunnam has been sharply critical of Royal. Few could fault him for that. Like many of Perry’s aides at the time the scandal broke, the attorney was less than helpful in helping lawmakers unscramble the knot of dysfunctions afflicting TYC.

Still, Dunnam’s civil case against the agency puts him and the TYC chief of staff in an awkward spot. Dunnam’s formal letter of complaint is addressed to none other than to Royal himself. Can we expect these two men, who crossed paths at the height of the headline-grabbing scandal, to resolve the complaint as amicably and quickly as possible?

Even Dunnam himself doesn’t believe that anymore.

“Go back and check what I said about Alfonso Royal,” Dunnam says. “He was in charge of the investigation — Alfonso Royal — Google it.”

Throughout his interviews, Dunnam returns to a main defense: That the agency leaked the news of his letter to embarrass one of its main critics.

“I find it offensive that TYC is trying to make a political issue out of a legitimate complaint from a constituent whose house they flooded,” he says. “I think that is a clear abuse of power.”

Of course, Royal, who did not return a call for comment, could say the same thing.

Dunnam says that he has now written TYC two letters detailing his client’s case and hasn’t heard a word back. A spokesperson for the agency says that the matter has been referred to the Texas attorney general’s office. That raises a simple issue: Would a complaint about a few thousand dollars worth of water damage would be treated like this if an ordinary attorney were on the case?

Setting himself up for criticism?

Dunnam says that his involvement against TYC is not a conflict because he’s handling it pro bono. So he doesn’t stand to make any money out of litigating an agency that falls under his watch. But it’s still a curious decision for a high-profile legislator that will likely give many critics more fodder.

You may recall that it was Dunnam who in 2003 led more than 50 of his Democratic colleagues across the border to Oklahoma to deny the Republicans the quorum they needed to pass a redistricting plan. Depending on your party affiliation, Dunnam’s efforts either marked a brave line in the sand against a corrupt GOP assault — or a craven, embarrassing spectacle from a partisan hack. Five years later, some people will still link his case against TYC to his Oklahoma getaway.

“From having known Jim Dunnam and knowing what he does, I don’t think ethics mean a lot to Jim Dunnam,” says a slow-talking M.A. Taylor, the chairman of the McClellan County Republican Party and former four-term state rep.

Still, Dunnam’s GOP colleagues on the House Corrections Committee don’t seem too bothered by his TYC complaint.

“I don’t know enough of the details,” says Jerry Madden, the Republican chair of the committee from Richardson. “I don’t know enough to say more.”

Rep. Delwin Jones says that as long as his colleague is handling the case on a pro bono basis, it’s not a conflict of interest.

“If he were receiving any money, I would question that,” the Lubbock Republican says. “But if he’s doing it for free than there’s no gain for him.”

Of course, there’s no way to know to check whether Dunnam were to receive a cut of any deal with TYC. That’s because the state’s financial disclosure laws don’t require elected officials who are attorneys to report income earned from settlements in cases they have tried.

In any case, although Jones does not criticize his colleague’s TYC case, he does acknowledge a simple fact: State employees treat legislators differently than they would a regular citizen.

“I’m not being critical of him, but any member of the legislature who contacts a public agency will get quicker consideration than the average man on the street,” he says.

Dunnam, though, scoffs at the notion that TYC would afford him special treatment.

“Someone is trying to create smoke where there is none, and all I can conclude is that it’s someone from the state agency,” he says. “It’s either because I have a leadership role in the Texas Democratic caucus or it’s because I have been pretty tough with TYC in the abuses that have occurred there.”

Which only raises the question: Why not just hand the case to someone else?