A reader's file: the MCHD Porter tower, the hospital district's new counsel, and seven county-vendor threads

partly in the records Robert Walker is the Precinct 1 commissioner and he and Janet Walker own the feed store.

The office is in the county's records. The ownership is stated only on the commissioner's own site and the store's site; no state entity record for the store was reachable, and it may be an assumed-name business with no Secretary of State file.

not in our records The store appears in county vendor payments.

This archive holds no vendor-level payment record for any county vendor. The 255 purchasing awards contain no Walker vendor; the 581 County Auditor reports are account-level and return nothing for the store (nor for known vendors such as Milstead or Bleyl, which is the control). The county's check register is the record that would show it, and it is not here.

partly in the records Commissioner Walker did not abstain when the payments were approved.

Vendor payments are approved as one consent line, "Payment of Accounts as submitted by the County Auditor", in 311 meetings since 2005; the vendors paid are never listed in the minutes. So the minutes can show that Walker voted on those lines (he is recorded abstaining only once, on a plat carrying his surname) but cannot show whether any given line contained a payment to the store. The claim is untestable from the minutes alone.

in the records Robert Walker and his campaign appear in other county filers' campaign reports.

Robert Walker is not a filer this archive holds; no report names the store as an employer or payee.

in the records Commissioner Riley moved to create the position.

No abstention or "no" vote is recorded on this motion, and the minutes do not say who would fill the position.

in the records Deanne Riley was hired into it.

The minutes show she had been on the county payroll since 2002 (Constable Pct 5, then the Sheriff's Office). Contemporary reporting placed the creation vote on December 20; the minutes put the creation on November 22 and the hire on December 20.

outside our records The opening was never posted and she was the only applicant.

The posting record itself is a Human Resources record this archive does not hold.

outside our records Commissioner Noack filed a nepotism complaint and the District Attorney reviewed it.

The article does not say who filed the complaint; it quotes Noack asking the DA, County Attorney and HR to investigate. The words nepotism, Chapter 573, affinity and consanguinity appear in none of the 720 meetings of minutes. The only Noack action in the minutes is the "No" vote of 2016-12-20.

not in our records How the DA's review ended.

No public record of a written disposition of the December 2016 complaint itself was found, in this archive or in the press.

in the records Melanie Bush has been County Treasurer since January 2019.

partly in the records Alan Bush appears as counsel for Montgomery County in delinquent-tax suits, including 2022 filings.

Odyssey lists the attorney, never the firm, so whether he filed as a Linebarger partner is not in these records. The firm name appears in the party tables only as a service address. Alan Bush appears as a contributor three times in state filings (2013, 2015, 2019, $175 in total); the employer on those is never Linebarger.

outside our records In 2020 the Tax Assessor-Collector seized and sold a private jet for delinquent taxes, represented by Linebarger, with notice directing inquiries to Alan Bush.

in the records Linebarger holds the county's delinquent-tax collection contract; the reader asks how it was renewed and whether anyone abstained.

No abstention is recorded on any Linebarger item. The Treasurer is not a member of the court and has no vote. No request for proposals, advertisement or competing firm (including Perdue Brandon) appears in any of the 720 meetings; the contract has been amended seven times since 1987 and never re-competed in the minutes. The collection fee is a statutory penalty added to the taxpayer's bill, so the County Auditor's reports never name the firm.

in the records Linebarger and its people gave to Montgomery officials and judges.

Commissioner Noack, who moved Amendment No. 7, is not a county filer this archive holds, so the firm's giving to him is not here.

not in our records Whether the Treasurer received contributions from the firm, or abstained on it.

The County Treasurer's own campaign-finance reports have never been pulled into this archive, and she does not vote. No contribution to or from Melanie Bush appears in any table here.

outside our records The Chronicle's $247,000 figure.

This archive holds county campaign-finance reports for seven filers and nothing before July 2023, and no reports at all for Commissioner Noack. It cannot reproduce a 2015–2024 figure across the whole court. What it holds is a floor on a narrower window.

partly in the records Bob Smith gave to Judge Keough and other county filers.

Readable total in the reports held here, Jul 2023 – Jun 2026, Smith to Keough and Gray — $44,799.70. One Riley row (2025-09-13) lost its amount to OCR.

in the records Geoscience is a county contractor; its awards, renewals and change orders.

Thirteen award, renewal or change items 2016–2026; stated contract values in the minutes sum to $1,307,232, with four on-call awards unpriced. Judge Keough moved two of them (2023-09-26 and 2026-05-07); the rest were consent items or moved by a commissioner. Chapter 2254 professional-services selections do not appear on the Purchasing awards page, so the firm is not on the /contractors page, and the County Auditor's reports never itemise a payee, so what the county actually paid is not here.

in the records BGE is a county engineering contractor with work approved by the court, including motions moved by Judge Keough.

Seventeen BGE items 2017–2026. Every item from 2017 to 2022 was moved by Commissioner Noack or sat on consent; Judge Keough moved the two 2026 items.

in the records BGE people gave to Judge Keough.

The two records are shown side by side and nothing more is said about them.

not in our records Kimberly Sparks at BGE is not the same person as the judge's wife.

No county record here names the judge's wife at all. The 39 meetings mentioning Sparks are an investment broker, an engineering firm, a forensic pathologist, four Sheriff's Office employees and a court coordinator. A business-directory listing shows a Kimberly Sparks as clerical staff at BGE in Houston; nothing public connects that person to the judge's household, and nothing public rules it out. The two references share a first name and a surname the judge's wife has not used publicly in a decade. That is consistent with two different people and is not proof of it. The record that settles it is the judge's Personal Financial Statement, which lists a spouse's sources of income.

outside our records In 2022 the hospital district was working on an East Tower land purchase in Porter with FAA approval.

The board book says the site was pending FAA approval, not that approval had been given. No Commissioners Court item in 2022 mentions it.

in the records In January 2023 Caleb Smith was appointed to the ESD 6 board as a Precinct 4 item.

The appointment is a Commissioners Court record under the Precinct 4 heading (Commissioner Gray's precinct from 2023-01-01); the motion was made by Noack and seconded by Walker. ESD 6's own 2025 minutes show David Miller as president and Caleb Smith as vice-president all year; the fire department's site lists Smith as president in 2026. The changeover is not in any document held here.

outside our records On February 25, 2025 the ESD 6 board took up letting the district install a 400-foot tower on Station 121.

The minutes the reader could not find are posted on the fire department's site. Nothing in the county's minutes mentions Station 121.

outside our records The district's FY2026 budget carries $750,000 for Porter tower land.

outside our records The district and ESD 6 have station agreements of $225,000 and $500,000 plus monthly rent.

Both figures predate Caleb Smith's appointment. The station agreements themselves are not posted; only the project lists and invoice registers are.

partly in the records In September 2026 the district said it is planning the East County tower with the county.

The county side is a $4.2 million federal grant application for a "radio tower enhancement project". The minutes do not say where the tower is or that the hospital district is a party.

in the records On April 10, 2018 the court approved a three-party interlocal for the Magnolia communications tower.

The county has done tower business with the district since 2002 (the shared 800 MHz system, the 2009 withdrawal from it, the 2013 tower sale, the 2018 Magnolia interlocal). If the East County tower follows the 2018 pattern, an interlocal would come to the court on a posted agenda. As of the last minutes held here (2026-07-09), none has.

not in our records Who owns the land the district would spend the $750,000 on, and what happened to the 2022 site.

No county record answers this. The purchase file is the hospital district's, and the parcel is not identified in any document found.

partly in the records Whether hospital-district or ESD 6 people appear as donors to county officials.

These are name matches to ESD 6 board names in the appointment minutes, with Porter addresses; they are not identity-resolved. No contribution row in any table here lists the hospital district or an ESD as an employer, and no hospital-district board member's name matches a county-filer row.

in the records The county negotiated with the hospital district over public health from late 2022 and approved new agreements in 2023.

The county's arrangement dates to a 2010 cooperative agreement (minutes of July 26, 2010). The 2023 agreements kept the hospital district providing the services. What was said in the negotiations is on the meeting audio, not in the minutes.

outside our records An outside auditor was engaged for the public-health district at Jason Millsaps's request, with Judge Keough moving approval.

The public-health district's own minutes name the firm as Pattillo, Brown & Hill, which fits the "PB&H" abbreviation. Belt Harris Pechacek, the name the reader used, appears in no county minutes, no hospital-district or public-health-district document found, and is a different Houston firm (acquired by Crowe in 2024). The engagement itself and its report are not held here.

outside our records The transition was put on hold pending the audit.

not in our records What changed the county's position while the audit was under way.

No county record held here states a reason. The minutes record the appointments and approvals above and refer discussion to the audio.

partly in the records He is the county Republican Party's attorney and provided it office space at a discount.

The party's payments to him are office rent (next claim). No record shows him as counsel at a party organisational meeting; the July 2024 chair report refers to "the attorney for the party" without a name.

partly in the records The party reported $10,800 in expenditures to him.

The rent rows exist in the raw state export on disk and will be shown on this site once the party's expenditures are loaded. Every description is rent; none is legal fees.

in the records Commissioner Gray gave the party at least $2,500 in the same period.

The dates overlap the rent payments. No record links any Gray dollar to any Aguilar payment, and the page says nothing more.

in the records In 2024 Judge Bays disqualified and sanctioned him; the Ninth Court upheld it.

Two wording points. The Ninth Court denied a petition for writ of mandamus; it was not an appeal that was "affirmed". And no document held here uses the words "discovery strategy" — the opinion records the trial court's finding that suits were filed in other courts while the 284th had dominant jurisdiction, and opposing counsel's complaint about a pattern of non-suiting cases. The underlying motions are not held.

outside our records The Ninth Court sent an Elara Homes case back over whether he had authority to represent seven corporate parties.

The trial case was filed in 2018, before this archive's docket window, so it is not on this site. The question of authority was never decided.

in the records He gave $2,500 to Judge Santini in 2023 and practises in Santini's court.

His docket on this site is mostly the 284th (Judge Bays, 62 appearances) with 7 in the 457th.

outside our records A congressional campaign refunded his firm's contribution as unacceptable.

The filing carries no reason. "Unacceptable" is the reader's word, not the record's; a corporate contribution to a federal campaign is refundable under federal law, which is one ordinary explanation.

outside our records In March 2026 the hospital district chose his firm as general counsel by a 5–1 vote.

Directors named Bagley and Williams share names with two defendants in 23-12-17966, where Aguilar was counsel for a Jackie Williams; whether they are the same people is not established in any record here. The contract, its rate and what has been paid are the district's records and are not held.

in the records Rebel holds county contracts, including the Precinct 4 on-call drainage contract.

in the records Rebel's officers give to the officials who approve its work.

This thread was already worked as a subject file on 2026-09-19, and the one thing that file settled is that the timing means nothing: measured against every court action on Rebel this archive holds, the Wilson gifts sit no closer than chance (four tests, p = 0.735), and the 2025-10-22 gift sits after a renewal option, which is a contractual right the county negotiated up front, not a fresh award. Texas sets no limit on gifts to a county commissioner. The Wilsons are not Gray's largest donors.

not in our records Emails or texts showing special treatment.

No correspondence is held here. The records that would show it are listed under requests.

in the records Keefe has operated the jail commissary since 2014; the contract was renewed in 2019 and again in 2024.

The Sheriff, not the court, holds the commissary contract (Local Government Code 351.0415), so the court's minutes carry only the two RFP advertisements (2018 and 2023) and the acceptance of the annual audits; no award or renewal was ever voted on in court. The 2024 solicitation drew one proposal.

in the records People connected to Keefe or its affiliates gave to Sheriff Doolittle.

The reader's unverified lead is on the Sheriff's own filed report. All ten of Sheriff Doolittle's county reports and all nine of Rand Henderson's were pulled and loaded on 2026-09-23. Dates side by side, with nothing inferred: agreement of February 7, 2024, renewing yearly toward a new five-year agreement due February 7, 2029; Doolittle took office 2025-01-01; the Keefe gift is dated 2025-10-31; the FY2025 audit addressed to him is dated 2026-04-23. Texas sets no limit on such gifts to a county officer.

in the records Doolittle appears in the reports this archive does hold.

The Sheriff's own reports and Rand Henderson's are now on this site's contributions page (filers Doolittle and Henderson). Amounts on scanned pages can be lost or damaged by OCR; the two Keefe rows were confirmed by eye.

in the records Keefe affiliates also hold county work.

Trinity Services Group, Keefe Group and ICSolutions are sister companies under TKC Holdings, owned by H.I.G. Capital, per the parent company's own site.

not in our records Court cases naming Keefe.

No civil case in the docket held here names Keefe Commissary Network or any affiliate. One pending suit names the Sheriff personally, 26-09-15465, filed 2026-09-02 by a pro se plaintiff.