After what I thought was a fairly well orchestrated campaign to file complaints against me with the Judicial Conduct Commission, I was very pleased to learn that all the complaints were dismissed with the exception of one part of one complaint. That complaint, which was filed jointly by Justices Vance and Reyna, asked the Commission to remove me from the office to which the citizens of this great State had elected me. The Commission rejected their request. In a State with as many judges as Texas, the Commission has a difficult task sorting out the complaints and has a very limited budget upon which to work. Obviously I was able to respond to the Commission’s concerns on the more concrete complaints linked to individual opinions like The City of Waco vs. Kelly and others. What was more difficult for me to respond to were general allegations made by Justices Vance and Reyna regarding my management style and the way they allege that I interacted with Court staff. They provided only general testimony that characterized my conduct in a negative light and due to the Commission’s limited funding the Commission did not require Justices Vance and Reyna to be more specific in their complaints nor did they call any other witnesses about the allegations of the Justices. All I could really do is explain to the Commission that since Justice Vance said he would challenge any conduct that he found to be disrespectful and thus to create a hostile work environment, he did so on ONLY ONE occasion and that was just before he filed his complaint with the Commission. I referred Justice Vance's complaint about this specific incident to another entity and that entity determined that I had not created a hostile work environment. The Commission’s admonition related only to the manner in which I interacted with the court staff and others. So while I am disappointed that the Commission decided to take any action with regard to any of the Complaints, I respect that the Commission has a job to do. I did what I thought was needed to do my job and to abide by my oath to “faithfully perform the duties of the office of Chief Justice of the Tenth Court of Appeals District of the State of Texas and to the best of my abilities, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and Laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.”

twg