Concerned Citizens for Harris County is an independently published Harris County news site.
We cover county and city government, the courts, public safety, and the money: budgets, tax rates, contracts, and where it all goes. We aggregate local reporting with attribution and links, we publish original commentary that is labeled as commentary, and we check claims made by officials and candidates of both parties.
Who publishes this
This site is This site is published independently by a Harris County resident who pays for it personally. It is not affiliated with, funded by, or coordinated with any campaign, political party, political committee, or government agency. We publish anonymously and we say so plainly rather than dressing this up as an organization it is not.
Where we are coming from
We are not neutral and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We write from a point of view, and you should read us knowing that. What we will not do is dress an opinion up as a fact, or a press release up as reporting.
So here is the point of view, stated plainly. We are not on a team. We are against waste, secrecy, and incompetence in county and city government, and we do not much care which party is holding the pen when we find it. Some of what we publish will read as conservative. Some of it will read as progressive. Both are the same standard applied to different facts.
One thing follows from that and it is worth saying out loud rather than letting readers discover it and assume the worst. Democrats currently hold most of the power in Harris County and in Houston. They run Commissioners Court, the mayor’s office, and most of the countywide offices. Scrutiny follows power, so more of our coverage lands on Democrats than on Republicans. That is arithmetic, not allegiance. When Republicans hold an office, or hold a contract, or say something that does not survive a check, they get exactly the same treatment, and we publish it with the same prominence.
If you only ever see us hit one side, hold us to this paragraph.
Anything that carries our opinion is filed under Editorial and labeled. Everything else sticks to what is documented.
How we handle sources
- We link the primary document. Court records, budget documents, official statements. If we cannot show you the source, we tell you that instead of asserting it anyway.
- We attribute other outlets’ reporting to them. A headline, a link, a short summary, then our own analysis. We do not republish other people’s articles.
- We say when something is unverified. If we are reporting a claim we have not independently confirmed, we say so in the piece, not in a footnote.
- Charged is not convicted. In any criminal matter we state the current status of the case, and we do not publish home addresses, employers, or family members.
Fact checks
Our fact checks apply the same standard to both parties, and we publish the ones that go against our own side. That is the entire point. A fact check operation that only ever catches one party is opposition research with better typography.
Every check cites a primary source. Claims that cannot be sourced do not get a verdict. Opinions and predictions are marked unverifiable rather than forced into true or false.
Corrections
We will get things wrong. When we do, we correct the piece, mark clearly what changed and when, and leave the correction visible rather than quietly editing the page. If you find an error, tell us. Our corrections address is being set up and will be posted here. Until it is live, send corrections through the subscribe page and we will route them to the desk.
Sections
- County News, Commissioners Court, the County Judge, the county budget and tax rate, flood control
- City News, the Mayor’s office, City Council, the city budget
- Crime and Courts, bond, backlog and case data from District Clerk records
- Crime Stoppers Watch, cases where a defendant released on bond is charged with a new offense
- Fact Check, claims by officials and candidates of both parties
- What’s Your Point, weekly summary of the FOX 26 Houston political roundtable
- Editorial, opinion, labeled as such
We are not affiliated with Crime Stoppers of Houston, FOX 26 Houston, or any government agency. We cite and link their work; we do not speak for them.