Unsealed warrants detail communication between Hidalgo staffers and a vendor over $11 million contract

Staff members in Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office appeared to coordinate to try and steer an $11 million contract for a COVID-19 outreach project to a preferred vendor, according to recently unsealed court documents. Those documents detail text message exchanges and outline email correspondence between employees in the county judge’s office that appear to show they allowed the vendor, Elevate Strategies, to help tailor the scope of work on the project before putting it out for bid. The documents — reviewed by Houston Public Media and first reported by ABC 13 — also detail text message exchanges between the staffers and Hidalgo herself, which appear to show Hidalgo was aware of the coordination.

The warrants came to light last Friday when Texas Rangers raided the Harris County Administration Building in downtown Houston, where they seized cellphones, laptops and desktop computers for senior staffers Aaron Dunn, Wallis Nader and Alex Triantaphyllis. No charges have been filed, and there have been no arrests, but the Texas Rangers confirmed Friday the investigation is ongoing. According to texts laid out in the warrant, Nader and Triantaphyllis first started floating the name of Felicity Pereyra — listed in the documents as founder and sole manager of Elevate, which previously contracted with the county for U.S. Census outreach — on Jan. 7, 2021. In the coming days, the two went back and forth on a proposed scope of work that would best match Pereyra’s experience, according to court records. On Jan. 13 of last year, court documents allege Hidalgo herself received a draft, and a day later, confirmed she “took a stab” at it, mentioning Pereyra by name as the office worked through that scope of work.