Cagle welcomes new family member as he departs Harris County Commissioners Court

By George Slaughter, News Editor
Posted 1/5/23

Republican R. Jack Cagle lost his Harris County Pct. 4 commissioner re-election bid last year to Democratic challenger Lesley Briones. But with endings come beginnings, and in Cagle’s case, it came in October with the arrival of his first grandson, Ryder Cagle.

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Cagle welcomes new family member as he departs Harris County Commissioners Court

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Republican R. Jack Cagle lost his Harris County Pct. 4 commissioner re-election bid last year to Democratic challenger Lesley Briones. But with endings come beginnings, and in Cagle’s case, it came in October with the arrival of his first grandson, Ryder Cagle.

“We’re a little bit behind schedule for some folks, but my son is 32 and I actually did their wedding ceremony Jan. 9,” Cagle said. “They had to skip a week, and then they went on a honeymoon a week later.”

Their honeymoon, Cagle said, was driving along and exploring the historic Route 66. They returned with the new bride feeling ill. They first suspected food poisoning, but instead, it was a pregnancy.

“So little Ryder was born Oct. 15,” Cagle said. “Straight from getting married to having a baby. That’s cool.”

Cagle’s departure after 11 years on commissioners court gives the Democrats a 4-1 majority on court. Incumbent Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Pct. 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia won their respective re-election bids. Pct. 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey is the court’s only Republican.

Cagle’s precinct was redrawn to include Katy and much of western Harris County following the 2020 census. Critics of the redistricting plan, including Cagle, said the redistricting was done in such a way that Cagle would have a harder time winning re-election.

Looking back, Cagle found it hard to summarize all that happened on his watch.

“The problem with that simple question is that there are so many areas that I’ve had the privilege of serving in that it makes it more complex,” Cagle said. On infrastructure, he said the completion of state highways 99 and 249, along with the expansion of the Hardy Toll Road and the contact points, were highlights.

“To me it’s very exciting to get on 99 and to be able to drive all the way around to Kingwood, and to realize when I first started that that wasn’t happening,” Cagle said.

Cagle said the county’s biggest challenging moving forward was managing its growth.

“And there’s going to be also attached to that the green space component, because at some point you’re going to run out of land and we won’t have a place to go,” Cagle said.

One program he was involved with, Cagle said, was buying drainage space before developers come in and develop their tracts. In this way, he said, the drainage system would be better than waiting until the developers put in a patchwork system. Cagle said he believed that drainage plans must handle at least 20-25% more than what is being anticipated.

On flood mitigation, Cagle said he and others were working on what he described as the “Dutch model,” in which old dikes would be reinstituted on the Katy Prairie, most of which is in Waller County.

“We pay landowners to keep the land fallow and natural and we don’t develop it and we’ve flooded whenever there’s a flood, because you can store as much water going a foot deep and a mile wide as you can by going a mile deep and a foot wide,” Cagle said. “So, digging the big hole is really not going to be, I think, the solution, but working with the nature conservancies and working with Waller County on the farmers and whatnot, that’s what the Dutch do. They pay farmers to allow them to flood, and the benefit is that it’s free fertilizer, too. All that sediment that comes in and replenishes the soil.”

Cagle earned degrees from Rice University and the Baylor University School of Law in the 1980s. He was a lawyer before becoming a Harris County Civil Court-of-Law No. 1 judge. He served 11 years in that role. He was appointed to commissioners court in 2011 and won re-election in 2014 and 2018.

“It’s not something that I learned, as much as I experienced, which is the love of serving people,” Cagle said. “The good Lord had put my heart and desire to serve. There are different ways you can do it. I did it as a lawyer.”

As for his future—besides enjoying time with Ryder—Cagle said he will return to practicing law.

“Well, you’ll see me in Katy quite a bit now that I’m going to be hanging out a shingle practicing a little bit of law,” Cagle said. “Before I became—actually, most of the time while I was a judge—I was a member of the Katy Bar Association. You’ll see me out there and here’s what I tell folks: I’m going to be available for the practice of law, but I’ve got a lot of experience, so I’ll be a good lawyer, but I won’t be a cheap one. If you need a good lawyer and you’re not looking for a cheap one, just knock on my door.”

Harris County Commissioners Court, Jack Cagle