James Oakley

Early life

Oakley is a native of Burnet and a fifth-generation Texan. He attended Burnet High School before graduating from Southwest Texas State University with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration; the university has subsequently become Texas State University.

Family

Oakley's wife, Julie, is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of Texas. James and Julie live on Lake Travis in the Spicewood area and attend Lake Hills Church in Bee Cave.

Career

After college, he worked in public relations and corporate communications for ten years. Oakley has been active in community roles, serving with the Capital Area Council of Governments, the Texas Colorado Flood Plain Coalition, and as President of his Property Owner's Association.

County Commissioner

Each county in Texas is presided over by a Commissioners' Court of four County Commissioners and the County Judge, plus the County clerk as a non-voting ex officio member. This body is responsible for administration of the county, controlling the county tax rate, the budget for its responsible departments, and exercising oversight over subsidiary boards and commissions. The County Judge is the "chief legislator and executive" and presides over meetings but has no veto power, and the court makes decisions by simply majority. The Commissioners' Court is quorate with three voting members (except for levying tax where four members are required). In 1998, Oakley was elected as County Commissioner for Burnet's fourth precinct, replacing Craig Seward and becoming the first Republican elected to that position since the Civil War. Oakley served on the Commissioners' Court for two terms, from the start of 1999 until the end of 2006, when he was replaced by Joe Don Dockery.

In 2000, Bush appointed Oakley to a Capital Area Council of Governments-hosted review committee for Community Development Block Grants, a position he continued to hold in 2016. This grant program is overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and operates affordable housing, anti-poverty, and infrastructure development programs. Perry appointed Oakley for the 79th legislative session to the rock crushers and quarries advisory committee and then in 2009 to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) for an eight-year term. TCOLE's mission is "ensuring a Texas where people are served by highly trained and ethical law enforcement and corrections personnel through screening, developing, monitoring resources, and setting standards."

Pedernales Electric Cooperative

The Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) is a Texas-based utility cooperative serving 24 counties. With 2016 revenue of US$590 million and serving about 240,000 members, PEC is the largest member-owned electric utility in the United States. Elections are held annually for three-year terms on the Board of Directors. Oakley was elected to the Board in June 2013 and served as Board President for the 2015-16 year. Upon re-election, he was selected as Vice President for the 2016-17 year and could not face re-election until June 2019.

Oakley's 2016 re-election was contentious, with his opponent claiming he had a conflict of interest between his Board position and his other responsibilities for Burnet County, but he was re-elected easily. Oakley developed a contentious relationship with Larry Landaker, the pair disagreeing over changes to methods of election. Landaker left the Board in 2015 and now runs "PEC Truth Watch," through which he has campaigned for Oakley to resign or be removed from the Board.

County Judge

After eight years away from the Commissioners' Court and representing Texas with GovDeals.com, the largest internet-based organization dealing with the public disposition of government assets, Oakley stood for selection as the Texas Republican Party candidate for Judge of the Burnet County Court. He announced his candidacy on the same day that incumbent County Judge Donna Klaeger declared that she was not standing for re-election, praising her accomplishments and expressing the hope to "continue her work." The primary was held on March 4, 2014, and his opponents were Linda D. Rogers, a former chair of the Burnet Republican Party, and George Russell, Mayor of Marble Falls; Oakley received 47.6% of the vote. A primary runoff was held against Russell in May, as no candidate had received a majority of votes, and Oakley prevailed with 63.9% of the vote. Oakley was unopposed in the general election and began his four-year term as County Judge on January 1, 2015, replacing Donna Klaeger who had served two terms and was Burnet's first female County Judge. During his term, Oakley is Burnet's highest elected official and presides over the Commissioners' Court. As County Judge, he serves as a statutory member on certain boards including the election commission, and is responsible for civil defense and emergency management for Burnet.

The Texas County Courts are a creation of sections 15 to 17 of Article V of the Constitution of Texas, established with original and appellate functions "as provided by law" (section 16). This covers "Class A" and "Class B" misdemeanors (offenses that can involve jail time), civil cases concerning small to moderate amounts, and cases on appeal from justice of the peace and district / municipal court cases. The limitation "as provided by law" applies both to the jurisdiction of the Court and the judicial functions of the County Judge, and so can be limited by legislative action. The Texas Legislature has created County Courts-at-law and transferred to them much of the judicial authority and responsibility originally held by the Constitutional County Courts. The County Judge presiding over both the Commissioners' Court and the Constitutional County Court does not require qualifications in the discipline of law – in 2015, for example, only 16% were licensed to practice law – but Judges of the County Courts-at-Law must be lawyers. It is left to individual counties to decide whether to strip the County Judge of all judicial responsibilities, and in counties where this has not occurred, the County Judge may view the County Courts-at-law as supplements to, rather than replacements of, the Constitutional County Court's judicial functions. Burnet County has not taken this step; Klaeger, Oakley's predecessor, presided over some misdemeanor-level criminal court cases during her time as County Judge. County Judges undertaking judicial activities draw a supplemental salary, and in 2011 the Houston Chronicle reported that 85% of counties had judges drawing this stipend. The judicial education officer at the Texas Association of Counties, David Hodges, has noted that the rate of cases being overturned is higher for both the County Courts-at-law and for District Court judges than it is for County Judges. Like most County Judges, Oakley can be described as his County's Chief Executive Officer with responsibilities that are primarily administrative and a role that is political, but he does exercise limited judicial functions, retaining the authority to conduct marriages and to conduct administrative hearings.

Facebook comment controversy

On November 20, 2016, San Antonio Police Department Detective Benjamin Marconi was shot and killed by an otherwise uninvolved passerby who stopped his car, got out, and shot Marconi while he was writing a traffic ticket in his patrol car. Otis Tyrone McKane was suspected of being the shooter and was arrested the day after the shooting and charged with capital murder.

The San Antonio Police Department posted McKane's mug shot to Facebook with an announcement of his arrest, and Oakley shared the photo and commented that it was "Time for a tree and a rope...", a juxtaposition which clearly evoked the specter of lynching. Oakley subsequently apologized, calling his reaction "off the cuff," "curt and harsh," and described his choice of words as "unfortunate." His apology was subsequently described as "fake" and as "NOT an apology ... [and] not even a very good excuse" on a piece cross-posted to the progressive blog Crooks and Liars Oakley added that a more appropriate posting would have been "a comment that more clearly reflects my opinion on the cowardly crime of the senseless murder of a law enforcement officer," and declared this his view of McKane "is the same regardless of ethnicity." When contacted by the Huffington Post, Oakley stated that he did not intend to make a racially charged comment, and that "I never made that connection but I do see how somebody could make that connection and be offended towards that. That was not my intent. Maybe I watched too many Westerns when I was little." In defending himself, Oakley noted that, as an administrative judge, he "[does] not preside over criminal court." In an addition described as not doing himself any favors, Oakley explained that he is a supporter of the death penalty "in cases where the ultimate crime has been committed and there is clear and complete evidence and where all steps of the judicial process have been respected" and in line with due process.

Oakley's comments drew widespread attention and criticism raising questions of his fitness for the position of County Judge. The Southern Poverty Law Center produced a report, Ten Days After, which reported incidence of harassment and intimidation in the immediate post-election period; 23% of these were classified as "anti-black" in which references to lynching were described as common. The Department of Justice is already investigating an increase in hate crimes. It is unclear whether suggestions of Oakley's resignation or impeachment will spread beyond progressive / liberal blogs and commentators and into the mainstream media, though there were calls for Oakley to be removed from the CAMPO board and a motion was put to the PEC board calling for his actions to be investigated, suggesting that the controversy may hamper Oakley's future ambitions. The Texas Monthly included Oakley's actions in an article on "Judges Gone Wild" in December 2016.