News from TAC

Harris Constable Honored With Sam Seale Trailblazer Award

Long-time public servant and TAC driving force Bill Bailey, a Harris County constable, received the Sam Seale Trailblazer Award at this year’s TAC Annual Conference.

The Sam Seale Trailblazer Award, named for TAC’s former executive director, is the most distinguished honor granted by the TAC Leadership Foundation. It’s presented to honor “the long career of an individual whose leadership, courage and vision has made a lasting impact well beyond the boundaries of his or her county or county office,” said TAC Executive Director Karen Ann Norris.

Bailey started his career in public service 1982, after a successful career as a country music broadcaster. He quickly became active in the Texas Justice of the Peace and Constables Association. He eventually served as its president before becoming active on the TAC Board of Directors, with which he was active for six years before becoming president-elect in 1999.

In 1993, Bailey put his broadcaster and public speaking skills to work, volunteering to be the on-screen host of an award-winning video “The Glue that Holds Texas Together,” which explained the role counties play in government and in taxpayers’ lives. As TAC’s president in 2002, he began a public awareness initiative to help familiarize residents with county government, which TAC has continued with the creation of its new resident-geared Web site, www.texascounties4u.com.

“The recipient of the Sam Seale Trailblazer Award this year has a bedrock belief in the value of Texas county government and has spent his 27-year career telling your story to anyone he could find, whether it be a local civic club or a state or a national or even international leader,” said Leadership Foundation chair Carol Autry before presenting the award. “He feels spreading the message of the importance of county services is a vital role that every county official must play and he’s preached that to just about every county official and county official organization in the state. He’s even made sure you have the tools with videos and other media to make the job easy.”

“More than almost anyone, he has been your evangelist, sharing his unique talents to promote not just his love of county government, but his love of Texas,” she added.