Lisa Chambers Claims Clay Jenkins Also Drinks Too Much

Lisa Chambers, you’ll recall, used to be the director of Dallas County’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management office — until she was fired. Chambers says she was canned after she refused a request from county administrator Darryl Martin to run counter surveillance on the FBI. Today, though, County Judge Clay Jenkins said he fired her because, among other reasons, she drinks too much. Or at least she drank too much on one occasion. According to the Morning News account of the Commissioners Court meeting:

[Jenkins] said he was concerned about the amount of alcohol Chambers drank at a July 4 event in which she almost passed out. … He said she “fell onto” his father-in-law and had trouble maintaining her balance. “I personally watched her consume large amounts of alcohol,” Jenkins said, noting that those who wish to cause chaos often target holidays. “She and I have to remain vigilant and capable at all times.”

I asked Chambers about this July 4 event. She says she hosted a going-away party for a friend at the Sports Club at Four Seasons. She invited other county employees, including Jenkins and county spokeswoman Maria Arita, who Chambers says brought a case of wine to the party and was also drunk. “I had too much to drink. Definitely,” Chambers says. But she had a room at the hotel and wasn’t driving around.

So what are we talking about here? Does Chambers have a drinking problem, something that would compromise her ability to do her job? Or did she just overserve herself one night and fall on Jenkins’ father-in-law, thereby giving Jenkins and the other John Wiley Price loyalists some great ammunition? As in: “Heck, no, I didn’t fire her because she said it was inappropriate to run counter surveillance on the FBI. I fired her because she’s a drunk!” All I can tell you is this: I have twice (that I can recall) had drinks with Chambers in a social setting. It was after work. I wasn’t counting, but I’d guess she had two beers on each occasion. I didn’t see someone who had trouble regulating how much she drank. (And, yes, I know what’s about to happen in the comments.)

One more thing. Chambers says that her boss is a drinker, too. And, yes, Jenkins sometimes overserves himself.

“When the relationship was good, he would call me all the time,” Chambers says. “He would call me late at night, and the conversation would go like this –” at which point she makes noises that sound like Chewbacca. “I have had conversations with him in the evening where he was just slurring his words. There were times when I talked to him and I didn’t feel like he was 100 percent there. There were some ideas given to me over the phone late at night, and they didn’t even make sense.”