Dean A. Hrbacek, CPA is an American attorney and Republican politician who served as the mayor of Sugar Land, Texas from 1996 to 2002. Before serving in that capacity, he served as a city council member. In 2008, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in Texas's 22nd congressional district.
Personal life
Hrbacek attended the University of Houston at Clear Lake City and graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He then attended the University of Houston where he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Houston Law Center. Hrbacek is an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He has a law firm specializing in taxation, based in Sugar Land.
Mayor of Sugar Land
In 1996, while serving as a City Council member for Sugar Land's affluent District Four, which included a large part of the First Colony master-planned community including Sweetwater Country Club (the one-time home of the LPGA), Hrbacek decided to run for the mayor's office being vacated by incumbent Lee Duggan who was term limited from seeking re-election after serving a total of ten years. Sugar Land city officials are subject to four terms of two years each, which totals eight years of service, though a member may run for mayor after serving on Council.
Hrbacek won the election and was re-elected for two subsequent terms. During the time that Hrbacek served as mayor and on City Council, Sugar Land was recognized and received multiple times for the quality of its management and innovative governance. The once sleepy company town grew into one of Houston's largest and most affluent suburbs as the city annexed several portions of First Colony, a large master-planned community that now comprises the vast majority of Sugar Land's southern area.
The development of the Sugar Land Town Square, seen as a strong economic engine for Sugar Land, began during the late 1990s with Hrbacek playing a major role in the development of the project. The establishment of the University of Houston System at Sugar Land, the creation of several regional parks, major economic growth, and the lowering the city property tax rate by over 30% were all highlights of his time in office.
2002 mayoral campaign
In 2002, Hrbacek faced a tough re-election campaign for a fourth term against City Council member David Wallace, a businessman who had built up a base of support and had just been elected to the same City Council district Hrbacek held before becoming mayor. Wallace won the election after receiving the backing of several Republican leaders with whom he was allied in Fort Bend County and a local newspaper.
"Mayor Osama" controversy
Hrbacek's re-election bid was damaged by former conservative Houston radio talk show host Jon Matthews. Matthews hosted a radio talk show on KSEV. He endorsed Wallace and attacked Hrbacek through weekly newspaper columns in a local paper.
Matthews referred to Hrbacek as "Mayor Osama" and "Dean Osama Hrbacek", a reference to terrorist, al-Qaida leader and suspected 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Columns attacking Hrbacek by both Mathews and the publisher of the paper, along with radio attacks, were made during the weeks before the May 2002 election campaign. Following the election, Hrbacek filed a lawsuit against Matthews and the newspaper publisher, B.K. Carter, over the comments, which claimed that the comments also damaged the reputation of Hrbacek's law firm. The lawsuit, filed in Fort Bend County District Court, Case ID 02-CV-127119, was dismissed.
Post-mayoral life
Hrbacek has served as a precinct chair for the Fort Bend County Republican Party, and has become one of the more high-profile precinct chairs in the county Republican establishment. Hrbacek has also served as the President of the Fort Bend Republican Club., and also served as a delegate and caucus official at Senatorial District and State Republican Conventions since 2000.
Hrbacek was approached in 2006 by community leaders to consider running for the heavily Republican 26th District in the Texas House of Representatives, which comprises Sugar Land and several immediate areas such as the portion of the First Colony planned community in Missouri City. He decided that he would run at that time only if the incumbent Republican, Charlie Howard, chose not to run. When Howard indicated he would run in 2006, Hrbacek dropped out of the race.