The past year has been a tough one for Harris County, with numerous revelations of corruption within the government. But Harris County Judge Ed Emmett wants to shift the focus from the negative and reflect, instead, upon the positive.

At the Greater Houston Partnership's State of the County luncheon on Wednesday, a bagpipe brigade kicked off the ceremony for a crowd of more than 1,000 area business leaders and public servants seated in the Hilton Americas Grand Ballroom.

Throughout the annual address — Emmett's fifth since assuming office in 2007— the judge painted Harris County as "a county of substance."

Emmett enumerated the programs and projects underway and in the queue, acknowledging the genuine and diligent work of the county's 15,000-plus employees.

He made mention of the ongoing, much-needed construction and expansion of roadways within the county, repeatedly referred to the contentious drainage issues and expressed appreciation for hard work put in by the Harris County Office of Emergency Management and the County Fire Marshal's Office during the wildfires in the fall.

In short, Emmett promoted Harris County as progressive and rapidly growing, with leaders committed to efficient and effective governing.

"The easy answer is to say the state of Harris County is good, far better than most governmental entities," Emmett said.

Emmett didn't dodge the corruption issue though.

"The county has had its share of scandals and, sadly, there will no doubt be more," Emmett told the crowd. He continued, "We need to do a better job of defining and enforcing the county's ethics policy, or we may need a stronger one."

In a press conference following the event, Emmett further expounded: The court will look to other cities and counties with strong models for structuring an ethics committee, where county employees can bring ethics complaints as well as ethics questions, since many past violations were honest mistakes. Emmett plans to take the issue to the Texas legislature if necessary, to implement a large-scale overhaul of county ethics programs.

The bottom line — "We can't turn our heads to scandal anymore."

And as for the Astrodome?

Emmett breezed through his address with no mention of the county-owned icon and eyesore that dominated last year's speech, but mentioned afterward that the court will receive a report commissioned by the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation next week, then choose a recommended option to put to voters.