When Adrian Heath returned to his home in The Woodlands last week after being released from prison on parole, he found a sign on his lawn hailing him as an "American hero."

Many conservatives in Montgomery County see Heath's incarceration as a noble act of personal sacrifice for a cause they embrace: exposing and holding accountable the quasi-governmental special districts that have fueled the county's growth.

"Adrian Heath has been putting himself out there to expose some of the corruption in this county," said John Wertz, a leader of the county's tea party organization, which arranged to have the sign installed on Heath's lawn.

Heath, 60, was released after serving six months of a three-year sentence handed down by a jury in 2012. Heath and three other defendants were convicted of illegally voting in a 2010 election for the board of the Woodlands Road Utility District.

They were among 10 people who checked into a Woodlands hotel, listed it as their voting address and ousted the board incumbents, 10-2, with the aim of shutting down the district. The defeated board members regained their seats through a lawsuit, and the district lives on.

As I discussed in a column last February, The Woodlands district offers an extreme example of the frequently criticized characteristics of special districts in Texas - namely, an ability to take on extraordinary levels of debt with little accountability or oversight. My colleague James Drew documented these issues in a series of articles last year.

Heath, an immigrant from Australia whose low-key demeanor belies an underlying intensity, isn't particularly keen on being seen as a martyr for a cause. But he does see a potential benefit in his personal difficulties.

"With regard to the RUD voters, we really had a tough time getting people to pay attention to this issue," Heath told me by phone Monday. "But once prison was looming, it did seem to trigger a significant response from people."

Hundreds of people signed petitions calling for Heath's release, according to Wertz. Even the Montgomery County sheriff, Rand Henderson, wrote a letter on Heath's behalf to the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

"I reflected upon the fact that Mr. Heath consulted with a state regulatory agency that provides oversight for voter laws before he committed the crime for which he was convicted," Henderson wrote. "He acted upon the advice given him …"

Voters on vacant land

Throughout the case, Heath has maintained that officials in the Texas secretary of state's office told him that registering the hotel as his voting address would not be unlawful. The Texas attorney general at the time - Greg Abbott, now the governor - took a different view when he prosecuted Heath and the other defendants.

There is perhaps some irony in the fact that Heath was convicted of a voting offense, when voting procedures lie at the heart of the questions he and others have been asking about the way special districts work.

A developer planning a new subdivision in an unincorporated area needs a mechanism to pay for roads and utilities. Typically, the developer enlists a handful of people - sometimes paying them a fee - to establish residence and authorize bonds to pay for the infrastructure. The bonds are later repaid through taxes assessed on people who move into the homes the developer builds.

In one of his articles last year, Drew cited the example of a municipal utility district that came into being when a Houston developer arranged for two people to move their trailer to an empty field in Fort Bend County. They voted - unanimously! - to authorize up to $188 million in bonds.

"That's not how democracy is supposed to work," a resident of the development later told Drew.

Which is more legit?

Adrian Heath's parole will last 30 months. He's focused on finding work, and he still has to pay a $10,000 fine assessed at trial.

Across the state, meanwhile, developers continue to set up a few voters in mobile homes on vacant land to authorize debt that other people will repay years later. I await an explanation of how this is a more legitimate use of the franchise than what Adrian Heath and his friends did when they rented that hotel room seven years ago.