>> good morning, everyone. It is nine '06 a.m. I would like to call the august 6, 2026 meeting of the
harris county commissioners court to order. Commissioner garcia is on zoom, and commissioner garcia, go
ahead. >> thank you good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome a dear friend to lead us in prayer this morning.
I have had the distinct pleasure and honor and privilege to have
worked alongside this gentleman for a number of years since my days on city council. I will tell you that if there is
a way to describe consistent, constant, ever present, it is by
simply saying the name pastor david smith.
he presides with the new bethlehem missionary baptist
church baptist church and he is going to help lead us in prayer this morning but let me share a little bit about this
individual. Pastor smith has been presiding
over new bethlehem missionary baptist church and helping to preach the gospel of jesus christ, leading with a
kingdom focused vision inspired by proverbs chapter 29 verse 18
when there is no vision the people perish. He has been doing that for 40 years.
and I will tell you that the community is absolutely much
better because of him. A proud houston native, pastor smith is a graduate of macarthur senior high school,
general, attended the college of biblical studies and graduated from the southern reform college and seminary.
he has devoted his life to serving both the church, the
east jensen and northeast houston communities as the
founder and president of the houston northeast community
development corporation. He has championed initiatives that promote health and wellness, education advancement
and economic empowerment for through his practical bible
centred teaching, pastor smith encourages believers to deepen their faith and faithfully use their god given gifts to make a
lasting difference in the lives of others pastor smith has been
happily married to his beloved and beautiful wife linda, the
first lady of the church for 41 years. Together they are blessed with three beautiful daughters, all
who take after only the first lady.
he has three granddaughters, two grandsons, his greatest desire
is to leave a legacy marked by unwavering character, faithful
commitment and a life that honors god pastor smith, thank you for being here. I hate that I am not in your
immediate presence but just know that you are always top of mind for me and always appreciate the prayers and thoughts you send my
way on any given day. Pastor smith, you have the
podium. >> amen god bless you pierre good morning to everyone, to our county judge, to all of our
commissioners, to the directors of these various departments and to the public, god bless you this morning.
thank you for the opportunity to give the invocation this morning, commissioner garcia. Let us bow our heads for a
moment of prayer. Most holy righteous and everlasting father we come to you this morning with an
attitude of gratitude, thanking you because it was last night as we lied down in the very image of death.
we were unconscious to the things going on around us, even though we may live in gated communities, we may have set our
launch last night but it was your angels that you dispatched over us and you protected us and kept us from all hurt harm and
danger. It was you who touched us this morning with your theme of love and you woke us up to see a
brand new day. We thank you lord, that your mercy is new every morning and we thank you god that you gave
us your only begotten son jesus christ who came down to a
lost worth of sin, lived a sinless life but died a death on
a cross at calvary. He died, was buried rose again,
early sunday morning and declared our power, heaven and earth in his hands. After 40 days on this earth, he
took a glory cloud back to heaven and he left us the holy
spirit that speaks to us and guides us and reveals truth to
us, discloses and we just come to say thank you. We realize that we have all seen and come short of your glory but
we thank you that you are a prayer here in god and you are faithful in your just to forgive us of all unrighteousness so we
come to say thank you dear god, now we come this morning, we
come praying, we come praying for our county judge we come
praying for our commissioners we come praying for every director that is here today, that lead our harris county.
we thank you for the public, those who come to advocate,
those who come to express and are representatives of various
communities in harris county we come to say thank you. The word of god says in romans 13 that every soul is subject
under the power and not only just a power here on earth but
all powers on earth are subject unto the power of god and so god
you have ordained these representatives, our commissioners, our county judge, all the directors and everyone
who is in charge here you have ordained this day. You have ordained their positions and god, we are to
line it with you. So we want to say thank you and we pray you will continue to get wisdom, that you will continue
to give knowledge and that you would continue to give understanding. And sometimes we know that we
may not agree on everything but father god, let us be able to compromise and let us remember who they are representing.
they are representing the constituents of harris county. We say thank you, god, for all that you are doing and wherever
I come short on this prayer, I know that you are able and
faithful and loving to make up the difference. This we ask in your son name and they all said amen.
>> amen. >> thank you, pastor. Let's recite the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the united states of america and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the texas flag; I pledge
allegiance to thee, texas, one state under god, one and
indivisible. I pledge allegiance to the flag
>> okay, so some housekeeping. We have commissioner garcia
virtually. If you don't mind when you need to speak to put the little hand icon.
colleagues, if I don't see it please let me know. We will have speakers and then we will have corrections and we
will go through the consent agenda process. I would like to respectfully request to take item 349 ahead
of executive session. We have quite a few executive session items. Following executive session, we
will break for lunch break after lunch, right at 1:30 p.m.,
commissioner ellis request to take item 240.
I know we have a tier that's going to be here at the time.
then commissioner ellis requests to take items one and 313 together and then commissioner ramsey requests to take items
five and 329 before we go into the remaining discussion list then we will go into the remaining items for discussion.
how does that sound? Okay we will let all speakers
address the court tiffany, if you could introduce the speakers. >> yes, ma'am.
speaking on items two and 16, eve speaking on items two and
16. Esmeralda speaking on item five. You each have one minute. >> good morning commissioners
court. My name is josette dowdell. I'm the area organizing director for esmie harris county and a
supporter of harris county workers. We would like to thank all of the county offices that have
worked together to implement the consultation policy.
since march, there hasn't there has been significant participation with the harris county workers, and we
appreciate the collaboration that has brought us to this point. From the workers perspective,
the most important priority is to stay on track for the october first effective date. We support providing additional
resources in the office of county administration, human
resources and talent and the county attorney's office determined they are needed we understand that each harris
county department has a designated grievance coordinator
to help address many of these matters for maintaining the
timeline demonstrates -- >> thank you, your time is up. >> I'm going to be careful to enforce the time limit with
everybody. Thank you. >> thank you. >> I would like to donate my
time to josette to finish her time. >> maintaining the timeline demonstrates the court's
commitment to improving communication, strengthening the
employee engagement and making this policy successful. Thank you for your leadership and your continued commitment to
the harris county workers. We look forward to continuing working with this commissioner's court.
thank you. >> thank you.
thank you all so much. Thank you.
>> esmeralda, crystal on item 115, kendall on item 126.
you each have one minute. >> good morning. My name is esmeralda. I live in precinct one.
I'm here demanding that commissioners stop funding surveillance like flock cameras. Flock cameras make us less safe,
not more. They track our daily movement which puts us at risk with surveillance, violence and
deportation. Flock cameras operate with no oversight and people have a right to know where these
cameras are, what information they gather and who has access to it right now, there are no clear answers to these questions
in harris county, we've seen harris county abuse flock data for personal reasons using a to stalk women.
that is what happens when powerful surveillance tools have no accountability. Once our taxes fund these
cameras, the data is entered into a nation wide network that any agency can access. For these reasons, I implore you
to stop -- through funding green spaces, libraries and real places on the ground. Harris county should not fund a
surveillance system that makes us less safe and less protective, especially for the immigrant families and the women
that call this country home. >> :and thank you commissioners.
I'm with the economy for working houston. I am proud to support the final passage of the worksite safety
policy. This policy ensures that workers who build our city and keep it running are provided with safety
protections that will ensure that they can do their job safely and with protection from retaliation.
this policy also provides clarity for contractors to ensure that they understand what to expect and what standards are
required. It lays out accountability measures that are fair, enforceable and designed to keep
workers safe without being unnecessarily prohibitive. I want to express gratitude to the county staff who have worked
on developing and implementing this policy and thank you all for keeping harris county workers safe on the job.
>> thank you. >> shanice flax on item five.
crystal casey on item 115. Cesar espinosa on item 240 and
lynda morales on item 240. You each have one minute.
>> hello, commissioners. I'm new economy for working
houston. I'm here to encourage you today to make sure that working people and their needs are met with
this new budget. Houstonians are working so hard to just pay their bills, to buy groceries, to take care of their
kids making sure that you plan the budget according to our
needs. People's needs for housing, health care, good jobs and the ability to live in harris county
are how we keep our cities safe and secure so thank you.
>> thank you. >> good morning.
I'm with the gulf coast labor and -- is here to speak on 240 but support item number 2, the consultation policy and item
number 126, I urge you to support agenda 240. This is not a vote against the law enforcement, it is not a
vote on immigration policy, it is a vote for the public's right to know the truth through an independent, impartial review of
a death that has shaken our community. If enforcement actions are carried out in vehicles that are
not clearly identifiable as law enforcement and without lights or sirens that people commonly recognize, any driver
could be confused or frightened. I also ask this court not to lose sight of the bigger picture that this body not forget that
we must continue investing in immigration legal services.
these funds are part of the same larger public commitment to justice, accountability, due process and legal representation
for. >> thank you, your time is up. >> thank you so much. >> good morning, my name is
cesar espinosa and I'm executive director. Today I'm asking for the support in item number 240 to support
and truly support a full and independent investigation on the
murder that happened on the morning of july 7th in magnolia
park. For those people who may be against it, put yourself in his shoes, literally and what would
you do if unmarked, masked people in houston, texas,
westchester brown jaka? Today, this morning, and I take
this as a sign I found this memento cactus soccer ball that was given to us at the memorial of lorenzo, something that
should have never existed because lorenzo should still be
with us today. So keep this in mind as you move forward and the family, the community and the nation
deserves transparency and accountability. >> thank you, your time is up. >> thank you.
>> chris mccarthy on item 240, sergio lira, item 240 and 354,
jacob clements, item 241. You each have a minute to.
>> good morning, my name is chris mccarthy, I'm congressman garcia's chief of staff first I want to express
gratitude to everyone who assisted with the congressional field hearing last week. It was an exceptional effort by
everyone, the judge's office, the county administrator and her team did a phenomenal job and the congresswoman -- secondly, I
want to express her support for agenda item 240 for the funding
for the investigation. Unfortunately, we have seen the federal government is not investigating in good faith and
so right now we need to rely on harris county and our da to
deliver justice for our community. She is fully supportive of this measure.
she can't be here this morning but thank you commissioner ellis for bringing it up. We hope everyone will support it
thank you. >> thank you so much. >> tell your boss I got a note. I know she was up early.
she texted me at 6:00 a.m. Tell her I was awake and I knew you were coming. >> good morning, everyone I
represent council 4967. I want to speak on the harris
county program. I just want you to imagine ten whales going up a hill called economic prosperity.
eight of the whales are white whales. Two of them in 2020 are smarter whales and they represent
minority women, asians, african americans and latinos. Those two whales, if they stop going up that hill and someone
suspends this program, those two small whales are going to roll back down the hill and we cannot allow that to happen.
second of all, I want to thank commissioner ellis for your support in the sean tier investigation.
is doing a fabulous job and he is doing an independent
investigation. We stand here for justice for lorenzo and I want to help -- I. Want to thank you and all
of you who voted last week on the resolution of antiice
policies thank you and we are going to stay here until we find justice. Thank you.
>> that is right. Thank you.
>> this comes from precinct one a request for discussion and
possible action on the economic impacts and the 2026 fifa world
cup for harris county and harris county sports.
it should be done. It should be discussed and
action taken and unless you get a pay raise -- that's what I s
say. The honorable tom ramsey, I have
a yard sign and he wants me to give it to you so do you want to
have a yard sign from ken pa paxton?
>> thank you. >> next is regina duncan
speaking virtually on item 135. You have one minute.
>> thank you so much. Thank you so much. Hello, everybody and commissioner garcia.
we are so grateful for the opportunity to work together again on this grant project. It is much needed.
the current generator, sometimes it's getting harder to get equipment or material for it and we experienced surges out here
so it's not just emergency basis so we are so grateful for that opportunity again and just want to say thank you.
>> it's a pleasure, thank you for being here. >> yes, sir, thank you all. >> next is pre-west shama on
item 254, lauren hodge on item 269 and alexis villarreal on
item 326. Do you each have one minute.
>> good morning, judge and commissioners. I am here to represent minority women businesses, which are
mostly local houston businesses fear my farm is family owned and
was founded 33 years ago here at the heart of houston.
and wb programs have kept our business for three plus decades
here taking these certifications away will hurt small businesses in a grave manner. These businesses as we all know
are backboned off the economy. Small businesses like mine
employ local houstonians. I would request you reassess the proposed agenda item. Thank you.
>> ma'am, can you state your name for the record? >> I am priya sharma. >> thank you.
>> good morning. I'm lauren hodge, an attorney speaking on item 269. We greatly appreciate the time
that the commissioners this morning but after the request to be on the agenda for approval, the issuer was provided with
additional information confirming the development is located within the city of houston city limits and as such
the county's approval is not required. Thank you. >> good morning.
my name is alexis and I'm here on behalf of mental health america of greater houston in support of agenda item 326 we
are here to support the harris county public defender's office and their strong stewardship of public trust and dollars through
meaningful partnerships with community based organizations like ours. Their work ensures that low
income individuals have access to high quality legal representation and their partnerships allow them to
provide a more holistic defense for their clients. Through our care connect program, we partner with the
public defender's office to connect clients and their
families to mental health and substance use services across a network of more than 900 providers statewide our
bilingual helpline and pro bono counsel program ensures access
to care regardless of ability to pay. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to holistic
community based solutions and we look forward to continuing to grow this work together. Thank you.
next on item 326, item 327 and 354.
you each have one minute. >> good morning.
thank you for being here. I am here representing magnificent houses. Thank you for the opportunity to
speak about the importance of community partnerships and the
value of the collaboration through memorandums of
understandings and magnificent houses in the harris county public defender's office. At magnificent offices, we serve
our community's most valuable residents including individuals experiencing homelessness, those facing barriers to stability and
to many returning from incarceration. When individuals leave the justice system they often face
impossible choices. With this mou, we are able to give multiple options and not be a.
but a, in someone's life and future. Thank you for the opportunity. >> good morning, commissioners
my name is cassandra fox known as chef kassi, even in the
harris county space, as I was born and raised and still reside and proudly do business in the city of houston and harris
county both. I'm a proud owner of chef cassie
stable, a minority business enterprise. I stand before you today because people have believed in me and
believed in my business and deserved the opportunity to compete equally. I was selected because many
times small businesses deliver exceptional quality and also we
are the executors and we are still hands on in our business.
supplier diversity didn't guarantee me success but it did give me access to everything after that I earned on my own by
building relationships in rooms just like this one. My business has worked with large companies like walmart
across the great state of texas but now the conversation of removing that bridge before others come behind me is up for
discussion. Protect supplier diversity. >> thank you, your time is up. >> good morning.
my name is arletta sykes and I serve as the director for dale divergent and jail reentry at the harris institute for mental
health I'm here today to show our support for the manage the
sign council. The partnership between the mcc team and the harris centre is an example of how the criminal
justice system and behavioral health services can work together to improve outcomes. Through this collaboration we
are able to connect individuals with resources they need while continued justice involvement. The mcc team plays a vital role
for advocating for their clients access to housing, treatment benefits and other services today, we are creating
opportunities for stability, reducing recidivism and helping individuals successfully reintegrate into the community.
thank you for your continued support of partnerships that strengthen our justice system and improve the lives of harris
county residents that may be dealing with barriers and mental health. Thank you.
>> thank you. >> veronica weaver rivers on
item 354. Adriana davis on item 354 and brian jackson on item 354. You each have one minute for
>> good morning. My name is veronica weaver
rivers, speaking in support of supplier diversity. I am a new small business owner one year in, a professional
-- a. Licensed professional engineer like commissioner ramsey and a disabled veteran who honorably served in the u.s.
army for the counties and wbe program is supported by data in the disparity study. It is a tool that is rooted in
facts and should inform fair policy decisions. I urge the court to protect this program so small minority women
and disabled veteran business owners like myself can continue
to participate in the market access opportunity and strengthen the local economy. Thank you.
>> thank you. >> good morning, judge, commissioners and directors I am adriana davis, the founder and
executive director of the harmony grace foundation.
county nonprofit dedicated to supporting neonatal intensive care unit families and advancing maternal health.
as a black woman leading a nonprofit, I know the importance of access to opportunity, it matters.
programs like harris county and wb program help ensure organizations and businesses like mine have a fair chance to
compete, grow, create jobs and expand impact. This program is about fairness, opportunity and building a
stronger harris county where qualified nonprofit businesses
can exceed -- can succeed. Thank you for your time and
consideration. >> thank you.
>> :honorable judge and honorable commissioners good to see you today my name is crystal casey with unicorn.
I'm a local business owner third generation harris county resident. I strongly support ai and tech
for permitting and I commend the court for moving these items forward. It's important to know that ai
cannot fix a flawed system. Real improvement requires technology but specifically for the ahj, that both the applicant
and reviewer are facing capabilities for permitting and plotting. From 22 to 24, we engage with a
foreign owned company on the agenda item today. Their focus was primarily cad files, pdf processing took
24 hours. We were never able to upload actual plans and local officials requested performance data and
none were ever provided so we moved on for as a third
generation resident of precinct one who is deeply involved in permitting and planning, I felt it was important to speak up
here at the end of the day it's in god's hands but we are called to share the knowledge we've been given.
>> thank you, your time is up. >> thank you.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners. I'm brian jackson. I am a small business owner and
I am here to express my support for the nw db program.
I ask that you humbly take it upon yourself the difficult task of not only protecting the program but strengthening it.
I have worked with the county since 2019. I have seen the progress that you have made with your
political will and I ask that you take that political will and strengthen the program even further.
thank you. >> next is terry rich in on item
five, darnell joseph on item 354, milton thibodeau on item
354. You each have one minute. >> good morning. My name is terry chen, I'm the
senior community organizer and resident of precinct one. The number 1 concern of our community members is the fear to
move around our own hometown to simply be anywhere outside of the home in fear of deportation. You need to stop funding mass
surveillance tech such as flock cameras which ice has been using with local law enforcement. You can put guardrails on
companies that profit off of mass surveillance. They turn fear and death into a commodity.
last I checked, surveillance cannot prevent crime, they just prevail at. Historically targeted
communities such as black and brown people, immigrants, women and trans people are getting targeted and criminalized for
living when we talk about what community keeps us safe, our community is what programs like heart, they want language access
child care, food security, access to health care, good public transportation, affordable housing or
protections from the next big hurricane. Please use our taxes to keep us safe by investing in our
communities and stop flock spending. Thank you. >> thank you.
>> good morning, court and judges. My name is darnell joseph. I'm president and ceo of a
company called make steel fabrication. I'm here in support of the mwb program.
it's very simple, if we are not in the room, if we don't have the conversations, we don't have the friends, we don't get that
access. So in the effort of an mba program that at least allows us to be in the room when the
conversations are being had. As an mba recently, I was able
to hire several people because of the mba program and that's really what it's all about. We are audited and it's all
because of the mba program and it's not something that you just
give an mba. You still have to bond, you still have to make sure you can do the work and you still have
to deliver the bottom line, it's very important to keep the mba
program going because it allows other people that are not friends and not automatically in the room to be in the room.
so I am in support of it. Thank you so much.
>> thank you. >> good morning.
I am milton thibodeau, president of the greater houston business
procurement forum. I would like to thank county judge hidalgo and the county commission for giving me the
opportunity to speak for just a bit about the harris county and wb program. As recent as this past may 26,
we hosted doing business with harris county, which included
many of the most active harris county departments in all of the
major precincts. You have continued to perform,
you never stop working in lightning and strengthening the
program. As a result, I am in total
support of the county's program and your continued efforts to
enlighten, grow and develop the communities we live and serve.
my sincere appreciation and thank you for your opportunity
for. >> doctor ashley atkins on item 254. Lennart johnson on item 254.
non-agenda speaker lopez -- you each have one minute to. >> good morning and thank you all for having me.
I'm dr. Ashley atkins, president and ceo of the greater houston black chamber of commerce I'm here today to encourage the
court's continued support of the program recent federal rulings
attempted to dismantle this initiative across the region and it ignores an undeniable reality.
disparities are real and they persist. Data from the city of houston study reveals that while mwb
accounts for over 28% of city contracts, black firms capture a
mere 5.5%. Most critically, this study identified significant disparities for black-owned
businesses across all categories especially professional services
without remedies like the mwb program, these barriers will
widen. This program is not a preference, it is vital to the economic lifeline of many small
businesses and the city of houston as a hole. For ghb c., our members and essentially all minority
entrepreneurs in the city of houston -- >> thank you, your time is up. >> thank you.
>> good morning, judge, good morning, commissioners.
education and line development -- education and mind development in its totality are the quintessential elements for
all human prosperity. For without them, what can one
do? We are part of a community and
of course the mwb program is a part of the community and
needed. I am the executive director of immanuel educational services and we have come up with a
program that has developed a nonpartisan civic engagement
education initiative designed to help residents better understand local government, public finance, civic responsibilities
and opportunities for constructive community
participation. So I am asking you all to help us help you help us. Thank you.
>> can you please state your name for the record? >> bernard johnson. >> thank you.
>> good morning, thank you for having me. I am an associate professor at the university of texas in the
cancer centre. The reason I am visiting today is because I am part of a new initiative to collect
researchers like me with local policy makers -- counties across
the united states for the project covers any child and
family policy challenge that you are facing in our county. Here is a bit of how it works. First I'm visiting to introduce
myself today and after the meeting, I will send follow up emails describing the initiative and include a way to sign up to
meet with me. I also ask you to forward it to
others who do work-related to children and family agencies in our county. For those who respond I will
have a short meeting to learn about the challenge in family policies you are focusing on and where you think research would
be helpful. Based on that I will create a tailored research brief with relevant research and share it
with you. >> thank you, your time is up.
>> next is douglas hemmerich, non-agenda speaker, broderick
butler and one more. You each have one minute.
>> good morning. I'm here speaking about harris county animal control and harris county pets, harris county
health. With their transparency, they have a tendency of hiding things. I've had an ongoing issue with them for four years with my pet
bobcat. I know it is a very niche thing but I have since found there are many that have exotic animals
like this I have requested emails and anything related to
my case. Instead of freely giving them to me, they waited until the last minute and then sent it to ken
paxton because they are trying to hide the fact that they have changed rules after the fact. The pamphlet said one thing, the
affidavit said another thing. Was in my favor but they didn't like that. Somebodys ego.
unfortunately, you can't have a regulation or rule that you can't abide by there's not an area in harris county.
I paid for a survey showing t this.
>> thank you. We will visit with you before you leave, sir. >> I live in precinct four.
we bring to you today as houstonians an issue of our funds being wasted on alpr they do not keep us safe here if
anything, it's the opposite. Unfortunately but not surprisingly there have been a number of incidents where
law enforcement abuses a lp ahs to stop people specifically women or sending out tickets to the wrong people because the ai
read a licence plate incorrectly. Our funds should be spent on pollution control because it's
directly required -- requiring ai data centres to be built on our community, specifically black and brown communities,
affording housing and living infrastructure. I urge you to not fund a lp in harris county.
>> thank you. >> good morning, judge and
commissioners my name is broderick butler and I'm a resident of northeast houston harris county.
I wanted to sincerely thank the court for approving harris
county district repairs to project p118 -- 09-00-x01 for
the tributary that runs through my neighborhood of scenic woods. Repairs began two weeks ago and are expected to be completed in
about nine months. In 2019, I stood before this court and asked that this project received the attention
it deserves. Today I am grateful to return simply to say thank you. Your decisions show that the
residents voices matter and the response government can make a real difference for these repairs will improve drainage,
reduce flood risk and help protect the families of scenic wood and we celebrate this progress.
I encourage you to continue investing in flood mitigation
projects throughout the northeast harris county whereas my community still faces -- >> thank you, your time is up.
>> thank you, sa. >> next is non-agenda speaker
and -- stephen and noah, you each have one minute.
>> good morning judge hidalgo, fellow commissioners my name is
stephen fraga. I'm with teo's office products. We are a distributor of office supplies and related products in
the houston area. We've been in business for 64 years. My father started the company
along with my mother. We are in support of keeping the
mwb program. Like many have said here, the program provides us opportunity. We still don't have -- we still
have to be financially sound, we still have to run our company like a majority owned company. A lot of you folks have
advocated for these programs at the state level your commissioner ellis, the hub program, what they've done to
that is destroyed a lot of companies here it's very important that harris county does not follow what the city
did and does not follow what the state did. We just need opportunity. We just need access and that's
what these programs have offered us. Thank you very much. >> -- name is noah melendrez.
I live on precinct one. Today on behalf -- I'm here on behalf of my friend brian. One of the county services I am
most proud of is that we provide low cost mental health to all houstonians and not just the wealthy.
I'm sure you agree that the counselors who do this work deserve all the support we can give them unfortunately, as
wayne young was finishing his tenure as ceo, the board voted to give mr. Young a bonus while cutting benefits to counselors
as well as attempting to disempower the union that represents counselors. I encourage you to look into the
recent decisions the harris centre board made around this work if you agree our mental health professionals deserve
better, I encourage you to ask the board to reverse their decision as they can as a show of respect and good faith to
these workers. Since I have time, please cancel the flock contracts. Thank you.
>> next is non-agenda speaker coretta brown. You have one minute. >> good morning, judge and
commissioners my name is coretta brown and I am the founder -- we
joined a coalition, harris county coalition to end cyberbullying. I'm here today because
cyberbullying and online harassment are no longer just social issues they are public safety issues.
everyday harris county residents are subjected to online threats,
intimidation, impersonation -- and defamatory attacks that can destroy careers, damage mental health and in some cases lead to
physical violence or suicide. While I fully support and
respect the first amendment, some of these threats are not covered under the first amendment and so today I
respectfully ask this court to direct the appropriate county department to study the creation of a dedicated cyber harassment
investigation unit or to allocate investigators within the harris county district county attorney's
office to receive and evaluate complaints involving potential
criminal online conduct. >> thank you, your time is up
here. >> that is all of the speakers,
judge. >> thank you so much. Let me go over any corrections item for, oc request no action.
144, council precinct one request no action.
191, d.a. Request no action item 240 we need to add:bye bye
commissioner precinct one commissioner precinct two, commissioner precinct four and the county judge.
commissioner precinct one, two, three, four and county judge for action et cetera. 241 precinct one request no
action. 333 purchasing request, no
action. 342, we have a correction we need to replace the word estate with the word property so it
says and the guest for real property broker services.
and item 348, we need to replace the agenda caption so it reads
request for approval to uphold the office of purchasing agent
determination pure courteous and concluded that the evidence presented by the protester did not meet the burden of proof
necessary to rescind the may 142026 award under the harris county protest and appeals procedures.
specifically under the provision that alleges an error of law by the purchasing agent peer commissioners court
determination of the appeal will be the final administrative action of harris county and shall exhaust all administrative
remedies available to the firm. No further appeal will be permitted. Did I miss any corrections?
>> judge, I think item 269 is no action as well.
>> item 269, all right. Item 269 is no action.
I'm just trying to figure out what that one is.
those are family housing revenue bonds. Anything else? Okay.
let's move on to the consent agenda.
executive session items. Item two, I believe we have to
go to executive session for. Is that right? >> yes, judge. >> okay, the consultation policy
item 254, this is on the mwb program executive session.
>> yes, judge. >> item 300 is on executive
compensation for certain appointed officials. Commissioner ellis, do we need to go to executive session on
that one? >> yes.
>> 301, appointment of doctor kampani to lead the institute of
forensic sciences. We need to go into executive session? >> I am supportive.
>> you are good so we will put that on the consent agenda. Did the administrator say something?
>> judge. >> yes, commissioner garcia?
>> yes, judge, I just want to say that I to support the
appointment of the doctor but I also want to thank him for his
strength and leadership in this recent tragic event involving
mr. Saldano. I appreciate his strength and
steadiness to maintain independence in his important work. Thank you, doctor.
>> I couldn't agree more. Thank you for saying that.
>> that will show approved as presented.
>> thank you, yes. Okay. Now let's keep going here. Item 302, county attorney on
economic development options. We go to executive session on that. 303, data and cybersecurity
needs, I'm guessing yes? >> yes.
>> and then we have 323, that is on civil rights litigation?
>> yes. >> 324, it is an approval with
-- approval of an agreement. >> only if you have questions.
>> does anyone have questions on 324?
do we need to discuss in executive session? >> if the commissioner has questions, we have to do it in
executive session. >> commissioner ramsey, I believe your microphone may be off here 351 is landscape
consultants of texas versus harris county, texas.
354 and wb executive session 355, compensation for certain
officials executive session. >> yes, judge. >> we have executive session 254, 300, 302, 303, 323, 324,
351, 354, 355. Regular agenda.
item one, I know we would like to discuss and we would like to take items one and 313 together. They are both about selling
real estate assets. Item three, puck.
commissioner ramsey, would you like to discuss that? >> yes. >> item five, we will take with
329 and 349. They are all related to the county budget. >> can we add five so it will be
five, 329 and 349. >> five, 329 and 349.
item seven, commissioner briones?
>> yes. >> item eight, commissioner ramsey and mobility budget. Item 14, commissioner ramsey.
the paid mental health leave. Okay.
item 15 requested by commissioner ramsey.
hrt. >> yes. >> item 16, commissioner ramsey, we would take with item 18 as
they relate to employee matters so then item 18 as well.
item 115, commissioner ramsey. A I. Okay, 126, ramsey and brian is on worksite safety.
>> yes, please. >> 130, commissioner ramsey on
the food and beverage expenditures.
133, commissioner ramsey gift card on wellness on wheels
135 commissioner garcia, cvdgr. >> item 136 commissioner garcia
in a local agreement with the city of port.
168, commissioner ramsey and brian is on an amicus brief.
>> yes, please. >> 228, brian, this is on bear
creek village subdivision. >> , please.
>> 240, commissioner ellis. I know this is on the da
investigation. 273, commissioner briones, energy efficiency fund. 274, commissioner briones, the
harris county strategic plan and action. 289, commissioner briones update on the erp transformation
strategy project. 291, commissioner briones, the access to care report and low cost clinic finder.
310, commissioner ramsey, this is on the regular court meeting
for october sixth and turning october 15th business meeting
into a regular court meeting. So we will put item 310 back on
the consent agenda. 313 we will take with item one on real estate asset sales. 325 is flagged by commissioner
ramsey on 17 positions for the county attorney.
326, precincts one and four, harris county public defender's
office. 327 that's flagged by commissioner briones. 329 we will take with item five
and then the other 15 and 329 and then 332, commissioner
ramsey, this is on an agreement with cgl management group for
337, commissioner ellis, design, build and construction services
for riverside pier 346, commissioner briones. North central texas council of governments, cooperative
contract award for 349, commissioner ramsey and county judge on the 2026 tax rate. Let me go through the final list
it is here, executive session items two, 254, 300, 302, 303,
323, 324, 351, 354, 355. Regular agenda items one, three,
five, seven, eight, 14, 15, 16, 18, 115, 126, 130, 133, 135,
136, 168, 228, 240, 273, 274, 289, 291, 313, 325, 326, 327,
329, 332, 337, 346, 349, and that's it.
did I miss anything? >> I have a question, ma'am, on
item six. >> okay, item six.
that is request possible action for accounts receivable?
>> yes. >> anything else?
>> judge, may I please ask that we take item seven up when we
take up 30350 -- 355 because they are related.
>> yes, item seven when we take 30355. Just a moment here. We don't have 300 right now.
>> I believe that is in executive session. >> got it. Okay.
so would you like to take that one in executive session or?
>> just when we come out to make motions because they are inextricably linked in terms of posting notice et cetera.
that's why -- you are looking at me. >> when are we -- when we are making motions.
>> okay. So it will go with 355 and
number 7. Okay.
anything else? Okay.
so then is there a motion for all of the items one through 356
with the exception of items already voted on and discussion items just listed. >> second.
>> motion by commissioner ellis, seconded by commissioner briones. All in favor any opposed motion
carries unanimously. So we will begin the discussion
and the discussion is item 349 and then we will go into
executive session for ten items so that will probably take us
through lunch. So let me thank the speakers for
participating earlier. Item 349 is the early childhood
education item. My motion would be to set a
public hearing on august tenth, 2026, attending to consider for the harris county general fund the proposed 2026 tax rates per
$100 of taxable value .3796 for maintenance and operations and
0.05538 for debt service for a total tax rate of 0.4934 which
is greater than the voter approval rate for the purpose of maintaining a portion of critical harris county early
childhood programing and other relevant departments to execute
and publish all related notices as required by applicable law.
so that would be, I just sort of wanted to set the scene for all
of this. In 2022, we invested more than
$149 million in federal american rescue plan funding for early childhood education programs we have served more than 97,000
families and kids. Right now, there are more than
30,000 families on the wait-list for subsidized child care in harris county, meaning they need child care but can't afford it.
so 30,000 families, an enormous number.
then we ask why isn't there support from the state and some of the public schools and some other agencies so 30,000
families and children on a wait list is even despite what
already exist and despite the programs we already have.
so 30,000 people is the population of towns like key west florida and it fills about half of 60,000 person football
stadium. Going back here to the item, in
harris county, the average family spends more on child care than they would pay for the cost of in state college tuition at a
four year university. The average cost of one year of
college tuition at a four year university is $8195 for the
average family in harris county spends $11,000 per year on child
care for one of the most impactful programs is early
reach, which provided children with free high quality early childhood education who wouldn't have been able to afford early
childhood care otherwise and allowed the parents to work who
perhaps otherwise wouldn't have been able to do it. The program has been evaluated four times by brazelton
touchpoints and independent evaluators so the program has
been evaluated for times by an independent evaluator that we
selected via an rfp process, a competitive process.
they found that early reach has found child care more affordable
that early reach has improved kids socio emotional development
and that early reach is strengthening the early
childhood workforce. Today, I am proposing letting
the voters decide whether to continue funding our successful
early childhood programs with a penny.
-- a. Penny tax would be in addition to the tax bill of an average homeowner in harris county.
so this is $10 per $100,000 of home value per year so actually,
the average is around $250,000 so an average of $25 increase
for the average taxpayer. This would generate
$66.6 million to fund the early reach and other successful programs, including programs to improve the skills of the early
childhood workforce and all of these early childhood education
facilities are meeting the absolute highest standards.
again, is not just a matter of having facilities that meet the standards, it's a matter of the children and families being able
to afford this. $66.6 million pales in
comparison with some other major investments that have been made without going to the voters. And this is the key thing that I
am asking my colleagues to consider. Colleagues, I'm not asking you to vote for a tax increase for
taxpayers. That's not what I'm asking for. I am asking you to let the voters decide whether they would
like to pay a penny tax in order to fund early childhood
education. The request is simply will you put this on the ballot to let voters decide?
I believe that we should be willing to live with the verdict of the people of harris county. We do that when we put our names
on the ballot and we should do that when we have items that are
as important as this one. There are item -- other items we've passed without discussion that I've said we need to put on
the ballot and this one I would like to give the constituents
the opportunity to decide. A "yes" vote is not a vote to
raise taxes, it is simply allowing the people of harris county to vote this november on whether or not they would like
to pay a penny tax to continue early childhood education.
it will help increase turnout. Already, a lot of people are going to come out this november. It is only fair for them to be
able to vote because we all are already running this election so it's not going to be a negligible increase in the cost
of running this election. Let us not fear our own
constituents. There has been fear to put this before constituents since 2013. In 2013, a group of community
leaders requested that this go before the public.
the people sitting behind this dais refused to put this before the voters. This happened around this time
last year. Let us not fear our own constituents. Let us live with the verdict of
our constituents. Let us not vote for a tax
increase in fact, we could advocate against it but let the
voters decide. These programs are so worthy,
and I have such faith in the people of this county and their
judgment. My idea is simply to ask them if they are willing to pay a penny more to keep these programs
going, around $26 a year for the average homeowner.
on this issue and any issue, I am happy to live with the
verdict of the people on harris county and certainly let's not
default on the promise we made when we decided to support these programs and over the years have said we will continue to support
these, we will ask the voters. There are parents, there are
children who had a plan for their lives, whose services for
early childhood kaku's ability to go to work, whose ability to put their kids in early childhood cactus as their -- my
colleagues put their kids in early childhood is going to be cut short at the end of this year.
already, if we vote for this, there will be a one year gap but this will allow us to at least be able to continue it in the
future. All I am urging you to do is to
simply make sure that we hear the people that we recognize
that this is a worthy, successful evaluated and
admirable cause, that unlike pretty much every other
jurisdiction, republican or democrat that has passed an early childhood bonder, put it to the voters.
we have a working program. Pretty much every other jurisdiction, I don't know of one that did it like us.
first they put it to the voters and then they built the program. It was not clear that the program would be successful or
not. Our program is already successful. Let us not kill the program, let
us let the voters decide. That is my request.
my request and plea to my colleagues.
commissioner ramsey? >> thank you, judge.
I think as we discussed taking issues to the voters, such as
the early childhood program, obviously there is a clear need
there, clearly there are dollars that would be needed to support
it. As we said, 1 penny, that's $64 million in terms of what would be taken to the voters.
I don't think you can talk about 349 cactus initiative, in terms
of taking something to the voters without understanding
where we are with the tax rate potential. We just had published, and it's been provided to us through a
transmittal in agenda item 329 where we understand clearly what
our likely tax rates. >> I motion -- motion by
commissioner ramsey seconded by commissioner briones. Any opposed motion carries unanimously.
>> we are currently, I'm going to use rough numbers, we are
currently $0.62. Remember, every one of those
pennies is $64 million we are at $0.62 is the current.
if tax rates have been since 2019,
they have been down as low as 58, 54 in that range.
we are roughly 62 right now. Based on what we understand the
budget and mr. Reynolds, thank you for what you do in making sure we understand what we are spending.
so many times people operate in the dark because they don't know what they're spending, they don't know what the costs are.
I think your office does a good job of maintaining the report and agenda item number 5 affirms that we are within
26 million give or take. Understand that 26 million
within a budget of 3 billion. Mr. Ramos is reporting that
level of detail, that level of understanding. It's not like we don't understand what our budget needs
are today but we also know our projected budget needs going
forward so just to give you a glimpse into your future
tax rate that we will consider, we are not considering a tax rate today. As judge hidalgo referenced, we
are only talking about taking one to the voters, should that be something we want to do. Please understand the tax rate
that we will be considering in just a few short weeks is
probably the greatest tax rate increase in the history of
harris county. It will likely go to $0.62 up to
probably into the 68-cent range. If the hospital district goes to
their var, voter approved rate, that could be as high as $0.71
per so we will discuss the merits of whether we do a voter
approved rate, whether we do a voter approved rate for the general but I think mr. Ramos, your budget is based on the
voter approved rate. Is that correct? >> for the general fund and flood control.
>> and that's roughly $0.68? >> thereabouts. A little less depending what happens.
>> but the hospital district, if it was a var, that is 72.
they may go -- they are having discussions and this is
premature in terms of really understanding what that number
is. But clearly if we simply adopted what the state legislature would allow us to do in terms of var,
it would be an increase of roughly 62 to 68, the largest increase since I have been on commissioners court for I think
the largest increase that I can find in the history of the county in one year. So we are facing some pretty
stiff headwinds. This is to find our statutory
responsibilities I understand out of the $3 billion budget
that we are anticipating, considering in the near future
the $3 billion budget we are considering in the future, over
500 million of those are nonstatutory activities I'm not
saying they are bad. I'm just saying we are having a
bad -- a. Hard time finding our statutory responsibilities. What are some of those? The court system.
every one of the entities involved in our court system, they are coming to us saying just to keep up, we are going to
need a few extra dollars to do this and a few extra dollars to
do that so we are going to have a very interesting next few
weeks deciding what we are going to fund or not fund.
but I can probably guarantee you based on the budget needs that
are on there, if we just fund what we did last year with some
few minor cuts, we are going to be at a very high tax rate, a
very high increase for a given year and again, we are going to
be having those discussions in the coming weeks. My recommendation is we go with a "no" new revenue rate.
that's going to cause a lot more of a need to look at everything
we do and how we do what we do here I am pointing those things
out as we consider judge hidalgo's proposal to take
it to the voters. I for one would not agree that
this would be an item we would take to the voters. There would probably be others that could be but at this point
I think we need to do our homework on our budget before we get to the tax rate. But no, we have some stiff
headwinds on our tax rate co coming.
>> commissioner ramsey, may I respond to some of that?
I agree that we need to make sure that the discussions going
forward, irrespective of this about the tax rates that are,
take into consideration, what the voters, what we think the
voters might like to see. Of course when we set the
tax rate later on this year, we just set it. We don't have to approve it. We set it by virtue of the fact
that we were elected and we decide. I am proud of the fact that every year since we took office
the tax rate has been lower than it was under my predecessor. It has gone down every year. It went up one year and anyway,
we have not decided what it will be this year I think that's a separate conversation. I think that what we have in
front of us right now is are we willing to put this before the
voters? Are we willing to let the voters decide? Are we willing to live with the
verdict of the voters on this matter? And just to put this in perspective, there is another
expense that I have been saying I would have liked for this to go to the voters and I talked to the folks, this big pay increase
that we did. It was going to cost $300 million a year starting in a couple of years.
right now it's every year that we are phasing it in. $300 million a year compared to early childhood would be 66.
so $300 million a year cost $118 for the average household in
harris county we did not go to the voters on that.
I said let's go to the voters on that item. I will push back early childhood education, that was last year.
we did not go to the voters on that. And that's why the vote is so tight.
because instead of contributing to the justice system, to flood
control, we made the unilateral decision.
so I think there is certainly merit in what you are saying,
commissioner. I just think it is two different things and if we are talking about needs, we made this
unilateral decision to allocate $300 million a year to raises
for a particular set of people and therefore to have to make
the respective cuts or in the future have to figure out how we are going to pay for that, and we did not ask the voters.
so this is simply a penny and I am pleading with you that we go
to the voters. I think that you can certainly vote against it, you can certainly campaign against it
but I think there is no excuse to not let the voters decide,
especially when we've been discussing this since last year. We've known about the financial outlook of the county for
several years. And again cactus does not have anything to do with the tax rate that we are going to set, that
is a unilateral decision. This goes to the voters. I'm with you, that I don't want to see a high tax rate.
I don't believe that it was wise to put $300 million of expenses
without going to the voters and so it's hard for me to justify a
tax increase in order to fund something that the voters did not agree to. This I am just asking for us to
live with the verdict of the voters and therefore to be willing to ask the voters what they would like to let the
voters decide. This is not a proposal to increase taxes cactus is a proposal to let the voters
decide so that the children of harris county have the
opportunity to have child care just as the children of the folks on this dais and people that work for us, behind us have
the opportunity to put their children in early childhood
education so that their children can have a strong start in life.
commissioner ellis, did you have a comment? Commissioner ramsey? >> quickly, judge.
thank you. The 2023 tax rate we adopted was $0.53 per the 2024 tax rate we adopted was $0.60 per the 2025
tax rate we adopted was 0.62 $0.04.
so the last two years have been significant increases in the
tax rate and if we adopted the var including the hospital district this year, that would be $0.71.
I'm just saying to put it in the context of where we are on a
tax rate because in this time of affordability where you can't
turn on the tv, that's what people want to talk about.
for us to be considering a significant tax increase this
year would be not listening to the folks that are out there.
so just putting a number out there as we look forward to going through our budget discussions.
these tax rates have not been agreed to at this point in terms of what we're going to do this year.
we've got to work through our budget which is an appropriate thing to do but these are the numbers, these are the rates
these are where we are and as a point of context.
thank you. >> commissioner ellis. Just briefly, I commend your commitment to the notion of
child care. I think all of us are committed to it. I do think that it would be good
if other parties, the state in particular took an interest in
the subject. At some point the federal government may take an interest in it, they have in the past
where it would be good if other local units of government stepped up. But on the broader issue, I want
to say how proud we should all be that with the federal money that came to us, we created unprecedented programs to really
help take people out of poverty. I think that when we had the
opportunity, we didn't do what many others around the state and the country did. They took the money to fill
holes. Even when they did it, those were programs that would end. Even if they supplemented the
budget, once the federal money went away, they had to figure out how to fill it up here so it was a good thing.
you and all of us, I think ought to be proud peer commissioner ramsey, you as well, and your predecessors, for the things
that we did when we had that money. And I made the comment when we did that, there were a lot of
people who felt like we would raise expectations and what would we do when the money went away?
one that I championed, and you supported, judge, was the
guaranteed income program. I remember some commentators said what would you say to those people who don't win in the
lottery? And my response was I never take the position of government I'm not going to help anybody
because I can't help everybody, we could just turn off the lights and get out of here. When we have the opportunity, we
put a large amount of money. I think housing, you were helpful, what was the largest category of the administrator,
the largest category of what we put our federal money, the
biden-harris money, do we put it in housing or child care? >> housing. >> what was number 2?
>> child care. >> that's pretty significant because we didn't have to do that here so I hope, judge, you
feel good. You championed that issue. I think at some point child care was largely we couldn't get the
money out. It would be slightly larger but they were close to one another. Mr., well we owned this subject
because I assume -- I. Assume this motion is not going to get a second pair for what it's worth, I made the motion twice
to go to voters. I know the state was setting us up when we did that we've had unprecedented growth in this
county, and it's going to keep growing. It's interesting, our colleagues, there's no cap on
the sales tax at state. They keep slapping that up here but the most painful form of taxation is to ask people for
money on their property. It's a big challenge. For what it's worth, I want that laid out here but just take us
back down history lane so we know how we got to where we are here I am defining even if we agree, what we are dealing with
is a structural deficit when I was a banker, if you had a
shortfall five years in a row, used to be three years in a row, we say structural. But five years in a row, that is
a structural deficit. And we are out of smoke and
mirrors. If all this stuff passes, selling property, fire sale, everything you come up with, if
all of the smoke and mirrors are gone, when we come back in the next cycle, we are still going to have that shortfall.
these one time fixes are nice. I was a merchant in debt, I know about that business. Here's my sense of how we got to
where we are. First, when the revenue cap passed, a couple of our colleagues for whatever reason
disagreed they didn't come. We found out that language in the statute, four people have to be in a room so we ended up
losing $100 million. >> that's compounded to $150 annually. >> it will never come back.
>> correct. >> the second time it happened, we made the money up here. >> I know the one time shortfall
of 95. >> I'm saying that commissioner ramsey because it wasn't you, it was before.
so the 150, that continuous hole was still there.
and then we made up a number of decisions, one being that we
decided that we would -- once I saw with the votes, even if it
was late I figured I'm going to take the heat. If you can't ask the voters for more money if it's for
law enforcement, you think I'm going to get it for housing?
I am no genius but if you did a little polling, I don't think
housing or child care or a host of other issues would be nearly
as universally supported enough to get at least get 50 plus one.
but you know, we didn't do that so I have done it twice and I
don't plan to ever do it again. I may change my mind but we've
got to make tough decisions. I don't think any of us ought to feel bad over what we have done here when we had money coming
from the federal government we could have done what the state did they just plug holes and then in a few areas where they
were strong, partizan political support, in my judgment, they did go do new things but we did not do that so despite the fact
that we can't continue a lot of those things that we started when we had the opportunity to make once in a lifetime
opportunities to help pull people out of generational poverty in harris county, we did it.
and for that, I am very proud. >> yes, commissioner garcia?
>> thank you. And I just want to add my comments as well that I am proud of the work that we have done
with our one time funding. We always knew and it was not
the mission statement but it was in a statement that we would not
be using this money or we would not be asking for money to
continue these programs right off the bat but we needed to
have evaluation. All that being said, in
fairness, I wanted to understand my precinct. I want to understand if what I hear from my constituents is
accurate and what I hear from my constituents on a daily basis is
that affordability is still not within their reach they are still struggling. And so in fairness, I pulled my
community regarding whether they would pay more property taxes for child care. And the answer was a resounding
no. So my vote here today, not to
support your motion, is not just because I don't want to do it
but I have heard from my constituents that this is not
the time to tax them more so for even a good program.
so I thank you for the work that you've done but I think that the
work that commissioner briones and I are doing with stakeholders will get us to a better place because I'm hopeful
that the governor and the state will see the way we are
constructing a strategic approach to addressing this important need will gain us the support of our much needed state
partner to get this done for our local community.
thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. And I do want to raise the point of affordability.
the whole idea behind this is to make child care more affordable.
that is the whole point. You may be able to afford child
care but tens of thousands of families in harris county
cannot. 30,000 families are on the wait-list they cannot afford to put their kids in school so that
they can go to work and make more money. They cannot afford to give their children the start in life that
you gave your children. And so this is an affordability
proposal. If we are talking about affordability. And if we are talking about what
the voters would like, let's go to the voters and ask them what they would like. I also pulled on this last year
and I shared the poll and it was with an independent pollster that looks at ballot items both republican and democrat.
we found that three quarters of people said child care was more
important, and they wanted to vote on this. They wanted to have a say on it. So yes, we've had great programs
and we can pat ourselves on the back for that I don't know if there's another program that helped 100,000 families.
I don't know if there's another program evaluated four times but if there is, let's put that before the voters let's put this
$300 million commitment before the voters.
and I'd like commissioner ellis's point of the smoke and mirrors because what we will see after this and what we are
seeing is this attempt to say we are going to try to get money
from the state. We have been trying to get money from the state and let's see if we can develop a committee.
we have had a committee for four years we've had the stakeholders, we've had the families, we've had the
nonprofits, we've had the for profits. So all of that we have done but there is nothing that is being
proposed that would raise or that would allow the voters to
decide on whether or not child care should be more affordable,
$60 million that would be collected for this. I don't see that in any proposal and I certainly do not see that
coming from the state any time soon.
we all know that they are not ones to send harris county
money. So I'm so sorry that this is your position, really. My heart hurts about it.
I don't have children but I know that people with children want the best start for their children.
it makes me so sorry that you are willing to give the best start to your children but you're not willing to let the
voters decide on whether they would like to see child care be
more affordable I'm so sorry for what we are telling the people of harris county that we do not trust them.
I am so sorry that the people of harris county will not have the
opportunity to vote on whether they would like to see more
affordable early childhood education. So the question before commissioners court is simple,
do we trust the people of harris county enough to let them decide
on whether or not they would like to see more affordable child care and we are not willing to let them decide.
I honestly don't know the reason but I am afraid these are the
kinds of decisions that turn people off from politics.
let's move on to executive session. I am really very sorry that these are your choices.
let's move on to executive session. Do I need to name the items? >> if you don't mind going
through the list one more time. >> let's see.
>> I was just looking at this other note.
since we came into office, we reduced the tax rate under my
predecessor was 0.62998. For us, it has been the same
then 0.61 more than 0.599 then 0.581, .530, .530, .60.620.
it's always been a lower tax rate than under my predecessor. But again, it's two different
things. If we want to go to the voters to fix the budget, let's go to the voters on $300 million worth
of raises. I'd like to see that. This is to let the voters decide.
anyways, these are the executive session items item 220300 --
200, 302, 323, 324, 351, 354, 355, did I miss anything?
>> that is all I have, judge. >> it is 10:40 a.m., we are
going into executive session. I am very sorry that we are not letting the voters decide on whet
>> alright. So it's 1:19 and we're back from executive
session so there is two topics we had quite a bit of discussion
on so we'll discuss those after we return for lunch. Thosely tell two on the consultation policy and items 7,
300 and 355 on compensation for appointed official, so we'll get
to those later. As far as other executive session items, item 254 is no action, item 302, no action.
and 303, I don't know if you got the motion from director but
that's okay if not. I can come back to 303.
323, no action. 324, as presented.
354, no action. And 355 is one of the ones that we'll discuss later. >> judge I have the motions for
303. >> what are they? >> on item 303 a motion to direct services to move forward
with a threat analysis of the u.s. Manage network. That's a motion one on that? >> second.
>> alright. Motion by commissioner briones.
motion carries unanimously. >> then there was a second motion on it just a motion to direct universal services to
provide an update of any findings and action plan if any is required >> moved.
>> second. >> motion by commissioner ellis and second by commissioner briones all in favor?
any opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Okay so you got those? >> yes but I believe there is a
motion that needs to be made for 324. As present but can we take a vote on it?
>> so motion by commissioner ellis on 324s. There a second? That's a d church and
associations. >> second by commissioner briones. All in favor? Any opposed. Motion carries.
unanimously. When we come back we can determine whether to discuss these the executive session ones
we didn't finish or the order that we had earlier but for now
it's 122 and we'll break for lunch. >> when we come back we'll take the d.a.'s item.
>> the d.a., yeah, he'll send as number two so I told him after
2:30 so we'll >> alright.
it's 2:36 and we're back. Continuing.
I know we had executive session items we wanted to discuss but I
think that I bloelieve he's sti here so I suggest we turn to
that item first and I'll allow commissioner ellis to present it. >> thank you judge.
and colleagues. Judge, in addition to, if I can
read the motion and make a few comments I'd like to hear from
her son who's here as well if he'd like to speak.
if not, it's okay and we'll hear from da then.
so the fatal shooting of ms. Salgado really captured the
attention of most people in houston, harris county and around the nation and the world. The district attorney made the
decision he wanted to do his own independent investigation.
I called him to congratulate him and made the comment to him that I would do anything that I could to make sure he had the
resources that he needed to conduct it, and then it was my
suggestion press conference to make that comment. Obviously I couldn't talk to but one of you also I didn't call
any. Sometimes I tell you I forget.
sometimes I forget who I spoke. To rarely will I call on you on
something because I forget from time-to-time but that was something about that case. I think in part a reaction of
his two son who is had been quite visible throughout this
tragedy that really touched me. We couldn't come up with funding
every time there was an incident but some cases I think rise to
that level of significance where they really touch one soul and certain ly did that with me. I think this is good public
safety measure because law enforcement people, like you
commissioner garcia, I've heard you say many times that to do your job you had to have confidence of the people that
were protecting because when an act of violence or some crime
ha happens you have to rely on the public to have confidence in what you do because we couldn't
afford to put a police officer on every corner and when people
lose that confidence, I think it costs us a lot more money in the
public sector in the long run to deal with law enforcement issues. I personally think what's going
on with ice around this country is a tragedy.
having been african-american for 72 years even in a neighborhood
that I live in always have felt the need to tell my son in
particular, when he goes out, if something happens, how to react
and I'd like so say in this country in 2026 that still
shouldn't have to happen. What has happened ice now I even
worry sometimes when my wife goes out.
I don't mind revealing it but she carries her passport because
sometimes people don't know what her ethnicity is and she's very
proud of her ethnicity and really sort of go off the deep
end if somebody does not know she's of african ancestry but it
shouldn't be like that in this country in particular. This is a community of immigrants.
sometimes I jokingly point out that everybody here is an
immigrant other than the ancestors of those an african
who is were forced into this country but I'm a pretty good student of history and I know who occupied this land before
the alan brothers showed up, before the employ a soar owes
showed up. But it is a simple motion. Motion to allocate $2.5 million over three years the district
attorney's office for labor, overtime, outside counsel and
software in coordination with the county attorney's office for
- >> thank you. The purposes of investigating a shooting and killing by an
immigration and customs enforcement ice officer.
ms. Salgado was 52 years old when he was kill in the historic
east end on july 7th, 2026. After being pursued by federal
agents driving unmarked vehicles while he was taking his crew to
their latest job site. He'd been there for over three
decades and raised a family. Built homes and he helped build
this great texas economy and as someone who is a descendant of
african slaves who were the original developers of western
civilization not just here but in europe, as well, knowing that
we would be nowhere without our immigrant workers in texas.
we are fortunate to have a nation to the south of us that
has a much younger population that places around the world who
wish that's a they have an asian population they have neighbor
was younger population who would play a in the economy so it's an
important motion and thank you commissioner garcia for seconding it and with that I'll turn it to the da if that's
appropriate. >> garcia and ramsey would like to speak. Would you like to speak after the da speak? >> I'm happy to go after him and
he put his hand up first so I'll go after both of them. >> alright. >> yeah.
we'll wait for the d.a.. His time is precious. >> go ahead. >> thank you also much for
having me. Commissioner ellis thank you for voicing your support the day of this tragedy and continuing by
this motion. I've heard from most of the
people on the court and the support is truly felt.
this is a critical motion. This money is important for this
investigation. We're full. We're fully staffed because of this court in the day in and day
out business of ministering justice in what is soon the
second largest county in the united states. This isn't unique case. This is one that if we believe
charges are appropriate and file charges, we fully anticipate
having to fight against the federal government.
this is not something that as you said commissioner we would do in every case but this is a case of significance.
the way we have set out this money is over three years and it
does not go into the d.a.'s office general fund. Every time that I have come before this body and asked for
money, it is with a direct reason for it. I'm not in the business nor will I ever be to come in front of
this office or this body and ask just for money to grow.
this will be specifically laid out in the ways that it is laid
out for us to come back and keep this body informed as we utilize
the money. If at the end of our investigation we deem that there are no criminal charges that are
appropriate to be filed then we won't use the vast majority of
this. If, however, it is a case where
we file it and need to go forward, having the fore site to
already be ready to go forward with that funding is the only
way that we're going to be successful in an investigation
and prosecution so with that I'm going to stop talking and answer any questions you all have but again thank you also much.
>> thank you. Commissioner fernandez y garcia and then commissioner briones and then ramsey and ellis.
>> thank you. Commissioner ellis thank you for the item and district attorney thank you for your work.
I want to say to the family, I apologize I can't be there in
person but I just wanted to say to you that we shouldn't be
doing the federal government's job. We shouldn't be the ones waiting to determine weather or not
we're getting accurate or factual information. This is a change of events. When I was sheriff and we had
incidents that would take place involving our federal partners they were always very quick to call and brief and share and
communicate. Unfortunately that is not the case and that's why if we can't depend on them to provide us
facts and provide us an insight to any challenges, concerns,
real investigations that they may be coming across, then we have to depend on our ability to do whatever we can locally, and
while your office is willing to stand up and help us come to or
be able to work to find some degree of insight and truth,
then I applaud you for your willingness to do that. I know it's uncomfortable for you, but I applaud your
willingness to do it. It's the right thing to do.
district attorney, I applaud you for doing that.
and we're going to do what we need to do that while we have a
local ability to find truth and evidence then that's what we
have to do when we cannot depend on our federal partners to do
that. And so, district attorney, I just want to thank you. I saw your staff out there
talking to people, communicating folks, you know, writing
information down, canvassing the community, so I really really do
applaud the work that I saw your team doing in real time to help
collect any valuable evidence that we can come across. So I'm looking forward to some conclusion whether definite or
not. I'm looking to some conclusion that your agencies may help us with, and especially help the
family with. They are the ones that deserve clarity. They are the ones that deserve
facts. They are the ones that deserve the truth and so thank you for your willingness to do this and
I'm happy to second the motion. >> thank you.
commissioner, and just briefly before we move on I want to recognize sal ga da who is here. So his son and so we are behind
you. We respect your father and we are behind you and each of us represents so many more people
so I just want to pass on some additional courage and love from those of us here. Alright.
commissioner briones? >> yes. Likewise,, thank you commissioner ellis and team for bringing forth this item.
I will proudly support it and thank you for stepping up and
leading this independent investigation, and commissioner
I echo everything you said. The federal government should be the one leading and owning up to the entire set of evidence but
tomorrow will be a month, and we still don't have answers and
senior lawrence was and the community and the country
deserves answers and accountability and thank you for leading this charge and I'll support it and to echo the
comments made, we honor you and your family and we are
incredibly sorry for the pain and the loss and the suffering that you and your family are having to endure.
I have been so moved every time I hear you speak and I think about your dad and I wish I had, had the opportunity to know him.
to me your dad represents generations of my family that
came to this country and generation of so many not just
here in harris county but across this country. He came here to pursue the "american dream" for you and
your brothers and raised you here and give you the education. You're an educator pouring into youth and literally he was
building the "american dream" for other families through this work as a construction worker, and I think of that sacrifice
and service that he made for your family and for our
community. And now to have our federal government not want to own it's work.
so I'm so proud to live in houston, harris county and I'm
so grateful that the people have given us the opportunity to serve where we can take action and invest the funds to have an
independent investigation because this is about justice. This is about truth and transparency and to what the
d.a. Said, once the evidence is assessed there is nothing but
without assessing the evidence and without that accountability and as a lawyer and former judge, I mean to me the rule of
law is non-negotiable for everybody and governments should
be leading by the power of it's example. All levels of government, so I'm very proud to live in harris
county and to be able to take this vote today because to me what happened and tomorrow will be a month, I just think of the
horror you've had to live this month and I'm so sorry my heartbreaks for you. A month later here in local
government because we need to address what I believe is
un-american. And unconstitutional and only the evidence will tell and that is what we're doing in this
credible rigorous, independent investigation and I proudly support it and I thank you for stepping up.
>> commissioner ramsey and then commissioner ellis. >> commissioner ellis thank you for bringing this to the court.
thank you for quickly not hesitating but jumping into the
fray. Many things were not comfortable and to lorenzo's family, you need answers.
that is the least we owe you. We owe you much more than that
but we owe you answers and in the spirit of governor abbott
bringing in the texas rangers and I know you'll be working with them, as well, to find answers to what is clearly a
tragedy. It's one that I think has given all of us pause in terms of what we're doing, but more
importantly, how we're doing it. So, we grieve with your family.
this 2.5 million is a small token of what we need to do to
try to provide the answers. Provide the support for the
family in the coming weeks and da, thank you for your very
specific plan, not your generic plan or your political plan, but
your very specific 2-3 year plan, your budget. You are going to review that and so I celebrate that part of it
and again, this is a first step of many that I think we in
government in harris county will take to try to get the family
some answers. Thank you. >> commissioner ellis? >> just quickly, to commissioner
garcia I want to commend you. I just remember I did call, I
called you doing the window we had along commission meeting and you were headed out of town and we didn't catch one another but
I know it was in your precinct. County attorney thank you. I did
call you as we were working through this but thank you for your help and to renaldo, you know you and your brother that I
heard speak publicly, I haven't heard the third one, but I
really do believe for those of us and I know you are a people of faith and we see our ancestors again and your dad
would be just so proud of you three young men so thank you for
the way you have conducted yourself and we feel your pain.
okay. I'll make the motion. Thank you. >> alright. So we have a motion by commissioner ellis and seconded by commissioner garcia.
all in favor? Any opposed? Alright. Thank you so much colleagues.
harris county commissioner court passes this motion unanimously. Thank you. >> thank you.
>> I'll say one last thing I know da earlier you were talking about how helpful the reports from community have been, so I
just want to, you know, first thank so many members of the
public that have reached out to the district attorney's office to share what evidence they have and I want to also request that
the community continue helping our da and his investigators so
I looked at the form myself. You don't have to put your name.
you don't have to put your phone number. Just your e-mail and I understand some people may be
reticent but the district attorney's office is not the federal government. They are not, they are going to
be very careful with the information but I just want
folks to know that we need to continue receiving those report, so we'll have that. I know it's on the da's website
and that will be on mine and try to put it on the home page of the county. Did you want to add anything?
>> thank you. You should probably butt put the minute clock on me and buzz me. That is such an important caveat
to this, that portal is completely secure. We are not sharing information about anyone that is giving us
information with any other partners. The information that is gleaned from it, absolutely we're
working as collaboratively as we can but your identity at the
outset will be protected from anyone else regardless and I
said it earlier but the outpouring and the rallying of
houston for the salgado family here is just continues to
reenforce why I love my hometown and seeing what we've done in this investigation has gone much quicker because of the
community, so thank you also much for this vote and the faith
and trust that you have in this investigation and we will make you proud. >> thank you.
we'll keep going and we'll find answers. Thank you so much. Alright. So let's go back to
the items that we had pending from executive session. So why don't we go to the various compensation items.
commissioner briones I know you would like to make several motions on there. >> yes to I'm going to make them
related to item 7, 300 and 355. These pertain to our constables
and fire marshal. So county attorney's office I'll
read seven and then stop for a voten those. Would you like me to read them in totality?
>> no. Commissioner if you can do them individually so the clerk can keep track of them.
>> okay. >> thank you. Item seven, this is a three part motion.
move to direct omb to include in the draft fiscal year 2027
budget a proposed salary for each elected constable of
$305,000. Second part, move to direct hrt
to circulate notice of the proposed elected official
salaries for fiscal year 2027 in accordance with local government
code chapter 152 subchapter-b. And the third motion within
number seven, move to direct the county clerk in conjunction with
the district clerk to prepare randomized lists of individuals
eligible to serve as public members of the salary grievance
committee. Those are the three from seven.
>> second >> yes, commissioner ellis?
>> so I have a motion, as well. That I want to add to it. Maybe it should be a friendly amendment and we'll probably
vote on it first instead of separately and I move to direct
omb to do in the budget a proposed salary of $205,000 for
the county attorney, district attorney, district clerk, county
clerk and the tax assessor. I think it's only fair if we
were to make a decision to raise the salaries for the constables
that we also do it for the other county-wide elected officials.
leave us out and we've had issues with one other office.
sign off on it's a friendly, I offer that's a motion
>> so is it okay if we vote separately. I'd like to vote on the part about the additional raises for
the constable, so if we could vote on that first part. Do we need to repeat the motion? >> you don't need to repeat them
but you can take them one at a time. There's four separate motions, one is a constable motion.
>> commissioner brandon's, read the motion. Was there a second? >> there was a second by
commissioner ramsey. So on that one, the constable's
in 2024, their salary was $133,000, these are eight
elected constables and then there was a 9.2% increase up to
144,000 and later in 2024. And that was a 17.8% increase.
and then we go into 2025, we have a 46.1% increase and now
that is a 17.3% increase. So the constables were making
$133,000. And the proposal on the table is for them to each be making $305,000.
we have talked about this before, it is more than the vice president of the united states makes, it is more
than a lot of big positions with much larger -- more than
astronauts make. And so I am against that,
especially given the county budget situation.
I recognize that this needs to match the increases that we are giving to other politically influential elected officials.
but when we did that we knew that we didn't have funds for these enormous raises. So I know that the community was
just up in arms when we gave -- I. Think it was a 60% pay
raise to the toll road director. I still don't understand where that came from or how it's justified.
and I think the community ought to know that -- how much total is the percentage from the first -- from 2024 to today?
anyways, it is an unbelievable number. Percentage wise, that we are giving to these politically
influential elected officials. So on that 1i wanted to make that comment and I wanted to register my no vote.
is there anyone in favor of that?
>> so I want to pass on this, which is why I want to vote. I will be against it, unless we do it for the district attorney,
district clerk. Which is why I prefer to vote on the amendment first and then I can make a decision.
>> I hear you. And on that point, if we look at
the folks -- so it is a 129.3% increase in the salary of the
constable's. So that is when the community looks at our work and I think it's disillusioned by politics.
so commissioner ellis, I hear you and maybe you can help us untangle this, because on your proposal, which I appreciate,
commissioner ellis, I go back to who are the lowest paid.
I think that is a great idea at the same time.
if you look at the head of the children's assessment center,
which deals with children that have been sexually abused. The head of the juvenile probation department which deals
with children that are in the justice system and need to be
rehabilitated. And the veterans department, the
research for children and adults, working with seniors, working with foster kids. Those are the department heads
that are making orders of magnitude less than the department heads we have increased funding for.
so I would like to make a substitute motion to that one,
that says to direct hr to review all appointed department head
salaries to be in alignment with the 2024 department head salary
study, 50th percentile recommendation and for omb to include these salaries in the draft fiscal year 2027 budget.
a lot of the salaries the court has voted for I believe are opposed -- are beyond the percentile of.
I know none of us likes this 2022 salary -- 2024 salary
study, but that is how these other massive salaries were selected. So I think it is only fair for
folks who take care of children and veterans and the elderly and
have departments bigger than a lot of these folks to be able to
make -- to see a salary increase. >> so on that item, that pertains to the appointed
officials item. So right now we are on the item related to number 7, which is elected -- we can vote on, we
just have to wait until we get to that item. So what is on the floor right now is a four part -- four
separate motions related to -- >> well now it is commissioner ellis item. But to me it is all tied.
I think it is weird to give an elected official 129% increase.
>> all I'm saying is that right now there is a separate item for elected officials -- >> let's vote on that one then
let's vote on yours. Did you catch that motion,
james? >> we voted on three -- >> we have not voted on the other three.
>> here's what I will do, I will withdraw my motion to get out of here and just pass on it I will see what happens and I can go
back and change it. >> right now the motion on the floor is the first motion which is to raise the constable salary
to 305,000. >> all in favor? >> I will pass. >> any opposed?
I am against 129.3% salary increase for politically
influential elected officials between 2024 and 2026. What is the next motion? >> this one you announced a vote
on it. >> that is 41. 3-1, one abstention, thank you. >> and that vote carried for the
three different sub motions under item seven, correct?
>> no that one was just the first motion. The second one are the two administrative motions.
>> let me read the two corresponding administrative ones. Move to direct hr to circulate
notice of the proposed elected official salaries for
fiscal year 2027 in accordance with local government code chapter 152 subchapter b. >> second.
>> we have a motion by the commissioner and seconded, any
comments? Okay.
so commissioner, I'm so sorry but I had to stop for a quick question. Which one is this one?
>> the second part of item seven, moved to a direct hr to
circulate notice of the proposed elected official salaries for fiscal year 2027 in accordance with local government code
chapter 152 subchapter b. >> this is an administrative requirement in order to make any changes to elected official
salaries. >> I disagree with 129.3% salary increase in two years so I think I will just abstain on that one.
did we already mention the motion and second? All in favor? Garcia is for it.
I will abstain. And then commissioner ellis, did you catch the motion? We have two abstentions and
three are for it. What is the next motion?
>> this is the third part of item seven. Move to direct the county clerk, in conjunction with the district
clerk, to prepare a randomized list of individuals eligible to serve as public members of the salary grievance committee.
again, another procedural requirement. >> second. >> motion by commissioner?
seconded by commissioner ramsey. And then perhaps just for the
public, the grievance committee, if you could just go over it
briefly. >> go ahead. >> you want me to walk through the whole process?
this is procedural, we have the grievance committee regardless of what their salaries are changed or not.
>> the grievance committee. That is just going to happen. Okay. Is that for everybody or just
the elected officials? >> any elected official can have a grievance, regardless -- >> that's what the district
clerk did and the board determines whether or not they're going to get an increase. And of course commissioners court has also decided to do
that. So there's a motion and a second, all in favor any opposed?
I also will. So this is 3-0.
the motion passes. So I know you like reading the motions, commissioner briones, what is the next one?
>> the next is mine. >> commissioner ellis is next.
I will direct them to include in the draft fiscal year 2027 budget a proposed salary of $305,000 for each of these
offices, the county attorney, district attorney, district
clerk, county clerk and tax collector, the cost will be
$681,000 a year. And I make that motion. >> I will second that. >> I would like to do a friendly
amendment to that one. To ensure that all appointed
department head salaries are at least at the 2024 department
head salary studies 50th percentile recommendation. So I think yours might be -- is certainly not below that,
commissioner ellis and I'm okay to vote for that. But I want to make sure that these departments have been left
behind that deal with the most vulnerable, are at least in the
50th percentile of recommendation. Can I make that? >> I think the company that we
get to those offices appointed, the department heads, this is just for elected officials. >> that's right.
>> I get it. I just think that discrepancy is
unfair. So just for that reason, commissioner, and I echo -- I. Think you mentioned this
earlier many times, because these studies have been so
delayed and you have been really pushing for everything to be
fair and for the entire bureaucracy, I think I will sort of use one of your phrases, which is that we have done -- it
has come back, we have talked about it, these guys have always been left behind. >> judge, if I can recommend
something. It might make more sense to just vote on this as a separate one and then if you want to tie the
appointed and elected together, that would be an additional
motion. I think we just make this process cleaner and easier to understand if that's okay.
>> sure. Commissioner ellis made the motion, who had the second? >> briones.
and I want to stress that these elected offices ought to take this money out of their existing budgets.
this is not additional money. So let them do it out of their existing budgets and if they don't want to take it, don't
take it. They can let their successor take it if they choose to do so. >> all right.
motion and second all in favor? Any opposed?
I think I will abstain on that one.
and I know -- I. Agree commissioner ellis, we don't have the funds. But we can give $300 million to
some and then others who are asking for the budget, these smaller -- not smaller but less properly funded departments that
deal with the veterans and the elderly and the children, they
certainly -- I. Don't see how they could take from their salary. I work with them from their
budget to pay for the salaries. I'm not sure that I agree with
that part. I know the votes don't make a difference so I'm also making a comment for that reason.
this will pass 4-0 and I will abstain. >> thank you, judge. Before we move on, commissioner
ellis when you say you pass, do you mean you abstain? >> I pass on this one. >> earlier you abstained.
going back to the constable's -- >> if this passes, I make a
motion to change my vote. Has this passed for the district
clerk, county clerk? For and one abstention? Okay, then I will go back and ask for unanimous consent.
I'm just being consistent. >> yes, and all previous three
motions. >> can I get a raise? Just joking! [laughs] >> judge on the first one, you voted no.
>> yes, no. No 129% raise.
so what is next -- >> 300.
that motion is just one, move to direct omb to include in the
draft fiscal year, 2027 budget, a proposed salary for the fire
marshal of $305,000. >> second. >> which one is that again? >> item 300.
and then it will relate to item 355, which I will move to in a
second. >> so the motion by commissioner briones, second by ramsey. Any discussion?
so can I discuss the earlier item here? >> this is a discussion around it, judge.
>> why is it that the children's assessment center, the resources
for children and adults, juvenile probation and the
veterans department, why do they make so much less money than
other folks? At what point did we increase everyone else's and not theirs? Because they were not increased
by the same order of magnitude. >> I believe there is a
different county administrator and I wasn't overseeing that process, but my understanding is that because those folks report
to boards, they were left off of the original study and then added later. >> I mean, I think if we --
would you say that was sort of an oversight? >> I don't think it is my place to -- I. Think the original
motion was for the departments of reported directly to the county administrator, I don't think it is my place to
question. >> I will say -- yeah, I mean I
think we can look at the size of the workforce.
let's take juvenile probation. We have given such pay increases to the detention officers in the jail.
what about making sure that the folks that take care of the children in the children's facilities are properly
compensated so that they can do a good job?
we just forget these -- I. Think the fact that they report to a board doesn't mean that they shouldn't get a salary increase.
of course the board -- and I serve on one of them -- we have a limited budget that commissioners court assigns.
so we are already dealing with the officers that aren't even
paid properly. So I would just go back to my -- I. Would just go back to the suggestion I have here in the
note that if the korn ferry recommendation was implemented
for juvenile probation director we're making $353,000 if you
follow the same calculations that they followed. So I would request that we please ask hr to review all
appointed department head salaries to be in alignment or you could even say the board appointed department heads -- an
appointed oversight salaries to be in alignment with 2024 salary
study to take on and for omb to include these proposed salaries in the draft fiscal year 2027 budget.
if we are going to bring increases for these other electeds. >> I think the commissioner has
his hand up. >> yes? >> do you finally got there. My motion was going to be let's
just include the board appointed directors to have their salaries
reviewed and corrected. When I served on the same board
for probation, it was a matter of advocacy. Someone should have spoken up at the right time.
but I think we finally got there with your request.
>> all right, thank you commissioner garcia. Is there a second for my motion? I think commissioner garcia's
motion was cleaner than mine, frankly. Which one makes the most sense? >> I am highly supportive of
making sure that we are being fair and equitable to all departments, whether elected, appointment, board, no board.
and given that we had the korn ferry study and we had the gallagher pay equity study, now we have different studies.
and so if we can generalize the language so that hr are looking
at the various studies, compensation data and making
recommendations given that we have more data than the initial
study. >> I will take it as a friendly amendment. >> yes commissioner ellis?
>> for those of you all by commissioner garcia is so much younger than me, you probably have heard this saying, but when
I was a kid and we'd eat a nice dinner on juneteenth that said
your eyes are bigger than your stomach. So I would suggest we are not accused of having eyes bigger
than our stomachs. We get some sense of the dollar amount we are talking about. The pay raise for constable's
cannot be forced to come out of their current budgets. You can't do that under state law.
you can encourage them to take it out, but you can't do that.
I've mentioned $681,000 that we spend for the one, two, three,
four, five elected officials that I was talking about. So I am fine with the motion, but I think what we did use
those other things from my past, sometimes they say you go hog
wild. I think when we were given these department heads pay raises, we kind of went a little hog wild.
and it needs to be reined in a little bit. And I'm very -- cognizant of the fact that people have a
structural deficit. And you don't want to say it, but I'll say it. In the smoke and mirrors are
over with. Mr. Ramos, any smoke and mirrors after this next cycle? >> I am currently out.
>> I would just say we ought to be cognizant of what we are spending before we spend it. That appears not to be the
appetite. So going to the voters and I can
understand that. Most folks I talk to, everyone will tell me what they want and they'll say we'll raise your
taxes to pay for it, no. Take it from somewhere else.
so I just say be cautious, that is not a good thing to have a
structural deficit. At some point that impacts the quality of our bonds and a host of other issues if it is an
instance where it is a lot easier to spend money than it is to figure out where it is coming from.
>> I think the motion, if I understand it, is the county
administrator will evaluate these in light of our current --
>> that's correct. >> so we will evaluate it.
your eyes are bigger than our stomach comment, will hold true. I know the county administrator --
>> you'll remember that? >> just to be clear on that one,
are we evaluating all of them in relation to the budget?
or just the -- >> all of them. >> or just the board ones? >> I want to make sure the board
ones are included. Because the others have already
been included and evaluated. This is a very separate item.
>> sorry judge, can commissioner garcia or you reread the motion? I don't think it was sent around.
can you reread that motion so it is being substituted right now and we will go back to the motion -- the motion that I
already read? >> that commissioner briones did already. Go ahead commissioner, sorry.
>> the motion is to evaluate the salaries of all board appointed
and overseen directors and to bring the recommendations back
to commissioners court. I think that is the motion.
>> all right. So this -- go ahead commissioner. >> and with the amendment that
commissioner briones wanted to add. >> second. >> I'm sorry, is there a date
associated with that? >> september eighth is fine.
>> second. >> motion and a second, all in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries unanimously. >> I will just make a request, I
will force it to vote so we can get out of here. When you put that item on the agenda, my request comes back
with recommendations on department heads as well. And if you can't do it, I would just add an item to the agenda
just to make sure our eyes are not bigger than our stomachs and we don't go hog wild again. >> and hog wild, commissioner
ellis, I think it was your motion that pushed for the
director of equity. And we are working with it. >> oh that motion was done years ago.
and all of these department heads preempted all of that. But that had been around for years.
it was around a long time. I'm proud to have made that one.
>> to go back to the first motion under 300, moved to
direct them to include in the draft fiscal year 2027 budget, a
proposed salary for the fire marshal of $305,000.
>> second. >> motion by commissioner briones, second by commissioner ramsey.
any other discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? I will abstain just out of
consistency. Motion carries 4-0. So the next is 355, which is related to what we have been
discussing. Moved to approve the agreements, releasing claims with the eight elected constables and the fire
marshal. >> second. >> so that is a motion and a second.
and just so that folks are clear, this is because there was
a big res, $300 million worth of raises or some big percentage
raises to the sheriff. So then we need to give the same level to the other law enforcement, is that right?
I don't know if that is a county attorney question or
administrator question. >> judge, I'm sorry. Can you reread it? >> there is this motion that
says something about the constables and the fire marshal and I am just confirming that the reason we are giving these
raises right now, the 129% raise to the constables in two years
is because there were these big raises earlier and we knew that
the statute meant that we had to up everything by the same. But maybe I am misremembering. >> part of it is because of the
pay equity parity bill that was passed.
>> so that is the bill we knew about. If we will raise for one law enforcement agency, we will
raise for all of them. >> that is correct, judge. >> just to make clear that connection, right?
because the $300 million -- the cost of the downtown building,
the galleria building, this ties back.
so I'm going to say no to this, because it is just all a big mess in my mind. >> judge, just to clarify in the
record, I'm sorry, it is not necessarily required under state law. But I don't want to necessarily
also go back into the negotiation process and the
particulars as to why this is important, but it was recommended and agreed to. >> so it is not a requirement.
so all in favor? Any opposed?
unopposed motion carries 4-1. Any other motions that you would like to read? >> that wraps it up.
thank you, county attorney team and thank you to our constables and our fire marshal and everyone who helped.
>> yes, agreed. And absolutely thank you to all of these folks. So that was on this topic.
I know that folks wanted to discuss the mwb topic as well,
but we are done with that one. The other one was the buildings -- >> it is a consultation policy.
>> that's the one it was, thank you. So let's discuss the consultation policy,
commissioner ellis. >> I think those are the motions that were recommended by the county administrator's office.
this is 216 and 218. >> I'm sorry, do you want --
some of you had questions about policy. Does anyone want to do any more questions or do you want to talk
about the motions? >> at some point we need to
discuss the policy and changes to the draft, to the language,
correct? >> I know we have some motions. >> but you have slides for that, right administrator?
>> I have slides for reference and I can help. >> I just think commissioner ramsey, if it's okay, when we
make changes to the document, I think it would make things easier for all of us for the slide to be up so we don't get
confused where we are. The question is if folks would like to start with policy questions or if folks would like to start with the language. >> I would go with the
amendments you all worked out for us. >> sure, we can pull them up. So the policy was approved
march 19th, 2026. And then they convened with the county attorney's office and hr to review the language and
make sure we can walk through what potential implementation
looked like. So what is in these slides and the red line versions are these adjustments, they are not policy
changes. We have been working with your staff over the past couple of months as well to share it with
them. You can go on to slide three,
tiffany. So these are just key definitions that are used repeatedly that were already in
it as of march 19th. And the main body that would be
a priority for that comes up are eligible employees. And hrt is working and is nearly final on county employees that
would be eligible under this agreement.
slide four. This is noting one change where the officer is already on the management team, they were on as
a non-voting member and we adjusted to make sure they were a voting member of the management team, which is the
county personnel representatives. Item slide five shows the departments that were listed as
march 19th. I think we discussed removing
the fmo per guidance that we have received. And so we have moved to make that adjustment.
slide six, that starts following along with your actual document. We list the page number on the actual full agreement.
and this is just a clarification of voting representation for the
chief people officer. Slide next.
same thing. It is just a clarification.
these are just clarifications, not changing the intent of the
subsection. Page 3 -- slide eight, page 3
further defines and the county attorney may want to chime in, they may want to further define a grievance.
I don't know if you want to add -- >> this is consistent with the statute that compels the county
to have a grievance procedure. >> slide nine.
slide nine was just one clarification, making sure they are under the jurisdiction of harris county of course.
slide ten, page 6. Just a reference, a one change.
slide 11, which is on page 7 of the full agreement is about
compliance with existing county policies. And our facility, how they can access county facilities.
slide 12, which is on page 7 of the main agreement is to standardize terminology that is used throughout the document.
slide 13, which is on page 8, section 4.6, is consistent
language and facility access and is existing county policy and
changes. Slide 14, then in the main agreement it will be page 9. The county attorney may want to
comment about the code. >> again, this is to make the
language and the policy consistent with the language in the government code. >> slide 15, which shows up in
the main agreement on page 9, is for clarity.
and then compliance on privacy for employees.
slide 16 and page 9 through ten, overall on section five of the
main agreement. Repeats clarification on facility and ensures department heads have authority on employee
overtime and comp time. And it emphasizes what the
county's current grievance procedures are, which are the ones currently in the policy and procedures manual.
slide 17 is just an additional clarification related to
employee -- new employee orientation.
slide 18, page 10 in the main agreement, the county attorney
may want to comment, it is about tpi compliance.
no comment? Okay. Slide 19, page 10 is the same authority related to comp and
overtimes. And slide 20, which is page 11 in the main agreement, county attorney edition on the
government code. Those are the edits the group
made. And we are asking for approval. >> I will move approval of those items, do I need to call them
individually? I will make a motion to approve those items laid out by the county administrator.
>> can we have some discussion before we -- some amendments to
these as well, right? >> those are our edits in
proposal, if you have additional amendments, feel free. >> what about the fire marshal? >> yes, we have that as a
proposed option. >> that is one of her motions to take the fire marshal out. >> the motion said I understood
that were going to be made and we are going to vote on these
separately, and not in a group, it sounds like we are trying to vote on it -- >> I will run back through them.
>> are you talking about the fire marshal and when the court
office can opt in or out? Are you referring to those? >> I've got three motions I will be making.
there's three other motions, one related to the fire marshal, the
fire marshal's administrative staff is another.
and then there is language in the policy with the consultation
team once formed to take development of a grievance policy that allows for grievance for discipline and discharge.
as a priority first act of this grievance will act on a later
vote. We are saying we are setting up
a grievance system separate from we are going to turn over these
responsibilities of grievance related to discipline and grievance related to discharge to this third party.
and that is to be voted on, separate from this.
>> but the fire marshal we have already removed because that was discussed in executive. >> I think commissioner ramsey
is right. Motion one is what the county
administrator will refer to, which is to propose the
amendments framework, henceforth referred to as the consultation
policy. That is the administrative changes that were made. Subsequent to that there were
another set of potential changes of which one of them is a motion
to amend the consultation policy, to remove the fire marshal's office from section 2.9.
which is what you are referring to. And I know commissioner ramsey has some motions as well.
>> I want to vote -- >> on each one individually? >> I want to remove the fire marshal.
I vote yes for that. But I do not agree with the
language associated with the grievance policy.
and that is a separate motion. We talked about this last week,
right? >> yes. >> could you pull up the relevant slide to what commissioner ramsey is -- so that way he can -- go ahead,
commissioner. >> make your motion. >> as I understand, oh see a motion section 2.11 vote to
exclude harris county fire marshal's office, law enforcement personnel from the policy.
and we are going to vote on t that.
and then also, the harris county fire marshal personnel.
that would be the second motion. The third motion is section 5.1
point a, include language and policy that directs in consultation team to take development of a grievance
policy that allows for grievance and discipline and discharge.
I do not agree that we should be turning grievance over to
unelected, bureaucrat, third party folks. We need to retain that responsibility within hr.
so as I understood, provided to me yesterday, that is the motion
we were going to consider and that was the motion we will talk about the vote on. >> yes, we can.
it is in the appendix. >> but we weren't going to vote
on the entire, one time -- somebody read a powerpoint that you can't even read the words on.
we are not going to do that, we will vote on specific motions.
as I understand those are the three motions related to changes
in the policy. >> those were the three
remaining decisions, yes. And then you can make motions how you choose on those. So we can bring up the appendix
where it shows that listed. We can bring up the slides so
everyone can look at that? Slide 24.
>> so do we remove the employees -- >> you can just remove the fire marshal as a whole and then you
would need a separate -- >> that is what the county attorney's office was suggesting, right?
>> you will make that motion? Related to and the fire
marshal's office and administrative staff.
>> I think the proper scope would be to remove the entire
department. >> that covers everyone, that covers what he is saying. Just remove the fire marshal's
office in total, that covers everybody you are talking about,
right? >> we are bringing it right now. That's different from what you described yesterday. But that sounds good. >> it would simply read as a
motion to amend the consultation policy to remove the fire marshal's office from section 2.9.
>> second. >> commissioner ramsey, is that all right? >> yes.
>> motion made by commissioner ramsey. >> commissioner ramsey has a motion seconded by commissioner
garcia, all in favor any opposed motion carries unanimously.
>> and now the other thing unresolved is the creation of
this grievance policy. Related to discipline and
discharge. And it is being advocated to include language in the policy the consultation team once
formed to take development of a grievance policy that allows for
grievance of discipline and discharge. And I do not agree with that. I don't think we should be
turning that over to the third party. And the other motion related to that is what about our employees
that are not eligible? Not eligible. We have two policy manuals in terms of grievance.
I do not support that amendment related to a grievance.
someone else will have to make that motion, I don't agree with
that. >> so section 5.18 is already
written into policy. >> we approved it on march 19th.
>> that wasn't what was described, it was said in
section 5.1 point a, including language in the policy that directs the consultation team once formed, that allows for
grievance of discipline and discharge. So you're saying it's already in there.
>> it was submitted march 19th and then voted on already having that language. >> how was that separated out to
me? >> it was separated through the review, staff, you and others had questions.
we separated them out in case -- like we are doing right now, you all can discuss it further. >> I would make a motion that we
not include that in the new policy. >> so you would think it would be to remove grievance of
discipline and discharge. >> yes. >> let me just ask the county attorney's office.
I'm told that the city of austin permits employees to file grievances with support from a representative attorney,
consultation agent with the municipal civil services
commission. The reason we put it in there is
because until we have put a structure in place of the consultation team, once it is created, then you have more
clarity around this position. But what is your thought on
this? >> what I want to clarify is already the county has a statutory consultation to apply
a grievance procedure and we do that.
the consultation policy that was adopted in the spring allows for
the procedure for a consultation agent and management agents to
discuss a proposed two commissioners court, the scope
and parameter of including discipline and discharge in our existing grievance procedures. As items that can be challenged
through grievance procedures. So notwithstanding the language that is in the policy today, this matter will come back
before commissioners court as the policy stands, a
recommendation will come back to commissioners court as to how to
and whether to include discipline and discharge and what that will look like in our existing --
>> we already have a grievance process. Why do we need another one reference, called out and this
consultation, quote, unquote, agreement? >> it is true that our current grievance procedure does not
allow employees to challenge any disciplinary actions for their
terminations and discharge. >> hold on a second.
county attorney, there is a grievance process because we --
I know that at least once, maybe twice since I have been here, we
have had an employee come and complain directly to court about
some action, I can't remember what it was. But we have had that. Is there not some process in
place? >> we do have a grievance process and it does culminate in commissioners court review.
but the occasion you are calling commissioner, it was not related to employees discipline or discharge, it was the
application of county policy for that person's employment.
that is the scope of our grievance procedure today but discipline and discharge are not.
>> thank you. >> I think it was harris health that I was thinking about. >> the one that I'm recalling is
pollution. >> pollution control. >> essentially we already have a grievance process.
my motion would be to remove that from the consultation teams
policy or whatever you call it. >> remove the grievances and
discharge from the consultation team. Is that a second? Any more discussion?
the motion fails for a lack of a second. >> the next motion is to create a second harris county personnel
policy and procedures manual designated for eligible
employees of noneligible employees would adhere to the
existing manual. So we would essentially need two
manuals of, one for those in the union and those that aren't in the union. Because not everybody will be in
the union. >> so let me ask, if I may
commissioner, did we address that on march 19th, in the
policy? >> the policy does not speak to splitting the systems, no. >> it could be the impact of
this. Of this motion. >> it ultimately will depend on what -- if you will split the
handbooks, it will depend on what you include, which is in the discretion of commissioners, what terms you include in each
handbook. >> I know we will be the first county to handle policy like this.
but in terms of the entities that have policies like the city of austin, how do they handle that?
neil, if you know. >> I'm sorry, I don't know.
>> maybe chief raleigh, would you like to come up and share
your perspective? >> sure.
we have been looking into this and trying to figure it out as we work our way through and learn, I don't know about
answering the question about austin but we can certainly figure that out. It seems possible that we can deal with it all within one policy and procedures manual if
we indicate that one protocol serves those who are covered by
the consultation agreement and one protocol serves as those who are not, regarding grievances. If things evolve in their
different policies that are impacted over time, then we may have to do two. >> again, we are putting this
together with bubblegum. We should have all of this
organized and prepared and we don't know what we don't know. So clearly there is going to be some people that are eligible
and some people that are not going to be eligible. They need to be addressed. And today we are not fully
understanding how that is going to be.
thank you to our director that that is what we could do.
and I guess that is what I am asking that we do. It sounds like we are in a rush to get this thing done and we
are trying to identify all the issues that are on the table.
this will be one. It will be eligible, you will have non-eligible, you have to know how to deal with them.
>> I want to add commissioner, that any employee can avail themselves of our existing grievance procedure, whether
they have a union affiliation or not. And under the existing grievance procedure, any employee can have
a representative of their choosing. So even excluded employees would still avail themselves of that
process. >> but that needs to be -- we are introducing a whole new group of folks within our
personnel policy to be dealt with, according to this
consultation policy. So I do think that there is a need to clearly communicate what and how we will be dealing with
these individuals. That is why I made the motion.
>> commissioner, it sounds reasonable to me -- I'm just trying to gauge if we've got to decide that today.
I came up with this policy along with commissioner briones, I
know that the plan is started on october first.
but if administration comes back to me and says we are not ready on october first and maybe folks will be upset, but as the guy
who put it out here, if we are not ready, I would say to wait and they can get as angry as they want to get, but we are the
first to do it, I want to make sure it is done right. >> we hadn't slowed down any safety policy, we were ready on
that, we hadn't slowed down on minimum wage and we moved forward on that. I think we set these dates and
we are just not ready. But there are some issues here.
I don't want to go ahead and take 2 minutes, commissioner, going through the concerns I've got.
I've got two more motions that can be ignored if you want to.
but we have learned more since this policy was approved, we have heard from departments, elected offices, employees
across here in the county, what we are hearing is not excitement from the employees out there, it is concern.
concerns about increased administrative burden at a time that we really can't afford to add these kinds of costs,
additional costs, questions about how this process is carried out. Take time to fully understand
the second and the third and the impacts of this policy.
no one is doing it. But we will implement a policy that we don't fully understand and don't fully understand the
impacts on our people and everything else. But we will be the first. And we can hopefully get an
award for that. But we need to get it right for this 17, 20,000 people that work in the county.
the organizing process is a concern, I've got reports of
organizers violating county policies, overstating the membership numbers, making promises they may not be able to
keep, benton county work sites, pressure employees that volunteer and organize events, obtaining employees home
addresses. Really? Obtaining employees home addresses? I don't think that is legal. I do not think that is right.
even if it is legal. And even appearing in employees
homes. I don't think this is right. Some of these may not be a concern to some, but they are
definitely a concern to me. Is this the right time?
obviously from a financial standpoint, taxpayers spent
roughly 1.5 million on the study on implementing the pay equity study. We have talked about that.
that has been an $80 million impact. That has been baked into next year's -- next year's budget.
I'm not sure whether there is a big appetite from the employees in terms of what they would want.
I would also like to know how many eligible employees have actually signed up. That is like a basic metric we
are looking at, I guess we are getting those numbers of when they tie it up. The policy that was adopted in
march identified 5% as gauging a lot of interest.
so that gives one particular union an opportunity to move
forward in a kind of enhanced fashion, 5%.
when they get to be 20%, that means that they are selected in
so many ways. 20%. In most elections, you've got a majority.
and it's interesting that after five years, replacing the
existing consultant agent requires support from 50% of
eligible employees. So to get the contract, you've
got to have 20%. To keep the contract, you've got
to get to 50. This is just laughable how this
thing has come about. I have concerns about the
process. We have heard that a fscm has
spent nearly two years developing this policy.
I think they wrote the policy, I think they wrote it.
if you were working through purchasing on doing anything, we
don't let the people being considered to be selected write
the rfp on how to get selected. But that is exactly what we did
here. I think what's true is every potential union given the same opportunity, to help write our
policy. That is not a question of being against unions, this is a question of fairness.
it hasn't been fair, up to this point.
it has been heavily weighted towards afscme.
and we at least ought to be aware where the process and how
the process went through. So I guess whatever afscme
wants, afscme gets. That is what we are voting on today. Whether it is a grievance
committee, let's give it to them. They need one. I don't agree with that.
I am not agreeing to turn over our responsibilities related to
it. My other two motions to be
considered, no one seconded the motion related to at least
writing a policy manual in our current hr policies that
addresses the issues of eligible and non-eligible. We've got two categories of people.
my other motion would be a motion to change the language of this policy to allow for the commissioner court to opt out at
any time after implementation. Why wouldn't we be able to opt
out at any time after implementation? Right now you are giving a specific day.
one day. You are in, october first, or
you are out october first. My third motion is if
commissioners court offices opt out, they maintain the ability
to fill their seat on the nine person management representative
team. Just because I don't agree with it, just because I am not in support of how this is being
done, should not mean I give up my right as harris county
commissioner, to participate in the process. So those are my three motions. I think they are appropriate in
light of what we don't know and in light of where we are headed
with this. November first implementation.
so I am concerned, I put those three motions out there. I think it is pretty clear it doesn't seem fair to me that
those of us which, at this point, looks like I'm going to be opting out because of all of the concerns I have just listed.
but I don't know enough, frankly at this point, all of the
details of how this is going to work. I might want to opt in at some point.
but you are forcing people, I think, to make a decision far in advance of when they have enough information to make the dec
decision. >> so commissioner, I will go after you. >> I just want to make a couple
comments. Afscme stands for the american federation of state county municipal employees.
it is the largest public sector employee trade union in the
country. 1.3 million workers and retirees in health care, corrections, sanitation, public safety and
child care and was founded in 1932 with 3500 chapters across
the country. The court adopted a consultation
policy on march 19th, 2026. It would make harris county the first county in texas to create this type of consultation
policy. It does not give them the right to organize a union. The reason I was interested in
the subject is because some of our employees are able to go
organize and under state laws they can have a union and they have been pretty effective in getting the attention of
commissioners court, historically.
you made reference to the pay equity study, mr. Ramos, was that three years ago when I first put that on agenda?
what's your guess? Three, four years ago? >> it was three and took about a year to get a bid out.
>> three years ago I put it on the agenda, took a year to go and find somebody to come back with it.
we have done that historically for our other great county
employees, all of them more important. But they have been able to come in and make that case for
benefits and quite frankly, I was interested in the subject
because I thought that we needed some help when these issues come
up. Health care benefits, could be left to any one of our five individual offices that go
trying to collect people to go in and make the case. We need somebody speaking for these workers.
when we decided to do that pay, we didn't go through a big comprehensive study, whoever dug up whatever that group was, came
in here real quick. Just as I jokingly said, we went
hog wild. But for these other employees,
who catch the early bus, as I like to say, that is not
happening. That is why I pushed for the consultation policy. Starting with when we did it
with some of the workers over at the harris center.
and that was cwa, communication workers of america.
so this may not be perfect, some of you are concerns may be
legitimate. And look, with me it's not the politics, if the unions get mad, get mad.
I'm the one that when cwa came to me, they wanted me to write a letter about some employees concerns.
if we need to work on this and implement it january first, I'm
not trying to do it seat of the pants at this table.
we had a process, a union colleague there were a big part
of it on coming up with what we had. We had a working group for folks who were interested in
participating in the process to come up with it and while this policy may not be perfect, we needed somebody to make the
case. Colleagues, for these other employees. It went an inordinate amount of
time before we did simple colas. How do we go with no colas in
this county? >> I'm not 100% sure,
commissioner. >> I mean we made progress, I'm just saying these other employees need a voice.
I get it, I've told them it. Somebody out there, at some
point under the new rules we have to operate under with state law, it is not just a matter of everybody coming here and trying
to move the seats around on the titanic. For any labor folks it's easy to come in and say I want this, I
want that. But we have to pay for it. And they had to play a role in that as well.
I'm just telling you, these employees, the ones who catch
the early bus need a seat at the table, just like our other
friends. In law enforcement. Who have a pretty good seat at the table.
as evidenced by how they can go to the state and make changes. So it is not perfect, we need to do something.
and it was the best that we could come up with. And with that said, if someone raises an issue, I agree with
them. But we ought to see if they want to go and change some of the stuff that we have.
I don't mind telling my friends at labor, you know that, no strings on my back. I put my record up against a
whole lot of them who have been as effective as I have been on
these decades that I have been in public life. But there needs to be some balance here.
an end that does not exist right now.
>> commissioner? >> thank you doctor and thank you to the county attorney team for your partnership and to
administrator carter. I am proud to continue with what
commissioner ellis is saying. We have taken various actions to make sure we are showing up for our harris county employees.
whether it was raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour,
completing this pay equity study and now implementing those adjustments for equitable pay. I see this as another step to
make sure that we are showing up for harris county workers, just the way that they show up for our community every single day.
our folks who were taking care of our parks and roads and helping us after disasters and beyond.
I agree and the coo, you have all seen how type a I am about
everything. I agree that we need to do the right thing and we need to do the thing right.
we need to be as thoughtful about the implementation as possible and then keep iterating, keep improving and we
need to do something, right? To administrator carter's point, we passed this in march, we are seeing things that need to be
clarified and updated. That is what we are doing here today. Making that improvement.
and as we continue learning we will continue making
improvements. So I appreciate y'all quarterbacking this and the goal here is to give our workers a
chance to more easily express their views, their concerns,
their ideas. This is to give our workers a voice and a greater seat at the table.
on several things -- one of your motions, commissioner ramsey, I do want to support that you can opt in or out at any time.
and I hope that you will opt in once these operational items are
ironed out. And so on that one, I would second that motion. In terms of a manual, having one
manual creates more clarity and you can have specific provisions
clearly called out if there are different processes or anything that needs to be flagged. But for the most part, there is
one manual here in harris county. And there are processes that are open to all employees.
so for that, I think one manual will create clarity and will be more complicated if it is to. And if we learned later in
months or years that we need to, we can pivot accordingly.
so in summary, thank you and to the point about doing the right
thing and doing the thing right, just to confirm, the
implementation date is octo october first. Can you talk us through the steps being taken to make sure
that we can implement as thoughtfully and excellently as
possible? >> administrators, do you want to take that? >> I will let her start it.
>> it is true that oca and the county attorney have been
working fast and furious. But also methodically to do it right. And that we have identified
those issues as the administrator went through earlier that we wanted to get clarity in the existing
document. So we believe we have set the stage to be able to effectively put it out on october first.
>> thank you. >> what you should add as part of that is addressing staffing capacity which is also on the
agenda. >> so for hrt for example, we know that with the inclusion of additional elements that can be
grieved to include disappointment that we expect a
significant increase. And we have asked for additional
investigators and relations experts so to to your point, we can be sure we are doing everything right consistently
with how much we have done. And then we also have other
things to add. >> I will make the motion again
22nd, motion to change the language of this policy to allow for commissioners court offices to opt out at any time
afterwards. >> can you put opt in not opt out? >> opt in or opt out.
>> I will second that one. >> so there is a motion on the
table, second by commissioner briones. Any other discussion? Commissioner ellis?
all in favor? Any opposed?
I am in favor, motion carries unanimously. >> other motion was if commissioners court offices opt
out, they maintain the ability to fill their seat on the nine person management representatives.
>> I am also okay with that one. I think in case they want to opt
in later, we can look at that. >> again, I am 1 of 5 court
members responsible for employees in harris county. And even though I may not be a part of the union, I may have
employees or other -- I think it would be a part of my responsibility to at least offer comment.
obviously mine would be the minority voice in a room.
but to make anything better, you better have a minority voice in a room that can give an opinion that is hearing from folks that
may have a different opinion than you. The people I am talking to are not union people.
the people I am talking to are employees of harris county.
so the workers in harris county are the ones talking to me about
their concerns. And the reason I have made more of a big deal about this today is my representative on these
discussions have been totally ignored.
any issues commissioner related to this over a. Of time when we bring these issues up, it is just ignored
and moved on. It would be helpful if everybody
would listen when we are bringing it up. And again, at the end of the day we may not agree on the next
steps or not agree on the process, but we at least ought to pay attention because I think a lot of the issues that we are
talking about here need to be. So again, that motion -- if
commissioners court offices opt out, they maintain the ability to fill their seat on the nine person management
representatives team. >> commissioner, for
clarification, the county attorney's office, the policy right now says an eight person management team.
you have not voted yet to create a nine person management team.
so your motion does not need the language of nine person at this time. >> this management team?
>> yes. >> so commissioner ellis --
>> from the legal department, you see any other problems with that? Any policies you have looked at at other places? Consultation policies?
>> I don't see any legal concern.
>> motion by commissioner ramsey, I'm happy to second it.
all in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. >> thank you for that part of
it. And again, obviously we are all working to the legislative folks.
they are in session next year, hopefully all this is as it should be, thank you. >> a series of other motions, I
do them or you do them, I think we need to go, okay?
one is, I'm getting tired of this, I could go with a nap
around here. One is a motion to approve a proposal of amendments to the consultation framework hensworth
-- henceforth as a consultation policy, why don't we do those,
administrator? My first one is motion to approve the proposed members of the consultation framework as
referred to as the consultation policy, is that what you did?
>> that is needed. >> I make that motion.
>> second. >> should we vote on each of them? No?
keep going. Okay, if you disagree please speak up. >> I can go through all of them.
the second one, go ahead. >> go ahead commissioner. >> a motion to direct office county administration and
office of management budget to incorporate the county attorney's office, service enhancement request related to
the consultation policy of $332,560 into the draft
fiscal year budget, 2027? >> second. >> motion to direct to incorporate the oca budget
related to the consultation policy of $183,928 into the
draft fiscal year 2027 budget? >> second.
>> motion to put human resources talents and budget requests to the consultation policies recommended by the office
of county administration in the fiscal review request form for
item 18? >> second. >> motion to direct the omb to incorporate h budget requests
related to the consultation policy draft fiscal year budget
with authorization to reduce the funding amount related on whether and what consultation agent may be designated?
>> second. >> that is my last one. So I move all of those. >> all of those motions by
commissioner ellis, seconded by commissioner briones. All in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries, 4-1. >> I have a couple friendly
amendments you had. >> I was simply going to ask if we could please do item 326 next because we have the judge chief
public defender draper here and then if we could do 327, we have
director brown. >> so we will do items related to the public defender's office and welcome to the chief public
defender. Thank you. >> what number was that? >> thank you team.
326. >> 326 and you wanted to see that one with 327, right? >> 327 after.
one was public defender, one was not.
>> welcome chief draper. >> thank you very much.
I think we have a slide deck that we have submitted. So that could also be brought up.
the hour is late and so I will be brief. Do not be alarmed by the 32 slides that we have submitted,
we will do a very accelerated version of this. Many of us have spoken about these items already.
I want to start by thanking this commissioners court and the county judge for your support of this office and the
defense as a whole here at harris county, it is very much appreciated. I would also like to take a
brief moment to thank my team. I have an outstanding executive
leadership team as well as my entire office. I work with some phenomenal professionals, there at the
public defender's office so to the extent any of them are watching, I want to take a moment to thank them for their
hard work. There has been a lot of movement a lot of pilots, a lot of policy changes and our office has
really leaned into those changes to execute the mission of
expanding our services. So I want to take a moment to thank them for that. We will jump right into this.
as you are all well aware, march 19th I came before this
court, we discussed the state of defense in harris county and this court asked me to return today with a comprehensive
strategic plan about how this office would grow to meet the task of representing at least 50% of the people here in
harris county, indigent folks accused of crimes. So we have come back today with that comprehensive plan, hence
the 32 slides and the accompanying report. We will just jump right into it. If we can go to the next slide?
and I will breeze through some of these that are just some
explanations. You can move forward.
all right. So I think it is important to note that the court's mandate was to grow to accept at least
50% of the appointments here in harris county. We have been asked to come back with a 3-five-year plan.
so this plan here includes a few iterations, ranging from 3-5
years. It is important to note that this plan is aggressive, very aggressive.
and this plan is substantive and dynamic, meaning that it changes
with changing conditions. For example, if we see higher case filings that could alter some of these calculations.
or if funding is affected and we are not able to hire at the same rate that likewise could affect the rate of this growth.
next slide, please. We are looking at this growth
from basically three different pillars. One focusing on depth, which means focusing on what we
already do very well. But we want to continue to strengthen that. That is representing people
accused of crimes here in harris county at the highest level. And in a client centered and
holistic way. So we want to make sure that as we grow that level of representation is not
compromised. The second pillar of this plan is breadth. So making sure that we take that
skill set and applying it to more people here in harris county, which is what the court has asked.
so essentially scaling that across all of our existing
practice areas and also including adding practice areas, meaning capital defense. That was also the mandate from
the court. So we will be talking about what it looks like to expand into new practice areas.
and the third pillar is holistic. As we provide these services, it is important that we provide a
holistic model of service so that we reduce the chances that people re-encounter the criminal legal system.
that is our contribution to public safety. So we want to make sure that we continue to provide those
services in our representation. Next slide, please.
really quickly we want you all to know that this strategic plan of course is consistent with the county's overall strategic plan,
which is to of course move away from its overreliance on the
private bar as well as to make harris county a safer and more
just county, hence our holistic approach.
next slide, please. And you can actually move to the next slide. We will focus primarily on the
breadth portion of this. Meaning taking the services that we already do and scaling that. And so in looking at the breadth
portion of this, you can skip to the next slide.
we are looking -- the framework is in two ways.
expanding our existing services so we want to look at a target of getting to 50% by the end of fiscal year 2031.
and in calculating whether or not we are meeting that goal, we want to make sure we are all working from the same
measurement. So we want to establish a measurement for how you see the percentage of our share.
and I think this is also later in the presentation, I want to take a moment to shout out the office of court administration,
they have been very helpful with us in figuring out a good and
accurate way to calculate our percentage of the case share. It is currently calculated by appointment, right?
so there are multiple appointments in one case with the private bar. That gets counted multiple
times. Instead, when we get appointed to a case, it gets counted once. So it has a way of
overinflating, in some cases, the private bar's share of
appointments. So we will now be working to also calculate our case share by the percentage of cases.
so one case will be looking at who gets appointed and that way
over inflate the private bar's percentage of the case share
cactus that make sense to everyone? >> chief, I know that commissioner ellis and
commissioner garcia have their hands up, I just want to give an opportunity to see if you guys want to -- let her finish?
okay. Commissioner garcia, do you want to stop for a moment to ask a question?
>> no, ma'am. You finish your presentation. >> I will continue. If at any moment you do have a
question, please stop me. So we are looking at the one
part of expanding our current services and I already mentioned that the second part of this expansion includes getting into
case types that we don't currently do, which is capital cases. So we will talk about both of
those in this presentation. Next slide, please.
so I want to talk about where we currently are in our case here. And I think this slide is really important.
not only to give us a lay of the land and where we are now, but to really highlight the work that has been done in the last
several years. And in particular, the last 12 months. We've seen a lot of growth.
currently our office handles 100% of the bail hearings. We are essentially the only lawyers that represent people at
their initial appearance at the joint processing center at their bail hearings. We also currently handle
approximately 48% of cases. So we are nearly half there. We also handle 49% of juvenile cases.
so we are nearly half there. In the misdemeanor courts, we
currently represent 32% of people appointed counsel. This time last year we were at 16%.
that is a pretty big jump in the last 12 months.
and we are excited about that accelerated growth. And we are currently at 50% in felony courts.
so that of course is the place with the most opportunity. And we will talk a little bit about how we plan to get there
for that. I have already spoken about the updated methodology about how we calculate our case share.
so no need to go over that. But I think this particular slide highlights the momentum that we have at this point.
and we are asking the court to continue to support that
momentum. Next slide. So this slide is where it gets a little bit complicated.
my very sharp team, they love the numbers. So we crunch it a lot of different ways.
so you will see these models in pie graphs, line graphs,
whatever we think may appeal to the way people receive information. So I appreciate them for doing
that. But what I really want to highlight is that we have scenario one, scenario two and
scenario three for how you would get to a 50% case share.
in the next three years. All of these are extraordinarily
aggressive. So I need to preface it with that. And the first scenario, scenario
one, which is essentially mirroring our ask this year for the budget, it really is a three year plan that assumes all
things are perfect. That we get all of our budget, that we have all types of law students leaving law school that
want to be public defenders, that we are able to track lateral hires. That case filings stay stagnant,
that the courts appoint us at the rate that they should. So as harris county is well aware, perfect conditions are
yet to be seen in harris county. I just want to preface it with
that. We also have scenario two and scenario three and the changes in these scenarios account for
some of those changes. So if we have a slower hiring rate or if case filings go up in any way.
our budget ask is consistent with scenario one.
with a caveat that I would argue that since we never have perfect conditions, that the three year time frame is not a realistic
time frame. So I would say that scenario one
plus a five year timeline is what is really more of a realistic and responsible way to grow as well as still a very
aggressive plan. I would like to point out at
this point -- we have seen some growth in all of our areas and I have to shout out some of our partners that have been helpful
in this year with some of the growth that we have already seen. In our misdemeanor courts, the
judges have really leaned in to working with our office, the
office of managed design counsel to make sure that indigent defense is where it should be. So we have seen significant --
>> is there a motion -- >> continuing until we finish the item. >> motion, seconded to continue
until we finish the item, all in favor any opposed? The motion carries unanimously, go ahead.
>> I will move quickly. So we have seen a lot of growth there. But I want to highlight that
that is really a result of the judges leaning into what is
necessary and working with my office. So we have seen a lot of improvement in that area.
I think what you will hear is that we have seen a decrease in calls, but that is also accompanied with an increase in
our ability to get a larger percentage of the case share. In our felony courts, we have received support from oca and
adding what we call a sunday drop, we have not traditionally been appointed cases from the weekend, we now do that, which
averages nearly about 80-85 additional cases each week. We currently don't even have the capacity to accept all of those,
but we are trying to get there. But that has been a really big help. That is a change we made in the
last month and we have already seen at least a two percentage increase in just that month. Additionally, we have expanded
our misdemeanor mental health defense to felony and three
courts, we are about to add a fourth that is also helping to increase our percentage of the case share in felony courts.
next slide, please. It is a little bit of an easier target for misdemeanor. We are well on our way, we went
from 16 to 32%. So I do think that a three year time frame for getting to 50% is more realistic.
we just have the wind at our back. We have automation, we have judicial support, we have the
mac. So we do think that the conditions are right there with the appropriate funding that we
can get to that 50% within the three year time frame.
next slide, please. I'm going to breeze past a few of these because several of these show the same information
but in a different way. So you can see here it talks about what it looks like to see this growth in scenario one and
how it would look for the felony and misdemeanor cases getting to
50%. Next slide, please. Same for this slide. For felonies, this shows
scenario one versus scenario three. So you can see getting to 50% by the end of fy25, versus the end
of getting to it by fy23. Which is our suggestion.
next slide, please. Just a glimpse at how we look at
our budget forecasting. So most of what we think about is our capacity. What lawyers do we need, support
staff, any funds we need to support our efforts. That is primarily what guides our budget decisions.
also case assignments. Any pilots.
this is how we've been using our existing budget to pilot these things and we are planning to do so in the upcoming year.
and also external factors that our office has to adjust to.
next slide, please. This allows you to get a glimpse
of our fy27 ask. You can see the ask here, you
can see 79 felony attorneys and we are asking to add 22 who go
into felony division as well as 35 attorneys for our program
that go into the misdemeanor and bail divisions. And so the second chart there kind of gives an idea there of
scenario one scenario two scenario three. With our ask being more akin to scenario one.
next slide, please. All right, the moment you have all been waiting for. We have had several
conversations with people about adding capital representation to
our office. So we want to address that.
you mentioned this in our conversations with commissioner garcia, we want to spend fy27 really assessing what that looks
like. What is the current state of capital representation, what is the cost, what is the most
effective way for us to affect that representation as well as
that cost? It is also important to note that it would be more than this court supporting it from a
budget standpoint. It would be more than me having lawyers in my office ready to do that work.
the capital list is, for lack of a better term, controlled by the
11th judicial district. Judge susan brown decides who is on that list. So we need to work with the
courts with judge brown to be added to that list.
so it is a longer conversation, there are lots of things there
that need to happen before we are able to commit to taking
capital cases. But what we can commit to is making sure that we do an appropriate assessment this year
and coming back to this court with a recommendation in 28 that
will likely accompany of course, a budget ask to get into that
area of practice. I will stop for a second there. Are there any questions related to capital cases?
>> commissioner garcia? >> yes. Chief, I couldn't be more grateful to you for your work
over all. Just in hitting the ground running as our public defender. But I do want to absolutely say
thank you for your thoughtfulness in working to build this new capacity within your office.
I see it from a couple of vantage points. One is that there have been individuals in our custody that
have been charged with capital offenses and have been there for
years. Because they're hired or assigned counsel just wasn't working to get the job done.
so that coupled with the fact that this is one of our more
costly areas when we have folks get assigned defendants, I think
that is also a effective part of your career, a career path for
your office. So I was just anxiously waiting
as I went through your report, waiting to see where the capital
capacity was going to be discussed and I was so excited when I saw it. So I just want to say thank you.
and that harris county is absolutely much better because of your work as our public defender.
thank you so very much. And I will be ready to help
support your work, because we are absolutely moving in the right direction, thank you very much.
>> thank you, I appreciate that. I will fast forward really quickly to the depth portion of this and what the depth focus is
on is just making sure that we are able to maintain the people that we have. We want to make sure we are
taking care of the folks that we have because it doesn't help for us to grow. And if people are jumping out of
the back door, I have already mentioned we have very talented professionals that work there at the harris county public
defender's office. So this portion will be focused on making sure that we have pay parity, which the county has
been really good about supporting us and we want to make sure that they have manageable workloads, that they
have the appropriate training and supervision. And the resources that they need to do this work.
so I would be remiss to submit a plan that does not include
making sure that we support our existing group of professionals so that we don't lose them. And so you will see throughout
the depth portion what that looks like. We have been taking a look at other offices to see how they
retain, recruit, we have been recruiting students from all over the country, 18 different schools for this incoming class
and we want to continue to do this nationwide recruiting effort. So if you take a look here, you
can kind of see what we have been doing. But I think it speaks for itself.
so I will save us all some time there. We can skip right to the holistic portion, which talks
about our holistic work. A few slides down. And I just want to point out a few things about our holistic
division. This fiscal year we have supported 1559 clients and connecting them with housing,
treatment or supportive services. We have worked with our misdemeanor court judges and
their fresh start program to ensure that people conceal their record after they have completed the conditions of their case.
we have a huge supreme court win out of our holistic division
where the opinion noted this county s support of a holistic
indigent defense program. So we have had a very successful year and our holistic division, I have no doubt it will have an
impact on public safety. I think that concludes most of
what I wanted to speak with you all about. I wanted to give a few minutes for any questions, if anyone
should have any. >> commissioner ellis and then
commissioner briones. >> I want to thank you, judge.
it says a lot about you that you would walk off the bench to take
this position. It's your passion, I know the first thing you did when you got out of law school was be a
public defender. And it really says a lot about you that you give up the independence of running your
courtroom to come and be with the wonderful five of us.
it really does say a lot about you. That office was handling 6% of cases, if my memory serves me
right. You went back to 2018, you show 6.7. But when I got in in 2017, was
handling 6% of the cases. And to be where you are now at
22% of the cases is phenomenal. It was 72,000 cases in 2018 and
91,000. And we made that commitment, that goal to get up to 50% unanimously, it's going to get a
bipartisan vote. It said a lot about us. So at the appropriate time I will make a motion to keep that
50% in place. And I will read it now, I think
I sent it around, I will move the public defender's office, in accordance with its august sixth, 2026 strategic
plan, increase this capacity, take at least 50% of defense
case appointments by 2031 as the office expands, it should ensure that best practices are met, including workload standards,
training, provision for holistic services, recruitment and retention efforts. And I will stress -- I. Was
joking earlier about our eyes being bigger than our stomachs.
commissioner ramsey, we need your help. Particularly your help because we need to go back in and reform
that defense act passed in 2001. Because this would be revenue
neutral. We can get there if we stop that other big item that drops a big hole in this budget.
when the judges come in and by law we have to pay it.
and the quality of representation that people get when it's at a public defender's office is so much better than
those court appointed lawyers, just a whole notion just reeks
of a foul odor, the idea of a judge picking the lawyer to
represent somebody accused of a crime in that courtroom. Nobody in their right mind would ever think the judge ought to
pick the prosecutor, that is just not the way you get the
justice. But commissioner ramsey, I'm waiting on you. I will do everything I can when
we pass that fair defense. Stated the $113 billion biannual
budget is much bigger now, but it is the first time the state put any money in indigent defense.
it is a constitutional requirement. But we have to foot the bill. State just putting a nickel in
in the general fund. And that bill comes from the f
fee. It's a fee on people that want their day in court. And they were just using it,
smoke and mirrors to balance the budget. So I swept the fund and put the money somewhere.
it was just sitting there not being used. But that's an awful way to fund indigent defense, off the backs
of people going into the system that want their day in court. I hope they make that change and it's an appropriate time to move
the motion. >> I will second it.
>> commissioner briones, ramsey and garcia.
>> chief draper, and this last year, to see what you and your team have accomplished is deeply energizing and I have profound
gratitude, thank you. Several things.
first, I would love to hear just very briefly, in terms of
outcome measures. So as we continue to grow, the amount of representation, how are we tracking exactly the
outcome measures? Because to me it's clear as day, we get higher quality at lower cost with the public defender
office, how are you tracking that? >> this office has a long history -- even though we are a
young office, we have a history of tracking our outcomes. So we will continue to do that. We have phenomenal data analysts
on our team who track time to disposition, length of time in
jail, acquittals, dismissals, all of the things. We track those types of things and our office, in addition we
will be adding more formalized evaluation process to make sure
that it's not a moving target. Lawyers know what is expected of them and have an opportunity to achieve those goals.
but we have regularly tracked that we generally put it out by
report. But we have that information at the ready. >> and particularly, thank you
for the holistic approach with which you do defense.
to piggyback on what commissioner ellis was saying, we are waiting on the final draft from the auditor.
but we requested yet another report, itemizing the private
counsel that had been appointed. And there is usually around a
dozen each year that make more than a million or right about a million. So we are paying more for less
and they don't have the case caps. And that is deeply problematic from a quality of justice and
deeply problematic from a fiduciary perspective and a
planning perspective. So I cannot wait for us to hit this at least 50%. And I just appreciate the
quality with which you represent these individuals. So my question is, just to confirm, my understanding is
they are working to commissioner ellis's point in this bipartisanship, commissioner ramsey, that we will need when
we have these private attorneys that I know one in particular,
vouchered 1000 felony cases in fy24.
1000. And we need tons of improvement as to when the vouchers are due and this continuous oversight
and transparency. We have many streams of work and progress that are indigent defense here in harris county
and I look forward to executing all of the different levers. But my question to you is, could you please just, so that
everyone is level set in terms of the case cap at your office, can you please remind us of that?
>> sure. For felonies, our attorneys are kept at 128 cases and for misdemeanors it is 226.
that is consistent with the standards that have been working for us thus far. >> and for clarity, we will get
into it more when we have the final updated report from the auditor, but to be clear, these private attorneys who are being
appointed, they are not subject to this case cap, correct? >> that is correct. >> and we have no insight to all
of the other cases they are handling in other counties, and their own private practices, et cetera?
correct? And that is deeply problematic. Any thoughts?
>> I make no secret to that. It is in the best interest of
the county of people accused of crimes to have people with reasonable case laws. Because what is a fantastic
lawyer can quickly become not a fantastic lawyer. And a terrible lawyer when they are overloaded.
so I have a lot of interest in making sure that all attorneys
are handling cases in an appropriate way. >> thank you for everything you do to provide quality defense
and I cannot wait to hit 2031 and like the commissioner, I
cannot wait to add the capital component as well that is so needed. And I thank you for your service
and count me in 100%. >> thank you.
>> thank you. >> commissioner ellis?
commissioner ramsey and then commissioner garcia?
>> thank you for -- I know you may be surprised on what I am about to say, thank you for the powerpoint.
>> you're welcome. >> I normally don't think anybody for any kind of powerpoint but facts matter.
and the most important thing than anything bipartisan, is
being organized. And you are going to make that case really well. What we have now, unfortunately
in harris county, is chaos. It is not any particular
person's fault. But we find ourselves with an overloaded court system. People are spending far too much
time in jail. I think one of the things I read
in the constitution was a speedy trial. We are not doing a very good job on a speedy trial side of
things. The people I visited with on occasion in the county jail, some of them have been there far
too long. The court will decide their guilt or their innocence but no one should have to sit in jail
as long as some of these folks have had to sit in jail.
I think you were the key to making that more effective in
terms of representation, the court, get the process moving. I know you were spending time with judges.
and they are telling that there is a better way.
I echo the concerns that commissioner briones has with
the public sector. I was consulted for many years. I think there is a place for folks to come in from the public
private sector and provide support. We shouldn't be running it. And at this point, I think
mr. Ramos and I are extremely optimistic in terms of if we can
get the courts organized at the dare I say it judges organized
and how they invoice for attorney's fees, the process
according to attorney's fees, we need to start tracking the number of cases that an attorney is handling.
I know that if I was working for harris county doing engineering
work, and I had 25 assignments at one time, using the same
project manager, I would probably fire them.
because there is enough effort to monitor what people do. It is very difficult to monitor the level of effort and the
quality of effort that they do. So you are going to find a great
bit of support, bipartisan support in trying to accomplish what you are doing. I think we've just got to keep
our eye on the speedy trial part, keep our eye on the waste
that is the nature of court appointed attorneys. Not saying any one of them necessarily wake up to do bad
things, but when you are spending that much money over that. Of time, there is something I
think that we can do better. Thank you chief.
I look forward to this getting better every year. >> thank you. >> commissioner garcia?
>> thank you again for your work. I wanted to number 1, just hear it from you, I know what's
happening. But aside from capital, it's to make sure that we are growing or at least maintaining our
immigration specialization capacity within your team.
and I didn't see that spelled out but I know that it is
happening. So can I just have you comment on that? >> sure.
that is an ever increasing important part of our office, given all that is happening right now.
people are in desperate need of making sure that they understand their exposure where it relates to their status here in this
country. So we have an immigration division, that division currently does not provide
direct representation, what they do provide is advice related to
how a criminal case may affect their status. We provide that not only to attorneys within our office, we
also provide that advice to private attorneys who submit a
referral and have a question. So we do provide that as well to the private bar. In this particular fiscal year,
we did not make an ask as you have heard, this is a tough year. So we did try and although a big
ask, it is still a conservative ask based on all of the things that we need. So in this particular year, we
did not have a specific ask to grow that division.
but to your point it is well taken, we do need to make sure we keep pace and that we are able to continue to provide that
very necessary advice to people accused of crimes.
>> chief, just brief on this one. And I don't know if this is necessarily a question for you,
I think it might be. But on the fact that we -- that
there are still so many cases where the attorney is -- there
are still so many attorneys that the county pays an enormous amount of money to. And on the other hand, we have
this budget deficit and we know that is an area where as we improve indigent defense through the public defender's office, we
are going to save some money. I see your piece of this, or
your efforts here as being perhaps a piece of that goal.
and I'm just wondering, what the other parts of that goal are. In other words, this is in your hands and it is in our hands to
the extent that we support you and that we support you with the county budget, which I am committed to doing.
but what else could we be doing independently of funding your office and your efforts in order to change that?
>> this is a really large question.
and I will try to answer it in some succinct ways. I do think that -- some people have asked when will we start to
see some savings? What I can tell you is when you will start to see us take a larger percentage of cases.
or when you can start to see us accepting fewer vouchers because we are handling those cases. There is not the same level of
oversight in a felony case for what is happening with those
vouchers. So I encourage you all to continue to work with our courts and we are doing the same and
the other office is doing the same to try and get some support
there for the private bar. Because I do think that is where we are going to start to see some efforts for efficiency
purposes. I think if you look at the misdemeanor model, where the public defender works in tandem
and there is no way to circumvent it because we have now automated it, the system works.
you cannot go around it. So while there have been bumps in the road in building that, every important change is.
but that is where we are going to see savings, that is where we are going to see better representation, that is where we
will see quality and oversight and accountability. So I would say to really focus on how we get more support and
oversight for the private bar. And the other area I am not in
the business of necessarily championing every one, but there
are some cross shared goals, is what I would say with some of our other stakeholders. We have some bottleneck
happening at the jpc, so we are very supportive of pretrial services and making sure that they are supported in the way
that they need to be there so that people are not housed there
for longer than necessary. And the same for the ask about
magistrates. That has been an ongoing issue, even dating back during my time in the judiciary and I do think
that those salaries are no longer competitive enough to do what we need to do here in the county.
so those are some areas that our office is invested in making
sure that those areas are supported as well. So that the system works as well as it can for the people who
have to encounter it. >> and maybe -- I. Don't know if you have this off the top of your head, director ramos or
even chief, the amounts of the paper that I know did something on this, some of these attorneys that the judges select, they are
getting paid -- it's like -- am I right, it's upwards of a million dollars in some cases? Or did that get corrected?
>> that is correct, there are some attorneys that are at a million dollar plus. But we also don't know how much
they have in private clients. >> right. So that is almost like -- that is just us, right?
and so I do think -- we were talking earlier about a
particular legal case being unique. And I think that there is some -- some tangential parallel here
and that a million dollars for attorneys that are representing
people whose freedom is at stake, who might not have done
what is being said they did and then us having to pay that amount of money when we are facing a structural deficit, it
just seems like something that we really should tackle more in
earnest. So I am just wondering if jay or
team, if there is anything in here that we can use this opportunity to make a motion or direct that the folks that are
working on the criminal justice issues, really dig in on this.
and what we as a commissioners court can do. And I would say perhaps ahead of the budget discussions, is this
a way to find savings? Or something we can start now that will produce savings next year.
because not only is it really just wrong and wasteful, but it
also is a low-hanging fruit when we are in a tough financial
position. So is that possible? Are you already working together on that?
what can we do? >> I would say there's a lot of work with the stakeholders to try and come up with some
solutions here. What I will say is that I think a really important step is investing in the space.
because as you have all identified, this bill has to get
paid. Is a constitutionally required cost. So we are going to pay it
regardless, because it is required. So to invest here allows you to be able to predict your cost
from year to year, instead of the surprise bill. Right now when you think about representing 22% of the
population. But if we are properly funded over the next several years as we have laid out in our
strategic plan, then we could be at 50%. That way you don't have as big of a guess.
there will still be some, we need to focus on how we get oversight of the other side. But I think this is a huge step
in the right direction, to make sure that you sink your money
into the predictable cost. And I will just say, I have to
add that we appreciate the support, we appreciate the runway. But that runway depends on the
support. The budgetary support. If the budgetary support isn't there for whatever reason, we just can't do it in a particular year.
then that means that slows the growth. So these projections are based on plans to grow and hire.
so I want to make that caveat. >> quick question on that point.
I am hearing you that to the extent that we support you, we are also kind of taking from that problematic system and
giving it to a system that is much more transparent and to the
extent that we are able to provide some oversight over that, then that is great as well.
what about -- what about us decreasing or limiting the
ability of cases to go through that problematic path? Is that at all a possibility? >> what I will say to that is
that the way it is set up in misdemeanor court right now is the best example of that. When somebody qualifies for
counsel, the courts decide that they will be appointed counsel and then they are out. It is automated at that point.
>> in commissioners court we couldn't decide that. That was incredible work by you and other judges when you were
there. But is there something the court can decide on? >> you all cannot control that.
that will need to be the stakeholders involved in the criminal legal system. And those conversations are
being had. I don't want to misrepresent that. But those conversations are being had. But those conversations are
going to have to manifest into action for us to really start to
see the progress that we have seen in misdemeanor courts. >> it takes a lot of courage to tie up the hands and I hope the
judges -- add their fabulous -- they also do this.
that's what I had. But I echo the comments, I think this is great, I'm really excited.
and the public defender's office is stronger and stronger. More people will want to come intern and work there so it is
all just a really positive cycle. So yes. >> thank you.
>> thank you chief. We have motions, commissioner ellis and I have a couple motions and he asked me to read
his. Motion that the public defender's office in accordance with its august sixth, 2026
strategic plan increase its capacity to take at least 50% of
indigent defense case appointments by 2031, as the
office expands, it should ensure that best practices are met,
including workloads standards, training, provision of holistic
services, recruitment and retention efforts.
>> second. >> commissioner I. Just read.
so there is a motion by commissioner briones, seconded by commissioner ramsey, all in favor?
any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. >> there's one more. We'll be so exciting in 2031,
chief draper, that will be the 20th anniversary. And it will be your five year anniversary as our chief public
defender. And the second motion is motion to direct, please, the harris county public defender's
office and the office of managed assigned counsel we will hear from next, to please provide an annual update on their strategic
plans to commissioners court by august 15th of each year, every
year through 2031. >> motion by commissioner,
seconded. All in favor? Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously.
>> thanks again, phenomenal work. >> thank you all for your time and your support.
>> thank you. >> director brown?
>> good afternoon commissioners. Commissioners court,.ca, director carter, office of management and budget.
>> go ahead, thank you. >> thank you for this opportunity to present our five year strategic plan for the
office of manage assigned counsel. My name is portia brown and I want to take just a quick moment
to thank our staff. We are a small staff, but we are lean and we are mean and we are getting work done.
additionally, I also want to thank our appointed panel attorneys that are in the courthouse every single day,
fighting for their clients. We have grown our list to 225
attorneys, as well as 40 investigators and every single day they are out there being efficient and effective.
additionally, I want to make sure to thank some of our partners that came and spoke today on behalf of the mac
earlier during public comment. Specifically the harris center,
directors sykes and jones came here and discussed how great it is that we have holistic resources for some of those
private attorneys in the misdemeanor courts. So we are very thankful to our county partners as well as our
community partners. Next slide.
a few things today that I want to go over. I know we are close to 5:00, I want to make sure we hit on our
strategic initiatives as well as some of our metrics and our timeline. Next
>> the way we see it at mac, is by 2031, our vision, we, along
with our harris county stakeholders, will elevate the defense to be on par with state averages, as well as to the
highest level of service efficiency among comparable programs nationwide. And we have our guiding
principles. Something I want to make sure to note, it is client to center representation.
that's those holistic services you used to get someone a social worker. To get them an investigator.
to make sure they have that advisable opinion. As well as accountability when it comes to the work we are
doing. And additionally stakeholder engagement. Next line.
so, our initiatives that we planned out for the next years
directly reflect back to the ones that harris county have
established. For example, reducing reliance on court aborted council, expanding the effectiveness of the efficiency of mac-pdo, as well as revamping the holistic
point system and revamping those services. Let's discuss a few of those initiatives that relate erectly
back to the mac. Next slide.
first, and the thing that I am most excited for, as a 10-year public defender, is to talk about expanding our training
levels for those 225 attorneys. And as we plan to expand our
list, we want to make sure that not only are our-- are our
attorneys trained, but also the investigators. Additionally, we are moving towards-- excuse me.
we are moving in to including valuations for attorneys.
and so, in that process, we plan on reaching out to the
judiciary. Working with focus groups within the local bar, as well as our advisory board.
so we want to make sure we have the best of the best when it
comes to attorneys in harris county.
secondly, when it comes to initiative number 3, broadening access, we want to look at language access.
we want to make sure we have social workers that speak
spanish and other languages. In addition to that, we want to
decrease our turnaround time when we do get those requests for attorneys. Meaning that when you request a
social worker on monday, we want to make sure that you don't have to reset your case. You don't have to keep people in
jail for and additional day. And we have a quick turnaround on the services so folks can get what they need, come back to
court, and also hopefully not come back again. Third, I want to highlight our enhancement of the appointment
and review system, as well as internal audits. I know audits are an exciting thing to talk about.
but I have to say that it has been wonderful, because we had tremendous assistance from the district court staff,
administrators, who have been working with our office to streamline things. They have been helping with our
appointment system and our voucher review system. So we are thankful to the district court offices.
I would also like to note and highlight that our misdemeanor
attorney appointment-- appointment system delivers fair and unbiased appointments. And it's been doing so the last
five years in spirit with the defense act. I would be remiss to not note that everything we plan to do in
the next five years is a part of our overall justice ecosystem.
meaning, when you affect one part, it affect something else.
-- it affects something else. I want to echo what chief draper
said. Number 1, when it comes to developers for the district court staff administration that help us improve our systems to make sure that we provide
unbiased appointments, we want to make sure that that also happens. That if there-- that there are
service officers that need to have more staff who-- so that they can do the financial affidavit, so our clients are
not delay in getting to court and getting processed out. That's important as well. And additionally with the
magistrate just sit-- judges, that is important to ensure we
are processing quickly and efficiently-- efficiently. Next slide. So I want to talk a little bit
about mac-pdo, and what we call the model system in the misdemeanor courts. So, over time, currently in
july, the mac has increased their share to 34%.
and what we have seen is that over the last couple of months, we have been able to look at what are the technology
improvements that need to happen to ensure that this happens as seen look-- seamlessly as possible.
but one of the things that mac needs to make sure we can get clients to their attorneys as fast as possible.
whether that be public defenders or mac attorneys. So that is why, in a few slides, you will hear me as for and
assignment specialist, that is someone that does that appointment process and ensures that those cases that are
typically automated that get to the attorney, the ones that
cannot be, the manual system, those are happening at just as fast of a rate, so that we can ensure we are as efficient with
our time as possible. And I also want to make sure to
note here that when it comes to the mac-pdo and reaching parity
with our mac appointed assignments in the near future, that kind of system is going to equal out to be a fixed cost for
the pdo, the mac being an additional cost, and the mac will serve as a shock absorber for additional cases.
let's say you have an attorney from the pdo, who has reached their caseload max. The mac can come in.
maybe at specialized our spanish kate-- speaking. And they will be a shock absorber, based on supply and
demand. And that is another reason why this system is ideal. Next slide.
I want to talk a little bit about hours-- holistic services.
since 2024, our social services have gone up 47%.
our investigative services have gone up to 50 percent, and our immigration services have increased by 6% thus far.
whenever we are doing any kind of this work, it is important to
look at the supply and demand. That way we can ensure that, number 1, we are making sure that our attorneys have
everything they need and the tools they need, and we can ensure that service delivery happens as fast as possible.
you will hear me say that frequently in this presentation. Because every time an attorney has to wait, that's a court
reset. Another date in jail. Another dollar that harris county does not need to
spend. And so, another thing that is important is that our social services, we try to rely upon
other county partners and community partners as much as we can so that 1 dollar in harris county can be spent
multiple ways, and with different departments.
for example, we rely upon our connections with county partners
like public health. Harris center. Harris county rides, and our community partners like the
beacon and the coalition for homelessness. Next slide. So let us look at effectiveness.
thus far, since 2022, the mac has been able to keep a steady
rate of dismissals at 68%. And so, the effectiveness that
we looked at as a mac office is going to be measured by increase
and-- in dismissed cases, holding all the variables the
same. And secondly, we make sure to look at disposition time. So previously noted, there was a
lot of questions about how long does it take for a case to get
resolved. We also review that. And since 2022 we have seen a reduction to 44%.
next slide. Let's look at efficiency.
on efficiency, since q3 in 2025 year to date we have seen a one
million-dollar reduction in total cost, and we have seen
decreases in three of our four high cost voucher categories.
in this graph you will see that we have broken down the top ten
voucher categories for misdemeanor cases only. But it is still very important-- important information we can use
moving forward. At the end of the day, when we are looking at performance for attorneys, we look at
effectiveness and efficiency. So that efficiency is average cost per case compared to state and nationwide standards.
next slide. So the next five years.
and we have presented this slide before because it creates a road map on our goal to get to the national gold standard for mac
offices. So we want to make sure we have the strongest foundation possible.
this year we are focusing on stakeholder engagement, our attorney evaluation system, and looking at new and innovative
kpi's. Next year we are moving in to a structured feedback system where we can get responses from all 16
words, as well as targeted staffing expansions that help us
continue for effectiveness and efficiency.
and in year three, we are expanding our holistic capacity. We want to make sure we have language access for social
services. And lastly, we want to make sure that our fh-- officinalis and-- efficient and effectiveness is
up to 10%. That's a high goal, but I hope we can get there. Next slide, I want to highlight
for the commissioners court some of our high impact ser's.
the largest are a wide's. And we believe that's that person connecting the client with the cases.
and addressing some of the manual cases that need to be appointed because the public to pender-- public defenders
offices act is at capacity or we have to make sure that clients get to eternity's-- attorneys. And second, a resource attorney.
that is someone that will help us evaluate our attorneys to make sure they are effective and efficient.
>> I think we should continue this discussion. >> all in favor? Any opposed?
motion carried. >> and those resources, we hope the capacity is large enough so that they can second chair.
so instead of having to pay for second chair attorneys, we will be able to provide so our attorneys are supported.
in the future we want to make sure that we do highlight that
we plan to request a bilingual social worker in the future.
enclosing, the mac strategic plan delivers measurable improvements in quality, timeliness, efficiency and
equity. With your continued support we can achieve the national gold standard envision for
harris county and improve outcomes for those who depend on this defense. Thank you very much.
I am available for question. >> thank you. Commissioner briones. >> director brown.
thank you for the project to have led. This is deeply energizing. We are so lucky to have you at
the helm of our mac. And chief draper at the helm of
our pdo office. Thank you for being so thorough and clear. My question, something that has
been weighing on me, is how the local rules were changed before
you took your position? I have great respect for a
judiciary, and I have great respect for the mac, and the
fundamental need for it to have it's independence. And I know that you have been incredibly collaborative with
the judiciary. And have been trying to work through. So my question is-- without
further commentary, have those local rules, which I believe
undermine the independence of the mac, have those been
amended? >> so, they have not been amended completely. We have been working with the
judiciary often. Weekly. Almost daily meetings with the judges and as a group to address
individual rules one at a time. So we are also addressing the total local rules there and they are open and leaning in.
and we are having discussions. And they are discussions that
are based on actual information exchange and collaboration. Which is ideal. Because there maybe things that
we want to see as a mac office included in their defense plan.
so that has been one benefit. We can get our commentary and say, hey, we know you feel this way on a plan of operations, but
let us see what else we can do to effect meaningful change for
both systems. So we are not there yet completely. But we are taking it one by one.
and I have had really good progress.
>> again, that is because of your leadership, and I appreciate it. And find those win-win's.
I'm all for collaboration and communication. And approaching everything in a great spirit of partnership.
100%. And some of that language is just deeply problematic with regards to the independence.
so I know you are working through thing by thing. To me, that is contrary to the very essence of what a mac is.
and I know we have been in discussions.
but I am all into do anything that we need to do to make sure that you are able to truly run the briones-- the mac with the
independence that it needs. And I know everything you have done, and everything you will do.
and I look forward to 2031. >> thank you so much. Looking forward to it too. >> anybody else?
commissioner garcia. >> thank you. Thank you so much for your work. I just want to say, thank you
for taking through the specialization of immigration
attorneys that need to be thought of. Over the years I have heard of so many cases being made more
complicated and harder to represent because the wrong attorney got involved in a case that needed someone with some
degree of specialty. So I appreciate the work that you are doing there. And I had an appointment to the
mac. And he has since stepped down. If you could, and you don't have to do it today.
if you could, please send out the qualifications that are
required for folks to serve on the board, and they commissioner
to help you and any vacancies that you might have as well.
>> will do. >> thank you.
and I just want to thank you. Commissioner-- from here until
now, and commissioner ellis took this on way before, but it's impressive and heartening. Thank you so much.
>> thank you. >> thank you. Good job. >> thank you, dr. Brown.
>> I kind of wanted to clap when you guys were done. You and chief draper. It's really wonderful.
thank you so much. >> is there any action on this item? Thank you.
>> so, then we are looking at the-- we are looking at the
real estate assets. >> back to one.
>> number 1, judge . >> and that one has 313 as well. They go together. And commissioner ellis is the
one who wanted to talk about it? >> was this one that I pulled?
I let it go. You have all beat me down. I am tired. >> just let it go.
all right. That is one and... And 313.
so we will just have no action online? >> we are requesting action. You can take no action.
>> all push that one through. >> what is presented. Is there a motion? >> I would like some comments
before we get there. I know this is not steps.
is 313 the committee? >> I think so.
>> 313 as hybrid sites. Item one is surplus property for
the general fund fy27 budget. >> where are you trying to set
up the committee? >> it is 313. The process to identify assets and to recommend to
commissioners court... Made up of designated commissioners
courts members to identify-- >> the lca motion is motion to direct oca, oce, omb, to convene a surplus property workgroup
with court staff as voting members to identify high value
underutilize real estate assets to recommend to commissioners court for the usurp-- surplus property sale by september
17th, fiscal year 27 general budget. >> short-term committee, ending that date.
>> she has read my mind again. The only comment I would have
here, rather than have a committee, short-term as it is,
oca, ocd, oab, to me it would make more sense for the commissioner whose precinct the property is in to work with the
director of omb, and the county administrator, a three-person
committee, to make decisions on what is done.
that gets a decision-maker in a room with other decision-makers and they are making decisions. I think if we set up a working
group we are going to be working on that from now until kingdom come. >> I second that motion.
you don't need us to set up a working group. If you want to make sure we get out the dime-- some of the stuff
on the list we cannot sell anyway. One that franco is using, I am still using.
that's not going anywhere. >> that's why this precinct is
going to be that committee-- for documents a property, is going to be the commissioner, the county administrator, and
our budget officer getting in a room and making a decision. >> we can do that. The only downside is if the
commissioner were to decide no, I don't want to sell any property on my committee and we don't get the $25 million number
that is currently a placeholder in the budget, then we are going to have a-- have to identify somebody else.
>> we paid a consultant money to identify property. Is that correct? >> yes, sir,.
>> okay. We have someone that is out there saying we think this would be good property to cell.
so all I am saying is that we already paid a consultant.
on expert. More than an expert than anybody in these departments to provide that menu of these options.
>> your model is much more linear, but we are not able to get-- if we are not able to get that 25 million, I would have to
come back. >> so I would say that might happen, but not-- put it on the agenda and say the commission
voted no. One is that property they bought
out they are-- what's the name of that? Pyrmont. -- pine montt.
and I take the heat for housing. People are still mad at me
because I put affordable housing out there because it's something they need. Their mad at me because I put a
storage facility out there. For them to throw stuff away.
but just bring it back if it is a problem. And we paid a consultant they full 500,000, 300,000?
>> last. All get you the exact number.
>> all do this quick motion. Motion-- we don't need a space
planning committee. Just make sure if you serve plus
property that it's now being used by the county department.
resolve that with the precinct, and we certainly can't go sale where the old jail was. That's where the courthouse will
go one day. So they want to retain it for
get-- they want to retain it to get a commission.
>> I hear each commissioner having a say on this. But maybe some of these could have served or surveyed
countywide purpose. So I would also like to be involved. Will it come to court
ultimately? >> ultimately it would need to
come to court. >> $25 million, they all have to come to court. If you get $25 million, I'll buy
you a rib dinner. I know a bit about balancing
budget. >> one of your staffers from the state said you guys have italian suits.
so we can talk about dinner. >> don't talk about my suit.
it looks good though, doesn't it?
>> yeah. Anyway. I-- I don't love it. >> you can put it together and
it will be part of the budget briefings that we do now. >> and just so you know, I will be asking what we will be using
it for if we were not selling it.
so, yes. Anyway. Do we need a motion there? >> ramsey, I will second your
motion. >> all right. >> motion by commissioner ramsey.
>> could you repeated. >> motion to create a three-member working group with county administrator
director ramos, was standing commissioners in the third seat
rotating as identified by the real estate asset.
>> if the commission doesn't show up, put it on the agenda to be approved. >> second.
>> can I have a nonvoting staff member or something. Would you object-- object to that?
okay. Thank you. >> so we are going to add-- >> a nonvoting staff member from
the judges office. >> thank you.
we have a motion, a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.
>> you have two other motion. >> was that item one or item 313. >> just to be clear, you will
bring all these recommendations to court by when? We can target the goal we. >> given the time sensitivity
and the with fact that we need this funding in fiscal year 27,
we should have the list done by september 28th. Far before the budget, ideally. >> thank you.
I know you will do better th than... I have great faith.
>> you know which ones are controversial and which ones are not. >> thank you.
>> are there any on 313? >> administrator carter, could
do very quickly please recap the difference between what we just talked about versus hybrid? >> sure.
and basically when putting assets together in 2024, there
was a yield which was to sell for some revenue, maybe the
highest, and the hybrid, which had strong committee benefit,
housing, part, trail and potential small business incubators on land and have other uses.
so this is to restart that process because there was a pause. And come back with a plan not to
select every address and figure out what we are going to put on
that land, but to restart it because there was a long pause
and there has been no forward motion on that part of the-- how
we could reimagine certain parcels of land.
>> a p-a-w. >> yes.
>> so do we have a motion for that one. >> is that approved as presented? Administrator carter? >> yes.
>> thank you, director kostas. >> I moved 313 to move as
presented. >> all in favor we any opposed?
the motion carried unanimously. Thank you.
>> administrator you are going to be sure these are sharp meetings and not many of them. >> director kostas will.
>> thank you. >> okay.
so we have item three on pcn, commissioner ramsey, flagged
that one-- flagged that one. Strategic hiring consumptions
for pcns and nonrelated departments.
three commissioners. >> so we are moving right along.
>> motion by commissioner ellis. Second by commissioner briones.
all in favor? Opposed? Motion carried unanimously. Five goes with 329.
>> I think we've covered this. Are you good?
I read done you earlier. >> do you need any action on either of these? >> no, judge.
>> so, item five is nonaction, and item 329 is no action.
then item eight, the mobility budget and funding plan,
commissioner ramsey? >> I think the item's discussion
of possible action to prove fiscal year 27 mobility budget and funding plan for office county engineer, and I
think the motion for that-- >> commissioner, I got it.
motion to fully fund the oed's mobility budget at 24.9 million. And direct oh mds to budget transfers from the
preallegations to oce to make the funds available at the outset cleared 27 to be used for eligible projects under section
284 dodd 031, transportation hub. >> did you add 44.9? >> motion by commissioner
ramsey. Second by commissioner garcia. I see commissioner garcia's hand up. Go-ahead. >> you are good.
I was just making sure to support the item. >> thank you. Motion by ramsey. Second by garcia. [indiscernible]
>> go-ahead. >> the other thing we need to
add is that the precinct has been fully informed that be for the transfer occurs, what the money will be spent for.
I think that's consistent, we need to know what this money is
spent on. >> commissioner ramsey, I'm glad
you are saying that, because that's also been my point in why
I made the changes to the investment policy.
whenever we are doing a mobility transfer, it needs to come to court before anyone decides it should be put in investment.
>> for example, I am just now finding out where the money was spent for fiscal year '26 from the county engineer's office.
so, august 2026 is not the find out-- not the time to find out
where your money is being spent. We need to know in october of 2026 what the money will be spent for in 2027.
and, director, I don't think-- it should be pretty straightforward. If I understand the plan.
>> commissioner, absolutely, we will provide you the information. You already have the information
for the spending and where the division is going and what were doing. So if you need additional information we are happy to provide it.
>> it's projects are going to be done. >> absolutely. >> okay.
so it's just as director ramos has read. And the precinct has been fully informed before october 1st
2026. >> commissioner, one more caveat, a lot of the times the projects get initiated in the
middle of the fiscal year. So we will not be able to tell
you what projects, because the money is still in your bank
account for what projects we are working on today.
so free talk about staffing resources, right now there are some does it-- dedicated staffs for your precinct, for example
the capital projects. You have 24 staff dedicated to
you. 200 staff dedicated to commissioner ellis. A lot of the staff are moving
from one place to another place when the job is there. When you do a permit and an expansion-- inspection for
example. So we don't know when the inspection will be required when the permit goes end.
so we can give you in general what the volume we do, and how we do, how we do last year. But it would be difficult for us
to tell you we will be working for this particular project. Because we don't even know what projects you guys are going to
issue. >> I guess my only point is, because, properly this money needs to be properly accounted
for, and being sure that it is spent on transportation related
projects. The documentation needs to be there. I am willing to work with
the county engineer's office with the details. But the conversation needs to be had on october 1st, 2026, not
august the 27th. >> understood.
>> so, can we just approved as presented? >> I have a question. >> commissioner briones.
>> I am very supportive of the motion and I could not agree more. Every single dollar mobility
fund must be used for the eligible projects under section
284.0331 under the transportation code. And I appreciate the collaboration between all the
departments. The progress has been excellent in terms of coding, recording, et cetera.
my question to you, and mainly to commissioner ramsey.
it says to execute budget transfers from the precinct mobility allocations, I remain deeply committed to the mobility
formula. Commissioner ramsey, that you designed and we past unanimously in 2025.
the mobility formula? >> I'm familiar.
>> so from the precinct's mobility allocations, to be clear, is that transfer in accordance with that formula, or
did you envision-- >> the emotion has been made to
fully find oce fiscal year 27 mobility budget at 44.09 million
per precinct. >> divided between the precinct.
>> divided between the precincts. So I wanted to confirm-- >> last year it was an even
contribution by each precinct. That's how we would do it unless
otherwise obstructed. >> I think that's how we always
do it. >> but then we switched to a funding formula. I want to be consistent and
transparent and in accordance so there is not later confusion.
so my question is, when we use the words, precincts, mobility,
allocations to oc, I understand the totality.
and now that we have this formula, are we going to do it via the formula, or for this it's okay to default back?
I want to make sure we are on the same page.
>> is the issue how would we do it proportionate?
is that we were suggesting? >> if the question is the 44.09,
that the precinct place a higher percentage on the transfer
because I have more roads to complete, in theory I guess that
looks good. In practice I'm not sure it is.
number 1 your talent director would be reminded he is supposed
to spend a more proportionate time doing projects in precinct
three. If we are going to do that, my expectation has just gone up 30%.
>> I just want to make sure we are on the same page, commissioner ramsey. So it is a question to you.
I remain committed to the formula in terms of the allocation. What mobility dollars each
precinct gets is based on road miles, condition, the formula
designed and that you past unanimously. So I want clarity and with the cost associated, how are we
framing it? I don't want light between us when we go together and make sure we are on the same page
with regard to the mobility dollars. So I want to make sure to ask you what your preference was and
interpretation of this language of the motion, which I find unclear. >> and again, the thought would
be that each precinct would need about the same amount of help
from the county engineer's office. And if it is anticipated that commissioner ellis--
>> who gets the least amount of money. So you have to do as much work on the least amount.
are you doing that on somebody who gets more? I'm just asking a question. >> if, in fact, that's how we
are going to do it, then the doctor would be waking up
preparing to do a lot less of your precinct than my precinct.
>> he's going to have a whole lot less money to spend in my precinct. But if you can do more work with
less money I'm for it. If you give me more roads and
less money I'm for it. >> I think the needs and the precinct in terms of signals are set.
>> but if it may help, we have done economic-- economic
analysis to see how much needs to be spent, and there is a
significant variance from one precinct to another precinct.
it depends on the project. If you do 100 million in your
precinct this year and 100 million next year, of course
you're providing support. And in the recent allocations,
our project looked fairly even. Not exactly to the.. But there's not a significant amount of variance.
>> so last year the 180 million in mobility, the actor transfer to mobility was dover in accordance with doctrine.
to the deal. And last year the commissioners
funded roughly $36 million to the commissioners court that was divided equally. So the court wants to do
something other than that, we would need a motion here. Which is part of the reason we put this item on.
so-- we are going to continue to do it that way.
and others will do it that way unless directed otherwise.
>> I have a final comment. >> go ahead commissioner garcia. And commissioner briones. >> thank you.
thank you dr. Ramon for your work. And I guess, commissioner briones and I are trying to get
to the same place. Commissioner ramsey.
we adopted a formula and I wanted to make sure we are being consistent with how mobility is being separated.
>> it is all about the amount of effort that the county engineer's office will put forth in each precinct.
you just heard the county engineer say he put forth about the same effort in all four precincts.
now with the county engineer going forward, we need him to do 2% of his effort in precinct three.
20% precinct one. And 25% precinct six.
four and two, that's where we can tell him. It's about providing direction to the county engineer.
where he spends his time and his money.
>> you think you would do roughly a fourth of each precinct this coming year as well.
>> that, commissioner I do think is going to be-- >> I would suggest let it go for now.
but assuming it changes. But leave it as is.
>> commissioner garcia, did you put your hand up again? >> I apologize. I did have a more question.
I know you're talking about mobility. We pulled 325-- can we hold 325 for discussion?
>> it's bold. >> thank you.
>> I am completely fine doing the 25% split with regard to
these transfers. And committed to falling-- are
you okay? >> yes.
>> I didn't know if you are choking. The formula remains intact and committed to for the allocation
of mobility. It's 100%. Correct? >> the interesting thing,
according to form, precincts two and four is the same whether you do it equally or proportionately they won person in the room
that's going to be last-- if we want them spending more time in
three then one, we can do that. But right now it's equally
split. And it made the most sense. >> I'm fine with equally split. For us it's not about the number
in precinct four. It's about consistency and
making sure being transparent with all of our partners here and across the county, and with the state and the city.
>> this is the deal you worked on. So I'll live with it. I have a seat at the table.
>> the formula was passed unanimously. We were all here in 2025 for the mobility formula.
so these annual oac expenses, what we are voting on, is to keep the precedent of the four way split.
>> it's one of those threes that turns into five. I'm just saying now. >> is there a motion?
>> I second the motion that commissioner ramsey made. >> as presented? Is that what I'm hearing?
>> yes. >> the one I read with the
addition of commissioner ramsey. >> do you have that? Or do we need to read it again. >> it's what daniel read, plus,
director raman will advise each precinct on what projects will be done there on october 1st each year.
>> there is a motion by commissioner ramsey. I can't member who made the second.
>> I did. >> commissioner garcia has a second. All in favor.
any opposed? Motion carried unanimously. Now we move on to item 14. Commissioner ramsey flagged this
one. It's the mental health leave item. >> I would make the motion--
using 24 hours of accrued sick leave for mental health for
psychological well-being, we have a pretty healthy sickleave. I wouldn't add to that. My motion would be option one,
use 24 hours of accrued sick leave for mental health.
>> motion by commissioner ramsey, second by commissioner garcia. All in favor?
any opposed? Motion carried unanimously. Thank you, colleagues. Item 15.
by commissioner ramsey. A proposal for oca reporting,
human resources personnel. >> director, I think as we look
at hr,-- hr staff scattered throughout the county, this is
an attempt for lack of a better word, for consolidation of those
individuals. >> that is correct, commissioner. >> I like the potential for more
efficiency. That is the objective. The potential savings are-- I think you had that number.
>> we put-- what we put in the potential language was 250,000.
but we believe we can obtain a lot more than that and that is consistent with what was identified in the bcg work done
august 24. It's a different approach somewhat they laid out. But consistent thinking.
>> it's a good idea. Thank you. >> commissioner garcia? >> thank you.
director, I want to propose a bit of a change on this, only
from the standpoint that there are jobs around the county, and then there are very technical jobs around the county.
and the ones that tend to be technical in nature tend to be
in our big organizations, which include the county engineering
department, the control district, the tollroad, public
health, pollution control, and universal services.
and what I would propose to my colleagues is that we allow this
consolidation to move forward with the smaller organizations.
there is going to be some learning taking place.
my concern is just because were talking about how much work is being done in our respective precincts, I need the work done
sooner rather than later. So I want to make sure that our
organizations have the ability to get the personnel onboard that they need and as quickly as they can.
they become very efficient at it. I fit most of these departments have a short vacancy rate.
so my preference is to separate those six departments and allow
this process to move forward. Learn from it, and see if we can
adopt it in a meaningful way for the six big organizations.
my motion is to separate out the departments that I mentioned.
>> I second that, commissioner garcia.
>> motion by commissioner garcia, second by commissioner
briones. Will this create the same unequal treatment we have going on with the salary?
I'm not sure we should pick favorites?
>> if I may comment, and respectfully, commissioner garcia, I appreciate your point. We have some backup, I know it's
late b brief, I see the merit to your recommendation,
commissioner. I don't respectfully believe it will be successful if we approach it that way.
but a couple of slides I'd like to show you. And we can fast-forward. Next slide, please.
keep going. One more.
okay. You are right in that the resources are low. This is the slide I wanted to
show you. August of 2024. I don't know the current state. You can see that for the three
support functions highlighted here, that most of our sets
don't have as much resourcing out in the different departments as we do. And I think there is a reason
for that and I think that's because their economies scale
efficiencies, processes and performances can be obtained when you bring them together. But you are right. There are some that tend to have their own sheriff's office, for
example. And there are very good reasons. So we do contemplate we can move-- we can move forward a few
slides. >> back on that one, I'm not catching that chart. Real quick.
and I know it's late. >> if you look at the left-hand
side, it shows you human resources, and it shows by some
of our counties. The green bullets are harris county. And it shows you while we do have central hr, we have an hr dispersed all throughout all of
those departments with the green. Whereas our peers set only has additional hr with subsets where
the dark blue dots are. >> okay. Got it. >> if you move forward a few
slides, please. All highlight what the proposal is. It's right here.
forgive me. One more back.
one marbach, please. Thank you very much. The proposal initially, and we would work very closely with
departments to ensure that we get this right, but it
contemplates what you're saying, commissioner garcia, that some departments do need in bedded hr and they need it in a very tight
partnership to make sure they understand the complexities and the unique requirements. But currently we do have that,
and you can see on shared services, centers of expertise.
that's talent development, talent acquisition. Compensation, et cetera. And finally shared services.
in any model we would contemplate that there needs to be in bedded resources that support those large and complex
departments. What would change here, to your question, judge, his we would have a resource pool of hr that
could help everyone and we could promulgate the best practices and some of these large departments and what there able
to do. Like developments and items like
that throughout all the organizations if we can share resources. Initially we would keep them in
place and come back in march and explain after having worked with the departments. Raking it down how we would
achieve this over what period of time. But that is when we do anticipate it.
better digital tools. Process improvements, best practice adoption, that would benefit everyone.
there is a slide about three or four ahead.
keep going. Keep going.
I think about two more. Right here.
this lays out the implementation road map we would consider. And it starts with shifting resources like the april
directive asks us to look at. Switching the resources to a hard-line reporting ration-- relationship in to hr about
maintaining that dotted line relationship to the current departments and keeping them in place and not moving anyone
until we had a buildout aligned plan. >> commissioner briones? >> this is a very helpful slide.
for small, I share your commitment to wanting us to be more consistent and cohesive and really harness resources and
better leverage them and create the multiplier effect. Absolutely. And, I share commissioner
garcia's concern, with all due respect, you come in and you had to pick up a lot. But whether we look at the
implementation and how the pay equity study was done and implemented, the retiree benefits, we can go down the
list in execution-- execution is an area where we need a lot of
improvement. End. This arguably would assist so that things are implemented
better. And this transition given the
nuance of the more complex departments, the larger
departments, less specialized skills, et cetera, I think there's a great way to look at this that minimizes the strain
in the transition. And just maximizes efficiencies rather than creating inefficiencies.
and my worry was getting all the feedback from departments who
were very bothered with the pay equity results and the level of work needed to do that one project for the entire county.
I worry about the executing with excellence and implementation
piece of this. So I wanted to get your candid thoughts. On if there is a way to further
staircase or create clarity. We obviously want to maximize
efficiencies and create economies of scale. Not set it back, but is there a sweet spot?
and is it just coming back with an update? Could you be more clear in what you see as the opportunity and
what you see as the risks in implementation, and how we can
solve for them? >> absolutely, commissioner.
and I appreciate they are always thinking about the end. I tried to do that as well and emulate that as well.
I feel the partnership with departments will be essential. And frankly that's a reason that I think that clarity, as we go
in to fy27, there will be this alignment that will help us go in with clear eyes. That this is the plan, let us
work together to move forward. We are fully committed to making sure that we create service-level agreements.
that we create governance so that there is-- we are
explaining customer satisfaction and experience. And what I'd like to do is take a baseline right off the bat.
find out where are things. Find these different departments and the customer satisfaction is a lazy alluded to.
how quickly are you feeling roles, what else is important to you and how are you performing today so we have that baseline
that we are always gaging ourselves against an holding ourselves accountable against. So I think laying that out in a
timely fashion, you alluded to the retiree, pharma benefits on
the compensation pay equity study. I think we've learned a lot about better project-management,
better planning, and to yield better executions.
you are right about those. Neither was executed very well. But we have learned and improved as we have gone along.
>> director, thank you for your comments.
and I think you're going to eventually get me there.
but the only model I have to go by is the city of houston. They have consolidated and decentralized.
they have consolidated and decentralized. Consolidated and decentralized. Every time they've decentralized
it's because their technical departments end up needing--
they get constrained and they need adjustments.
so let's just get a portion of this executed and then have a
more-- a broader conversation with these bigger departments.
just to make sure that there is full understanding and
appreciation about how to make it work.
>> it sounds like if I'm hearing correctly that we are all in
agreement of go and bring it back and reevaluate. And at that point, if we still think that-- whether we now
agree they should all be the same or whether some departments
need something different-- can we just agreed to go forth until the next phase. And we are not deciding
anything. >> I'm being completely candid. The only risk I see as these departments are under sorest.
>> but we can revisit the question of does there need to be any kind of separation of the larger departments.
and that gives you time to talk to commissioners that are not sure about it. And for the commissioners to think about it. I have a tendency to-- with what
you guys recommend. And also, if my memory serves me right, some of the grievances that were raised, I don't know
that you were-- I don't know that we can hold you responsible for that. I think you've been doing a
good job. And my instinct is to say-- but often times a think something is a good idea and it turns out not
to be. So I think it's valid to say-- I
don't think we need to commit to what I'm calling special treatment, but I think it's okay to revisit, like commissioner
garcia said. So what would you like us to approve today? >> my motion is as stands.
I think I would like to just get the beginning of the process
started. But let there be a conversation with the big organizations before it becomes potentially
disruptive to try to deal with the entire county all at once.
that is my concern. I don't want to disrupt the
important work. I know mission control is working to fill some positions. And I think there are still some
in public health. So I want to make sure that those organizations that have very dynamic work are allowed to
continue while they have a conversation on what to expect
out of this process. >> administrator carter, it seems like you want to say something.
>> respectfully starting small, I do not think it will work. They won't be able to make a pir budget and they won't have the
flexibility of vacancies. I'm happy to have her come back
another time and not have a motion. But I think that would cause more confusion.
because most that are left already rely on them and may
have half an fte allocated to hr.
>> then I will work with no action on this today.
>> I would say, if these larger departments think this will be a
problem for them, please come and state that case. Because I don't think that one member of court needs to speak
for all these departments when the expert here is advocating
for something. Once this comes back, if this continues to be a sense of we need to treat certain
departments differently, I will say that I'm going to ask that those department heads come up and explain why they believe
that this will be a problem for them, and why they believe that this should or should not be done.
and that way, I think we just need to hear from them.
>> director, it's a good idea. I think the questions that commissioner garcia has asked related to what you are going to
embed in these departments and what are you not going to embed. What resources? Those are good questions.
I know that was going to be a part of what you were going to answer. So probably do that bit of
homework. Missionary work, if you will. With each one of the departments to see what-- in fact there
maybe some that agree with you. Why don't you take this, and you
take that, and you might agree with that, you might not. But in any case there ought to be a good conversation within
these major departments on what we are going to do are not.
>> agreed. So no action on the item?
>> all right. Thank you. So, let's move on to item 16. That is to mr. Ramsey requested
taking 16 and 18 together. These are hr investigator
positions. >> we did that. >> we did? We passed all those?
>> I voted no. >> got it.
rego to 115 on the aip check platform. That was commissioner ramsey. >> the concern I have here is
this rfp. >> commissioner, we didn't do
item 16 or 18. >> we didn't?
>> we did a motion on 18, for sure. They took it as part of two. >> so 16 is a request for
approval of amendments to the personnel policies and procedures. Did we do that already?
all right. Who needs to present on that one? >> as presented.
>> I move it. >> motion is presented, all in
favor? Any opposed?
motion carried unanimously-- excuse me. 4-1. Commissioner ramsey again--
against. Item 18. Request for approval three. Charter positions and labor
relations liaison... [indiscernible]
motion by commissioner ellis? Second by commissioner garcia. All in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries 4-1. With ramsey opposed.
we move on to 115. Supplemental funding for aip
check program. Requested by commissioner ramsey. >> we need to talk about it.
>> there is a motion by commissioner ellis. Seconded by commissioner garcia. >> my concern is how this was
done. It was done in a quick and rapid way. Was there an rfp process
associated with it? I have looked at the rfp
process. I have concerns about how that was done. I'm not sure that we got a lot
of clarity. And it's not necessarily the person or the engineer. I know all three of them to some
degree have been involved. But there is enough of a concern
on this selection process that I would ask that we take no action
until we can get questions answered.
>> commissioner, the... [indiscernible] >> it afternoon, commissioner, kim williams.
harris county. For this particular solicitation, it follows one of the solicitation approaches we
often take. It was done on a cooperative. And there are other cooperatives on the agenda today.
we use them frequently. We did a request for offer. So this particular scope of work went out to the four vendors on
that co-op. And they all had a chance to respond to that bid. And that bid was evaluated by
universal services and engineering. So it follows a normal practice that we often follow.
so I guess if you could help me with what the question is?
>> the question is I think there were probably other vendors too that were not on the buy board. But were having conversations
with-- I think the county engineer's office, maybe
universal services. That brought experience and
expertise. And were not a part of it.
if you are satisfied that we've checked all the boxes and the people that you've selected are capable, I, again, we spent a
lot of time today talking about small businesses and their
involvement. But sometimes small businesses get precluded because we don't include.
and they are not involved in buy boards and other things, maybe because they've never been told how to do that.
>> point well taken. We work very hard to have an inclusive procurement process, and we have conversations with
vendors leading up to these activities. However, because of the size and volume of this particular work,
we did want to find experience vendors because we are
implementing a new program. So, based on the scope that was
agreed on between engineering and with universal services, the
minimum was seven years of experience.
so we did think that the solicitation, that the co-op provided gave us the firm robust experience to deliver the
project. >> harris county experience?
>> not necessarily harris county. This is a national co-op. >> again, there are very
experienced people in our planning process. These are universally done the same.
I don't know if planning is any more complicated in any other county as it is complicated in harris county.
>> I would clarify, there is a difference between services for the permitting process and creating the system.
this is not for that permitting service. It's for the system that would do the project.
so this is different from providing those services.
>> commissioner, if I may add one thing, I value your opinion
in terms of having local resources. So during the implementation process, we did extensive
outreach to make sure that local knowledge and the process has
been transferred in to this. The city of boston has not
implemented these. We have good contact with the folks who have done it before. So we will be watching to
understand their experience, how they did it. As you know, the city of austin has a lot more regulations and
we do. So we will be looking very closely to make sure processes have been embedded in the side
of that. >> please go ahead.
>> thank you. Dr., and miss williams,
thank you for your work. I have been very anxious to see this item get put on the agenda. So thank you for working through
all of that you have done. I noticed the folks using this
particular firm includes the city of austin, as you mentioned, doctor. But it also includes los
angeles county. Did I see that correctly? >> that is correct. The city of los angeles as well.
>> maybe not harris county specific experience, but
definitely complicated county experience is what these folks
are bringing. So I am anxious to move this item forward. >> my colleagues have already
asked some other questions. Which is to be crystal clear, this item 113 corresponds to 346?
is that correct? One quick second.
to reconfirm, purchasing agent williams, everything within this
process was customary and by the book?
>> yes. >> thank you for highlighting the other jurisdictions in which they do work. I think that's a helpful data point.
in terms of-- I know we've been eagerly waiting for this.
but for the plats and permits we get so many calls about delays.
so I can't wait to see the efficiency that will be responsibly deployed so we can get better at moving projects
along for the people. My understanding, and this is a
question, dr., would you confirm current estimates are at this ai system would process roughly 32,000 residential permits,
26,000 commercial permits and 450 pl 80 applications this
year? Which leads me to my next
question. When will this ai system be implemented and active? >> commissioner, our goal is
buying new year we will have the residential permitting and everything done. For the commercial, I would
think one more quarter. >> you 22027.
>> and another thing we have to do is extensively test and do
the calibration ahead of time. Because we have a lot of
handouts with our office and development committee with different jurisdictions. We want to make sure that
everybody gets an opportunity to provide their feedback before we go live. >> thank you.
you answered my next question which is on beta testing and going live. Lastly on this concept that I
know we are committed to with regard to inclusive procurement,
making sure that we have workshops that are publicly available, local businesses, wbe, small business, et cetera.
learn how to become a part, to bid to be on co-ops for the
future. I know there are so many different co-ops regionally and nationally. So the more information we could put out there to help our local
businesses, the better. And based on all the confirmations you have given us, I am in favor of these two
items. But purchasing agent williams, are you going to say something? >> I agree completely.
this is a lesson learned in terms of getting info out.
these co-ops are a valuable procurement tool that we use often. >> it maybe this next phase
maybe more appropriate involvement of local folks.
you bring in someone with that national platform experience,
partnered up with some local firms that maybe have some
experience unique to harris county. So maybe we can talk, dr. Going forward, about the
implementation, particularly by december. You will probably need a little help.
>> commissioner all take you up on that offer. >> thank you for what you both do.
>> thank you. >> I move on both items as presented. >> second.
>> both items being-- >> 115 and 346.
>> I thought we already-- we did not. Motion by commissioner garcia on both items as presented.
seconded by commissioner briones. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carried unanimously. 126, requested by precinct three
and four. About the worksite safety policy. Commissioner briones?
>> sure. Thank you. I have a few quick questions. I believe deeply in our worksite
safety policy. I look forward to making sure
any and all workers on county projects are kept as safe as possible. Everyone deserves to get home
safely to their families. And based on the updates we have been receiving, I have a few quick questions.
namely how many of the worksite safety positions have been filled across this area. Flood control district de oh,
and the county engineer? >> currently 21 positions have
been filled. There is still 24 that are
actively in process. >> 21 out of 24?
thank you. So how many eligible projects do we anticipate advertising for bid between now and the end of
the calendar year that would fall under this worksite safety
policy? >> we are estimating about 91.
>> for the calendar year? Thank you. My last question is in terms of worksite safety committee,
making sure we are continuously learning and improving, how exactly is del engaging this committee and what will be the
regular cadence of engagement? >> --
>> the worksite safety committee has been meeting since january on a monthly basis. Between february and may we've
been about seven different times. On top-- met about seven different times.
following that, we are meeting monthly through october and we will transition from there. >> thank you for the level of
engagement you have done and continue doing.
and we are very committed to implementing this with excellence. To year earlier points. We want to do the right thing and do it right.
so keep us posted how we can best support you. Because safety is nonnegotiable. Thank you.
>> with the hiring of 40 plus people.
>> total of 46. >> clearly getting 46 onboard in
a directed, managed program, how is that going?
>> I can talk about it. 21 out of 46 positions are
filled. So for the de oh, we filled four
positions fully trained. And the other one, one position is filled out of 12. Total, 4 out of 7.
engineering is 12 out of 23. And they prioritize hiring
through these factors. >> for engineering it's 19.
>> so those are-- are they monitors?
or inspectors? >> for the de '08 three monitors
and an analyst. They are trained and we are working with training to the inspectors.
specifically we are programming e comply.
the module that we are going to train all the inspectors on making sure that they are fully trained, knowing how to fill out
the forms in the system. Mark, you can talk a bit about
the training? >> yes. I want to let you know for worksite safety we've introduced
the executive manual which is a version one right now.
a 547 page comprehensive manual that will be used universally between infrastructure departments and the de oh.
it has standard operating procedures. Workflows. The unified inspection forms that have been in-- approved by the infrastructure departments
as part of the training process. That zero we are going.
so whichever amendments come up will be put into the new manual.
>> and the infrastructure workgroup, we talked about this. The infrastructure department is coordinating their training and
we will get them together as well. But they are kind of leading their training and working with
the... >> it sounds like we have monitors and dr. -- the doctor and his group have more
inspector types? >> the infrastructure department
has in specters. >> okay.
thank you. >> commissioner ramsey?
yes, commissioner briones, to drive anything else? >> move as presented, administrator carter.
>> yes. Move it as presented. >> motion by commissioner mac. Seconded by commissioner alice.
all in favor? Any opposed?
sorry, was at a no? Motion carries four to one.
130, flagged by commissioner ramsey.
>> moved. Spec-- >> second. >> moved by commissioner alice. Second by commissioner garcia. All in favor?
opposed? Motion carries 4-1 with commissioner ramsey opposed. Commissioner ramsey?
moved by commissioner garcia, second by commissioner alice. All in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries. 135, flagged by commissioner
garcia. >> yes, thank you. On this one, I am excited to move this item forward.
it is an infrastructure upgrade that reflects my revived-- revived to thrive initiative to bring safer more resilient
neighborhoods. And replacing this item--
specifically replacing three outdated diesel generators with natural gas units in cloverleaf facilities.
that would serve roughly 20,000 low to moderate income residents
in the area. So today's item advances a
agreement with harris county water control and improvement in district number 36. This is what the young lady
spoke to earlier. They have installed new
generators and protective grounding systems. And the current diesel units are past their use of life.
creating risks to pumps and sensitive electronic equipment during outages. This project ties directly to
the hurricane beryl and other events when our facilities endured nearly a weeklong power outage.
natural gas provides a continuous fuel source without emergency refueling. Performs reliably in extreme
cold where diesel may solidify. And reduces the likelihood of
boiled water notices and sewage and brainstorm events.
this investment is almost 1,000,005.
revive to thrive. Making critical water and sewer infrastructure more resilient, strengthening global
partnerships and protecting the health and safety of families across precinct two. I'm excited to move this item is
presented. >> second. >> motion by commissioner garcia, second by commissioner
briones. All right. All in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries unanimously. Good work, commissioner garcia. 136. Commissioner garcia.
>> yes. This is an item on a partnership agreement. As we all know, strong
partnerships, especially at the local level can help put us deliver better services to our residents.
today's agreement is with the city of port.
which continues a successful transit partnership that expands transportation options for people in la porte.
over the next year this service is expected to provide nearly
9000 passenger trips, helping residents get to and from work,
school, medical appointments, and other important destinations. Reliable transportation makes a
real difference for working families, seniors, people with disabilities, and investments like this help to keep our
communities connected while making it easier and more affordable for residents to access the services and
opportunities that they need. So I want to thank mayor rick hilton and the city of la porte for their continued partnership.
and I'll look forward on building on the program and
finding more opportunities to work together to make services much more affordable for our working families.
I move on this item as presented. >> second. What an awesome partnership,
commissioner. >> motion by commissioner garcia. Seconded by commissioner briones. All in favor?
any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item 136. Thank you, commissioner garcia.
item 168. It is on an amicus brief.
>> county attorney came in, if I can ask you a few quick questions. County attorney, if you can
provide us a brief overview of this case? >> thank you, judging commissioners.
with the item before you I'm respectfully requesting authorization to file as amicus in a very important public
safety case which is now pending before the circuit.
we would be filing in support of our state's right under the texas penal code to restrict firearms in sensitive locations
like bars, schools, professional sporting events, as well as
racetracks. Texans and local businesses have relied on these protections for decades.
unfortunately the plaintiffs in this case are seeking to strike protections down at sensitive locations, needlessly
endangering residents, alleging on grounds of constitutionality.
that these rules under state law are unconstitutional.
notably, I will point out, judge pitman, who issued the lower court ruling in this case back and is a trump appointee,
firmly disagreed, and held that state laws are constitutional.
and his-- in his opinion, he noted that ken paxton, "the
attorney general of texas declined to defend the merits of the legislature's duly enacted laws."
so the court had to appoint outside lawyers to make sure that their estates-- their estates own statute was
defended. Those attorneys did prevail. But this makes it all the more important that we file to convey
our governmental interest in protecting residents and
businesses, as well as local law enforcement.
again, judge pitman firmly upheld the right of our state to have reasonable laws like this rooted in our country's history
that allows places like the rodeo, a baseball game, or a bar
to restrict our firearms. And an amicus to the circuit
will stand behind the laws of this texas legislature, and judge pitman's decision to uphold them.
>> thank you county attorney kamen.
commissioner garcia has his hand up.
>> commissioner garcia. >> thank you, county attorney. Thank you for your presentation and thank you for your quick
work on some important issues. You said something that caught my attention. And I just wanted to get some
clarity on it. Did you say that the texas attorney general did not want to represent on this particular
issue? >> that is correct.
paxton may not want to defend texas, but here in harris county, we will stand up for the rule of law.
we will make arguments related to public safety and law enforcement, as well as critical economic points about
what this can do to diminish economic generation for
important entities. And it is anticipated that the
rodeo, the astros and the dynamo will be filing as amicus.
>> thank you for that responds. And it looks like that between you and our district attorney we are having to do the state and
federal governments job. Thank you for what you are doing. >> thank you.
>> I have a motion. Are there other or comments?
>> all right. Is the motion as presented?
>> county attorney, move as presented-- or read the authorization to file? >> move as presented.
>> move as presented. >> thank you. >> motion by commissioner..., second by commissioner ellis.
all in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. This was flagged by commissioner
briones. It's about bear creek village subdivision. >> this is an exciting project
that I am so grateful for the collaboration. We are moving forward with this key project.
and it's incredibly important. Especially in the bear creek
village. Bear creek village experienced some of the most intense flooding impacts after harvey,
and generally. During harvey, more than 1300
homes took on water during harvey.
and hundreds more flooded during numerous other storms.
so this fall we will get to work and these critical improvements
that will improve drainage across bear creek village because we know it's just a matter of when the next storm
will hit. And these improvements specifically will include large storm sewers, regraded streets
and new surface drainage paths. And this particular portion of
the project is going to help reduce flood risk for a
substantial number of homes. So when they hold bear creek
project is complete, 2300 homes will be better protected during the next storm. I think all the harris county
team members who have made today possible, to be able to move forward with this segment, I look forward to make sure that
we are delivering this protection to our harris county family. As such, I move item 228 as
presented. >> motion to move the item as presented. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously.
good job commissioner briones. Item 243. Commissioner briones on the r reef.
>> 273? >> revolving energy efficiency fundus be-- >> very briefly.
we have 3 minutes to hear about the steeply energizing-- no pun intended, project we are making with the reef program.
that would be great. >> our reef is self-sustaining--
reef is a self-sustaining model. Over the past three years has
generated 3.6 million in savings unfunded 3.8 million in energy efficiency projects, labor and training.
and the county is 40% gs hg reduction goal.
thank you to the director and the office of sustainability and
the team for the great work. They have partnered with engineering as well, and I want to give them kudos.
>> thank you, director, and thank you county administrator. It's wonderful to see this progress, as we look into our
climate action plan to reduce the county's own admissions by
40% by 2030. Thank you for the progress. >> thank you. Very exciting.
transmittal. We accept the transmittal.
274 is the quarter q3 update. Harris county strategic plan.
>> and this too, county administrator carter, would you briefly share some of the highlights in the progress we
are making towards our harris county strategic plan? >> I won't pull up the slides, but there are slides.
the strategic plan, we are 21 months in.
81% of our strategic initiatives are accurately underway and are
making meaningful progress. And that's up 6% from quarter
two. All of our fy26 priorities are on track. And the compensation in pay
equity is great progress. And of course our housing plan.
big wins that included the new jail dashboard. D6. The division zero dashboard. The data is being refreshed more frequently.
on the safety side, 60% of felony cases have been exposed
within 180 days as of june 2026. Our average decrease to 139 days
at 21% reduction compared to the same period last year.
our public health has been in coordination with advancing efforts across many organizations in the region, and
purchasing equipment. But they are also working on sustainable procurement with internal stakeholders.
anything else you want me to highlight?
also we are working on fy27 plants with all departments in the strategic plan. Thank you.
>> great progress, team. Thank you for your leadership.
>> thank you, guys. We accept the transmittal. 289 transmittal. A universal services update to
the strategy project. >> if we could just congratulate
you and your team again, you named one of-- were named one of the most 100 most innovative technology organizations by cfo
magazine. Thank you for the progress you are driving. With regards to the erp, if you
could remind us where we have been, where we are, and where we are going, and what the value add will be for the county, and
how we can better support you to make this a reality and execute it with excellence. >> thank you, commissioner
briones. Be received from the commissioners... Execute... We have a slide, we are not going
to go through it. But-- we are now going to go through the slide and I will make a few points I want to
make. Commissioner you asked in february 2026 you asked us to proceed working closely on next
steps to modernize our peoplesoft environment and to
bring efficiencies into. Looking at the systems we have,
and looking at how we can bring it all together to generate returns on investment. So we did a thorough
collaboration with all the departments. So I do want to start by saying thank you to your offices,
because there was a great deal of participation from all of your offices. And from all the departments
that we reached out. And our reach was pretty wide.
we reach out to every single department. We made an effort to bring everyone to the table to get
their feedback. So I'm joined today by our
project managers to provide the quick update to the commission.
it's not going to be a long one. It will be a quick one.
>> thank you. >> thank you, guys.
>> thank you court, for allowing me to be here. My name is clint bailey, I'm t the... As I said, we are going
to talk about what we have done and where we are heading. So, the core theme for this whole initiative has been around
the fact that the counties erp system is aging.
and some of the results of an aging erp system that we have found is that there are a lot of manual processes.
there are off-line workarounds and disparaged systems.
the county, to be clear, the county departments are able to
still complete their work. But with these types of challenges you can over time have inconsistent data across
the county. Reduced efficiency, and a higher workload on the staff, and greater difficulty when you try
to standardize processes. Therefore this initiative was
launched and our directives were to establish a clearly defined
erp strategy, which we will go over briefly. Which would also enable us to do a compliant and defensible
vendor selection process. With that we completed an rfi,
request for information process, to allow us to gather
information of what modern erp systems are offering today. We conducted demos from the vendors who replied to that and
invited all the county departments to participate. As a result that we gathered feedback from the county
members, which is going to inform our process and make our
rfp process that much more meaningful and drive that for us. Then our erp strategy
initiatives, which our partners helped us with. And alternate to brine here in a moment.
we held three executive level workshops which allowed us to really define the strategy, holes and guiding principles and
establish a vision statement. And we held 15 capability
workshops that include members from across the county departments, in order to allow us to gather the details we
needed to move in to the rfp. So the vision statement, I will
read it to you, it's in the slide deck. It is to enable a unified modern erp environment that is
simplified and standardizes how the county operates, empowers
employees with intuitive tools, timely information, and provides a flexible foundation to support efficient, data driven
decision-making and evolving service needs. So the strategy we took here, as we said, was one of
collaboration, not isolation. So that will continue as we go
through the rfp and on in to the implementation, because we've
established a governance structure that we will implement for that. Without alternate over to brian.
>> good afternoon, members of the commissioners court. My name is brian chee. And I'm one of the erp subject
matter experts. From the team working with
harris county. I have been with gartner for more than 15 years. And I am one of the senior
practitioners in our applications.
we don't have the slide that I will be discussing, but as clint mentioned, we have been conducting 15 capability
workshops. And that runs the gambit of departments that will be part of the overall erp scope.
and that scope is what is shown in the model represented on slide six. Encompassing finance and
accounting, budget management, procurement, asset management, and human capital management. On the following slide, on slide
seven, as part of the work that we have done already, we studied
the four main ways that public-sector organizations similar in size, complexity and needs to harris county, the
approach for implementing a large system like an erp. In our evaluation of these four approaches, we believe that the
one most aligned with the county's needs is the capability
aced release model. This is a best practice--
capability based release model. This is a best practice that allows the erp to release and a model work that is easily
managed and in a controlled way that provides good balance between implementation risk, budget risk and organizational
readiness. The specific implementation approach will ultimately be proposed by the erp software
vendor and system integrators selected.
but the framework establishes the most balanced direction for a county. If I move forward to slide nine,
which shows the representative high level multiyear road map for how harris county can move forward with the erp
transformation process, and this road map follows industry best
practices. There are multiple key activities that are underway at the same time.
to lay the groundwork for a successful erp project. We are voting the foundation. We are preparing the teams.
we are aligning governance, and ensuring that technology and
data are ready as well. Once an erp platform systems
integrator is selected, we will transition in to implementation and ongoing support. The timing of each of these
steps will depend on organization readiness, the chosen vendor, and the departments involved.
but the project is already proceeding, and with our current focus right now on preparation and readiness.
on a final note about the selection of the erp platform and systems integrator, we want to preserve the integrity of the
process, so we will be very careful not to influence any
numbers or vendors, as there will be an rfp process to select the platform and systems integrated.
without, thank you for giving me the time to present in front of you. And now I will pass it back to
you. >> thank you so much. This will make things more simplified, streamlined,
efficient and innovative. And more cohesion across the county. Very quickly, when do you
anticipate releasing the rfp, how long will it open, and how long do expect for an update in court?
>> thank you for that question. Commissioner, we are working on the scope of work. Our goal is to get the scope of
work back to departments by september so they can review and provide us an approval. As soon as we have an approval,
we will work with the purchasing department to get the rfp
released. As early as september or october. That is when we see the rfp being released. From the timeline, we are trying
to make it as soon as possible. That is the goal. Because the implementation is going to take some time.
so we have some prep work to do. Selecting the tool, and the
implementer is going to help us pick up the process of-- drying
up the process. So we are working with the
purchasing department very closely, and along with our primary stakeholders to move it as fast as possible.
though we are trying to make it as quickly as possible, generally what we have seen is that it takes approximately six
months. And we have also talked to the purchasing agent, and I believe we are in agreement that it
could take up to six months. >> thank you for all the
stakeholder engagement and leading what will be a transformative project. Thank you.
>> commissioner garcia and commissioner ramsey? >> thank you. Director, thank you for your work on this. You know I've been chirping
about this for quite some time. So I'm excited that there is more progress being made on this.
I have been shy about the fact-- I've not been shy about the fact that I believed that we needed to implement people soft, that
there is a lot of value that harris county lost.
I use b2 g as an example. We could have had that module working for us a long time ago. A lot of money was wasted.
so part of that process was that we did not have a real plan and
vision and road map to get it implemented.
so I want to ask you, is there time for you to put together an
overall vision and strategic road map for the implementation
of this? >> commissioner, thank you for
that question. We didn't bring up the slide deck because we don't have the time to go through all the
slides, but the slide includes a road map there. Commissioner. The slide number.
slide number 9 draws up the road map. We have embarked on the journey. We have embarked on the change
management. We are prepping up the department. So the work has started on this particular project, commissioner.
and to the point about people soft, that is one of the reasons why we are doing so much prep work.
because what we learn from the departments was that they did not feel that they were part of the people soft implementation.
that was one of the biggest lessons learned from that
project implementation. So we are starting off with making them a part of this project.
and also the business processes. To the point that you make, commissioner, that there were opportunities lost.
we want to start off at looking at all the opportunities that exist in our space so that they are looked at in scope
accordingly. >> my question is do you need a motion to solidify the erp vision statement approved meant?
>> yes. What we wanted from the court today with this presentation was to get--
>> this is a transmittal. So doesn't require emotion. You you can just director. >> good.
so let me offer this direction. That the universal services
return to commissioners court on the 17th meeting with an item
requesting formal approval of the erp vision statement.
>> thank you, commissioner. >> thank you. >> thank you also much for your great work. >> I have a quick question. When you bring that road map,
can there be a date? Asap is not a date.
so if we could have a date on the road map? Even-- and I would hate to use the word "best guess."
but we should be close enough based on everything we are doing now to come back with specific dates.
>> yes, sir. We can come up with a tentative date to the point you made. It depends on the tool we
procure as well as the implementation partner. And also there is a level of discipline that will be required
as we go through this project. >> I feel like discipline is
improved when you are working towards a specific date. >> yes. We will come up with tentative
dates when we bring the plan. >> all right.
the next one is public health transmittal. 2026, access to care report. >> director barton and team,
thank you for your work on this. Can you share some of the highlights based on this collaboration with the city of
houston health department? And any highlights in terms of
actions that we should be thinking about for the future would be much appreciated. >> happy to.
I am leo barton. Harris county director of public health. And it's too hard for too many people to access the charon coverage they deserve.
our team has worked very hard in collaboration with the houston health department over the last few months, and our director of
planning and innovation is here together with the doctor from the health department to tell you more about our findings and
commitments. And they have promised a speed run. >> speed run.
>> we will get through this quickly. Hello, everybody. Good evening. My name is brandon. I serve as the director for
planning of-- and innovation for harris county public health. And I'm jointure by my colleagues.
both teams have worked closely together over the past year to develop develop the access to care report.
and we have been very prime for this this year. Because on the next slide, in 2024, we conducted a community
health assessment, which we then used to inform our community health improvement plan. That community health
improvement plan is governed by a steering committee of our partners. And it identified three priority
issues for a community of which health insurance and community
care and access is one of those priority issues. And the next slide shows the more than 20 partners in our
local public health system who helped us to shape the report. These are the organizations that helped us prioritize the most
meaningful findings, and opportunities for action that are included in the report as well.
as we move to the next slide, you will see that the barriers
to care that exist across a continuum, first it's very
difficult for many of our community members to afford the care that they need, which impacts the decision of whether
they seek care at all. Next, when someone does choose to seek care, it can be difficult for them to find the
care they need to. Often because health care resources can be unevenly distributed.
or may not provide the specific services that they need near them. Lastly when a community members
in the exam room, the type of care they receive, the fact of
is that care provided in language, and with the cultural values that they resonate with, those factors influence whether
that individual trusts the health care system men chooses to continue with treatment. So those things are likely
familiar, because they represent barriers that are persistent in our community for a long time. But what is new, is the shared
commitment we have made to address these issues, and to talk about those on going to pass to dr. Shelton for the
collective work that we are going to be doing.
>> thank you for allowing us to be here today. Next slide, please. There are four basic areas that
we are going to share commitments as a response of the
barriers. The first one of course is both health departments and other areas to coordinate benefits
enrollment. And this helps to increase
enrollment, annual isaiah not the public, identify programs. Also, our next one is to a shared commitment to improve
service delivery. And we want to make sure that we
are seeing... There we have illustrated by the harris county and our city health department, having a
mobile unit that works together. Because again, a lot of our
populations that we do serve actually come to both areas for services. Then we have a shared policy
agenda. And this is basically, we want to make sure that one of the items that came out in the
report was the community health workers. And we want to make sure to have something sustainable for
reimbursement. And resources for navigation to help our community to access care.
lastly, share data, and our commitment.
what we are going to be doing, both health departments are accredited. His--'s for started starting
this fall will have a joint community health initiative that will be taking place. For the next two years.
and following that, a joint community health improvement plan. Thank you.
>> thank you so much. Welcome. >> so, moving to the next slide, one of the commitments that
dr. Shelton just mentioned was never-- better navigation of our existing resources. So I project we are excited
about that moves that forward is a low-cost identifier. There are resources all over the county, but finding them is
another matter. And this is a simple and six-- accessible way for community health workers and community
members to find accessible and relative care near them. Right now it includes critic from harris county public
health. Houston health department. The harris center, and harris health. And we are on boarding community clinics and other places to find
care. For our final slide, we just want to encourage everybody to find the report on our website.
it is located on the joint harris county public health, houston health data and reporting website.
we also have an upcoming webinar this tuesday, august 11th, where we will dig in further on the findings in the subsequent
actions, and we would really like to invite everyone to attend as well. I want to say thank you to
dr. Shelton and the houston health department team. They've been incredible partners over the past year.
I want to say thank you to our doctors for showing what
collaborative leadership looks like between two major systems. And I want to say thank you to the great team who joined behind
me. The office of planning and innovation. They dug in and did the work and applied the high standards that got us to where we are today.
thank you to them. Thank you for letting us talk about access to care. >> okay.
we approved the transmittal. Next--
>> I did have something for the folk. >> sorry, go-ahead, commissioner garcia.
>> director barton, will you be sharing some of the findings
that were found by my team in terms of the difficulty getting
registered for services, or getting registered in to the
public care systems? >> yes.
and making that benefits enrollment here is one of our commitments. >> wonderful.
the city is looking at making sure that their systems are as refined as ours? >> yes.
we are working closely with that. >> wonderful. Thank you. >> thank you for the collaboration and leadership.
>> thank you. Now we have item 325. Requested by commissioner ramsey on positions for the county
attorney. >> I think commissioner garcia has got-- >> commissioner garcia. >> some motions on that. >> thank you.
my motion is going to be pretty simple. It's going to be to move 15 positions as presented with no
general fund or mobility fund in pack. And the second motion will be to approve two positions funded
through the budget enhancement authorized under item two.
>> second. >> motion by commissioner garcia, second by commissioner briones. All in favor? Any opposed?
motion carries. Four to zero.
anything else on that? Thank you, county attorney for your work. Next, 329, flagged by
commissioner ramsey. It was supposed to go with item five. But I'm bringing it back up and
it's transmittal. >> I think we covered that
pretty well. >> I think we did to. So we accept the transmittal. And then we go 332.
flagged by commissioner ramsey. Agreement with cgl management
group. Additional services and professional services to provide a feasibility study for glp.
>> is a motion on that create motion by commissioner garcia. Second by commissioner briones. All in favor?
any opposed? Motion carries three to one. 337. Flagged by commissioner ellis.
it is on an agreement for design build construction services for the riverside hospital. The health and safety complex.
>> we can just move that is accepted. We can do a separate motion, but the contract has been
distributed. >> so we are good. Do we need to do anything? >> no.
just approved as presented. >> moved. >> motion by commissioner garcia, second by commissioner
briones. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carried unanimously.
anything else? Questions? A county-- county clerk? Administrator?
it is 6:54 p.m.-- >> oh, judge. I have one last item. >> okay.
>> item 340. This is the revitalization of
denver harbor park. This is part of our revive to
thrive initiative. And I'm so excited because this is now finally the second phase of the denver harbor park
improvements. We've been working with the city for way too long to get this project done.
but I'm glad we are finally at this particular point.
this item will be to award the architectural package contract, which is funded by precinct two to the lowest bidder, b&d
contractors, appropriated for approximately 1,000,000.3.
it includes a concession stand, rest room, breezeway, and solar
lighting. The design of the concession stand was presented to and selected by the community during
a public meeting held in march of last year.
the chosen decide was inspired by the vibrant colors and
patterns of latin fabrics. The phase one package included
constructing one concrete walking trail, installing benches, and reconstructing the west parking lot, completing
civil site work, such as drainage and grading. The work was completed in november last year with a
precinct two contribution of another 1.3 million.
harris county precinct two in partnership with the city of houston is contributing more than 2.6 million towards
improvements of this particular park. This project reflects our commitment to communities
throughout precinct two, but as well as those inside the city of houston. And I want to thank my team.
my engineering team. They have been working so hard on this. It has had a lot of slippery
moments. Working through some complicated
issues involving the city and the state. But I'm so excited we are finally at this point.
and hopefully we will have a much more smoother roadway to
getting it completed then we have with a previous project.
so talk about getting permitting issues fixed.
this is the city's-- this was a challenge for the city.
>> congratulations. It's awesome. >> I move it as presented. >> second.
congrats. >> thank you. I think we voted for it already. >> it was approved on the
consent agenda. >> I'll try