Harris County commissioners consider more county veterinarians, raise staff salaries

Editor's Note: Story has been updated to reflect Aug. 8 commissioner's court date.

Harris County commissioners approved adjusting the base salary for key positions within the county’s Veterinary Public Health Division on Aug. 8, which includes animal control officers, technicians and veterinarians.

The additional funding for the market-rate salary adjustments will be absorbed within Harris County Public Health’s current budget, according to Executive Director Barbie Robinson.

Commissioners have yet to make a decision on whether to split the veterinary department from HCPH, but Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey expressed support for the idea, as Community Impact previously reported. Currently, the county’s veterinary department is a branch of the HCPH department.

Quote of note

“We believe the market rates that we proposed will allow us to not only recruit but retain high-quality staff,” Robinson said.

Going forward

Commissioners will also consider adding at least three veterinarians to the county payroll in order to improve shelter operations and management, according to agenda documents.

Decisions for the new positions will be on hold until county budget meetings later in August, according to Budget Executive Director Daniel Ramos, in order to be considered in the fiscal year 2023-24 budget.