Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional comments from county officials.
Harris County commissioners shot down an effort to change the role of county administrator during the July 9 meeting after an item re-examining the duties of the office was added as an emergency item to the county agenda.
What we know
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia added an item to the agenda on June 9 to consider returning the duties of the Office of County Administration back to commissioners. Garcia also requested a closed session discussion for an “evaluation” of County Administrator Erica Lee Carter.
The county administrator directly supervises 16 departments and leads long-term strategic planning, performance management and fiscal responsibility in alignment with the Harris County Commissioners Court, per the OCA’s website. Carter was appointed to the position on March 9 originally established by commissioners in 2021.
“When I'm elected, it is important for me to have oversight of operations and be involved in decisions,” Garcia said. “I've never been comfortable with the county administrator [position] prior to Ms. Carter Lee, and so it has nothing to do with the person there. I just never really cared for the office, but I was willing to experiment with it and better understand it.”
Garcia said he disagreed with recent department head terminations, which were not brought before court prior to firing of the employee.
“It's really to bring the decision of termination to this body, because ultimately, if there is a wrongful termination, this body ultimately has to contend with the liability of anything that happens,” Garcia said.
The discussion
Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones expressed immediate opposition to the idea, sharing concerns of the day-to-day workload and flow of county needs.
“We're five CEOs, and a county administrator, the way I see it, is a COO. We pass the policy, and you implement it,” Briones said.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who was originally against the office’s creation, voiced concerns that suddenly removing the position and office may not be the best move.
“I'm for everything that the county administrator does except committee meetings, and I think she's made progress even on committee meetings,” Ramsey said. “So I'll not be supporting this specific [motion], although I think there are some things that would help make the job more effective.”
The action taken
While Garcia’s proposal was not considered further by commissioners, Ramsey said he would like to see additional progress on how the OCA could work with commissioners and other departments to improve efficiency.
“There's been us kind of finding our way, if you will. So I think this Commissioner’s Court we've all got some good thoughts on how we can make it, as we say in East Texas, how we can make it more better,” Ramsey said.
Garcia said in an interview with Community Impact he was focused only on addressing where power to hire or fire a department head lies in the county.
“Yesterday’s proposed action nothing to do with eliminating the office of County Administrator or firing the current administrator, rather it was to decide whether elected members of court should have hiring and firing authority or whether that function should be given to a nonelected person," Garcia said. "To be clear, when county department heads’ performance is in question, I believe it should be the role of us who are accountable to the public to make those decisions. My fellow members of court chose to cede their authority but as a full time commissioner, I have always believed that those of us who were elected to work on behalf of our communities every day should make these important decisions.”
