Some County Department Heads Receive Massive Pay Increases Despite Performance Issues

2/16/2025 – Comparing data recently obtained via a public information request to previous sources available online shows current pay rates and increases for Harris County Department heads. One head now receives more than half of a million dollars per year. Another seven receive more than $400,000 per year.

And some pay increases exceed the entire annual pay of average workers in the United States and Houston. However, recent discussions in Commissioners Court indicate the increases may not be tied to performance.

Increases Exceed Average Salaries in U.S. and Houston

In some cases, the amounts of the increases alone exceed what the average American makes in an entire year.

As of 2023, the average annual wage in the United States was $66,622, according to the Social Security Administration. In that same year, the median household income in Houston, Texas, was $62,894, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Individual salaries in Houston vary widely based on factors, such as occupation, experience, and education. For example, according to Gusto.com:

• Vice Presidents: Median salary of $125,000.
• Product Managers: Median salary of $120,000.
• Software Engineers: Median salary of $110,000.
• Office Managers: Median salary of $50,000.

Compare those to pay increases received by these Harris County department heads:

• Milton Rahman, head of the Engineering Department received an increase of more than $135,000.
• Sindhu Menon, head of Universal Services, the county’s IT department, received an increase of more than $110,000.
• Leah Barton, the temporary head of Public Health, also received a raise of more than $110,000.
• Luis Arturo Sanchez, the chief medical examiner, received an increase of more than $90,000.
• Tina Petersen, head of the flood control district, received an increase of almost $90,000.

Public Sector Vs. Private Sector: Differences in Philosophy

I cannot speak to the qualifications of any of the individuals above, nor the merit of their pay increases. But I would note a major philosophical difference between the public and private sectors re: salaries and salary increases.

The private sector usually links pay to performance in order to incentivize employees to work harder.

But in Harris County, the government reportedly wants to bring salaries up to a level that department heads could theoretically make somewhere else. The announced objective seems to be “employee retention.” However…

Pay Increased Despite Performance Issues

Shortly after department heads received the pay increases above, County Commissioners severely and publicly criticized several of those who received them. The issue: inability to deliver 2018 Bond and Subdivision Drainage Projects, exacerbated by 30-35% inflation in construction.

Commissioner Tom Ramsey (Precinct 3) said, “This is a major crisis. I sense no urgency from flood control. I sense no urgency from the county engineer’s office. And I don’t sense any urgency from the county administrator.” Ramsey also said, “We need to go back and take a look at it, but there needs to be an adult in room to be sure that we get honest answers back.”

Commissioner Lesley Briones (Precinct 4) expressed, “Utter dismay. Frustration. Shock.” She emphasized that the county needed to find solutions for both the subdivision drainage projects and the flood bond. “This is not OK,” she said. “And we need to get it done with a sense of urgency.”

Commissioner Rodney Ellis (Precinct 1) said, “This is an abysmal failure to deliver on the bond issue.”

All this happened after the department leaders of Flood Control and Engineering received pay increases of almost $90,000 and more than $135,000 per year respectively.

When I ran my business, if I had an employee whose performance was an “abysmal failure,” I usually had a different response that involved the door.

The pace of spending for flood-bond projects has declined for four straight years.

If adjusted for inflation, the HCFCD spending decline would be steeper than shown above. In fact, discounting last year’s spending by one third for cumulative inflation would make it equal to roughly $150 million. HCFCD spent that in 2017, the year before the Flood Bond passed.

And then there’s Universal Services (US), which has the county’s fourth highest paid leader. US provides IT support to other departments, such as the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD). But parts of the Flood Control District website has been broken for months. HCFCD no longer shows the location of active projects.

Flood Control blames that on a failure of Geographic Information System (GIS) software maintained by US. But HCFCD’s Flood-Bond update frequency has also decreased from monthly to annually.

Chumocracy vs. Meritocracy and Tax Increases

County employees frequently complain about political hires without professional qualifications. For instance, Universal Services reportedly has a tradition under the current County Judge of hiring foreigners who have poor programming skills and who can barely speak English.

They place a higher burden on the remaining qualified professionals who find themselves doing a proportionally higher share of the work. They also demoralize remaining skilled professionals who see less talented people making equal pay while doing less.

This “chumocracy,” as Brits call it, is an insidious form of institutional cancer spreading throughout Harris County government. And Harris County leaders have asked Harris County taxpayers to foot the bill for their chumocracy with historic tax increases.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/16/25

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The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.