Tom Ramsey - Harris County Pct. 3 Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, you know, it gets way bigger local government. It
pays good too. The current administrator County Administrator Diana Ramirez.
She has been the county administrator since April twenty twenty three.
She's stepping down at the end of this month. We
pay her, I say we, because I'm a Harris County

(00:22):
tax payer. We pay her a salary of at least
in twenty twenty three. I don't know what it is now.
In twenty twenty three, according to Texas Scorecard, four hundred
and eighteen thousand dollars more than the President of the
United States makes. Harris County commissioners have voted four to
one to appoint Jesse Dickerman. He's already with the county

(00:42):
in a different position as the interim County administrator and
budget officer. The loan descending vote came from Commissioner Tom
Ramsey from Precinct three. He joins us, Now, all right, commissioner,
why did you vote no?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, Jimmy, it's pretty simple. For one hundred years prior
to this, we didn't have a county administrator, and by
many metrics, we were probably the most successful county in
the entire country. But four years ago we did. We
went to the count administrator system and hired David Berry.
He quit after two years because you see, we really

(01:16):
don't need one. Now we've had the interram mirrorage for
two years. Now she's gonna quit. And really I cannot
point to a single thing that the county administrator has
done constructively to improve county government. So we pay the
county administrator four hundred thousand plus a year. Her office,

(01:37):
Jimmy its budgets this year is twenty five million dollars.
Just think what we could do with twenty five million dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Hang on, if she doesn't do anything, what are they
spending twenty five million dollars on?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, they have they have to do a climate justice plan,
they have to do a salary study. You know, we
go hire Cornferry, which they may know something about golf,
but they know nothing about what people should make. Everything
that you can imagine the health director if you remember

(02:13):
the one that's under indictment, that person reported to the
county administrator. It's just a level of bureaucracy that you
can blame someone at some point for something really bad policy.
It's a stapegoat position. It serves no purpose. But to create.
If bureacracy waste time, waste money, and we're just not

(02:36):
as an effective government as we could be, I think
we should do away with it. That's why I voted
against this interim county administrator. I thought it was a
perfect opportunity. And Commissioner Garcia agreed with me. He said,
you know what this is, we don't really need this now.
He did vote to a point Dickerman, but he agrees

(02:57):
with me that the position serves no good purpose other
than to create chaos and confusion.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Okay, And it might be a nice reward for some
Democrat operative who you'd like to pay back by giving
them a cushy job where they don't have to do anything.
Then they can make over four hundred thousands dollars a
year by doing nothing.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, it certainly is a way to waste more money.
And when I look at all the needs in the
county and we're spending our money this way. And if
you can imagine the county engineer having to report to
this person, she doesn't know anything about engineering. The fluck

(03:38):
control director reporting to the county, she doesn't know anything
about that. So the list goes on and on in
terms of the people that report to her that she
directs and clearly doesn't have a clue in what they
do and how they do it.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Before we had this position Commissioner Ramsey. Wasn't that the
the job title of the Harris County Judge. Didn't they
come under the judge? Weren't those departments under him?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
But really the judge at the time. I mean that
obviously judgement did a great job and provided leadership and direction,
but really those positions, the County Engineer, Fluck Control director
and others, they reported directly to Commissioner's Corps. Well, that
makes a lot of sense. That's a that's a big

(04:27):
deal that you're reporting to commissions. Yeah, I liketed Eurocraft.
You can just go do whatever you want to. There's
no accountability, I agree.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
If ever, they're a department that could use I mean,
that's a lot of savings get rid of, you know,
somebody making plus not just four hundred and eighteen thousand
dollars a year, but health and all the other benefits
that retirement, all the other things that go along with it.
All right, commissioners, thank you, appreciate it. Harris County Precinct
three Commissioner Tom Ramsey,