County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said this week that Harris County has more than 2,000 employees working from home, including some living far away from Harris County.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Houston Mayor John Whitmire have all ordered their government employees back to the office.
According to Ramsey, some county departments have 98% of staff working from home.
“You try to get a hold of somebody, and you end up finding out they work in Austin, or they work in Dallas,” Ramsey told Fox 26.
Ramsey said it took county bureaucrats six months to give him the work-from-home numbers. Commissioners ordered the county administrator to review the telework policy on August 27 last year.
Texas Scorecard was told by the county administrator’s office earlier this year that it did not keep track of those numbers, saying, “Because Harris County is decentralized, you’ll have to reach out to each department for numbers.”
The county first approved working from home after County Judge Lina Hidalgo issued the “Stay Home, Work Safe” order on March 24, 2020, in response to COVID-19.
What started as a temporary measure evolved into a long-term arrangement and an established policy for county employees. The Telework Policy was added to the Harris County Personnel Policies and Procedures manual in March 2022.
The Office of County Administration wrote to Texas Scorecard that any change to the work-from-home policy would require action from the commissioners court.
President of Urban Reform and Urban Reform Institute Charles Blain told FOX 26, “The city and the county could both do what other cities and counties do, which is require their employees to live within the city or county limits in which they work, because it would make a lot of sense that you have to live under the policies that you promote and enforce.”
Blain said taxpayers should consider that local governments are spending money on buildings for employees that stay empty.
Corporations across America have been leading the charge for requiring employees to return to the office, with companies like Amazon, JP Morgan, and Citigroup all recently announcing in-office requirements.
