Primary Department: County Administration
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Erica Lee Carter, County Administrator
Secondary Department: Management and Budget
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official: Daniel Ramos, Executive Director
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Policy
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request for approval of the Fiscal Year 2027 Strategic Hiring Policy and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
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Background and Discussion:
At the September 9, 2025, Commissioners Court meeting, Court adopted a Strategic Hiring Policy as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget adoption. The Policy is in effect for the duration of FY26, and began with the September 20, 2025, pay period and ends on September 30, 2026. To gather department feedback on how the Strategic Hiring Policy has functioned in practice and identify opportunities for improved implementation, the Office of County Administration (OCA) conducted two focus groups with representatives from six County departments in late July. The focus groups identified multiple opportunities to enhance implementation of the Strategic Hiring Policy while maintaining its fiscal objectives. Participants consistently recommended transitioning from repeated position-by-position approvals to a model that sets department labor budgets or savings targets at the start of the fiscal year, thereby granting departments flexibility to manage staffing within approved parameters.
The proposed Fiscal Year 2027 General Fund budget includes $5 million in Strategic Hiring savings. OCA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have developed a Strategic Hiring Policy and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for FY27 that provides departments flexibility in managing their vacancies while reducing the administrative burden on departments, OCA, OMB, and Commissioners Court. Per the proposed policy, OMB will reduce departmental labor budgets at the beginning of the fiscal year by the required savings amount and allow departments to manage staffing within the remaining labor budget. The required savings amount per department will be determined by OMB based on historical and current vacancy rates and will be presented to Commissioners Court for approval on November 12, 2026.
Expected Impact:
The FY27 budget includes $5 million in Strategic Hiring savings that will be accrued throughout the fiscal year.
Approval of the proposed FY27 Strategic Hiring Policy will allow OMB to reduce the labor budgets of certain departments at the beginning of the fiscal year and eliminate the position-by-position exemption request and approval process that was in place in FY26, reducing the administrative burden on departments, OCA, OMB, and Commissioners Court.
If approved, the proposed Strategic Hiring Policy would then remain in effect for the duration of FY27, beginning with the October 3, 2026, pay period and ending on September 30, 2027, unless otherwise updated or rescinded by Commissioners Court.
Alternative Options:
Commissioners Court could choose to reject the proposed policy and extend the current policy into FY27 or decline to continue the Strategic Hiring Policy, which would eliminate the associated savings currently incorporated into the FY27 General Fund budget.
County Strategic Plan Goal: Choose an item.
County Strategic Plan Objective: Choose an item.
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): Choose an item.
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): Choose an item.
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): Choose an item.
Health Initiative (Goal 4): Choose an item.
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): Choose an item.
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): Choose an item.
Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan:
Prior Court Action (if any):
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Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
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9/9/2025 |
#2 |
Approval of the Hiring Freeze SOP with all the exemptions included with these three additional ones: exempting HART, RISE, and Purchasing |
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Location:
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Fiscal and Personnel Summary |
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Total Existing Budget |
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Additional Budget Request (Requires Fiscal Review Request Form) |
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Local Match Source - Existing Budget: Choose an item. |
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Local Match Source - Additional Budget Request: Choose an item. |
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Grant Funds Applied for/Awarded (Total) |
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Personnel (Fill out section only if requesting new Position Control Numbers (PCN)s) |
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Current Position Count for Service |
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Additional Positions Request |
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Total Personnel |
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County Attorney’s Office Legal Review (for Harris County Code Items only) |
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Anticipated Court Date: 9/17/2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): 10/3/2026
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department:
Erica Lee Carter, County Administrator, Office of County Administration
Daniel Ramos, Executive Director, Office of Management and Budget
Attachments (if applicable): FY27 Strategic Hiring Policy/SOP; Strategic Hiring Focus Group Memo