Primary Department: Pollution Control Services
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Jesse Dickerman, Interim Executive Director
Secondary Department: Choose an item.
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official:
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Discussion Item
Project ID (if applicable): NA
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): NA
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): NA
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): NA
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable):
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): Choose an item.
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request for discussion and possible action regarding the integration of the Office of Sustainability into Pollution Control Services in the 2027 Proposed Budget.
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Background and Discussion:
On the April 16 Commissioners Court, a motion was adopted that requested Pollution Control Services (PCS) present a comprehensive budget proposal that incorporated the Office of Sustainability (OS) into the FY27 PCS budget. Since the April meeting, PCS has worked with OS, OMB, and CAO to outline how combining OS into PCS could uplift the work of both organizations.
Enforcement & Compliance - PCS enforcement, inspection, and compliance functions are vital county services. Improving the effectiveness of these teams is PCS top priority. These services will remain within PCS Technical Division and the management will not be impacted by the combination with the OS. PCS and OS have engaged with other comparable jurisdictions including Cook County, IL, Clark County, NV, and Travis County, TX where environmental enforcement is in the same department as sustainability & resilience. In all of these jurisdictions, enforcement activities are included in a separate vertical beside sustainability & resilience, and if approved, Harris County would match this emerging best practice. While this proposal would shift OS from being a division of OCA to a division of PCS, it is important to note that PCS itself is under OCA and the Director of OS would remain the same distance from the County Administrator as they are under the current organization.
The PCS leadership is focused on improving enforcement and compliance services through the establishment of enhanced training programs, creating a proactive enforcement program modeled on the Concrete Batch Plants program, and the introduction of career paths for these teams. This will help professionalize PCS, reduce staff turnover, and allow the department to benefit from more experienced, senior staff members.
Though the enforcement and compliance functions will remain wholly separate from the Office of Sustainability, there are several ways in which these teams will benefit from the addition. The addition of OS will broaden the scope of the department, giving employees the potential to broaden their careers. OS has consistently seen excellent candidates for open positions, some of these candidates may see a path towards their desired career by starting out in environmental enforcement. In addition, if this merger is approved, PCS will propose using non-general funds from OS to support some of PCS’ expanded training.
Sustainability Services - The Office of Sustainability will become a stand-alone division within Pollution Control Services where the Office will continue to lead and coordinate the implementation of the County’s Climate Action Plan for Internal Operations (CAP) and the Climate Justice Plan (CJP).
CAP - The implementation of the County’s Climate Action Plan, the effort to reduce County emissions, will benefit from a closer partnership with PCS. OS energy management team, responsible for reducing energy usage in County buildings and vehicles, will benefit from PCS’s data analysis resources to produce more comprehensive reports and dashboards to communicate progress on energy savings and emissions reductions. Despite strong performance in energy reduction, the energy management team could improve their data presentation and communication. PCS has been the County leader in fleet electrification, one of the key pillars of the CAP; integration with PCS fleet management will provide additional insight to help inform reductions in fleet emissions.
CJP - As the first county in the United States to adopt a Climate Justice Plan and the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, combining the Office of Sustainability with Pollution Control Servies will uplift and advance this work. The mission of Pollution Control has always been to ensure clean air, water, and soil for the residents of Harris County, and Dr. Babin always considered environmental justice a key component of the department’s work. The development of the CJP enhances the necessary lens of equity in PCS environmental work. The CJP actions prioritized for the next year are meant to extend PCS work on air and water monitoring, helping to make PCS information more accessible to the public. Much of PCS existing communications work will be reoriented towards supporting community engagement and CJP implementation. This will add resources and speed up the implementation of the CJP. This is a virtuous cycle where accelerated implementation of the CJP will drive more high-quality complaints, enforcement and compliance.
Expected Impact:
Benefits for Enforcement & Compliance - The enforcement and compliance services will benefit from a rejuvenated community engagement program and CJP implementation. Engagement focused on helping improve the quality of environmental complaints would help PCS increase the efficiency of enforcement and compliance. Today, very few complaints result in citations, violations, or enforcement actions. Helping the community better understand the kinds of complaints that could result in additional actions would be the equivalent to adding additional investigators. In addition, information gained through deeper community engagement will help to guide enforcement actions. This will help ensure that the County is taking the most meaningful action possible.
County Strategic Plan - Both PCS and OS are leading key aspects of the County Strategic Plan. Three of the Four Objectives in Goal 5, Minimizing the Impact of Climate Change and Disasters, are led by PCS or OS. This includes 17 separate initiatives, some of which are key initiatives for FY27. The combination of PCS and OS is an example of an organizational restructuring that can position the County for additional progress in the Strategic Plan without requiring additional budget.
Grants - The Sustainability team has already shown the ability to win and manage grants, from ideation through implementation and reporting. Providing this leadership and expertise to the PCS policy portfolio of air, water, soil, and solid waste can help provide future resources to the County. Two particular areas of interest are forever chemicals and superfund sites. The first is a long-term plan that will put the County in pole position to work on PFAS/PFOS, an area of emerging environmental concern, while the latter can address the original environmental justice that continues to plague Harris County communities.
Other Impacts - PCS has sometimes struggled to connect to communities it serves. There are environmental events and business activities, especially in industrial Southeast Harris County, that are controversial in communities but where few if any legal violations have occurred and where PCS has been unable to find productive ways to work towards community goals. Adding the proactive environmental work that OS is engaged in including the CJP activities, Repair Café’s, and Solar For All, will help the overall department deliver benefits to communities impacted by pollution.
The table below summarized the budget of the Office of Sustainability that would be presented as part of PCS’ budget for FY27.
Alternative Options:
Court could choose that the Office of Sustainability remains part of OCA.
County Strategic Plan Goal: 5. Minimize the impact of climate change and disasters.
County Strategic Plan Objective: T: Reduce GHG emissions from County operations by 40% by 2030.
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): Q1: Improve air quality monitoring and enforcement.
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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4/16/2026 |
8 |
Directive: To request for Pollution Control Services to present efficiency and effectiveness proposals for consideration in the FY27 Budget process that include moving the Office of Sustainability to Pollution Control Services and other innovative measures, and that they do so in collaboration and in consultation with the County Attorney’s Office. |
Location:
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Precinct(s): Countywide
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County Attorney’s Office Legal Review (for Harris County Code Items only) |
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Anticipated Court Date: 7/9/2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): Click or tap to enter a date.
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Jesse Dickerman, Interim Executive Director Pollution Control Services
Attachments (if applicable):