Harris County approves buyback, orders policy to compensate staff for January winter-storm work

Harris County Commissioners Court on Thursday approved using the county's public contingency fund to buy back compensatory time for employees who worked during the Jan. 2025 winter storm and directed county offices to draft a formal policy for compensating staff in nondisaster weather activations.

The court voted unanimously on a motion to have the Office of Management and Budget, Human Resources and Talent and the County Attorney—s Office return Feb. 6 with language and a cost estimate to implement a comp-time buyback for the January event. Commissioners also directed the Office of County Administration to draft a policy defining "what constitutes a weather event" for these purposes and to require employees to complete ICS Form 214 activity logs when covered by the policy; that motion carried unanimously.

Why it matters: County leaders said the step is meant to ensure employees who were activated during the storm are paid for work that prevented wider damage and to set clear rules for future non-declared events. County managers warned that without a formal policy, employees nearing the top of their compensatory banks might…