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 otherwise work uncompensated hours in future activations.

Court debate and votes County officials said this winter event did not meet the federal disaster threshold for a FEMA declarationthe commonly cited standard is approximately $25 million in damage or laborso the county would not receive automatic federal reimbursement. Still, staff and several commissioners argued the county can authorize local payment to recognize work performed during the activation.

"We'd like to come back on February 6th with the appropriate language and by that time we should have a good estimate on the cost," said Director Ramos of the Office of Management and Budget. Ramos told the court that other jurisdictions use similar overtime and comp-time buyback policies and that OMB was supportive of a local buyback in this instance.

Commissioner Briones, who read the motion directing OMB and HR to prepare the buyback proposal, said: "I think it's very, very, important that we come up with a policy that allows us to, pay in cash, to our employees, the work that they have done," and framed the motion as recognition of employees who were pulled from their families to work during the storm.

The court recorded the motions as follows: - Motion to direct OMB and Human Resources and Talent to return Feb. 6 with a proposal to use the public contingency fund to cover county employees' compensatory time related to the January 2025 severe weather event. Mover: Commissioner Briones; second: Commissioner Ellis. Outcome: approved unanimously. - Motion to direct the Office of County Administration to work with OMB, HR, the County Attorney's Office and the Office of Emergency Management to draft and return a policy formalizing coverage of county employees' compensatory time during non-declared weather events; the policy must define qualifying weather events and require completion of ICS Form 214 by covered employees. Mover: Commissioner Briones; second: Commissioner Garcia. Outcome: approved unanimously.

Cost and funding context Staff said final cost estimates were not yet available because time sheets for the pay period had not been fully submitted; OMB staff said they expected the buyback to be well under $1,000,000 based on recent, larger events, and that the Feb. 6 update would include a clearer price.

County leadership also discussed the status of reimbursements for prior declared disasters. Several commissioners noted precinct budgets had been strained while FEMA or other reimbursements remained pending; staff said they were working with risk-management vendors and FEMA claims teams to fast-track eligible reimbursements to precincts.

Procedure and record-keeping Court members asked that the policy returned to them include clear guidelines on who qualifies for comp-time buyback when employees worked from home, how to document hours, and a requirement that employees completing activation work submit ICS Form 214 logs to support after-action reporting and reimbursement claims.

Next steps Staff will return on Feb. 6 with draft language and a cost estimate for the Jan. 2025 buyback. The Office of County Administration will return with a draft policy that, per the court's motion, will define qualifying weather events and require ICS Form 214 activity logs for employees covered by the policy.

The court made the decisions during its Jan. 23, 2025 business court session while prioritizing the item because of the ongoing winter-weather response.