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Managed Assigned Counsel warns court a voucher backlog could return without restored staff
Summary
The county's Managed Assigned Counsel director said an earlier emergency voucher backlog exceeded 2,900 pending vouchers and required temporary emergency controls; he urged restoring proposed cuts and funding two voucher assistants, an immigration attorney and a resource attorney to avoid another backlog and to maintain constitutional advisory obligations.
Kenneth Harden, executive director of the Harris County Managed Assigned Counsel (MAC) office, told commissioners the office's emergency voucher plan reduced a backlog of 2,957 pending vouchers down to under 100 in weeks, but that sustaining that performance requires additional staff the proposed budget would cut.
"The greatest threat was sustaining the progress, not just unmet needs," Harden said, and described how suspending certain voucher checks during the emergency was necessary but not a permanent solution. He asked the court to restore proposed offsets that would otherwise eliminate staff and operational checks and to consider funding two voucher assistants, a second immigration attorney, and an additional resource attorney.
Harden and commissioners discussed the risk tradeoffs of emergency voucher processing (which speeds payments but reduces internal checks) versus maintaining full controls year‑round. Harden said MAC had used temporary staff and automation help from universal services to drive the backlog down, but that long‑term capacity required the requested positions.
