Tom Ramsey - Harris County Pct. 3 Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So President Trump said when he took office again, we
don't want people to work from home because, as everyone knows,
most of the time they're not working, they're not very productive.
A requirement that federal workers return to full time in
person work immediately was directed. Joining us now is as
mentioned Tom Ramsey, Harris County Precinct three Commissioner, to talk

(00:20):
about how to make that happen in Harris County commission.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning, boy, Jimmie, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's Bob and for Jimmy today and I'm doing well
talking about you all good, sir, All good, and I
appreciate you coming on to talk about this a little bit.
How many Harris County employees are we talking about here
that are still sitting at home?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, Bob, we asked in August of last year for
just an overyear summary, a detailed information on how many
employees we're working from home? That was in August. We
finally a couple of weeks show began to get information
and the details are out of of fifty three hundred

(01:02):
give or take employees in about ten or twelve different departments,
thirty five percent or in some form of telework that
could be two days a week. It could be four
or five days a week, four days a week, but
it varies by department.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So how are these individuals managed? In other words, do
they have supervisors? Do they have to find ways to
show supervisors that they are working? How are they evaluated?
Because President Trump, I think correctly said when you're working
from home, you're just not very productive because you have
other things to do besides your job.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Bob, I think that's exactly the point. I had a
company for more than forty years, and I don't know
how you manage someone that you don't interact with on
a regular basis. I have four hundred employees in Precinct three,
and there's not a single one of them that works
from home. And the reason is we don't have those

(02:01):
kind of jobs. You can't mowa yard from home, you
can't interact with the people in the park from home.
So it is something I don't understand. And what's really
sad is there are good employees the other sixty plus
percent of employees. They show up to work well, they
don't have to find they have to find daycare, they

(02:24):
have to pay gas to get to work. And so
when you pay an employee the same amount of money
to stay at home and work. That's not fair. I
think if you are going to work from home, you'll
probably cut your salary for us by a significant amount.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, that's a very very good point, commissioner, And that
would be fair because everybody else does have to pay
all of those other expenses in the gas and deal
with the traffic and everything to come to work. And
if you don't have to deal with all of that,
you should absolutely be having that salary slashed. So what
is the secret you don't have anybody is that's just
the nature of the work of the folks in Precinct three?
What about the other precincts? What do their commissioners say?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I don't know what. I didn't get a report on
Precinct I got a report by, for example, the Human
Resources Department, ninety seven percent are working from home. Ninety
seven percent. In the library, we have roughly, what is it,
four hundred and sixty nine employees twenty five percent of

(03:23):
working from home. How do you work from home and
do something for the library? I don't understand that at all.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's a great question, and I don't get it either.
And again, even if you do work from a keyboard
and most of what you have to do is online.
It's still there's something about being in the workplace. Isn't
there a commissioner about being there to be able to
communicate with your management, communicate with your coworkers. They're you know,
asking and answer potential problems. I mean, there is a

(03:51):
workplace cohesion that you cannot get if everybody is in
their own kitchens.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
We do every kind of work you can possibly do
in precinc or we do it in I mean Precinct three.
We do it in Precinct three. So uh, I don't
get that some kind of work is different. Certainly, if
someone called in and they said their child was sick
and they need work from home today, we're going to
allow that. That'll be fine. But that's a rare and

(04:18):
occasional kind of thing. To have employees that don't even
live here, that live in another city and working for
Harris County. Well, that's why I'll be making a motion
at the next Commission's court meeting that everybody comes back
to work period.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's a good message to deliver. And after all, we're
getting that that set by the President of the United
States with the Federal Workers there's no reason that county
workers shouldn't be held to the same standard precinct by
Precinct Commissioner Tom Ramsey. Thank you very much for the
for the message here and for the information. Have yourself
a great day, sir.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Thank you, Bob