COUNTY GOVERNMENT EXPLAINED
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s a county commissioner in Loving County, Harlan Hopper represents maybe 30 or 40 constituents, mostly family and neighbors working the oil fields or ranches of rural West Texas. On the other side of this vast state, Harris County Commissioner R. Jack Cagle represents more people than 10 governors – about 1.3 million people living in the nation’s third-largest county. And while Loving and Harris counties have little in common, one thing they share is their “one size fits all” form of Texas county government. Four county commissioners. One county judge. A treasurer, a tax collector, a sheriff, and a county clerk. In Loving County, people pretty well understand what their county government does and how it works. That’s largely because at one time or another, most residents there have either lived with a county official or been one. And this is a small county after all (population ~ 160), so there really isn’t all that much county officials need to do. But 600 miles to the east, in the sound and the fury of Harris County, there’s ALWAYS something that needs doing. With nearly 5 million residents, Harris County is going places, or just coming back. Work crews are shoring up flood control projects, doctors and nurses are saving lives at county hospitals, and thousands of sheriff’s and
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Precinct4Update Spring/Summer 2020
constable’s deputies are protecting lives out on the streets. So, in all that craziness, perhaps we can be forgiven if we’re not entirely familiar with the name of our district clerk or with what our county treasurer does. A little more than half of Harris County’s residents live in incorporated cities – Houston, Pasadena, Humble, and the like – and rely on those cities for many of their local government services. But more than 2 million others live in unincorporated Harris County, meaning the county is their only local government. Regardless of whether they live inside or outside a city, though, all Harris County residents rely on the county to provide their courthouses, public hospitals, jails, and flood control. Despite providing these crucial and seemingly high-profile services, county government sometimes slips under the public radar. Most major news outlets devote more time and resources to coverage of Houston city government. As a result, many county residents don’t know how their county government works or who is responsible for keeping such a huge metropolitan area moving.
STORY BY Joe Stinebaker PHOTOS BY Sarah Wiesner
