HOUSTON – Dr. Tina Petersen, the Harris County Flood Control District Director, has resigned from office as of Thursday.
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With Petersen out of office, the Office of County Administration will work with Flood Control District leadership to support operations and ensure continued progress on high-priority infrastructure and flood mitigation projects.
Scrutiny faced by Dr. Petersen
The backstory:
There was a push by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo to remove Dr. Petersen due to severe project backlogs. According to an internal HCFCD status report dated May 1, the vast majority of 28 critical infrastructure projects remain tied up in preliminary design phases rather than active construction.
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Harris County Flood Control Chief faces scrutiny under $800M resiliency deadline
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo calls for the removal of Flood Control Director Dr. Tina Petersen over severe infrastructure delays risking $868 million in federal grants, as county commissioners split on local management versus bureaucratic red tape.
Under current federal guidelines, 11 critical Disaster Recovery projects must clear a hard close-out and audit window by February 28, 2027, putting $322 million in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds on the line. An additional 17 mitigation projects, valued at over $546 million, face an expiration deadline in March 2028.
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Local flood watchdog Bob Rehak, who tracks county watershed engineering metrics via Reduce Flooding, says that local billing and construction expenditures have experienced a consistent downward trajectory since Petersen assumed leadership in 2022. Rehak reported that projections indicated only five of the 11 near-term disaster projects are on track to beat the federal close-out window, leaving hundreds of millions in federal aid vulnerable to recovery by the state.
Risk of losing federal funding
What we know:
This resignation comes after Harris County received a warning from Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham that the county was at risk of losing nearly $1 billion in federal flood mitigation funding.
Buckingham issued a strongly worded letter to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo urging an end to procrastination, across-the-board cooperation, and rapid execution of projects that have yet to break ground.
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