Houston's toll road boss just got a fat paycheck bump, but not everyone's smiling about it. ABC13 reports that the Harris County Toll Road Authority's Roberto Treviño is now pocketing $485,000 a year after scoring a 38% raise, sky-rocketing him to the status of the county's highest-paid employee, a decision that's got Judge Lina Hidalgo asking why, saying "It's beyond perplexing, at best, to give any employee a 40% salary increase overnight without transparent decision-making or a justifiable reason," in a statement, noting the county's other employees saw a much more modest 7% cost of living adjustment while Treviño's out-of-the-blue rise to fiscal fame sets an "unsustainable precedent."
Meanwhile, over at The Houston Chronicle, they're dishing out details that peel back the curtain on the commissioners' secretive salary session that led Hidalgo to call the whole ordeal "insanely icky," adding, "They're reclassifying to make it sound a little less bad," and revealing that the city might be wooing Treviño with an as-yet-unwritten job offer, though Houston Mayor John Whitmire's office is keping mum on the matter.
It's not just Hidalgo throwing shade at the raise; Commissioner Rodney Ellis also piped up, voicing his own doubts and making a push for a pay equity study, but despite the discord, Commissioner Adrian Garcia stood by the salary spike, saying in a Houston Chronicle conversation that Treviño's work on toll reductions and a treacherous bridge project prove he's "worth every penny he's paid, and then some," but it seems the court's 4-1 vote, with Hidalgo as the lone nay-sayer, still leaves a bad taste for some.
Before taking the helm of the toll road, Treviño was a METRO Houston vet, racking up over 16 years before shifting gears to the toll authority, and while the bump in bucks might be seen as a just reward for his experience, the surrounding controversy suggests that this financial bump may have hit a nerve among those calling for more equity across the county's payroll.
