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The county’s public housing boss got a $60,000 bonus last month for the second consecutive year, prompting County Judge Ed Emmett to question the decision to boost his pay by about 30 percent while other public agencies are tightening spending.

Guy Rankin stands to make more than $260,000 this year as executive director of the Harris County Housing Authority. Two years ago, his salary was $102,502.

The authority’s five-member board of commissioners approved a three-year contract for Rankin in September 2007 that paid him $180,000 a year, provided for a 10 percent annual increase and allowed for an additional bonus at the board’s discretion. It does not specify criteria that would trigger a bonus.

Even officials who question the bonus describe Rankin as a nationally respected leader in public housing.

Because of the authority’s work in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the federal government put it in charge of nearly 12,000 evacuee families in 41 states.

In 2006, the authority served 1,840 local families through housing vouchers. Today it serves more than 25,000 nationally. The authority reports that its assets have increased from $642,000 in 2004 to $28.7 million today.

Rankin’s performance been “stellar,” said Casey Wallace, chairman of the authority’s board of commissioners. Wallace and Commissioners Walter Jones and Peggy Kruckemeyer voted for the bonus. Gilbert Herrera opposed it. Commissioner Graciela Martinez said that although she believes Rankin has done an excellent job, she did not vote for the bonus because she first wants to see the results of a survey that compares his salary to other housing directors.

“We have given him lofty goals, and each of those have been surpassed tenfold,” Wallace said.

Kruckemeyer said she voted for the bonus because Rankin has done an “outstanding job” in the last year.

But Emmett called Wallace shortly after the Nov. 18 vote to tell him he was disappointed in the Housing Commission’s action.

“A $60,000 bonus, when county employees are not even getting a cost-of-living increase, just struck me as inappropriate,” Emmett said last week. “When you’re talking about a bonus in excess of 30 percent of your annual salary, that’s not what most people ever see in their lifetime.”

Emmett did not contest last year’s bonus. He praised Rankin’s performance, particularly the housing of 36,000 hurricane evacuees in the Reliant Astrodome.

“This year certainly wasn’t that level of activity,” the county judge said.

Herrera said Rankin had “knocked the ball out of the park” last year and deserved the bonus he received in November 2008. His only problem with last year’s bonus was that he does not recall being given the opportunity to vote on it.

Minutes of board meetings released by the authority last week include a November 2008 discussion of Rankin’s compensation, but do not reflect any action taken.

Herrera voted against this year’s bonus.

“His performance was nowhere near where it was last year,” Herrera said. “He hasn’t earned it.”

The Housing Authority is an independent branch of county government. It does not receive county tax dollars. Its budget comes from tenant rents and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding.

“We set it up to be able to help Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles County and large housing authorities across the country,” Rankin said.

The expansion of the agency’s local services to more than 13,000 families has added $58 million in government-paid rents to local landlords each year by Rankin’s numbers.

Commissioners Court appoints the five-member board that governs the authority, so Emmett contacted Wallace.

Among Rankin’s achievements that Wallace reported in response were the doubling this year of the number of families the agency serves through traditional housing subsidies.

Rankin’s salary soared after a 2007 salary survey that indicated he was paid far less than colleagues statewide.

As Rankin explained it, the board’s approval of the 2007 contract got him three-quarters of the way to the top of the range. He said he earns the last 25 percent through clean audits, developing new housing and national certification as a top performing housing agency.

County governmental departments and public agencies such as the Toll Road Authority, the Flood Control District, and the Sports Authority do not award bonuses to their leaders.

Rankin’s bonus-boosted pay far exceeds that of the sheriff, district attorney, budget director, treasurer or auditor.

The Houston Housing Authority’s CEO, who oversees an agency serving 60,000 residents, gets a salary of $225,000