HOUSTON — An executive-level City of Houston employee is out of a job following a KHOU 11 News investigation into his side business that ran afoul of the law.
Raymond Ramdeo made $145,000 a year as a Houston Public Works assistant director. The 17-year veteran city employee was in charge of overseeing all of the city’s wastewater treatment plants and complying with many government regulations.
At his extra job at a northeast Houston vehicle inspection shop, KHOU 11 Investigates revealed Ramdeo was caught twice for bypassing state regulations. In 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety suspended his vehicle inspection license for falsifying more than 50 emission tests. In 2009, Ramdeo received three years deferred adjudication after pleading guilty to tampering with a government record. The felony charge was filed after an undercover DPS sting found Ramdeo illegally passed an inspection without proof of insurance.
“And that has relevance for a higher management job,” said James Thurmond, a University of Houston professor and former city manager for three Texas cities. “If they have that bad behavior on the private side, you wonder, it raises doubts to your mind on the public side.”
After the initial KHOU 11 report, the Houston Office of Inspector General launched an investigation, which resulted in Ramdeo’s termination by Houston Public Works Director Carol Haddock.
“After careful consideration, I have determined that your service is no longer needed,” Haddock wrote Ramdeo in a Nov. 29 letter.
Haddock added that under the City Charter, the executive-level position is not Civil Service protected, leaving Ramdeo with “no rights of appeal or hearing before the Civil Service Commission.”
Previously, Ramdeo had nothing to say about his past behavior. On Monday, he provided documentation showing city supervisors authorized the vehicle inspection side job.
In a phone interview about his termination, Ramdeo said: “I’ve been an honest, hardworking person. Yes, I’ve made a couple of mistakes, but I don’t deserve this. This is very, very unfair.”