When Marilyn Burgess first stepped into public life, she did not imagine she would one day oversee a $67 million budget, a staff of over 600 and the intricate machinery that keeps Harris County’s massive justice system running.
Today, as the Harris County District Clerk, Burgess leads with the values instilled by her parents, both in local leadership, back in rural Spearsville, Louisiana. Her father, Glover Rockett, served 12 years as a police juror and her mother, Oda, chaired the local hospital board before becoming Spearsville’s mayor. Those family dinner table conversations still shape how Burgess governs today.
When Burgess was about eight, lessons in justice knocked on her door. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on her lawn because her father insisted on hiring Black workers for road projects.
“It came naturally to wanting to be involved in public service and try to find a way to make our community better than the way I found it,” she told the Defender.
Entry into politics
A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) by training, Burgess earned her accounting degree from Louisiana State University and spent over thirty years managing business finances before becoming a public servant.
In the late 1990s, she served as executive director of the Texas Parent Teacher Association (PTA), working alongside lawmakers on issues like children’s health insurance and classroom sizes. Later, she moved to Houston in 2002 and served as President of the North Houston-Greenspoint Chamber of Commerce from 2002 to 2006.
Her first foray into elected office was a bid for Harris County Department of Education trustee, which ended in defeat. In 2018, she ran again, this time for District Clerk and won.
Reforms
Burgess took office, determined to modernize the District Clerk’s Office, which includes managing court records, collecting court fees and summoning thousands of jurors each year.
“We’re a behind-the-scenes cog in the Wheel of Justice in Harris County,” she said. “The courtroom process cannot proceed without us being present, but most people don’t know that. When an attorney files a case, it comes into our office electronically and we assign it a case number and a court. When it gets into the courtroom, we have court clerks staffing every courtroom, recording everything that goes on in the court and making a permanent record of the actions of the court and making those available to the public.”
Early on, she discovered that female clerks were physically walking sensitive documents across downtown in the dead of night, a safety hazard she remedied by pushing for electronic transfers.
Burgess also streamlined how protective orders are processed, converting them to electronic records so they become enforceable faster, protecting vulnerable residents.
Under her leadership, the office launched an online jury pre-registration system that collects emails and cell numbers, letting staff send reminders and even cancel jurors if too many are called, saving money and sparing citizens unnecessary trips downtown.
Championing a raise in juror pay from $6 to $30 on the first day, Burgess said she spearheaded providing free parking and prioritizing outreach in Black, Latino and young adult communities to better reflect Harris County’s diversity in the jury box.
“We want everybody to know how important it is that you show up and serve,” she said. “If you’re on trial for a criminal offense, you wanna look at that jury box and see people that look like you…All those perspectives need to be at the jury deliberation table. It leads to longer discussions, corrects inaccurate statements and prevents people from making racist comments.”
When she arrived, Burgess found it top-heavy. She cut a layer of management and raised salaries for frontline staff, many of them young women.
Burgess also helped expand the Integrated Justice Technology Committee, once a small group, into a seven-agency coalition including the District Attorney and Sheriff’s Office. Together, they oversee shared systems that handle arrests, filings and court data.
Legacy
She now hopes her legacy will be twofold: A smarter, more accessible court system for attorneys and citizens alike and a jury pool that truly looks like Harris County.
Burgess also offers clear advice to young women interested in leadership: get involved early, volunteer on campaigns and build networks.
“Very few people win their first time they run for office,” she said. “No one knows how to run for office until you do it. I learned so much in that first outing of mine that when I got ready to do it the second time, I had much more confidence in what I was doing. I knew where to go, where to spend the money and how to raise money to run for office.”
Through every innovation and policy shift, Burgess’s guiding star remains the same: The lessons learned during family discussions and the conviction that public office is about lifting up the entire community.
