For more than four decades, Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis has channeled his Sunnyside upbringing into a career characterized by bold reforms and racial justice advocacy. From the City Council to the Texas Senate and Commissioners Court, the policy wonk says he was inspired by his working-class parents and the neighborhood that raised him.
Ellis’ father was a yardman and orderly at the VA hospital and his mother was a maid and nursing assistant. Seeing his mother speak at a rally inspired him; she was a “working mom who was bold enough and learn the art of biting her tongue.” She led him to his first protest as a boy, where he saw her organize people and “make noise” about shutting down a Sunnyside dump where a child had drowned.
That was just the beginning.
“That rubbed off on me,” he said. “I also saw firsthand how communities like mine were often overlooked regarding investment and opportunity. I saw up close what systemic inequality looked like: underfunded schools, limited healthcare access and a lack of economic mobility.”
The ‘loud mouth’ from Sunnyside
Ellis attended Grimes Elementary and Carter G. Woodson Middle School before graduating from Worthing High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Texas Southern University, a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
While a 10th-grader, Ellis earned the nickname “the loudmouth from Sunnyside,” following a speech at a protest asking for higher Black student enrollment at the University of Houston.
Driven by a life of watching ordinary people navigate Houston’s Sunnyside, Ellis says he was “spoiled” while growing up in a Black neighborhood on Carmen Street, where everyone knew everyone. He came from a community of overachievers, in which Tennis legend Zina Garrison and NBA star Clyde Drexler lived around the corner.
Political career
Over the course of his political career, Ellis built his reputation as a reform-driven policymaker, from the city to the state Senate.
Ellis began his public service journey while still in law school, working as an aide to Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and a law clerk to Chief Justice John C. Phillips. He was also chief of staff to U.S. Representative Mickey Leland.
In 1983, Ellis was elected to the Houston City Council and served three terms representing District D, followed by a 27-year tenure in the Texas Senate, where he passed more than 700 bills, including measures to reform criminal justice and expand access to higher education.
“Even when I was on city council, I thought more like a policy person than just somebody focusing on potholes,” he explained. “Here, at county government, I’d probably take that approach as well.”
At the county level, Ellis focused on reshaping how Harris County spends its flood mitigation dollars, referring to a $2.5 billion bond passed by voters in 2018 to fund flood control projects following Hurricane Harvey. Although he was initially the only Democrat and person of color on the court, he secured enough support to pass flood equity guidelines and launch a disparity study on contracting trends for minority and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBE).
“I didn’t wanna chase federal money with cost-benefit ratio because you’d never get to the low-income neighborhoods,” Ellis told the Defender. “I wanted to use the leverage I had, knowing that to pass the bond issue, you’d have to come through Precinct One, African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, or maybe to put it another way, traditional democratic strongholds to get those votes.”
Now, Harris County has an M/WBE program. The study, which included findings from the county, METRO, the Port of Houston and Harris Health, revealed stark disparities. In Harris Health, for example, African American participation in county contracts registered statistically as zero.
Another hallmark of Ellis’ career is his support for misdemeanor bail reform, backing a lawsuit against Harris County for detaining people solely because they couldn’t afford bail. Although it drew criticism from some colleagues, Ellis remained unapologetic.
“Obviously, all hell broke loose,” Ellis said. “You don’t give that up because you hold an office, but that led to a bit of consternation with my new colleagues. I didn’t run for office to run a popularity contest with people I serve with.”
Reforms
Under Ellis’ leadership, Harris County launched the Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART) program, a gun violence prevention program aimed at reducing shootings. Per his office, HART has handled over 19,000 calls. He also championed Youth Justice Community Reinvestment Fund, which connects juvenile justice system participants to community-based resources, the Domestic Violence Assistance Fund, which provides financial support to survivors and the Harris County Living Wage Policy, which increases the minimum wage to $21.65 for county-contracted workers and $20 for county employees.
He stressed the importance of the Uplift Harris program, which planned to give $500 per month to participating households for 18 months. But, due to a lawsuit filed against Harris County by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Supreme Court of Texas ordered the county to pause payments.
“The end of Uplift Harris is a setback, but it will not stop me from fighting for economic opportunity in this county,” he said.
Looking ahead
The commissioner wants to preserve the flood equity framework, make accessible green spaces in underserved areas, protect MWBE programs from legal challenges and continue investing in community assets like the historic Hester House in the Fifth Ward.
“I’m working with the board of directors to transition Hester House into a Harris County facility. This shift would provide it with sustainable, long-term funding, relieving the burden on private fundraising and protecting it from political volatility or changing priorities,” he said.
He also wants to focus on the Riverside Project, a wrap-around service in the heart of the Third Ward estimated to cost between $170M and $196M, and Hill at Sims, a regional park in Sunnyside.
Ellis’ legacy, he says, is steeped in the lessons of neighborhood loyalty, rooting his work in making systems fairer for those they have long failed.
“With every policy I support and every budget I vote on, I carry Sunnyside with me. I’m always asking: Who does this help? Who does it leave behind? How can we do better?” he said.
