Harris County Officials Vote for In-House Audit of Dema Consulting

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In the ongoing investigation of DEMA Consulting and Management, it has now been found that Rodney Ellis has put his employee Errika Perkins in charge of a secondary audit. In which Hidalgo commented in Commissioners Court to Ellis with her concerns over Perkins conducting said audit.

“I think there is something going on in the current … relationship between the court and the independent auditor,” Hidalgo said. “I think it’s very inappropriate the way the auditor has been questioned, and I think it’s inappropriate to hire the chief auditor just as soon as an audit comes up of the department in question.”

Ellis defended his office’s hiring decision.

“It’s a good job for her, and I think anyone else at this dais would be lucky if they could get her,” he said. “As it relates to any of these other issues, any member of the board can take as much time as they want to question any issue that comes up.”

Errika Perkins went from Chief Assistant for the Auditors office at $172,016 to Precinct 1 Director, Chief Financial Officer for $237,993. That’s almost $66k jump to end the audits…

Cynthia Rushing, who’s been with Rodney Ellis since 2021 as the Director of Finance has only seen a 15% raise in that time $142k to $165k. Rushing has 25 years verses Perkins 20. Makes you wonder, did Ellis hire to Silence her or did she have the goods to get paid by him?

So far, the county has found that DEMA was double billing for their services in Sonoma and Harris County. The CEO allegedly billed for time worked when she was photographed at a Broncos game. So naturally, it would make sense that Ellis would attempt to hire an auditor in which he’s given a massive pay raise to…