Every official link, in one place
14 links to the parts of government that actually decide things in Houston and Harris County — agendas, budgets, records portals, county offices and the state bodies that hear a complaint. Each one was fetched and confirmed live on 2026-07-26.
What is not here: phone numbers and staff names. This chapter has not yet transcribed Houston's published department directory, and we do not print a government phone number we have not read off an official source. That work is next; until then every link below goes to the city's own directory, which is current by definition.
City government
City of Houston
https://www.houstontx.gov/
City Secretary
https://www.houstontx.gov/citysec/
City Council agendas
https://www.houstontx.gov/citysec/agenda.html
Council agendas (NovusAgenda)
Search by date for a specific meeting's agenda and backup.
https://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/
Records & transparency
Public information requests
Houston's GovQA portal — where a Texas Public Information Act request to the City is filed and tracked.
https://houstontx.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/supporthome.aspx
Legal Department
https://www.houstontx.gov/legal/
Houston open data
https://data.houstontx.gov
Open finance
https://data.houstontx.gov/pages/openfinance
City budget
https://www.houstontx.gov/budget/
County & state
Harris County
https://www.harriscountytx.gov/
Texas AG — Open Government
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open-government
Texas oversight
Where a Houston decision gets reviewed by somebody who does not work for Houston.
Texas Attorney General — Open Government
A body that wants to withhold must ask the AG within 10 business days. Those rulings are public and searchable, and they are the single best record of what a city tried to hide.
Texas Comptroller — Transparency
Local government debt, tax rates and economic-development agreements, filed by the entities themselves.
Texas Open Data Portal
Statewide datasets.
Meetings, and how to be in the room
Houston publishes its agendas through swagit: https://houstontx.new.swagit.com/views/113
Agendas are posted ahead of the meeting because the law requires it. That posting is the single most useful document in local government and almost nobody opens it — it is where a contract award, a rate change or a tax abatement appears in public for the first time, usually as one line in a consent agenda.
Items on a consent agenda are voted through together, with no discussion, in a few seconds. That is not a trick — it is how a body gets through routine business. But it means the only chance to see an item is before the meeting, in the packet. Any member can pull an item out for discussion, and so can a resident who asks one in time.
Cities move pages. Every link on this page is re-checked automatically each week and the result is published on the automation page. If one is broken and we have not caught it, tell us.