Administration & Regulatory Affairs

Director's Office

Mayor Parker Appoints New Director of Administration and Regulatory Affairs
Houston City Council Officially Confirms Tina Paez as Director

May 1, 2013 -- Mayor Annise Parker, along with the rest of Houston City Council, today confirmed Tina Paez as Director of Administration and Regulatory Affairs for the City of Houston by a unanimous vote. Ms. Paez, the first Hispanic director of ARA, joins the Mayor's executive team with more than 20 years of experience working for the city.

"I am excited to name Tina as the director of ARA. She has consistently demonstrated a rare ability to apply her extensive institutional knowledge in new situations to deliver fresh ideas," said Mayor Parker. "She will be a great leader for the department and help ensure the City of Houston runs as efficiently as possible."

Ms. Paez has over 20 years of experience in organizational management, serving the past 10 years as Deputy Director for the Regulatory Affairs division of ARA. In this position, Ms. Paez was responsible for overseeing multiple functional areas including regulation of electric, natural gas and investor-owned water utilities, cable television franchises, vehicles for hire and more than 50 categories of commercial licenses and permits. She managed a trained workforce of approximately 45 employees and operated an annual expenditure budget of approximately $4 million, collecting almost $200 million in revenues for the City of Houston. Ms. Paez joined the City of Houston in 1994 after leaving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

"I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve Houston as the second director of ARA. I am very grateful to Mayor Parker and City Council for the trust they have placed in me, and extend my sincerest thanks to my colleagues in ARA. ARA will continue to search for efficient and logical solutions to administrative and regulatory challenges that confront the City, and we will search for and implement new ways to deliver greater value to our customers, the citizens of Houston," said Tina Paez on her confirmation as director.

Ms. Paez is a native Texan, with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Texas A&M University, an MBA from Texas A&M University, and a Juris Doctorate from the South Texas College of Law in Houston.

The Administration & Regulatory Affairs Department manages 7 divisions within the City of Houston, the fourth-largest municipality in the United States. Since its inception in 2008, ARA has translated public and private-sector best practices of efficient service delivery and cost-effective business processes to enhance Houston's city governance and bottom line. ARA business units include: Administrative Services, BARC Animal Shelter & Adoptions, Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Insurance Management, Parking Management, and 3-1-1 Help & Information. For more information about ARA, please visit www.houstontx.gov/ara.