Rick Noriega fired: Harris County dismisses retired Army general as IT director and Universal Services chief

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Harris County’s chief information technology officer is out of a job.

Sources told ABC13 on Tuesday that retired Gen. Rick Noriega was dismissed over allegations of sexual harassment.

This all stems from a sexual harassment claim filed against him this past December. The county investigated and ordered Noriega to complete mandatory sexual harassment training.

It’s important to note that Noriega was dismissed because he didn’t complete mandatory training, not because of the original complaint against him, which was confirmed to Eyewitness News by the Harris County Administration Office.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo didn’t name Noriega specifically, but addressed his firing in Tuesday’s commissioners’ court meeting.

“I want every county employee – and their daughters and their grand daughters and their sisters – to know that sexual harassment and sexism will not be tolerated in Harris County,” Hidalgo said. “We’ve come a long way from the ‘old boys’ club’ way of doing things, but I’ll tell you we’re not done. In this courtroom, I’ve been groped…The kind of behavior this employee faced is behavior that I, for one, have been a victim of as county judge.”

In addition to his role as chief information officer for Harris County, Noriega also oversaw the county’s office of Universal Services.

Noriega’s salary was just over $286,000 a year, which puts him in the top 20 highest-paid county employees, according to county data.

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