Ken Fickes
Ken Fickes is the Director of the Harris County Office of Transit Services which is an operating division of the Harris County Housing and Community Development Department. In this capacity, Mr. Fickes directs the operation of the County’s transportation programs providing commuter, fixed route and county-wide demand response transportation services including Harris County RIDES which provides elderly/disabled services. Fixed route bus operations are in communities in eastern Harris County, which are not part of the METRO service area. Mr. Fickes started this transit program in 2007 as a two-route program in the City of Baytown and was an expansion of economic development programs for the County. The program now has twelve routes and two micro-transit zones.
In his role as Director, Mr. Fickes is responsible for all financial and regulatory compliance activities of the transit program including, an annual budget more than $10 million. He is also responsible for their Transportation Asset Management Plan, the Public Transit Agency Safety Plan, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program for the County, a Title VI program, Federal Transit Administration procurement, and planning. Mr. Fickes is also experienced in incident management and works closely with the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management for evacuations and is responsible for operating the County Staging Area and points of distribution for commodities during after an incident.
Mr. Fickes has served on four transportation related committees with the Houston-Galveston Area Council including twelve years as a member of the Transportation Advisory Committee to the Transportation Policy Council. He is presently Vice Chairman of the Regional Safety Committee of the Policy Council. Mr. Fickes also serves on the Texas Department of Transportation Commission Public Transportation Advisory Committee.
Before starting the new transit program, Mr. Fickes was the Assistant Director of the County’s Economic Development Division and developed the County’s Economic Development Strategic Plan. Prior to coming to Harris County, Mr. Fickes was employed by the City of Houston in the Community and Economic Development Department where he was responsible for housing and economic development programs. Prior to entering public service Mr. Fickes was in the banking and real estate business for twenty-five years which included three years with Fannie Mae as the Regional Underwriter for the Southwest Regional Office in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Fickes is a member and Past President of the Rotary Club, Houston Heights and has been honored by the Heights Club four times as a Paul Harris Fellow. Mr. Fickes has a B.S. Degree in Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, is married, and has two adult children. He enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, sporting clays, and canoeing.
Barbara Koslov
Transportation Planner and Public Information/Stakeholder Engagement Specialist