That question led us to a stack of about 400 applications, including resumes coming from county employees and as far away as Milan, Italy.
What we found left us with questions we still don't have answers to.
The Harris County Administrator is the seventh-highest-paid position in Harris County, with an annual salary of $411,000.
The role has been described by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on several occasions as being the "Chief Operating Officer" of the county.
A total of 401 people applied for the job when it was posted last August.
"That would be normal, especially if you're doing a nationwide search, recruitment effort," said Dr. James Thurmond, a former city manager and current professor of Public Administration at the University of Houston.
The applicants included chief executive officers, chief operating officers, as well as people who work in law enforcement, medicine and the federal government.
We also counted at least 30 current City of Houston and Harris County employees who applied for the job, as well as applicants who hold similar roles in major jurisdictions across the county.
The County Administrator role was awarded to Erica Lee Carter, daughter of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
"No one understands Harris County more than you do," Precinct 3 Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said during the commissioner's meeting where Carter was appointed on February 12, 2026.
Carter assumed her mother's seat in Congress for about three months after she died in 2024.
Before and after her time in Congress, Carter worked for Commissioner Rodney Ellis doing policy.
"It would be nice if you have somebody that's working for your organization you could just move up, but at the same time, don't forget that it's good they bring in fresh new blood, a new way of looking at the organization and everything," Thurmond said.
13 Investigates wanted to know who all applied for the position, so we requested all of the applications from the county.
To get digital copies, the County Attorney's Office quoted us about $500, but told us if we looked at the job applications in person, it would cost $120 so we decided to go that route.
We sat for four hours in the Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Administration Building, taking photos of the applications on a computer screen to find out who else applied for the job.
We learned that out of those 400 candidates, the pool was narrowed down to 10 people, who largely worked in roles similar to the county administrator role they applied for.
The 10 candidates were interviewed by a representative from each of the commissioners' offices and the county judge's office and they were subsequently ranked based on their scores.
13 Investigates got a copy of the rankings that shows Carter was ranked fourth overall after the first round.
The top five candidates advanced and moved on to another round of interviews and were scored again.
Score sheets for the second round show Carter only ranked as the top pick for Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Ramsey's offices, narrowly edging out the next candidate.
Carter came out of the second round as the second candidate overall.
An out-of-state candidate held on to the top spot in rounds one and two, according to the score sheets.
From there, the top three candidates were presented to the commissioners themselves and they unanimously selected Carter.
Carter's team declined our request for an interview and said, "multiple factors may be considered beyond numerical scoring."
Her office referred us to commissioners for comment on their decision.
13 Investigates did ask each commissioner's office and the judge's office what pushed Carter to the front and why the lead scorer in the first two rounds wasn't offered the job.
We also asked them if the late congresswoman, or Carter's connection to Ellis, played any role in her getting the job.
None of them answered any of those questions.
We did hear from Precinct 4 Commissioner Leslie Briones, who sent us a statement praising Carter's "strong leadership experience and readiness to immediately deliver for residents."
Ellis referred to the process in a statement as being "thorough and competitive" and said Carter earned the position through her experience, judgment and history of public service.
Despite saying she was the best candidate for the job, Ramsey has questioned the purpose of the office, telling 13 Investigates that the role is a "highly paid bureaucrat" that steers voter accountability away from elected officials.
Ramsey has raised the idea of dismantling the office to commissioners' court, but that would require majority support.
The office, which was created in 2021, employs about 70 people and costs taxpayers more than $8 million annually in salaries alone, according to 2025 Harris County employee data.
We know Ramsey has one other commissioner on his side.
Last year, Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia proposed getting rid of the office altogether. His office pointed us to those comments.
"The commissioners are closer to the constituents and understand their needs better than any county administrator," Garcia said during a commissioner's meeting on May 8, 2025.
Hidalgo's team did not provide a response to our questions about Carter's appointment.