Kent made the announcement near the end of her fiscal year 2027 budget presentation to the City Council’s Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, saying it marked her 10th and final budget presentation as the department’s director and the city’s CIO.“I’m going to be retiring at the end of June after 30 years of service to the city of Houston as a civil servant,” Kent said. She later said her last day will be June 19.
Kent has served as Houston’s CIO since 2016. Before that, she spent more than 20 years with the Houston Airport System as chief technology officer.
Kent told councilmembers the department has been focused on identifying ways to use technology more efficiently while modernizing existing systems and lowering costs where possible. The department highlighted savings tied to cellular services, legacy phone lines, Microsoft licensing, electronic signature tools, SAP licenses and Microsoft Dynamics.
Kent noted that her last day, June 19, coincides with the anniversary of the City Council vote that created Houston’s central IT department. The department was originally called the Information Technology Department before later becoming Houston Information Technology Services.
