Retiring Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius participated in his last County Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday and the commissioners not only named his successor, they renamed the County Administration Building in his honor.
Maenius will retire at the end of the month, ending his 35-year tenure as the first and only person to serve in that role. Besides being Tarrant County’s only administrator, Maenius is the longest serving county administrator in Texas.
With Maenius wrapping up his long and distinguished career, commissioners voted to appoint Assistant County Administrator Chandler Merritt as county administrator. Merritt, 41, will begin his new job Oct. 1.
As assistant county administrator, Merritt worked directly for Maenius and has overseen about 400 employees and a $300 million budget. A Tarrant County native, Merritt has worked for the county for seven year, serving as chief of staff to the county judge before becoming assistant county administrator.
Before joining Tarrant County, Merritt was director of strategic services for the city of McKinney and business operations manager for the city of Irving. He also has private sector experience with the Hicks Sports Group, serving as assistant vice president of business operations for the Cedar Park Center and in various positions with the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.
“I’m excited to see Chandler Merritt take the helm as county administrator,” County Judge Tim O’Hare said in a statement. ”I know that he has learned from an amazing mentor, but he also has ideas of his own about process improvement and efficiency. He is the right person for the job, and we are expecting great things from Mr. Merritt.”
As a tribute to Maenius’ widely praised role as a key figure in shaping the county’s growth and progress over more than three decades, commissioners unanimously passed a resolution changing the name of the County Administration Building to the G.K. Maenius Administration Building.
Built in 1980, the building houses various county departments as well as the commissioners courtroom, where commissioners meetings are held on the first, third and fifth Tuesdays of the month.
Maenius has worked with four county judges – Roy English, Tom Vandergriff, Glen Whitley, and Tim O’Hare – and successfully served a county government that now has more than 4,600 employees and an operating budget of nearly $896 million. During his tenure, the county’s population nearly doubled from 1.1 million in 1988 to almost 2.2 million in 2023.
“We believe naming the County Administration building after G.K. Maenius not only recognizes his remarkable career,” O’Hare said, “but stands as a testament to the legacy he leaves behind.”
That legacy, O’Hare said, “will continue to have a lasting impact on Tarrant County for many years to come.”