Prepared by Emily Hynds.

Agenda

1. Public Comment
2. Mayor’s Report
3. Consent Agenda (items that require a vote, like purchases, resolutions, ordinances, etc)
4. Council Member Pop-Off

Public Comment

• A representative from Spark Parks plugged Spark Week (November 14-18). 2023 will be the 40th anniversary of the Spark Park program, big things are planned!
• Three people advocated for Freedman’s Town to remain in District C, rather than move to District H as proposed.
• Five people advocated for District I to keep precincts 69 and 530, as well as to absorb 527, 181, and 221. This would keep the Magnolia Park and Smith’s Crossing neighborhoods intact, and keep Super Neighborhood (SN) 65 + 82 in one district. District I is a Hispanic opportunity district because it has a majority Hispanic population. These speakers argued that gentrification is forcing the historic community out, weakening their voting power.
  • Districts H reported a population loss in the last census, which is causing some of the shuffle in this redistricting process. CM Gallegos said the census numbers are not accurate because many Hispanic people were frightened to fill out the census.
  • When one speaker asked why their community, who are directly affected by changes made in the proposed plan, were not involved in the process, Gallegos said, “I appreciate you asking that question. I am the Council Member. I’m the only Latino sitting around this horseshoe. And I was not even informed about what was happening.”
  • Several speakers noted the challenges they face, like pollution from nearby petrochemical plants, and said the redistricting proposal will weaken their ability to advocate for themselves. The above mentioned suggestion will improve community cohesion because they already share resources.
  • Gallegos was critical of the redistricting process, accusing the Planning Department of attempting to divide the Hispanic vote. He cited these neighborhoods unique threats from the Port of Houston, railroads, and petrochemical plants. He said, “We don’t need two Council Members to fight the fight, we need a unified neighborhood. A Council Member that’s going to fight.” The audience applauded this, who were then reminded that clapping is not allowed. Gallegos really seemed frustrated with other CMs today, but especially butted heads with Cisneros and Kamin.
• Seven people from the Southwest Crossing neighborhood in District K complained about a Centerpoint propane facility in their neighborhood. The facility is not yet in operation. They complain it is built dangerously close to a residential area and will harm their community if an accident occurs. They called the facility an “environmental injustice” and want the city’s help advocating with the state.
  • Mayor Turner and District K CM Castex-Tatum both blamed lax zoning laws and said the facility, and all Centerpoint business, is out of the city’s control. They offered support to community members advocating at the state level.
• A representative from Texas Humane Legislation Network spoke in support of the Humane Pet Store Ordinance, which was under attack last week from employees of Petland. She said, “this is a solid ordinance,” well vetted by advocates, industry professionals, and adopted by many other Texas cities. She argued this ordinance is a necessary step in the struggle to reduce animal overpopulation. CM Alcorn supported it as well.

The Mayor’s Report

• October is National Code Compliance Month. Many of the city’s code enforcement officers from the fire department, the permitting department, and public works received recognition from the Mayor and their department heads. There was one code officer there who has been working for the city for thirty six years! This was a nice moment.
• Mayor Turner praised the gun buyback event on Saturday 10/8. They collected over 1200 guns, including automatic weapons, and paid out $200K. Turner said there were long lines all day and thanked District F’s CM Thomas and Commissioner Ellis for their support. Gun buyback #3 is forthcoming! Details TBD.
• Turner mentioned a commercial attacking Democratic Harris County judges, claiming Houston has more murders than Chicago. Turner cautioned that this is not a partisan issue, but the commercial is “peddling outright lies.” He called for its immediate removal and warned against believing information in political ads.

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Item 2 approved $204K for kennel cleaning at BARC “due to staffing shortages.”
• Item 12 approved spending $93K on “two portable back-packable x-ray systems that will be used to acquire images for bomb diagnostics” for HPD to use during bomb squad operations. I hope they look like ghostbusters backpacks. *EDIT* I looked them up and they do not 🙁
• Item 13 approved the Nature Preserve Ordinance, which will “preserve Houston’s most significant natural habitats in 26 parks throughout the city.” The ordinance will regulate public use of these city-owned natural areas to protect native wildlife, ecosystems, and reap benefits like carbon storage, reduced urban heat islands, and improved air quality.
  • “The preserve will not contain traditional or customary facilities or improvements associated with a public park but may contain improvements to support passive recreational activities. Most of the parks have both a nature preserve area and an existing developed area that contains active recreation amenities. Additional proposed amenities include trails, benches, signage, trash cans, and bird-friendly lighting.”
  • “Nature Preserve designations will be targeted for park land throughout the city to ensure equitable access to the benefits of nature for all Houstonians.”
• Item 15 denied increased rate changes by Entergy, which serves ~1800 customers in Kingwood. In July, Entergy announced their intention to raise rates. The Steering Committee of Cities Coalition, a group of cities with Entergy customers (including Houston) hired consultants to review Entergy’s request and “determined that Entergy’s request is substantially overstated.” DENIED. *laughs in justice* We love to see it.
• Item 16 approved spending $2.5M for the upcoming bond election.
• Item 31 approved $370K for the Spark Park program. “SPARK is a non-profit organization that funds public park and recreational improvements at public schools for public use during non-school hours.” Love a Spark Park.
• Item 36 approved $525K for Bikeway Design Projects: “the design of new bikeways within the City of Houston that consist of secured bike lanes with barriers where required, pavement markers and signage identifying designated and shared bike lanes.”

Redistricting

• Item 43 approved the new city council district map, after much discussion and several amendments. State and local law dictates how city council districts are divided according to population, which means that every ten years when the census is done, the map must be adjusted. There is a long list of criteria, but what was most discussed today was: there cannot be more than a 10% difference between the most populated and least populated district. I will call this variance.
• CM Gallegos proposed an amendment to bring precincts 65 and 530 to District I, which keeps the Magnolia Park and Smith Edition neighborhoods intact, and to move precinct 890 from District I to H, which bolsters needed population in District H. Gallegos would have preferred to move a different, more Hispanic, district to H in order to shore up the Hispanic vote there, but alleged that CM Cisneros would not cooperate.
  • Mayor Turner supported this amendment.
  • CM Cisneros expressed support for this amendment and said Gallegos’s allegations towards her were unfounded.
  • Planning Director Margaret Wallace Brown said that the proposed map has a variance of 9.49%, so there is not much wiggle room for changes.
  • After more sparring between Gallegos and Cisneros, this amendment passed.
• CM Kamin proposed an amendment to keep Freedman’s Town in District C, rather than moving it to District H as proposed. In exchange for Freedman’s Town, she suggested moving portions of precincts 324 and 927 to H, which would awkwardly split up the Garden Oaks and Candlelight Plaza neighborhoods. She conceded that this amendment was not an easy ask and said she didn’t want to give up anything to other districts, but that “we have an obligation to listen to constituents.”
  • Demographer Jerry Wood said the proposed exchange would be a wash for Hispanic representation in both districts and maintains the correct variance. But, he argued, it splits two neighborhoods along awkward lines, which is not ideal. Mr. Wood also said the two neighborhoods Kamin proposed moving to H are rapidly gentrifying (similar to Gallegos’s complaint with moving precinct 890 to H), which means the Hispanic vote in H will weaken as time progresses.
  • Director Wallace-Brown said this amendment would change the variance to 9.93%.
  • CM Cisneros strongly opposed this amendment. She cited many emails received from Garden Oaks and Candlelight Plaza people. They were unaware of the proposed change until the day before the vote and pleaded for their neighborhoods not to be split up. She said the needs of Freedman’s Town should not come at the expense of other communities and likened this proposal to gerrymandering.
  • Kamin asked City Attorney Michel if it was appropriate for the city to base redistricting decisions on projections of what we think *might* happen in the future. Michel gave an unintelligible answer so full of legalese it bordered on nonsense.
  • Kamin shifted blame for the lack of communication with affected neighborhoods by explaining she submitted this amendment weeks ago but didn’t receive any response from the city. She pointed out other precincts and neighborhoods split in a similar manner.
  • There was some spicy back and forth between Kamin and Cisneros, after which the Mayor encouraged everyone to chill and direct their comments to him, rather than to each other.
  • CM Alcorn asked if we could delay the vote to hear from the affected neighborhoods, and Kamin said she was able to tag, but Mayor Turner was like PLEASE don’t do that, which made me LOL. We’re all ready to move on. Except for maybe the Garden Oaks and Candlelight Plaza people.
  • After a fifteen minute break to crunch some numbers, Kamin suggested an amendment to her amendment. She suggested moving precinct 30 (Freedman’s Town) from H to C as originally requested, but then moving all of 73 and 324 from C to H, and leaving 927 alone. This would still split some of Garden Oaks, but other neighborhoods would remain whole.
  • Mr. Wood said the amendment “numerically appears to make H more of a Hispanic opportunity district. I think effectively, it is less.” (because of the assumption that ongoing gentrification will price out the traditional Hispanic community).
  • Mayor Turner did not support the amendment to the amendment, or the original amendment, for that matter.
  • CM Cisneros would not support this adjusted amendment because Garden Oaks would still be split.
  • There was some discussion about whether or not we should use “trend projections” to make decisions. CM Castex-Tatum said we shouldn’t use assumptions. Demographer Wood said these are not assumptions, a “trend line” is a real thing based on data.
  • CM Thomas pointed out there is no African-American super majority in any district.
  • Gallegos was sooo frustrated. He reminded everyone of the many Hispanic people who cannot vote because they are underage or are not citizens, and that is why we must work so much harder to protect the Hispanic vote. He begged fellow CMs not to vote for this amendment, because it will dilute the Hispanic vote in District H in the future.
  • Voting time!! The amendment to the amendment passed. People who voted no: Turner, Martin, Cisneros, Gallegos, Knox, Robinson. People who voted yes: Peck, Jackson, Kamin, Evans-Shabazz, Thomas, Huffman, Pollard, Castex-Tatum, Kubosh, Plummer, Alcorn.
  • The amendment (as amended) also passed along the same voting lines. Regardless of how you feel about this amendment, or the new city council map, it is always exciting when an amendment to anything passes because it means that something Mayor Turner didn’t put forward himself, or agree with, will now be policy. In Houston’s strong mayor system, this very seldom happens and it feels good when it does.

Who took these notes? And what resources did they use?

My name is Emily Hynds and I am a small business owner, producer of the monthly storytelling series Grown-up Storytime, and lifelong Houstonian. I am not a journalist or government official. I am a local government enthusiast who believes meaningful change starts at home. These notes are presented from my point of view and with my framing, and are not comprehensive. Your notes will certainly be different, and I would love to read them if you attend.

I watched this City Council meeting via HTV: https://www.houstontx.gov/htv/

While compiling these notes I used the following sources:

https://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/
https://sparkpark.org/wordpress/

You can find your City Council Member and their contact info at: http://www.houstontx.gov/council/whoismycm.html

My Patreon is patreon.com/emilytakesnotes.