Houston city council notes, prepared by Emily Hynds.
Agenda
- Mayor’s Report
- Consent Agenda (items that require a vote, like purchases, resolutions, ordinances, etc)
- Council Member Pop-Off
Mayor’s Report
- Mayor Turner congratulated NASA and the Johnson Space Center on their successful Artemis launch, their third attempt!
- Turner plugged the Thanksgiving Day parade with Grand Marshall Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Dr. Peter Hotez will also be present because he was supposed to be the Grand Marshall last year and the parade was rained out.
- The Mayor plugged a few holiday light spectaculars, like the Houston Zoo lights and the downtown City Lights.
Agenda Items, Selected Works
- Item 1 was a public hearing for a tax abatement for Brittmoore Founders District in District A. Britmoore is building an “innovation business and workplace complex designed by entrepreneurs for fostering and growing startups and small businesses,” and the city is giving them a tax break to do so. The development includes affordable housing and a community center.
- Item 7 approved $5.1M for new fire trucks.
- Item 8 approved $471K to contract out work for the legal department. From the support documents: “The hiring and retention of the Legal Department’s lawyers and paralegals has benefited from salary adjustments provided by the Mayor. Nonetheless, the Legal Department continues to face difficulties in hiring and retaining staff in certain crucial, critical areas … Vacancies exist for months resulting in backlogs.”
- Item 9 approved $129K for tech supplies for the library.
- Item 12 approved $2.8M to hasten the development of the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airfield. The city has already spent $3.95M.
- Item 17 approved a $2.1M contract for tuberculosis prevention programs.
- Item 18 approved a $450K settlement to Jose Gomez, who alleged that in 2018 HPD officers Simmerman, Kloeppel, and Heaven used “excessive force during a traffic stop, physically injuring him, and violating his civil rights. Gomez further alleged the City had a practice of allowing excessive force.”
- Item 21 approved a $2.3M contract with Rice University for wastewater testing services for COVID-19, the flu, and Monkeypox.
Item 24, Contaminated Groundwater in District B
- Item 24 approved a Municipal Setting Designation (MSD) for a property in District B prohibiting the use of groundwater due to past contamination. I believe that this designation allows development to move forward, as there is clean water provided to the property via the city.
- Anticipating some pushback, Mayor Turner listed all of the districts where MSDs have been approved; that is to say, all of them. He said that if council does not approve the MSD, the property owner can appeal to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which means the city will have less control. When asked to elaborate, Turner said if council approves the MSD themselves, they will have more oversight to continue testing.
- CM Jackson did not support this item because of community concerns over contamination and lack of oversight. The Kashmere Gardens and Fifth Ward cancer cluster is still under investigation.
- Turner agreed to update the MSD ordinance to allow for more testing at sites, and to monitor whether contamination is truly “capped” or more action needs to be taken. Jackson appreciated this concession and said it will help ease concerns.
- Item 24 passed. CMs Plummer, Pollard, Thomas, Jackson, and Evans-Shabazz voted no.
- Item 25 approved a similar MSD in District B, with the same CMs voting against it.
Item 28, Bike Lanes in Third Ward
- Item 28 would have approved an interlocal agreement between the city and Harris County for a joint transportation project in Third Ward (District D), but it was tagged by CMs Evans-Shabazz and Pollard. The county will cover most of the $12.4M cost, with the city paying only $396K. This project focuses on “corridor safety and traffic calming, improved METRO stops and service for riders, improved pedestrian circulation, and streetscape beautification around the University area.”
- Specifics:
- Blodgett Street – convert a 4-lane divided boulevard to 2 inside travel lanes and 2 outside bike lanes with sidewalks on each side and pedestrian lights.
- Tierwester Street – convert a 4-lane undivided boulevard to 2 inside travel lanes and 2 outside bike lanes with sidewalks on each side and pedestrian lights.
- Rosewood Street – reconstruct asphalt pavement with sidewalks and pedestrian lights
- Sampson Street – mill and overlay existing asphalt road with sidewalks on the west side
- Attucks Street – replace the existing sidewalk with a 6’ wide sidewalk
- Here are some quotes from District D CM Evans-Shabazz, who took issue with the reduction of roads to make way for bike lanes:
- “It’s not like the MS-150 is coming through here.”
- “To close to two lanes would be a logistical nightmare for that community.”
- “I would like to see this not move forward.”
- “I don’t believe there will be a lot of community people who will come forward to say they want you to narrow those streets and create a vehicular nightmare.”
- “We can’t have a vehicular nightmare just to have bike lanes all over the district.”
- Evans-Shabazz cited events at Texas Southern University, like football games, when lots of cars enter the area and will have even less throughway once this project is complete.
- Mayor Turner suggested Evans-Shabazz take this issue up with Harris County Commissioner Ellis. He pointed out that almost all of the money for road improvements in the area has come from Ellis and Precinct 1.
- I’m not going to go over all of the Council Member pop-offs like I usually do so I’ll include this here – during the pop-off section, CM Evans-Shabazz wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and then said, “I’ll probably spend some of mine on a bike running down Rodney Ellis to try to make sure that he backs down on these bike lanes.”
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://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/environment/article/Cancer-causing-dioxin-found-in-42-soil-samples-17462503.php
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.
