Houston city council notes, prepared by Emily J Hynds.

Agenda

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

Mayor’s Report

• Mayor Turner offered support to communities affected by Tuesday’s severe weather, especially Deer Park and Pasadena. HPD Chief Finner is coordinating efforts to make sure displaced people’s homes are protected while they are away. He said this was a good reminder of the need to remain “weather alert” and make sure we all have ways to access emergency weather information.
• The Sunnyside Health and Multi-Service Center has a grand opening this Saturday from 11am-2pm.
• There is a Hire Houston Youth press conference directly after the council meeting today. The goal is to hire 20K young people aged 16-24 into paid internships this summer.
• Glow in the Glades, a fundraiser for the Memorial Park Conservancy, is this Friday 1/27.
• Mayor Turner wished all a Happy Lunar New Year.
• Mayor Turner congratulated Michael Strahan, a Westbury High and TSU graduate, on his Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
• Abc13 published an article about a tire shop owner caught illegally dumping 100 tires. Mayor Turner hopes the court system will give him the maximum fine possible.
  • CM Castex-Tatum has been working with Harris County Constable Rosen on cameras at illegal dumpsites, which helped catch this dumper. She pointed out that many people illegally dumping are not individuals, but businesses, who in this case are able to pocket the tire disposal fee they charge. She also lamented that most people dump in their own neighborhood, this person was dumping a half mile from his shop.
  • CM Cisneros asked people who contact her on social media with “please help” messages to contact her office directly so they can coordinate trash removal and cameras at illegal dumpsites. She made sure to point out that all cameras at dumpsites in District H are paid for by *her* office and that they use “data” to decide where to put them.
  • CM Martin had strong words for illegal dumpers and complained that it’s often cheaper for them to pay the penalty than to properly dispose of waste. He joined Mayor Turner in hoping the judge gives this person, whom he repeatedly called by name in order to shame, the maximum fine possible.
  • CM Evans-Shabazz advocated for more cameras at dumpsites.
  • No one asked any questions about the process for disposing of tires, or waste in general, and every person that spoke advocated for maximum penalization and the need for higher fines.

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Item 5 approved an $80K membership to the Greater Houston Partnership.
• Item 19 approved $5.3M and $1.3M for the redevelopment of Covenant House’s Building for Life campus in Montrose, which provides housing and programs for homeless youth. CMs Kamin and Gallegos spoke in support, especially for the work Covenant House does with LGBTQ+ youth.
• Item 25 approved a $20K grant application from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for Macgregor Park in Third Ward.
• Item 30 would have approved $396K for an interlocal street rehab project with Harris County. You might remember this from last November when CM Evans-Shabazz tagged it, and then referred it back to the administration. She opposes the narrowing of Blodgett to make way for protected bike lanes, and is using this small piece of the funding pie to hold things up. I attended a town hall she organized back in December on this, so HMU if you wanna know more about that. Today she tagged this item again and was joined by CMs Pollard, Thomas, and Jackson. Mayor Turner was a lil annoyed and said he hopes this is a symbolic tag. It’s on hold. Again.
• Item 31 approved $525K for ditch maintenance across the city. CM Jackson spoke in support and said the item includes some of her district service funds.
• Item 33 approved updates to parts of the city’s development code, explained below:
  • Residential buffering standards – safe distance between single family homes and multi-residence places like townhomes and apartment complexes.
  • Garage screening and lighting standards– keep car lights and garage lighting from shining into residences.
  • Wall or pole mounted light fixtures standards– keep tall lights from shining into residential properties.
  • Dumpster screening standards – hide them.

Agenda Item 16 – A Sidewalk Ordinance

Item 16 approved a sidewalk ordinance that will (hopefully) promote the sensible construction of new sidewalks. Previously, new construction developers were required to build sidewalks, whether or not the street currently has sidewalks, often resulting in “sidewalks to nowhere.” My street has several!

• The new ordinance will instead allow developers to pay a fee of $12 per square foot and forego the new sidewalk construction, if it is deemed that a sidewalk is not suitable or feasible.
• The fee will go into a Sidewalk Fund expected to generate $1.7M annually. The fund will use a 70/30 split: 70% of the fee will be used to build new sidewalks in the area it was collected and 30% will go to build sidewalks in other areas of need.

Most CMs generally supported this ordinance, but several expressed concern that the new Sidewalk Fund cannot be used to repair existing sidewalks, only to build new ones.

• CM Pollard had objections to the fee that seemed unclear to me, and then Mayor Turner told him “don’t be the lawyer today, be the city council member,” which made me feel better. Legalese! It’s almost always confusing.
• When CM Gallegos expressed concern about the inability to repair sidewalks with this money, Mayor Turner suggested he would support a budget amendment that would pull from the general fund to pay for sidewalk repair. Gallegos made sure to hear Mayor Turner say he would support such an amendment, and then agreed, so hopefully we’ll circle back to this when it’s budget time in a few months.
• CM Knox supports this ordinance but tagged it because he really wanted to be able to use this fund to repair sidewalks, not just for new builds. There was a very audible sigh of frustration when he announced his tag, which made me lol. I can’t tell who it was for sure because the camera wasn’t on them, but *someone* was very aNnOyEd.
• CM Kamin made a joke about agreeing with CM Knox for once (ha!) but still supports this ordinance cuz you gotta start somewhere.
• CM Martin pointedly pointed out that he worked out his issues with this ordinance before today’s vote. Nice.
• CM Plummer defended this ordinance and said the 70/30 split will help build a more equitable sidewalk network.
• CM Alcorn has been sounding the sidewalk horn forever! She defended this ordinance and all of the people and departments who worked hard to produce it. She said that every stakeholder involved with the process is happy with the ordinance as is and wants to move forward. She reiterated that this ordinance is only the first step on the way to a better sidewalk network and repeated her call for a bond to pay for sidewalks. I would vote for it! How about you?
• CM Robinson said this ordinance is about public access and even about democracy, because it begins to address the access people have to both public and private property. He said of course there is always room to tweak, but reiterated that is only a step in the process, and said “I’m ready to vote.”
• CM Knox agreed to remove his tag, but was very disappointed because everyone only wanted to fund sidewalks half-ass instead of using this opportunity to fund sidewalk repair as well. I’m paraphrasing, but I feel confident this was his vibe so I’m going with it.
• This ordinance passed unanimously.

Council Member Pop-Off

• CM Cisneros is funding speed cushions in District H and asked residents to let her office know where they are needed.
• CM Castex-Tatum plugged a document shredding event on Saturday from 9am-11am at Ridgemont Community Improvement.
• CM Jackson plugged a funday at Highland Park on Saturday from 10-4.
• CM Kamin plugged the Public Safety and Homeland Security committee meeting on Thursday at 2pm, which will include the annual review of policing and community safety practices like the police transparency dashboard, cite and release, and more. She condemned recent anti-Semitic attacks and thanked HPD for their swift response.
• CM Evans-Shabazz looks forward to several ribbon cuttings this weekend at the Sunnyside Multi-Service Center and Park.

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.houstonhealth.org/services/multi-service-centers/sunnyside-multi-service-center
https://www.memorialparkconservancy.org/support/benefit-events/glowintheglades/
https://abc13.com/jamil-sean-smith-repeat-tire-dumper-illegal-dumping-houston-constable-alan-rosen/12728684/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/houston-sidewalk-construction-fee-developers-17735966.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.