Houston city council notes, prepared by Emily J Hynds.
Agenda
- Quarterly Report from HPD
- Mayor’s Report
- Consent Agenda (items that require a vote, like purchases, resolutions, ordinances, etc)
- Council Member Pop-Off
Quarterly Report from HPD
Chief Finner began by thanking the Mayor and Council Members for being “tough and smart on crime.”
- It is National Police Week and there is a memorial service on Friday evening for fallen officers.
- Finner remarked that large events in the first quarter of the year, like the Rodeo and the Final Four, were “exceptional.” (regarding crime, I assume). He said that police academy classes are full. He thanked the council for approving a $10K signing bonus for new recruits.
- Overall crime in the city is down, with sexual assault and auto theft the only two categories that are consistently up.
Assistant Chief Martin took over next.
- Martin praised investments in technology, like License Plate Reader Cameras (LPRs) and ShotSpotter.
- He presented slides on crime stats in each District and cautioned against paying attention only to percentages, rather than raw numbers. For instance, in District A there were 7 kidnappings in 2023 versus 6 in 2022, a +17% difference.
- When HPD analyzed crime, especially sexual assault, they didn’t see any pattern and don’t think a serial rapist is to blame. Instead, Martin and Finner both mentioned safety concerns with internet and app dating and talked about an educational campaign they plan to roll out to help people stay safe.
- Regarding the increase in auto theft, Martin said that the success in lowering catalytic converter theft may actually have incentivized people to just steal the whole car. And there is new technology making it easier to steal cars as well, like key copiers.
Chief Finner concluded the presentation by saying “we don’t fudge the numbers, the truth speaks.” He asked everyone to pray for victims, HPD, and all support services (like 911 call takers), because of the ongoing trauma they face daily.
Many Council Members expressed support for HPD and had questions and comments:
- CM Kamin asked to see data compared to 2021 numbers, because those numbers were really high and will highlight how much we have improved.
- She thanked HPD for partnering on safe gun storage campaigns like “lock it up safe.” She asked how many guns were stolen out of cars, Chief Martin didn’t have the exact number but he said it was down.
- Kamin asked why auto-theft crimes were higher? Chief Martin spoke to some technology making it easier to steal cars. He said that large events like the Rodeo and Final Four are generally auto-theft crime targets. Finner and Martin both repeatedly said that auto-theft crimes are largely preventable: don’t leave things in your car and park off the street when you can.
- Kamin noted that sexual assault is up across the board and advocated for a city-wide approach. She asked for a presentation at a Public Safety Committee meeting when HPD is ready to roll out their education campaign.
- Mayor Turner asked that everyone not overhype the bad news and focus on some good news too, which, sure, but in the middle of a conversation on rape is a strange time to bring that up. He later said that when people focus on the bad news only, it doesn’t give the proper respect to HPD and the community that has been working to reduce crime.
- CM Thomas asked the Chiefs to speak on tech like LPRs and ShotSpotter. Chief Finner praised it as an excellent crime deterrent and said they need more. He encouraged businesses and individuals to put cameras up too because the city can’t fund it alone.
- CM Gallegos pointed out that Houston’s police force is small compared to other cities. He pushed back on the idea that Houston is defunding the police, which is truly a laughable concept. The police budget is so big.
- CM Cisneros lamented that District H is lagging compared to the rest of the city in crime improvements and begged for help to make it better.
- CM Castex-Tatum encouraged people to attend Positive Interaction with Police (PIP) meetings, which she described as “intimate engagement in individual communities.”
- CM Plummer advocated for help getting apartment complexes blue-star rated to reduce crime.
- In conclusion, Mayor Turner expressed frustration when people complain about crime but don’t offer solutions. He solicited ideas from the general public … tweet at him I guess?
The Mayor’s Report
- The General Services Division made a snazzy presentation on the Alief Neighborhood Center, which houses the library, a health center, and parks. Three in one! They also won an award from the Houston Business Journal. A feel-good moment. Mayor Turner said the investment that went into the Alief Neighborhood Center should be the standard going forward.
- The Offshore Technology Conference is this week.
- Friday is Cinco de Mayo, there’s a parade on Saturday downtown hosted by LULAC. The same LULAC that was (is?) suing the city over redistricting. Parades really can heal wounds.
Agenda Items, Selected Works
- Item 1 approved 7 people to the Independent Police Oversight Board.
- Many items were tagged today, more than usual. Council Members tag items when they are waiting for more information, to give time for community engagement, and sometimes to symbolically delay a vote.
- Pollard and Kubosh – Item 9
- Kubosh – Items 11, 14, 26, 27, 30-32
- Jackson – 19
- Item 13 approved a final payment of $172K for “emergency sludge processing.” That’s it, just ~ s l u d g e ~ .
- Item 18 approved the budget schedule for the upcoming budget season.
- Mayor Turner will present the FY2024 Proposed Budget Summary to City Council on May 16.
- Council budget workshops with the departments will be held between May 17 through May 25.
- Amendments due: May 17 through May 31, 2023.
- Budget vote: June 7.
- Item 23 approved the submission of a $50M grant application to the federal government for Winter Storm Uri (2021) recovery.
- Item 22 approved an agreement between the Houston Airports System and TSU to build an aviation education facility at Ellington Field.
- Item 23 approved $5.4M for restroom renovations at Hobby Airport. That’s how we keep that 5-Star status, baybeeee.
- I really didn’t want to write about Item 33 at all, but then I remembered that Council Member Kubosh is running for City Controller, and I reconsidered. Kubosh tagged this item last week, for unclear reasons. This week, his reasons did not seem any more clear.
- Item 33 approved $876K for a company to inspect recently completed waterline repairs. Kubosh thinks this is wasted money because “we will know it’s not fixed [because] it’ll leak.”
- Literally everyone disagreed with him, even his pal CM Knox. Mayor Turner explained it would be a conflict of interest for the company that did the repairs to inspect it post-repair. Kubosh said it would be like spending money to repair your roof, and then spending more money to have someone come inspect the roof to make sure it was repaired correctly. Yes, CM Kubosh, that is exactly what it is like.
- Anyways – this item passed.
- I skipped pop-off this week to rest my brain. So that’s it!
Who took these notes? And what resources did they use?
My name is Emily Hynds and I am a writer, 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.
While compiling these notes I used the following sources:
https://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/
https://www.houstontx.gov/parks/aliefneighborhoodcenter.html
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/events/2023/04/05/448407/lulacs-cinco-de-mayo-parade-returning-to-downtown-houston-after-three-year-hiatus/
You can find your City Council Member and their contact info at: http://www.houstontx.gov/council/whoismycm.html
Thank you to Houston In Action and ACLU TX for supporting these notes.
My Patreon is patreon.com/emilytakesnotes.
