Houston City Council notes, prepared by Emily J Hynds.

Agenda

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

Six Public Hearings

The first four public hearings were on potential annexations of property by the City. The last two were for one property to be annexed into a Harris County Multiple Utility District (MUD). Nothing much to report here.

Public Comment

Normally the public comment portion of the meeting is on Tuesday, but both portions were on Wednesday this week, maybe because of Election Day. I counted 17 public speakers, here are a few highlights:

• Three people remarked on the importance of the Latino Learning Center, which was up for some funding on today’s agenda.
• One person requested a Spanish translator which turned into a whole debacle. The translator struggled to keep up and ended up asking council members to help him. The commenter is a person experiencing homelessness and their testimony spurred a conversation on the efficacy of City programs. Hopefully they get the help they need! And I also hope the City diverts more resources to in-house translation services, no disrespect to the translator intended.
• Two people from the Houston Clean City Commission presented parts of their report on scrap tires. My first question was whyyyy are they using public comment to present this report to Council, they should def have other avenues. And I do still hope they get that. But as they continued, and as Council engaged with them, it turned out to be a good way to present. The Commission recommends six steps to reduce scrap tire waste:
  • make it more known which tire shops are licensed
  • enforce illegal dumping
  • align state and city paperwork
  • more disposal options for small non residential scrap tire generators, like letting them bring a capped number of tires to city repositories
  • proper sorting at waste facilities
  • scrap tire options for non-profits and other orgs helping with clean ups
• Two people who own an apartment complex in District B complained the City dug a drainage ditch improperly which is now impacting the sidewalk, causing safety concerns. They want the City to fix it, and the admin seemed amenable.
• One person advocated for in-depth lung cancer screening and presented the Council with options on how they can support that effort.

Mayor’s Report

• Mayor Turner congratulated incumbents who won their races and wished luck to those still unannounced or heading to a runoff. The runoff election is Saturday, December 9.
• The Financial Times named Houston the best US city for international business.
• The next gun buyback event is Saturday, November 18 at the Westchase Park and Ride.
• Houston’s Veterans Day celebration is Saturday, November 11 at 10am at City Hall, followed by a parade at 11:30am. Mayor Turner implored (guilt tripped) people to show up to and to help spread the word. Apparently when it falls on a Saturday, turnout is historically low.
• Turner had some choice words in response to Controller Brown’s comments regarding Houston’s “structurally unbalanced budget” at last week’s meeting.
  • Turner said Controller Brown’s projections have been wrong for the past 8 years and his “sky is falling” rhetoric is getting old. “It almost seems as though he wished the sky was falling.”
  • “The credit rating agencies, which I value more than the comptroller himself, said that we had three areas that created structural financial hurdles:” unfunded pension liability, other post-employee benefits (OPEB) and the revenue cap. Houston has tackled pension and OPEB reform already. Turner complained about the $1.7B the City has missed out on over the last 8 years due to the revenue cap(s). He emphasized there is not only a city revenue cap, but also a state imposed one and said, “If you want to complain to anybody, go to Austin. I didn’t see the controller in Austin, Texas, saying to them not to do it.”
  • Turner outlined his conservative approach to budgeting, which includes low sales tax projections, planning for a 0% population growth, and hiring freezes (except for police and fire).
  • Turner shifted focus to Finance Director Will Jones and said, “I take issue with anyone that comes to this mic and tries to discredit his reputation or the finance department and our numbers.”
  • There have been seven federally declared disasters during Turner’s administration, and they still balanced the budget.
  • To illustrate hardship imposed by revenue caps, Turner compared the City to a public corporation that operates under principles of the private sector, but said there is no private business in the country that has a cap on its revenue.
  • On his third “and lastly!” of his comments (lol) Turner responded to Controller Brown’s critique on the City’s reliance on federal dollars, saying, “Why not rely on the federal dollars? It’s our money … The federal government has not given us anything that we didn’t send to them, so why not rely on them? I wish I could rely on state dollars. They’re just not giving them to us. Confusing. They’re putting them all on the border.”
  • Turner said it’s important to protect the record and defended his legacy, expressing pride in his administration’s financial stewardship.
  • Finally, Turner jabbed at Controller Brown for only causing this kind of stir up when the Mayor is absent, which I have also noticed, and noted.

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Item 11 approved the annual $1.8M fee to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for wastewater treatment facilities inspection, an air emission fee, and an emissions inspection fee.
• Item 15 approved $575K for an eminent domain proceeding for land that will become the new Jensen Park in District B. Item 16 approved $90K for an eminent domain proceeding for land that will become the new library in District A.
• Item 17 approved $59K for online education courses for the fire department.
• Item 21 approved $94K on sludge grinders for Houston Public Works. Sludge. Grinders.
• Item 25 approved $182K on renewal and software upgrades for the Gang Tracker Application for HPD.
• Item 28 approved a $626K grant to Salvation Army for a homeless diversion program.
• Item 29 accepted a $999K grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for environmental justice projects in Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. Key outcomes:
  • a solar hub
  • a flood alert system
  • an air permit application warning system
  • native tree planting
  • a hyper-local neighborhood resilience plan
  • funding for graduates of a work force program to work as interns and gain experience for permanent job placement in their own neighborhood
  • a city-wide Houston Environmental Justice Advisory Council
• Item 30 would have approved a $150M airport contract but the funds were not certified as available in time. Mayor Turner complained that Controller Brown is playing politics to cast a negative light on the Turner administration. He instructed City legal to investigate Controller Brown’s actions and said, “This foolishness has to come to an end.”
• Item 32 approved $1.5M for the Latino Learning Center for general building improvements.
• Item 33 approved a $635K architectural contract to begin work on the City’s new municipal court, damaged during Hurricane Harvey. The City intends to seek reimbursement from FEMA. CM Kamin remarked on the municipal court’s resiliency and commitment to business as usual, despite difficult working conditions.
• Item 42 approved using $800K from the City’s general fund to work on the Velasco Incinerator Clean-Up Project, managed by the Houston Land Bank. This money will allow clean up work to begin while HLB seeks other funding.
• Items 43 and 44 approved the transfer and (discounted) sale of an alleyway attached to the Covenant House in Montrose. The Covenant House provides support, including housing, to homeless youth. This land will help them expand facilities and improve the area according to neighbor wishes, like a larger sidewalk and better drainage.
• Items 54, 55, and 56 approved using funds from the Dedicated Drainage and Street Renewal Fund (DDSRF) for various drainage projects in Districts C, H, and A, all totaling $9.7M. CM Huffman voted no on Item 54.
• Item 57 approved $303K for new bike lanes across the city. CM Huffman voted no.

Council Member Pop-Off

• CM Peck reported that the 1.5 week-long fire in a cleared-but-not-developed property is finally out. She wants to bring this matter to the Public Safety committee to see what can be done to prevent future incidents. She thanked Public Works for delaying a Bingle road reconstruction project that would reduce it from four lanes to three, while a community meeting is organized to discuss.
• CM Kamin remarked on negative comments made during election season and committed to uplifting the “can do” work of this council.
• CM Evans-Shabazz plugged a turkey giveaway on 11/11 at Watkins Supermarket, an environmental worker training at TSU, and the District D newsletter.
• CM Cisneros congratulated election winners and encouraged people to run for office.
• CM Castex-Tatum plugged the next Economic Development Committee on 11/15 and the opening of Mention Park on 12/2.
• CM Gallegos congratulated his successor, Joaquin Martinez, who recently won the District I Council election.

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://houwatch.com
https://www.covenanthouse.org/

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

Thank you to ACLU TX for supporting these notes.
My Patreon is patreon.com/emilytakesnotes.