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

• HPD and the Department of Defense are conducting training exercises through January 28. If you hear excess noise or see military helicopters flying around, that could be why.
• 76 HPD cadets graduated last week.
• The City’s MLK Parade has been rescheduled for Saturday, February 10 at 10am. The MLK Grand Parade has been rescheduled for February 17. If you don’t know about the City’s dueling MLK parades, I’ll link on the final slide.
• RIP Dexter Scott King, youngest son of MLK.
• Mayor Whitmire praised two Houston Public Works employees for giving aid to a fellow employee who had a heart attack while at work. He made it to the hospital and is recovering.

Agenda Item 1, A New Finance Director

• Item 1 approved the appointment of new Finance Director Melissa Dubowski. Mayor Whitmire said, “She’s too good to be an interim.” He talked a lot about Dubowski’s family, especially her father in law, “a longtime public servant at the state level.”
• Director Dubowski made welcoming remarks, thanking former directors she worked under, including Tantri Emo and the most recent Finance Director Will Jones. She recognized her family in attendance and thanked them for their support. She also recognized the finance staff in the chamber, an impressive amount of people. They took up half the room.
• Mayor Whitmire thanked Dubowski’s parents again, sharing anecdotes about raising his own daughters.
• CM Alcorn praised Dubowski’s appointment and her previous work with the department, particularly mentioning her work on outcome based budgeting and a (hopefully) upcoming sidewalk bond.
• CM Castex-Tatum was pleased to see continuity in the Finance Department, since Dubowski has been there for almost ten years.
• Whitmire thanked Dubowski’s husband for getting her to Texas, earning an eye roll from me.

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Item 3 approved an honorary street marker for Reverend E. E. Coates at the intersection of Emancipation Avenue and Webster Street in District D.
• Item 8 approved spending $7.2M for 15 Gradalls (earth moving heavy machinery). “The Gradalls will be used to maintain road areas, roadside ditches, and for the new ditch re-establishment program.”
  • CM Peck supported this item but did raise a couple of concerns. Peck used to run a District A specific ditch maintenance program using her District Service Funds, but was asked to pause it when the City reactivated its program. The City’s program will primarily focus on District B, which Peck supports, but she was told that “any ditch that was currently in the queue before this program started would at least be evaluated.” She wants A) for the above to be true and B) to be able to reactivate the District A ditch program.
• Item 20 approved a $1.6M contract extension with Bibliotheca, LLC for book management and security services for the library system.

Item 11, A Bankrupt Contractor

• A contractor working on wastewater construction projects in Districts A, F, and G has filed for bankruptcy. Item 11 appropriated ~$1M from the Water & Sewer System Consolidated Construction Fund for the existing subcontractors “to ensure wastewater bypass pumping, fencing, traffic control and other necessary safety measures remain in place while replacement prime contractors are secured.”
  • CM Huffman said it could take up to 9 months to find a new prime contractor and requested that lanes be reopened in the meantime. She complained that engagehouston.org has not been updated and that HPW had not communicated with CMs about the change in plans.
  • Mayor Whitmire said, “I think we all know there’s deficiencies in public works.” He critiqued HPW for poor communication, especially with CMs and said, “We don’t like surprises.” I have never heard any City official speak in such a boldly critical way of any City department.
  • CM Thomas contrasted these statements with a more pleasant experience. She said that she was briefed by HPW earlier this month and that engagehouston.org has been updated and helpful.
  • Mayor Whitmire criticized the selection process for contractors, implying this whole thing could have been avoided with more rigorous vetting. CM Thomas pushed back again and implied the problem could actually be with the length it takes to get contractors paid. Contractors float large amounts of overhead, often in the millions, which puts a financial strain on businesses. Whitmire conceded this was true and lamented that there are several firms who won’t do business with the City because of the long payment window.

Item 19, Continued Fallout from the Harding Street Raid

• Item 19 approved a $1.7M contract extension with the legal firm representing the City in a lawsuit the estate of Dennis Tuttle is bringing against the City and former Police Chief Art Acevedo.
• In 2019, Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Ann Nicholas, were killed in the Harding Street Raid, one of the largest scandals the City has ever seen. HPD used a no knock warrant and the whole case is riddled with false evidence, evidence tampering, crooked cops, coverups, and more! The investigating officer Gerald Goines was charged with felony murder.
• CM Martinez asked City Attorney Michel to give background on the case. Michel said, “This was a unique situation … It’s the City’s contention that this was an officer who was simply lying and misleading.” Since then, the City has instituted three major policy changes to make obtaining a no knock warrant more difficult.
  • “the chief has to approve a no knock warrant”
  • “it’s executed by a specialized unit, a tactical team with training, and not the investigative team that is working up the case”
  • The warrant must “be signed only by a district court judge and not a magistrate judge or a municipal court judge”
• CM Thomas voted no; the item passed.

Council Member Pop-Off

• CM Thomas plugged the 2023 District F Annual Report. She acknowledged trash and recycling pick up delays but asked everyone to leave their bins out. She lamented a murder/suicide domestic violence incident that ended with five deaths, including an 8 year old boy. She asked everyone to keep them in their prayers and said, “Always remember that the services and the items that we push and vote at this council table directly impact residents.” January is School Board Appreciation Month. Thomas thanked board members for their unpaid work, “especially as our public schools have been under attack.” Finally she remarked on her attendance at a remembrance ceremony for Palestinian poet Dr. Rafit Aliri. She said, “Just continue to pray for people that are still hurting, our Jewish brothers and sisters, our Palestinian brothers and sisters and now Houstonians that are choosing to be allies and stop the war and that are calling for ceasefire, that are calling for the hostages to be returned.”
• CM Castex-Tatum plugged a paper shredding event on 1/27 from 9am-12pm at Ridgemont Community Center. She griped about tax season bandit signs and asked if the Department of Neighborhoods can step up sign removal and ticketing.
• CM Peck applauded the news that the application to expand the Carverdale Landfill has been pulled. She remarked on the 4th anniversary of the Watson explosion, which killed 3 people.
• CM Martinez complained about recycling pick up delays. He thanked HPD Chief Finner for attending a recent PIP meeting and expressing solidarity with the neighborhood regarding the Greyhound situation. He advocated for the digitization of a collection of Viva Magazine at the Julia Ideson Library.
• CM Pollard applauded the Solid Waste director but advocated for better communication from the department regarding delays. Whitmire agreed that would be nice but said it often isn’t possible because they don’t even know about delays themselves. He said we can’t keep kicking the can down the road and that, “Great cities have reliable garbage, recycling and pickup.”
• CM Alcorn agreed that Solid Waste needs more resources. She outlined the most recent composting pilot program and said, “One of the ways to deal with the trash problem is to have less trash. Food waste is 24% of municipal landfills. If you separate your food waste .. and recycle, you have very little trash left.”
• CM Castillo also remarked on Solid Waste delays and said that North Lindale has now gone 40+ days with no recycling pickup. He plugged the first of a Townhall series on 2/3 at Villa Arcos. He plans to continue CM Cisneros’s Love Your Pet initiative, especially for February which is some kind of celebration month. He plugged the District H newsletter and a Port of Houston grant writing workshop. Finally, he echoed CM Martinez’s comments earlier about the digitization of the Viva magazine collection.
  • I would like to add that Mayor Whitmire mispronounced CM Castillo’s name again, pronouncing it Cuh-still-ee-oh. I really hope someone helps him out with that soon.
• CM Ramirez remarked on the Cancer Cluster relocation fund, saying, “Calling it a ‘plan’ is pretty generous.” He pointed to distrust in the community, underfunding, and wants assistance from Union Pacific. Finally, he echoed CMs Martinez and Castillo for digitization of the Viva collection.

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.engagehouston.org/
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2019/01/21/318807/tradition-of-dueling-mlk-parades-continues-in-houston/

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.