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*

*I did not include pop-off today because other things took up too much space.

Mayor’s Report

Mayor Whitmire remarked on the ongoing lawsuit over how much income from tax the City needs to put into the Dedicated Drainage and Street Renewal Fund (DDSRF). Link in final resources slide for more info on that.

• The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the City must add an additional $100M into the DDSRF annually. Whitmire accepts the premise of the lawsuit — that Houston should spend more on drainage and roads.
• Whitmire met with the plaintiffs and said they understand the City’s financial constraints and plan to meet more to come up with a resolution.

The City hired Ernst & Young to do an efficiency report — you can see it at houstontx.gov/efficiencystudy. Mayor Whitmire said he would not ask voters to approve more money [in taxes or revenue cap repeal] until the City explored its waste, duplication, and corruption.

• The study compared Houston with Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Antonio. No two cities are exactly alike but Houston shares some characteristics with each such as: sprawl, budget size, per capita spending, geographic size, etc.
• Whitmire said Houston used 80% of ARPA funding on administrative costs, which is high compared to other cities. He called this mismanagement and kicking the can down the road.
• Whitmire said City employees are hard working and honest. He likened running Houston’s government to a Fortune 500 Company; a $7B corporation with 23K employees.
• Whitmire said, “There’s just been glaring inefficiencies and duplications and lack of accountability for years. But it’s going to end now and I would ask you to join me. It’s not a time to play politics.”

Chris Newport (Whitmire’s Chief of Staff), Cynthia Wilson (the mayor’s Special Advisor for Organizational Culture and Education), and Steven David (Deputy Chief of Staff) presented an executive summary of the Ernst & Young report. I have never seen such detail gone over in such depth at a City Council meeting outside of budget week. It was … a lot. I don’t know how much y’all really care about this, or how much I care about this, but it will significantly impact the upcoming budget season and, perhaps, the general culture of City management, so I’ll hit the highlights.

• The study:
  • Evaluated performance, organization, spending, and forensic accounting.
  • Reviewed all 22 City departments.
  • Conducted interviews, surveys, data analysis, and comparison versus peer cities.
  • Directly surveyed 12K city employees.

Performance Analysis:

• Employees said they are measured on too many metrics that are not meaningful. They reported that it feels like they are just checking boxes.
• The City measures output more than outcome, which is a more meaningful measure.
• Although many programs exceed their target metrics, Steven David said, “We don’t have a performance management system in place,” and that goals are not updated after the metrics are consistently met.

Organizational Analysis:

• Employees spend too much time on administrative tasks.
• HR / Finance / IT all have shadows in other departments. They want to make sure departments aren’t spending money on the same thing. Cynthia Wilson used the example of library communications sometimes duplicating the general administration communications.
• Too many layers, not enough span. (jargon, I know)
• Houston’s organization is top heavy with too many managers.
• There aren’t enough career pathways.
• Salaries are not competitive.

Spend Analysis:

• The City’s contracting process is inefficient and duplicative.
• Emergency purchase orders are high.
• Visibility on City spending is low.
• Spending is uncoordinated across departments.

The study identified 8 main spending categories that span departments. This is apparently revolutionary and more holistic than just looking at each department’s budget, line item by line item.

• The categories are: facilities and construction; industrial products and services; professional services; logistics, auto, and transport; information technology, management and operations, lifestyle and human services; medical
• The City spends 81% of the overall budget on the top three categories.

** It was at this point I began to grow very bored with this presentation and also confused about this level of detail being presented at council at all, rather than at committee. But I soldiered on. **

Forensic Analysis:

• Steven David said, “We’re not going to get into specifics because we don’t want to give away the sauce.” I literally lol’d. Not going to get into specifics?? What the hell have we been doing these past two hours? “Give away the sauce??” lmao
• Regarding corruption and fraud, Mr. David said 2023 was “a year of some pretty high profile and salacious fraud and theft cases that came before the public.” He mentioned one involving TIRZ management and a former City Manager. (“Salacious” is an interesting word choice here and not one I’m sure I would have chosen.)
• The City developed a platform to flag and investigate potential abuses. They want to discover potential illicit behavior rather than wait for a criminal investigation or the news to break it to them.
• Vendors have been discovered manipulating the system for their benefit, and while this is not criminal, it can increase costs to the City.

The team went over some next steps to use this information to help the City save money. I’m not going to go into them because I can no longer handle phrases like “integrate revised performance measures with employee performance assessments,” but rest assured the City has PLANS. They also want to contract with Ernst & Young for further work.

Many CMs commented.

• CM Alcorn asked for an estimate on potential savings. Chris Newport said 5% – 15%, which set the room aflutter.
• CM Ramirez said, “This has the potential to be the most important thing we’ve done so far, if we follow through.”
• CM Castillo asked if the software and technology the City uses was included in the audit. Chris Newport said no, but those concerns were brought up by employees. Newport said a comprehensive review of software and tech is needed, especially at HPD.
• CM Pollard appreciated the survey of employees, wished that CMs had also been surveyed, and plugged District J initiatives he thinks will help efficiency.
• CM Plummer suggested the Health Department could share some services with the County. She encouraged beta testing of technology systems to make sure the City isn’t committing to a contract without knowing it’s the best option. She asked how the City plans to use AI to look into the metrics.
  • Steven David criticized the use of AI in general, saying there are some uses (meeting minutes, presentation creation, translation) but that it’s often not worth the cost. I think Plummer was asking about using AI to analyze data and he went broader with his response, but ah well.
  • Chris Newport said that HPW already uses AI to help inspect water pipes.
  • CM Plummer clarified that she is interested in using AI to remove menial tasks so people can focus on more interesting things, not to remove jobs.
• CM Martinez praised the survey of employees, saying, “No one knows more than the folks that are on the ground.” He proposed on-call heavy trash pick up rather than scheduled, which he said would reduce costs and promote efficiency. He would like to air this report at the Ethics committee.
• CM Carter recommended collaboration with the County’s library system.

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Item one confirmed the appointment of ten people to the Independent Police Oversight Board.
• CM Pollard tagged Items 2 and 3 which would have confirmed the appointment of Rufi Natarajan to the St. George Place TIRZ (Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone).
• CMs Pollard and Thomas tagged Items 4 and 5 which would have confirmed the appointments of Zion Escobar, Ujari Mohite, and Thu-Mai Nguyen to the Southwest TIRZ.
• Item 14 approved $107K to repair two of HPD’s airborne thermal imaging systems, used in helicopters.
• Item 22 confirmed support for multiple affordable housing complexes. This is a required step before the developers submit to the State of Texas for affordable housing tax credits. CM Castex-Tatum proposed removing one development from the list, which CM Pollard voted no on. CM Pollard also voted no on the main item, as amended, but it still passed.
  • CM Pollard explained that he supports the affordable development happening in District J and affordable housing in general. He voted no to protest one of the developments being taken off the list.
• Item 27 confirmed the appointment of Nelly Treviño Santos as the presiding judge of the Municipal Courts Department.
• Item 32 approved $79K for repair of Hurricane Beryl damage at Heights Library. CM Kamin spotlighted the Heights Library as having both the worst condition and highest need.
• Item 33 approved the acquisition of land in Kingwood for the construction of a new fire station.
• Item 40 approved a grant application to the EPA for $5M for recycling programs. CM Kamin advocated for recycling at apartment complexes, which will save space at landfills and save Houston money.
• Item 52 nominated two people for one position on the Port of Houston Board Authority; Roland Garcia and former Council Member Robert Gallegos. Council then voted to approve which person received the nomination.
  • CMs who voted for Roland Garcia: Whitmire, Peck, Jackson, Flickinger, Huffman, Castillo, Martinez, Ramirez, Carter, Plummer
  • CMs who voted for Robert Gallegos: Kamin, Evans-Shabazz, Thomas, Pollard, Castex-Tatum, Alcorn
  • Roland Garcia received the nomination.
• Item 53 would have approved final payment of $3.3M to Specialized Maintenance Services for sewer cleaning and inspection, but CM Castex-Tatum motioned to delay it after some discussion.
  • The contractor was assigned a 17% MWBE (Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise) goal and achieved 0%. CM Pollard encouraged Council to vote no and let the company sue the City. “We need to start sending a message that we’re not afraid of litigation.”
  • CM Plummer agreed and pointed out that this company has 9 other contracts currently with the City, three of which are below the MWBE goal. “We need to stop having these conversations and take them to court.”
  • CM Castex-Tatum doesn’t want litigation but agrees this transgression is more egregious than usual. She said the company will be put on a probation of sorts. (It’s unclear how this will affect their other open contracts) She asked City Legal what would happen if this item was voted down. Attorney Michel said the company could sue them for breach of contract but that the City could also claim breach of contract because of the failed MWBE goal.
  • Eventually CM Castex-Tatum suggested a delay on the vote, which was accepted.

Who took these notes? And what resources did they use?

My name is Emily Hynds. I am a writer, small business owner, producer of the monthly storytelling series Grown-up Storytime, and native 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://houwatch.com
http://www.houstontx.gov/efficiencystudy
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/drainage-lawsuit-budget-impacts-20136442.php

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

Thank you to the friends who proofread these notes.
My Patreon is patreon.com/emilytakesnotes.