Notes on the Houston City Council Meeting on December 10, 2025

Agenda

1. Monthly Financial Report
2. Public Hearing*
3. The Mayor’s Report
4. Consent Agenda (items that require a vote, like purchases, resolutions, ordinances, etc.)
5. Council Member Pop-Off*

*I will not cover the public hearing or pop-off in these notes.

Monthly Financial Report

Controller Chris Hollins and Finance Director Melissa Dubowski both gave their respective reports.

Controller Hollins predicts an ending fund balance of $336.8M, which is $17.5M lower than the finance department’s estimate. The ending fund balance is like the city’s savings account. Hollins criticized the state’s decision to dismantle the Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Program, which supported small, minority, and women-owned businesses. “If you undermine these businesses, you are undermining Houston’s economy.”

Director Dubowski predicts an ending fund balance of $354M, $45M lower than last month. This variance is “primarily due to a $52.6M decrease in property tax due to the property tax rate that was adopted earlier this year.”

The Mayor’s Report

Mayor Whitmire lamented the recent death of Dr. Rod Paige and shared condolences for his loved ones. Whitmire said Dr. Paige was a “respected educator and a mentor to many of us,” and the first Black US Secretary of Education. “HISD wasn’t on the front page back when Rod was the superintendent.”

Agenda Items, Selected Works

• Items 2, 3, and 4 appointed people to the Energy Corridor, Brays Oaks, and Hobby Management Districts.
• Item 7 approved the 2026 budget ($72M) for the Greater Harris County 911 Emergency Network, an increase of ~$8M from 2025. The budget must be approved by its own board of managers, the Harris County Commissioners’ Court, and Houston city council. CM Kamin advocated for a larger share of the total budget to be paid for by the county, a practice which would align with other large cities.
• Item 8 approved the 2026 budget ($145M) for Houston First Corporation, the city’s “destination marketing organization.”
• Item 9 approved $2.5M in fees to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
• Item 13 approved $194K for four new Toyota Highlander hybrid vehicles for the police department. The city used the asset forfeiture fund for this.
• Item 14 approved $998K to upgrade the fire department’s public safety radio systems.
• Item 20 approved $15M over five years for trash and recycling carts.
• Item 25 approved the sale of city-owned land in Brookshire to Waller County for $19.7M. A rare revenue-generating item! The city purchased the land for potential airport use, but decided not to pursue that. Waller County is purchasing the land to turn it into stormwater detention and parkland.
• Item 27 approved $500K to upgrade the city’s existing security network infrastructure aka video cameras. CM Kamin supported this item but advocated for updating the accompanying policy, which has not been updated since 2021.
• Items 27-32 all funded various tech upgrades, like moving data storage to a cloud system and updating records management, totalling ~$16M.
• Item 39 approved an additional $1.2M for the firm that provides legal services to the airports.
• Item 41 approved the $1.3M purchase of a parcel of land owned by Gospel Hill Baptist Church for a drainage project in District B.
• Item 44 approved $17.9M for upgrades at the East Water Purification Plant.
• Item 46 would have approved $5.4M for several projects including the overlay of Patterson Street in District C, but CM Kamin tagged it. She said that surrounding communities engaged for four years, but it has been on pause for two years. She said this came up again, “without notice,” and is unclear of changes to the plan. She stressed the need to notify district CMs and the affected community when changes to plans have been made. She wants more time to evaluate the plan and make sure it still aligns with community needs.
• These items were not voted on for various reasons: Items 5 and 12 were pulled by the administration. Item 40 was not received. Item 46 was tagged (see above).

Item 50: Apartment Inspection Reform delayed again

CM Plummer has been working on an ordinance to tackle apartment inspection reform for six years. She used Prop A to finally bring it to council on November 5. Prop A allows a coalition of three council members to put items on the agenda without the mayor’s approval. After heated debate, that version of the ordinance was voted down and sent back to the administration for more work. A new version was aired today.

Mayor Whitmire praised CM Plummer for her work on this ordinance and said he was sorry she had to wait six years. He remarked on people living in “terrible conditions,” and said, “It’s some of the same population that’s hiding from authorities that have no choice but to live in these conditions.” He said he understands the urgency and doesn’t want to delay, but suggested referring the item back to the administration, again, to be heard at a joint Economic Development and Housing committee meeting.

CM Plummer said she is “pleased with how [the ordinance] is shaping up.” Regarding changes, she said, “It creates high risk designation, mandatory corrective timelines, documented repairs, follow up inspections, real tangible penalties for landlords who were repeatedly doing the wrong thing to our residents. It protects tenants without raising rents.” She was on board with referring it back to the administration for more work, said she would attend every meeting in January as an audience member, and hopes for a unanimous vote when the item comes back.

CM Kamin asked for a date when this item will be brought back for a vote. She cited deplorable conditions at an apartment complex in District C to emphasize the need for urgency. Mayor Whitmire would not commit to a date and encouraged trust in the chairs of the committees to expedite the process.

CM Alcorn praised Plummer for “looking out for the least of us.” She said Houston has the highest percentage of people living in poverty, and “it is our role as councilmembers to look out for them.”

CM Plummer asked for a date when the ordinance will come back for a vote, initially suggesting mid-January. Whitmire remained vague, said to trust the administration and committees to expedite, and said public engagement shouldn’t be rushed. Plummer then suggested a motion to bring the item back for a vote 30 days after the committee hearing, with the committee hearing date TBD and TBA by the administration.

Whitmire said it’s not “fair or proper for you to tell two experienced committed council members how to run their committee,” and said they would get it done “as soon as possible.” Plummer responded, “I just don’t think that’s good enough.” She said it’s not unreasonable to ask for a timeline for when it will be brought back. Whitmire said, again, “I don’t think it’s reasonable to tell two committed, experienced colleagues how to run their committee.”

As the back and forth continued, the mayor accused Plummer of being too “busy on the campaign trail” to work with his administration on this. Plummer, sounding aggrieved, said, “Don’t be ugly.” She said she has been here, present, and working on this item. She told the mayor that was rude and he needed to apologize.

The mayor refused to apologize, spoke over her, and finally called for a vote on her motion to bring the item back 30 days after a committee meeting, which passed. The vote to refer the item back to the administration also passed, with only CM Pollard voting no.

Item 51 – Evening Public Comment Sessions will go on

In July, CM Castillo used Prop A for a pilot program to hold the last public comment session of every month in the evening. Today, CM Castillo proposed to make the evening public comment meetings permanent, with a few additions:

• Evening meetings will start at 5pm rather than 6pm
• No proclamations at evening meetings to speed up the night
• No evening meetings on weeks when meetings are consolidated because of holidays

CM Flickinger proposed an amendment for the evening meetings to be quarterly, rather than monthly. He said, “The vast majority of [speakers] have been pretty much the same people that we have during the day.” He suggested reducing evening meetings will relieve staffing burdens.

CM Castillo said evening public comment meetings have been “pretty popular.” He said the first evening public comment session had 77 speakers, the second had 105, the third had 44, and the fourth had 91 speakers; totaling an average of 80 speakers per evening meeting. He disagreed with CM Flickinger regarding evening vs daytime speakers; “From my recollection, that hasn’t been the case.”

CM Kamin said District C residents support evening meetings and advocated for virtual options to increase accessibility. She encouraged consideration of holidays, for instance next week is Hanukkah, a holiday observed in the evenings. She suggested a later start time on the mornings after evening public comment. “The success of this is a testament to the fact that residents want more engagement from the city.”

CM Alcorn said evening public comment has been “overwhelmingly successful,” and that she prefers to “err on the side of more public engagement.” She supports sticking to a monthly schedule.

CM Castex-Tatum, a strong opponent of evening meetings, remained unenthused. “If our goal is to have more people participate in public sessions, we should utilize our virtual technology that we’ve had in place since COVID.” She said that one senior who came to evening public comment had to pay $100 for an uber due to surge pricing.

CM Martinez favors quarterly evening meetings due to his desire to attend civic club meetings. “It’s important that I’m out in the community, the district, talking to those constituents.” CM Peck also advocated for quarterly meetings due to civic club and PIP meetings.

CM Huffman was pro-quarterly meetings, supported a virtual option, and complained about budget constraints reducing security for evening sessions. She said that she and CM Peck were followed into the parking garage by two men after one evening session, who were ultimately harmless, “but what if something different happened?” CM Davis supported quarterly meetings, also citing safety concerns.

CM Evans-Shabazz pushed for a virtual engagement option.

CM Flickinger’s amendment to change evening public comment meetings to quarterly rather than monthly ultimately failed 8-9.

• People who voted to keep the evening public comment sessions monthly: Mayor Whitmire, CMs Jackson, Kamin, Castillo, Martinez, Pollard, Castex-Tatum, Plummer, and Alcorn.
• People who voted to move the evening sessions to quarterly: Peck, Evans-Shabazz, Flickinger, Thomas, Huffman, Ramirez, Carter, Davis.

The main item, which codified permanent evening public comment sessions once per month, passed unanimously.

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 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://houwatch.com

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

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