I can have everyone's attention, please.

Will council come to order?

Uh first order of business today.

An exciting day at City Hall.

We get to swear in our newest council member, and I would ask her to join me at the podium for the purpose of swearing in.

And I will ask our mayor pro temperature.

Do you know how excited I am?

I'm so excited too.

So excited.

I'm so excited that you're joining us, and I'm excited for you and your family.

So let's go to work.

If you repeat after me.

Hi, John Whitmark.

I, Alejandra Christina Salinas.

Do you solemnly swear?

Do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully execute.

That I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of city council.

The duties of the office of city council preserve.

And will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, protect, and defend and defend the constitution and laws.

The Constitution and laws of the United States.

And of the state.

And of the state me, God.

So help me.

Congratulations.

I'll go back up to the next one.

I was gonna recognize our council member when she's sat, but I'm so excited.

I want you to introduce your wife, your family, and the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have got some remarks over there, but I want to introduce my incredible wife, Elizabeth Hadaway.

My incredible father, Octavio Salinas.

I am so grateful to all of you for being here with us today.

I'm gonna go take my seat and over a few of the.

Thank you, Mayor.

The great Barbara Jordan once said, I get from the soil and spirit of Texas the feeling that I, as an individual, can accomplish whatever I want, and that there are no limits, and that you can just keep going, keep soaring.

I like that spirit.

Houston is a city of hope and opportunity, a city defined by resilience and strength.

At a time when major cities are shrinking, Houston continues to grow at remarkable pace.

People from across this country and the world know what all of us in this room already know, which is that this place is special.

As the Kinder Institute has written, perhaps more than any other city, Houston has the opportunity to lead the way forward by creating an economy that closes the gap between the rich and the poor rather than expanding it, and by embracing a multicultural democracy rather than fearing it.

Over the coming months and years, those of us at City Hall will be tasked with doing just that.

We will have to make smart, equitable decisions about our infrastructure.

Decisions that will ensure that all Houstonians, no matter what part of town they live in, are safe, prepared for the next storm, and able to focus on their families and thrive.

We will have to confront the growing affordability crisis that faces so many of our residents.

And we will have to work with our law enforcement partners to address crime while also respecting civil liberties and grappling honestly with the underlying societal factors that contribute to it.

And we will have to navigate our relationship with the state and federal government, whose resources we rely on to keep the city moving, but whose actions sometimes have harmed us and require us to stand up and work together to mitigate those harms.

None of these challenges are going to be easy, but I am truly hopeful that we can make meaningful change in the right direction.

I am hopeful because of the thousands of Houstonians I met on this campaign who care so deeply about the city.

I am hopeful because I have the awesome privilege of serving alongside 15 council members and a mayor who have demonstrated a genuine commitment to public service and a passion for improving our city for all residents.

I know we may not always agree, but I believe our shared values, our belief in Houston, can serve as our North Star as we take on these challenges together.

I look forward to learning from each of you, getting to know each of you and your families, and finding joy in the extraordinary privilege we have of doing the people's work.

It is one of the greatest honors of my life to sit here before you today.

I know I would not be here, but for the hundreds of people who supported me along this campaign, to everyone who knocked on a door, made a call, donated, or simply took the time to pick up the phone or answer the door and talk about how we could make the city better.

I thank you.

I want to thank my family, my dad, and my sisters for always standing beside me.

I want to thank my Madrid, Lenora Sarola Pullman, for everything she has done to help get me here.

And most importantly, I want to thank my wife, Elizabeth, an accomplished trial lawyer in her own right.

None of this would be possible without you and your unwavering love and support.

Make me a better person, a better lawyer, and you will make me a better public servant.

I love you, and I thank you for going on this journey with me.

Mayor, let's get to work.

I like that very much.

And I've already expressed to you how pleased I am to have you join the horseshoe.

And as I look out in our crowd, plus I I know they had a great candidate.

That's always, it doesn't matter how much support you have, you need a good candidate, a qualified candidate.

But when I look at Lenore and Linda Morales and Tammy Wallace, I could go across the crowd.

I know why you're sitting there today.

You put one hell of a great team together.

And so congratulations and to your family, your wife, Elizabeth, welcome to our family, and to your father, you did one heck of a job raising an outstanding daughter.

So with that said, I'm I'm a father your request, and let's go to work and start with Councilmember Castillo for the invocation.

Thank you, Mayor.

And at this time, Father Perez is here.

I'd like to briefly introduce him.

He is the pastor of St.

Joseph Catholic Church on Kane Street in the Old Six Ward and St.

Stephen Catholic Church on Center Street from Katie, Texas, has been a priest for 14 years and has served at St.

Cecilia and St.

Jerome in Houston before becoming uh before coming to his current assignment in 2019, and we're very grateful to have him here today for the invocation.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo.

Appreciate it.

Congratulations.

It's great to invoke the North Star because today actually we celebrate the day the wise men saw the star and followed it.

We beginning the Father's Holy Spirit.

Oh, before I start, I would also like to say that today is the 25th anniversary of the missionaries of charity sisters of being in Houston on this day.

Um Archbishop Uranza asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta for some sisters to serve, so they've been serving on the East Side of Sydney Street for the last 25 years on this day.

It's pretty neat.

Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing this year on our City Council, on Mayor Whitmeyer, and especially our new Councilmember Alejandra, send upon send down upon us your Holy Spirit, help us all to be like the three wise men and to follow the star, seeking your guidance to seek a good higher than ourselves, even if it means leaving our comfort zones.

In times of darkness, let us know you are there.

When the wise men came to Jerusalem asking for the newborn king of the Jews, King Herod and all the people in the city were disturbed.

They forgot to think about God's kingdom and their divine calling, just living for themselves and not looking for the kingdom and the higher things.

Teach us to love and to be open and charitable in our discussions.

Teach us to be civil and open to a truth higher than ourselves.

Help us to see what is right and good and to understand each other's perspectives.

Give us discernment to know what decisions to make for the good of our city so that our city can be more radiant and good and truly a place where we can live in security and peace and freedom to seek you.

God provide for all the needs of our city and help us always remember to thank you.

Bless this whole year and all the work the council will do.

Help us to depend on your providence.

We ask your help to build our city.

For as Psalm 127 says, unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

I ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you, Father.

Would you please stand for the pledge?

Secretary, will you please call the roll?

Mayor Whitmeyer.

Present.

Councilmember Peck.

Here.

Councilmember Jackson.

Councilmember Cayman.

Present.

Councilmember Evans of Oz.

Here.

Council Member Flickinger.

Councilmember Thomas will be absent.

Councilmember Huffman.

Present.

Council Member Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Martinez.

Here.

Councilmember Pollard.

Here.

Councilmember Castax Tatum.

Here.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Councilmember Davis.

Here.

Council Member Carter.

Present.

Councilmember Salinas.

Present.

And Councilmember Erl Korn.

Yeah.

Need a motion to adopt the minutes of December 16th and 17th and December 23rd.

Cast X Tatum move.

Heck second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Any procedural motions?

Councilmember Flickinger.

Yes, I'd like to move J Jacob Clement to the top of the two-minute list.

Okay.

Motion is there.

Second.

Motion made and seconded.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Any more?

If not.

Ms.

Secretary.

Um caller first.

Witness.

Jacob.

Jacob Clemente.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

To be to be followed by Anthony Hayes.

Doug.

Come on.

Jacob.

Your time's running, Jacob.

Go ahead, Jacob.

No, no, I'm one angie joke.

Jacob.

Let's go.

I gotta get to work.

You gotta go to work, but let me ask them.

Have you met our new council member?

Oh, yes, I was a pretty ask her for her autograph.

I bet I bet we can arrange that.

You want to join I already I already gave it to you.

Oh, you already gave it?

I'm already getting the work.

Sounds great.

Jacob, have a great day and cheer for the Texans.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Be safe.

Be safe.

Next.

Anthony Hayes.

To be followed by Army Perry.

Irma Perry.

How are you doing today?

How are you doing today?

I came to talk about a few things with uh with the agenda for the Harris County Center for the Harris Center for Mental Health.

Y'all were looking to uh invest for like one year.

Wants to know if y'all still were doing for the Houston uh mental health as well, what y'all were deciding on for that, and also um with uh the uh with the hospital as well that we have uh if you're wanting to work together on that uh to find out whether or not we're gonna be able to have uh search or if we're gonna be able to have any of those things because I've been working with the Allen district uh helping them, they've been getting out doing more for the areas.

Uh they don't have um a necessary uh place for them, so uh whether or not it would include them, I don't think it would.

Uh so they they are used to using the uh Houston mental health.

Uh we have to find out what we're doing with that, if y'all are binding with that, or if y'all are uh freed up this year to do that.

Um so placing it on hold.

Um because we have one in the heights uh brand new built.

It's been there for almost four years.

And uh I've been waiting to open that.

Um I talked with them.

Um we had an investor do that, and it's been sitting there uh just waiting to to open since um years prior.

Um it's always been Houston's um Houston's mental health.

Um now we have a two to one.

We have uh Harris County's mental health, and now we have Harris Health, which is also a private investor.

So uh we'd have to find out as well from them and and her family.

Um also um with the uh like I said with the search for the homeless.

Um if you would like uh to talk with um the impact or the IM to get with them.

Um Harris County does have properties.

Uh I've been recommending them to um I've been recommending them to the uh Island district, uh also to the uh your time has expired.

Okay, also to the uh places as well for them to be able to help.

Uh I need three other items put on hold.

That is for um that is for the uh uh second ward area purchasing the property since Adrian Garcia is not here.

Um we don't have any confirmation from um from uh Mondo Wally or from uh Richard Gartoon.

Uh I know Carol's here, but we have it divided into three different sections.

We have East End, we have Second Ward, and we have uh the barrio, which is also state landmark.

It's a new landmark that we have that needs to be added to this agenda as well.

Uh if not, then I'll be happy to take it.

Um also Pat River, um increasing her, I would rather take her than the interest of the um the ones I'm putting on hold, which is 2829 and um the uh uh I forget what it's called um for the water, it's a uh out of out of country uh sewering that's inside of inside of uh what is it uh second ward?

We don't necessarily need it.

I apologize.

No problem.

Thank you for being here.

Next thing Benavides of League City Irma Perry to be followed by Jack Belinski good afternoon and thanks for having me.

My name is Irma, and my husband is here, and we live in Kashmir Gardens.

And uh mine is of course on what we hear about a lot is the trash.

But mine was a recycle container that was damaged right after Thanksgiving, and we could not we had no place to put our recycle until I called in on 126 for a replacement can and nothing had happened.

I called four different times, and each time there's a process as to what each of those operators can do at the time that I call.

And the last time I called, she told me that uh I can escalate it if you call back in three days.

So three days later, I called back for an escalation.

And so she said she would escalate it, and how long was that going to take?

I asked her, and she said, Well, I don't know.

Once it leaves here, I can't give you a time frame.

I said, Well, then I guess I'll have to go to the city council and talk to them about what is going on.

And so that's what I did.

But we went from um 12-9 and today's one six.

This morning, a recycle can was delivered to my front door to my home.

So when you told them you were coming to see the council, that got some action.

And I'm sorry, I'm sorry it took that.

And I was going to get you one in the morning, but it sounded like it's slow, but the system got you a container.

Yeah, it actually got me a container this morning.

And I'd like to give thanks to the operators that are on the phone that are helping.

And I'd like to also suggest that we live on a corner lot, and because when you are on a corner lot, your address is used as your delivery, your pickup, heavy trash.

But if you don't have enough space in the front, but you put your trash on the other street, then they won't pick it up.

And when I call in, I try to give them specific information to say it's on the side.

Do not come to the front of my home, go to the side, and that's where you can pick up the trash.

Who are you calling?

Are you calling 311 or are you calling Solid Waste?

I'm calling 311.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

That's the question.

Well, thanks for sharing that with us.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you.

Ms.

Perry, I'm sorry you had to come down here to discuss that.

But I did want to just give some um a suggestion.

Is are are you familiar with your council member?

Do you have the phone number to your council members' office?

I think I do now.

There was a list of numbers that came out during the holidays.

Absolutely.

And I not only for you, but for other Houstonians that may be listening.

All of the council members have access to get you a recycle can, a trash bin and get it replaced.

311 is our call center, so they they do their best to try to get those messages to us.

But to expedite that after you call 3-1-1 and get that service request number, I would definitely call my council members' office because they can get that recycle bin or that trash can to you.

Several council members have hot teams that can get those delivered that same day.

So I would encourage you to make sure you have your council members' phone number and their staff would work diligently to get that trash can or that recycle bin to you as soon as possible.

Okay, I will.

I'll do that.

And I even asked if I could go someplace and buy it.

You know, that I would have to do that.

We'll make sure you have one.

I'm glad you got one today.

And I'd like to share just this final thing is uh I'm 81 and my husband is 85, and we live in Cashmere Gardens, and that's where we're going to uh stay until the good Lord takes us home.

And uh our son when the Powerball was out was saying, Oh, if I win, this is where I'm going to move to.

And you know, some high rise downtown that's bigger.

And I said, I'm going to stay right where I am.

I am not leaving Cashmere Gardens.

So I'm just looking for service, looking for you know, uh my neighborhood to be the neighborhood that I'd like for it to be.

Well, you look amazing.

Uh and best wishes to you and your husband, and I would definitely encourage you to get your council members' phone number for future reference as well.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Next.

Jack Valinski.

To be followed by Kendra London.

A year ago.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

How are you?

A year ago I came here to complain about the Sea of Green Cans all over the city.

I probably put in about 200 to 300 311 requests myself.

And that's the system we should use because that's what we're set up.

We shouldn't have to call our council member.

But I'll tell you today, I don't see them.

Thank you, Mayor.

That has been done very well.

Regular service, maybe a day late on recycling, but in my area of town in Montrose, it's been almost perfect.

They once missed my cans, but they were just too close together.

You know, we try to spread them out, but we don't always have that room.

But I can't blame the driver on that.

But we still have a problem with heavy trash.

And I know you called it, you know, you got a contractor in.

But we need to have a system that works on a regular basis so that trash isn't out there all the time.

A little bit more work we need to do, and I think I think we can get it down.

Certainly I like the idea of call on demand, but that would take such an educational process in this city of 2.5 million people.

So we're we're getting there.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate all the workers in Solid Waste.

They work hard.

Um the new trucks have certainly helped out, whether they're white or whether they are painted or not.

I just want my trash picked up, and I really appreciate that.

You didn't have to spend all that money on getting them painted.

So thank you.

Thank you, Jack.

And you are a veteran of City Hall, and to hear your expressions matter.

And uh we're heading in the right direction.

Thank you.

And continue to monitor it and uh keep us appraised.

But we got a new director.

I'm so impressed with him.

I know the other council members are uh I don't know where he is right now, but he's working his tail off.

He uh gave me a report this morning on heavy trash.

We're looking for resources to do additional contracts, but uh there is a plan and he's following it.

So thank you.

It means a lot that you come here and give us this report.

Right, and I'm sure there's other parts of the city that heavy trash is a bit of a challenge.

Yeah, it's a challenge, absolutely, because if it stays out there for more than the time it's supposed to, it you all know.

I mean, that picture you showed me of hundreds and hundreds of of tires in your neighborhood, council member, that was just incredibly sad.

And you didn't even know it was there because it was buried behind the high grass.

Thank you for for making this a better process.

Very good.

Stay in touch.

Next, Kendra London, Tiffany Scales.

To be followed by Renee Edmond.

Good afternoon.

How are y'all doing today?

I'm gonna invite you to take a 10-second deep breath with me so I can make a point.

I want you to inhale for three seconds and exhale for seven.

One, two, three, take a deep breath then.

And slowly exhale.

There are a lot of citizens in Houston that have a difficult time doing that.

Resting assured that they have in-to-life care and practices that will allow them the comfort and affordability of dignified departures.

I am proud to serve as a hospice chaplain with Texas hospice providers.

And there are some residences in your district, uh, Councilmember Shabazz that are offering that type of care around the clock.

And so I think it's really important that you know that not only do the care providers provide that service at Rosemont Gardens and Rosemont Cottage, but they also have the ability to go to all of your constituents' homes wherever they may be to provide the same service at their home.

That kind of care is really important because not everybody can be as upstanding as the couple that we just heard from.

Some people have CP C OPD, some have Alzheimer's and dementia, some have cancer and other debilitating morbidities.

I think it's really important that you know these resources, and so I thought it was more beneficial to come and tell you to see your faces as opposed to hoping you'll see an Instagram post while most of us are fasting.

Also, for those of you who may want to, you know, connect with us in a more fruitful way.

We are always welcome to having volunteers come in, especially for our seniors who like to see faces.

Some of our residents at that home do not have family able to come directly to Houston all the time due to the travel arrangements and what have you.

And so if you want to just stop by on a lunch break or come after work and just sit, have dinner with us, or allow yourself to get connected with people who have had extraordinary lives.

We just had a Christmas party where people were able to adopt a grandparent, and it was quite fruitful, um, allowing them to just share their stories as they remember or just make things up just to make them feel good.

Um but serving in community is really important to me, and I think that you would be proud to be a part of that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Renee Edmund.

To be followed by Bridget Land.

Hello, good afternoon, thank you for having me.

Um, my name is Renee Edmond, and this is my partner Chantel Mark, and I've been a registered nurse for 21 years now, so literally half of my life.

Um, and just to kind of piggyback off of what uh Miss our chaplain Tiffany Scales was talking about.

I am the assistant director of nursing for Texas hospice providers, and I do believe that this is a service that a lot of people and constituents in this area do not know about, or they hear that word hospice and it scares them because a lot of people also believe that hospice is something that you only could get when you're laying on your deathbed, and that is not true.

We like to help people towards the early end stages of their disease process to not only take care of the patient, but to take care of their families and help guide them through that transition to the end of life.

Um I recently lost my mother, and um hold up.

So that was weird.

Okay, I wasn't ready for that, expecting that.

Sorry.

So I recently lost my mother, and um she passed from cancer, but to be able to have that service from um my own team.

Why am I doing this?

Sorry.

It was very recent, y'all, less than two months ago.

But um, just having a team of uh people just to come to the house to um come check on her, and um it required 24 hour care.

And so uh Renee is a nurse, he didn't want to be the nurse for her months because she wanted to be present with her, but right.

And um, I did have a I do have a great team of nurses that come in, sorry guys.

Um, but uh I feel like that experience being a nurse for my own mother is just um gives me a different level of empathy when I'm caring for other people.

Um it's a very vulnerable community of elderly people, and we just wanted to create a safe space for them through our residential care homes.

And um, I just wanted our community to know that these services are available, and we're doing everything in our power to make our space even nicer for them.

Um, this year, our plans are to create an edible garden for them in the back.

So we are definitely looking for volunteers to serve and help us create that space as well as uh to volunteer for our hospice company.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Ma'am, just second, Councilor Moller.

Thank you, Mayor, and good afternoon to everyone.

I want to thank you both uh for coming and the chaplain for coming as well.

Some smart, good to see you as always.

But if you all could please share this with us electronically to our emails, yes, sir.

We'll be able to get it out to our constituents through a newsletter so more people can know about the services that you all provide.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Edward.

Very good.

Next Bridget Land Irma Wortham.

To be followed by Neil Geneva Colbert.

Thank you so much.

Can you hear me?

It's an honor to meet you, Mary Whitmayer, and uh Martha Tatum, uh, my hero.

She's over Glenshire community where I live.

And everyone in helps here, happy new year to you, God bless you.

Uh, my name is Irma Wortham.

My name is Irma Wortham.

Can y'all hear me then?

Irma Wortham.

I became a widow, uh, with her in March 8, 2025, to the love of my life of 47 years, my husband Gary Wortham.

We're from Midland, Texas.

He had a mother and father and seven siblings out of single prayer mom and I have seven siblings.

Uh he was in the went to the military, real smart.

He had we both went to Midland High School.

He played football there.

Uh he uh got a full scholarship to go to college.

He was real intelligent and smart.

And uh his mom actually uh even though she didn't finish college, she was a woman of perfection, and she was actually uh the maid or the help to President Bush and his family when they were in Midland, Texas.

Uh she helped raise uh President the son, and when they left her, they gave a cheering recommendations.

And uh anyway, this is a little about our story.

Uh he went to military uh uh make New Mexico Military Institute the first two years of his c of his college, and then he went on.

We moved to Houston in 1982, and while we were here, uh we became a part of rebuilding together Houston for home repairs, your veteran, they kind of put to the front of the line.

Um this last two of my husband uh he became ill about two years ago, he had his leg amputated, and he uh he was an officer in the military.

Uh he had his leg amputated and he um had lung cancer and a lot of things going on, which took a lot of attention away from just normal everyday activities of you know, household duties, just trying to keep him uh, you know alive, I should say, just keep him in the in the good spirit.

Uh so anyway, we when he passed away in March, we were already eligible for uh rebuilding Houston uh together.

He'd already signed.

We just kind of waiting.

So when Mr.

Chris came out, he Mr.

Chris came out and uh when he came out, I asked him, I said to assess the property.

I said, My husband passed away.

I said, Do we still qualify?

So he kind of just looked around and he left.

He didn't do like a toll assessment.

So I I wasn't sure what that meant.

So about a week later he came out real nice guy, so helpful.

Uh he said uh I uh he said that we uh he said when he came out he said that we were approved.

He said that I said, Oh, thank you.

Jesus said that we were approved.

I said, okay.

And so they said somebody's gonna he did assessment.

He said somebody's gonna be calling contractors in June.

No, in July, don't call them after July, because he didn't say after July they're gonna be calling come out.

Someone did, and they came and did all the assessments and everything.

Meanwhile, while that was gonna okay, but since anyway, your time has expired.

Go ahead and finish up.

Okay, uh meanwhile, uh while that was going on, we had an insurance thing happen.

Rodents just got started getting everywhere, and they ate up the dishwasher, they ate up the the uh the the washing machine and the garage, and we just have water everywhere with him and my daughter there, and she's disabled and I'm disabled.

We called the insurance because it was just water.

We thought we were gonna get electrocuted.

Nowhere to go, so they came and sent this team out to drop everything, and when they did send the team out, then we just kind of got into with the insurance thing.

So I told Chris, I'm like, I told him he said we can't do anything till they leave.

They have to be gone.

I said, Well, can't y'all come in and so I said, because he said, No, we can't do anything till they leave.

So they did their part, you know, as far as uh the the things they were gonna do, the walls and the different floors and getting the water, drying it out, and then uh uh Chris uh came out prior to that.

He took a picture of me, I signed the document, and then he gave me the papers that they were supposed to be doing uh of the work, you know, roof insulation of the roofs, uh way panel for the electoral uh the house, the house is uh the way was able to get in and stay in because uh the wooden is rotten wood that needs to be replaced, and that was gonna be a part of it.

Ms.

Warden, would you yield to our mayor pro team?

Your outstanding city council member.

Hi, Miss Wortham.

Uh, thank you for coming down to City Hall.

It's my understanding that um you have your application in with the housing and community development department.

We've um received some messages that they are working with you uh to see if you uh uh the grant that um you have applied for if you would qualify for that grant.

Have you been in contact with um housing community development?

Someone called me uh but called me over the phone, but no, I haven't they said they would give me back on the 15th uh on the 15th uh or something of this year, but no, I hadn't really filled out the case.

I haven't done any of that to my knowledge.

Okay, someone just called and told me that.

Uh but with rebuilding Houston, when you got the advocate from the VA to call them and ask them to send the paperwork, uh they said it was no paperwork, it was no signing, wasn't there any, which is not true.

It's totally not true.

They owe me the oldest right on the cusp of getting all that done.

And then it's backpelled.

That's wrong.

We're on so many levels.

I have quite a few emails that went back and forth with um Director Jones and the 80 percent AMI for the rebuilding together Houston um program.

But I think probably the quickest and better avenue would be the grant through the housing department because of the AMI requirements of the rebuilding together program.

Um but I know that um Roxanne Lawson and and her team and Cedric Lassain, they have uh sent us a message that they are going to be working with you to try to get a grant to help you rebuild and and repair the things that are needed in your property.

Um I want to thank you, Eric, for walking in.

Eric Goodwine just walked in, he's our director of constituent services.

If you wouldn't mind um chit-chatting with him and making sure that he has your contact information, and we'll make sure that um the housing and community development department has your information, and we can make sure all of the um application, the deeds and everything that they need for the grant to help repair your home is taken care of, and we'll we'll stay in touch with you.

Okay, uh say one thing.

I asked the rebuilding Houston to send the paperwork uh to the VA uh advocate, and they would not.

And I don't know why they wouldn't.

I have it well when they would what would they give it to her, you know, like it never happened, which is not true.

So I just wanted eyes on them, and uh because we'll double check on Dr.

Jones.

I know she's been working with you as well to make sure that we have everything we need to try to get that grant applied for you.

Thank you, Ms.

Wartham.

Thank you.

God bless you.

It'd be great to lift this cabinet's pulling and give me the piece.

Shalom, shalom, we've seen perfect peace, nothing missing and nothing broken.

And I come in the name of the show, and he prevails, he runs.

Amen.

Same to you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next Geneva Colbert, Sandra Evans, Steve Williams.

Lisa Hunt.

To be followed by Joseph Omari.

Happy New Year.

Um, you all will uh come back to big work as you think about the funding for the expansion of the George R.

Brown.

This will be financed through bonds requiring a 30-year public obligation that City Council must approve.

Yet essential financial details remain undisclosed.

What are the total costs of this first phase of the project?

What's the debt service schedule and what happens if the hot revenue projections don't materialize?

The stakes are getting these financial assumptions right or clear.

Houston First is closing Polk Street now while justifying it with promises of better East End connectivity in the future.

But those promised improvements depend entirely on aggressive high tax revenue projections and future construction phases that remain unfunded.

Phase one closes Polk Street.

Future phases that will supposedly restore connectivity, and even then only for pedestrians and cyclists, not drivers or transit riders, exist only as promises tied to decades of assumed growth in hot tax revenue.

We urge you to look seriously and question well the assumptions that are being made in this proposal before you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Joseph Amari.

To be followed by Theodore Carrero.

I don't know why I speak it on this side.

Since Houston has matured into a globalism and become a sanctuary citizen city, even though I was born two black two-born black American parents 65 years ago with my paperwork being right.

Three decades later after elected with my first born day, life-scan black American president who looked like us with other noise and women's political reputation, all my paperwork that used to be classified as a black American citizen, including my driver's license, are now wrong at the economic benefit pool and metal pop.

I like for this 26 2026 government congressmen to justify why I have yet to receive my SSI NSIDI benefit package to this become 62.

At least the integrants and undocumented integrants could get that three minutes to speak at this podium as the City of Houston City Council meeting, jumping down the Black American Board of Camp.

If we have civil unrest in the United States of America, we have a national guard to restore order alone.

Your time has expired.

And once orders is restored, so the police orders restore the government returns being civilian managed government.

There's nothing more crazy than an interesting jealous racist nutcake.

Nutcake led by Phaser Dictator.

I'm left wondering how my Austin Entertainment Company Bash Cup end up being a military mission marshal law.

Thank you.

Have a safe one next.

Theodore Carrero.

I don't see anyone else.

We stay in recess to 9 o'clock in the morning.

Councilman come to order.

At this time, members, uh we'll have our monthly financial report.

Uh recognize the controller and finance director.

Good morning, Mayor, Honorable Members of Council.

Uh first off, happy new year and uh welcome to Councilmember Salinas.

Uh I'm here today to present the monthly financial report for the month of November 2025.

The controller's office is projecting an ending fund balance of $336 million, or 13.2% of expenditures, less debt service, and pay as you go for fiscal year 2026.

This service, uh pardon me, this is 17.5 million dollars lower than the projection of the finance department.

That difference is due to a lower revenue projection than finance.

Based on our current projections, the fund balance will be approximately 144.8 million dollars above the city's target of holding 7.5 percent of total expenditures, excluding debt service and pay as you go in reserve.

We have increased our revenue projection by $2.6 million from the October 2025 report due to the reallocation of ARPA funds for revenue replacement purposes.

We've increased our expenditure projection by $3.4 million from the October 2025 report with significant changes as follows.

An increase of $2 million in solid waste due to higher than anticipated heavy trash pickup services, and an increase of 1.3 million dollars in police to restore critical vacant positions.

We're projecting no changes from the previous month's amounts in our enterprise funds.

For our commercial paper and bonds, the city's practice has been to maintain no more than 20 percent of the total outstanding debt for each type of debt in a variable rate structure, which is in line with rating agency guidance of 25 percent or less.

From time to time, the city's enterprise credits have exceeded this threshold on an interim basis as they have undertaken large capital improvement projects or major expansions.

As of November 30, 2025, the ratio of unhedged bearable rate debt for convention and entertainment was 48.9 percent due to the ongoing expansion of the George R.

Brown Convention Center.

The ratio of unhedged variable rate debt for each other type of debt remained well below the 20 percent threshold.

Additionally, Mayor.

On December 19th, the Controller's Office published the fiscal year 2025 annual comprehensive financial report, and we received a clean audit report.

While the City's total net position increased by 1.5 billion dollars in fiscal year 2025, this improvement was driven largely by capital asset investment and reductions in certain long-term liabilities rather than by increased operating flexibility.

As we all know, the city continues to have unfunded liabilities due to retiree health care and other long-term obligations.

We have made progress in reducing pension and OPEB liabilities, but the major operating shortfall remains as General Fund revenues decline and expenditures continue to grow.

This underscores the need for sustained, disciplined, long-term financial planning and structural reforms to protect the city's financial future.

Mayor, members of council.

Today you're deciding whether or not to spend $30 million from the stormwater fund on building demolition.

Let me start by grounding us in what this debate actually is and what it is not.

This is not a disagreement about whether blighted and dangerous buildings are a problem in Houston.

They are.

Demolish the blighted building, eliminate illegal dumping, and then protect drainage.

Here's what I actually saw.

Yes, the city demolished a blighted structure with an approved funding source.

But directly across the street on an empty lot with no building at all, no blight at all, there were tons of illegally dumped debris, stretching the length of multiple football fields.

And throughout the surrounding neighborhood, dumping continued in areas with no blight nearby.

Two things were immediately clear.

First, this approach does not address the problem it claims to solve.

It did not.

Second, and more importantly, this exposes the flaw in the legal argument itself.

Illegal dumping is happening with or without blighted buildings, which means the building is not the cause of the illegal dumping.

And if the building isn't the cause, then demolishing it is not stormwater maintenance, even if you otherwise believe the mayor's far-fetched argument here.

Now that might sound to you like common sense, but it's also the law.

Let me turn the process because this matters just as much.

The city charter assigns the controller an independent oversight responsibility.

Unfortunately, it does not say always make things convenient.

It requires the controller to withhold approval from spending that is not lawful.

When this item first came to my office, we exercised that duty in good faith.

We did not posture or deflect.

We asked specific foundational questions.

Number one, has a stormwater fund ever been used before for this purpose?

The answer was no, despite the misleading responses that public work staff gave to you yesterday.

Question number two can you point us to any stormwater related program within public works that includes demolition as part of the program?

And there was no such program, and there is still no such program today.

The law on this is very clear.

Money's deposited in the stormwater fund can only be used to plan, build, and maintain stormwater related programs and facilities.

And no, the house at STEM Sims and Noble is not a stormwater related facility.

It was a house.

The old Kmart on homestead, as badly as we want it torn down, is not a cause of flooding.

Even if you promised the community that you were going to use stormwater dollars to tear the Kmart down, the Kmart is not a cause of flooding.

There are real flood issues in District B, and it would be both legal and beneficial to use the stormwater fund to address those issues, not divert floodwater's flood dollars to unrelated causes.

Instead of engaging honestly with our office and working toward a legal solution, the administration repackaged that same work to evade the financial oversight of the controller's office, taking the position that $30 million in new spending no longer needed controller review at all.

That's how we got here today.

That interpretation guts the city charter.

And if that interpretation is accepted, it will allow any administration to bypass fiscal oversight at any time, simply by expanding an existing contract, no matter the dollar amount, no matter the risk, no matter the legality.

That should not pass the smell test for any of you.

Whether it's by passing an ordinance or supporting a charter amendment to make it clear, council should be for honest financial oversight and should be against efforts to circumvent that oversight.

Because what's taking place today is not sound financial management.

It is not government that Houstonians can trust.

Now let's address the legal standards.

You've heard that this act might be defensible.

You've heard that it might survive a lawsuit.

You've heard that the dictionary definition can stretch words like maintenance to cover demolition.

That's not the standard.

Compliance is the standard.

Common sense plain language is the legal standard.

And just saying that we can that we can try to defend an action in court after the fact does not make that action legal before the fact.

We've been here before as a city.

Very recently, we lost a lawsuit related to misappropriation of drainage fund dollars.

And it is nuts that we are even close to considering misappropriating stormwater funds just a few months later.

These shortcut shortcuts compound risk.

They do not resolve risk.

And let's talk about the lean argument.

We're told this is really just a loan, that these stormwater funds will be repaid someday.

But flood risk does not operate on someday.

Drainage failures do not wait for redevelopment cycles at some point in some part of town.

And in neighborhoods where properties have been abandoned for years, repayment even in those circumstances is far from certain.

That means stormwater dollars are gone now and drainage needs continue to exist later.

Calling that a repayment plan does not make it one in real life.

At moments like this, leadership requires someone to tell the truth.

And the truth today is that this action is not allowed.

Uhholding the rules is not obstruction.

It's honest dealing.

It's not politics, this is accountability.

This is sound governance.

This item is unlawful as it's written.

And unfortunately, the very real need to address blighted properties does not change that.

Rhetoric does not change that.

And rubber stamps from the mayor staff do not change that.

If you want to address this need, and I believe that you do, do it through a lawful funding source.

The responsible, compliant path forward is to follow the law and address Houston's challenges without compromising the systems that protect Houstonians from flooding.

And just as importantly, protect the trust that Houstonians should have in their city government to use tax dollars for their intended purposes.

Every dedicated fund represents a promise made to Houstonians.

I'm going to repeat that.

Every dedicated fund represents a promise made to Houstonians.

My role is to protect those promises, even when it's uncomfortable, especially when it's uncomfortable.

And that's your job too.

And you need to do your job today.

And we should be working together on these challenging problems, not working around each other and certainly not attempting to work around the law.

As always, my office stands ready to work with the mayor to work with city council to identify lawful funding sources for critical city services.

Thank you.

And that concludes my report.

Good morning.

This is the 5 plus 7 financial report for the period ending November 30th, 2025.

Fiscal year 26 projections are based on five months of actual results and seven months of projections.

For the general fund, the revenue projection is 41.9 million lower than the adopted budget and 2.6 million higher than the prior month.

The variance from the prior month projection is due to an increase in intergovernmental revenue to reflect utilization of unallocated ARPA funds for revenue replacement.

We're not making any changes to the sales tax projection for this month, but to give you an update, the sales tax receipts for the month of October were $78.7 million, which is about 6% higher than the same period last year and about 9% higher than budgeted for the period.

To meet the current estimate of $902 million, the remaining periods would need to come about 3.65% below the prior year.

So we'll continue to monitor this revenue stream.

On the expenditure side, the projection is $9.5 million higher than the adopted budget and $3.4 million higher than the prior month, with the variance primarily due to $2 million increase in solid waste management for heavy trash pickup and $1.3 million increase to police department for critical positions.

With those changes, we're currently projecting the ending fund balance to be $353.5 million, which is about $800,000 lower than the previous month, but represents $13.9% of estimated expenditures, not including debt service and pay as you go.

That fund balance is $162 million above the target of holding 7.5% of expenditures not including debt service and pay as you go.

In the enterprise special revenue and other funds, we're not projecting any changes in those funds.

And then as an update to the audit, as the controller mentioned, the audit was released last month.

Our office collaborated with the controller's office and the other city departments.

We received a clean audit with zero findings, which is a major accomplishment for the city, especially given that we've transitioned to a new external auditor, which leads to uh you know significant work on the part of the staff in the departments.

Um we talked a lot about that at the BFA committee yesterday, so I won't go into all the details of the numbers, but uh.

And then touching on the stormwater topic, the public works department gave a thorough update to the BFA committee yesterday, um and the slides are available on the website.

Um they went over the flow of funds, they explained the 8% limitation, which is the transfer of monies from the combined utility system to the stormwater fund, which is the limitation that's set out by the master bond ordinance and is in compliance with the master bond ordinance.

So they talked a lot about that yesterday.

Um the funds that we're talking about with the item that the controller mentioned fall within that 8 percent limitation that's set out by the ordinance.

Um I know that you all have received the memo from the city attorney, so I won't get into the details of the legality of it.

Um, but those funding sources were budgeted in the city's annual budget.

Um of course, as those items come to City Council for approval, we continue to have robust discussions about them, but they are part of the stormwater fund, which is a special revenue fund, which is separate from an enterprise fund of the city and also separate from the DDSRF, which is the drainage fund.

Um so those funds are all segregated and separated in compliance with the master bond ordinance and the creation of those funds.

Um the other thing that public works discussed yesterday is the increased amount of resources coming into the stormwater fund, which again is still within that 8 percent cap that's mandated by the combined utility systems master bond ordinance.

Uh, even with the additional funding for the 25 million that's in the budget for the demolition purposes in the stormwater fund, uh you see there's about a $60 million increase from fiscal year 26 compared to fiscal year 25 for not only the demolition program, but also additional uh stormwater work that is obviously very badly needed in the city.

Um again, that's all within the 8 percent cap that's laid out in the master bond ordinance.

The utility um system again, there are some pictures and information that was part of that uh presentation.

So I think we had a good robust discussion at the committee meeting yesterday.

Thank you to Chair Alcorn for uh allowing us to discuss that topic.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Councilman Cayman.

Uh good morning, Mayor, good morning, colleagues, director, city controller.

Uh we had a a robust conversation yesterday as it pertains to uh the use of the stormwater funds.

Uh I didn't have the opportunity during that presentation to ask the controller's office uh some questions pertaining to it.

So, controller, if I may, I I have some questions for you.

Sure.

Uh since you you've raised this as well.

Um can you talk a little bit more about the process?

Again, you mentioned this came to your office and it was not certified.

And you said that I guess this is an inappropriate or illegal use of the funds.

Is that correct?

Uh well, just to be very clear, that was the conclusion, but that's not how it started.

Okay.

Uh this was an item that showed up on the agenda.

It was at the time a $500 million, I'm pardon, excuse me, a $50 million item.

And uh my office went through the normal certification process going and looking and dotting the I's and crossing the T's.

Uh and my team flagged it uh saying, hey, this uh seems to be an abnormal and unrecognized use of this fund.

And so we need to ask a few questions.

And so we reached out uh directly to public works.

That's the normal course of business for any time we have questions just to go to the department.

Um I spoke directly uh to the director and followed up in writing.

And we asked them two questions, which I laid out in my remarks, which was number one, real basic questions.

Has this ever been done before?

Has this sort of demolition ever been covered by the stormwater fund before?

And the answer to that was no.

We got that answer in writing.

We gave that answer to you in the memo that we provided to you uh in December.

Then the second question asked us, uh asked, well, okay, if it hasn't been done before, uh the the other piece that might make it legal uh is if it's part of a storm water related program.

And so can you point to any program uh that is a you know stormwater related program that also has demolition as part of it?

And the answer was no.

There the program did not exist.

And and let me be clear, you know, a video showing some trash in the street is not a program.

Right.

Um a hunch is not a program, right?

When you're talking about spending tens of millions of dollars, right?

What any of us would would think about common sense.

If you were a small business owner, if you're talking about your household finances, you would say, okay, let's let's look at the evidence that would show that these blighted homes or or buildings are a real problem, that doing this would solve it.

You might see like a pilot where you try it out and and see if it worked or not.

Uh you would have some written documentation and and then that would come together to be like a program.

Now we're going to go and do this.

Now we're going to go spend $50 million on this.

But we just said show us, you know, point to anything that shows that there is a program that exists that includes demolition that is stormwater related.

And they could point to nothing.

And so from there, we also asked for a legal opinion.

Our Toro uh provided one.

We submitted that to you as well with the memo that we sent you a few weeks ago.

But it was not in any way convincing.

You know, it talked about after Hurricane Harvey, how you might use some dollars to, you know, get rid of homes that had been flooded.

That's a clear flood-related purpose.

Right.

But a whole bunch of non-sequitors and things that were not relevant, but nothing that in any way demonstrated that there was a stormwater-related program in existence that included demolition, and also no evidence that the stormwater fund had ever been used before for this purpose.

In addition to consulting public works, in addition to uh consulting city legal, I also reached out to multiple former mayors, multiple former controllers, uh, a former chair of the budget and fiscal affairs committee, uh, as well as several attorneys, just to ask, am I crazy?

Right?

Am I missing something here?

And the answer was no, right?

People like laughed out loud when I described this concept of a home where you know the gutter might fall off or bricks might fall off, and those bricks would float into a drainage system or a home or building that would invite uh people to camp out and dump and then those dumpings flow into the drainage system.

They they literally laughed out loud.

And so we got back to them and said, look, this does not pass a smell test, as important of an issue as this is, as much as I want to see personally, as a Houstonian, blighted properties done away with uh when they're causing damage to neighborhoods, that does not make it a flood-related issue or stormwater-related issue.

And so that doesn't make it a proper use of this fund.

And so from there, we declined uh to approve uh that agenda item.

We saw essentially, you know, radio silence for a while.

So we concluded that it was either over or you know, we get back to it or something, at some point we might re-engage and how to productively move forward, how there might be a legal funding source.

Uh what we then saw was it popped up on the agenda again, this time as an expansion of another type of contract.

So uh we're part of a cooperative.

The intention of these cooperatives is ultimately to save money and to speed up the contracting process and the bid process.

Um this administration has taken the position that when you were expand upon a contract of that nature, that it no longer needs to go to the controller's office for certification.

Um thus, you know, that that oversight, that certification was evaded, and then we find ourselves here with it on the agenda.

Um that's a major problem.

Yeah, and I I guess my my final question and director, I I saw you kind of punch in to go to the queue.

So I'm I want to hear your response as well.

Uh and we're gonna, I know, have a very robust discussion when the item itself comes up.

But as it relates to uh the process with a city controller and the certification process, my question uh and concern about the circumvention.

So if something is not certified and we're we're going around and finding, again, we're all looking for solutions here.

This is not, this is a good conversation to have, but the legality of circumvention if the city controller doesn't certify something and the ability to attach another item to uh a current standing contract.

Director, please on I also do want to hear back from the city controller and city legal on the ability to circumvent the authority of the controller in that way.

And I think uh this the city attorney can expand on it.

But the funding that's associated with the item, and the controller talks about the circumvention, that funding was certified with the controller's office certification of the budget.

So it's already certified by his office for this purpose.

But okay, I that we keep talking about the budget, and Councilmember Alcorn, I certainly don't want to take the words out of your mouth.

But as our chair pointed out yesterday, there are other things in the budget that we authorized, including uh tax increases, I believe you said, that we are not doing.

There are things in the budget that doesn't take away the ability of us to say, hang on, item by item, we're not doing that.

But just because something is in the budget.

Right.

The body is voting on the budget, and when the items individually come to council, it's tying funding to certain contracts or going through co-ops.

But this, the money associated with this item is already budgeted, appropriated, and was certified at the time of the budget.

What the body is approving with this item is do you want to spend that money towards these contracts?

But it also for every item, then uh multiple items wouldn't be coming to council.

And it wouldn't be coming to the controller's office for certification of each individual item.

So just because something is in the budget doesn't mean it uh diminishes the controller or council's ability to examine that item, question that item, and say, yes, this is an appropriate use or not.

So controller, do you I mean, yeah, why does any item ever come to the controller's office for certification, right?

If if that logic would hold up, then literally nothing outside of budget season would ever come to the controller's office for certification.

Not all funds are appropriate at the time of the budget.

Now, and we also know that type two funds.

We also know that I don't certify the budget at all.

What I certify is the continuing appropriation.

That continuing appropriation uh does not go into we're gonna spend this money on this thing for this purpose.

There is a fund item, and then there is a dollar amount.

And we certify, you know, the the belief and intention that money will be in that particular account to spend over the course of the fiscal year in that amount.

It's basically saying we can pay this bill when it comes due.

That's not looking at any individual line item of spend.

It's looking account by account and saying we believe uh that and certify that the money will be an account, that the city will be able to pay its bills on this broad uh set of spending.

The individual items come to our office, as you know, for an additional look.

And part of that look in the charter is legality.

I will read to you, you know, from our city charter, the controller, and says he, but there can be women controllers, as you know.

The controller shall not sign any contract, nor make or execute any warrant or order for the payment of any sum of money unless the same be legal.

And all prerequisites and requirements shall have been complied with.

That is what is in our city charter.

Right?

And so us looking at the legality is certainly part of the certification process.

It's certainly part of us paying any invoice that comes in even after the fact, even when the contract is in place.

That's our obligation, and we're upholding that obligation, and this is clearly an effort to go around that oversight.

Now, we talk about expansion of contracts, and this is in tech in some technical language, the expansion of a contract because we are part of this co-op that has a big master contract.

But this the TIPS co-op, the specific co-op that we're a part of, we joined it in 2024.

Uh we don't have any previous interactions through that contract with any of the vendors that are on this line item today.

And so that that contract is being expanded from zero dollars to $30 million.

Again, if you were running a business council member came in and you had a CFO, would you want one of your uh you know department leaders to go and spend $30 million that hadn't been looked at at all by the CFO?

I don't think you would.

It's common sense, but it's also the way our charter is set up, it's the intention of how this city governs itself, and it's it's my elected role, and we need to follow it.

And so that that's a big problem.

Separate and apart from this individual item, that loophole, which shouldn't even be called a loophole because you can drive a $30 million truck right through it, needs to be addressed.

Understood.

Last question for both of you.

Ums in your opinion, why is this not an appropriate or legal use of funds, Director, and layman's terms, why is this an appropriate use of funds?

This is a restricted fund.

There are only specific items that this can be that this fund can be spent on.

If you do not fall within that, we cannot spend money on that.

This is stormwater related expenses.

The planning, the building, and the maintenance of stormwater related programs and facilities.

Demolition of neighborhood homes is not that.

Demolition of Kmart that are sitting in an empty parking lot with a fence around it, not causing any flood issue whatsoever, are not storm-related facilities or programs.

That is why this type of spend is illegal and falls outside the bounds of the permissible use of the Houston Stormwater Fund.

So we talked at the committee yesterday, Public Works talked about the demolition of every building that the city is going to demolish does not qualify for use by the stormwater fund if it doesn't impact the stormwater system or drainage, right?

So the ordinance that created the stormwater fund says that the fund may be used for the maintenance and operation, and the controller talked about facilities, but he didn't talk about how the ordinance says that you can use it for the maintenance and operation of the stormwater system, including conduits, channels, ditches, drainage easements, et cetera, and other components.

And with these properties, in certain circumstances for only certain properties, as the public works department talked about, it's not going to be every property that's demolished won't qualify for this fund.

But if the stormwater is flowing and debris is coming from these buildings that need to be demolished into the ditch, and we repeatedly go out and pick up the same debris from the ditch, from the same property every time there is a storm event.

The stormwater system is being impacted.

And maintenance, I think everyone would agree, maintenance includes preventative maintenance.

Absolutely.

So, Councilmember, just to be clear, from page one of my prepared remarks, which you heard about 20 minutes ago, I say the stormwater fund is a restricted enterprise fund created by ordinance for maintaining and improving stormwater infrastructure, ditches, pipes, inlets, culverts, detention, drainage systems.

Clearly I said that.

And so let's not act like I didn't.

And I appreciate both the responses.

Again, I know we will continue this discussion when the item comes up.

We did get some criteria sent to us uh yesterday evening around 6 p.m.

Um, but one of the concerns, Director, is that if even if any property within a floodplain will automatically qualify for stormwater funding eligibility.

That's everything.

Um point of order, Mayor, I'm sorry to cut you off.

Um I would like to um get back to the monthly financial report while I really appreciate this discussion, but um we will have ample time to discuss this when the item arrives.

So I really appreciate your comments, both of you.

But I um if if you're willing to yield, I think I'm next in the more than happy to yield.

Okay, thank you.

Um I would like to bring up something that was said um by Will Jones yesterday about the ACFER, and thank you for all your hard work, both departments on the ACFER.

Something that really caught my eye and attention was, Mayor, the funded pensions.

I remember back in 2016, and I just pulled the number.

This is before pension reform in 2017.

The municipal pension was funded at 48 percent, it is now 79 percent.

The police pension was funded at 62 percent, it's now 94 percent.

The fire pension was funded at 81 percent, it's now 99 percent.

So, props to 2017 and all the good work that was done on pension reform, the proof is in the pudding.

There's some great news there in the ACFER, and I look forward to digging into it more.

And I and again, I did not mean to squelch this conversation.

I more than anyone have had a lot to say about the stormwater thing, but I think it's more germane to discuss during the during the business section.

And that is completely appropriate.

This is the only opportunity we get to actually hear from the controller.

I understood.

So thank you.

Uh Councilmember Alcorn.

And Councilman Alcorn, you took the words out of my mouth.

Members.

Uh this is the finance report.

And I think we should have an active discussion when the item comes up.

Councilmember Alcorn, uh, that work in 2017 was incredibly important work.

And it took teamwork not only on behalf of the mayor's office, the controller's office, uh, the various unions and pension boards, uh, making real sacrifice and the State Legislature.

Um the city faces requires that type of clear-eyed thinking, uh, that type of teamwork and that type of dealing with the reality that we find ourselves in.

And so there are other issues that are facing the city, particularly our our record deficits that would need to be solved with that same amount uh of vigor.

And I failed to say in my comments on the ACFAR, uh, although it was said yesterday, um the finance team, the controller's office staff, several different department staffs worked incredibly hard along with our new auditor to make that work.

And so uh again, that's an example of you know solving some tough problems that happened behind the scenes uh when the teams work together.

So we're very grateful to Director Dabowski uh for that and to uh all of the folks who made that possible Mayor, I've got a quick question.

Could I possibly ask the controller or go ahead, Councilman?

Okay.

And I stated when we talked about this several weeks ago that I thought it was a stretch as far as the use of these funds, but I don't think it's beyond the stretch of being reasonable.

Um the city attorney has given his opinion that you know this would not be something that we would uh be in danger of litigation on.

Uh Bill King sent out his post yesterday as well, stating the exact same thing.

Why do you think that they are wrong and you're correct?

Um the city attorney points out in his legal memo to me that the interpretation of this, the legal interpretation of this.

So this is how a court, a judge uh would look at this, is the plain language understanding.

And we even Director Dabowski and myself have read versions of that right now.

Uh it's in like the very first page of the memo that I sent you, as well as the backup that Arturo sent me.

But it's very plain language.

Money is deposited in the stormwater fund, may be used only for the planning, design, construction, regulation, improvement, repair, maintenance, and operation of facilities and programs related to the system or network of stormwater management facilities, including but not limited to inlets, conduits, manholes, channels, ditches, drainage easements, retention and detention basin, infiltration facilities, and other components.

Um knocking down homes on the theory that debris from those homes will at some point flow into the drainage system is beyond a reach.

Beyond a reach.

I think we have had very different experiences while I agree with you that illegal dumping occurs in multiple locations and not limited to structures that need to be torn down.

I have seen where the blighted structures absolutely encourage more of the illegal dumping.

And I don't think it's a stretch to say that that dumped material ends up into the stormwater systems.

I apologize for interrupting you, Councilman.

Go ahead.

It should be very easy to document specific evidence of that and then establish a program.

That has not happened.

There's there is no again, what we've seen is like a 10-minute uh 10-second video that shows like some stuff in a ditch.

We could go show that about literally anything in the city of Houston.

We could make all kinds of arguments about how you know we should expand Metro and use drainage dollars for it.

And the reason why we should do it is because it will take cars off the street, that will take pollution out of the air, that'll take polluted rain out of our system that flows into the drainage system.

We could certainly make that argument.

It's a stretch, right?

And so you would say, well, document that for me.

Let me see how that could actually happen.

And that documentation, that planning, that work that's that would be called a program, does not exist here.

Thank you.

Councilmember, you want to be recognized for the mayor's.

Yes, Mayor.

I'm gonna go around the horse here.

I do, Mayor.

And just very briefly, I want to.

Uh congratulations, Director Dabowski, on the clean audit.

Uh you and your finance team have a very tough job, and uh you guys do it very well.

And so, congratulations to you and your team, and thank you for always answering questions that I have uh professionally and promptly.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I I want to echo the controller's remarks on the audit.

Councilman Pollard, do you want now or we have a question?

Yeah.

I just want to echo the controller's remarks on the audit.

Um it's definitely a team effort, not just by the finance department and the controller's office, of course, but also the other departments at the city and all their staff.

So thank you.

Very good.

Uh Councilman Carter, you want to recognize now, or would you Oh, I'm sorry.

Council, thank you, Molly.

Go ahead.

We got a weird system going on today with the with the queue.

Um thank you both for your presentations.

Uh I do want to really emphasize, you know, the system of government that we're in and and and the process of that we we should be following.

You know, there has to be checks and balances in everything that we do.

Um the checks and balances that uh are implemented here within this local government is to have a a controller's office that can give independent oversight uh based on their perspective of city finances.

And when we go around his office to then bring items to this agenda just because we can make an argument that maybe we certified it through the budget or we're expanding a contract, that limits his office's ability to give us insight and unbiased insight, oversight insight for us to then make our decisions.

And if we just go off of what is certified in the budget at one point in time, then what what point is it for us to come here every single week and then discuss items that have already been put forth in the budget?

And so I I think we have to really um emphasize and highlight the importance of ensuring that the controller's office uh is able to not only receive information but also be able to provide feedback to us as a body so that we can make informed decisions.

When you go around that, you are you're cutting the ability for our system of government here at a local level to have appropriate checks and balances that I think is only fair and reasonable under you know all circumstances.

And so when he is telling us directly that his office is not able to get certain information or to be able to look at it in a way that is customary and traditional, then that's the issue.

And that that is something that I think we all need to be concerned about to ensure that we're getting all the proper information, especially from uh the independent oversight elected official uh that is put in that position just for that specific purpose.

Thank you.

Councilmember Carter?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um with respect to Councilmember Alcorn's request, um I just had one comment to address the controller.

Sorry, Sally.

Um, you know, you mentioned a few times maintenance, and it seems that you know maintenance is part of the definition that you know, use of the funds, but it seems that perhaps maybe the comments are subjective to your definition of maintenance.

So how do you if clearly there have been properties that are identified as obstructing drainage, and as it's been laid out and repeatedly discussed, what is your definition of maintenance and how do we decide that this falls outside of the definition of maintenance?

What's in uh first of all, again, plain language is the legal standard.

And so I would point you, uh I I don't mean this in any disrespect.

I would I would literally point you to the dictionary definition of the word maintenance.

That's that is the plain language.

Um it would be the first definition, not like the 17th definition of the word maintenance within a dictionary.

That's what plain language uh is.

Um here, maintaining a ditch, maintaining a drain is not knocking down a building that's separate and apart from the drain, period.

And again, the initial theory before we came up with the theory that these uh these buildings invited pollution that then flowed over into the drains at some point, um and by the way, the the house that got knocked down over on Sins and Noble had a fence around it.

So what's going to flow from that building through the fence and into the drain?

But the uh the original theory was they're falling apart, and that the bricks, the roofing, the gutters, they fall apart, and then those gutters flow over again, this is act like this is your money coming out of your pocket.

If somebody explained that to you, and this is our city's money, this is taxpayers' money, the Houstonians' money.

If somebody explained that to you, would you call that maintenance?

Like would you say making sure that a brick doesn't fall off of this house and at some point in the future flow over into a ditch and then into a drain pipe that that's a good use of $30 million?

I mean, again, we're talking about common sense plain language, maintaining a ditch, it's cleaning out the ditch, cutting the grass, taking the stuff out of it, right?

Would you go another 10, 20 feet and pick that stuff up too?

So I knock down a building.

So if it's trickling down into the drainage, if it's these are all individual, you know, we're not talking about a blanket, let's demolish every building that needs to be using that.

I think everything in the clearly, clearly yesterday the director of public works stated that that's not the case.

So I think that it goes back to a subjective view on maintenance and how we how we look at each individual property.

You know, if you've got if you've got debris flowing in from and you know I respect your opinion and your thoughts on you know what comes through the front fence, but clearly think of it as as you are asking me to think of it as my own money, ask of ask yourself to think of it as your own property.

And if you've got if you've got uh debris cluttering the drainage ditch, do you just keep keep cleaning up each side of it and ignore what is coming down, ignore, ignore the input and just kind of, well let's just skip this and we will clear here and clear there.

Like I think I think we have to if we're going to look at maintenance as subjective, we need to look at these individual properties in the same light.

I agree with you, Councilmember, that you should look at the cause, right?

And in my conversation with Councilmember Flickinger, I would say if we really think that is the cause, let's go establish that that's the cause.

There's work that could be done, any kind of study, any kind of pilot that establishes that this is a real thing versus conjecture.

You know in my comments to you, I don't think we discussed the pilot at all.

I think we discussed a $30 million investment in doing this.

In my comments to you, I I also said yeah you would go potentially 10 feet further, 20 feet further and gather that stuff up too if it was sitting there right in front of you.

Knocking down an entire building that is like we're going to, you know, it's it's it is beyond a stretch.

And then I haven't seen the criteria that were apparently sent across to you all last night.

I am just taking the council member at her word.

She said that the criteria and she could read it again if she would like to included every property within a floodplain.

That is all of Houston Thank you mayor.

In respectfully I really appreciate all of the reports at the time we had given reports but I thought that was a point of order so that we can move on to the agenda items because there are several different questions and point I would like to make but I would rather wait till the item period that way we can you know not in not disrespectful about this opinion but.

Very good Council Member Power.

My question is for the Director the money that we're using right the stormwater fund money that comes from water bills, correct?

The majority of the revenue into stormwater comes from water bills, yes, on utility system.

And so rate payers so taxpayers through their water bills, pay their water bills, that money then goes towards maintaining our water and wastewater system.

Correct.

When we take money from that account and we start spending it on you know new items or new things like demolition there will be less money for that fund to keep up that system in order for us to then in the future be able to maintain that system at sustainable levels.

The only way we would be able to do that if if there's not enough money is to then have to increase water bills or water rates for taxpayers to pay to then supplement that money back into the account.

Is that a a true assessment or is that a fair assessment for me to make?

It is a fair assessment that the money comes from the rate it's a fair assessment that the money comes from the ratepayers.

The 8 percent that is allowed under the master bond ordinance for the utility is already contemplated when we set the rate.

So right now the transfer from the utility into stormwater is below that 8 percent threshold and even with this additional funding that is budgeted in FY25 it's still below that threshold.

So it is already contemplated as part of the rates that exist today.

The utility right now has a fund balance and Councilmember Alcorn was asking this yesterday so I want to follow up on that the utility right now has a fund balance of about 1.2 billion dollars they maintain a certain number of days cash on hand which they are in compliance with according to the to the master bond ordinance and they maintain the debt service coverage ratio.

The minimum debt service coverage ratio is about 1.2 times and rate now their coverage ratio is over two times.

So they are well exceeding that the long story short share question is it will not impact ratepayers because it is already contemplated as part of the rate study.

Is it not affecting ratepayers today or it should not affect them going forward at all?

The 8 percent is already part of the what goes into the rate study, and this is within that 8 percent.

So but but to be clear, in layman's terms, ratepayers should not or taxpayers should not be looking at any type of increase tax rate or water bill in the future based on the decision that we make today regarding this.

Based on this, right.

There's a lot of other things that go into the rate study, right?

The CIP program that we have to undertake, the consent decree that we have to undertake, but this funding is already contemplated as part of that 8 percent cap.

Thank you.

Councilman, one one last thing uh is relevant to Councilman Pollard.

You might remind people or reference to the handout.

When you became the director when many of us were sworn in, the fund had a balance of 40 million dollars.

It reached 100 million last year, and today we're sitting on 160 million in this fund.

So, and I want to allow the uh so thank you.

Uh it's relevant to look at the current balance versus the balance we inherited when we were sworn in.

Councilmember, I want to make sure that uh the controller has a chance to uh respond as well.

If he has a response.

Yes, so just in terms of funding sort of money that flows into the stormwater fund, um a big part of it is ratepayers as was discussed.

In addition, uh tens of millions of dollars each year flow into that fund from the dedicated drainage and street renewal fund, the exact fund that the city has been sued successfully uh for misappropriating.

Uh obviously it is called a dedicated drainage and street renewal fund.

Uh and so we would be talking about street renewal and drainage as the approved purposes of that money, which is why it flows over to our stormwater fund, which is clearly supposed to be about drainage.

So that's thing number one.

Thing number two, uh, you are exactly right that if you have a pot of money that's limited, let's call it 100 dollars, and you spend 30 of those dollars on option A, then you no longer have a hundred dollars to spend on option B.

You have you now have 70 dollars.

So, yes, every dollar that gets spent uh for a what we're calling a new uh cause or project is no longer available to spend on the old projects.

Um the last thing I'll say is I know an argument has been brought up about the capacity to actually do more stormwater work, and like let's be serious.

Uh we know that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of engineering uh firms, of builders of construction firms, et cetera, that would love to do this kind of work across the City of Houston and stand ready and waiting.

And so we have the capacity uh to do more, and the reason why the fund is built up to much more than what it is, is because we're not doing enough.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I I appreciate this discussion as well, all my colleagues, and I think we're all trying to be respectful of everybody's role.

I appreciate uh the conversation you are bringing, uh, Controller Hollins.

Um ultimately we're gonna have to make this decision, and I think um leaning into the city attorney, uh leaning into the public works is also part of our you know our due diligence as well as as uh council members.

And I think you have mentioned that this has never been done before, all right.

Um I think it was noted yesterday as well by Director uh Matt Hye that uh we don't have a program, but it is a program that is needed.

And I would even invite you to, you know, 8300 Gulf Freeway at Winkler, where there is a specific uh location where drainage is being impeded by a dangerous building at one point, and also illegal dumping.

And and to that point, you know, I I want to I want to make sure that that um you know it is very clear as my my colleague, Councilmir Carter was alluding to.

This is not every demolition, every building in the city.

This there is a flow chart that the that the director is also working on.

So to your point as as far as the pilot, um it's something that that is that we're trying to we're we are working towards.

Um so I would encourage you to continue to follow the work that we are doing after we vote on this to ensure that we're we are following within those guidelines.

Um my question is how strongly do you feel that it's unlawful?

Quite strongly.

Um if it passes, would you be suing the city on this, or is it something that you would take move on?

I don't know that as a fiduciary of the city that I think.

Well, as a citizen as a uh citizen of Houston, you could, though.

That's uh that's fair.

I I think that that would probably be a conflict of interest.

I'd have to consult the.

I'm just a question.

Um, you know, I think uh, and I haven't I haven't contemplated the next step.

Um, you know, obviously at some point uh they'd send us an invoice for illegal work.

I'd have to think about whether I was going to pay on that invoice.

And so that's a question again.

I haven't thought they would have dealt with it.

Uh but it's a it's a valid question, and I appreciate that.

Well, I look forward to seeing uh this this program take into effect and addressing areas where we know that there is dangerous buildings impeding drainage as well.

The program that does not exist.

That we're working on currently.

Um I'd love to uh the the uh the property that you mentioned, 8300.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Mayor Pro Chair.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think that um I wanted to just kind of check the appetite of the council to uh take item 35.

Um out of order.

Um is there a motion to take item 30.

Summit second.

We gotta do the upports.

You have to accept the report.

Right.

We're in the middle of report.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, let's get to report.

And then to accept the monthly financial report dated November.

Okay, good.

The finance.

Uh and I'll withdraw my I'll withdraw my motion on the that it was out of order, and then I'm going to make a separate motion to accept the monthly financial report dated November 30th, 2021.

I think y'all can uh second, Castillo.

Councilman Flick and Drew, okay.

You had your light on.

All right.

Motion Bane second to accept the finance report.

All in favor, say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Okay.

Let me say what I want to say first.

Go ahead.

And it will lead right into that.

Members, uh you've just witnessed the uh controller abuse.

My generosity of allowing him to do personal privileges in an effort to work together.

I have been very lenient.

I am told by veterans of this body that Sylvester Turner would never have given Chris Brown personal privilege opportunities.

So I first think we have to address are we going to allow the controller to lobby for something that's on the agenda as a personal privilege issue?

And take up politics and clickbait and all the misinformation that we just heard.

You know, words matter.

And you can have a disagreement over policy, but to go and do clickbait to say something is illegal matters.

I was in legislature 50 years.

Have dealt with most parliamentary matters.

Never have heard someone to publicly call what a legislative body is doing is illegal.

I am offended.

I am offended for this body.

If it was illegal, it would not be on this agenda.

He knows it.

We know it.

The city attorney knows it.

Public works, who happens to be an attorney, knows it as well.

It is just wrong for the controller to try to assume the responsibility of the city attorney.

We have probably the most respected city attorney in the State that you routinely ask for legal opinions and depend on it.

Prop A matters.

I could go through a list.

Arturo is one of the best.

He has a reputation.

He has integrity that is being challenged by the controller's remarks.

In fact, each and every one of us, our integrity is being challenged, and I'm going to stand up for this body.

Our integrity is being challenged, and I'm going to stand up for this body.

I look forward to discussing the merits of this proposal.

No, it's not the old way of doing business.

The old ways led us to having thousands of dangerous abandoned buildings.

In fact, Councilmember Jackson, who had back surgery yesterday, has reached out and said the controller needs to spend more time in District B.

To get to the Kmart, he passed up the crack houses where the homeless are congregating.

This is no time for politics.

We've got a serious problem.

The policy for this was set in the budget.

Yes, we've never had the water fund, stormwater fund to be used in this manner, but never did solid waste have the responsibility of making sure abandoned buildings did not interfere with the drainage.

We put 25 million for this very program in the budget, which the controller certified.

The policy was approved, and of course the details of the policy are to be worked out for this body.

We're the policymakers, not the controller.

Whether it's legal or not is the judgment and advice of the city attorney.

So I'm sorry that there's disagreement over the policy.

But I know some at-large council members know what we're dealing with, but for certain individual single member district council members know it's one of our highest priorities.

No plan was submitted by the critics.

How are we going to go through the neighborhoods?

Independent heights, Sunnyside.

I could go through Fifth Ward, Third Ward.

People are pleading with us to demolish dangerous buildings that do block the culverts and the drainage ditches.

It's irrefutable.

You could get in a car, I could I could transport us all right now to sites.

And to misrepresent what the Kmart building does or does not is just wrong.

We're not talking about a Kmart.

We're talking about the houses that are partially burned because they were used as crack houses.

They're running property values in our communities.

It's a public safety issue and certainly a health issue.

I want to thank Councilmember Alcorn for a very informative hearing yesterday.

I'm certain everyone benefited from it and learned.

The controller was not present.

Certain council members were not present.

We're all in this together.

No, we haven't done this before.

People are sick of the way the city was being run in the past when you've got thousands of dangerous buildings that need to be demolished.

And let me applaud this body for handling the legislation the way it should be.

It was proposed as a solution.

It was improved by getting the lien revenue put back into the fund, and also to make certain there's policy that it's only used for those buildings that are blocking the drainage.

So the idea of the finance report being used to lobby this council is just wrong.

Never been allowed.

Some want to talk about tradition.

The tradition would never allow that.

The controller has a role.

It's very clear his role is to certify that the monies are available.

He's not a policymaker.

He's not the city attorney, and it is wrong for him to talk about what's legal or illegal.

But to say we must tell the truth, there's another offensive unnecessary attack on members of this body.

Before we go further on the agenda, would you give us a legal opinion on this matter, which we have all received, but you would you repeat it?

And then also tell us the role of the city controller.

First, the legality of this matter.

Okay.

On the legality, I'm confident that this matter, if passed by council, would be considered legal by a court.

In my opinion, the graviman really is that council is afforded considerable deference.

That standard is hugely important because it means that if council believes it the case, the legislative body, then the court is not going to go beyond that.

That is very standard basic law.

When you look at the word maintenance, in the first instance, the clause does not limit it to the specific items.

It says including but not limited to, which means that it's broader, but we don't have to look broader.

If you just look at the word maintenance and the dictionary definition, and the case law is very clear, there are probably a hundred Supreme Court, Texas Supreme Court cases that say this is determined by the plain language if that is unambiguous.

And the term maintenance is unambiguous.

We have here the factual underpinning that you are going to show that it can impede or block our stormwater system.

I think it falls clearly within that definition.

If you look most of the stormwater regulations, statutes, uh jurisprudence comes from the 1972 Clear Water Act.

I mean that we're under a consent decree with ours right now.

When you look at the Clear Water Act, you will have thousands of uh stormwater drainage plans throughout the country in Texas.

And all of those have as a component blocking debris from entering and removing debris.

I think in that context, the word maintenance clearly would allow what this ordinance is providing.

So I have no doubt that a court will see it that way.

And a court is not going to entertain a number of side arguments.

It is going to look at this very simply.

Is the word maintenance clear?

How is the city going to implement it?

And the council is afforded considerable deference.

That is in a nutshell, it's analysis.

I am confident a court will uphold this.

Your understanding of the role of the city controller?

The city controller's role when it comes to certification is to determine for the particular fund that is identified in the ordinance.

Is there sufficient money to pay what is being requested?

The controller talks about lawful expenditures.

That's true.

But because it says lawful doesn't mean it's his determination.

Similarly, it's not his determination what comes to council or what should be in an ordinance.

That is a city attorney's role to advise, and ultimately, like any other client, for the City Council to make that determination, but he does not have an independent role to make legal determinations.

And I apologize for asking you about your credentials, but I was proud to appoint you city attorney, and you were the kind of the incumbent city attorney.

Who appointed you in your original assignment?

Bill White appointed me.

I served his entire term.

And then, of course, I'm serving under you, Mayor.

Well, let me thank you on behalf of Houstonians and certainly this body for your expertise and your public service.

I know you could be in the private sector at a firm, but you have chosen this route, and uh we respect you and listen to you, and thank you for fulfilling that role.

Members, uh, you want to approve the uh make a motion on the finance report.

We did.

Okay.

Okay.

Did you want to be recognized?

Have we approved the budget?

Uh Mayor Mayor.

My comment was going to be to move item 35 up, but it's been brought to my attention.

There are some folks in the audience that are waiting to be approved for a board.

So, in order to get those folks on with their day, um, why don't we just call the next item?

And then I am going to make the motion to bring up item 35.

Secretary, let's go to appointments.

So do item two.

Item two.

Okay.

Is there a motion for item two?

Castax Tatum move.

Motion made and seconded.

All in favor say yes, those opposed night.

And we would like to ask Joshua Weisman.

Tammy Rodriguez to please stand and let us thank you for your public service.

And we recognize Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

The Golfton area municipal management district is one of our newly activated management districts located in J City.

And this board chaired by Tammy Rodriguez and these appointments of Joshua Wiseman and Azeb Youssef, they have been an outstanding asset to J City.

And the work that they do, the volunteer work that they do to improve an area of Golfden that has long been underserved and need in need of as many resources as possible, they have been able to do tremendous work in that area.

And so I want to thank you all for your service.

I want to thank you all for stepping up.

You go above and beyond as a board, and these management districts are only as good as those who serve on the board.

And your leadership has taken us a long way.

So I want to publicly thank you all for everything that you do.

God bless you.

Recognize Mayor Pro Tim.

Just want to make sure nobody else in the audience needs to be approved that's here.

If not, um I move to take item 35 as our next item because it's fresh on uh everyone's mind.

Um Castex Tatum move to take up item 35 next.

Next second.

Motion made and seconded.

All in favor say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

On the item.

And Councilmember Pollard on the item, correct?

Not the motion.

Okay.

We're fine.

We're on item 35.

You want to be recognized?

Yeah.

On item 35, a motion has been made.

Just need a vote.

No.

Uh Councilmember Castic Tatum.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

We've had lots of discussion on item 35, and I will tell you having a city attorney, an attorney as a controller, an attorney as a public works director, attorneys on council, there are lots of opinions.

Legal opinions.

But and and not to make light, I think that everyone's opinion is important.

But I really think that what we have is a disagreement on legality.

From my experience, as a realtor and a council member, I do think that what we are looking to do is important.

We plan to move our Department of Neighborhood inspectors and those folks over to public works.

Half of those drains were filled with water bottles, debris.

We found a washing machine in the storm sewer system.

We found a couch in the storm sewer system.

There are photos of our drainage systems in the city of Houston that the water can't flow because of the trash.

Personally, I think what's illegal is the tremendous amount of dumping that's happening in the city.

That's why we call it illegal dumping.

The process that we are looking at in order to demolish these buildings in my opinion is not illegal because it can be proven that the there is a correlation of the dumping and how water moves products that are on our streets.

Flood control projects we have had we've we have knocked down houses in Westbury.

We have taken those foundations away and we have created berms.

And so there is a correlation to removing those houses and removing that debris to prevent those things from being in our drains.

That helps us with the potential flooding.

I think that I am in agreement that we need to do this.

The City Attorney says it's not illegal.

We have evidence that we need to we have moved the money to make sure we have the dollars to pay for it.

We've been given a list of the buildings that need to be demolished.

There will be an oversight to make sure that the what is demolished is actually impacting our waterways through when it rains that water moves those products.

Yes you can say that anything in the street that is moved by water can impact our drainage and it does I don't think this is illegal.

I think this is a way we designed to we agree to move this money.

We agreed to move this money we agreed to move the people from public from the Department of Neighborhoods to public works to do this work.

So I am in support of moving forward with the vote for this and making sure that we get these buildings demolished so that we can improve the quality of of life in these areas and I think it's just it's it's a it's a matter of opinion on how we legislate and I I really want us to move away from saying that this is illegal because I don't think it is illegal.

I think there is a difference of opinion from all of our legal minds around the City of Houston.

Thank you.

Councilmember Maris.

Thank you, Mayor and I appreciate the discussion we have had and I'm going to echo uh Mayor Pro Tem's comments.

I uh this is not a debate about whether this is illegal.

I hate that it's been characterized as such I am interested Mr.

Michelle in some of the comments you made about Clean Water Act cases that support removing debris from waterways and such.

I haven't looked at those you and your staff evidently have I am curious to know whether the language in this ordinance which is 2004-301 was patterned or written after any other statute or ordinance anywhere do you know?

Well that happened during my first year as City Attorney but I am not sure I remember back then but we are pulling you know Councilmember Salinas had some questions.

We're pulling that data you know it is not readily accessible including some of the the pre precursors to that.

And would you happen to know whether or not the Clean Water Act permits the removal of privately owned buildings that are threatening drainage systems or waterways.

It doesn't explicitly but what I was focusing on were mainly the the plans that are approved by Federal and State regulatory bodies and those recognize that debris removal and maintenance is important.

You know the removal of objects from the drainage system I think that's pretty obvious maintenance but the breadth of what is proposed has has given me some concern.

And I have looked at the proposed standards for inclusion in this program that is going to be developed and it too seems awfully broad to me if it has a concrete foundation and creates impervious cover and impedes the absorption of water into the ground you know it's it's covered.

If it's in a one or 500 year floodplain it is covered.

So uh you know, those those can continue to be uh questions that I have in my mind.

But but thank you for your work and um yeah, just thank you.

Council Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um first off, I w I want to say that I do think it is valuable to have the insight of the of the controller.

Um we only hear from him as a as a complete body once a month.

The item that he spoke of today is on the agenda, so it has a spending nexus to it.

So I do think that's appropriate and I appreciate his contributions.

Second, we have a wonderful city attorney.

What he gives is legal opinion.

That's it.

It's nothing that's a final judgment or ultimate authority.

It's his advice, and he advises us.

And he's such a good attorney that in different administrations he's made different arguments on on the same issues on both sides.

And that's how I know that he is extremely good.

Because as a good attorney, you have to know both.

Yeah.

It shows he wants to law school, it shows he is a good attorney, just like the controller, who is a Harvard-trained lawyer.

Um I do think we have to look at, you know, the the word of maintain or maintenance.

I don't think there is any disagreement that dumping in certain areas can obstruct waterways or or ditches or or or drains.

Um but that has nothing to do with the actual structure of the property.

Okay.

If it did, then we could look at unkept or unmowed vacant lots that many of us have in our districts.

And many of those lots that attract illegal dumping, we're not using the stormwater dollars to fence them off or to or to maintain them or to ensure that they are clean or mowed.

We wouldn't be able to justify that.

But illegal dumping occurs there.

Illegal dumping occurs all over the city in places that have nothing to do with a blighted building.

So the blight building, although it is an eyesore and it is an issue within our districts, that blight alone is not correlated to the storm water system.

There's no correlation.

There is zero correlation other than the stretch that it attracts dumping that then could flow towards a ditch or a drain to obstruct it.

That's everywhere in the city.

It's not just areas with a blight or abandoned property on it.

And so we are using these funds in an impermissible way.

There's there's no doubt about that.

You can stretch or interpret the word maintain however you want to do it.

And I think as a as a good attorney, Arturo can do that.

And we all could give our opinion or insight on that interpretation.

But the building itself, when we look at the use of these funds for demolition of blighted buildings, that demolition portion of what we will be using the money for has nothing to do with a storm water system.

And in a city that floods continuously, and where we have constituents and residents who routinely come to address us on the need to ensure that we have as much money as possible on uh flood mitigation and stormwater infrastructure, putting the money towards demolition is just trying to find a far-fetched way to address an issue that we know we need to address with money that is not intended for.

And so I think we really have to be careful about what we're doing here.

The same arguments that uh can be made on this item have been made previously that we have lost on by private lawsuits, uh that this body said that we weren't gonna go down that path again.

And so I understand that uh we can have a difference of opinion on this, but I do think that it is very, very far-fetched to be able to draw a conclusion of a property that needs to be torn down to it to it actually having to do with the maintenance system.

And if you say that it does, then I hopeful, hopefully you're gonna come to our districts and cut all these vacant lots and all these unkept properties that have so much illegal dumping on them that are also having trash flowing into the gutters that we're not doing anything about.

And just because we demolish a property does not mean that we are going to solve the issue of illegal dumping.

What you are doing is you are tearing down that property.

And that is why I think the intention of this item is really to do is to address blight properties.

It is not to maintain the stormwater system.

And for that reason, I will be not voting to support this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Al Corney.

Thank you, Mayor.

And this has been a good discussion.

Yesterday's discussion at BFA, I I thank Samir and Randy and everybody that participated, David Wardlow, and kind of outlining what the what the stormwater fund is, what its revenues are, and being very clear that this is water bill revenue.

And basically, my whole issue with this from the from the start was was, and and I have I was a legal assistant for a couple of years at Vincent and Elkins, but I don't think that counts.

But it's not the legality, it's just to me in a city where I put out a budget survey and people's number one priority this year was infrastructure spending.

I want every bit of money in the CUS and every bit of money in the stormwater fund set on clear infrastructure maintenance and improvements.

And to me, it's just too much of a stretch to use that money for building demolition.

And also, we have an illegal dumping problem.

We need resources for illegal dumping.

We will never conquer it with just stormwater fund.

We will never call it.

I mean, we need more resources in this city, and I have been very clear about that.

We need more resources to tackle the challenges that we have.

So I want to see monies for straight up infrastructure improvements and maintenance, and that is why I won't be in the support.

But I do understand your predicament, Mayor.

We got to get these buildings down.

There's a long list of them.

But I don't think that this is the right source of funds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Flickinger.

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple of things we have discussed today.

One of those was talking about the fungibility of money.

Councilman Pollard and the controller were essentially arguing that the money is fungible, and they are absolutely correct.

Money is fungible.

But if you look at the amount of money we are talking about, it's only 2.5 percent of the fund balance, not the fund revenue, but the fund balance, and that balance has increased greatly over the last couple of years.

So we are talking about a very small amount of money.

Additionally, I think we are arguing that this doesn't solve all of our illegal dumping problems.

I agree.

But I think the idea that these blighted properties do not attract additional dumping is nothing short of laughable.

I mean, we've all seen it with our own eyes.

It absolutely does.

And although, yes, is this a creative use of the funds?

I absolutely agree.

But also I've seen the same thing that the Mayor Pro Tim has seen in these large objects moving when we have this sheep flow and this flooding and getting into the drainage system.

I mean, you know, after Harvey, we had dumpsters that had moved half a mile.

Uh you know, this stuff gets into the drainage system, and anything we can do to eliminate some of the problem is a benefit.

And while at the same time we're getting rid of these blighted properties that are next door to people's houses and whatnot, greatly increasing their living standards.

I think this is a reasonable enough use of the money that I am certainly supporting it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Of course, I have been listening like everybody else, and um I feel like I'm caught between the wheel of the controller and the administration.

And certainly caught between uh different legal opinions.

But at the end of the day, I always have to look out what is best for my constituents.

My constituents are living around blighted houses that serve as crack houses in my neighborhood.

Now I heard the controller say that he would like to engage with other funding sources.

I wish that energy would have been used towards that as opposed to the opposition of getting this passed.

And so, you know, I I have to look at what is practical for my constituents.

I get emails consistently about these houses.

I am looking at and I'm listening to the uh rationale, and I'm just gonna have to say by means any means necessary, I want those houses removed.

And so I will be supporting this item.

Thank you.

And I want to thank you for being practical in responding to your constituents.

I am reminded to a lieutenant governor one time, Bob Bullock, when you did not want to support either his proposal or someone's proposal, he quickly would say, what's your plan?

And if you didn't have a plan, which we didn't hear one today, he would say, well, then you're for mine.

So, you know, we we ran for office to fix these long time issues.

I grew up in Houston, and I can remember when the two-inch rain would not flood a community or the streets.

But all you have to do is go where the abandoned buildings are, or the illegal dump has been dumped there.

The culverts are full, the ditches are full, and this is not perfect.

But it is why we ran for office to come up with proposals.

People expect us to fix things.

We all know, certainly those of you who have been here six years.

Thousands of dangerous illegal buildings in the middle of a community, used by the homeless, crack houses, been partially burned out, got blue tarps on them, and this is a remedy.

And it's a legal remedy.

It's not the way we have done it in the past, but look what we did in the past and where it got us.

So thank you for your common sense and responding to your constituents.

And it lowers our property values for people to live around the process.

Thank you, ma'am.

And it is a public safety issue because these abandoned buildings attract vagrants and others that are not conducting themselves conducive to neighborhood standards, and it does impact the value.

Councilman Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

My concern with this item is that we're kicking the can down the road when it comes to flooding and drainage when we are already on borrowed time.

I do not believe this is a proper use of the stormwater fund.

Again, the fund, the purpose of the fund is to plan, build, and maintain stormwater drainage.

And we are taking funds that are there to fulfill a critical need.

And I want to be very clear on that.

I don't think there is anyone, again, I said this at the last council, there's not anybody around this horseshoe that doesn't want to address dangerous blighted homes.

There are public safety risk.

There's no district that does not deal and grapple with this issue.

And on top of that, with illegal dumping, we now have another problem on our hands, and that the DOJ just terminated their consent decree monitoring program.

So communities are left even more vulnerable.

So these are two huge issues that as a city we have to deal with, but where the money comes from does matter.

Because when we kick the can down the road on drainage and more homes flood, we are going to have more abandoned properties.

We are going to have more blight.

We are going to have the same challenges we have now.

The Nexus assessment with the drainage.

We received this email yesterday evening at 6 p.m.

And I appreciate that we received this email before the vote, but it's also certainly not enough time to engage with engineers, to engage with experts to see if this is the proper type of criteria.

Some of the criteria says eligibility criteria one or more applies.

Any property within the floodplain automatically qualifies for stormwater funding eligibility.

That right there takes up pretty much the entire city of Houston in that 2,000 blighted homes list.

It also says or property or structure adjacent to inlets, ditches, channels, outfalls.

That's my house.

I am adjacent to a ditch.

That is any, I mean, we have just done a what appears to me a massive catch-all rather than addressing, for example, the building whose debris is going right into a ditch.

As we discussed previously at last council session, I am very comfortable, as are other council members.

If we want to secure certain properties where debris is coming into ditches, if we want to rehab those ditches, if we want to go in and get the dishwasher that is in the drainage system, that is absolutely something we must be doing.

But the way in which we have laid out this criteria in no way gives me comfort that this is actually going to the intended use of the stormwater drainage fund.

I I do want to address, because it hasn't been talked about the lien process.

Because one of the arguments that's been presented is that, well, we're not really using the stormwater funds, they're going to go back into the fund because we're placing a lien on the property.

In order to put a lien on a property, you have to perfect that lien.

You have to comply with all the statutory requirements for the lien for it to be valid, and you have to attach it to the property.

You have to enforce it.

You have to sue to foreclose on the lien.

You have to go through the process and get the right to foreclose to sell that property.

Then the property has to sell.

And it has to sell at a dollar value that covers not just the amount of the lien, but the administrative and the legal costs of the lien, meaning you need a buyer that's willing to pay the right amount before we see anything.

That's a lot of time, and that's a lot of resources.

So in the 30 million, have we included the staff time?

And if we don't have, and we know in the City Attorney's Office, just like with many other departments, we have been losing staff from voluntary retirement and other uh factors.

So if we're shorthanded with legal staff, are we contracting that out?

So have we allocated the funds to actually contract that work out?

Again, this isn't just 30 million for the demolition of homes alone.

On top of that, with liens, whether or not it's a senior lien, meaning it gets priority over another lien, we may not even see all that money.

So we're uncertain whether or not we get all the money.

But the bottom line is we need these funds now for drainage because we cannot continue to kick the can down the road.

So I understand some don't want to talk about the legality.

I do believe it's an improper use, but even if we don't go there, we're being seemingly forced to choose between blighted homes or drainage.

And I don't think that's a the right thing to do here.

And we need to come up with creative ways.

We do absolutely have challenges with blight with illegal dumping, and there are some ways in which we can use that drainage, but we have to be able to invest in flood mitigation.

And that has to be a top priority, especially in these communities that are facing blight.

It is the same communities that have been underserved and overlooked when it comes to investment in infrastructure.

And I see Director Dabowski coming up, so I'm happy to yield because I'm very interested in what you'd like to say.

I would like to bring to the table the uh understanding and the results of solving the Jones Watson lawsuit that we will have 500 million more dollars each year put towards drainage.

So we're not kicking it down the road.

Uh we understand the huge challenge it is.

I mentioned a while ago.

I can remember one or two-inch rain did not phase communities.

It does now for lack of maintenance of our drainage.

But solving the zone Watson settlement, we're going to put a half a billion more into drainage.

So that'll make a huge difference.

Uh and I am told about public works and the contractors that the system really is having a hard time absorbing as much funding as we're putting in to the maintenance.

Melissa, did you want to comment?

Yeah, I I just wanted to draw your attention to the one of the slides from the presentation yesterday.

Um it's the one that shows the historical um funding for the stormwater, and it breaks it down by the uses of the funding.

And so uh Councilmember Cayman's your point about we need to focus on maintaining the ditches and the basins and the rest of the open system.

Um that's what the the in addition to the demolition, so on this slide, I don't know if you can see it, but the green bar is what the demolition represents in fiscal year 26, and this orange bar is what represents the more of the the work that you're talking about, I think.

Um, and that even with this additional money for demolition, the orange bar you know represents a significant increase from the fiscal year 25.

Um a lot of that is due to the 20 million dollar budget amendment that this body approved.

Um, but there is still a significant increase in the funding for that uh for that type of program.

And and I very much appreciate that, Mayor.

If the challenge is we can't keep up with all the projects that we have, then we need to be investing in more staff and more projects so that we can keep up.

Maplewood drainage alone in an area that does flood has flooded consistently in Southwest Houston.

We need $5.6 million just to upsize the inlets there.

Roadside ditches on at Lawrence will cost $2.9 million.

Ditches at Yale, $2.9 million.

Ditches along Rutland, $3.2 million.

We have a storm sewer project that would we need $1.9 million for all in areas that have seen structural flooding, repetitive structural flooding, and that is just a handful.

We have Cottage Grove West, which I have brought up every single year because it's such a large project.

It sits on the CIP because we don't have the money for it.

It is close to $50 million.

And we say, yeah, we really need this.

The homes are flooding.

It is bad.

It was not built properly.

But because we don't have the money, we can't do anything about it.

And that's just a handful in one district alone.

That's not going district by district.

So again, if we were saying we don't have the capacity to keep up with what we need and we're investing more money, well, we need to put flood protection first.

And if this is, again, with blight about illegal dumping and blocking and hindering drainage flow, then address those specific things, but what is outlined that we have to vote on today doesn't specify that.

Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

It has been that way for years.

It was that way when many of us got here.

This is a step in the right direction to deal with drainage related to dangerous buildings, abandoned buildings.

I hope to get to all those issues that you brought up because that's one reason I ran for mayor.

Fix Houston.

And people are applauding what we are doing as Councilmember Shabbat says.

Melissa, did you want to comment?

Well, just on those type of large capital projects like you are talking about, Councilmember Mayor, to your point, that's where the settlement with the Jones and Watson and putting more money towards the DDSRF is going to help us address some of those larger projects that aren't part of the stormwater fund.

And then in addition, I know one other thing that Public Works mentioned yesterday in their presentation is the improvement on the LDP, the local drainage program that we talk about with the additional purchases of additional grade-all machines to help with those maintenance of those ditches.

So I know they they discussed that yesterday as well.

Very good.

Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to ask a question of attorney O'Turo, and I'll just make some statements after.

So my question is.

The country only even mentioned inappropriation of funds.

But the lawsuit says otherwise.

So let me ask the question.

When the lawsuit previously happened.

Did the council refer when they approve these dollars going other places?

To your knowledge, did it come back to the to the attorney, city attorney at the time for the allocation of those dollars of previous years, to your knowledge?

Did they get permission back then from that administration to spend those dollars?

I think so.

What happened in the DDSRF, or also known as the Jones Watson lawsuit, is the city calculated the portion from property taxes that would go into that fund a particular way.

It changed the calculation ten years ago, something like that, believing that it fell within the language, and that was the challenge.

So it was an issue of how you interpreted charter provisions that could be in conflict with each other, the DDSRF and also the um uh how we applied our revenue cap.

Okay, very good.

So with that, um I heard several of us have heard, number one, um there's no programs that follow this.

We also heard inappropriation of funds, uh, improper use is being used, all of this based upon a legality side.

Well, first and foremost, what is being brought through in this administration from my perspective, it is a program.

It is a program.

Uh if the controller in respect to his you know statements, uh, he said there's not to refer to.

Well, the idea of of getting rid of this, it is creating a program that allows the citizens.

People are concerned about the flooding in their community.

They're concerned about illegal dumping didn't just happen yesterday.

The issue of illegal dumping in our city and the problem of flood in our communities did not happen yesterday.

It's been going on for a long time.

And respectfully, those of us that live in this city and who live there pretty much all of our lives have dealt with the fact that we have to accept those ideas.

And so, I mean, I I think I think what is being brought before us is something that needs to be supported.

We're the council.

We make decisions oftentimes around if it's a dollar amount, we make decisions on dollar amount for a lot of things.

But for this, I think, in regard to the community and the fact of what the flooding and the illegal dumping is doing is pretty obvious in most cases.

So uh I would be supporting this item because I think it's the right thing.

Do we have to think about the community?

People talk often.

I got I get emails, got one this morning on the very issue that we're talking about.

Some support it, some don't.

So with that being said, I I appreciate the opinion of the city attorney.

He feels like it's legal.

So uh then I think that that's what we know.

I mean, I'm sure, as our Mayor Pro Tim say there are a lot of attorneys around the bench, and we could argue opinions about what is legal or not, but last time I checked, we had one city attorney.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Ross Mayor Pro Team.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I think for me the biggest takeaway was, Mayor, when I asked your office, um if we vote this contract down, are we going to be able to spend an additional $30 million on more stormwater maintenance than what we're doing today?

And the answer was no, because of capacity.

And yes, there are other contractors out there, um, but we don't have the staff to oversee those contractors.

Um it would take time and money that we don't have to hire people for this.

So if the answer was yes, we would start other local drainage projects immediately with this money, then my vote here would be very different because it is a priority for stormwater maintenance.

Um constituents consistently want storm drainages drainages maintained, but they equally want dangerous buildings demolished.

And so now we're in a situation where we have this money that's been factored into the budget and a need that the public is clearly clearly asking us to fix.

So we either keep the dangerous buildings there and continue throwing money at it to keep cleaning the stormwater systems around it, or you fix the root cause with money currently not allocated towards anything else, and with no plans to be able to use that money anytime soon in the future.

This isn't really a legal question for me.

I think the city attorney has made a ruling and I'm going to yield to his expertise.

It's a policy decision.

So for me, as a policy decision, I want to make sure that we recoup the money that we're spending from this fund and that this money goes back into the fund that we're spending it from.

Um, yes, it takes time, and we may not recoup all of it, you know, to Councilmember Kaman's point, but the money that we can recoup into this fund, we need to be able to do that.

Um historically, when liens are paid back, they go back to the general fund and not to the originating um department that spent the money.

Um and Mayor, I know that you have committed to bringing forth an ordinance soon to ensure that this money goes back to the fund.

Um it wasn't ready for today's meeting, but just wanted to reiterate your commitment to that ordinance.

Thank you.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you.

Um three days before Christmas, I demolished 3206 Chris Street in Brimeadow.

It took me 2,138 days to get that home demolished.

Um no good deed goes unpunished.

Ten days later, a dead body was found in an old well Spargo building in the same neighborhood.

I'm all over dangerous buildings, residential and commercial in this city in my district.

Um but I'm gonna tell you why I'm a no-vote, in addition to residents emailing me as early as an hour ago saying no, we need more drainage.

At 2 o'clock, Mayor Whitmeyer will be on the west side with me, uh, announcing drainage projects that are going to benefit residents in Catalina Square, Bel Air West, that have historically have not had infrastructure investments.

They are in the middle of the 500-year floodplain, and if we experience another Harvey, they will be wiped out.

Like many neighborhoods in District C.

In addition to that, the metrics matrix that was provided to council that lists the 343 properties have zero for District F, which again leaves us out of resources.

And then we'll be left holding the bag of an ordinance we have passed.

And we still don't get the benefit of the funding and the resources.

Now I say all this to say I have complete confidence in leadership and director Machi's leadership.

It's frustrating.

People are making choices about living in certain communities because of the blight.

I understand that.

I don't support the move to transfer $30 million from a stormwater restricted account.

It is noble.

It is necessary.

I think the biggest responsibility we have is to continue to do this work during the budget cycle to make sure we have the dollars allocated the right way for these projects.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shabazz.

Evan Shabazz.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, I guess I'd be a lot more nervous if the city was the only governmental entity that's supposed to deal with flooding and drainage.

And I I would really be nervous about that.

But maybe we're not kicking the can down the road.

Maybe we're kicking the can to those that can help and have the capacity to do so.

And so for that reason, you know, I'm not as nervous as I would be if there were no other resources available.

And so, you know, I can think of some some other projects, such as the streets in the city of Houston, that certainly need to be fixed.

And I would love for our county government to certainly uh weigh in on those items as well.

And so I am a vote in favor uh of this, but I just wanted to explain that I'm not as nervous about this as I would be if we didn't have a county government.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm called roll, Mr.

Secretary.

Roll call Mayor Whitmeyer.

Yes.

Councilmember Pegg?

Yes.

Councilmember Km?

No.

Councilmember Everson Balls?

Yes.

Councilmember Flickinger?

Yes.

Councilmember Thomas?

No.

Councilmember Huffman?

Yes.

Councilmember Castillo?

No.

Councilmember Martinez?

Yes.

Councilmember Pollard?

No.

Councilmember Castax Tatum?

Yes.

Councilmember Ramirez?

No.

What?

Councilmember Davis?

Yes.

Councilmember Carter?

Yes.

Councilmember Salinas?

No.

And Councilmember Alcorn?

No.

Voters nine.

Yes, it's seven no's.

The motion.

An item passes.

Thank you, members.

Okay.

Now we have the public hearing.

Public hearings.

Item one is a public hearing to provide to provide a resolution of no objection for one applicant seeking four percent housing tax credits for Bernisia place.

You want to come forward.

Good morning.

Mayor, Councilmember.

Welcome.

Councilmember Salinas.

I'm Paul Yindemark with Housing Housing and Community Development Department recommends a public hearing to provide a resolution of no objection for the proposed Bernisia place in a new senior multifamily development.

The purpose is per Texas Government Code 2306.

Notify the community and had no objection to the development proceeding.

A little bit on the developer.

The developer is Harris County Housing Authority, ACHA.

They're going to build to two modern four-story buildings, consists of 120 apartment units.

People with disability and veterans.

Dr.

Shabas.

On the southeast corner of Scott Crest Drive, an old Spanish trail, directly adjacent to Metro Southeast Transit Center.

This action ensures that our local dollars work, local dollars work harder to bring to bring in millions in federal tax credit.

Equity to build high quality, attainable housing for our residents.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, sir.

Any questions?

If not, thank you for the job you do.

Any public speakers?

Yes, we have one speaker, uh Dominique Mazat.

Is Dominic still here?

No.

Nobody got no.

Okay.

Okay.

We're done.

Cast X Tatum move to close.

You want to ask if anybody else.

No, anyone else would like to testify on this item.

If not, do we have a motion?

Cast X Tatum move to close the public hearing.

Hex second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Items closed.

Members quick.

Item of the mayor's report is um pleased to announce that fleet week.

Um has been restored.

It's going to be a great opportunity for Houstonians to interact with our sailors and marines and Coast Guard and our military.

It's going to be the week of April 15th to the 22nd.

We have a thousand active service men and women in Houston for the celebration.

There'll be several battleships brought in to the port.

I'd like to thank the Port of Houston, the East End Management Chamber.

Just a lot of stakeholders.

Thank you, Rita Hicks, who's been kind of steering this, and Chris Newport again is showing his leadership by representing my office working with the Navy and the Admiral and Rita.

So it's really it was disappointing when it was canceled.

Um due to demands on the Navy's resources.

But uh we're back in place for April 15th.

So we'll have more information as we get closer to that date.

Consent agenda, sir.

Consent agenda, please.

Under the miscellaneous category, since your list was distributed.

Items three, four, five, and six have been pulled and will now be considered.

Item two, we've already done.

Is there a motion for item seven?

Text Tata move.

Next second.

Motion is made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Under the accept work category, item eight has been removed for several separate consideration.

Under the purchase and a tabulation of bids category, item 11 has been removed for separate consideration.

Is there a motion on the balance?

Cast next data move.

Hex second.

Motion is made and segment.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Under the ordinances category, since your list was distributed, all items have been received.

Items 17, 24, and 29 have been removed for separate consideration.

Again, those numbers are 17, 24, and 29.

Is there a vote on the balance?

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Items removed for separate consideration.

Is there a motion for item eight?

Cast X data move.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Opposed.

Nay.

After the vote.

Motion passes.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you, Mayor and colleagues, for your support of this is the final payment.

This is our consent decree at work.

Several of the list stations lifted.

Improved our waterway system.

As you can recall in 2021, we address the consent decree.

But this is that work that is continuously happening.

So thank you that this work is completed on the West side.

Next.

Next.

Is there a motion for item 11?

Cast sex tape to move.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Item 17 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Item 24 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

Councilman Kayman.

Councilmember Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Colleagues, you have two amendments before you, and I've separated them out for a specific reason.

I'll explain in just a moment.

This is the council holiday and break week schedule.

Amendment A is an annual amendment I put forward while we continue to work with the city and I hope during the budget cycle we can finally get to recognizing election day as an actual city holiday.

This amendment at least consolidates during election day to move uh public session to a consolidated Wednesday out of respect for election day.

We have a lot of city employees and residents that like to participate at council uh but also should have the opportunity to participate uh in our democratic process.

So I move to amend agenda item 24 by the following language to consolidate uh that week into a consolidated session.

Uh Mayor, if you'd like we can take that up first before I put lay out the second amendment.

All in favor of amendment?

I am a chance.

Amendment A.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh my second amendment uh relates to Memorial Day week.

Uh it is supposed to be a consolidated session that week.

Uh that Wednesday happens to be Ayd al-Adha, uh, the second most uh religious holiday uh in the Muslim faith.

Uh I talk a lot about the importance in such a diversity of recognizing all of the high holidays when possible.

And again, when it's been a Jewish high holiday, I have put the same type of amendment passed.

The challenge with this is it does fall um within the budgetary calendar for when we would actually put forward the budget, have it tagged, and then considered the following week.

If we move the budget a week previously, that shortens budget workshops.

If we do it after, it doesn't.

So I would uh at the will of the body be happy to withdraw this.

Uh however, I I think it's really important moving forward that we continue to look at all of our faiths high holidays.

Uh it's not it it's the right thing to do.

Uh so again, I'm looking at our chair of BFA because I know how much work goes into the budget schedule, um, and I'm happy to withdraw this amendment, but I would like us moving forward to be as we're setting these schedules looking at all of this.

Very good.

Thank you for your uh bringing this item before us, and we agree.

But we also would like to have a um normal budget process.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

Next.

You have withdrawn.

I I withdraw that with the commitment that moving forward we will continue to respect respect.

The faith of everyone.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Main item as amended.

All in favor say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Okay.

Item 29 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Item 34 is a motion to set a public hearing date.

Regarding the designation of a landmark, protected landmark or change of designation.

Cast X tight a move to set the hearing date for 9 a.m.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Item 36.

A motion has a motion has already been done.

Just meet a vote.

All in favor say yes.

Council Mr.

Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I tagged this item at the last uh council session because it's we're going to be doing things differently.

Rather than seeing individual procurement contracts for fleet, we're putting it all together into a 180 million dollar allocation.

This really does help with efficiency.

It's part of the recommendations, Mayor, that have been done through the studies, and it's an important step forward.

However, I ask questions, because you all know every time fleet comes up, I ask about fuel efficiency, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

And uh what I was assured, and I really want to thank Jed and his team, is that they will continue to abide by the parameters laid out in Houston's climate action and resiliency plan.

So when it comes to procurement and looking at this, they are looking at return on investment.

At what point does it make more sense financially to be using hybrid vehicles rather than traditional vehicles?

We know it's better for the environment, but we also now know that it is saving the city dollars.

Uh and the ROI assessments are showing that for the most part.

So it will still be an ROI return on investment evaluation, but within the parameters of the climate action plan.

And mayor, I appreciate your department's working with us on that to ensure that moving forward that will be the status quo.

Yes, Mayor.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed day.

Motion passes.

Councilmember Salinas, it looks like your firstly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you all so much for the incredibly warm welcome, especially you, Mayor.

It meant so much to my family to have you join us at the reception and warmly welcome us to the city council family.

Uh I just want to say uh at large position four is open for business.

Uh we are ready and happy to take constituency calls and do the good work that we campaigned on.

So excited to meet with each and every one of you on council to hear about your priorities and how I can support them.

And Mayor, I'm so excited to support the agenda you have for the city as well.

But I thank you all.

Um and I do want to announce uh my chief of staff.

His name is Chris Shu Delion.

He comes to us from the county.

He is so excited to get to work, but Chris and I are so excited to do the city's work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Carter.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I certainly like to welcome my neighbor to council.

Uh, we're glad to have you here.

But equally as important, I have a chief of staff.

Yay.

Like to welcome Shiva Baradaran to uh she comes to us from uh Senator Brandon Creighton's office, as we all know, he's gone on to Texas Tech to lead, and certainly uh having been without a chief since June.

We're excited in my office.

So uh reach out and thank you for your uh willingness to assist Shiva as she settles in.

Thank you.

Councilor Evans.

Thank you, Mayor.

I certainly want to join all of us in welcoming our newest colleague, Councilmember Alejandra Falinas, to the horse you, and I look forward to working with you as we continue to serve the residents of this great city with integrity, energy, and vision, and welcome.

Um I want to say on a sad note that um we want to honor the life and legacy of a longtime civic leader, Mrs.

Olivia Booker Randall, who passed away after decades of service to her community.

She was a 30-year educator uh in Willis ISD and Norforis ISD, but she did tremendous work in District D as the president of the precinct 239 neighborhood civic club for 32 years.

We certainly want to give condolences to her family.

Um she was just awesome, and she will be remembered for her wisdom, her impact, and her unwavering commitment to the people of District D.

Uh on this evening there will be a community town hall at the Herman Park, well, her Herman Park and the Bentb expansion.

The location will be Sharif Lores Garden Pavilion at Herman Park.

And again, it will be tonight from 5.30 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

Certainly we want people to come out and discuss the proposed condemnation of 8.9 acres of Herman Park for the expansion of the Bentov Hospital.

Uh it will provide an overview of the proposal, and we certainly want people to come out and uh and we encourage them to come and review the materials and submit any questions and attend in person to participate in the discussion.

And I believe that concludes and happy new year to everybody.

And that concludes what is going on in the district of destination.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

We'll move to Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

And I want to start by inviting everyone to our first town hall of the new year, which will be this Saturday, 10 a.m.

at Ripley House.

We will be doing five town halls across the district starting the year as we have started the last two.

And so this will be our first one.

We will have a number of departments and stakeholders there present for constituents to hear updates about what is planned for 2026 and also engage with these departments, ask their questions and get information.

So looking forward to starting the year uh this Saturday with our first town hall.

Also uh we are starting the year with our newest District H Horizons interns.

They are actually here in the back of chambers, Jesus Diaz, Fernando Cuejudo, they are joining the District H office uh for six months to get uh experience here at City Hall.

And we are excited to have them uh on board and also be a part of the Horizons program.

Also want to put uh on people's calendars, March 7th will be our second neighborhood resiliency event as part of the Resilient H program.

Um this is going to be in the second ward.

Uh we will have links for signups for folks who want to volunteer uh assisting with distribution of rain barrels and planting of trees.

Uh we also will have sign-up links for folks who are interested in uh 15-gallon trees uh for their homes or pipe wrapping uh and weatherization uh efforts through our nonprofit partners.

Um this is going to be on March the 7th and it takes uh a lot of help to pull these off, but also folks uh who are interested in the rain barrels, the trees, the weatherization uh to really make the impact.

So um getting it out there early, but be on the lookout for sign-up links to uh volunteer and also to uh get the trees, the rain barrels through the social media and newsletter uh promotions.

I also want to take a moment and welcome Councilmember Salinas to the horseshoe.

Very excited uh to have her join us as she uh makes history as the first LGBTQ Latina elected to serve Houston City Council.

Uh very excited for that and look forward to working with her in service to Houston.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilmember Davis.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Yes, we've got the electronic recycling uh down in the Clear Lake area.

It will be at Ellington Field from 9 to 3 or until the trucks fill up.

So bring it out early and uh come bring your recycling.

And then also we're hosting our our next median madness this Saturday.

Uh we've already got 160 volunteers signed up to help kind of restore the mediums out in Kingwood.

And uh we expect uh a couple hundred people by the time it's all said and done.

So it should be a great turnout and and uh hopefully get a lot of work done.

Thank you.

I like that idea, that median madness.

Councilmember Kamen.

Thank you.

First and foremost, uh I wanted to welcome our colleague.

I have been waiting to say this council member Alejandra Salinas, uh, who not only helps us keep our majority of women on council uh but has been breaking barriers in her own right as the first openly LGBTQ uh Latina on council uh but in many other respects as well.

I do want to welcome uh your amazing wife Elizabeth and your entire family that are now part of our council family.

That it is a family affair.

Uh but just in terms of what you stand for, what you're committed to and uh what you believe in brings so much to this horseshoe.

So we are thrilled to have you.

I personally cannot wait to work uh more with you, and I know you are hitting the ground running.

I did have one question uh for our city attorney.

He does not need to respond right now.

I don't want to put um his team on the spot, but there is still a lot of questions, a lot of concerns around immigration enforcement uh in our city.

And public safety is the first uh and most critical uh priority at the same time.

There are a lot of concerns about ICE operations and the impact on our economy.

My understanding is that the city has been relying on SB4 as part of the reason in which we cannot furthering take additional steps to protect nonviolent immigrants in our community.

And my understanding of SB4, though, is that there is still an injunction in place that bars most of the enforcement of SB4.

It was heard before the Supreme Court, but even the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court maintained that injunction.

So if your team could work a little bit to provide us some additional information on why we're relying on SB4 as what's preempting the city when that is not the law in effect currently, that would be very helpful in terms of the questions that we're getting from the community as I continue to work with organizations and community members.

I do want to spotlight that we have a lot of construction uh coming when we we've talked a lot about drainage.

We got a lot of drainage projects coming to District C, uh, including back-to-back projects to rehabilitate streets and upgrade the drainage uh both at South Rice and Chimney Rock and between uh North Brayswood and Beechnut.

So construction has started at the beginning of the year, and we are very excited and we appreciate public works.

I also appreciate Council's support with our Memorial Heights tours.

Uh we just approved today uh $25,000 for a safe crossing partnership between my office and the TURS uh for safe crossings, including at our trails along MKT uh and some other places.

So I just want to lift up that work because as we're having these citywide conversations, we are also making sure that we are investing in the district with meaningful and safe infrastructure to keep families safe and businesses running.

And we appreciate all of the partnerships that come along with that.

Thank you.

And happy, happy new year.

Councilmember Huffman.

Thank you.

I too want to welcome our newest Councilmember to the horseshoe.

Please lean on us, lean on our staffs, anything you need.

We're here for you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you.

I want to start on a personal note.

Uh my son Matthew, who is 17 years old, has been in Scouting for a number of years since he was a Cub Scout and uh recently over the break uh completed the requirements to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

Nice.

Okay.

Went through a 40-minute board of review interview and and passed.

And so I'm very proud of Matthew for sticking with it and achieving uh one of his goals to be an Eagle Scout.

Look forward to seeing what's in store for him in the future.

I also want to highlight what uh Councilmember Evan Shabazz uh referred to.

That is uh the Herman Park Conservancy will hold a town hall this evening at Shiri Floris Garden Pavilion at 1500 Herman Drive at 530.

This is important because Harris Health has proposed to take about nine acres of parkland uh from Herman Park to use it to expand Ben Tops.

So we have two competing, very important interests here.

The um the stated need of Ben Tobb to expand and taking part of one of Houston's most historic and treasured parks.

So if you have an opinion or you want to get to know more about this proposal, please attend this town hall.

Finally, welcome to my new colleague, Alejandra Salinas.

I have had the chance to get to know you over the last uh few weeks and months, and look forward to working with you to make this city a better place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

I want to bring attention to uh an ongoing issue.

I was actually interviewed yesterday by a news outlet in the historic Piney Point area.

Councilmember Alcorn, you may uh be familiar with this when we work this item through the regulatory neighborhood affairs uh committee, uh, the amount of auto dealers and mechanic shops that is surrounding this uh Freedmanstown, a remnant of a Freedmanstown and what was once surrounded by five bustling neighborhoods.

It has been reduced to about 125 homes.

Um that story should aired today.

Um staff member and I, we were driving around the district yesterday and we were literally looking in the drains where cars are in the open-ditch drain.

So when we're talking about drainage, there's some things that we can do with Chapter 8 to amend that to address uh to make sure that our drainage system can be protected by the inundation of uh mechanic and auto shops.

And so we will be focusing on that.

I do want to highlight uh that in September the Planning Commission um voted against replatting two residential lots for commercial use for another auto mechanic shop, and that was really done because the people in the civic clubs and the organizations got together and we showed up um to uh make our voices known.

And so I just want to encourage and keep that conversation before us because this is a still a very real thing in terms of quality of life.

A lot of um uh time and attention has been given to the fifth ward and the cancer cluster and other parts of the community, but on the west side, we are surrounded with possible environmental um challenges with these auto mechanics.

And so I'm glad that the residents are standing up, and I just want to remind people that our eyes are on this and we're moving this forward.

Um I mentioned earlier in my comments about item 35 about the uh Wells Fargo, the body at Wells Fargo, which is a hot spot for squatting.

Um that location has been acquired and will be a future site of a uh gas station.

Um, but I do think it's important to note that for those who choose to do business in the city of Houston, they must be good neighbors.

Um and the fact that we had to basically strong arm uh the private owner to put up a fence, overextends limited resources at the city from our Department of Neighborhoods, public work, solid waste, HPD, um, to focus on these things.

So I think we have to have uh stronger protocols in place, and really when the legislature happens in uh next year, for us to get our agenda together as a city to make sure that local cities have the ability to have better enforcement and stronger teeth to make sure that they can do what we can do to make sure that to protect our neighborhoods.

So I just want to keep that in front of us as we get ready for our legislative uh priorities.

I want to also mention that January is human trafficking month.

Um so there's a lot of activities happening all throughout our city, uh and a lot of government entities and nonprofits are participating in that.

And we've had some reductions on the West side around human trafficking.

So I want to shout out our human trafficking task force with HPD um for collaborating with our offices and uh many of the nonprofits that are providing direct services.

I mentioned earlier that later this afternoon, Mayor Whitmeyer will join me at the old A-Leaf Library on Kirkwood as we announce drainage and infrastructure projects um in partnership with Harris County Precinct 4, uh pre Leslie Brianis' office, long-standing programs, and so I'm uh grateful that her office is matching dollars with projects for our CIP and other drainage um programs on the West side.

Um, then in closing, I just want to shout out our Harris County attorney Christian Minifee.

Um, this is his last week serving in this capacity, and I want to thank him um for leading Harris County uh for standing up and giving light to what was known as a sleepy position.

Most people didn't know the Harris County attorney.

Most people didn't know what that office did, and he really uh centered that office and advocated for quality of life, uh uh protecting property rights, quite uh uh neighborhoods, and so much so.

So I wish him well, and I'll be celebrating with him later this week.

And congratulations to our newest council member.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor Pro Tim uh running the Houston Chevron Marathon PEC.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

Um first I want to um welcome Council Mayor Salinas.

Congratulations.

Looking forward to working with you.

Um our next public safety committee meeting will be next Tuesday, January 13th at 10 o'clock a.m.

We will hear a presentation from HPD about FIFA safety.

So please join us for that um meeting.

Um next, I want to wish um best wishes to Umar Khan with Public Works.

He's leaving um tomorrow is his last day.

He has just been so amazing with our SWAT and LDP projects.

So professional and helpful.

We have relied on him for so much.

So thank you so much um for your service to District A and the City of Houston.

Um also wanted to wish Councilmember Huffman a happy birthday tomorrow.

Happy birthday.

And um good luck to everyone running in the marathon.

Um Councilmember Alcorn and I are running the half marathon on Sunday.

And good luck to everyone.

Councilmember uh Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

First, I just want to wish everybody a happy birthda uh happy birthday.

Well, another year.

This happy new year.

Everybody's gonna get a happy birthday.

Um but then also, of course, uh, but then also uh want to also congratulate and welcome uh Councilmember Alejandra Salines.

Uh a fun fact as well.

Um we have both council former Councilmember Carol Rado and former uh Councilmember Gracie Science who are here.

So it's been 18 years since we had a Latina uh on the around the horseshoe with Carol Alvarado and 29 years since we've had four Latino council members around the horseshoe.

So it's something that uh I'm excited and proud to be able to uh celebrate with you as well.

And I look forward to making sure that you know we work well together, but also making sure that we're serving everyone in the city as well.

So thank you.

Um we we kicked off our district I events with um with uh with our 5K at Mason Park uh this past Saturday.

We had over a hundred registered participants.

Uh I want to give a huge shout out first to Fit Houston, Latina's Run, Wellness on Wheels, and all the runners that were that walked and ran and cycled uh this past weekend.

And with that, definitely want to make sure that we uh um you know uh wish a good luck to both Councilmember Alcorn and Councilmember Peck.

The Chevron Marathon is happening.

Uh it will take up parts of downtown as well.

So just want to make sure that uh folks um are aware of uh what's going on plan uh for driving into downtown this weekend and consider transportation impacts.

Uh there will be several highways and street closures related to construction.

So for more information, you can visit downtown Houston.org uh forward slash navigate forward slash closures.

Uh you can also sign up to receive updates uh and text downtown tours to 56512.

Again, that's Text Downtown Detours 56512.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Pollock.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

Um my comments for for the mayor, but he has stepped out.

Um but I'm sure he's listening.

Um all the district council members, we get our council district service funds.

Um in my office, we prioritize public safety at the very top.

And my office has over the years given HPD over a million dollars to support their department, mostly for overtime to build up our District J patrol program, which is a program that uh emphasizes community policing, focusing just on the uh neighborhood related crimes and violations, uh, the things that HPD traditionally would not be able to get to because they're focused on high crimes first.

These overtime dollars go towards ensuring that we have enough uh patrol presence and response to the neighborhood issues.

Um recently, HPD has barred our office from uh submitting overtime dollars for community policing.

Now, I am the only office up here uh that has gotten word from HPD leadership that they will no longer accept overtime dollars for um issues in the district.

We all get to decide where our CDSF dollars go.

We all have the discretion to put those dollars in different departments based on our priorities, and as long as they are of legal purpose, the departments kind of follow um being able to put forth those dollars in a meaningful way for whatever the intended purpose was.

Um I don't know why my office is not being able to submit and get approved dollars that have been approved each fiscal year.

Um, but what I have been hearing from constituents is that many areas that those that were hot spots at one time that had increased level of crime that we were able to address.

That crime is coming back now.

People are seeing that we don't have the same level of presence, we don't have the same level of patrol, we don't have the same level of follow-up and and response.

And it's hurting community.

It's hurting individuals and residents of J City.

Um, and it's not right.

And I should not be the only office that has to fall under a different type of criteria than everyone else.

And so I'm asking the mayor and the chief of police to accept the overtime dollars from my office so that we can continue to emphasize and prioritize community policing for J City neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember running the Chevron, half marathon.

Also there will be 30,000 people out there right now.

So y'all come share.

And also just a quick reminder for everybody that still has their Christmas tree up like I do.

We take it down after January 6th.

We recycle them.

Don't throw them in the landfill.

Recycle them at the city depositories through January 23rd.

Don't put your Christmas tree on the curb.

Okay.

Thanks.

Hope that works.

Uh Councilmembers, I'll I'll I'll round out with a couple of announcements in uh District K.

Do want to say congratulations to Troy and Charity Carter, phase two of the Edison project um is open.

We had our ribbon cutting.

Uh colleagues, you may remember the CDBD dollars.

We uh the city of Houston uh we all voted for uh five million dollars went into this fifty million dollar project.

The first phase was the Edison Lofts.

Uh the second phase is the after-school programming.

Um, the third phase will be the actual theater that will open later this year.

It was an incredible ribbon cutting.

It was an incredible ribbon cutting and just wanted to give them their kudos for the great work and all of the participants and partners.

Uh Director Derek Sellers was there.

He had a really um great speech at the event um talking about the importance of this project for Fort Bend Houston.

So we're very excited to have this addition to our community.

And then I want to remind um residents in District K that we are having our next Super Neighborhood 40 community meeting on Thursday, January the 22nd from 6 30 p at 6 30 p.m.

at the Hiram Clark Multi-Service Center.

Uh the bylaws committee has completed their work, and so now we are going to present that to the overall body of Super Neighborhood 40.

So this is the next step toward revitalizing that super neighborhood in the district.

And then back by popular demand is our shred day on January the 24th from 9 to 12 p.m.

in partnership with Westbury United Methodist Church.

Uh this event is uh community favorite.

Folks are cleaning up and cleaning out, um, and we want to make sure that they can dispose of their um items properly.

So there's lots of capacity, so uh council members, you can also share it with your your community members.

Uh we will be there Saturday, January 24th from 9 to 12.

And then if you miss that one and it just doesn't work for you, on February the 21st at New Faith Church, we'll have another one.

So let's get all those offices and things cleaned out.

Um and then I'd like uh colleagues, if we could um adjourn today in memory of Reggie Lewis.

Uh Council members, y'all all may uh have known Reggie Lewis.

He was the president of Ridgemont CIA for many years.

Unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly the day after Christmas.

Um his services will be this weekend.

My staff and I will attend, um, but Reggie Lewis was a very value added community leader at Ridgemont uh CIA.

So we will definitely miss him uh in the city of Houston.

So I would ask if we would um adjourn today in memory of Reggie Lewis and all um of our community members that we lost in 2025.

If nothing else, we stand adjourned.