The Chair recognizes Mayor Pro Tim Martha Castex Tatum for a proclamation to Cognitive Justice Damian Walker in recognition of their youth development in schools.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Mayor and Council today I'm very excited to present this proclamation to Damian Walker.

He is the director of cognitive justice.

He's a voice of hope.

We're very excited that he and his team have joined us today.

And the proclamation reads whereas Cognitive Justice International is a Houston-based nonprofit at advancing cognitive justice.

The belief that all forms of actionable knowledge, especially those rooted in lived experiences, indigenous traditions, and community wisdom deserve respect, recognition, and the power to shape our systems.

And whereas in 2025 alone, CJI reached over 2,000 individuals in the Greater Houston area through workshops such as Opportunity Center Entrepreneur Workshop and the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department Peace workshops, youth development programs, and initiatives focused on voting rights, empowerment, and restorative justice.

And whereas CJI's work is anchored in three core commitments epistemic transformation, challenging dominant narratives by uplifting the knowledge of directly impacted communities, interpreting cycles of harm, providing healing-centered alternatives and systems shaped by violence and restorative education and dignity, designing educational experiences that restore civic power, resilience, and human dignity.

And whereas the City of Houston appreciates the work of Cognitive Justice International in serving marginalized communities, providing tools for empowerment, and advancing the concept of cognitive justice.

Mr.

Walker, welcome to your city hall.

You know, it I'm I'm always impressed when I get to meet people that are going about making this a great city.

And we really don't get to experience your mission until you're brought before council.

So maybe part of that's my fault, but it's also I think because you're out there doing the job and not looking for publicity or notoriety.

So today's the purpose is to bring you to your team to City Hall, and thank you for keeping these young people busy.

Yes, sir.

Sounds to me like you're keeping them really occupied.

So this is kind of your day in the city of Houston.

We look forward to hearing from you.

And therefore, our John Whitmeyer, Mayor of the City of Houston, hereby proclaimed February 3, 2026, the CJI Day in the City of Houston.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much.

I want to thank Mayor Pro Tem and also the Mayor, um, John Whitmeyer and Ms.

Tatum for allowing cognitive justice to have this opportunity, but also allowing community.

Um we all serve a community.

Everybody that you see here, some of you have seen me before.

Um my story is unique.

I know your good friend Albert Yancey.

Um I was a kid that was certified as an adult back in 1993.

I've been home 15 years after 17 year sentence.

And so my purpose is to not only serve community but uplift others who don't have the chance that I have.

I'm a graduate of a University of Houston, and I'm also working on my doctoral program.

So we have members here as part of our team and my family, but our goal is to make sure that those in community understand that they have a voice and that we can allow them to understand what public safety is for their community.

Because as you guys know, you can't call South Park Sunnyside.

You can't call Eggers Home Trinity Garden.

So because we understand community, we thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be recognized for the work that we do, and I also thank the team and the many people around Houston that have came and helped with this work as well.

And let me add that you're living proof that second chance works.

Yes, sir.

And our mutual friend Albert Yancey spent 27 years in TDCJ due to a 17-year-old drive-by shooting.

And so now he, like you are out mentoring our young people.

So what a great lesson for all of us.

Thank you for being here.

Councilmember.

Mr.

Mr.

Walker, Councilmember Cassick Tatum.

Mr.

Walker, would you like to introduce your family?

Is that a cute little girl you got there with you?

Who does she belong to?

This is the star.

My wife's real.

Thank you so much.

This is my daughter Sonova.

This is Ms.

Diana Williams.

This is Brian Young.

Brian Young, also like uh myself, was incarcerated for 25 years.

He was arrested 18 times as a juvenile.

And so he's like my right hand on doing the work that we do in community.

We have other individuals in the back, Gracie, Mr.

Boudreau, Ramon right here.

And so there's some people that are coming upstairs too.

So but thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um, and it's important that we share this work together as all of us connected.

Thank you for the work you do, and God bless you, Matters.

Thank you.

Okay.

The chair recognizes Councilmember Abby Kamen for a proclamation for Antioch Missionary Baptist Church for their 160th anniversary.

All right.

As we have some of our members from the church coming up, um, we today are celebrating the 160th anniversary of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, uh, the first African American Baptist Church in Houston.

And we were supposed to celebrate over the weekend.

That's right.

Um, but due to the freeze, those celebrations got postponed.

But I'm so glad that as a city, we can still commemorate um the church and its continuing legacy.

Uh the Antioch congregation began in 1866 as a gathering of formerly enslaved individuals beneath tents along the bayou.

Today it stands as a historic institution in the heart of downtown, but I want to make clear that because of redlining, the church stands in the heart of downtown.

This church was in the heart of Fourth Ward Freedmanstown.

And that work continues to support the community today.

So as we start Black History Month, it is important to not only look back at history through the famous stories on a national level, but to recognize them on a local level.

Also joining us, uh I Mama Bostick, helping connect the church uh, who is a true, true trailblazer and local legend who continues to pass her family family's legacy of leadership on to the next generation.

So at a time when some seek to erase the contributions of history and history of black Americans and the role and the attempted rollback and progress made towards inclusion and representation.

This church has a long legacy of leading Houston throughout our history, from civil rights to women's suffrage and under the leadership of Pastor Lou and First Lady McElroy, they have continued that tradition, partnering with our office in many ways, but being the eyes and ears of the community, including at the Gregory Lincoln School, where we have partnered.

But Pastor Lou, uh, you're all over the city.

Uh, even at my uh former high school Emory Weiner, uh at partnering with the Holocaust Museum of Houston building bridges, they love Pastor Lou.

So I want to thank everyone in the congregation for their tireless dedication to our Houston community and for continuing the historic role in building a more just and compassionate city.

So I'm gonna read this proclamation and then I'm gonna leave it to you, Pastor Lou, to introduce everyone so that I don't mess it up.

Whereas 160 years ago, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was founded in January 1866 by formerly enslaved people, giving it the important distinction of being Houston's first black church.

The congregation has carried forward the faith and resilience of its founders, growing from gatherings held along the bayou into the historic cornerstone it is today.

The church upholds a legacy of community leadership.

From its first pastor, there were known freedmen, minister, and leader, Reverend John Jack Henry Yates.

The mantle of leadership has been passed through generations to the steady and faithful guidance of Pastor Lou McElroy.

Antioch's early members established the city's first school for freed African Americans, the Baptist Academy, to nurture education, empowerment, and justice.

Throughout every chapter of its journey, the church has provided guidance and opportunity to successive generations of ambitious freedmen.

The church has served as a vital force for action, supporting movements ranging from women's suffrage to the civil rights movement, and standing with the city through wars, pandemics, and periods of profound social change.

Antioch's leaders and volunteers have long provided essential care, advocacy, and leadership to neighborhoods in need.

The church remains a valued partner of the City of Houston and the broader community as the congregation continues to support residents through school supply drives, holiday food distributions, and the amplification of urgent neighborhood needs.

For 160 years, the church has stood as a living archive of Houston's African American and Black history and a beacon of hope, exemplifying the freedom, justice, and equity that define the city's values.

The City of Houston proudly recognizes Antioch Missionary Baptist Church on the occasion of its historic 160th anniversary and extends our heartfelt best wishes for continued blessings and many more milestones for generations to come.

Thank you, Councilor Cayman, and thank uh the leadership pastor.

It's just amazing to me having grown up in Houston and watch the skyscrapers be built around Antioch.

We can only speculate, or maybe certainly stories of how land plays development.

I mean, think about it, Councilman Cayman.

When this church was formed, probably in the country.

Houston was just kind of almost foreign land.

Certainly the world was a different place.

So today I think we celebrate the leadership, the faith community and divine intervention that allowed this footprint, this place of worship still be prominently displayed in doing the work of the Lord in downtown Houston.

So it's exciting to be here in council and recognize history.

And the neat thing is what the future holds.

So under great leadership, therefore I, John Whitmark, Mayor of the City of Houston, hereby proclaimed February 3rd, 2026, is Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Day in Houston, Texas.

Congratulations.

I therefore want to lay before you our charge that if there's any and anything that we can do as a city with a rich history and legacy as ours to help you serve the people of this community, Antioch stands ready as she has stood for 160 years.

I am the pastor, but I do want to recognize the boss.

I'd just say it is an honor, a privilege, a blessing for us to stand before you today and carry on the legacy of my great-great grandfather and to continue to work in this city on behalf of our ancestors that just poured so much into this community.

And we are committed to continue to do that.

That's right.

And we have my mother-in-law and her mother, uh, Jackie Bostick.

I'm a certainly wouldn't want to be well, I just want to say it's always is an honor to be here before council.

And it's always an honor to serve with the mayor and the city council in any way possible.

Houston to me, it's own.

But it's a city that I love.

And so I'm always willing to work to try to make things better for all of those that live in Houston.

And I thank you so much to the mayor, to the council, and to our councilperson in our district.

We have uh Austin McElroy, who is the president of our deacon ministry.

We have Kedrick Perry, who is the chairman of our trustee board.

If Kennedy Meebo would stand, who is the uh assistant president of our deacon board, uh Sister Yvette Burton, who works for the city is our committee chair.

Uh Lee Brown is the secretary of our uh women's ministry.

We've got um Becky McElroy, who is over our health and wellness.

Tina, wave your hand as you are our vice president of our women's ministry.

Brianna does our tours for us.

Agnes Williams is our uh director of our Usher, William Ford is a trustee board member, brother Beatty, Reginald Beatty, uh, 87 year old member of our church, uh, is here with us as well, along with Miss Nakia Davis.

Uh I think James, James uh Brown, uh uh uh a strong member.

And I and I I have to mention that uh one of our long longtime members is is Edward Pollock uh here who serves as uh a member of this council and we're certainly grateful for your work at our church, but the work you do uh in the city to bridge uh those relationships.

We certainly thank you for that.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim, and good afternoon to everyone.

Councilmember Cayman, thank you for this proclamation.

Uh and to my church, 160 years.

Uh that's a big deal.

160 years.

I think the city of Houston is uh 189 years old.

And so for the vast majority of the time that this has been an incorporated city, uh, Antioch has been a strong presence.

And um, we always talk about the history of Antioch, which is a strong, rich legacy.

Um we talk about the the pews that were uh hand carved by free slaves and all of the history uh within that cathedral.

Uh but what excites me is the present and the future.

And that is under your leadership, Pastor Lou and First Lady Uh Jackie, uh, Sister Bostig, Sister Burton, and the entire uh Antioch family that is here.

Uh, it's the future uh that is our responsibility uh to ensure that uh all of the sacrifices made by many that have come before us, uh, that work continues to live on.

And we have made it a long way, but we still have a long ways to go.

And so I'm I'm proud to be a member of that church.

Uh many people, Mayor, who attend that church uh are city employees or or former city employees, Brother Beatty, who's in the audience, I believe, worked right here at City Hall, uh, checking people in at the security desk.

He will always be a friendly face, uh, Sister Burton, who's here at the city, and many others.

And so uh there's a lot of connection and a lot of ties, and um I look forward to doing whatever I can to serve in this capacity and as a member of the church going forward.

God bless you all.

God bless you.

Thank you very much.

A hundred and sixty years deserves to be celebrated.

Congratulations.

Thank you, thank you.

Next, the chair recognizes Councilmember Martinez for a proclamation recognizing the Nuestro Ambiente Latino Shaping Houston exhibition presented by the AIA Houston Latinos in Architecture Committee.

Thank you, Mr.

Pro Tim.

If I could have uh Ricardo come up, um and as he comes up, just wanna before I read the proclamation, just share with uh our colleagues that over the past few months, uh the um AIA uh Houston has been as had a um an exhibition in downtown uh that was highlighting a lot of uh work that Latinos have done here in the city of Houston.

And so um I was honored, I think uh of course my colleague Julian Ramirez was was also a part of it and several other colleagues, um, not just in the political space, but uh of course in the architectural uh in the educational space, and so uh wanna thank uh everyone for being here and joining me today so we can uh honor the the closing of the exp uh exhibition that just recently happened in January uh thirtieth.

So whereas the no uh the nuestra Latino Shaping Houston exhibition at the architecture center center Houston on view from October twenty fourth, twenty twenty-five through January thirtieth, twenty twenty-six is presented by the AIA Houston Latinos in Architecture Committee.

And whereas the exhibition honors the enduring legacy and contributions of generations of Latinos to the cultural and built environment of Houston.

And whereas on February the third, twenty twenty-six, in this in the celebration of the success of the nuestro abriente Latino Shaping Houston exhibition, the City of Houston commends the AIA Houston Latinos in Architecture Committee and calls on all Houstonians to reflect on how Houston's Latino Umbonte has enriched the city's architecture, culture, identity, and to recognize the profound and lasting contributions of the Latino community.

So thank you for being here.

And therefore, our John Whitmer, Mayor of the City of Houston, hereby Proclaim, February 3rd, 2026, Ambiente Day in the City of Houston, which is February 3rd across Houston.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Wonder.

Oh, sure.

I'll go ahead and say a few words.

So first and foremost, I guess the process of putting this together has taken several years.

So we actually started off in 2023.

It has been a long journey with many of us kind of both uh I'll say recent immigrants, uh, first generational uh uh citizens, as well as many of us have been here for a long time to really research and go dive deal dive down deep into the Houston area, going back many, many years and kind of saying, okay, how does Latinos shape the uh Houston community?

Um, not only the built environment from an actual standpoint, but also through the very many uh cultural aspects of the city of Houston.

So we see it every day out in the out in the world as we travel through the city of Houston, both from a cultural arts, food, uh you name it, we touch it.

And so we are very excited.

Um it was a neat journey, and it took many of us uh to to do this.

And so I'll ask anyone else that wants to come up to speak.

Hi, doing my name is Bay Art of Salba.

I am the board president of AI Houston.

I want to thank the mayor for for this proclamation, and I also want to highlight that the amount of work that this committee put together uh to get here.

Um, you know, being in the times that we're leaving living today, uh, we want to celebrate Latino culture.

We want to highlight everything that we do in the city and throughout the United States.

It is a fantastic time for us, and we're we're here to celebrate.

And finally, it's extended all the way to March 30th, so we welcome everybody to bring their families, their friends to come see this great work that we're celebrating not only the architects, but also the city influencers, meaning like City Council members, uh chefs, musicians, dancers, everybody that has made a difference in our city.

So please come in and see it and enjoy it.

Very good.

Councilmember.

Councilmember, we do have uh Councilmember Ramirez in the queue.

Thank you, uh Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you all for being here and thank AIA for lifting up Latino culture and uh for highlighting you know those who have had an influence in in our city and uh their contributions.

So thank you all.

Congratulations, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Carter for a proclamation to the Real Abilities Houston Film and Arts Festival 2026.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

What an exciting group to recognize, one of my favorite people.

Come on up.

Everyone's favorite person.

Always smiling.

Um as we are so excited to have the mayor's office of people with disabilities, although I prefer to think of it people with real abilities, no unintended.

But um uh today we come uh recognizing real abilities, Houston's Film and Arts Festival, which opens today with correct today with a uh great film deaf deaf president now of River Oaks Theater.

If you get a chance, go out there.

It brings the message of inclusion.

Um hand today we've got uh some really special people, but I'll read the proclamation first and we'll get there.

Whereas the Real Abilities Houston Film and Arts Festival is a month-long celebration dedicated to promoting inclusion and equity by showcasing the live stories and artistic contributions of people with disabilities, and whereas the festival uses film, visual art, music, education speakers, and community-based programming to challenge stereotypes, change perceptions, and eliminate pay barriers faced by people with disabilities, thereby strengthening understanding and respect throughout the community.

And whereas all Real Abilities Houston events are free and open to the public, ensuring accessibility and encouraging participation from individuals, families, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods across the city of Houston, and whereas the festival's programming, including real film, real art, real music, real education, real workplace, real community, and real people, engages audiences in meaningful dialogue and learning experiences that advance disability awareness and inclusion across cultural, educational, and professional settings.

And whereas Real Abilities Houston is produced by JFS Houston, Alexander Institute for Inclusion in collaboration with the Mayor's Office of People with Bis Disabilities, with the support of many, many community partners, volunteers, sponsors, and advocates who are committed to fostering a more inclusive and accessible city for all residents.

And whereas on this month-long celebration, the City of Houston proudly recognizes JFS Houston Alexander Institute for Inclusion and the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities and all those involved in their noble efforts to advance inclusivity for all.

The City of Houston further encourages all Houstonians to honor and support the creativity, talents, and contributions of people with disabilities and promote inclusion, accessibility, and equity in every aspect of community life.

Thank you, Councilmember Carter, and thank everyone that's here.

You in particular.

Thank you.

Yes.

I was going to say Hank, a little bit if you uh give us some wisdom.

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Member Councilmember Carter, um, and thank you, uh, Council members for uh recognizing this important festival in the city of Houston.

Uh before I introduce the folks behind me, I just want to say that this year uh I'm serving as co-chair for the festival.

Next year, I'm gonna be one of the chairs for the festival, and I'm gonna come to your offices and uh encourage you to attend this uh the festival.

But uh I just also want to include that um uh aside from tonight's uh opening film, uh Deaf President Now, uh tomorrow we'll be at the United Way with Real Workplace on February the 11, we'll have real people.

Uh Jim Abbott and Olympian Gold Medalist, and some of you may recognize this name, Ali Stroker, uh Tony Award winner, um, and also started at an OSARC and Only Murders in the building will be part of our presentation.

And our February 26th night is real music.

And um we hope that we see you at any of these events.

But this event um could not be possible without the support of my my beautiful staff that is in the room here today.

I'll ask them to also come to the front podium.

Uh but needless to say, the amazing work that JFS Houston Alexander Institute for Inclusion is doing, cannot go unnoticed, um, including the amazing work that President uh Carl Joleshart is doing.

And so I invite Carl to come to the podium now and share a few words.

Thank you so much, Director Ponce and Mayor and Councilmember Carter for this wonderful recognition.

Alexander JFS has been in the community for a hundred and thirteen years, so not quite as long as the earlier honoree, but we came as quick as we could.

And we're very proud of this festival for a lot of reasons.

But one of them is because from its very inception, it has been a partnership with the mayor's office and with City Council and other community partners like Tear Memorial Herman and the Jon and Stanford Alexander family.

And I think it's really a model for people to follow about the impact that you can have when the city and community partners come together.

And we are committed as you are in making sure that every citizen in the city of Houston can enjoy all of the benefits of this great city, and that we've become not just the most diverse city in the country, but the most inclusive.

And so I'll leave you with a little bit of homework.

I want you, like uh Director Ponce was saying, is to take a look at the schedule, share it with your staff and constituents, and pick one or two things that you'd like to come to.

As I look around the room, um, you know, I see Councilmember Cayman, who's been with us since the very beginning, and Councilmember Alcorn, who sat through one of the most freezing outdoors concerts in our history because of COVID, and stayed till the very end, and they can testify to the quality of the programming.

Um so we just invite you to come and participate and celebrate with us, and thank you again for your ongoing partnership.

Council members add that you can hear more about or learn more about the festival at RealAbilities Houston.org.

Thank you for sharing that.

Councilmember Kaman.

Uh thank you, Mayor Pratem.

Councilmember, thank you for bringing forward this proclamation, and mayor, of course, for recognizing the abilities and director for your involvement.

You've always been involved, but to see you now serving as a co-chair um really brings that work to the forefront.

Uh to your staff, uh, I just want to say thank you.

The entire Alexander JFS team, uh, all the volunteers, real abilities in and of itself is this behemoth endeavor.

Uh but it's so inspiring.

To lift up the stories of empowerment for all abilities uh is the gift that is what our city is all about.

But I do want to emphasize the work of Alexander JFS every single day, from celebration company uh to the supportive services that you all provide.

Uh what this organization does is unparalleled.

And we are so grateful for the service that you provide and the celebration that you bring to uh everyone in this city uh and the important message of of dignity for all abilities.

So thank you.

We look forward to celebrating again this month.

But hats off to all the staff and volunteers that serve 24-7.

Councilmember Alcorn.

Thanks, uh, Councilmember Carter for bringing this.

Uh it was 2018 when I first was introduced to Real Abilities, and I went to a movie about a swim team of all autistic kids.

It's called Swim Team.

It that movie has stuck with me, and I've been a huge fan of Real Abilities ever since.

Uh the the that concert was called.

It's just amazing what you what you guys have done.

I mean, you've grown this thing, you get great talent here.

Uh we have so much art and culture to celebrate in our city, and you are really focusing on this sector, and I'm so grateful.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

The Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

I do want to ask uh Pastor Gentry if he will come to the podium.

Mayor and Council, this uh introduction is on behalf of Councilmember Jackson, who is um out today, but very excited to welcome Pastor Johnny Gentry the third, who is a longtime Northeast Houston leader and pastor.

He served as senior pastor of the Free ND Church for 20 years, retiring from that role in 2023.

Since 2023, he served as the CEO of Community Works CDC.

He currently oversees Prayer View AM University's community and economic development extension programs for Harris County.

And Pastor Gentry remains committed to collaboration and lasting positive change.

Again, on behalf of Councilmember Jackson, Pastor Gentry, we welcome you to City Hall.

Thank you so much, Statum.

Greetings, Mayor Whitmeyer, all of my brothers and sisters, all of our council members.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Gracious God, how we thank you for the privilege to gather together from all walks of life and across the city to lift up your name and to pray.

God, we summons your presence.

That you would cover our mayor, his family, everything that concerns him, that you would bless every council member as they serve, that you would perfect the things that concern our city.

God, we pray the prayer that Solomon prayed.

We don't ask for military might or for money, but God, we ask for wisdom for we don't know how to come in or how to go out or how to lead so great a people.

And so, God, in light of your scriptures that teach us that in praying for wisdom to govern, that Jerusalem experienced fifty years of peace and prosperity and wealth and riches.

And God, we pray that prayer for Houston, that we'd be a city of peace, a city of prosperity, wealth, resources, a city of healing.

Bless this council meeting, bless the agenda and all the affairs that will be dealt with today.

It's in your son's name we pray, and all God's people said amen.

Councilmember Peck will be absent.

Councilmember Jackson will be absent.

Councilmember Kman.

Present.

Councilmember Evan Shabazz.

Here.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Councilmember Thomas.

Councilmember Hoffman.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo?

Here.

Councilmember Martinez.

Here.

Councilmember Pollard?

Councilmember Castax Tatum.

Here.

Councilmember Ramirez?

Here.

Councilmember Davis?

Councilmember Carter.

Councilmember Salinas.

And Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you.

Need a motion to adopt the minutes of January 27th, 28.

Castax Tatum move.

Tina second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed to nay.

Motion passes.

Any procedural motions?

Councilmember Salinas.

Okay.

Second.

Those opposed to the motion passes.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to suspend the rules to add Christopher Rivera, Alfredo Dominguez, Kristen Budwine, and Selena Bry after Ruben Garza on the three-minute non-agenda list.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Anything else?

If not, Mr.

Secretary, you're going to call our first speaker.

Rodney Underwood.

To be followed by Hadley Hollingsworth.

All right, so there's like a chance I end up leaving the city in a few months, whatever college, uh probably.

Um so I thought I'd leave a few recommendations while I'm here for three changes I'd like to see.

Uh so firstly, a complete repeal of all laws involving uh minimum parking requirements, minimum setbacks, lot sizes, etcetera.

If I ever end up coming back and buying land here, I'd like to be able to build the same kinds of buildings that once made up our historic quintessentially Houstonian downtowns uh without being stifled by such regulations.

Um for the average property owner here, your improvements are worth about four to six times as much as your land.

Um but for slumlers and speculators that value is near zero.

Um our current tax scheme lets off the latter group easy at the expense of the former.

So if the city could tax land more heavily and property improvements left, it would incentivize a lot more property development.

Um especially in lower income areas that currently lack easy access to urban amenities.

Um I've also been reading through the city's infrastructure design manual, and I thought I'd recommend a few minutes to that.

Um so a general feed limit of no more than twenty miles an hour on all downtown streets, minor collectors, and unclassified streets and twenty-five on all major collectors.

Um you obviously to drive slow in the neighborhoods.

Most major cities worldwide and small towns in Texas have already recognized that.

Um to properly support speed faster than twenty, you've got to have protected physically separated bike infrastructure, so not share oath or painted bike lanes.

Um then the lane width, so I would say what eleven to twelve feet on freeways, ten feet on major thoroughfares, nine to ten on all other streets, I think it's a fair requirement.

Um the city should do its best to eliminate all like right angle conflicts on roads faster than thirty miles an hour.

So that would be like consolidating medians, closing unnecessary unprotected intersections, and being a lot more reflective with driver permits on major thorough affairs.

Um then for most infrastructure projects, the city engineers would spend like months preparing estimates of how much this would cost, which is great, but also once you have that cost estimate, it would take in Colin Myth a week, if not days to run a full cost benefit analysis, um, which would be much much more useful.

Um if such an analysis were required for every major infrastructure project, that would prevent the city from investing millions into decades long debt tracks as a current media.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Cayman.

Um thank you so much.

I I know you're a district C resident and I know you were talking very quickly, but I think you were providing recommendations.

You were looking through the city's IDM, the engineering manual, and providing recommendations and suggestions on what you would like to see incorporate into the next iteration of the IDM.

Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, if you'd like to circulate those recommendations, uh it may be easy also easier for us to read some of those and pass those along to public work.

So please feel free to share them via email.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nick.

Hadley Hollingsworth.

To be followed by Matthew Banzer.

Good afternoon.

I was signed up to speak in front of this body last week, but because public comment was started uh well before the city's website stated, I wasn't able to.

Regardless, I've decided to come back this week to ensure that my voice and body are added to the count of people who stand in opposition to any city collaboration with ICE.

I understood.

I understand that Senate Bill Bill 4, which you keep hiding behind may complicate that.

Um but we can't do all the legal research for you.

You guys are policymakers, including several attorneys.

It's y'all's job to figure something out.

Your constituents have made good suggestions, such as limiting interactions with law enforcement by reducing or or ending traffic stops for non-safety traffic violations.

Additionally, historically the city has tracked other threats to its residents, such as COVID numbers and extreme weather.

When I read SB4, it does not seem to bar a city from tracking and reporting on ICE movements.

If you're gonna assert that ICE is a force of nature, then at least treat it like you would a natural disaster.

Track, record, report, and offer meaningful services for mitigating harm.

Mayor Whitmeyer, when you wring your hands and say that you don't that you care, but there's nothing you can do, and then you go campaign for someone who proudly states that he won't vote for a DHS bill that does not fully fund and empower ice, you break down trust.

Not about party politics, it's about saying one thing and doing the opposite.

Furthermore, since you think that no one could have seen the tragic deaths in Minneapolis coming, despite many people predicting how ice would escalate, let someone with better foresight let you know that there is no amount of compliance that will guarantee Houstonian safety.

So you may as well do what's right.

And to the council members who stayed back and listened to your constituents, we appreciate the gesture.

And if you're as frustrated as we are, that the mayor in this city seems to inexplicably have all legislative and executive power.

Matthew Banzer.

To be followed by Danetta Hill.

Uh can you hear me okay?

All right.

I know this uh session started with the celebration of uh the Latino culture in this community, and I think that's great.

And I think the progress that we've made as a city is great, but I don't think the progress is going to mean anything unless we stop our involvement with ICE.

Uh in December 2024, ICE agent David Corvell was charged with sexually abusing a detainee in a janitor's closet in exchange for letting the woman see pictures of her daughter.

On New Year's Eve, an off-duty ICE agent murdered Keith Porter.

Early January, ICE murdered Renee Good as she drove away.

And a few weeks ago, ICE murdered Alex Paretti after shoving him to the ground and grabbing his gun from his holster.

And if anything like that happened in Houston, Texas, I feel like your office would not be prepared for the hellfire that would come from that.

Republica has even stated more than 170 U.S.

citizens have been detained by ICE.

And unfortunately, if these events do not change your mind about ICE's involvement with HPD, unfortunately, I don't think anything will.

Mr.

Whitmire, your party has abandoned you.

And as a result that's what it is.

And I think you know this because considering that you ended last uh week's court hearing or council hearing an hour 30 minutes before it be uh was supposed to end.

We had a freeze not too long ago.

Many people were scared to even go to a warming center out of fear that ICE would be patrolling the area.

And you know this because when you asked about it, you essentially said, Why would anybody ask about ICE?

Obviously, everybody's come here.

What's the big deal?

Which I think is ridiculous.

If you continue a relationship with ICE, your legacy will not be the mayor that got rid of a couple of Viklings.

Your legacy will be the mayor that bent the knee to the Epstein class so Houstonians could feel less safe.

And the city will not forget that.

The choice is yours.

Thank you for your time.

Next, Danetta Hill.

To be followed by Fred Woods.

My name is Danetta Hill.

I'm the aunt of the deceased Corey Young who was killed in the incident on Homestead at a event.

Um his name was Corey Young.

He was 24 years old, and he was there for a short time.

I'm asking for justice.

I saw videos.

I walked those streets.

I spoke with neighbors.

I went to the businesses.

Some of them said officers have not been to them.

They have what they need to get who did this to my nephew.

My dad gave 36 years to the city of Houston.

He retired last year.

I have two brothers, my son, my son-in-law, and seven cousins that work for the city of Houston.

So he's not just my family, he's y'all's as well.

I've given my family's giving too much time to the city for us not to get justice.

I've not had an officer to my house.

I have not had homicide to my house.

I've been out in the streets.

I've been there, and not one officer was there.

Not one homicide.

I called the office there not calling me back.

I didn't get a call until Mr.

Woods came and spoke with me and called someone on the phone, and then I got a call.

I've spoken to a sergeant there.

He told me to call back the next day.

He don't know what's going on.

This scene, this crime scene was too big of a scene for him not to know what happened.

And I just want justice.

I these events need to be stopped.

I'm not even understanding how when the police did come out at 7 30, it was only two officers out there.

This event had been going on since Friday.

There was no one there to protect or serve my nephew.

I'm not saying y'all couldn't stop the people from having guns, but this many hands should not have been involved.

He was not the only one that was hit, but he's the only one that didn't survive.

We won't answer so we want justice.

We just need somebody to let us know.

I have I have information, but no one's come to talk to me.

I've reached out, I've called again.

I say I didn't get attention until Mr.

Woods called someone.

So I'm here today just asking if y'all would please somebody take our time.

If this was y'all child, y'all baby.

My baby left his food on the table.

Somebody called him to come out.

He wouldn't, he didn't go out there for long.

He was on his way back home to us when it happened, and he didn't make it.

We never got a call from no one saying your son or grandson or nephew has been.

We never got that.

We was at the hospital for hours.

They put us out the hospital in a freezing cold.

Let me let me express on behalf of all of us.

Our sympathy goes to your family for the loss of your nephew.

There are two key witnesses still in a hospital.

So it's an active investigation which took place in the county.

And the chief and his staff have been in close contact.

I'm guessing it would be your sister, would be the mother and father.

So there's a great line of communications getting to the outcome of this tragedy.

They've been in contact with who, Max?

They've been talking to your nephew's parents.

No.

Well, that's the information I'm furnished.

No.

But I'll tell you what we'll do to continue to reach the bottom of it.

Would you talk to Rebecca Williams in my office?

Or Miss Wilson, and we'll uh help you make the contact that you're looking forward to.

I I know that's not true because I'm my brother's sister.

I'm the only sister.

Yeah, well, I'm just gonna the best information I have because it's an active investigation.

They're waiting for the two individuals in the hospital to be able to actually they know the uh who they had the encounter with.

So let me get you to talk to uh someone on my staff, my chief of staff to help you make contact with HPD and get you the best information available.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Yes.

Next.

Ray Woods.

Good afternoon.

Uh want to thank Councilmember Salinas uh for her collaboration and partnership in the absence of my councilmember Tarsha Jackson.

Uh mayor, you listened to us two years ago.

At that time, neither you nor our community imagined this would go beyond a nuisance to the point that we would lose a precious life.

And we thank you for listening then and the sympathy you've shown now.

So here we are again before you.

The same person now has blood on their hands while recklessly organizing events without any consideration for the safety of innocent citizens that simply wanted to enjoy themselves or live peacefully and safely in their own neighborhood.

They are organizing events that encourage trigger happy thugs to show up and have free reign to take the lives of innocent people.

This person is all about the dollar, not the law.

And jail time and loss of income are the only ways to get their attention.

We must strengthen the ordinance with punishments to discourage bad actors.

We are asking that you and this council begin the process of revising the ordinance this week and deciding if a statute is necessary to undergird the revised ordinance by the end of next week.

A draft of the revised ordinance and proposed statute is to be reviewed with us in a meeting during the week of February the 15th.

Let us know who the participants will be for this effort.

We will email everyone our contact information.

We must come together quickly.

I know you agree.

A life is too precious to let anyone continue to make money off the blood of our community.

Thank you.

Next Emma French.

To be followed by Grace Kesterson.

Good afternoon.

I'm here today to speak on behalf of the hundreds of people who came to this council chamber last Tuesday with one voice and one call that the city stop its cooperation with ice.

The morning after that public session, I had the privilege to be in this room to hear this council speak about the comments made that night, and I was very disappointed to hear most of you disap dismiss what was said by your cons um by the people of the city.

Councilmember Davis.

You mentioned that in order for the comments brought forth last Tuesday to be taken with any seriousness, that they needed to have been made with respect and decorum.

I ask you what was respectful about this council when you limited people's time to one minute without notification.

What was respectful about this council when you decided to move the meeting time up by 30 minutes without notification to the to the speakers?

And I ask you frankly, what is respectful about this council's cooperation with an agency that is now taking kidnapping people off the street and now killing people and killing American citizens.

With all the respect that you are due, shame on you.

That morning I heard this council congratulating each other on a job well done during the winter freeze, just twelve hours after you heard a woman in my position tell you that at the warming centers where she worked, people avoided the city's help because she saw ice patrolling the area.

People were afraid of being detained so much so that they avoided being warm that weekend.

Councilmember Martinez, you said that you're a proud representative of the immigrant community.

There's a fire on your desk that should have been handed out to you.

It's about a gathering tonight in a fundraiser for Morrow Sanchez, who is a high schooler in your district who is detained by ICE.

I expect that you will be there.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Right, Councilmember Evan Chavez.

That's what you said that night.

You and Councilmember Selena seem to have been the only ones listening.

I don't think Mayor Whitmeyer is listening to me right now.

And I don't think a lot of people around this table are listening to me right now.

I think you're listening.

I think you are listening.

I think you two are listening.

And so I'm asking you with all of your power, please do something.

I cannot do anything.

I have three minutes in front of you today, and that's it.

That is where my power ends.

So I'm asking you to please do something about the ICE operations in Houston.

Please protect your neighbors.

Please protect the city.

It takes a lot of courage to be up here.

There's a lot of people that have spoken in front of you, and so I'm asking a lot of you to take a step to stand up against people who are not standing with their neighbors.

Please get ICE out of Houston.

Thank you.

Grace Kesterson.

To be followed by Christine Wardwill.

Good afternoon.

I'm here, like many to speak out against ICE.

Regardless of anyone's personal views on immigration, what's happening locally and nationwide is creating instability, fear, and long-term trauma to children and families who are neighbors and parts of this community.

I'm also here as a parent whose son is directly affected by this climate of fear.

He finds himself stressed out thinking what he might have to do in emergency to keep his friends safe.

I urge you to think about that.

Children should not be carrying this fear and anxiety about whether their family will be torn apart, whether the people they love will disappear or their friends.

I'm not asking this council to control federal policy.

I'm asking you to consider what role our city plays in either increasing harm or protecting its residents, our neighbors and friends.

We cannot claim to value and celebrate diversity while allowing our community to live in fear because of it.

I urge you to prioritize transparency and to ensure our city resources are not contributing to the sphere, and to publicly affirm that families deserve safety, dignity, and due process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Christine Wardwell.

To be followed by Sandra Burnett.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City, Council members, and fellow Houstonians.

My name is Christine Wardwell.

I'm a resident of Houston and recently retired teacher.

I am here thinking about children like five-year-old Liam Ramos and his bunny hat, kids who deserve stability, safety, and the basic assurance that their families won't disappear overnight.

Recent ICE activity and the city of Houston's silence raise serious governance concerns.

When enforcement actions happen without transparency, oversight, and clear boundaries with local authorities, it undermines due process and erodes public trust in government at every level.

In neighborhoods across our city, from Golfton to East End, from A Laf to Acres homes, families are in fear.

People are being detained suddenly, loved loved ones separated, and communities destabilized.

These aren't abstract policy issues, these are Houston residents.

From a public safety standpoint, this matters.

When people are afraid to report crimes, cooperate with investigations, or seek emergency help because they fear immigration consequences, it makes us all less safe.

Law enforcement experts around the country have said this repeatedly.

Community trust is essential to public safety.

I understand immigration enforcement is federal, but the city of Houston has the authority over local agencies, how local agents interact with federal enforcement, how information is shared, and what standards of due process and transparency are expected within the city limits.

Other cities have exercised that authority responsibly.

So today I urge you to act in your role of stewards of public safety and civil rights.

Issue a public statement affirming that Houston does not support intimidation or unjust targeting of residents.

Reaffirm in writing and in policy that HPD will not cooperate with ICE without a judicial warrant.

Clearly define and enforce limits on ICE's engagement within the city departments to protect due process.

Hold public hearings on ICE activity in Houston.

So residents can hear directly what city leadership from leadership, ask questions, and hold institutions accountable.

Require agents to use body cameras and refrain from masks.

These are reasonable governing governance steps.

Houston deserves something better than your silence.

Strong leadership means setting clear boundaries, standing up for due process, and protecting the city and its residents.

Silence is a form of collaboration.

I ask you to act.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sandra Burnett.

To be followed by Keith Porter, Sr.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sandy Burnett, and I'm a resident of Houston.

And I'm here today, like many other people to speak out against ICE operations in the city.

It's about how enforcement is carried out in our city.

The lack of due process and local accountability.

Our current state, we are undermining our citizens and residents by cooperating with a federal agency that does not follow our Constitution, nor do they follow their written policy.

These agents should only be acting on judicial warrants.

They shouldn't be going through house hunting neighborhoods or stopping vehicles.

People are being detained.

Some of those detentions are being done without clear warrants, and that creates risk.

And frankly, it's a lazy way and dangerous way to do the intended work.

And the consequence to the people that are it's exponential.

People are following the process for citizenship.

They're paying, and it's costly, right?

They're paying for their path and getting deported anyway.

People mistakenly detained.

How about their economic and emotional uh repercussions?

Who's gonna who's gonna get them back onto their job if they're gone, you know, they're gone from their job two two or four plus weeks.

Our due process is constitutional principle, it's not a political one.

ICE is a federal agency operating within Houston.

Our local leaders should understand the standards that are being used and how the operations are being conducted.

Transparency protects all of us.

Like it's been said, this operation is weakening public safety citywide because we're losing trust in all of y'all.

And I'm not even a touch on the fiduciary cost that it's it's that's hitting our city.

But I'm gonna finish with my clear ask to City Council, affirm Houston's authority under Texas law to set clear limits on how city resources and personnel are being used.

Require that any cooperation with ICE is based on sl solely judicial warrants, not neighborhood patrols, not traffic stops or fishing expeditions.

Take a leadership role to ensure that state and federal do not infringe on our on Houston by protecting us, your citizens, prioritizing our constitutional due process, public safety and fiscal responsibility.

This should include y'all being able our HPD being able to arrest federal agents for assaulting anybody.

Thank you, Nick.

Keith Porter Sr.

To be followed by Michael Bastain.

Hello, Council members.

My name is Keith Porter Sr.

And I want to take a time take a moment to talk about my son, Keith Porter Jr.

that was killed in California on New Year's Eve.

I'm a resident here.

I've been here for 21 years, and coincidentally, when it happened, you know, I was here, so I had to go home to take care of it.

But uh I have something in our road and I want to read it to you, please.

Okay.

My name is Keith Porter Sr., and I stand before you as a father whose world was forever changed on New Year's Eve.

My son Keith Porter Jr.

was taken from us, taken in a way no parent should ever have to face, taken by someone sworn to protect the public, taken when he should have been safe, alive, and looking toward a new year.

Keith was more than a headline.

He was more than the circumstances of his death.

He was my child.

From the moment he first opened his eyes, he brought joy, curiosity, and light into the world as he grew.

He became a young man filled with energy, ambition, and love for his family.

He had dreams, real dreams of building a future, of contributing to his community, simply living the life every young person deserves a chance to live.

And now those dreams are gone.

Losing a child is a pain that has no name.

There is no word strong enough to describe this kind of hurt.

But what I do know is that we cannot allow Keith's story to be ignored, dismissed, or forgotten.

We cannot allow a system that permits tragedies like this to continue unchanged.

I am not here today to speak with anger, though I would have every right to.

No family should have to stand in our place, asking why and how and what could have been done to prevent this.

We are here because Keith's life mattered.

We are here because the truth matters.

We are here because justice matters to everyone who has shown love, support, and strength during this dark time.

Reminds us that we are not alone.

Your voices remind us that change is possible, and your compassion reminds us that even in tragedy, there can be unity and hope.

In honoring my son, I ask only this remember him, remember his smile, his potential, his humanity, say his name, not just in sadness, but in commitment, commitment to seeking justice, to demanding accountability, and to ensuring that what happened to Keith Porter Jr.

never happens to another family again.

Keith, my son, I will carry you with me for the rest of my life.

And I promise you this, your father will not stop fighting for you.

Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr.

Porter.

Um, thank you for coming, but um my and our sincere condolences on the loss of your son.

Thank you.

Um I was not familiar with the connection, the Houston connection to your son.

Uh, but we have heard his name and his story uh over the past several weeks.

Um, and although there is nothing that we can do to bring your son back or to aid in um alleviating any heartache that you may experience, I do want you to lean on us as a body to try to get answers for you.

If there are issues that you're having with other jurisdictions uh for answers, for clarity, for insight, for support.

Please lean on us to do so, and maybe we can use our resources to get you those answers, at least open up those lines of communication.

Um again, I'm very deeply sorry for your loss and uh God bless you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilman Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Mr.

Porter, I want to I want to thank you for coming.

Umimaginable what you're going through for those of us that that are parents.

Um, we're I was just at a vigil uh with Councilmember Salinas uh last night at Gulf Coast AFL CIO for uh Miss Good and Miss Mr.

Pretty and Mr.

Petty was a union member.

Um but we're reminded that they are not the only ones uh that have been killed or shot or injured um by ICE agents, and I appreciate so much your voice.

But also your stand for your son.

Yes, absolutely.

That it's not out of hate, but out of love.

Yes.

And you have a commitment from me, I know others around this horseshoe.

Um, not just to say his name, but to lift up his his life, his legacy, and the work that you're doing as you continue to fight um for justice for him.

Yes, thank you.

Thomas.

Thank you, Mr.

Porter.

Thank you for coming.

I personally could not imagine the pain that you have to bury your namesake.

When he came in this world, you had a vision for who he would be.

And I know you were proud of him.

And I was familiar with the story when it hit, and oftentimes black folks are left out of that conversation.

And we have been saying for decades, for years, for centuries, how this domestic terrorism has been impacting us every day, all through communities.

And so you stand here.

I am in awe of you and your strength and who you are.

And Azure Councilmember, I have a staff member who is here, Sarai, she will be able to assist you and follow up, and my intention is to stay in contact with you to Councilmember Pollett's point.

However, we can advocate across government lines for you and with you, consider that done.

That is the least our reasonable level of service to you.

And however, we can support you as a family member of a victim.

Oftentimes victim stories are talked about in the horseshoe, and I think sometimes we forget the trauma and the impact long-term of how your life has changed permanently.

So consider this our starting point and that we will continue to walk together to make sure that we remember his name, we say his name, and that we make sure that we stand for those just like him that they're not caught in this crossfire moving forward.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.

Next Michael Bastan.

Michael Basday.

To be followed by Ruben Garza.

Mr.

Porter, my deepest condolences for you and your the purity of your heart really showed through just now.

And it makes me feel uh a little bad about bringing what I am bringing forth right now.

Mayor, members of the council, my name is Michael Bastion.

I spoke to this council a year ago about a violation on a property I had that I own in the Highland Heights.

The only street access I have to this lot has been blocked by a squatter who was fenced off a city street.

The city had issued violation notices for the fenced-off street, but then stopped all removal efforts when the squatters filed suit against the city to take the property via adverse possession, which you can't do.

A year ago, I was assured by this council, the mayor's office, and the city's attorney's office that the violation would be put on hold until the lawsuit was dispatched.

Four months after this assurance was given to me, without notification or contact by any kind, a citation and warrant was issued.

The city started the abatement process to cut the grass.

Again, without any contact, in December, the City placed a lien on my property.

My first knowledge of this of any kind was a letter from Line Barger et al.

last week requesting a $1,500 payment for cutting the grass on the property, or it would be seized and sold.

I have been trying to sell this property for three years and have had two contracts fall through due to the squatter blocking access.

I have dutifully paid property taxes every year on time for 15 years on that property.

I feel like the city has grieved me by failing to remove the scotter the squatter initially, assuring me the citation would be put on hold, and now placing a lien on my property threatening sale without a $1,500 payment.

What I would like is the city to give me dispensation with regards to the abatement and rem and remove the lien from my property.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

To be followed by Christopher Rivera.

Mr.

Mayor and City Council, thank you.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ruben Garza.

I am the local conversation leader for the Houston chapter of Strong Towns, which is uh part of the National Strong Towns organization.

Uh for those of you who do know me, I am terribly sorry.

Uh you know, no one likes to go to world class no one goes to world-class cities and comes back to say, I loved it, there was plenty of parking.

Uh when we think of a parking problem, it is often framed as a supply problem.

However, after many years of research and reform in cities like Buffalo, San Jose, Austin, and over a hundred more, we now know that it's a management problem.

We charge little to nothing for on-street parking and mandate off-street parking spaces for an incredible and inexplicable number of land uses when unsurprisingly people hogged all the spots.

The research now shows that because of minimum parking mandates and a lack of adequate pricing for off-street spaces, Houston is congested, polluted, overpriced, and overbuilt.

We mandate more homes for cars than for people, and we pave over communities and neighborhoods for parking lots.

UCLA researcher uh and recently passed uh Donald Schupp debunked this insane parking regime in 2005 when he published the high cost of free parking, a book that I recommend for every single person in the horseshoe, uh if I haven't screamed it already.

Uh in that book, you suggested three reforms that should be implemented, I believe, in the in the City of Houston.

Number one, remove all minimum parking requirements.

That is Chapter 26-492.

Just look at all the tables and put a big X over all of them.

Don't need them.

Charge the lowest price for on-street parking that will leave at least one to two open uh spaces and dedicate the meter revenue for local improvements via parking benefits district.

We have three PBDs, parking benefits districts in the City of Houston.

They have done incredible work to maintain our local infrastructure at zero cost to the general fund.

We can and do need more of these PBDs, and we do need off-street metering to uh monitor and maintain on-street parking to ensure that there will always be a space open for people and that we can dedicate that revenue to improve local infrastructure without raising taxes, without doing any uh serious reform that is going to require years of planning and processing.

These are three simple reforms that have been enacted in cities across the country to a resounding success.

Uh if Houston were to eliminate its minimum parking requirements, we would have the distinct honor of being the largest city in the United States to do that.

Right now, that title goes to Austin.

And I think I can speak on behalf of some Houstonians here that I think we would like to be the biggest city, especially leapfrogging Austin.

Thank you.

Just Councilman Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Rubin, thank you for coming forward.

Uh and thank you for your advocacy on this topic.

You have done a great job of educating myself and some of my colleagues on what other cities have been able to do, understanding the dynamics of how unpaved lots uh for parking could have some unintended consequences, especially when it comes to development, uh, when it comes to uh property value, when it comes to just being able to utilize that that land and that property in a much more beneficial way for everyone.

Uh and I think this is something that we need to explore.

Um of the rationale and reasoning for why the parking standards are the way they currently are, is just kind of antiquated.

And uh as a growing metropolitan city that is getting more dense, uh, these are some of the discussions that I think uh are necessary uh for us to have.

So thank you for bringing it to the forefront.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Can I just say one thing about the minimum parking requirements, just real quick?

Um, that that those tables are massive in 26-492, but the one I always like to talk about is the 14 spaces per thousand square feet of general floor area for bars.

That is one of the highest ratios in the country.

That is a recipe for drinking and driving, only sh only to be followed right behind by uh restaurants, which I believe is 10 spaces, taverns, which is eight.

Um, you know, some of these requirements have no sound logic.

Um there is no statistically significant relationship between them, and they are a public safety hazard.

So I respectfully ask that the City Council take up a measure to repeal uh 26-492 in its entirety.

Councilor Ramair.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ruben, for coming forward and raising this issue.

You know, we had a discussion earlier today about the open spaces ordinance, which raises important questions about land use and your comments about uh our parking ordinance are related.

You know, how what are our land use rules and do they make sense economically?

And uh I hope that your efforts will result in our planning department taking another look at at how how we manage uh our parking here in Houston, because uh uh from from what I have heard, it seems like uh there are more efficient ways to handle our parking situation.

But I appreciate your outreach and uh highlighting this issue.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Sure, thank you, Mayor Rubin.

I appreciate uh you mentioning the requirements around bars, nightclubs, taverns.

Not only is it encouraging drinking and driving, we have seen across the city, uh particularly in neighborhoods like Montrose, you have seen a bungalow torn down uh to turn it into a parking lot.

So you are losing housing, you're getting parking, and the lot is sitting almost empty most days of the week.

Undertaxed very heavily too.

It's it's definitely something that should be looked at um as cities grow and develop and and uses change.

So thanks for being here and raising the the issue.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilman Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to highlight a couple more things.

Um when you think of these big surface lots in the city, um, you know, they're they're being taxed every year based on their their appraised property value, uh, which is low compared to a lot that may be across the street that has a building on it, right?

But they're still using utilizing the same infrastructure, all of the same city services that we're putting forth from an economic standpoint.

And when I talk to developers on this issue, uh many times the developers are saying that regardless of what the parking minimum standards may be, they're going to um they're going to build whatever development that they want based on their own vision of what parking should look like.

So if they believe they need a big lot for uh their development, they're going to do it regardless.

No one is going to have less parking spaces because they think it is going to be detrimental to their business.

I think the big question becomes how do we address neighborhood concerns?

And if there is not any adequate or perceived adequate parking in the commercial space, does that flow into the neighborhoods that say, okay, we don't have anywhere to park to go into retail or the stores or the business, so we'll we'll park in the neighborhoods, and then the neighborhoods start to get um they start to email us.

So that's that's the dynamic at play, and I think it's more of an education than uh impediment.

And so we have to uh take the time to educate and see what other cities have done that have been beneficial as we look into this matter uh going forward.

So thank you.

One last quick suggestion real quick.

On the education front, there is a data analytics firm named Urban Three that does a fantastic uh land value per acre map um for cities that they contract with.

Strong Towns Houston and Strong Towns National has fantastic connections with Urban Three.

They are a key partner in a lot of our economic analyses.

I am happy to make the connections between uh folks at Urban Three and uh the City of Houston to explore what that looks like so that way we can get an understanding of what is uh our land value currently being what does our land value look like, how are we using it, and how we can get the most out of it to help the city's financial struggles.

Thank you.

Um Ruben, thank you as always.

I'm so impressed just by your brain and the information that it holds.

Uh it's always very impressive, and I appreciate the dialogue because again, we don't want people drinking and driving.

We need land for housing.

Uh there's a lot of issues at play.

Um but you know, again, the challenge is Councilmember Pollard brought up is if if if and when you limit parking, uh, especially around bars, we do see cars parking, people are still driving.

Uh-huh.

And then they are parking in the neighborhoods.

And then you not only have drinking and driving in the neighborhoods, you have car break-ins, there's a whole host of issues that come with that, not just the emails to our office.

Um, and we're seeing that play out in multiple districts C neighborhoods.

We want to incentivize walkability.

We want to incentivize ride share, right?

Or other safe modes.

How what do you recommend to offset?

Okay, if you are limiting parking, how do you prevent folks from just taking their car and parking in those neighborhoods?

So part of that is, and I don't want to take too much time from the other public speakers here, but you know, part of that involves a rigorous enforcement and pricing mechanism, uh, as Professor Shroop recommended and as cities have implemented.

Um, there is dynamic price parking.

It is my understanding that most on-street meters don't charge past 6 p.m.

So once you do see those spillover effects into residential neighborhoods because it becomes a free-for-all free parking along the neighborhoods where there are no meters or where nothing is being charged.

And there's and there's and there are residential permit programs and some time limits that uh neighborhoods can vouch and petition for uh if spillover does become a concern.

Uh you know, you'll see cities like uh again like Buffalo and Austin have done uh tremendous work in there too.

And again, the neighborhood incentive to you know run the meters past a certain time and to keep these dynamic prices is to then recapture that money into the PBD.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Washington Heights PBD and parts of the Museum District PBD are in District C.

And I mean, they've done fantastic work in improving infrastructure.

So, you know, there's a there's a bit of a trade-off of okay, there may be some cars that kind of come onto the streets.

And with respect to the enforcement, some cities, uh, like I believe Redwood, California and Ventura, California have used the PBD excess funds to pay for uh strict enforcement, have a police officer monitoring that area up and down to make sure that there are uh you know reduced break-ins or that people do feel safe.

And all of that is paid for by the parking money.

So you know, visitors come into the neighborhoods, they pay the meters, and that meter funds public safety as well as any other infrastructure improvements that are considered uh by the uh you know PBD advisory board and how we currently do it here in the city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next Christopher Rivera to be followed by Alfredo Dominguez.

Uh thank you, everybody.

And uh my name is Christopher Rivera, I work with the Texas Civil Rights Project.

I'm also a member of the Rice Coalition.

I just want to let everyone know that this will actually be like a daisy chain of conversation.

I'll speak and then the rest of the Rice Coalition will come on and add more points to this uh issue.

But I want to really thank uh Councilmember Pollard and Thomas today for working with the RISE coalition on an ordinance that addresses uh racial uh sorry, just as non-safety traffic stops.

Together we have worked on these last uh this issue in the last two years.

And we've been building this uh and this has been building uh for the last two years and and actually goes before any of the current federal government actions.

This work began nearly five years ago, actually, when TCRP represented a client whose son was killed during a non-safety traffic stop.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case.

Um there have been many people who have lost their lives during uh non-safety traffic stop, and those include Sandra Bland, Blando Castillo, Patrick Layoya, and Tyree Nichols.

Black and brown drivers shouldn't feel that their life is in danger when they are pulled over for a traffic stop.

The Rice Coalition was formed to push data backed solutions and address the racial disparities that are associated with non-safety traffic stops.

Non-safety traffic stops are known as non-moving vehicle violations, which include expired registration or dark-tinted windows.

Violations that studies have found are not associated with increasing road safety or effectively ways to fight crime.

As we examine HPD's data, we notice that there are high racial disparities when it comes to black and brown drivers.

For example, black drivers make up the plurality of non-safety traffic stops, searches, arrests, and use of force cases, but yet only represent 23% of the Houston population.

When we notice these racial disparities, we reached out to pretty much everyone in this horseshoe to discuss this our findings.

We went with former HPD chief binner and his team to discuss the data, and we requested a time to meet with Chief Diaz.

Rice met with HPOU to discuss a possible solution that worked for both the driver and the officer.

When we are now at a pivotal moment, and we have an opportunity to really make a difference by passing an ordinance that will redirect public safety in a way that frees officers' resources and time to respond to emergency calls, reduce the racial disparities associated with traffic stops, and lower road injuries and fatalities.

Deprioritizing non-safety traffic stops will make Houston roads safer for both the driver and the officer.

I'm gonna let my colleagues chime in to discuss the rest of the findings, but also the memos I just think uh handed to you, has the ordinance in there and has some lingual language that uh my colleagues will cover, but I'll yield my time for my colleagues.

Alfredo Dominguez.

I know we got a fun setup today.

Um but yeah, first I want to thank council.

I want to thank Council Member Pollard and Council Member Thomas for for really facilitating this conversation.

So my name is Afro Dominguez.

I'm an employee of People's Council, a member of Rice Houston, and a resident of District H.

We've been working on this, like uh Chris said, and we've been reading with Pollard and Thomas regularly for over the past year and have had meetings too.

You have tried to have meetings with every single person sitting in this room.

Um we really appreciate the opportunity to present a more comprehensive analysis here of the our ordinance that wants to direct HBD to prioritize actual safety issues and dangerous driving practices by ending stops that hurt Houstonians without making our roads safer.

As my colleague Chris stated, our our goal of deprioritizing non-safety traffic stops is rooted in data analysis, much as the lived experience of drivers of color in Houston.

We are concerned about the officer and community safety.

We know that there have been some public questions about the data underlying our proposal, and I want to share some of that data with you.

Every number we cite is directly sourced from HPD's police police data transparency or the data HPD submits to T call the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement themselves.

Non-safety traffic stops account for about a third of all HPD traffic stops.

This was about a hundred thousand stops in 2025.

When we came here last year, we had hoped that ending non-safety ending traffic stop quotas through the ordinance passed in May 2025 would reduce the number of non-safety traffic stops, but we did not see that happen.

We have to really consider that number in context, right?

This is, you know, thousands of hours that we're talking about.

Let's assume the traffic stop is 10 minutes.

Right?

Let's assume a traffic stop is is five minutes.

You're still talking about thousands of hours of officer time that's happening and being spent on pulling people over for non-safety violations.

As alluded to by Chris, there are major racial disparities in non-safety traffic stop enforcement.

It is not only that black drivers are a plurality of the people stopped in non-safety traffic stops interaction, about 42 percent of the people stopped, even though they represent 22 percent of the population.

When you look at the numbers on use of forced incidents stemming from traffic stops, black people make up around 60 percent, and that's a consistent trend over the course of the last five years.

Right?

When you're talking about being the gross majority of people who are uh you forces being used upon in traffic stop instances, and there's no argument here to be made about oh, well, the person couldn't tell who they were pulling over, so uh which is the argument that is made when someone's actually pulled over in those use of forced incidents, like we're saying we're seeing a black people be disproportionate victims uh in use of force incidents.

HPD tells us that that they need these stops to prevent more serious crime, but the data tells us a different story.

According to the data submitted to T COL, in 2023, HPD conducted 126,000 non-safety traffic stops and found contraband in less than five, around five percent of those stops, and then found and actually performed arrest in only about three percent of those stops.

These numbers have remained consistent for the last few years.

If non-safety shops are traffic stops are wasteful and spend officer resources and offer time in a in the time when the city is continually asking itself how it's going to meet its fiscal responsibilities, if they are dangerous to black drivers and to brown drivers, and if they are ineffective at finding contraband and delivering on arrests or delivering on strong enforcement, why are we still doing that?

Your time has expired.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll see the rest of the time to Christian.

Kristen Budwine.

To be followed by Selena Burrine.

Good evening.

My name is Kirsten Budwine.

I'm a policy attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, and I'll be summarizing the memo memo that's in front of you.

Um and I'll open myself up for questions.

Um the purpose of this amendment, as my colleagues have already said, is to prioritize the traffic enforcement of dangerous driving practices and to end traffic stops that hurt Houstonians and have little to no impact on road safety.

Page five through six of the memo lays out an amendment to section 45-2 and 45-8 of the Houston Code of Ordinances.

Um the amendment to Section 45-2 defines a primary safety violation to mean any of the eight violations that are listed and a secondary safety violation uh to mean any traffic related violation or offense not defined as a primary safety violation.

The main part of this amendment is under Section 45-8, uh, which would maintain an officer's discretion to initiate a stop for any primary violation while prohibiting HPD from initiating stops for secondary violations.

Secondary violations can still be addressed during stops for primary violations or through any other lawful means that um is in the toolbox of HPD.

The section directs HPD to prioritize enforcing offenses directly tied to road crashes and fatalities while deprioritizing enforcement for non-moving violations.

During the meeting with HBOU, the union raised concerns that um that we addressed in sections C through E.

And so I want to be clear that this amendment does not limit HPD's authority to enforce a judicial order or arrest warrant.

It does not limit HPD's authority to act pursuant to a criminal investigation from con from conducting a motor vehicle stop for a secondary violation while investigating an offense involving violence as defined by Texas Criminal Procedure Article 17.03, nor does it expand a right remedy or cause of action not otherwise established by law.

And then I want to also be clear that City Council does have the legal authority to pass this ordinance as a home rule municipality, Texas state law grants Houston the express legal authority to regulate traffic within its city limits.

The Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court has been clear and has ruled that home rule municipalities are given all powers not preempted by state law, and that these powers are only limited where preemption is clear and compelling.

And the intent of the legislator is to pose such limits appears with unmistakable clarity.

Not only is the traffic stop amendment not preempted by state law, but state law expressly authorizes home rule cities to have exclusive control over the public highways and streets of the municipality under uh section 3111.001 of the Texas Transportation Code.

Texas courts have interpreted this statute broadly by stating there can be no serious debate that regulation of traffic is a quintessential function of a city's police power, especially given the statutory grant to a city to authority.

Your time has expired.

I'll give you a few seconds to wrap up, but then I have some comments.

Yeah, I also wanted to point out that um under Houston's Code of Ordinances, um Article 70 of the City Charter, it gives legislative powers to the City Council 7A uh gives council the authority to govern the operations of each department, which also includes HPD.

And in fact, Section 34-22 of the city's code of ordinances provides that the chief of police is quote unquote subject only to the ordinance orders and actions of the city council and mayor.

Um and so council, um, as my colleague had mentioned, council actually re recently exercised um its legislative powers under this when it passed the traffic stop quota um ordinance back in I think of May of 2025.

And so this ordinance uh would fall under those same uh powers.

So uh I appreciate you laying that out and and for the statutory guidelines and uh case law that you all have provided as well as um provisions of the city charter uh that speak to um this council's government governing authority.

Uh when we did meet with HPOU several times over the past uh year maybe more, um they did have concerns regarding how this would impact certain day-to-day operations that they may have from an investigatory standpoint.

And based on that, I see you all have laid out uh, as you mentioned, um sections C, D, and E on page six, which uh makes exceptions for when HPD still would have the authority uh to um engage and stop vehicles uh in certain situations.

And so C states nothing in this section shall be construed to limit a law enforcement officer's authority to enforce a judicial order or arrest warrant.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit law enforcement officers acting pursuant to a criminal investigation from conducting a motor vehicle stop for a secondary violation while investigating an offense as defined by uh um this provision of the criminal code.

I think those were two very strong additions to that, and I want to uh credit you all for listening to HPOU and some of the insight of the the officers as we were trying to find a balanced approach uh to explore.

And I do think the way that this is laid out is something uh for us to consider, and it could be looked at as a win-win because our HPD officers are spread very thin.

Um when we know we have limited officers with limited capacity, what are we doing to ensure that they're as efficient as possible with their time, focusing on more high-level criminal violations and harms to society?

Um I just want to thank you for the work and uh look forward to reviewing it.

Thank you, Council Kiman.

Thank you so much, and again, for providing some of the legal context for this.

Um does this in any way preclude the City of Houston or HPD from being able to, for example, issue citations for infractions through the mail.

So if they witness somebody, let's say under one of the uh uh classifications where they're not to pull necessarily someone over, does that prohibit citations other ways?

No.

And thank you.

And does the um a lot of the data, and I know we had uh other speakers, so I want to thank everyone for working on this and providing this information for meeting.

I know we just met today, and I had asked the question, you know, where is a lot of this data coming from?

Um and we had also talked about the the um transparency dashboard with HPD.

Um does some of the data that you're pulling come from there.

Can you speak to that?

Yeah, so I want to say that the eight offenses that are listed as primary violations, we're not pulling them out of thin air.

Um we've got it from we've pulled the data from uh Text Dot, Houston's Vision Zero reports, and then HBD's own fatal crash data.

So when uh a car crash happens and there's a serious injury or a death, an officer has to mark off what caused that that injury.

And so we looked at the top eight um contributing factors of traffic deaths and serious injuries, and so that's where those eight offenses are um are coming from.

Thank you.

And I know I had posed some other questions I know y'all will get back to me on um related to again as we've had other speakers come talking about other issues that the city is grappling with right now, um, how we can update the dashboard to be providing information that is beneficial to residents in the community and to HPD as well in this partnership.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council rememberers.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for being here and thank all of you for the work that that you've done.

I appreciated the meeting uh that we had and the opportunity to review your proposed ordinance.

I know a lot of thought has gone into it.

I do want to share one uh one concern I I have with it.

Uh I agree with you that as a home rule city uh Houston has the authority to pass ordinances, right, to promote the general welfare.

But one thing we cannot do is uh pass something that's uh inconsistent with state law that doesn't follow state law.

And so one of the concerns I have is uh in your uh proposed Section 45-8B, officers of the Houston Police Department are hereby prohibited from initiating a motor vehicle stop for blah, blah, blah, secondary, what what you guys call secondary violations.

I think that conflicts with state law, and and I'd ask you to take a look at uh Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 2.13, where the duties and powers of peace officers are set out.

And specifically B1, where it says the officer shall in every case authorized by the provisions of this code interfere with without interfere without warrant to prevent or suppress crime.

And we know that our officers, when they uh graduate from the academy and they assume their duties, they're sworn to uphold Texas laws.

And so I think if we tried to pass this, it would conflict not only with state law, but would put them in the position of being sworn to uphold state law, yet there's an ordinance that prohibits them from enforcing state law.

So I don't I don't think your proposed ordinance would work.

I I respect all the time and effort you put into it and uh you know welcome uh any revisions you might have, but I think maybe uh you'd have better success if you could convince the legislature, and this is to Councilmember Kaman's point to make it easier to enforce non-safety violations uh without having to pull someone over.

Right?

Yes, sir.

Can I respond?

Sorry.

Can I respond?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So to be clear, um any traffic violation that does not fall under those primary violations, officers can still enforce those after uh primary viol uh a traffic stop for a primary violation has been initiated or under other legal means that um officers have in their toolbox, right?

Um and I'll point you to tra I would definitely look at the the criminal procedure uh section that you pointed out.

But um in our m memo we lay out um this pres preemption issue specifically.

Um so tra Texas Transportation Code Section 542.201 authorizes local authorities to regulate traffic in a manner that does not conflict with subtitle C of the code and then subtitle C of 542.202A1 expressly permits a municipality to regulate traffic by police officers or traffic control devices.

And so it's our reading that um under this amendment, like all conduct, all conduct that is unlawful will remain unlawful.

Um that it does not prohibit enforcement of any any violation.

It simply regulates the manners and means in which um HBD can conduct traffic enforcement.

Um so that's that's the section that we've used to support our argument that this is legal.

And then on the preemption issue a little further, I'll point you to City of Laredo versus Laredo Merchants ASS-N.

I can give you that the citation later.

But it's a Texas Supreme Court case where an ordinance was preempted.

So in that case, Laredo, which is a home rule city, they had an ordinance that made it unlawful for businesses to provide single-use plastics or paper check checkout bags.

And so what the court held is that they held that um the ordinance was unenforceable because the State Solid Waste Disposable Act preempted the ordinance by expressly stating, quote, an ordinance cannot prohibit or restrict the sale or use of a container or package.

And so that's the type of clear and compelling language that we believe has to be in the statute for it to be preempted.

Well, I appreciate that.

But let me ask you, has there been any other city in Texas governed by state law that has done what you are asking us to do?

No, sir.

We will be the we will be the first.

Okay.

Um well again, I appreciate the effort you put into it, but uh I think uh the statute I've cited and and the oath that our officers take prevent us from enacting what what you proposed.

Yes, sir.

I'll definitely consider that and then meet up with you later to talk it out.

But thank you.

Councilmember Al Corney.

Thank you.

And thanks for coming.

Uh I've got the dashboard pulled up on traffic stops, and it looks like since the beginning of 25 to now, 112,000 and change in in these type of traffic vehicle traffic violations.

And about three and a half or thirty-five hundred arrests from those.

And I guess what if we track the types of arrests or the types of uh what we're fine, you know, on on those things.

That would be interesting to me.

I don't know if we can track it that way, but that information.

Because obviously some of these traffic stops do yield an arrest, and we want to make sure we're getting unsafe people, you know, off the streets and arrested.

Um so just the type of kind of uh the type of violation would be interesting for me to know.

Yes, ma'am.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

And um Councilmember Ramirez, I I too had similar um thoughts based on um the uh state statute that you referenced.

Um I think a question also needs to be explored and and maybe you all can give us some clarity on it is even within the state statute when it says what a officer shall do, um officers still have discretion, right?

And so even when they sometimes right now pull people over, they have the discretion whether to cite them, whether to give them a warning, whether to, you know, take it further through an investigation based on probable cause or whatever.

And so the the question becomes what is what would be the legislative intent, right?

Um and how far does that discretion go?

And um a legal standpoint, uh as a home rule city based on the case law that she's presented, does that still give us governing authority uh to be able to set parameters based on um local dynamics?

And I I think that is a question that if laid out from a legal standpoint that that you all can bring more clarity to it would address, I think his concern and it would it would also be able to give us as a body, I think, more concrete um examples of how we could uh legally uh put this forward uh for discussion before the body.

Um the discretionary argument for me is um something that I I don't think the legislature has bound officers to be able to um strictly stand by with the word shall because they still have the discretion as officers uh to be able to um look at each situation on a case-by-case basis and then uh decide what they want to do.

So um if you can speak to the discretionary um the uh authority that officers have when it comes to uh traffic stops and why you believe that the ordinance language that you put before us uh would be meritorious against any uh conflict of interest uh argument related to state law.

Yeah, and and I'll definitely um look into the specific statute that you mentioned, uh Councilmember Ramirez, and and look to see if any um courts have interpreted what that actually means and whether the discretion piece comes in or not.

Um I don't like speaking on stuff that I like don't know just off the top of my head, I want to go and research it.

So um thank you for for raising that and sure, member Evan Shabaz.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for presenting this to us.

I guess, you know, not being uh a legal mind, so to speak, professionally.

Uh I'll say that I uh the way I'm looking at this, if we were able to pass an ordinance that amended the the quorum, I mean the quote, excuse me, then why is it this can't be construed in the same manner?

Uh because if that's not a violation, then how is this a violation?

And so I'm following your thought processes as well as your legal uh argument.

And so I I just like to know what would be the difference.

And that may not be something that you can certainly answer, or maybe you've already answered it.

Because I I don't see where an amendment uh stopping quotas, giving the discretion to stop the quotas would be any different from an ordinance that would stop the non-safety traffic uh violations.

So again, thank you.

You don't necessarily have to answer that unless you want to have a few more minutes.

But certainly I I'm just kind of perplexed as to how one can be construed in one manner and another one we're we're resistant to doing when both uh benefit the public.

Right.

Um and and you're right, uh the way that we construed that that part of the ordinance was that um again, Houston has a harmless city, and under the or under the ordinance itself, on the city ordinances, um they have the authority to um pass those those type of ordinances like the one the traffic stop quota ordinance.

Um and I think we cited directly to that in our art in our memo, Article 7, Section 10 of the City Charter is what we cited to.

Um and so, yeah.

I I agree.

Yes, ma'am.

Sure.

Last thought on on the uh discretion issue.

Um so your proposed ordinance would entirely remove the officers' discretion to enforce their legally duty under under state law, and and that's where the issue is.

Yeah, so our position is that as a city you have the authority to regulate the manner and the means in which traffic is enforced in your city.

And so um the discretion piece, that that's a that's something that we can we can definitely get into, but I think it goes back to officers have all types of tools in their toolbox.

You can do and as a uh civil rights attorney, I don't agree with most of the things, right?

But um wait until the person stops, gets out their car, do a Terry stop, stop and frisk, um, go if you believe that you have enough um evidence, go to a judge, get a judicial order, um, a excuse me, a judicial warrant, things like that.

Um officers have so many tools, right?

And so our our our our point is this that you have to do a cost-benefit analysis when it comes to these pretextual stops.

What is the cost to the community?

We've heard it time and time again for the past three weeks.

We've heard what the cost has been to the immigrant community, to the black community, to the brown community.

Um and so, yeah, it I think it it I think it boils down to that.

Again, we're not trying to tie the hands of um Houston police officers.

We've met with HPOU multiple times.

Um they are not budging, which we respect uh fully, but our position is that this is the type of um this is the type of policy that needs to be passed immediately, and and now is the time to do it, and you have the authority to do it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

And for my my final take on this is to answer uh Councilmember Shabazz's point.

So with the traffic quota argument, the state, there was there was nothing at the state level that spoke to uh quotas for traffic stops.

So there was nothing that was in conflict.

They did have under state law a quota an elimination of quotas for uh traffic tickets.

So we were able to push that forward because there was it was silent at the state level.

What Councilmember Ramirez has brought up and what others may bring up is if a proposal was put forward to disallow HPD officers from minor traffic stop engagement, will that be a direct violation or conflict with state law when officers are bound to do so with certain interpretation?

Um I think there's no objection that this body, if something is silent at the state level, that we as a governing body can put forth um a proposal or an amendment that changes the dynamics of certain departments, as long as we don't get into the day-to-day operations.

But the question will remain when it pertains to this issue is there a way that is not in conflict with the state law based on the provision that Councilmember Ramirez brought forth.

If we can, or if you all can show that in a clear fashion, um, I think that would allow this body um to explore this further to push forward.

Because what you have laid out, I think is extremely strong.

I think it it hits all the points of of the data and the state statutes and city charter that give us that authority, is that it but it is that hurdle that he is referencing that you all will have to clearly bring to us and or or we work together uh with our law enforcement partners as well on understanding that dynamic.

And so um thank you for bringing this forward, and I look forward to hearing from the rest of the speakers.

And we'll definitely update our memo, and thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Selena Brain.

To be followed by John Nixon.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council.

I'm Selena Bray, a resident of District C and the policy organizer for Pure Justice, a local grassroots organization in the Rise Coalition.

Thank you to my partners for laying out the data and the legal framework that has anchored our work on this for years, and thanks to Councilmembers Pollard and Thomas for their support.

Again, in Houston, black and Latino drivers are much more likely to be stopped for a reason with minimal correlation to road safety and have that stop morph into an excessively forceful interaction that has dangerous consequences for them, the involved officers, and all too often the communities and families who are moved to act and support because that interaction has had a disastrous avoidable outcome.

Our conversations with Houstonians across neighborhoods continue to be consistent with these numbers.

Stories of being pulled over and then roadside assaults, memories of being pulled f pulled over five minutes away from home for an expired sticker, and then anxiety, flashing lights, and prayers for safety remembered 15 years later.

People missing scholarship opportunities and graduations because of these stops, only to face long response times from HPD when it comes to urgent violent crimes.

As my colleague Kirsten suggests, we must do a cost-benefit analysis.

For the cost, we're prioritizing a practice that's looping more people than ever into our extremely frayed criminal legal system and our overcrowded local jail facilities while also creating economic burdens for drivers that aren't addressing the major causes of road fatalities.

And for what benefit?

Acquiring contraband less than five percent of the time, with even fewer arrests, it doesn't add up to us.

I also urge all of you to acknowledge the human cost of these stops.

I mentioned earlier how communities step in when lives are uprooted or tragically ended due to this sort of system involvement.

Mayor Whitmeyer, you took meaningful action as a then senator in the Texas legislator to pass the Sandra Bland Act, a bill that diverted folks to mental health care and away from criminalization in the memory of a black woman who was found dead in Waller County, Texas jail hours after being arrested during a non-safety traffic stop for failing to signal a lane change.

Mayor Whitmeyer, thank you sincerely for your work to steward and pass that bill.

It's necessary and vital, but it wouldn't have stopped the stop that led to Sandra Bland's untimely death.

This ordinance would.

It will put in future cases like this, like hers that we all know are so avoidable.

Some may attempt to dismiss public statistics, HPD's own data, and even the lived experiences of black and brown community members such as yourselves across the city by saying it's all in your heads.

Perception has become your reality.

But make no mistake, Mayor and City Council members, reality is reality.

Thankfully, in this reality, this city council has the power to take meaningful action, just like you, Mayor Whitmeyer did with the Sandra Bland Act, just like peer justice has, and move towards this data backed community oriented solution that will improve public safety for our city.

We, the RISE coalition, come as few today, but we stand with many Houstonians that believe in this policy, opportunities instead of punishment, and the idea that there's no time like the present to reimagine safety for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I was gonna give you a little extra time if you needed it just as a district C resident to wrap up, but it sounds like you did.

Um I again want to thank Peer Justice, the Rise Coalition for all um the thoughtful work that it has gone into this working with colleagues at the horseshoe as we continue uh this succession.

This has been a very important conversation that we had today, and I hope that the conversation continues um expeditiously.

Thank you.

I agree.

Thank you.

John Nix to be followed by James McCord.

Howdy, Mayor Rittmeyer, the and fellow city council.

This is my name is John Nix, and I'm now district uh a resident, live over in Spring Branch, off Long Point and Bunker Hill area.

Several things I want to talk about today.

I want to see the city outlaw communal water heaters that are like shared among uh multiple units.

It's I I live in one now moved into one, and it's like awful.

Sometimes I don't even have hot water, you know, that's a human right in my apartment complex.

It's or I may even have it for half a shower at where I live on that other issue.

Another issue too is the fight for more sidewalks.

Even in Spring Branch, it's like very bad.

And even the bus stop, if I'm gonna catch the bus going towards Memorial City, it's like very, very narrow like this.

And looking at Google Street View, it used to not even be that way all the way that bad.

I have to cross Bunker Hill and cross and then cross long point twice just to get to the bus stop that's very, very narrow to cast that 26 to going towards Memorial City on that issue.

So I'd really like to see that bus stop get done.

Do you even have work with Metro to have a more curb to curb for Spring Branch?

Since only the frequent services is that 26 that goes in through Long Point and that 46 that goes down Gessner.

The other routes like the 72 Westview or the Safety A Hammerly run every hour, you know, through Spring Branches, is really not a whole lot of frequent service on there.

So I'd really like to see the city work to have more, you know, bringing like your curb to curve microtransit to Spring Branch and to work with Metro to build like a my uh Memorial City Transit Center right there on the northern part of the mall, right by I 10.

There are people that are coming from there that can connect to the express buses that want to come downtown for that issues of there.

And about that issues of other issues right there.

I do want to see more road diets in in the spring branch area, like on my wrong point, on Gasner, and on Bingo Road as well, and other issues too.

Of course, like I said before, and many, many times, is to make the city hall more disability friendly, make this area of this carpet here is awful.

It's very hard to get around, and get hard difficult for me getting in city up here to city can up here to the up here in this to maneuver around this room.

And we wish it would be like some sort of like funding or some sort of generous large donor that would even be able to donate the money to be able to help get this done and make this area much more accessible for me.

And make this area the city city hall and spring branch more accessible for disabled folks like me.

And that would be all I would have to say.

And uh thanks so much, and uh God bless Texas and go team, whatever team you're rooting for.

Thank you for being here.

James James McCord.

Crystal Rodriguez.

Helen Landaverting.

To be followed by Latoya Jones Shaw.

Council members, I am here to make three requests.

My first request is for Mayor and the Council to reconsider the approval of Willow Parish final plat.

My second request is to have an explanation from the planning director as well as the legal department regarding why the local Texas Local Government Code Section 212.0101A is not applicable when reviewing PLATS.

And three is to request a text amendment to tree preservation and to not allow dead-end streets in the single family home developments.

So my first request, I am requesting it pursuant to Section 33-22 number four, which allows or gives power to the planning commission to approve PLATs, and it also says to report to the City Council.

Now they are tasked to implement Chapter 42 as well as statutes of the state.

That's why I referenced that plating requirement from state local government.

When I spoke against this plat at both of their meetings, they told me that was not applicable.

Now, my experience, I am an experienced public servant.

I've worked for public sector as a city planner in the state of Texas as well as in New Mexico and in the state of Texas.

She sent me a very brief email saying there is no appeal to the planning commission.

It is the final decision, and if I wanted to take it, I would need to take it to court.

And I did present them with several goals, strategies, as well as course strategies and action plans that are have been adopted by the City of Houston General Plan, which was adopted in 2015, that I believe could better serve this subdivision that they're proposing to have.

Just revise the layout of the subdivision.

Our concern is drainage.

We do have a lot of drainage issues.

The goals and actions that were adopted.

Your time has expired.

I do have a petition.

Next speaker.

Nicole Hill.

Next speaker.

Is that what is that Nicole?

No.

Next speaker.

Derek Shaw.

Derek Shaw.

To be followed by Daniel Graves.

Good afternoon, City Council, uh members, and also Mayor Whitmeyer.

My name is Derek Shaw, and I'm speaking today on behalf of Azizwa, an international young professionals, volunteer organization dedicated to environmental protection, disaster relief, and building safer and healthier communities.

Aziz Wall volunteers have been actively serving the Greater Houston area through regular street cleanups, environmental awareness campaigns, and community engagement efforts.

In just the first month of this year, our volunteers have already carried out two cleanup initiatives, removing litter from public roads, neighborhoods, and shared spaces, and we even carry out a third cleanup on February 15th.

Our volunteers are not only from Houston, but are actually from around the world too.

And even here with me today are five Azizwa volunteers from South Korea that have actually traveled all the way from Houston to join us.

I've traveled all the way to Houston to join us in our initiatives.

We respectfully ask for the City Council Houston City of Houston to support the efforts we carry out through recognition, partnership, or collaboration to expand these initiatives.

We would also be deeply honored to receive a city proclamation recognizing Azwal's stewardship and dedication of our volunteers this year.

Additionally, we request the opportunity for a meeting with you, Mayor Whitmire, to share more about our organization and to discuss future partnerships.

We truly believe that when government and community organizations work together, meaningful and lasting change is possible.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your commitment to Houston.

We look forward to continuing to serve this great city and to build a cleaner and greener future.

And lastly, we would like to see one, two, three.

We love you.

We love you.

We love you.

One.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much for coming, and we do want to welcome our guests to the city of Houston that have come uh so far to be with us.

Uh we always say it that uh government cannot do this work alone.

So we are very honored that you have taken the initiative to do those types of cleanups.

Did you say where your cleanup was on February the 15th?

Yes, we will be carrying it out on West Hardy Street, so district B.

District, is that uh District Member Tarsha?

Okay, in District B.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, and what time will you be there?

So the cleanup will start at 12 p.m.

It's from 12 to 2.

From 12 to 2.

Yes.

Well, thank you for taking the initiative to help us keep the city clean.

It means a great deal to each of us that you would spend your time doing it.

Um, and we appreciate the work.

Uh I think that um uh Rebecca maybe can help you with trying to schedule something uh with the mayor.

I would also recommend that you would uh reach out to Councilmember Jackson's office, and they may be able to help put the event in their newsletter and maybe get some additional volunteers to come out on February 15th.

Danny, thank you so much.

All right, best wishes to you.

Next speaker, Daniel Graves.

Daniel Graves.

Next speaker.

Donald Smither.

Donald Smither.

Donald Smither.

Next speaker.

Ryan Schornberg.

To be followed by Terry Walter.

Hello, this is my first time ever coming up here.

I'm furious, and I'm even more furious that half of y'all are not here.

My name is Ryan Scharmberg.

I'm here because the systems that you oversee have failed me every single time.

I've for eight months been dealing with this.

I witnessed a murder October 23rd, 2024 that has not been investigated by HPD.

Furthermore, I was beaten and pushed in front of a moving car at Griggs and MLK.

I want those videos of the body cam.

Body cams aren't going to do anything for this city until y'all actually make them show them.

I have I have a scene, I'm going off script here.

I have uh attorney general's office, I have written emails to to the John Whitmire's office.

I have gone and I have dealt with this over and over again.

Every single person, y'all pass the buck, pass the buck.

Um, I want answers.

If it was a lawful arrest, why isn't trans transparency where where's it at?

And I am um dealing with, as you can see, I'm dealing with violence at home as well.

I live at Woodfair and Bissonette.

It is and Mr.

Pollard's not here, like, and it took me $300 to get up here today because after this, I'm going to MetroLift and seeing why I can't schedule a ride to get home.

I can't schedule a ride to go to my daily doctor's appointments to my physical therapy appointments.

Why?

I've been taught called a sir over and over and over again.

I am a trans female and I am sick and tired of being called sir on recorded lines.

I spent 10 hours on the phone yesterday with MetroLift, and I still had to pay for an Uber ride to get up here.

I am at my wit's end.

I have a man next door to me that leaves his house in full body armor while he sells crack cocaine and has shot.

I have two of his bullets on my patio.

I am waiting for somebody to come and the detectives to come and get these bullets off my patio.

It's been four weeks now.

I have witnessed him shoot at people.

I have ring doorbell camera footage that I've sent into your office.

For what?

I am angry.

I called 911 and I'm a nuisance.

When I have videos, I have tons of videos in my phone right now of all of these crimes that are being committed on a nightly basis out there, and nobody is doing anything.

I am losing my voice every single day.

I am sick and tired of this.

I cannot use my hand because I was attacked as a witness of a crime and thrown in jail, and nobody has called me.

I have submitted to the Attorney General about this murder.

Her name was Kim.

And she was mutilated and left at the corner of Calhoun and Yellowstone at 5 o'clock in the morning, October 23rd, 2024.

And the person that was with me whenever that happened, was run over 14 hours later, a foot from that intersection.

A couple feet from there, and I called.

They picked her body up, but police never came.

And I wandered around aimlessly for an hour and a half trying to, I was not in my right mind at that point.

I was in a state of shock, and I get beaten up by an officer.

The first off the officer's first words were, I'm gonna fuck you up.

That's what he told me.

And I want to that was MLK and Greggs at the train station.

That was an HPD officer that said that.

That was a metro police officer, but I have HPD not do their job.

I have videos of them not doing their job just this week, watching somebody with a gun come up to my apartment and say they were gonna shoot me.

And I pointed, that person is still over there.

They didn't do anything.

I have the police reports here.

I have over and over and over and over again.

I'm sick and tired of this.

I will take action into my own hands, and I will go to jail for the rest of my life if y'all do not do something.

This is well, we definitely want to try to help you.

We do have an HPD officer here that you can give that information to, and we'll try.

You can check your email.

I'll check my email, okay.

Terry Walter.

Great chair to be here.

Coffee El Bain.

Art Smith.

Sandra Allen.

To be followed by Bernadette Kiki, I'm not sure if you're not a good evening.

Happy New Year to all you city councilmen.

Happy New Year, Mayor John Whitmire.

How are you today, sir?

Thank you, sir.

So I'm here today to talk on kidnapping my son, on getting my son released.

On the uh Sandra Bill Act number 1849.

I read your 55-page bill that you wrote, Mayor John Whitmire.

And um the Texas Senate Bill 1849, known as the Sandra Bland Act, was a 2017 law reforming Texas criminal justice system, prompted by Sandra Bland's death, focusing on bear reform, jail society, mental health diversion, officer training, de-escalation, and body cams, racial profiling and data collection to improve police community, interaction, and jail conditions, requiring better standards for mental health care, independent jail death investigation.

Sandra Bland Act, Senate Bill at 85R 1849.

You in an asylum.

The government has given police power to take you to a mental institution.

You can lose all your constitutional rights under the mental health.

All you need is a judge and a doctor to sign off on it.

Sandra Bland Act 1849 states blocks when compared to whites after they have been pulled over for a traffic violation.

The committee found reasons to believe many other people are still being stopped for underlying pretext, including consent and searches.

The committee found that it would be beneficial to the public that all law enforcement would use de-escalation tactics and all interaction with the public.

Texas law needs to be strengthened to ensure that it does not happen at DPS or any other law enforcement agency in Texas.

My son Nathan Emmanuel Allen was admitted to the Harris County Sacro Actual, the Dunn Building, Floor 3C, University of Texas behind Behavioral Science Building.

The social worker is Eda Turner, Sylvester Turner's niece.

Her phone number is 713 500 1848.

Mayor John Whitmire.

Guest on the show Saturday, November the 15th, 2025.

Your time you were on the Impact Houston Live 90.9, KTSU radio station.

No Donald Franklin was present.

Only Chris Johnson and Marcus Session and you, all three gentlemen.

You stated, Mayor John Whitmire.

I love people.

I like people to tell the truth.

You stated, Mayor John Whitmire.

I got robbed at gunpoint.

Sun Speck will sent us to 25 years and served only 12 years.

So I'm asking you.

You are a fine mayor, sir.

I'm asking you under the Sandra Bland Act to release my son today because they're holding my son for this here.

Given to me by Miss Valerie Millhead at 2525, Murray, Houston, Texas, 713, 274, 5364.

A guardianship.

I'm Nathan's mom.

Without Nathan, Nathan wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me.

I carry Nathan nine months in my stomach.

That's my child.

Okay, they're getting benefits on my son on under my husband's money, and I should be living on that.

Me and my son.

Me and my son.

So they take my son so they can live on Larry Lamar Allen's benefits.

I'm a widow.

My husband's death is coming up February the 12th.

He died last year, February the 12th, 2025.

His anniversary is coming up.

I am a widow.

Nobody feels sorry for me.

Okay.

They uh Charlie Kirk, Erica Kirk.

They done raised 500 million.

She's a billionaire.

She don't have to work.

She has two kids.

Nobody feels sorry for me.

I'm a widow.

So this is what they say.

We don't care if she was married to Larry Lamont Allen for 30 years.

We want Larry's money.

Larry got good money up there.

So we're gonna take Nathan and we're gonna live on Larry Lamont Allen's Social Security because Nathan don't have a job.

It's airship, it's say right here, Nathan's estate.

Nathan ain't never had no job.

That's my husband estate.

Okay, I was married to Larry Lamont Allen for 30 years.

I'm a widow.

I buried my husband.

Okay.

I don't know if you are a widow, uh, Mayor John Whibe, but I'm a widow.

And I want y'all to release my son immediately, and they're getting money and all the money that they're getting off of my husband.

I want all that to be released back because my son has missed his dad's funeral.

He has missed his graduation.

And um, I tell you, I'm going through it.

Okay.

I carry Nate without Nathan, they wouldn't even be getting no money.

I carried Nathan in my stomach for nine months.

Without Nathan being here on earth, they wouldn't even have a Larry Lamont Allen salary from Social Security.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

So anybody have anything to say?

And when can my son be released under this Sandra Bland Act?

We were walking.

We were walking.

This this Sandra Band act states in a vehicle.

We were not pulled over.

We were walking.

And they have body cams on.

And I'm asking you to request that the body cam to look at that.

My son, he ran, he came back, helped my neck real tight, and and and I said, hold up.

I said, I don't want them to kill us.

I don't want them to shoot us.

Don't run no more.

Okay.

Let me tell you what we do.

My staff's already checked on their son's status.

And I want to thank you for giving me uh escort to see my son from the last visit that I had with you.

I hadn't seen him since.

On February the 7th, he's gonna be 21.

And I would like my son to be home for his 21 birthday.

He's gonna be 21 this week.

Okay, well, thank you for being here.

He's in the hospital getting the care that the uh doctor said he needs.

So he's been well taken care of.

None of this is true on there.

I had my son from birth to 19 years old.

They took a full grown young adult, a full-grown young adult.

We were walking.

This was not no traffic stop in the vehicle.

Okay, we were walking.

We had just got off the metro bus.

We can't resolve that here today.

But Miss Williams has been monitoring your son's care.

And he's getting the best care available.

In the hospital that you actually mentioned.

I need my son.

I need to go see my son.

Where I need to, I need to get visitation to see my son.

I want to see my son for his birthday.

Okay.

We'll we'll uh we'll communicate that for you.

Okay, so I'm not gonna go away, Mayor Woodmar.

I'm not gonna go away.

I can't rest.

That's my child.

I understand.

That's my child.

I gave birth to.

Okay.

Well, let's let's finish up today.

We've had a long day.

We can't resolve it at this moment.

I understand, sir.

I'm willing to work with you, Mayor.

You're doing a fantastic job in Houston.

I am willing to work with you, sir.

And I have been, I have been patient.

No, you're a fine mother.

Thank you.

You're doing a great job.

Thank you.

I appreciate you working with me.

Okay.

But I know Nathan is calling for mama, mama, mama, mama.

Where's my mama?

Okay, let's work together.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Let me call the next speaker.

Bernadette Kiki.

So when can I get a visitation for my son?

We're gonna check the status right here before we go home.

Okay.

We'll work, we'll work.

I will I will make appointment after I see him because we need to get my son home.

Okay.

He has a mother, which is me, Sandra Jean Allen.

He has a mother.

I'm still alive.

Thank you.

Be safe.

Thank you, sir.

You got to say let me read one thing before I leave.

Proverbs 28 and 5 say evil men do not understand justice.

Evil men do not understand justice.

But those who seek the Lord understand all.

And I'm gonna leave that and I'm gonna thank you, ma'am.

Thank you so much.

Uh next.

Bernadette Kiki.

To be followed by Jacob Newsom.

Praise the Lord.

May my truly fear for you as a mother.

Blessed.

Your Excellency, Mayor John Wheat Meyer, and the Council members here present.

I bring you greetings in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Blessed Savior.

He has sent me to tell all Houstonians, the mayor, the blessed mayor John Wheatmeyer, all the council members, all of Texas, and in fact all Americans that he Jehovah Yahweh has sent his ancient megaprophs, the two living witnesses of the Bible in the person of Prophet Dr.

David O'WoS all that the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Blessed Savior who created each and every human being on earth who died for us on the cross, is coming back.

And I wrote here this is very urgent and very critical that we as leaders listen.

The data I bring to you is that Houston is listed as the number two sinful city in America.

Blessed John With Maya, your excellency.

Houston that you are the mayor of is listed as the second most sinful city in the whole of America.

And that brings a burden for me and you to ask what do we do now?

One minute, sir, please, if you allow me, I plead.

What we will do now that I'm pleading is that since the Lord Jesus has said his coming, we need to prepare as a city together.

And the mega Asian prophet is going from nation to nation.

In this quarter alone, I've gone with that to their mission in Finland.

I have gone to Estonia.

I have gone to Paris.

So I am following, and I just came back from Kenya.

And I'm following closely for all of us.

Okay, let me uh so that we all prepare.

Let me thank you for being here.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, bless you.

I need to call my next speaker.

Senior Senior Meyor Wheatmayer.

I need an appointment with you.

That was that's one of my reasons for coming.

I need to ask for an appointment to your office.

I'm gonna talk to you.

To bring the data to you so that we can prepare because this is the leadership we have upon us.

The Lord Jesus is ma'am, sir.

Thank you so much.

Great job.

Your beloved and this responsibility, Jesus gave it to you for a reason.

Thank you.

Plus, all for all of us.

Thank you so much.

Jacob Newsom.

Pray for our city.

To be followed by Eli Montoy or Reeves.

Hi Mayor Meyer and Council.

I just felt um step in front of one of the mics and pull it up.

That one.

Hi, Mayor with Meyer and Council.

I just felt um a need to name something.

Usually I come here with a big grand speech, but I think it's pretty simple.

Um that the story of a city is written by courage and not comfort.

We saw that with Keith Porter Sr.

and in so many other meetings.

That the reality is that people are scared, and we're looking for leaders that will listen to us and sit with us in the discomfort of everything that's going on.

And so I felt like that was important to name because we're looking for leaders that will build the story of Houston with us in the discomfort.

And so um, yeah, it's pretty much it.

So have a good day, council.

Next month revis to be followed by Michelle Aigenbor.

Good afternoon, city council members and major with Mayer.

Um ago, uh Gafar from your campaign.

We um I think we have been trying to be a respectful to you.

And uh the um Dialupe, Baldo, Steve Truver.

Uh the situation that we have with us is that we have uh communist people in the community who are violating our rights, are uh still on uh our identities, are training us to kill us, to shoot us, to dismember us.

And I understand you have sympathy for Hispanic people.

That's one of your weaknesses that we have known uh that you have throughout the years.

We ask you, you put me through hell, uh the uh Dialupe family to be able to become a U.S.

citizen.

Uh I have two grandbabies, two daughters, and two sonal laws, and I have a family.

Your time is covered with us, or they will kill us and still our identities.

Thank you, Michelle Aigenbor.

I don't see Jacob Clemente to be followed by Joseph Omari.

Okay, come with it, but man and has nothing.

I know how you know why.

Hear now soldiers and commonly done the summer.

How does uh philosophy geography manager at AM call um uh um the writer of the republic plateau Joseph Amari uh you know I used to have drive my black problems in Houston, Texas.

I got uh living at home problem by black and Houston Texas now and it's reported down.

All I know since military martial law everywhere I go, I just get getting no no.

Have black at the month.

I always got now I got somebody at my dodo dough, somebody on my cell phone and my computer trying to figure out where I'm at home and where I go go go.

Somebody keep messing up my dodo dough every time I put it on the floor, floor, flow.

When it comes to my company screenwriting and movie production company, my movies go for three million dollars each.

You can buy all the rights to every movie I got for 30 million dollars the whole catalog.

Uh my serial porter plantation movies the best.

It has the most box off potential, and even more box I printed them on the mud without really love just living the movie.

At the last city council meeting, I spoke about Houston constructing boom economy, success and problem.

No matter what happens.

Can I finish please?

Your time has expired.

That ain't no 30 seconds.

That ain't no minute.

Somebody else meant I know I'm left.

Somebody else, why do they mean I would last longer than mine?

Give me just 30 seconds.

Let me finish.

Go give me 30 seconds.

I'll be finished.

Okay.

I don't know what I'm saying.

It's just so so controversial.

It ain't that controversial.

Okay.

Uh, no matter what happened, deep process, deep portation process.

Black America want the whole family to be able to get back home safely as a part of diplomatic process.

But black America wants proposals that we have lustry cruise liner, cruise ship that allows us to travel from each each country, and we'll be able to go from from and back from each country of America, Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, England, and other nations.

Taking us to taking us from and getting us back home in style and having a lot of whole lot of fun without getting stuck in the land of odds and wonderland.

We also pose having a five-year work visa and Green Court Immigrate Immigrant Work of Sponsorship Program.

Thank you, sir.

Anything else?

We stay in the recess.

Nine in the morning.

Item one, recommendation from the director of Houston Public Works.

That Houston City Council accept the work and authorize final payment, if any of the contract with Grava LLC.

Item two, recommendation from the director of Houston Public Works at Houston City Council accept the work and authorizational payment if any of the contract with Industrial Texas Corporation.

Item four, recommendation from Director of Houston Public Works at Houston City Council, accept the work and authorized final payment if any of the contract with Industrial Texas Corporation.

Item four, recommendation from the Director of Houston Public Works at Houston City Council, accept the work and authorized final payment if any of the contract with Markell Insurance Company.

Item five, approving approved spending authority for purchase of a campaign finance management tool awarded to RFD and Associates Inc.

Item 6 approved spending authority for sole source purchase of a subscription maintenance support and services for an investigative lead generation and data analysis platform awarded to Sound Thinking Inc.

Item 7, approved spending authority for purchase of recreational, educational, and miscellaneous supplies awarded to SNS Worldwide Inc.

Item 8, Environmental Improvement Inc.

for four polymer activation and feed skid systems.

Item nine, Han Equipment Company Inc.

for flight dry pit submersible pumps and installation services.

Item 10 approved spending authority for parking management services awarded to Metropolis, Inc.

Item 11, approved spending authority for procurement project augmentation services awarded to Periscope Holdings, Inc.

Item 12 has been pulled by the administration and will not be considered.

Item 13, ordinance approved and authorizing telecommunications equipment lease between the City of Houston and New Singular Wireless PCS LLC.

Item 14, ordinance approved and authorized an agreement between the City of Houston and Harris County.

Item 15, ordinance appropriating $842,000, approved and authorizing second amendment to construction manager at risk contract with Ansel O'Brien Construction LTD.

Item 16, ordinance authorizing an approving form of master contract or agreement for City of Houston 2021 Winterstorm single family home repair program to be executed by the City of Houston and Architectural Development Inc.

Brisle Construction LLC, Ducky Recovery, LLC, James W.

Turner Construction Limited, RM quality construction, LLC and SLSCO Limited.

Item 17, Ordinance Amending Ordinance Number 2021-221 related to contract with Ingram Library Services LLC.

Item 18, ordinance relating to fiscal affairs of South Post Oak Redevelopment Authority on behalf of reinvestment zone number nine.

Approving fiscal fiscal year 2026 operating budget for the authority and fiscal years 2026 through 2030 capital improvements projects budget for the zone.

Item 19, ordinance relating to fiscal affairs of Uptown Development Authority on behalf of reinvestment zone number 16.

Approving fiscal year 2026 operating budget for the authority and the fiscal years 2026 through 2030.

Ordinance relating to fiscal affairs of Leland Woods Redevelopment Authority on behalf of reinvestment zone number 22.

Approving fiscal year 2026 operating budget for the authority and the fiscal years 2026 through 2030.

Capital Improvement Plan Budget for the Zone.

Item 21, ordinance finding and determining public convenience and necessity for the acquisition of real property interest in connection with the public improvement project known as the Lift Station Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Design.

Item 22 Ordinance Appropriate 1,155,378.22 cent.

Approving and authorizing First Amendment to Professional Engineering Services contract between the City of Houston and Consor Engineers LLC.

Item 23, Ordinance Amending Ordinance Number 2023-118 related to contract with Professional Traffic Control LLC.

Item 24, ordinance appropriating 46 million four hundred and seventeen thousand dollars for the Trinity River Conveyance Project operated by Coastal Water Authority Projects.

This completes the reading of the captions for the agenda of February 4th 2026.

Stay tuned for the next city council session to begin at 9 a.m.

And with that, I wish everyone a blessed and happy hump day.

Order.

We'll start with our monthly financial report.

My name is Director Dabowski.

Okay.

Okay.

Good morning.

This is the six six plus six financial report for the period ending December 31st, 2025.

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

For the general fund, our revenue projection is 41.9 million lower than the adopted budget and remains unchanged from the prior month.

For sales tax, we're not making any changes this month, but we continue to monitor our sales tax receipts.

For the month of November, collections were $70.8 million, which is about point two eight percent lower than the same period last year.

In order to meet the current estimate of $902 million, the remaining periods would need to come in four percent below the prior year.

So we feel our projection by the finance department at this point is still fairly conservative.

On the expenditure side, the projection is 9.5 million higher than the adopted budget and remains unchanged from the prior month.

Together with the revenues, we're projecting the ending fund balance to be $353.5 million, which remains unchanged from the prior month and represents 13.9% of estimated expenditures, not including debt service and pay issue 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.

For the enterprise special revenue and other funds, we are projecting the following forecast changes.

In aviation, operating expenses increase by $1 million due to higher construction site work services for airport projects.

And as a result, operating transfers will decrease by $1 million.

For the combined utility system, operating expenditures decreased by $6.9 million, mainly due to personnel savings, and operating transfers decreased by $15.6 million due to lower than anticipated debt payments and lower transfer to capital projects.

In the DDSRF Ad Volorum Fund, revenue increased by $3 million due to higher than anticipated interest on pooled investments, and expenditures decreased by $5 million due to delays in vehicle purchases.

In the DDSRF drainage fund, revenue increased by $4 million due to higher than anticipated interest on pooled investments.

In DDSRF Metro Fund, expenditure decreased by $4 million due to personnel savings.

For the Stormwater Fund, expenditure decreased by $7 million due to personnel savings and delays in vehicle purchases.

However, operating transfers out decreased by $4.8 million due to a lower transfer for the building inspection special fund.

And the building inspection fund revenue decreased by $4.5 million due to less funding needed from the stormwater fund and expenditures decreased by $3 million to reflect personnel savings.

Since it's a quarterly report, I'll give an update on the Houston economy.

For the employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, preliminary total non-farm employment for the Houston Woodland Sugarland Metropolitan Area stands at approximately $3.49 million in November of 2025, which is an increase by approximately 0.3 percent compared to the prior month.

And compared to the same period last year, the employment is also up by 0.5 percent.

The unemployment rate for the month of November is about 4.5 percent, which is relatively flat to the same period last year.

For the energy sector, the average oil price is $57.97 for the month of December and is about $1.5 percent lower than the prior month.

For home sales, the latest report prepared by the Houston Association of Realtors for the month of December shows the total single family home sales was 2.8 percent higher compared to December of the previous year.

And our disaster report uh you see contained in our printed report.

Um, just to touch on our committee meeting yesterday at the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, which was a joint committee, we had a fairly long agenda where we covered quite a few topics, including the category management program, an overtime update, which is a quarterly update that we're going to be giving uh every quarter.

Um we also covered some other topics related to the Parks Department and the Solid Waste Department.

So it is a fairly long agenda yesterday, but we had a lot of good discussion.

Um just on the overtime topic, really we're trending to be for the uh fire department and the solid waste department on par with where we were in the previous fiscal year and for the police department trending below where our actuals ended up last year for the police department.

Obviously, overtime is highly dependent on a lot of different events, disasters.

We had a lot of talk um about disasters and events yesterday.

Um so we will continue to monitor that trend and update this body on a quarterly basis.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Mr.

Controller.

Good morning, Mayor.

Good morning, Mayor.

Honorable members of council.

Um I see a couple of empty chairs.

I hope uh Council members aren't caught in the same uh traffic on memorial that the Councilmember Peck and I were uh this morning.

But Director Dubaski, thank you for uh going ahead of me this morning.

Uh Mayor Council.

I am here today to present the monthly financial report for the month ending December 31st, 2025.

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

This is $17.5 million lower than the projection of the Finance Department, with the difference being due to a lower revenue projection than finance.

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

Our revenue and expenditure projections remain unchanged from the November 2025 report for our general fund.

For our enterprise funds, and starting with the Aviation Operating Fund.

For our enterprise funds, and starting with the Aviation Operating Fund, expenses increased by $1 million, primarily due to consulting services with the FAA, supporting grant eligible airfield projects at the Houston Airport system.

Additionally, operating transfers to the airport improvement fund decreased by a million dollars.

Shifting now to our utility operations within the Combined Utility System Fund, expenses decreased by $6.9 million, mainly due to personnel savings.

Operating transfers also decreased by $15.6 million, driven by lower than anticipated debt payments and reduced transfers to capital projects.

For our dedicated drainage and street renewal funds within Ad Villoram, revenues increased by $3 million, largely due to higher interest rate income.

Expenditures decreased by $5.2 million, primarily due to delays in vehicle purchases.

Within a drainage charge fund, revenues increased by $4 million, also reflecting higher interest income.

Within Metro et al.

expenditures decreased by $3.9 million driven by personnel savings.

And within the Stormwater Fund, expenditures decreased by $12 million million due to personnel savings, delays in vehicle purchases, and reduced transfers needed for the building inspection special fund.

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 a line with ratings agency guidance of no more than 25 percent.

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 December 31st, 2025, the ratio of unhedged variable rate debt for convention and entertainment was 48.08 percent due to the ongoing George R.

Brown expansion.

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

Now to our quarterly investment report.

As of December 31st, 2025, the City had $6.5 billion invested in our general investment pool.

The character of this pool is that of a short-term bond fund that holds investments of very high credit quality.

Our investment strategy is to match assets and liabilities for a time period of one year into the future and to exercise discretion for the balance of remaining funds.

Investments are $1.1 billion higher than this period last year.

That is primarily attributable to new bond transactions in aviation as well as the combined utility system.

As of December 31st, 2025, the general investment pool was yielding 4 percent.

In addition to the general investment pool, we have two small investment pools that total about $15 million.

Those pools exist to comply with tax requirements of the Federal Government.

A detailed listing of all the securities owned by the City appears at the back of your investments report.

The City, along with our investment report, we have included the quarterly swap report as is required by the City's policy.

The written swap report offers a comprehensive description of our two swap positions.

The City had a net paid for the six months ending December 31st, 2025 from its swaps of $1.35 million.

Fair value for both swaps as of December 31, 2025, was negative $52 million, which is approximately $17 million greater than the prior quarter when it was at negative $69 million.

The City's swaps are fairly complex, and if you have questions regarding that report, please contact my office.

Later this month, we'll also have a junior from Sharpstown High School, Naveer Graham, who will join us, and both of them are our controllers for a day for spring 2026.

As you all know, the Controller for a Day program was designed to give young people firsthand exposure to public service, civic leadership, and financial accountability and civic government.

Allison and Navir were selected through an essay competition where they each expounded on the importance of fiscal responsibility and government, which is something I definitely was not thinking about as a junior in high school.

Alison.

Would you like to say a few words?

Yes.

Hello, my name is Alison Cranbeal from Heights High School, and I am the Houston City Controller for the day.

In my winning essay, I wrote about how I wrote about how fiscal responsibility and public trust go hand in hand, and I compared that relationship to a plant.

I believe that fiscal responsibility is the work you put in for the plant to grow, like planning, budgeting, and making careful decisions.

Then public trust is what grows from that effort.

Today I plan to continue to grow my understanding of the Office of the Controller and use my time to learn about city government.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Allison.

We're really honored to have her with us today and look forward to welcoming Navir uh later this month.

Mayor and Council, I also like to quickly remind you of our Black History program coming up February 19th in the legacy room.

Each of you should have received a personal invitation, and we're really excited.

We're going to be honoring some legends this year.

First off, Yolanda Adams, uh renowned gospel artists, also Rice University President Reginald DeRoche, Houston Texans head coach, Damico Ryans, as well as his wife, Jamila Ryans, who together they're the founders of the Ryan Family Foundation.

And then also United Airlines pilots, Jamil and Jalal Paul.

Finally, we will also pay tribute to the life and legacy of the Honorable Sylvester Turner with the posthumous legacy award.

And so we hope to see you all there on the morning of February 19th.

Over the last month, events in Minnesota have shown us the dangerous consequences of an overly militarized approach to immigration enforcement.

The names Renee Good, Alex Peretti, and five-year-old Liam Ramos are now known nationally for all the wrong reasons.

And sadly, these are not isolated incidents.

When enforcement is driven by ideology instead of sound judgment, families are turned apart, communities are destabilized, local businesses and regional economies suffer, and trust and government erodes.

Across the State of Texas, we are already seeing the economic consequences.

Just last month, a concrete company in South Texas was forced to file for bankruptcy after Federal immigration raids disrupted its workforce and created acute uh created acute labor shortages.

Houston is also not immune.

Local restaurants have been impacted and had their operations disrupted.

Construction projects are being delayed, and uncertainty about market conditions has kept some developments from moving forward altogether.

In a city where one in four residents is an immigrant, cooperating with ICE beyond what the law requires does not make our city safer or stronger.

It fuels fear, it weakens community trust, it undermines public safety, and it strains our local economy.

Now we know that these national choices are being made far outside of this City Hall, but the consequences do land right here in Houston neighborhoods, in our workforce, and on our balance sheet.

And that brings me to the fiscal responsibility that is within our control.

Overtime is often necessary, but when it goes unmanaged or underestimated, it becomes a structural budget problem with lasting consequences that weaken Houston's long-term financial stability.

Yesterday, my office shared insights about the city's overtime trends and costs with the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee.

In short, the city is dramatically over budget in its overtime spending, with police, fire, and solid waste as the major contributors.

Solid waste is projected to be 70 percent over budget, while police and fire are projected to be 89 and 87 percent over budget, respectively.

Together, these three departments are projected to come in more than $54 million over budget in their overtime spending.

This predicament was entirely foreseeable.

Last spring, we reported to you that those three departments were on pace to go over budget by $70 million.

Our projections at that time turned out to be 99.6 percent accurate.

And it was clear at that time, and we share with you at that time, that there were only two reasonable options.

Either work to control overtime or acknowledge the necessity of that overtime and budget for that necessity.

As we moved through budget seasons, we came back to you once again, and we advised you in our 10 hard truths document, verbatim that the fiscal year 2026 budget repeated last year's overtime miscalculation, and it was likely to lead to another massive overage.

Uh that was hard truth number six in that document if you are searching for it.

But instead of increasing the overtime budget, you reduced it.

So here we are again, with a deficit that started at $76 million and ballooned to $127 million with your property tax decision, which was also entirely foreseeable and described in Hard Truth No.

During last year's budget season, we are now looking at draining our fund balance an additional $50 plus million dollars because we would rather ignore basic facts than make hard decisions.

I am stressing the point of predictability because for two of these three departments, police and solid waste, overtime is trending very close to what you would expect based on the last five years.

HPD is projected at $28 million of general fund overtime with a five-year average of $29.5 million.

It is right where you might expect it to be.

Pretending that it is neither is how a budget fails a basic test of credibility, which the fiscal year 2026 budget has now done on several accounts.

That is not a good thing.

At a time when the majority of ratings agencies have Houston on a negative outlook, it undermines confidence in our fiscal planning and management.

And it's not good for Houstonians who can't be expected to trust what the City tells them if in critical instances what we tell them turns out to be fiction.

Fiscal responsibility ultimately comes down to credibility, credible assumptions, credible budgets, credible leadership.

And until overtime is either controlled or honestly accounted for, then Houston will continue paying the price for plans that don't line up with reality.

Thank you.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Mayor and good morning to everyone.

Thank you both for your reports.

The controller kind of highlighted some of the things, Director, that I was going to speak to specifically with overtime.

To my recollection, we budgeted less overtime dollars for HPD in this current budget than we did the previous fiscal year, even though they went way over their budgeted amount.

Is that accurate?

So when we did the budget for FY26, the budget for overtime is approximately on level with the adopted budget for fiscal year 25.

It is true that the budget is the FY26 adopted budget is below where the FY25 actuals ended up being for overtime specifically.

When we talk about the budget, and I know you and I had some conversation at the time of the budget last spring, we also look at the entire budget of the Department.

So, for example, in the police department, last year in fiscal year 25, even though their overtime budget exceeded their adopted budget for overtime, they had savings in other areas.

So we don't want to over budget for a department.

I hate to say if you over budget, they'll spend it all, right?

But we look at the totality of the department when we budget.

And so as we see where we have savings in some of those areas to offset that overtime, that is something we focus on.

I I completely hear the controller's point on the fire department and the Solid Waste Department has less savings to offset a lot of that this year is due to the success that the departments have had in the recruitment and the retention, which was something that each of those chiefs and department director highlighted in the committee presentation yesterday.

So as we move towards the end of the fiscal year, we will have to assess how much savings we have in those other areas to offset the overtime.

And I think we need to look at it even before then.

Now we have to see what these projections are and where the trends are and start to possibly put caps on the amount of overtime that is offered based on necessity.

Because as you mentioned, if we budget a lot for overtime, many times that that pot of money is there and people are incentivized to try to work as much as possible to earn more pay.

But when we don't budget possibly, I mean properly, and we're we we don't hit those marks, then we have to find a way to fill in the gap.

And then if we don't, then our deficit grows.

Well, just on the point of the deficit growing, um, one thing that the major metric that the rating agencies look at, like the controller mentioned, is how our fund balance is.

And when we focusing on fiscal year 25, there was more overtime than we budgeted for.

But the overall fiscal year 25 budget, when we adopted the budget, the fund balance was at 10 percent.

We ended the year, even with all that additional overtime, we ended the year at 14 percent fund balance.

So an improvement of 40 percent.

Um so that speaks to, yes, there is overtime above budget, but there are savings in other areas coupled together with uh on the revenue side, we typically, and you see in the sales tax, we typically budget fairly conservatively in our revenue areas to make sure that we have enough cushion for some of these impacts as we go through the year.

Understood, and I think that's great that it happened that way, but there there could be scenarios where it doesn't.

And then the city is not in a financial uh strong position as it ended up being after the last um budget year based on some of those things that happened towards the end that we were able to find some cost savings.

So when you're when you are budgeting from the outset, you can't really rely on some of these scenarios that may or may not happen.

Um I can tell you from my office's standpoint, as as I mentioned many times before, as it relates to overtime with HPD, my office is even getting blocked from even providing overtime dollars.

So while the while we're putting a strain on the overall general fund for overtime dollars in J City when we have dollars to spend that are allocated that are, well, not allocated, that are budgeted for overtime pay, this administration has chosen not to even accept those dollars.

And that is fiscal mismanagement.

And I think we have to be able to look at all sources of funding and all sources of dollars that could be uh put forth towards overtime that our council offices have to offset some of these general fund costs.

And I would like to understand a little bit more because Councilmember Thomas um had some questions for Chief Harden yesterday at the committee meeting regarding that.

Um so I definitely would like to get a better understanding of that because Chief Harden yesterday um, and I don't want to speak for you, Councilmember Thomas, but I feel what Chief Hard and yesterday um relate to the council member is that of course we will need to work with the individual council members on those needs for those areas.

So I'm never going to say no to using your council district service money for something we need.

Uh my my constituents will like to see the money uh be allocated for uh additional uh presence due to overtime.

So I love to speak with you about it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning.

Um Director, I know we say, and we talked a little bit about this yesterday, um, we're seeing savings in other places.

Sometimes, though, savings means cuts, sometimes savings means efficiencies.

So are we able to get a better description on where we are seeing those those savings?

And it doesn't have to be today, but again, I want to, you know, we say we're saving more to offset.

But what is that, what is the impact to that department in terms of other services that we are providing?

Um second, uh because we had such limited time yesterday, we we touched on it, but it is my understanding we we talked about winterstorm ENZO was not a um federally or state declared disaster.

So the city itself incurred those costs.

We then had the freeze two weekends ago, uh, and rightfully so, Houston stepped up in true form, right?

We stood up the warming centers, we deployed additional resources.

It is a massive undertaking that I don't think uh people realize how much goes into that, how much personnel, how much overtime.

What was the cost, do we know yet the cost of last weekend?

And then we also had to do it this past weekend.

Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't do that, but there's a cost associated, especially when we're not getting reimbursed for it.

So the costs, it we're on a little bit of a lag because of when payroll runs, right, for overtime and some of those things the way we track them, but in general for the warming centers, it's about a million dollars for every day that we have the warming centers open.

Um at least that's our our experience from the previous year.

Now, last year in fiscal year 25, again, like I mentioned, when we proposed the 25 budget, we were at 10 percent fund balance, we ended at 14 percent fund balance, and those costs were absorbed within the department's budgets because of other savings.

And uh to touch on your point where the other savings comes from, predominantly it's vacancy savings for positions that are not filled, where each department director is looking through you know what they need to to provide the services um in their department.

Um you'll see a lot of that reflected.

I know I talk a lot about general appropriations as coming.

That's in April, and that's where we really true up the estimates to the budget.

Right.

Um back to the say the million dollar a day estimate, is that inclusive of additional departments needs like oh we there's the warming center costs, but there's other costs affiliated with um severe weather, right, and deployment, additional road treatments, whatever that is.

Is that an all-encompassing one million to the city?

We can get you the details on it.

Okay.

I would appreciate that because I bring it up again, we've had voted out of unanimously BFA the budget amendment from eight months ago related to the budget stabilization fund and increasing that amount.

Um we had a commitment that we would be increasing that amount, but we haven't seen that item come up.

So I want to keep pushing because again we're seeing more and more uh extreme weather events related to climate change, but we cannot rely on State and Federal reimbursement, and we need to be planning for that.

Uh so I really wanted do you have an update on when we'll see that item?

So the items that came out of that committee meeting, um, your item was part of it.

There were some other items on the CIP, so it definitely requires collaboration with some of the other departments.

Um we're meeting internally to talk about you know when we can bring it forward for the next steps.

But your the budget amendment specifically on the um the 25 million dollars, the 1 percent or 20 million going to 1 percent or 25 million, that's absolutely something we are supportive of.

The 365-day time period to refill the budget stabilization fund is one that I know we talked a lot during the budget time, but that's one where we do um see challenges with that, where if we don't get Federal reimbursement timely to refill the stabilization fund, it will have to come from the general fund fund balance.

So it's really kind of you know moving money from one pocket to another for lack of the.

And I and I know we don't necessarily see eye to eye on that, but I think it deserves that conversation around the horseshoe and the item being brought up.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Very good.

Thank you.

Councilman Flickinger.

Just want to make sure I understand the conversation correctly that occurred a few minutes ago.

I mean, basically you're saying the bond rating agencies are not going to look at the individual geocodes to see whether there is discrepancy in budget versus actual, and what they're really going to look at is the fund balance at the end of the year.

They follow the MOFAR report.

Um, they look at the ACFER.

Um I've never had a question about which GL line tallied to what.

Thank you.

Just to remember Al Corn.

Sorry, Mayor.

Uh Councilmember Flickinger.

Um I think this speaks to uh something that do you ask as well, Councilmember Cayman.

Fund balance did not go up last year, to be clear.

I think what uh Director Dabowski was describing was projections about the fund balance.

Um what was projected was a large a very large deficit.

What we got was still a very large deficit, the largest in Houston's history, but it was smaller than what was originally projected.

And so as writings agencies are looking at that, what they are seeing is the largest deficit in Houston's history.

Um Councilman Alcorn.

Thank you.

And I think the discussion on overtime has been good because I heard some good things come from the department directors yesterday about um they're really focused on it now.

Uh police, I really liked what he had to say about what Chief Harden was saying about during these disasters.

We're looking at on-duty, you know, officers.

We're trying to really strategically put on-duty people so you don't have to use more overtime.

And they are tracking under what they have been doing in the past.

So I think people are being more strategic in the departments.

Chief Munoz talked about in each of the presentations, as you mentioned, Director Dabowski, there was a attrition and hiring, you know.

And we're kind of we're we're finally not underwater there anymore.

So we're having more people out, which should help with overtime also.

And Chief Munoz was able to talk about how now people there still is high high overtime because now people are going to training, you know, we're getting more paramedics, things that we needed to do.

Also, I heard uh Director Hassan talk about things he is doing and looking at it.

And while the numbers are still above what we had adopted in the budget, and I think we all understood that was going to be fluctuating due to circumstances.

I also felt like there was some good news coming out of how they are looking at deploying their FTEs.

Also some good news in, I think that Chief Harden and or maybe you, Melissa said um uh civilian savings is gonna help some in HPD to cover that cost.

I agree on the sales tax.

Um we we weigh under, like we like we may under budget over time we under budget sales tax revenue.

So I think we are gonna be uh basic uh the way I see it, it looks like we're gonna be okay, but I like that I like the attention that the directors are giving into not just oh, every anybody who wants overtime can work overtime.

I mean, that's that seems to be not a thing anymore.

So I appreciate that.

Thank thank you.

There's a lot of good news coming out of our directors, and they're being very strategic.

And if you look at the three departments that are requiring overtime police fire and solid waste, I think that's where Houstonians expect us to provide those services.

And as Councilman Cayman mentioned, uh the two warming centers brought about additional expenses.

We had two police officers at each of the 12 warming centers plus two medical assistance from the fire department.

So, you know, some people may choose to tact those services and those personnel, but we know what we are doing, and there's a lot of good news coming out of each of the departments, and we will have a balanced budget uh without raising taxes this spring.

So thank you for everyone's participation.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I I still believe we have a spending problem here.

I feel like we spend more than we bring in.

And now when we talk about overtime and the amount of overtime that is going over budget, plus you know the $53 million that we have to absorb based on the tax rate that that was different than what we budgeted for in the in the budget.

Um you put forth your five-year forecast, you had like a baseline, uh optimistic and a pessimistic.

Based on these uh changes just for this fiscal year alone, are we on baseline still, or are we at an optimistic, pessimistic, like where are we trending uh for this five-year forecast, because each year you give uh an estimate of where we may be.

So is this making things worse?

Or is this baseline?

I I can't see how it's uh optimistic.

No, I would say that we're still at the baseline.

And you are right, and the and the controller is correct that we didn't have we didn't have a surplus budget in fiscal year 25, right?

We drew less from the fund balance than we were planning to at the time of the budget.

Um this is I feel like I sound like a broken record, but this is the story that we have had for as long as any of us can remember, right?

That we have had a structural deficit.

Um a lot of things have happened, right?

We have made a lot of progress.

We had the pension reform, you know, back in 2017.

That has saved us hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the general fund that we would have otherwise had to put towards it.

We had the OPEG reform, you know.

That's also bringing down our long-term liabilities and allowing us to save for the future.

Um this year with the Ernst and Young study, the way we proposed the budget, we for the first time in the in the recent past have seen a year-over-year decrease in the expenditure budget versus talking about how much are we going to increase the budget by?

So we completely agree with you that we have a spending problem, right?

That's why we engaged Ernston Young.

That's why we are looking for the efficiencies.

That's why we did the retirement incentive program, the consolidation, having each department look at their org chart, their span of control.

And so over the last year we have made a lot of progress, right?

It's it's not perfect, right?

But we're a lot farther along than where we were a year ago.

And so we're going to continue to work.

So when the controller mentions that uh over the past two years we have had the largest deficits.

Well, okay.

Where will we be this?

Where are we on trend to be this year?

Are we are we on trend to be one of the largest deficits in the city's history?

You have already mentioned that based on where we are currently, um your five-year forecast is still on a on the baseline uh projection.

Right.

Which would put us at almost 500 million in 2030.

That is what your chart showed, right?

So that's going in the wrong direction.

So the question would bear to ask what what do we need to do to go in the optimistic direction that we're not doing now.

We're going to continue on with a lot of the things that we discovered through the Ernst ⁇ Young study.

Um the consolidations, right, are ongoing.

Um we also have the category management initiative.

That's one that is in this budget, and we had an update from the Chief Procurement Officer yesterday at the committee meeting to talk about how that process is going.

But that is a multi-year effort, right?

That's going to allow us to have savings on contracts citywide.

It is going to impact the general fund but other funds as well.

So that's something we need to continue on to try to, you know, get the same services, but hopefully negotiate better pricing with our outside partners.

Um definitely see, you know, continuing on with that.

Um that's going to be a major initiative.

It just it just seems like these big 54, 53 million dollar hits are going to add up to start pushing us to the pessimistic line.

Where we are, where we're going to end fiscal year 26 is right on par with where we ended 25 as far as our percent of fund balance.

We ended 25 with the 14 percent fund balance.

Right now we are projecting to end 26 with the 14 percent fund balance.

Yes, we're gonna increase our estimate for overtime, but we're gonna have other savings in other areas, and together with uh what Councilmember Alcorn mentioned, looking to increase our projection on our revenues in the coming months.

So that's why you say it is safe to say we will stay at a the baseline.

Kind of the baseline, yes.

Thank you.

Member Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh and Director, I just want to say, you know, it's okay to be a a broken record because unfortunately, you know, and I think we're at the end of the day, we need to continue to highlight what's been done.

We've known, and I go to Civic Clubs, started my Civic Club tour this week.

On average, 150 million was the case for the 10 years prior.

Uh yes, it's a bit higher now.

Um, but we are consolidating uh you know different divisions, whether it's HR, whether it's procurement, and now we're looking at contract negotiations.

We're moving in the right direction.

Uh and I think this doom and gloom of, you know, whoa, you know, the sky is falling.

The sky's been where it's at for the last 10 years already, at least minimum.

Um I'm just I feel hopeful that as we continue to exhaust all options, I still want to keep pressing on where the revenues are gonna come.

And I've been speaking to a trash fee.

I've been we would need definitely need to take a look at the revenue cap as well.

Um these are tough decisions.

Uh but at the same time I also want to make sure that we're not putting out this rhetoric that, you know, we're at a place that we have never been before before.

If any folks around this horseshoe that have been dealing with the deficit for four years when they were in in office already.

So I I appreciate um the conversation that we had yesterday.

I appreciate the departments looking at how they address overtime.

Uh HPD is doing a heck of a job.

I want to commend them for doing what they are doing with the resources that they have.

Um we also need to look at some policies when it comes to HFD as well, for sure.

Um to know, and I think he stonies need to know when we open up a warming center, a million dollars, that's you know, that's something that we're not we're not hope, we're not thinking about trying to open up, uh, but we need to uh ensure that Houstonians are safe.

And so I just want to say uh I appreciate the the conversation that we had yesterday, uh, even the one that we're having around the horseshoe now.

But these tough decisions ultimately need to be made.

Um, but we are moving in the right direction.

Uh when we start looking at operation, right sizing departments uh ultimately, and so uh it continue to be a broken record.

I'm okay with it.

I think everybody needs to hear about it as well, all of Houstonians.

The facts are that these two fiscal years have the highest.

That's understood.

And I think that's a good thing.

No, that's understood, controller, and I get it.

And I have heard you say that as well.

I get it.

But also we also need to make sure that we talk about what we are doing as well and what we are doing to consolidate what we are doing to that works, and I would hope that you would also be on board to highlight those wins as well.

Thank you.

Or come up with a plan.

Council member Ramirez.

Mayor, uh, as I had possible to do that.

We have business to conduct.

Councilman Romares.

Mayor, you made a comment towards me.

I'm going to respond to that.

No, I have not made a comment towards you.

I'm saying as we go forward, we need to have a plan.

Councilman Romero.

I agree with you.

And I stand ready to work with you and your team to develop that plan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Obviously, public safety is priority number one.

And we need to take care of that function.

You know, the last two years we passed nice new contracts for police and fire.

And at some point, that has to translate into lower overtime.

We have more police officers today.

But at some point that has to result in in lower overtime and to uh address my colleagues' comment that we need a garbage fee.

It's really tough, I think, for the public to accept that we need a garbage fee when our overtime costs are so high.

Because when our overtime costs are so high, that's an indication that there's room for improvement.

And there's a disconnect in my mind saying we need we need more money when some people are going to look at that and say we need to spend the money that we have more wisely.

And I understand there are tremendous challenges.

We're working on them, we're making progress, but I think the voters will be skeptical of more fees when we're not being as efficient and effective with the money we have.

So that's my thought.

I think you are spot on, Councilmember Ramirez.

When we tell Houstonians how much something is going to cost, we need to be telling them an accurate number.

And on this overtime issue in particular, when we see that the overtime figures are what they are, and it's year over year.

And again, I'm not questioning the operational leaders on if that overtime is necessary or not.

My assumption, uh, although we are going through audits for all of these departments going forward, um, is that the overtime is necessary at a base level.

The challenge is that we're telling Houstonians, overtime is going to cost us this much when we know at the time that we're doing it that overtime is going to be significantly more than that.

Um if we have not made any operational changes that are meaningfully going to drive overtime down, then overtime is going to remain the same and potentially go up.

If we know that at the time of budgeting, then we can't put a fictional number in the budget just to be having this conversation six months later when we all knew that these numbers were going to turn out uh directionally like this.

And so, yes, I agree with you.

Before we go to Houstonians and say, hey, we need you to pony up more cash to fund this critical service.

We should know how much you know providing world-class service costs.

And then when we say that number, that number needs to be a true number that Houstonians can expect will be the actual outcome just a few months later after we write it into a budget document.

Uh so I am with you on that statement.

So I think to echo Councilmember Alcorn's point, I think what we heard at the BFA committee yesterday is not that, you know, the controller says, well, if you're not making any changes, but that's not what we heard at the committee meeting yesterday.

Um the directors have made operational changes to, you know, um deploy staff to try to minimize overtime in those certain areas.

And so that was definitely part of our, you know, part of our robust discussion yesterday.

If you were to sit with senior uniform leaders uh during budget season in 2025, which I did, and asked them, do you expect overtime to go down, which I did, they would have said no, which is what they told me.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you, Comptroller and Finance Rector.

The interest and the concern about the overtime fee is absolutely concerning to the entire city.

But uh I do recall the people questioning the effect of when overtime is done, but I do recall several years ago, uh that was a raise of police several years back to confront the issue of the growing crime in our city, and it was used by allocating overtime.

So allocation of overtime is nothing new to this council.

It has been done years before when everything we can't project, no one can project what the outcome of what confrontation of some disaster we gonna have.

No more than they projected when COVID hit.

You understand?

So I think what I heard from the appointment hits on yesterday was an approach to make some differences and some changes.

There was a lot of projections made about some of the money that we wouldn't get last year, but we did get.

So I think the concern is admirable.

I really do.

I respect that in regards to the era of overtime.

But I think listed to the directors, some changes have been made, and I think they are flowing with the administration about how we approach the overtime issues.

But what can cause an overtime effect, I don't think any of us have a crystal ball about how we deal with that, just long as the areas that overtime is spent, like the fire department.

When uh Chief Munoz spoke about that, we need we got more firefighters, but at the same time, that was money spent in regards to EMS, and uh when those people go into training, it leaves a vacancy.

And so you gotta use common sense to fulfill the responsibility to serve the city.

So I think it should be looked at, but I also think that uh, you know, it it takes something to try to project what can happen in the very future.

So, you know, uh it is what it is.

Councilmember, I agree with you that uh these overtime figures are nothing new, and I agree with you that we should be using common sense.

Um these since these overtime figures are nothing new, uh, we should look at past performance to in some way predict you know future outcomes.

And if you look at the overtime figures for solid waste or police in particular, where overtime is tracking is directly in line with where overtime uh has been.

Uh in terms of what the operational leaders are doing, uh our report yesterday highlighted uh some of the solutions that have been put uh in place, or at least have been attempted.

Uh they noted that those haven't brought the overtime down in ways that were expected or promised.

Um but we do want acknowledge uh in writing, uh and I'll acknowledge it verbally here, that uh that attempts are being made to uh to address this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Minister.

Excellent job.

Next.

We need a motion to accept the report, please.

Councilman Alcorn.

I move that we accept the quarterly financial report data December 31st, 2025.

Second, considering made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed no.

Motion passed.

Agenda, Mr.

Secretary.

Under the accept work category, items one and four have been removed for separate consideration.

Is there a motion for items two and four?

Cast exit a move.

Motion made and second.

All in favor.

I'm sorry.

Two and three.

Cast X tater move.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed.

Motion passes.

Under the purchasing and tabulation of bids category, uh, since your list was distributed.

Item seven has been pulled.

Items five and six have been removed for separate consideration.

Is there a motion for items eight through eleven?

Cast X tater move.

Next second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed night.

Motion passes.

Under the ordinances category, since your list was distributed, all items have been received.

Item 12 has been pulled and will not be considered.

Is there a vote for items 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 23?

Just need to vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed.

Motion passed.

Items removed for separate consideration.

Is there a motion for item one?

Cas X table move.

Motion made in the Council Member Kiman.

Councilmember Kamen.

Thank you.

Um I'm going to support this item.

This was for work done in District C along the West Timer corridor.

Um that align the West Timer, the dividing line is CH between River Oaks and Upper Kirby.

Um, but I want to bring y'all's attention to in FY21 and FY22, Councilmember Huffman and I teamed up to do our lane mile allocation along this very segment.

Councilmember Huffman and I teamed up to do our lane mile allocation along this very segment.

Fast forward to a few years ago, and Metro comes in to do an entire corridor overlay.

So we go through construction all over again.

And Mayor, you have been very involved in seeing the delays and challenges with that project.

The City of Houston was responsible for a lot of the water line.

So the road is going to have to at one segment be ripped up again.

So we have redone this road multiple times.

There's been significant delays.

But when the city was responsible for the water lines, and we have already now had one additional water line break in that same place.

She's had to live this.

I drive it every week.

That we're paying so much and that this area has had so much work done, and yet again, we're having more pipe breaks when we just replace them is very concerning to me.

So again, I I support this item.

I appreciate the investment.

But when we are now seeing a rip-up of the street again and again and again, uh it I have to raise the question as to what is the issue.

What keeps this hap from happening or what why is this still happening?

Thank you.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Is there a motion for item four?

Cas X teta move.

Pack second.

Motion made and segment.

After, after the vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, no.

Motion passed.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you.

Hallelujah.

Shelf for City Package 3 is done.

We have been working on Shelford City.

There are three packages since I was sworn in in 2020.

This is one of the first capital improvement projects that was initiated on the West side.

So this $15 million investment, although it was ugly, it has invested in our wastewater system, which is incredibly important.

So Super Neighborhood 17, Super Neighborhood 25, Ashford Village Park, Shadow Lake, it is done.

We have paid the bill.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You are welcome.

Next.

Is there a motion for item five?

Cast take a move.

Excellent.

Motion made and second.

All in favor.

Council Martinez before or after.

Who would like anyone want to be recognized before the vote?

Martinez before.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And just uh colleagues, I just want to say uh that this is uh long time uh coming.

Um I have held several committee meetings where we have discussed uh what is it that we need to do on the campaign finance uh management tool side.

Uh we know some of uh uh that area has been archaic for some time and we have had good discussions around the horseshoe.

Um I'm looking forward to now uh making sure that we can do this electronically, camp campaign finance, lobbying, personal financial uh statements as well.

It helped us uh as uh as folks in these in these spaces to be able to do this a lot easier, but also uh more accessible to the community as well.

Uh this is the first phase, the camp campaign finance and lobbying.

Um the next one is gonna be for personal uh financial disclosures, which we will need to customize uh here at the city, and so we will continue to have those uh discussions at the ethics and governance committee.

So appreciate everybody's support and work on this as well.

Okay.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, no.

Motion passes.

Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

And to add on to uh Councilmember Martinez's comments, um, this system is absolutely in need of an upgrade.

Uh the lobbying forms are are still done uh in person on paper.

I mean, that's just tells you how how antiquated the system is.

But I will also say um we should be also looking at how we enforce the the requirements around the filings and folks that don't file and making sure that um we are looking at that and there are consequences, penalties, et cetera, uh, because that is a part of this as well.

We are held to rules.

We should all follow those rules.

We're putting the investment in to upgrade the technology so that it is not as archaic as it used to be.

I totally agree.

Long overdue.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor, and I applaud the administration for bringing this item forward and counsel for passing it.

Campaign finance reporting is a huge issue that the public doesn't have much information about, unfortunately.

It is only if the Chronicle happens to cover the issue and report on who is filed and who has not filed that they know about this stuff.

I will say that RFD and Associates is the same company that does the uh State Ethics Commission website, and their reporting tool is a thousand times better than what we have right now.

So this will eliminate one excuse that municipal candidates have in navigating these important requirements.

So kudos to the administration for bringing this forward.

This is going to improve things or should improve things dramatically.

I want to uh agree with Councilmember Castillo's point about accountability.

Um candidates, including officeholders, should be held accountable when they don't file, or they file late, or they file incorrectly.

And um I mentioned to our city attorney, Arturo Michelle a few months ago at the Court of Criminal Appeals handed down an opinion a few months ago that will allow the city to enforce its own ordinances regarding uh campaign finance violations.

So I I would encourage our legal department and our municipal prosecutors to uh take a look at that and um hold violators accountable.

I think that's what the the voters deserve.

Thank you.

You know, this is an ongoing issue how you hold people accountable when they have their rights to run for office at the state level, you have got people that owe significant fines to the ethics commission, and we still allow them to file and run for office when they are delinquent in their fines.

So we have discussed it for years, and uh unfortunately you can't keep them out the ballot, but that if you had had a good opponent, they'd know how to make that an issue.

So maybe we need a candidate class or something.

Councilman Carter.

Councilmember Carter.

Thank you, Mayor.

And uh I certainly echo uh Councilmember Castillo's comments as well as Ramirez.

You know, as Vice Chair of the ethics and governance committee, I am often asked, what do you all do to enforce ethics and governance regarding council?

And you know, as antiquated as the system may be, those of us who file file.

Whether it's on time or late, although I am on time.

On time or late, you file, regardless how much of a lift it is, how much, you know, how long it takes, you file.

And I think that certainly if you go to the city's website and you see that the governance uh committee is charged with oversight to uh campaign finance, Chapter 18 issues, blah, blah, blah, there needs to be an arm of enforcement, um, not only on finance, but also to other campaign-related issues.

I get questions all the time, specifically related to council, and you know, the the worst answer you can give is I don't know, but certainly in re as relates to many topics regarding ethics and governance, I don't know how we enforce that.

But I think we need to really take a look at practicing what we preach.

Thank you.

Very good.

Councilmember Kamen.

Thank you.

And I appreciate the conversation.

Um to Councilmember Martinez's point, you know, yes, it's candidates, yes, it's officeholders, but our system is so old that we don't even update timely blackout periods or lobbyists, and that is a huge uh conflict of interest component as well.

So I appreciate that we are moving in the right direction.

I do want to make sure that we are tackling charity, your point.

Um it's also people that do business at the City of Houston.

And uh that's a critical component here.

Very good.

Martinez.

Council Martinez.

Thank you.

Um I be remiss to uh thank a few of your team members, uh Mayor, Josh Sanders, Stephen David, and of course City City Attorney's Office, Daniel Folsom.

Uh that's what we were working with.

And again, this is about candidates, but also about lobbyists as well.

So I appreciate uh your team working with my office to see us see this come to fruition.

Thank you.

Well, let's uh continue going in the right direction.

There are other measures that need to be taken, and uh I think getting it uh online is a major step forward.

Uh in years past, certainly when I was considering this race, you try to go get information, you have to do an open records request, which one telegraphs what you are doing, and number two, it's uh very inefficient.

So we'll keep uh keep improving.

That's all next next item.

Next item.

Is there a motion for item six?

Next second.

Motion made.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just wanted to um bring some attention to this item.

I was getting some questions and calls regarding uh not really the technology that we're voting on, but the the company, Sound Thinking Inc.

Uh this company has rebranded itself, but it was the same company that uh owns the technology of ShotSpotter.

And we were, or I was receiving questions on is this technology that we are uh considering today, which is data analysis technology, will have anything to do with the the coordination or integration with anything related to ShotSpotter, and I was told no.

And so I do want to thank uh Director Kent for working with me and looking into it.

Uh, but I know that has been uh issue that we have brought up here in the past, and Councilmember Ramirez, you were on top of that when you first got on council.

So I do want the uh public and those who are looking into this matter uh to know that uh to my understanding and to the director's understanding, there is no correlation or integration with shot spotter or shot spotter technology uh based on this item.

Thank you.

Member Ramirez.

No, just uh uh echo that this is not bringing shot spotter back.

This uh tool will give uh the police access to more information to help them better do their job.

Thank you.

Just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Next item 14 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Item 16 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes.

Those opposed, nay.

Councilmember Thomas.

Uh all in favor, say yes, those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you, colleagues, for voting on this.

This continues to move the housing department's uh disaster recovery program from Winter Storm Urie, the Texas Freeze.

Along the line, as you recall, there was a direct allocation of $50 million for home repair and investment of generators and public facilities.

So I just want to remind and uh those who are watching and constituents, uh, the application is still open and available.

The Department is willing to drop off applications.

They have virtual office hours, take full advantage of this money.

Um, although this item is about the contractors uh to do the work.

They the department is moving expeditiously to make sure that once they are approved, that the repairs can start.

So take advantage of this information and um get all that is due to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, as I looked at this item, what one thing I do want to emphasize and hope hopefully we have parameters in place, but many times we get uh horror stories from individuals after the fact that when we have this disaster recovery money that goes towards home repair, that the contractors do either shoddy work or they're uh not doing the things that are uh expected or anticipated by the homeowner, and these warranties are many times difficult for the homeowner to have certain types of rights.

I'm not sure if those those conversations have come up.

If if Councilmember Thomas, if you could speak to that a little more.

Sure.

So that's not this group.

So we have improved and changed our home repair guidelines to reflect um a more stringent uh response around that.

Um and uh we we have done that routinely to make sure that the contractors that are doing this work are providing um uh good work based on our local, our local guidance that's been improved over time.

And so most of the critique has come from programs that were prior to Hurricane H Hurricane Harvey and prior to that.

And with projects that were initiated not by the housing department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I just wanted to pick it back a little bit on what my colleague Councilman Pollard mentioned and thank uh Councilmember Thomas for uh elaborating a bit more.

That was one of my concerns with this specific uh uh HUD dedication dollars for the disaster recovery was that we were getting a lot of horror stories, folks that were coming back and contractors weren't doing what they what they were supposed to be doing.

Um I know I had mentioned that uh uh whenever the director was uh um you know uh coming for the committee meetings during that time.

Uh the director also uh was reassuring that we're going to uh have contractors that were gonna fulfill the job.

Uh what I would encourage everybody that ultimately goes through this process of home repair is take pictures before, take pictures during and take pictures after.

Uh just to make sure that we're we're holding uh these contractors accountable.

This is a lot of money that we receive from the Federal Government that we need to make sure that uh we're being responsible with as well, and not having more folks coming to City Hall saying that they have uh you know, She Rock, big square She Rock out of their living room, still uh not repaired.

Um and so uh again, thank you, Councilmember Thomas for continuing to work with the director on this.

Um and again to the constituents, just be mindful.

Uh document, document, document.

Anyone else?

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 22 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.

Counselor and Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is an important item.

Um, given the amount that we're allocating.

We did speak with public works.

They are requesting we pass it today, but I would ask that this can come to committee given it's uh over 46 million um so that they can provide an update.

Public works has said they're willing to, but we need to make sure it gets on committee.

So I'm making that request that this gets set for committee for a hearing given how large the amount is.

Sure.

So you'd like to hold it to you have a no, we'll pass it based on public workers' requests.

Yes, sir.

Excellent.

Just need to go.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

We'll definitely follow up.

This completes the items on the agenda.

Very good.

Thank you, Member Davis first.

Councillor Member Davis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just wanted to highlight that we will be, I want to thank the public works for uh responding yesterday on the major water main leak there at uh the Lano in Houston there.

They was called by a couple of uh constituents there and we try to move and help and assist all of those that in those areas and we did, and they responded, they got it fixed uh expeditiously.

So I want to give that shout out to public works in that.

Next, I want to also thank the um uh the school, Samuel High School, um, who invited us to come out and speak to two of their government classes and uh on this week, and it was went very well, had a chance to speak to some seniors and two junior classes on local government, which went very well.

And also just a few months ago, I was asked to go to the Energy Institute High School of HISD.

And um, and you know, the keen interest there was they were positive, these kids were dealing with food um deserts.

There's a 22 group of young people that are focusing on food deserts in many of our districts, and so I thought that was very well um uh organized, and I was happy to go and be one of the speakers uh for them.

That was my second time with the engineering institute high school.

Lastly, I want to remind uh of our town hall coming up uh this month.

Uh we will be uh in the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center starting at 545 p.m.

We are really excited about the participation response for those who are going to be attending.

Uh we've had very, very good attendance in the past ones, and we certainly invite all to come out that want to.

We have had very, very good attendance in the past ones, and we certainly invite all to come out that want to.

There will be some dual prizes that we will give resources, tables from city departments, partner organizations, food from Will Abbott from Cafe Junior, I believe, and community QA with department leadership, some of the new things that rolled out here this past week.

We'll get a chance to address some of those in the in the town hall, and we welcome that.

The list so far that we have confirmed is our chief of police, fire, public safety and homeland security, direct the satellite, uh public works, uh Chris Butler, OEM, Brian Mason will be with us, City Attorney, Turo Michelle will be with us, Solid Waste Director, Brother Hanson, and the Mayor's office with uh disability.

So we are looking forward to a good turnout of those.

So but uh we already say give us a date and location.

You weren't already business to the city.

You were gonna have to go to your location.

Yeah, Metropolitan.

So we'll be there.

But when we give these, we like to include the clues of everybody want to.

We don't want to sit on any one individual.

You know you are tampering with overtime.

Oh, is that what it is?

All right.

Well, let me need to worry, I'll approve it.

Okay.

I don't know.

Don't worry, you're in good shape.

Thank you.

Council Mayor Fleckinger.

Thank you, Bear.

Uh, we're gonna have the electronic recycling in Kingwood at the uh parking ride starting at 9 o'clock on Saturday, February 7th.

It goes until 3 or until the trucks are full.

So come early to make sure they are full.

Thank you.

Councilor Cayman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just uh first want to recognize uh Black History Month uh and while honoring our past, continuing to um bring forth into the future the importance of our Black and African American community here in Houston.

Uh this Thursday from 5.30 to 645, our library is hosting uh African American Read-In at the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School.

You can register uh online at the library's website.

Uh it's a great opportunity for all ages.

Uh I did want to speak to uh yesterday uh there were a lot of high school students uh in the city of Houston that participated in a walkout in support of one of their students, their their classmates who has been detained by ICE since December.

This is a high school student at Sam Houston Math Science and Technology Center, uh, and a lot of the students um are now being attacked at the state level for using their voice to stand up for their classmate.

Um I want to publicly acknowledge all the students that are using their voice that are engaging civically and speaking out for their friends, their family members, uh, and I want to thank all of the peaceful, and I emphasize peaceful protesters uh that were in District C at Irvine Chu Park over the weekend.

It was actually a beautiful celebration of culture of heritage of community, and again, I appreciate HPD's involvement to keep everybody safe, to manage traffic.

Um I do want to say that we are seeing uh what is happening across the nation, and we are asked often, well, this is Houston, why are you focusing on another part of the country?

Well, the detention centers are in Texas.

We're children and mothers that are breastfeeding are being sent.

Uh it is in our own backyard, and we do have an obligation and a responsibility to speak out because it is in Texas where this is happening, and additional warehouses are being purchased in the state to expand detention capacity.

So this is our responsibility.

Uh I do want to end on a highlight a high note, thanking all city departments for coming together during the freeze.

Uh, whether it's our 911 call takers that are sleeping at OEM in hallways uh because we don't have bed capacity for those working 24-7 shifts, whether it's our health department, our parks department, who has been staffing the warming centers.

It is an incredible undertaking, and they are all heroes, and we appreciate them.

And I want to thank the Health Department also.

Mayor, as you, as we talked before the first round of the freeze, I had asked for inspections, proactive inspections at Life of Jackson Square.

And the City Department stepped up, and what we found was over 500 units did not have heat for months.

Inexcusable, dangerous.

We have had multiple fires there.

I know we are going through the process of Chapter 125, but we need more inspections.

This is not the only location where this is happening.

I really appreciate OEM and VOAD teaming up with us to do blanket distributions.

In a thousand unit complex, we were walking around giving out blankets, socks.

We saw bullet shells in the around the apartment complex.

Just absolutely deplorable conditions.

My office is going to be funding an additional $10,000 citywide for health department to increase overtime inspections of dangerous apartment complexes.

There is much more that needs to be done, and I understand some of this legally because of the roving HFC issue with Pecos County.

It is with Pecos County's housing finance corporation.

They are getting our tax dollars.

The company that owns the property is getting a tax rebate or tax break abatement, thank you, and is not investing that money back in the property, which they should be.

So we're losing our tax dollars to another county hundreds of miles away, and they are not investing to keep little children and seniors safe at this property.

It is a huge issue.

Again, I appreciate all the residents, both on the property and in the surrounding area, and mayor, all the departments that are coming together to address the issue, but our office is stepping up with additional funding for inspections with the health department that will not just be for this location but citywide, because the health department does not have sufficient funding right now to do the amount of inspections that we need.

Thank you.

And thank you for your leadership and really giving me the opportunity to thank all of our city employees working overtime, many of them sleeping on the floor.

Just think for a moment, we had our warming centers open two weekends in a row.

It is amazing the coordination, collaboration.

It was costly, but uh we made the right decision on the second weekend.

It was a close call.

But we chose to be cautious.

And the directors, Dr.

Tran at Health was present at all of them.

And two police officers at each.

Public works was there, two firefighters were at each.

But really, it was it was a great effort and very successful.

And uh thank you for allowing me to thank all the uh city employees and the directors.

Councilman Mayers.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I too want to salute the unsung heroes who work for the city uh who, when we have these weather events, really have to step up, uh, sometimes at the expense of their families and uh serve us all, you know, and they include the first responders, police and fire, the folks who work at OEM, the folks who manned the warming centers, uh, a lot of folks involved.

And uh we appreciate their service.

I also want to mention that last week Harris County Commissioner's Court met and heard a report on the community feedback that had been given in relation to the proposed condemnation of part of Herman Park by Harris Health in order to expand Ben Taub.

And of course, Ben Tob is a vital resource that serves all Houstonians and has for many years, and uh it needs to be uh expanded so that it can perform the level of care that we need for it to.

We also need to make sure that our parks are taken care of.

Parks are a core function of municipal government, and Herman Park is one of our one of our finest.

And so uh at some point in the future, uh I think this condemnation is going to go forward.

All indications of that happening are are being seen.

And if that does, then the city will stand to be compensated at some amount for the value of that parkland that may be taken.

And when we reach that point, I hope that all of us work to make sure that those funds go back into parks, if not Herman Park, then our park system as a whole.

We had an interesting discussion yesterday about the open spaces ordinance and whether or not that needs to be changed.

One of the functions of that open spaces ordinance is to provide funds for acquisition and maintenance of parks.

So Bent is important.

Parks are hugely important as well.

I hope we just can uh continue to see that.

Thank you.

That was doing one heck of a job, Corrector Allen was uh overseeing his operations.

So really, you could think about most departments were involved in pulling off the successful warming.

We did have backup generators prepared.

Uh Center Point.

Uh certainly had our hands on deck.

A lot of preparation.

So thank you for mentioning parks.

Oh, and count uh Commissioner Brionis opening Baylon.

I'm sorry I had the opportunity to uh visit that site, which is close to South Wales Multi-Service Center, but uh the collaboration there was indeed very rewarding.

Thank you.

Councilbert Thomas.

Thank you.

Happy Black History Month.

Uh, what started as Negro History Week in 1926 by Carter G.

Woodson was later expanded to one month of Black History Month during the U.S.'s bicentennial.

February was selected in honor of two great Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

And this year marks 100 years of American history.

Uh this year's theme is a history of black commemorations.

So I want to encourage you to learn more about your black history, your American history, and the Houston Public Library has a series of activations.

And I'll be in West Chase later this month for the book read-in.

Councilmember Kamen, thank you for your comments about uh your work around that apartment complex.

And and I think it's uh apropos as we mentioned the uh apartment inspection uh item that was deferred back later that past this past fall in October, later came back to this body in December and was referred back again.

The administration has requested that I, along with Mayor Pro Tim, Martha Cassix Tatum, Chair of Economic Development, that we co-clerk this item between housing and economic development, and that is soon to come, and we plan on having an announcement of community meetings to roll out on Friday.

And I think it's really important is that all you know the $10,000 is I know what that investment means, um, but $10,000 won't do, right?

And so part of uh the community meetings that we'll roll out, we'll have two citywide meetings, because what we have to make sure that we do is not just put something on the books to say that we did something, but we have to do something that is meaningful for Houstonians long-term, which often includes a financial investment, which often includes making sure that our departments' health, public works, uh HPD, you name it, anyone that touches uh apartment inspection reform habitability, that they have what they need to be successful because quality of life and public safety is at the table.

I want to encourage tenants, leaseholders, stakeholders, property owners, landlords, all of you.

Um you are welcome to be here.

Um we are working with our departments to make sure that we have representatives from each department that touches this project so they can explain two things.

One, the what is existing on the books today.

Number two, what is proposed by the administration, and what we will want to hear from you is making sure that what are you hearing that has not been included on that document.

So by the time we clerk this at the committee, we only have 30 days to get this to council for vote, and it will be the most clean, robust, holistic, well represented, represented ordinance for the people of Houston.

Excited to get this along across the finish line after Super Bowl.

Super Bowl is on Thursday, uh February 5th, our 9% tax credits, which I think go hand in hand when we talk about affordable housing projects and making sure that we advance multifamily housing projects that um uh protect from flooding, quality of life, they're safe, they're clean, and they're in the the right opportunity communities.

So as we identify bad actors and work to uh repair and remedy, we also have to make sure that we are investing in multifamily projects in this city so people don't have to live in squalor and that they have housing of choice options.

Um please watch that special call meeting tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Um you can watch it on my YouTube page or Facebook Live for the City of Houston, HTV.

And if you want to review the proposals in advance, this is already posted.

Council offices should already have it.

If you are a civic club, super neighborhood HOA leader, and there is one in your area and you have not been reached out to, contact your council office so they can connect you to the developer for the proposed application so you can make sure that you are involved in that process.

Moving on.

Um, in terms of our homeless response on the West Side in the freeze, I just want to continue to shout out our District F hotspot team, my exceptional staff, all of our partners, uh, our faith partners that opened up the churches and continue to uh serve during the the Arctic freeze.

Um and this has led us and really informed us of of our work on the West Side and really just overall.

So I want you to save the date for Saturday, April 4th.

That is Resurrection Saturday, um Easter weekend, and we're gonna host a uh community, a rapid response community event for our unhoused uh neighbors where we'll provide uh showers, haircuts, food, resources, case management, and more.

More details to come out.

Um and we definitely will be um compelling the community to uh walk hand in hand with us after that.

If my office could be of any assistance to you in the interim, reach out to District F at Houston TX.gov.

Thank you.

Ma'am.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple of announcements in district K.

Colleagues, I do want to thank you for your support on item 18.

I do want to amplify the work of TURS 9.

Um, in the eight years that I've served on uh City Council, this will be the first time that we have two single family home developments going into District K.

Um District K, as you all know, is a very bedroom community with 95 civic clubs and HOA.

So we're very excited about having two new single family home developments coming to District K.

We'll have 30 uh homes in the Sims Brook neighborhood, and then we'll have 80 Ashton Woods homes in the uh neighborhood near Townwood Park.

So both of those are scheduled to break ground at the end of 2026, early 2027.

So we're very excited about having some additional attainable homes uh in District K.

So thank you for your support of uh item 18.

And then last weekend we did host our shred day.

We had a lot of participation and we got a lot of uh emails and text messages saying, oh man, I missed it.

Um the your your second opportunity is February 21st in partnership with New Faith Church.

Uh, we'll be there from 9 to 12.

You can bring your documents that need to be shred um and we will accept those.

We have plenty of capacity, so and this is just not for residents that live in District K.

If you are Houstonian and you need to rid some items for shredding, uh please drive through on uh February the 21st uh from 9 to 12 at New Faith Church.

And then I do want to let all of our neighborhood presidents or civic club, HOA super neighborhood presidents, that we will have our first 2026 President's Advisory Council meeting.

It will be held on April the 9th from 6.30 to 8 p.m.

at New Faith Um facility.

No, I'm sorry, it's not at New Faith, it will be at um Fountain Life Center.

And that will be on April the 9th from 6.30 to 8 p.m.

So we look forward to having a robust conversation with our civic club presidents, uh neighborhood presidents, and super neighborhood presidents.

And then also um again, happy black history month.

We're very excited.

I may I do um hope that we will um um shout out the director and the the planning committee in the library because they have done a tremendous job of making sure that we have black history programs throughout the entire city at all of our libraries.

Um there will be two in District K, uh one at Stimley Blue Library, and then also we will have a second one on February the 28th at 2 p.m.

Uh also at Stemley Blue Library.

So um I was on the library's um website and saw all of the programming around Black History, and I I think it's impressive, and I hope that um Houstonians will participate in the programs that have been uh curated for us this month.

Uh and then finally I want to um let the residents in the Brayburn Gardens neighborhood know about a public hearing uh tomorrow at 2 30 p.m.

The planning and development department will hold a public hearing on the partial replatting of Brayburn Gardens.

And this property is located at 11807 Bedford Street.

It's east along Bedford Street between West Belfort Avenue and Dorrance Road, and this meeting will be held at the City Hall Annex here at uh 900 Bagby Street on the public level.

So if you have some concerns about uh the replatting of that property, the public hearing will be held on tomorrow at 230 p.m.

Y'all be kind to each other and make it a great day.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Pro Jim Peck.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm excited to join the Houston Park Sport in Fit Houston this Saturday for a spring branch trail walk-in talk.

It will be from 10 a.m.

to noon um at Schwartz Park, and it will um there will be free snacks and refreshments stretching session led by Fit Houston and an interactive walk along the trail.

So please join us for that.

And then um this coming Tuesday is our um public safety committee meeting.

It will be a joint meeting with the government operations committee 10 a.m.

on Tuesday.

HPD will present about safety related to FIFA and HPD and HFD will review um post-accident driving policy.

So please join us for our committee meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, Monday night I kicked off my semi-annual Civic Club tour uh in Magnolia Park yesterday.

I was at East Lawndale.

Um, you know, as someone that used to go to these meetings uh a lot as a staffer, I really enjoy going back and having these very honest conversations uh with community about what we're doing and what we're talking about around the horseshoe.

Um usually uh it at this point is really getting folks to get prepared for the budget season and making sure that they tune in to what uh these budget workshops that will be happening in the coming months and having really just difficult conversations about what they want to see uh their city look like.

Uh how do we right-size departments and how do we course correct what where we have been uh quite frankly for over a decade.

Um and also with these conversations, uh, you know, solid waste.

I want to definitely uh uh you know thank thank the Mayor and the administration.

Uh for the past two years, I've submitted a budget amendment on on-demand heavy trash pickup.

I'm excited about seeing this.

I do have some caution uh how quickly it is rolling out.

Uh so I am um I'm using this opportunity at the Civic Club Tours to make sure that folks understand what is it that we're trying to do uh when we start uh uh making sure that our operational side of solid waste is is uh becoming more efficient.

Um aside from the those types of conversations, really what's been uh really at the helm of uh the the discussion has been uh concerns about ice, of course.

We have had this discussion around the horseshoe.

Um and I want to welcome and welcome these conversations, continue to welcome those conversations here at at City Hall.

Uh but also as we are out in the community, just to reassure folks about the facts.

Uh, I want to make sure that folks know that HPD is uh will continue to focus on local law enforcement and leave federal law uh law enforcement matters to Federal agents.

I want to thank HPD specifically.

Uh this past Friday, uh they part they participated in uh what we have a by um every other month meeting, Cafe Compolisia in the hobby area, something that started about seven years ago.

Uh they were out there.

It's a Spanish language coffee with the police.

We had about 30 uh participants that came in from District I and quite frankly from across the city as well.

Um my hopes is that we could continue to find opportunities where we engage and rebuild the trust uh with law enforcement and community, uh, which leads me into um we are my office is is working with Councilmember Castillo, Councilmore Salinas, and Councilman Ramides uh with a know your rights community conversation.

It is going to be February the 21st at 9 a.m.

at the Tejano Center in the southeast part of Houston and District I.

Uh and quite frankly, we uh invite all to attend and hear the community uh to hear from community members.

Um and if you have any questions, my office is here.

Uh so please uh don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you.

Very good.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I want to give my condolences to the family and loved ones of the passing of uh DJ Michael 5000 Watts.

Uh he was the influential founder and owner of the Swisher House record label right here in Houston.

He helped uh lead and to shape the sound of Houston hip hop as a DJ through his work through Swiss House and as a weekend DJ on 979, the box.

Um outstanding hip hop artists that are known all around the world, such as Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Millionaire, Mike Jones, who Mike Jones uh all came out of Swish a House under the development and leadership of DJ Michael 5000 Watts.

And so I want to lift his his name and his legacy and let folks know that uh there is a King's Day that is being organized on February 12th.

Those details are to come out soon.

Uh but to uh again to give condolences to his family, uh he was an incredible and influential figure here in the city of Houston.

He will be missed.

Thank you.

Council Al Corn.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank everybody for uh the participating in yesterday's meeting.

We're gonna try to the next quarterly meeting just limited to the things that we do at the quarterly thing, like the EY progress and the overtime amount.

So I apologize for the length of the meeting, but lots of good discussion.

Uh Mayor, I do want to keep talking about the open space ordinance.

That's an ordinance that we haven't um looked at since 2007.

The fee's been the same, the way the lines have been drawn in these in these uh in for the park sectors.

Um the parks director indicated that that was not the most equitable way to have the lines and those buttons and those things.

So I think as we look at the what we have to do to follow the state law and the open space ordinance, we should in tandem be looking at the fee and the park sectors themselves and really try to improve that fund for additional funding for parks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Carter.

Councilor Evan Chaps.

Oh I'm reclaiming your time.

Exactly.

No, actually, I'm gonna be pretty short today.

Um I want to first start out saying, well, thank you, Mayor.

Uh on Thursday, January the 29th, we convened a community meeting at the Judson Robinson Civic Center, focused on non-permitted structures and short-term rental activity.

Residents engaged directly with city departments to discuss enforcement coordination, inspection processes, municipal court involvement, neighborhood impacts, and next steps.

Mayor, I I really need some help uh with something.

It is uh something I have talked about for quite some time.

On the permit form, they only give a cursory uh attention to whether civic clubs have been engaged regarding uh deed restrictions.

And of course, the answer is always going to be yes.

Uh, but I am asking that the form be changed to actually have a signature of a civic club leader designated, a super neighborhood, or even a um a committee, the architectural committee signature, because if that is not signed, then that would give notice to permitting to do not issue a permit.

Now we do know that there are people that are going around the whole process, but certainly when it comes to those that are engaging, we want to do whatever we can because we are inundated with these short-term rentals.

I just don't know how to go about getting it done.

Uh um, and so I'm coming to you and your staff to help us to facilitate that change on that form.

And so I will, you know, confer with you later after you have investigated the situation to see how that could be uh facilitated.

And I want to sincerely thank you, Mayor, for visiting our uh warming centers.

Uh, you gave me a very nice shout out, and I really appreciate that.

The people in the community really appreciate these warming centers uh because unfortunately some of them don't have anywhere to go, and we want them to be safe.

And so certainly I thank you for your visitation of our centers, and I'm certainly um thankful to the staff who uh who came and and certainly took care of the people that are there.

And also I want to thank the City of Houston staff that did attend that meeting on last week.

Um also on today, I will attend the Museum Park Neighborhood Association General Meeting uh to provide a district D update and hear directly from the residents.

That will be at 6 p.m.

tonight, 4949 Caroline Street.

I want to thank Pam Campbell, president of the Museum Park Neighborhood Association, and the MPA leadership for their continued work in strengthening community dialogue and civic engagement.

And I have on my Crimson and my goal because I am certainly lifting up Jack Yates High School, uh JY for Life.

Certainly it is our 100 100 year anniversary of the school.

Uh actually it was established in uh 1926 on February the 8th, which ironically was uh my dad's birthday is February the 8th.

Uh and you know he was a coach at Jack Yates, so I think that's kind of ironic.

But it's and certainly I'm a proud graduate of the Jack Higgs High School.

So we have activities that are planned for this month, and certainly I will be sharing them through my Facebook and uh through the media so that people can come out and participate.

There's only one Jack Yates.

One Jack Yates.

You have other Phyllis Wheatleys, you have other and and I love this sweetly.

Don't y'all start in inundating me with that.

But certainly there's only one Jack Yates, and certainly uh as the one of the founders of the Emancipation Park, Reverend uh Jack Yates was such a phenomenal person.

And so thank you.

And uh this moment belongs to the entire community, and certainly I lift it up with pride and reverence.

This concludes what's going on in the district of destination, and you beat me this week, Tiffany.

Just barely.

Barely, barely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh this month, February is Love Your Pet Month in District H, and there will be a number of events uh and partnerships around responsible pet ownership that I want to highlight for folks who want to take advantage of this.

In partnership with BARC, every Friday, pet wellness events will be sponsored for District H residents.

Uh you can call BARC and get your appointment for your dog or cat.

This will include vaccines, deworming, and microchips available Fridays throughout the month of February.

Also February 13th, 14th, and 15th, the weekend of Valentine's Day adoptions will be sponsored for District H residents.

So if you've got uh some extra love to give over Valentine's Day weekend, you want to bring in a pet to your family, um, that'll be a great time to do that, help free up some space at our shelter.

In partnership with Houston Pet Set, there will be mobile spay neuter uh appointments available throughout the district.

February 13th and 16th, the Pet Set Mobile unit will be at Wabash uh on Shepherd Drive.

And on the 20th and the 22nd, it will be at Zoomies uh in the second ward.

You can visit PetSet's website to schedule your appointment.

Uh we will also be sharing out on social media and in the newsletter information on how to schedule appointments.

These are $20 Spay neuter procedures uh in partnership with Pet Set.

And then a pet pantry event will take place at Bella Vista Baptist Church and the Independent Heights neighborhood February 25th from 2 to 4.

This is in partnership with the Houston Humane Society and Best Friends Animal Society.

Uh this will be a drive-through first come, first serve basis where you can um go through the line, receive food for dogs or cats, uh, and this is at no cost to folks that are in need.

Um also want to thank the departments that showed up to the Melrose Park Town Hall this past week.

Uh it was cold.

Uh we had a we had a good uh showing from uh City Department's resources, also from the community.