Please come to order.

I'm gonna ask the mayor provided, please.

Councilmember Salinas, are you ready?

The chair recognizes Councilmember Salinas for a proclamation recognizing the Venezuelan American Center in celebration of Venezuelan American Heritage Week.

Thank you so much, Mayor for Tem.

And before I read this proclamation, I just want to say, Mayor, we have the chance to make history today because today is the first day, first time ever, the City of Houston is honoring Venezuela.

And so what an important time to honor this country as we're going through the horrific events that occurred and honor the incredible work and contributions that they made.

So I will start by reading the proclamation.

Whereas on July 7, 2026, the City of Houston proudly welcomes the Venezuelan American community represented by the Venezuelan American Center to City Hall, where they are recognized before all of Houston.

Whereas, a part of the rich, layered and diverse Hispanic community, Venezuelan Americans bring tradition, values, artistic expression, music, gastronomy, entrepreneurship, and resilience that further enrich the multifaceted identity of Houston.

Whereas athletes, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, professionals, community leaders, and new generations of Venezuelan Americans help foster community and strengthen Houston's reputation as a vibrant, welcoming and thriving city.

Whereas Venezuelan American Heritage Week highlights the history and roots of Venezuelan Americans and reflects the shared values of freedom, democracy, opportunity, resilience, and progress that symbolize our diverse, multicultural and beloved city.

Thank you, Councilmember Salinas for this historic opportunity, and you're correct.

What an appropriate time with the challenges that Venezuela is facing, our partnerships, and also your contribution to Houston's greatness.

So thank you for what you do on a daily basis.

I've had the honor of working with so many of your colleagues in the energy corridor, certainly in our academic community.

So uh I get to watch the leadership of your coaches, and they've got some really fine young ball players coming up, not to mention their demonstration of their skills as Astros.

So thank you.

So thank you.

And therefore I, John Whitmar, Mayor of the City of Houston, hereby proclaim the first week of July 2026 as Venezuelan American Heritage Week in Houston, Texas.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, for this amazing and important opportunity for our community here.

On behalf of the Venezuelan American Center and the entire Venezuelan American community, it's my great honor to express our deepest gratitude to the mayor and the members of the City of Houston for easing the first ever proclamation recognizing the Venezuelan American heritage week in the city of Houston.

This historic proclamation represents much more than an official declaration.

It reflects Houston's enduring commitment to diversity, inclusion, and respect for the rich cultural heritage that Hispanic communities bring to the great city.

It's a powerful affirmation that our history, our contribution, and our service are value, and that together we continue to make Houston stronger, more vibrant, and more united.

Today, our community feels scenes, welcome and honor.

For that, we extend our sincere appreciation to each member of the council and to our mayor for your leadership and your status commitment to all the communities that proudly call Houston home.

Mayor, we also like to express our gratitude in a special way, in recognition of your understanding leadership, your dedication to public service, and your overwearing commitment to building a city where every community has the opportunity to drive.

It's my granite privilege to present to you the Venezuelan American Center Honorary Distinction.

Please accept this recognition as a symbol of our profound gratitude, admiration, and appreciation, and thank you for making history with us today and standing with the Venezuelan community in Houston.

Thank you.

All of you for that recognition for our community.

That proclamation reflects far more than words reading a document.

It represents recognition.

It represents inclusion.

It represents the enduring belief that the contribution of the Venezuelan American community are now integral part of the story of this great city.

Such moments are made possible because of the public servants who believe that every community deserves to be seen, heard, and celebrated.

Leaders who understand that the public service is about bringing people together, recognizing diversity and creating opportunities for every resident to belong.

It is therefore an especial fitting that the first recipient of the 2026 of the Venezuelan American Center Honorary Distinction is someone whose leadership has helped to make this historic day possible.

The Venezuelan American Center Honorary Distinction is the center of the highest institutional recognition.

On behalf of the Venezuelan American Center and the Venezuelan American community, is our distinct honor to present the twenty twenty-six Venezuelan American Center Honorary Distinction to our Council Member Alejandra Salinas.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you, Mayor.

Next, the chair recognizes Vice Mayor Pro Tempec for a proclamation to the Fibroid Institute in recognition of uterine fibroid awareness month.

Thank you, Mayor Pratem.

And Mayor, it's my honor to present this proclamation today.

Whereas the uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumors that occur in women of all ages, particularly those within their childbearing years, and are estimated to affect up to 80% of all women by the age of 50, including more than 320,000 women in Houston.

And whereas the incidence of uterine fibroids disproportionately impacts women of color, occurring at rates approximately three times higher among black women and two times higher among Hispanic women than among Caucasian women.

The disparities in incident rates and the magnitude of the condition may be influenced by differences in access to and utilization of health care services.

And whereas uterine fibroids can cause severe pelvic pain, heavy uterine bleeding, infertility, miscarriage, preterm labor, increased urinary frequency, and symptoms of depression and anxiety specific significantly reducing quality of life and making everyday activities difficult or in some cases nearly impossible.

And whereas uterine fibroid awareness month, observed annually in July across the globe, is dedicated to increasing public understanding of the impact of uterine fibroids on women's health and promoting awareness of available treatment options.

Although uterine fibroids affect a significant number of women, understanding remains limited, and symptoms are often overlooked, resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment.

And whereas during this year's observance, the city of Houston calls upon all residents to recognize the importance of understanding uterine fibroids, highlighting their signs and symptoms, and encouraging women to seek timely medical care and prioritize their health and well-being.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Pro-Tempeck, for educating us on a serious matter.

And to our guests, thank you for the services you provide, Houstonians.

Therefore, add John Whitmeyer, Mayor of the City of Houston, hereby proclaim the month of July 2026 is uterine fibroid awareness month in the city of Houston.

Thank you.

I'm joined today by several other providers.

Dr.

Faith Ohuba, U of H medical school, and uh Ty Jones, who runs her womb wellness, uh, a local nonprofit that uh emphasizes uh awareness about fibroids.

And last but not least, uh our marketing director, uh Melissa Riley, who made a lot of this possible today.

So um I've been treating fibroids for a very long time in Houston.

I've been uh practicing in Houston for over a quarter of a century.

Um I decided uh about four years ago to leave my practice in the medical center and dedicate my entire uh being in practice and medical practice to the treatment of fibroids.

Uh, as stated in the proclamation, I think uh you know there are far too many women that suffer from fibroids uh and they suffer in silence.

Um I've been fortunate enough to work with these uh fine ladies and many other local providers in helping to uh treat women who suffer.

It's estimated that 70 or 80 percent of all women will so will have fibroids and about 25 percent of them suffer from significant symptoms, oftentimes, like I said, in silence because they don't like the options that they're given.

So for me, it's always been about education, about making women and empowering women so that they have the uh opportunity to make more informed choices regarding their health uh uh care.

So that's what this is all about, and I really appreciate the opportunity uh to further uh you know press this issue uh and increase public awareness.

Uh, this follows uh a 2021 uh House Bill 166 for the state uh legislature, where they recognize uh July as uterine fibroid and awareness month, and we've uh done our part locally to try and uh carry that torch on here in the Houston area.

So thank you again.

I think Dr.

Hoover may want to say that.

Thank you very much, Mayor Whitmark and also City Council members.

My name is Dr.

Faith Ahuba.

Um my name is Dr.

Faith Ahuba practicing OBGEN at University of Houston.

And I want to say thank you for this opportunity for Fibroid Awareness Month to be proclaimed, um, and to show what can happen when community members come together to advocate over an issue that has a lot of silence and shame around it, and just being able to bring awareness to fibroid health also brings awareness to uterine health, which will also bring further awareness to the maternal health issue, especially here in Houston.

So thank you again.

Um thank you, mayor.

Thank you, everyone as well.

Um this is truly an honor to be here to be an advocate for fibroids.

I did suffer from fibroids, and um, you know, 90% of well, one of the 90% of women who do, you know, have suffer suffer from fibroids.

But what I do is a passion, um, being able to provide resources for women who are looking for help because a lot of women are just stuck and they don't know where to go, and being able to provide that um it's a blessing because on my journey I didn't have that support, so that's why I created whether a person is looking for an alternative way or a person is looking for um a surgical procedure, that's where her wound wellness comes in.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tim for the invocation.

Thank you, mayor and council.

Today I'm excited to welcome back Corinne Pinto.

Corinne, if you'll come to uh the front here.

She is the founder and executive director of Philly Connect.

Uh, when Corinne joined us last October, we had the privilege of highlighting Philly Connect's incredible community.

It's a vital space where young adults find clarity, belonging, spiritual healing, and meaningful connections.

Over the past decade, her vision has transformed countless lives, and this year marks a major milestone.

On Saturday, September the 12th at 6 p.m., Philly Connect will celebrate 11 years of deep community impact at its annual Gala, plus one more on one on purpose, hosted at the historic Julia Idison building.

Corinne, your dedication to this mission is inspiring.

I'm glad to have you back here at City Hall to pray for us today, and thank you for your leadership and especially for joining us again.

We're ready to hear from you.

Thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tim, for the warm introduction and um to all of you.

It is an honor to be here.

Um, Mayor Whitmaier, Mayor Pro Tim, and every city council member, thank you for your service.

Um, as someone who personally knows the power of prayer, um, it is hard ever to turn down an opportunity to touch and agree.

So I know that everybody has something on your hearts, what you're working on, what you're dealing with, and um when we come to God, God does answer and make things clear.

So I want to read Jeremiah 33:9 before I go into prayer.

It says, Then this city will bring me renowned joy, praise, and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it, and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.

That is my prayer for the city of Houston and every district that is represented here.

Dear God, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for a new month, that you have kept us, that you have brought us through the ups and downs of life that this year has shown us.

Um we thank you for your peace.

We thank you for prosperity, and we thank you for your direction that is leading and guiding each and every person here today, Lord.

I pray for a greater sense of wisdom and decision making, the spirit of wisdom to cover each and every leader, Father God, um, that we are problem solvers, that we show up, and that you, God, are the God of innovation, that you are opening up new ways of thinking, um, mindsets, Lord, to take the city of Houston and every district to that next level, Father God.

I pray for discernment to do what is right and to discern what is not right, Lord.

Um, even in people who are serving and coming alongside the missions that you have set before each person here, Lord.

I thank you that you are giving them discernment to see things as you see them, Lord, that you will direct them, guide them, and continue, Lord, to give them grace to lead, Father God.

I pray that they don't carry the weight of their districts on their shoulders, but truly they understand that your grace is sufficient for them, Lord.

So anywhere that we fall short, Lord, that you are carrying and picking up the weight with us.

So, God, we thank you for all that you are doing for the city, all that you have already done, God, and that you are establishing the plans that you have for us.

We bless you and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you.

Please rise for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance.

Please, Mr.

Secretary.

Mayor Witmeyer, present.

Councilmember Peggy, Councilmember Jackson, Councilmember Panzarello.

Here, Councilmember Evan Baz, Councilmember Flickinger, Councilmember Thomas, Councilmember Hoffman, Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Council Member Martinez.

Here.

Council Member Pollard.

Here.

Council Member Castax Tatum.

Here.

Council Member Ramirez.

Here.

Councilmember Davis.

Council Member Carter.

Council Member Salinas.

And Councilmember Alcorn.

Need a motion to adopt the minutes of June 23rd and 24.

Cast next Tate to move.

Next second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor, say yes.

Those opposed to motion passes.

Members, we have a long list of speakers today because we have more than 150 minutes of speakers.

The rules require us to only give each of you each of our guests one minute.

And even if you signed up for more.

With that, any procedural motions, Councilmember Panzerella.

I'd like to suspend the rules.

Apologies.

To add Carrie Ann Morrison, to the speaker list directly after Jack Falensky.

Motion made in a second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed and I motion passes.

Councilmember Romero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Move to suspend the rules and add Brandon Davis to the top of the what was the three minute non-agenda list.

Motion made and second, all in favor say yes.

Those opposed to night motion passes.

Anyone else?

If not, Mr.

Secretary, please call our first speaker.

Brandon Davis.

To be followed by Kim Evans.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you very much just for your time.

My name is Brandon Davis.

I'm the director of supplier services for the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council.

I'm here quickly to promote our construction catalyst event that is coming up on July 29th, as a strong partner of the city working directly for our small and minority business community in response to our disparity study.

We have a couple of project highlights that we want to communicate with all your constituents, which is the Eli Lilly project and also the Harris Health Project with the Benta.

And we are going to be bringing project executives, small businesses, and inviting every councilman to push out to their districts about what's going on and as far as the opportunities that exist for each and every single one of the small businesses that are within this community.

And because we only have one minute, I do have some flyers that I would like to give to each and every single councilman, if that's okay.

All right, and thank you very much for your value partnership and for this.

Thank you for being here.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to um tell you thank you for being here.

And do you do you work with Ingrid Robinson?

Yes.

So I'm her uh I guess uh I'm really the one that's out on the streets pushing all the small businesses the opportunities.

So I'm really fighting for all of our community uh businesses out here.

So thank you very much.

Thank you for the great work that you do.

We all always say that our small businesses are the backbone of our economy and what we do in the city, so we appreciate all of your efforts to amplify their success.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Next, Kim Evans.

To be followed by Marilyn Perrilla.

Hi, I'm here to address public access media back in the 1980s.

When there was a different Whitmeyer in the mayor's chair, I actually worked for the municipal channel.

We ran these cameras, the public access channel was also very active, and now you've pulled the plug on it.

There's a very active television production community in Houston, and we need access to the equipment.

We had a whole studio over at 601 Sawyer.

What happened to that?

It's gone.

What happened to the equipment?

It might be old, but if you put it back together, it'd probably work.

You can't be short-sighted because I believe that if we're given a chance, this can become a money-making operation that will make everybody in Houston proud.

They have a wonderful building over there on navigation.

It could be easily built out into a perfect television production studio if you only give it a chance.

Give it a chance to make money.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Marilyn.

Marilyn Perillo.

To be followed by Randall Callanan.

Hello.

Um, I'm also here to speak on behalf of Houston Media Source.

I was here back in May when we spoke to the City Council, and many of the council members did say that they would look into reversing the decision or finding funding for us, and I'm really disappointed to hear that that has not been a there's not been a change in that.

Um, that HMS has currently lost its funding.

Um I will speak to the fact that it's a place for people to grow their portfolio and gain exposure in industry that's hard to break in, especially when we have the cost of college doubled since 1990, and that's a figure based on 2018 in an article that I read.

But we also, I mean, there's not many resources like this that are available anymore.

Um taking away community resources from our city uh does factor in uh to our crime rates.

There's been multiple studies and multiple articles that cite this.

Um the Brendan Center for Justice, they published an article that they have causal evidence to show that having more community resources does reduce crime.

I can go into the figures in that, but you can also look into that on your on your own.

Thank you.

Next, Randall Callanan.

To be followed by Mark Rodriguez.

Uh good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members.

I am Randall Callanan, and I'm a civil rights attorney, and I'm also a board member with Air Alliance Houston, as well as the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice.

And I'm here today to speak about the huge tire fire that we had in the East End, which by the way is close to my office and uh where I live, and also close to uh Milby High School, uh Harris Elementary, um, yes, prep, uh, middle school and elementary, uh, all of those uh schools, and this fire is right in the middle of a residential area.

There's a little bit of industry there, but not very much.

And it was only by you know sheer luck that at least the smoke was traveling in a less populated direction.

But there were residences all over.

The city of Houston has the power uh through the fire marshal's office to issue citations related to fire dangers and shut down noncompliant tire storage places that use the word recycling to charge more money, but they don't recycle.

So we need more enforcement.

Thank you.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Randall, for being here, and I know there's several other folks that are here to speak on Mammoth as well, and just want to um want to share with you that uh the you know the administration's been on it, uh it's on the phone with the fire chief and the health director.

Um TCQ is currently on site, um, and the property owner is as well there investigating.

So uh I know that there's some things that within the city purview we can do.

Uh we're doing what we can throughout through through that purview.

I know there is um uh some meetings with state rep, state senate as well.

I encourage all that uh also to make sure that we can find ways where we can uh support uh tougher restrictions on TCEQ or at least making sure that uh when some of these permits are being pulled, um then they're being looked into and investigated.

Um there are questions about air monitoring as well.

Um again, I'm in conversation with the health department uh uh to identify where we can place more health uh more air monitors in that specific area.

Um and it is closer to Pecon Park, and I was talking to Councilmember Alcorn, Mason Park specifically, and and the neighborhood uh there with this, which is East Lawndale.

Um it's a little further away from Manchester and those other schools you mentioned.

Uh, but just want you to know that uh we're still uh waiting on investigation to happen.

Uh, but uh quite frankly, uh and I'm having conversations with the mayor as regularly as possible as well, as we get updates uh to see what the next steps are.

So I want to thank you for being here.

And again, I know other folks are gonna be speaking on it.

Uh, but uh the city's city of Houston is doing uh it's all hands on deck, right?

And I want to thank the firefighters that were there.

Up to about 200 firefighters ended up showing up to that fire.

Um and I was just there not too long ago over the weekend visiting a friend that lives on Arat, not too far from there.

Uh so again, uh just as we get more information, we'll continue to share with you all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Mark Rodriguez.

To be followed by Amy Colemanero.

My name's Mark Rodriguez.

Thank you again, Mayor, for you and your staff doing an excellent job.

I have a couple of concerns as Randall or a friend of mine was bringing up.

Three schools are right there.

A few months back, the city of Houston came to my car lot and they said, Mark, you have four tires that aren't covered.

Either you get rid of them or cover them, or we're gonna cite you.

And I think over four tires they were crying about mosquitoes that could be in them.

But here you got tens of thousands of tires that weren't covered.

And I really and I don't expect the mayor, your staff to go out there and patrol these tires, but you got a lot of people under you that should be doing their job.

Uh thank you, Mayor, though.

Um, I'm no chemist, right?

But I just Googled the toxic things that come out of burn tires, and I gave you all a list, and I'm not one of them firemen, the 200 firemen that had to breathe that stuff.

But you know, I have friends that are firemen, and I have friends that have died of cancer that are firemen, and I think that's something we need to take into consideration.

Not be selfish towards the business owner, but think about the people that really have to breathe it.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, and I appreciate everybody what they do.

And at the end, go ahead and finish.

For at large council members.

I'm the president of our civic group, and I would encourage maybe y'all could get one of your staff or somebody to reach out to try to come hear our concerns from our community and um what we need and not to out have to bombard our council member Castillo or Joaquin or Councilmember Martinez.

But thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Amy Colemanero.

Followed by Carolina Hernandez.

Hello, I am here representing Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services.

On June 22nd, a large fire was reported at 700 Kellogg Street, producing thick black plumes of smoke that spread into nearby neighborhoods.

We are three miles from the fire and could see the smoke and smell.

Strong odors from our front doors.

An environmental complaint about the smoke and offensive odors was filed with 311.

We are currently still awaiting updates on the investigation.

Community members complained of persistent odors after the fire was extinguished, as well as blackened air filters.

Additionally, one family shared that their two children had a severe dry cough for days afterward.

Repeat offenders should not be allowed to continue harming our communities.

It is common for facilities to store tires as disposal can be costly, but responsible owners should be aware that stored tires can submitly combust.

Spontaneously burning tires pose a liability for the city because such fires are extremely difficult to extinguish.

We urge you to pause operations at this facility until the investigation is complete and a decision is made regarding the permits.

We call on city leadership to release full public reports.

I'm wrapping up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ma'am, y'all.

Councilmember Salinas has uh has the floor.

Thank you all for coming to council.

Um, I know Air Alliance has sent us questions that we have passed along to Houston Public Works.

If you all have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to our office.

We're happy to pass those along and we'll publicly post any information we receive.

Um I know there's a lot of council members that are a resource to you, but know that we are as well.

Yes, we do have a favorite on the Carolina Hernandez.

To be followed by Lindsay Williams, Lindsay Williams.

Hello, all right.

Uh hi.

Um I live right behind where the fire was.

I'm on Coral Street.

Literally, this fire was my backyard, only separated by a ravine.

Um, very grateful for the firefighters who did the hard work and were putting it out from my backyard with the hose and everything.

But um, what something that I haven't heard mentioned yet is the runoff from all of that uh fire and burning.

Uh, yes, the smoke is a concern, and we definitely need more uh communication and transparency about where uh the levels were at during this time.

Um, but there is still a smell coming from this ravine.

This like, because there's still water there that's pooled from this fire, and I think that needs to be investigated and looked into as well.

And so I just wanted to make sure that was addressed.

Um, thank you.

Thank you.

Next Lindsay Williams to be followed by Dr.

Yin Yang Yu Walk.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Lindsay.

I am Lindsay Williams and president of Superneighborhood 64 and 88, which is greater east of Lawn Down Wayside.

Uh, June 20 on June 22nd, a tire fire at Mammoth Recyc metal recycling sent an enormous plume over the east end.

Official messaging said everyone was safe, but residents in my super neighborhood near Mason Park told me it hurt to breathe.

They moved their elderly neighbors out of their homes and into a hotel.

The operators were bad actors, unpermitted, uninsured, cited repeatedly.

Their playbook, rack up violations, declare bankruptcy, reopen under a new name is a familiar one.

And working with our, I'm working with our state leaders as well, but for y'all, I'm asking for three things.

First, an ordinance with teeth that can target repeat offenders who dissolve and reform to dodge accountability.

Second, geofenced OEM alerts, a targeted shelter in place message for those downwind, not just a blanket all clear for everybody.

And third, more air monitors in the east End so we know what we're breathing in places such as the Magnolia Multi Service Center, Baker Ripley, or even Mason Park.

Our neighbors showed up for each other that day, and I'm asking the city to meet the same standard of care.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Next, Dr.

In Yang UAC.

To be followed by Juliana Hernandez.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for having me here this afternoon.

My name is Dr.

Uwak.

I'm the director for research and policy at Alliance Houston.

I'm here because what happened at Mammoth Metal Recyclers is not an isolated incident.

It is part of a concerning and growing pattern.

Since January, Texas has seen recycling facilities fires in Polk County, Liberty County.

I'll be in Houston Gulf and Houston's Gulf Crest area, and now here with the Mammoth Fire.

Month after month, these facilities have gone up in flames, placing workers, first respondents, and nearby communities at risk.

And that should alarm us all.

Today I have two clear tasks.

Two clear asks.

First, we need state legislation requiring recycling facilities to install fire suppression systems and heat sensors and to limit the height and volume of unprocessed tyres, car packs, plastics, and other combustible materials.

We need to build prevention into the law, not leave it to chance.

Second, the city should pursue recovery of a clean of cleanup and remediation costs from mammoth metal recyclers.

Taxpayers should not be left paying for preventable ham caused by the safeguards.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next, Juliana Hernandez.

To be followed by Jeff Speeler.

Good afternoon, Houston City Council and Mayor.

My name is Juliana Hernandez, and I'm a coordinator for Airlines Houston.

On the day of the Mammoth Fire, I got two phone calls from residents that I had been working alongside with from the Manchester area.

Um one of the residents shared that she could not she did not feel comfortable sleeping in her home that nine, so she had to relocate.

And another resident shared how she was tired of having to deal with so many disruptors to her wellness and health.

I share this because maybe these residents couldn't show up today.

Maybe they couldn't call for work or maybe they're scared to pick up the phone to call the city due to their experiences as as immigrants.

But I want to be here to share their lived experiences and um ask for the city to work that to prevent this from happening again.

Um I want to say that I appreciate y'all's attention to this matter as well as Councilmember Martinez's attention to this matter.

You were there for our press.

Well, you had a representative there for a press conference, and um, we're grateful to have y'all there to answer any questions that the press may have had.

Um, but our recommendations are as follows.

We request that the city release all inspection and complaint records.

Could I tap up my recommendations?

Um, I'll just finish this.

Investigate whether this facility had proper permits, strengthen enforcement, and support the passage of legislation regarding increasing TCQ air monitors around Texas during the 90th legislative session.

Thank y'all.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next, Jess Spieler.

To be followed by Nadia Hakim.

Hello.

Um I have a visual of what the fire looked like from my window um that day.

Uh so my name is Jess Spieler.

I go by Hey Pronouns.

I'm a constituent of Dis District I.

Um, and I'm here to as a part of the group to demand accountability uh for mammoth metal recycling uh for the tire fire that happened on June 22nd.

Um I called 311 that day and spoke with the health department twice that day, again the next day, and again on Friday.

I was repeatedly told there were no updates, that there was um no danger uh that was found in the air monitoring quality, despite the fact it's very obvious that tire fires release lead and mercury once they are burning.

And as you can tell from my video, the size of this fire was considerably large.

Um, I was also told that if I wanted more updates, I should just look to Houston Air Alliance, which I thought was an inappropriate answer coming from the Houston Health Department.

Um, there's still been no updates or reports from the city on what we have been inhaling that day, and unfortunately, due to my work circumstances, I was unable to leave my home, but at least I had the privilege of being inside because other members of my community still had to report to work that day as well due to the city's negligence and reporting.

Um, I'm here to ask for transparency on what chemicals we inhale that week so we can prepare for the inevitable health effects.

And thank you for your time as well and your attention to this matter.

And just as a point of order regarding your schedule, um, you could give every constituent here two minutes to speak instead of one minute to speak, and it would still be less than 150 minutes.

But again, thank you for your assistance, and I um am looking forward to the transparency on this report.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Next Nadia Hakim.

To be followed by Jack Valinski.

All right, hi everyone.

I'm here as an East End resident, and I'm also here as the general manager of small places doing business as Finca Tres Robles.

It's a nonprofit focused on nurturing the community through food and connection.

Uh some of you all have been there.

So if you haven't yet, please come and hang out with us for a little bit, see what we do.

Um but my home is less than a mile from where the fire happens.

Finca is less than four miles.

We saw the fire from the fields before the news stations broke the story.

We smelled burning rubber for days.

In East End, we have to rely on our own senses.

We were told that there were no concerning readings while our bodies told us something else.

We were fed talking points.

So this company, they didn't have an active permit to operate.

They had two illegal burning citations before this fire.

I want to know why we are paying for their mistakes with our health and our taxpayer dollars.

So according to data from the Harris County Public Health maps that track cancer cases within the county, my home and workplace are surrounded by areas where lung cancer is higher than usual.

East End is filled with places labeled as most vulnerable census tracts, which is briefly defined as a small neighborhood that faces a higher risk of struggling to survive, adapt, or recover recover from external stresses, such as natural disasters and public health emergencies.

This is who you are asking to foot the bill for the negligence of companies like Mammoth.

So I'm asking you to recover cleanup costs from the responsible parties for this disaster, and I'm asking y'all for true transparency and accountability and prevention.

Thank you.

One second.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I want to thank all the residents who have come today to speak on this topic.

Um it is really important that these questions are being asked.

Yes, the fire is out, and we're all grateful to the first responders who were able to handle the emergency.

But these are now the questions that we need to be getting the answers to.

Um it's a public health issue.

As someone who's had a career in public health, this is of great interest to me because of the folks that live so close to the facility and the impacts from the air, from the runoff, etc.

Um, I will have Councilmember Martinez know you know he has my full support uh for this.

Any efforts at the legislature next session, um, I will uh stand with y'all in that and the transparency asks that y'all are making today um work to get that information out as well.

I've previously funded air monitors in my district with uh CDSF.

I'll be looking into that again as parts of my district do uh get close to where this was.

But I again want to just thank y'all for this uh advocacy today because it is important that this happens uh and continues to after the fact.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, and I thank you for coming as well.

As I mentioned earlier when Randall uh came to speak, um we the city is uh currently um you know involved in the investigation with TCEQ.

So once we get that information, we'll make sure that it's out.

Um you know, the other thing is you know, to your question is why is the city doing this?

I agree with you.

I don't think we should be paying for it, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure that things are getting cleaned up, especially because again, we don't want it to linger and cause any other challenges health wise, and so as much as uh I prefer us not paying for this, it's our responsibility to make sure that we try to you know rectify the the issues that are at hand.

Um with that, just know that uh you know, again, my team is working closely with the administration and also uh with the fire chief, health department to uh ensure that we share information once we get it.

Um, uh, and so continue to uh show up, or if you you want, you can you know always contact my office directly um for more uh updates, and when we get them, we'll make sure that we're sharing them as well.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, thank you.

Jack Valinski.

Mayor Council, maybe you want to give me an extra minute because I have nice things to say.

I want to thank you, Mayor.

I know it's unusual.

I know it's unusual, but you know, in 1969, I was 15 years old.

The moon landing, Woodstock, I was 50 miles away from it, and Stonewall happened.

I had no idea until years later that Stonewall happened.

And the fact that you were in the first parade in this city must have took a lot of courage because in the eighties, not a single mayor was in our parade at that time, and that one mayor would not show up until 10 30 after the cameras were away.

So I appreciate what you did.

Moving the banner district forward makes a lot of uh of happiness to our community because we lost the rainbow crossing, being able to have banners there along the 82 bus route, which is the busiest in the city, is gonna show that we have some say in the city, that we have some symbols.

You know, it's just a bunch of rags on utility poles, but it actually means a lot to us, and and we thank you.

Although it took since October, and that's not your fault, but you know, we had to find the right people in the city, which was very difficult, and thank you for uh Abby Cayman's uh council member because our office staff helped us get through it, and I want to thank the five council members who helped us get past this milestone.

So once we get the sign signature, uh we're gonna go to the town point and get their approval, and then we'll put them up there, and hopefully they'll be up for the parade that's gonna happen in August.

Well, and thank you very much and really appreciate it.

And it was a tough haul, but thank you.

Thank you, Jack, and thank you for the history lesson.

Uh it's been uh it's been a long path.

Uh made a lot of headway, still have work to do.

We all have work.

For many people we could think that we stand on their shoulders, certainly.

Uh Anise Parker, and I could go through a really honor list of uh community representatives.

Your current city councilman, Councilman Panzerella's been shoulder to shoulder in this effort, and certainly Councilmember Kamen led the way.

We are just glad that we could play a role, but it really gets back to your passion and the passion of the community.

So thank you.

It's a statement that Houston uh is a community of inclusion and unity, and I'm so excited about the World Cup experience, how it brought the world together right here in Houston's uh front yard.

So thank you for being here, and Councilman Panzarella, thank you for your leadership.

I yield to you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Jack.

This is a major step forward for the LGBTQ plus community for the Montrose community.

I want to give a kudos to the administration for signing off on this and pushing it forward.

I also want to give a shout out to Jack and Pride 365 for putting in the effort uh on the side of the community, and I really look forward to seeing this flourish in District C.

So thank you.

You know, mayor, I'd love to get somebody to sit down and talk to you about that experience being in the first parade.

Somebody who can write better than I could.

We have great parades now, but the one down Montrose and uh West Hammer, uh, was really a special event as they all are.

But that was very much a neighborhood experience.

And after the parade, you never left the community.

You just went into restaurants and bars and celebrated uh equality.

It was really interesting to see the neighbors seeing the floats being built and having their kids watch it, and especially when it became a night parade to see the floats light up before they got in the in the line.

But uh, we have a great history here and want to continue it.

Thank you.

And I could spend the rest of the afternoon talking about the inclusion from the first parade.

You know, first parade, HBD still were disqualifying people over sexual orientation.

Now HBD has floats in the parade, so as well as the fire department.

Each year we added somebody.

Chevron, Shale, Chase Bank.

I could go.

It originally started as a neighborhood, led largely by the caucus and others, but it grew and grew, and now it's a citywide parade downtown.

And this didn't just happen, it came from a lot of effort from many people.

Uh many have gone ahead of us, but we're doing our best to recognize our diversity and uh work towards total equality.

Someday we'll have a non-discrimination ordinance.

I'll be glad to sit down with you.

Okay, thank you.

Next, Carrie Morrison.

To be followed by Gerald Brown.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm Carrie Ann Morrison, the president of Pride Houston.

I want to, on behalf of Pride Houston and the community, give a great deep thank you and gratitude, and extend this to you, Mayor Whitmeyer, for approving the reinstallation of the flag throughout the Montrose Banner district.

These flags are powerful symbols of our community.

It's history, it's resilience and pride.

They represent visibility, acceptance, and a commitment to ensuring that our LGBTQIA community knows that they're seen, they're heard, and that they're celebrated, and most importantly, that they're protected.

Montrose is a place where people have found connection, they found found support, and they find a sense of belonging, especially being an immigrant and being new to Houston.

I didn't know where to go to find my community, and Montrose was where I went to find my chosen family.

So that is much greatly appreciated.

Um the recognition honors that legacy and it honors that um reflection that Houston continues its commitment to embracing the diversity of the people who call this their home.

Mayor Whitmeyer, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for recognizing the importance of this moment.

We look forward to raising the flood and to celebrate and to continue showing that we are proud and that we're seeing and that we're visible.

Thank you, Councilman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for being here.

I want to congratulate all the parties that were involved in making this happen with uh Mayor, you and your administration, uh also the funding that you uh allocated towards this yourself, pride 365 uh for stepping up to be uh a key part of this, and all the community members from Jack and many others.

When the crosswalks came up, the community was demoralized.

And not only is this a way to continue to show uh that Montrose is that safe, welcoming space that it's always been for every Houstonian, uh, but it's a way to reaffirm the support for folks out there who still to this day don't have that safe space or aren't comfortable with uh their journey as they're uh working through their um identity, and you know, there are folks that are still out there that would rather not be themselves or you know do harm to themselves because they don't have that safe space.

Uh and these banners and projects like this help uh help mitigate that directly, and so it's incredibly important that we were able to get here and uh congratulations to everyone who who made it happen.

Most certainly, and thank you for saying that because it means a lot, and you're very much correct when you say that a lot of people still don't have the ability to be them truthfuls and end up you know not being here with us, so knowing that the city recognizes this and is providing a place where they can feel home or they can go and find their chosen family or to find people who are like them to relate to, it really means a lot, so thank you so much.

Let me also thank you for being here, and there's many individuals, Councilmember I could name, but I would be not wanting to leave this recognition of the uh topic without mentioning Ray Hill.

Ray Hill was a leader in the community when it was not easy to be a leader, so Ray has passed on, but uh he'll live through the discussions that we're having today.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, and we welcome going back to Montrose.

Yes, ma'am.

Next, Gerald Brown, John Segovia.

To be followed by Cynthia Cole.

Good day, Mayor Whitmeyer, members of the city council.

My name is John Paul Segovia, owner of Segovi Studios in the East End, and also founder of the Segovia Foundation.

I have dedicated my business to mentoring talented high school students from undeserved neighborhoods, kids who aren't college bound, but who possess immense potential.

We give them free hands-on training in website design, marketing, videography, and photography.

We give them a path to a career, business ownership without a dime of college debt.

We cannot do it alone.

Houston Media Sources are lifeline.

They provide the vital tools and resources.

These future entrepreneurs need to build their dreams.

To show you what's at stake, one of our star pupils lost both of his parents and currently sleeps on his grandmother's couch.

Despite everything against him, he excels.

If you defund HMS programs like mine, lose our foundation and kids like him lose their future, we cannot lock these youth out of opportunity.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Next Cynthia Cole.

To be followed by James Pierre.

Pierre.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Mayor Pro Tim and Council members.

I am here to say that the Houston Media Source matters.

Why?

Because it represents democratic media infrastructure.

In addition to that, the Houston Media Source is not simply a peg station, it is a historic civic speech infrastructure.

I am not going to take up a lot of your time.

I have a handout, but what I would like to say to you is this please offer an opportunity to readdress there being a partnership between HTV and Houston Media Source.

It is maybe an opportunity for there to be something amicable that you can come together with a plan that satisfies everyone and still provides freedom of expression and speech through media.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, James Pierre.

To be followed by Rafi Calustian.

Hi, everyone.

Peace and joy to the people of the court.

Hi, you hear me now?

Peace and joy, mayor, counsel.

Thank you so much, guys.

As a community advocate, just kind of speaking freely, expressing my heart.

This is my first time doing something like this.

So it's pretty cool.

Um, but yeah, partner with HMS TV, also with a few local churches, community centers.

Um I'm a retired teacher, all right.

Yep, I'm a little young, but I couldn't take it no more.

Um, so stepping to the community in 2020 and really boots on the ground started to see what we do and how we do it as a society.

So giving you your honor and respect for where you sit and how you do it.

Um, but just speaking for the hearts of the streets, um I believe that the heartbeat of Houston is in a critical condition, uh, if I must say, I'm really concerned about how we're preparing for the next generation.

Um, where's the space for us to really talk through this so our kids can see the work that we do and the type of effort and energy that we put into the work that we do, and um yeah, that's just what I'm passionate about.

I'll be here to speak more freely soon.

My name is James, I'm not hard to find, so I'll see you soon.

Next Rafi Calustian.

Alma Fieros, the arrows.

To be followed by Diane Barkin.

Hello, everybody.

First of all, I want to say I am polo yes because my English, I think that's perfect, but I want to try with my own words because I wanted to explain how I feel.

So my problem is in the community.

I have many problems in my community.

I have problems about the trash.

So the heavy trash, and I have problem to the ditch, so I have one home here 20 years ago, and I saw this community never coming to cleaner the ditch.

The tries, heavy tries, most of the time they even never pass.

Also, I concern about the criminals.

And I call the police many times, and the police never never come.

So and they no listen us.

Your time has expired.

Go ahead and finish, ma'am.

Okay.

And I wanted to bring to the mayor this letter, impeachers, and the leaders in my community, Spring Branch.

I invite them to come in and see the problem with your eyes.

Because the problem is the merely but it's I live in this career.

I'm living with my mother.

My mother is 88 years old with my son, Kiharan Grode, two months, and I move into this house two months ago, because I have problems economic.

Okay, Councilman Rash Mayor Protein Peck has.

Thank you, Mayor.

And Alma, thank you so much for being here.

Um I know that you spoke with my staff last week and invited me to come out to Carverdale to look at some of these issues.

I've been out in Carver Hill many, many times, but I'm happy to go out with you to see the issues that you're referring to.

And I agree with you, there's still a lot in Carverdale that needs to be addressed when it comes to the ditches.

We have addressed many of the ditches, but not all of the ditches in the neighborhood, so there's still more work to do there.

Um with the heavy trash, we did notify um the solid waste department about that, and a supervisor has been notified to make sure that it's getting collected in Carverdale.

Um, and then when it comes to HPD, um we will work with the captain from the Northwest Division to contact you to to figure out what's going on in on your street so we can get that addressed as well.

So my office will contact you to set up uh time for me to come out with you and I appreciate it, and I invite you to come in and walk in the community because I can explain.

You need to see with your eyes.

Absolutely happy to do so.

Okay, and I send it to you one letter in the picture.

I think to the gym.

Okay, thank you so much for listening to me.

Thank you.

Next, Diane Barkin.

To be followed by Samuel Mayers.

Good afternoon, council and mayor Whitmire.

I'm Diane Barkin, I'm from District G, Briar Hollow area, and I've lived there 16 years, and the neighborhood is going down.

I'm very sorry to say.

Uh I have been involved with getting the sewers cleaned out, the road paved.

I'm trying to get fiber, which bypasses our neighborhood, even though new uh construction occurs.

Our sidewalks, I've had a request in for three to five years for sidewalks.

We're not getting that.

And I'm also responsible for getting the drums put under the 610 overpass so that people don't trip and break their ankle walking there.

But my the reason I'm here today, I'm compelled to come here today, is that I'm not getting any help from my district G representative or their staff on getting the finger?

EPCO Briar Hollow LLC property cleaned out behind my house in 20.

Prior to Hurricane Harvey, which you know is in 2017.

The first floor was below grade, and everybody in that area flooded.

I'm sorry, I just got started.

I need help with this property getting cleaned out.

It's been almost nine years that it's overgrown.

We now have homeless, we have garbage, we have rodents all in there right now.

We even found an incendiary device back there last week.

So we need somebody to get these people to clean up their property.

I have a councilman Carter that would like to speak, and then I want you to give your contact to that gentleman right there at the table, Louie.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was just gonna uh connect with you.

Your council members not here today, but I know that the mayor.

Well, if you'll talk to him, and we'll follow up with Council Member Huck.

Yeah, give that gentleman your uh contact, and uh we'll we'll get it.

Thank you.

Attention.

Who's your young assistant with you?

Okay.

Oh, I'm starting to Samuel Mayers.

To be followed by Nick Shade.

Hi everybody, my name is Samuel Martin, and I'm here about.

I'm here about a uh uh I was just abatement warrant, a police officer uh handcuffing me and put me in his police car, and then I was at a funeral that came in uh I called the cop to meet me at my property, and there was the department of neighborhood taking everything without a any sign of no ticket, no warrant, no nothing.

And uh then I found out uh that the next day that they did it to another house.

And uh, I want to find out uh that it that the law, if I get a speeding ticket, I sign it, I know when I go to court and what it's about.

But I didn't get no ticket, I didn't get no warning, didn't get nothing.

Then I show up at the house, and uh there's a tractor and uh one of the department of neighborhood guys, and uh it just feel it was a right uh for him to come and take everything with my life savings of work and tools and all my belongings to work on my other houses.

They came and took everything, and uh I went to the department of neighborhood, they told me they ain't gonna take nothing.

They took care of my trailers, my uh dolly, they took uh uh they lifted a house and dirt.

They took everything off the property, and then they did it to another house right down the block.

Your time has expired.

Thank you.

We're gonna have our community outreach first and uh look into your message.

Okay, thank you.

Next Nick Shade.

To be followed by Gerati Kopeki.

Uh good afternoon.

I'm I'm Nick Shade.

I live in the Oak Forest community in District C.

Um, here regarding the severe active flooding caused by the brickyard industrial development at 5020 Acorn Street.

Chapter 9 in the City of Houston's infrastructure design manual, the IDM, strictly prohibits developers from forcing sheet flow stormwater onto adjacent properties during construction.

Yet during recent storms, this construction site flash flooded our neighborhood.

When I brought this to the attention of the mayor's office, they acknowledged the site's sediment berm had completely breached.

Uh, a quote from the email response I got from the mayor's office.

During our last inspection, the contractor stated that the during the storm where flooding had occurred, the berm of the sedimentation pollen was breached as soon as the contractor discovered the breach.

A worker with a bulldozer was sent to repair the breach.

A bulldozer pushing mud back into a failed berm is a temporary fix on an engineering failure.

It guarantees it will fail again.

The developer dismisses this as a temporary construction issue.

The civil blueprints that I viewed, I was able to view via FOIA request revealed long-term threats to our neighborhood safety.

First, there's an integral high-risk, high ground risk.

The warehouse, the warehouses foundation on that property, are elevated to 84%.

Councilman Penzerella.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Nick, thank you for being here and uh thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.

I just want to say we are in contact with public works following up on this.

They have sent in a request to schedule a site visit sometime in the future.

There's no uh definitive uh next on that, but just want to let you know that we are looking into it.

If I could the most immediate concern, yeah.

Um the Southeast detention pond, uh, which is engineered to hold 5.5 million gallons of water, is completely filled with silt and construction mud.

So there essentially is no detention pond there now, that's why it overflowed and failed.

I I would ask that they would force the construction company to dig that mud out to the previously engineered capacity to hold the storm water.

I said as you can hear the thunder outside, it's raining the past two days, it's supposed to rain today, and there's rain on the forecast for the next 10 days.

I've got a copy of my original speech.

Yeah, please.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Next Gerati Kopeki.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor and uh council their council members.

I would like to speak about Ashtraft Tanglewood property uh uh in our city.

Uh I spoke about this property before uh uh about retaliation.

In March of 2025, my car was damaged by their malfunctioning gate.

I requested compensation.

I asked for their insurance information at Noahville.

This event put huge unexpected financial strain on me.

I had to buy a new car, and total they want, I was damaged.

In May of 2025, just a week before my lease expires.

I wanted to talk to the office about my late payment for May due to a car damage issues.

New assistant manager started yelling at me uh and reminding me about my previous complaints.

I didn't tolerate that, and next day I found new place to live and went to the manager to let her know my intent to not renew the lease.

She told me to send her a volunteer withdrawal from lease and I'll be good.

To my big surprise, I was hit with haptic collection by pro collect of for five thousand six hundred and twenty-eight dollars for early lease termination, which ended a week later after I moved.

Um, so car damage left me with uh uh was uh assessed uh seventeen hundred dollars.

Uh if I would have sold out my car uh uh before it got hit, it was worth seventeen hundred dollars.

Uh collection, five thousand six hundred twenty-eight dollars.

Thank you.

And and by the way, and that property has gotten some uh violations from the city uh like health violations.

Uh it's it it just what's there about?

Thank you.

We don't have uh I don't have any other remedies how to solve this problem.

Okay, Rebecca.

And I'm hard of hearing by the way.

That's fine.

If you could like this lady right here by the door, right over here.

Oh, yes, Rebecca.

Please.

Next, Laura Kai.

To be followed by Ingrid Robinson.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council.

I hope I get my points across.

I have three concerns I'd like to bring up.

Um, affordable housing, developers, and trees.

What measures can be put in place to strengthen tree protection and incentivize builders and developers to make dwellings that will be more directly affecting affordability and availability of housing.

I have an example on my street.

I live in District C, not too far from here.

Affordable bungalow is about to be destroyed.

There are protected trees on the property, and a developer is not going to want to build another affordable bungalow because they're paying pretty penny for the dirt, so they want to make as much profit as they can with less cost, which means basically a cheap product.

So I've called the urban forestry, they've been great.

I've talked to them over the years.

I think it's a great resource.

Unfortunately, they're stretched.

I think they can add value.

I think, you know, find these people who don't care.

Like find me, I'll I'll destroy the tree.

Just find me.

Um I'm gonna do what I want.

So I am concerned about these trees on the property.

I'm concerned that it's gonna raise, like I like where I live, and it's gonna raise the property taxes for me.

So yeah, I think um, yeah, I'm just concerned about, yeah, I'm concerned about the developers that I mean affecting regular citizens, like where are we gonna live, and it's not it's not solving the problem.

Okay.

Thank you for letting me go over a little bit.

Okay, thank you.

Ingrid Robinson, Maurice Bale.

Yeah, do I kind of subject change?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh what it is, I need to talk to and get the Democrats to understand.

If you are involved in any way with this socialist communist movement, your careers will be over.

So it's time everybody separate, and all these Americans who want to know what it is.

Go ahead and ask Venezuela people how great they had it, they have to come here, and they're gonna come here for the same damn thing.

So if.

I mean, there's jail time behind all this, so you don't want to get caught in this mess.

And the nation's coming around, just like I said, around the world, Britain, London, they're even fighting for once.

They actually figured out what freedom was.

While we're over here fighting in the US over socialist and communists when we know that's bad blood.

Your time has expired.

Thank you.

Dr.

Myron Hopes of Conroe.

Kathy Gunter, Wendy Gaines.

To be followed by Irma Wortham.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, City Council members.

Wendy Gaines, I live in the East Montrose area.

I'm asking for three concrete changes.

First, adopt a citywide service standard for resident communication.

Non-response from multiple levels of the city should not be acceptable.

Uh, non-response for more than a month, in fact.

Second, create real accountability for the tours.

Communication must be proactive and project rationale must match stated objectives.

Third, address unequal treatment across our city.

The city continues to gift city owned street parking to developers.

New construction with multiple double driveways has swallowed entire blocks of street parking.

I ask that new developments be approved only with either one shared double driveway or two single driveways, so other residents are not disadvantaged.

These are reasonable practical solutions.

Start with the basic respect that comes from timely notice, consistent reasoning, and accountability.

Thank you for your time.

I urge you to adopt these changes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for being here.

I appreciate uh using your voice and and bringing these forward to us.

We'll definitely keep them in consideration.

And I want to thank you again for for being here today.

Okay.

It's been almost four months that I've been trying to get somebody to help me with an issue.

So from theurs through multiple different levels of people.

And I keep either getting swatted away or ignored completely.

Which is kind of disappointing.

Thank you.

Next Irma Wortham.

To be followed by Sophia Hahn.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Can you hear me?

Thanks for the opportunity to be able to speak.

Uh this afternoon.

Uh one minute.

I turned my paperwork in.

I walked it in with all the documents.

I anyway.

Walked in again.

Uh and now at the point of the uh sister coming out, and they're saying that uh that layoffs, and so you know, everything's gonna continue to be slower and slower and slower.

And so I was just really concerned to see what's saying, about you know all the layoffs and not being able to get the paperwork in.

I mean, the you know, it says Susan, get things moving forward.

So I'm in the assistant uh the single system uh housing program repair um the winter storm, and so I was just concerned and wanted to see uh how things were moving.

Mayor approach you.

Thank you.

Are you saying that you turned in your paperwork for the home repair?

Yeah, winter storm, uh-huh.

Okay, so what we can do is um get your information.

Louis, you'll get her information and give it to my staff, and then we can make sure that we follow through on your on your application.

We'll see if the where the housing department is with your application.

Okay, because I've been calling Colin Colin.

They can't tell me anything, so that's why I decided to come down.

And unfortunately, it does take some time.

Um, but if you've turned all of your paperwork in, we'll we'll get an update status for you.

All right, thank you.

You're very welcome.

And I want to I want to make sure you have our our office number because uh you're in district K.

I want to make sure you have my district K number.

I have yours.

Okay, so you can get the everybody call the staff to get an update, and then that way you would you wouldn't have to.

I'm glad that's all I do is call and I'd sometimes come up and show up and you know, so I just really want to.

You know, I've been waiting, waiting, waiting.

Uh really neat.

I'll get you another one in the block.

Holes everywhere.

Uh and it just continue to be so.

I got dropped from the VA program, and now I'm in a new one, so here I am.

Okay, with oh, my daughter's gonna say briefly prayer, and then we're on the way out to the light.

Okay.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you.

Make his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, lifting up his countenance upon you and give you his peace.

And they should put my neighbor from the children of Israel, and we shall bless him.

Shalom, shalom, which means perfect peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, amen.

Amen.

Thank you for the opportunity.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Sophia Hahn.

To be followed by Sable Warwick.

Um, good afternoon, council members.

My name is Sophia Hahn, and I am a rising senior at the Audio International School.

Since seventh grade, I have volunteered with the Love and Care program, and I have found that working with these families, many parents and caregivers often receive much less support compared to their children.

Caring for a neurodivergent child requires time, patience, and emotional energy.

Many parents struggle to find caregivers who understand their children's communication styles, sensory needs, and routines, leaving them with very few opportunities to take care of everyday responsibilities.

To better understand these challenges, I surveyed 16 parents in our community.

Many describe the need for trusted respite care, parent support groups, and easier access to local resources.

Thus, I respectfully ask the city of Houston to consider creating a small neurodivergent family respite and resource pilot program in partnership with organizations already serving these families.

This pilot could provide limited free or subsidized respite care hours, offer regular parent support meetings, and create a simple resource guide that connects families with existing services.

Starting small in one community center, where's Council District would have your time has expired to evaluate participation and gather feedback for considering expansion?

Thank you for your time consideration.

Thank you.

Councilor Mayor Pro.

Thank you, Mary.

Sophia, if you can come back.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here today.

I appreciate your comments.

And you are my constituent.

We'll reach out to you to see how we can work with you on that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Sable Sabling, Warwick.

To be followed by Kavya Natama.

Can you hear me?

So good afternoon.

My name is Sabla Warreda.

I don't know who's speaking about the mic, but I serve as the senior coordinator for the World of Society Church of God.

And our church and our volunteer organizations, Azaz and Oz as well, which many of you may be familiar with, has been volunteering in the city of Houston since 2007.

We've done environmental cleanups, blood drives, disaster reliefs, educational initiatives and programs, and just countless of volunteer service projects for thousands of hours.

And we're all throughout the city and we're dedicated to serve this city, and we continue to do so this Sunday.

We're actually going to be having a historic event.

We'll be having four simultaneous cleanups all throughout the city of Houston.

We'll be in District I, District C, District F, and District B.

So, Councilmember Joaquin Martinez, Tarsha Jackson, Joe Panzarella, Panzarella, something like that, and Tiffany Thompson.

So we sincerely hope that you guys can join us supporting us, recognizing our volunteers.

It's going to be very hot, but that doesn't deter our university student volunteers and our young professional volunteers.

So we're just hoping that Mayor Whitmeyer, you will recognize our volunteers in our organization, hopefully meet with us.

It's been over 20 years.

We've requested multiple times to work with the city.

We want to work with the city, not just in the city.

So we hope that respectfully you can meet our requests, and also we're hoping that we can get some HPD presence.

We reached out to community engagement.

We just want to make sure our volunteers are safe.

A lot of these areas we're cleaning up our busy city streets and intersections.

There's unhoused population.

So we just want to make sure the people who are serving the city are also being kept safe.

Thank you.

Council Castrillo.

Thank you, Mayor, for your comment.

Yes, sir.

Thank you so much for being here.

Um I wasn't familiar with your group before, but I would like to learn more.

We do one service project a month in District H and would love to partner with you and your uh your church on that.

I'm gonna have somebody from my staff come and get information to connect with you so we can uh talk more.

Yes, please do.

We're not only a local organization, we're an international organization, so we're in 75 countries.

We can utilize thousands of resources, and we're just waiting for direction from our city to find out where the needs are.

Of course, we want to be active and our volunteers are engaged, but we need direction, and that comes from city elected officials, public officials, and ultimately city staff that can help us with that.

So we really do need your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Martin.

Thank you, Mary.

I just want to say thank you for all the work you've done.

You've I've been in District I several times, uh, even during, I remember during Harvey as well.

Um, I know you usually speak with uh Roman Aguilar, who's in the Department of Neighborhoods.

Um, I'm not sure what other support you're looking for, but um, you know, we're happy to sit down with you to uh find ways where we can ensure that we're we're creating that foundation that you that you're looking towards uh with the city of Houston.

Um and I look forward, I know you're already in communication with my office about a couple support uh some support for this Sunday.

So I look forward to uh having a response for you soon, and then hopefully seeing you on Sunday as well.

Yes, please do.

I know that of course when we do our cleanups, they may not be convenient for your schedules, and that's no problem, but it makes a big difference to our volunteers when they hear even a message when we get a letter, when we get recognition, so when they see that our council members see their efforts, they want to keep doing it.

You know, getting college students to do some work in the summer uh is not an easy feat, but we're we're gonna we're gonna have almost 200.

That's it's kind of remarkable.

And we're gonna be north east.

We're not discriminatory, we don't have boundaries or jurisdictions.

We just want to help where it's needed, and you guys know where the help is needed.

So let us help you.

Thank you again.

Yeah, no problem.

Thank you.

Kavia Natamai, to be followed by Richard Collins.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members, and fellow Houstanians.

My name is Kavian.

I'm resident of District G and a recent graduate from Memorial High School.

I am honored and grateful to speak today on behalf of Hindu Swam Sevaxang or HSS, a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization serving Houston and communities across America, with over 267 branches nationwide and more than 84 Hindu Yuva chapters that serve college campuses.

Hindu Swam Sevic Sang is dedicated to strengthening individuals, families, and communities through value-based leadership and selfless community service.

One of our proudest programs, Guru Vandana, began right here in the hearts of Houston in 2008, where we celebrate teachers and educators and have since expanded to nearly 100 cities across the nation.

Through Raksha Bandan, we express gratitude to police officers, first respondents, and firefighters who protect our community.

In June last month, Hindu Swam Sevaxung volunteers proudly helped organize the 12th International Day of Yoga at across 32 locations in Greater Houston under the theme Yoga for One Earth and One Health.

These three sessions welcome people of every age and every background while promoting healthier individuals, stronger families, and a more connected community.

We respectfully ask for a council member and mayors for more engagement, and together we can create a greater diverse community.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next, Richard Collins.

Are you Richard?

Neil Aquino.

To be followed by John Nixon.

Thank you to the people of Houston for providing this forum.

There have been two significant proposition A enhancements to public accessibility for council.

Mr.

Castillo's evening sessions and Ms.

Salinas' online.

A third prop A measure would be once you go over the 150 minutes that people get two minutes at least rather than three.

You were at 152 minutes.

It just took a couple people to get you under the 150.

It's a substantial reduction from three minutes to one minute.

I don't think anyone, you know, is my what I cost to park.

Is that going to be reduced by two-thirds?

It's thundering outside.

People come in the heat, in the rain, for people who live further away from City Hall.

It's a more substantial tax in essence on coming down here.

It takes time to prepare three minutes of testimony.

It seems like either a thoughtless or cynical application of the rules to be so barely over and to cut people's time so substantially.

So it asks someone, and even if there was more folks speaking, you still could reduce it to two minutes, and it still would be a time that you all could manage.

I I assure you the commute down here for people, especially the further you are, is at least equal to what you're spending here.

So will somebody have do a proposition A to reduce to make it two minutes, and that will build on the enhancements that you all have made to public accessibility of council.

Thank you.

Next, John Nix.

To be followed by Yolanda Fobbs.

Howdy, howdy, mayor, Nairmeyer and fellow city council members.

I'm in Amy Pexa City County and District A and Spring Branch and one minute is tough.

I want to see the city partner with Metro to have a spring branch, curved to curve for the area.

It's more of a transit desperate and very hard to get around unless you're on Long Point or Guesser to where the buses rent 15 minutes.

Other areas are like 30 minutes.

I don't want to go.

I only have a short time, but desperately we need a curb to curb, microtransit for spring branch.

Other areas that's going on, we desperately need a hero 2.0 for Houston.

I am dealing with the Song Lord issue and even had a file complaint with the TWC housing civil rights.

And on the farm, it says, oh, we won't be able to get to you to 120 days.

I believe if we had a civil right, had a hero 2.0, we'd be able to get this issue resolved a lot more sooner.

And it just hurts because you know I'd be in the with being discriminated with the person with the disability.

And I had a lot more to say, but my time's up, and uh thanks so much and have a great day.

Thank you.

Councilmember Pollard, Councilman Paul.

Thank you for being here.

You can have my time.

What was that?

You have my time.

If you need to speak more, you can have my time.

Sure.

Another issue is real real quick.

We need an overhaul of the fire department.

It is awful.

I've had two, I'm a diabetic.

I've had two emergencies.

Over the past two weeks for EMS has had to come to my house both times.

They've sent two EMSs.

They don't even, they refuse to even take me to a better hospital.

They take me to the dump of Memorial City Hospital, and that's where I could three hour wait plus.

I'd rather go to Baylor St.

Luke's, like the St.

Luke's in the Med Center or Vintage.

And it would be nice to have a St.

Louis, you know, my city work to have a with the executives in the St.

Luke's to have it to have a St.

Luke's in Spring Branch to make it more easier for me.

Spring Branch works perfect with my health care plan.

I have a lot more to say, but that's all.

And have a great day and go team where every team you're moving for now.

Thank you.

Yolanda Fobbs.

To be followed by Theodore Carrero.

Good afternoon.

My name is Yolanda Fobbs.

And I shouldn't be here today, but I am I am having problems with getting my getting my metro lift renewed.

Um I came before you December the 10th, and I told you what former Sylvester Turner, now deceased, his HPD chief order salvada, along with four police officers, had done to me.

Today I smelled interference by the FBI in getting my metro lift renewed.

I gave to Jill Quinn Martinez evidence and to you, Mayor, with my evidence of my uh the in the evidence, there's two prescriptions, one from my former doctor and one from my current doctor uh for me to get Metro Lift.

But when I got a denial letter, the um I appealed it.

And I took this blue folder to Metro Lift Window 11.

And when I went to my appeal, this letter never made it.

This this folder never made it with my evidence.

And so the appeal hearing officer, she asked, she said, Ma'am, this is all the evidence I have.

Just a few sheets she had in front of her.

I say, ma'am, I turned in a blue folder with my evidence.

And she said, this is expired.

So I need a meeting set up with the Metro Lyft with Tonya Brooks, the supervisor.

I would like to have a meeting with them to find out what happened.

Because I smelled interference by the FBI, and they don't override my doctors.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mary.

Ms.

Bobs.

I'll have my team reach out to you to see who from Metro.

We can connect you with.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Next.

Theodore Carrero.

Vera Steptoe.

To be followed by Art Smith.

Hello.

Okay, my name is Vera Steptoe, and I am trying to open up a program, a re-entry program.

I'm an ex-addic, ex-convig, been living with HIV for 35 years.

By the grace of God, I've been living with it.

So what I'm asking from you all is support for space where we can do a re-entry.

I work in the prison system right now where it's very poor.

And those that's coming back to the therapeutic community, we just had a client, he was my client that just left in two weeks ago.

And he already didn't relapse.

So I work for the therapeutic community in Springfield.

I'm gonna say uh in Rochair and MTC.

I'm just asking it to give me an opportunity of a chance to have some space to be able to help those that's coming out that's re-integrating back into society.

Because what it is to me is that I stayed out there a long time for 35 years.

I was in and out there prison.

Okay, but what it is, it takes us as a community to allow people to start thinking different.

And no, those that's living with HIV, they know that they can live longer.

All you gotta do is take care of yourself.

I am a community health worker.

I can test for HIV syphilis and all that.

I am the OCD uh intern.

And I just want an opportunity of a chance to be able to ask you all for space to uh, Dr.

Rebecca Williams.

We have a re-entry program.

Okay.

Uh we'll definitely connect you to the personnel there.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

We'll give you the director's name.

It's yes, sir.

Not as big as we'd like.

Thank you.

Yeah, be safe.

Next, Art Smith.

Coffee Albay.

Samantha Heel.

Are you Miss Hill?

Okay.

To be followed by to be followed by Benny Freeman.

Pardon me, I'm so sorry.

My genes are a little too big for me.

But I want to thank you all for having me.

And let me come up to speed.

Uh, it's very brief.

As I stand here before you today, I'm diligently seeking support and protection from the city of Houston in hopes to escape a hate crime.

Unidentified brutal clans of people are seeking to burn me alive, yet eating my face.

No one deserves to die such a gruesome death.

I feel desperately am in need of my own home, a place where I can comfortably utilize all of my skills, writing, journaling, been in touch with NASA, Arbitron.

Please remember me with spoken expressions of unison as you continue to pray for me, search your hearts for answers pertaining to my life, which is detrimental to the lives of others, including children, youth, adolescents, and my elders, for I suffer with schizo-affective disorder.

And he says, Hike uh uh domino, we line them up.

Push one, they all fall down.

So, but that's my story, and I want to thank you.

Thank you for coming today.

Yes, ma'am.

Take care.

We'd be able to provide some kind of like supervision or maybe another place I can go.

Uh right now with a lady named Miss Renche Smith uh Wooley.

There, her husband is a past out there in Crossby.

I'm gonna ask you to talk to Mariah.

Mariah, if you can help her with some services.

Okay, thank you.

I have a blessed day, everybody.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Benny Freeman.

Benny Freeman.

Next speaker.

See Anthony Haywood.

See Anthony Haywood.

See Anthony Haywood.

Next speaker.

Terry Omo Omole.

Terry Omole.

Next speaker.

Loretta Samson Bates.

Praise the Lord.

Okay.

Hello, Miss Bates.

To be followed by Carrie Rice of Cyprus.

Praise the Lord on today.

It's good to see y'all.

All I don't know if it's 16 in front of me or not, but I brought 16 papers.

I am Apostle Loretta Sampson Bates.

Hey, Mr.

Davis.

And that's true.

I am called to change homelessness in Houston, Texas.

As I stated before when I came to the city.

And I have spent three years out there on the streets, on the highways and byways talking to the homeless.

They got life situations, circumstances, and hard trials.

Some of them cost them and some of them didn't.

But we, as called by God, we should be doing more to try to help them.

30 years of my life, I gave it to A.

Leaf School District, community service, and I got an award last week.

I lived there for 40 plus years.

Now I'm in a new district and I don't see my district leader.

And I've been calling her for six months and no response.

Your time has I want to talk to her.

I'm in her district.

I have prayed.

Dope dealers have left, gun shooters have left.

Through prayer, things are changed.

And if we can't get the leaders to talk to us, what are we doing?

She's not here.

I don't see her.

I don't see the mail.

Every time I come up here, I don't see the mail.

But it must be a reason.

That he had to leave or whatever.

He just went to the bathroom.

Fire my lodge.

I have gave y'all the paper that explains what it is that I'm doing.

That's true.

And why I came to the city.

And guess what?

I'll be back again.

Y'all ain't gonna get rid of me.

Miss Bates, I do want to tell you.

I know your council member's not here today, but she does have a staff member here.

Um, and so I know you can talk to Ingram from your council office.

Uh, she'll be happy to speak with you.

And then Councilmember Davis is also in the queue, would like to address you.

Okay.

Hello, Mrs.

Bates, thank you for coming.

So, can you maybe I missed it in your intro?

Can you specify um particularly what is it that you are referring to relations to homelessness?

What was that?

I said maybe I missed it when you were in your intro, but can you specifically specify what particular area or concern regarding homelessness?

I'm gonna open up, I gave you a paper, it's all explained on the paper.

I see that.

I'm gonna open up a lodge.

It is not a shelter, it's gonna be a life-changing experience, okay.

And I have spent time out there for three years on the street talking to some homeless, and I have some people that came off the streets and they have two or three years clean.

They have issues.

Okay, and unless we address the issues, we're still gonna have this problem in our city.

I come to change Houston, Texas, homeless situation.

Okay.

You talked to me the last time.

I did.

And I invited you to an event and you didn't show up.

Yes, ma'am.

I have invited all of y'all, because all of y'all districts got trouble.

Yes, ma'am.

With the home.

I get y'all a ticket, it's free.

Just write city cats on it, and you're gonna get on into the musical.

Y'all have a blessed day.

I love y'all.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jack.

That's fine.

I have a question.

Yes, Councilmember Jackson.

And I just want to thank you for everything that you're doing for the homeless community.

Um, since you've been out talking to people, I know you talk to a lot of folks that possibly need a job.

And so I want to invite you to a district B job fair that's happening on Thursday at HCC.

It's from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

And HCC is located off of Little York.

Um, so invite your people, okay?

We got jobs 40 for over 40 plus employees.

Okay.

Next.

Carrie Rice of Cyprus.

Andrew Patterson.

Bernadette Kiki.

To be followed by Genesis Granados.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Yes, please.

Thank you.

Praise the Lord, bless the mayor, blessed council members.

It's Mama Kiki again from the Ministry of Repentance and Holiness.

And I am here again to announce to the whole Houstonians, all of Texas, all of America, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is coming.

And he has sent his only prophet of the Lord upon the earth right now, instructing the egg since 22 years.

And I want to say that to whom much is giving, much is expected.

America is a superpower that have the most resources on the face of the earth.

America cannot say that not hearing what the mega Asian prophet is saying.

And I put here how many earthquakes will the prophets strike the earth with and strike the nations with before we frail humanity will know that the Messiah is coming.

Blessed uh beloved mayor, and must three-seven, because you are Christian.

It says, surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants, the prophet, and he has revealed that the Messiah is coming.

The earthquake in Venezuela is because of us not listening.

As we speak, 70,000 plus are being dug up in Venezuela.

Why?

Why by precious people?

Are we saying that?

Oh, it happened in Venezuela, it cannot happen in Houston or cannot happen to America.

It is time for us to listen.

It says here the families and government buildings are being dug up from rubbles.

Excuse me.

Okay.

Who will help Historians' mayor, when they all enter the lake of fire?

Okay.

It will happen, Mayor.

Only if you do something, my beloved, I don't want to shut you off on lightning.

You understand?

I say it's lightning outside.

Yes, I bet.

So let's go ahead and wrap it up.

Okay.

So my point is, beloved mayor is that there is a reason why God has you sitting in that chair today.

You have gone to the city uh to the state house.

You walked over there.

You how from young, you beg become a politician.

Every time you pray, God I said your prayer.

He has you here for a time like this for a papas.

Okay.

Thank you so much, bless the mayor.

Yes, my papa walk is with all of you.

Please look at it.

Okay.

Please, I'm pleading.

We have walked to do so that we don't end the hell.

Okay.

Thank you.

God bless you.

We good.

Next, Genesis Granados.

To be followed by Steve Williams.

Hi, everyone.

Um, good afternoon, Mayor Whitmeyer and City Council members.

Thank you for providing me an opportunity to speak.

I'm going to be speaking about the metal recycling fire.

I can't really follow that up, so I'll just stick to the main points, which is that um it is important to treat this metal recycling fire, not as an isolated instance, um, not as an isolated instance, but as a reflection of failure in prevention, oversight, enforcement, and accountability.

Residents deserve protection before disasters happen, not just clean up afterward.

Another concern regarding the incident is that the city of Houston is paying for the cleanup.

This is something that taxpayers should not be responsible for cleaning up because this was a preventable, preventable industrial fire that was caused by the lack of protective measures and preparedness by Mammoth Metal Recycler.

The company and property owners should be held accountable for the harm that they have done to the community.

I am asking the city council to recover cleanup costs from the responsible party.

If the city can recover the cleanup costs, then evaluate purchasing the land and redirecting its usage for the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Steve Williams, Melinda Glahorn.

To be followed by Shadrick Patterson.

I have a handout, but I'm not sure where the person went.

Just leave it right here.

Or as many as there are.

This has been a Houston experience today.

This is why I live here.

I love it.

Um just as a refresher, I'm here about um the 38-acre green space that was raised 10 feet to form a 38-acre concrete plateau and oak forest.

Uh or oak forest adjacent, actually.

Um I in a minute can only cover one small outstanding aspect of the project.

So I created a visual aid to help with the public works department who think that this project with the ditches around the property is complete.

So I included a visual aid where you can see approximately 30 points at which the drainage is either completely closed, um, and has been closed for years, one has been had concrete poured over it.

This is what the city is telling the mayor, and then his office is telling us that this job is complete.

So I've also included another visual aid for public works in case they're here that can help identify what a ditch looks like that's clogged.

They may not have seen a drainage pipe covered in concrete, they may not know what that is.

So the little arrows can help them when they come to keep our neighborhood from flooding again.

I do want to say one thing, just one sentence really quickly, because we hear the thunder out here, and I know that that mayor, your office is getting one story.

I have a text message from uh the developer from last week, in which he says his solution was to ask us to continue to pray that there.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I believe in a strict separation of church and state.

So we'll be working with public works and we'll make sure that we get this resolved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

To be followed by Eduardo Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, City Council.

I know I have a minute, and I think you can guys already can figure out what I'm going to talk about here, but I just wanted to give you guys a brief update on some parking reform related efforts.

Uh the state of Connecticut recently just passed a bill that eliminated parking mandates uh for all residential uses, and the state of North Carolina just on Monday passed a bill that would eliminate parking mandates for all uses in all but about handful of coastal counties.

So this isn't a fringe movement, this isn't a wacky idea.

This is well researched.

This has been in uh urban planning studies for the past, I want to say 20 30 years now.

Uh if Houston really wants to take on the mantle of being a world class global uh inviting city like we have for the world cup, then we need to start accommodating uh spaces for businesses.

I know people do care very much about local businesses and supporting local communities and housing.

We can get to that by getting rid of parking mandates for all of our uses.

I just saw recently that daycares have to provide like one space for every teacher based on the busiest time, which is a little weird, and then you have to add on more spaces for every five kids at the maximum occupancy.

Again, this is during the permitting phase, which is really weird because how are you supposed to calculate any of that?

Uh yeah, so let's get rid of the parking mandate citywide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Eduardo Duran.

Jacob Clemented.

I've been a bad boy.

You what?

I'm in a bad boy.

Don't put it on the record.

What's new, Jacob?

Let's hear for FIFA.

It's partially over in the games here in uh using area, the Houston City M are done finished.

Well, we had a successful time.

But you know why, and I started and I think it was called P50 P.

Put our fault.

Okay, what else?

Um, well, I didn't know that that in the DC of Martin Castingham.

Uh it's partially in County.

Who plays voting taxes in my uh constituents or the uh Harris County constituent.

Yes, answer is yes.

We have part of Fort Ben.

Yeah, I'll throw on Tim and Thomas' district graph.

And then we have uh Pastor William David who controls the entire city of Houston.

And I corn, and and uh, Helen and Karen, uh I mean uh um uh carter and um uh uh very good Jacob.

You have a lot of representation.

Thank you.

Good representative from the mayor.

All right, be safe.

Next, Nathaniel Leonard.

Sure.

Do you know what's me?

Well, Mr.

Woodby.

I just like to say I definitely do believe in councils of justice.

I know that they do exist in Houston, Texas, civil justice, criminal, and even city and people.

And again, I just approach you to say I still need your help with that issue on that bigger chair, and to basically uh give it Mr.

Ben Crump the best that uh you know hopefully you can identify him in a location and let me know what that is and uh get me there, send me there.

And that's what I'd like to see with this council of justice happen, and that's what I'm back for today.

The other information and stuff is just something that was bogus and something that uh forget the word fraud or fake or something that the sheriff would just set up, whichever way it may have probably might have come way of it came to me.

Is how he wanted it to come with all the other targeting sabotage and your time has expired.

Still seeking your help on that, Mayor Woodmeyer.

And I I trust you, you are the justice of this council, but I'd like for your justice to identify it.

Thank you for your help to your people.

But I'm asking you, thank you, sir.

Be safe.

You're welcome.

I will get your help.

Right here.

Thank you.

Hello, mayor and city council.

Uh my name's Robert Guapo.

I'm a native Houston.

And I'm here to just speak uh a little bit on behalf of Houston Media Source.

I was born at home next block from the former building there at the YWCA.

I also was raised there from 1966 through 1979 as a child and all my teenage life as well.

I worked there as a teenager in the 70s, and uh I'm still there in the neighborhood and on the community and I worked there nine years for the previous owner and did well work for him there.

And then when he uh sold the building to Houston meters, I went along with the work doing the same work there, the same activities, and I was proud that someone came in and took the building and bought it and and opened it up for the community for a few years.

I saw the building by itself not operating, and in my heart, I'm like, it would be nice if someone will open up this building.

Your time has expired until the previous owner came and opened up.

So I just want to say uh very good council, you know, concern for Houston Meter source.

Thank you.

Councilor Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Robert, thank you for coming and speaking on this uh item as well.

Um, were you done?

Did you want to add any more to your comments?

Uh no, uh just that's I'm done.

Yes, I know it's got to be short, but there's so much to speak about that building and on and the operation of it for the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else we send recess to nine in the morning, from the Anna Russell Council Chamber.

I will now read the captions for the agenda of Wednesday, July 8th, 2026.

Item one is a public hearing to provide a resolution of no objection for applicants seeking 4% housing tax credits.

Item 2 is public hearing on amendments to chapter 42, Division 7, parks and Private parts.

Item three is public hearing on proposed issuance of bonds by the public finance authority for the benefit of Flyland Holdings LLC.

Item 4 is request for mayor for confirmation of the appointment or reappointment of the following individuals to the board of Directors of the Harris County Improvement District number three.

Item five, recommendation recommendation from the director of Houston Public Works that Houston City Council accept the work and authorized final payment.

If any of the contract with DL Glover Inc.

Item 6, recommendation from the Director of Houston Public Works that Houston City Council accept the work and authorized final payment if any of the contract with Grava LLC.

Item seven 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 GRAVA LLC.

Item eight 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 R Construction Civil LLC Item Nine Ordinance Supplementing the City of Houston Texas Ordinance Number 2004-299.

Amending and restating the city of Houston, Texas Ordinance Number 2009-1118 and ordinance number 2023-350, authorizing the issuance of City of Houston combined utility system commercial paper notes series B in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed one billion 500 million dollars.

Item 10 ordinance supplementing the city of Houston, Texas, Ordinance Number 2004-299, supplementing the City of Houston, Texas, Ordinance Number 2009-1118, authorizing issuers of City of Houston, Texas, combined utility, utility, system commercial paper notes, series B, as amended and restated, approving and authorizing certain authorized officials and designated employees to act on behalf of the city in the selling and delivery of such notes and the issuance of combined utility system first lien revenue refunding bonds to refund the same, each within the limitations and procedures specified herein.

This item should only be considered after the passage of item nine.

Item 11, ordinance authorizing the issuance of one or more series of city of Houston, Texas Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes Series 2026 to provide for the payment of the current expenses of the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027.

Item 12, ordinance approving a supplemental borrowing evidence by City of Houston, Texas, Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes, Series 2026A, to provide for payment of current expenses of the city for a portion of the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027.

Item 13, ordinance approving and authorizing agreement between City of Houston and McCall Parkhurst and Horton LLP for disclosure council services for various departments.

Item 14, ordinance approving and authorizing an agreement between City of Houston and Greenburg Troarick LLP.

Item 15 ordinance amending ordinance number 2026-98 to add the following contractors for awardee as awardees, DSW Homes LLC, Galveston Piling LLC, Stonewater Inc.

and PMG Construction Inc.

Item 16, ordinance appropriating $300 million for memorandum of agreement with United Airlines Inc.

Item 17, ordinance approving and authorizing interlocal agreement between the city of Houston, Harris County, reinvestment zone number eight and Gulfgate Redevelopment Authority.

Item 18.

Ordinance approved and authorizing interlocal agreement between the city of Houston, Harris County, reinvestment zone number 11 and Greater Greens Point Redevelopment Authority, doing business as North Houston Development Corporation.

Item 19 ordinance approving and authorizing interlocal agreement between City of Houston, Harris County, reinvestment zone number 21 and near North Side Redevelopment Authority.

Item 20, ordinance approving and authorizing first amended and restated interlocal agreement between City of Houston, Harris County, reinvestment zone number 23 and Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority.

Item 21, ordinance approved and authorizing second amended and restated interlocal agreement with Houston Ship Channel Security District.

Item 22, ordinance approving and authorizing submission of application for grant assistance through the Office of the Governor, Public Safety Office, Criminal justice Division for FY 27 Rifle Resistant Body Armor Grant Program.

Item 23, ordinance approving and authorizing submission of application for grant assistance to the Office of the Governor, Public Safety Office, Criminal Justice Division for FY 27 Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program.

Item 24, ordinance altering maximum prima facie speed limits in certain school zones in the city of Houston.

Item 25, ordinance approving and authorizing tripartite agreement among the city of Houston.

Baybrook Municipal Utility District number one in City of League City, Texas.

Item 26, ordinance consenting to the addition of 0.6062 acres of land to Cypress Wood Utility District.

Item 27, ordinance consenting to the addition of 23.33 acres of land to Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District number 142.

Item 28, ordinance consenting to the addition of 497.16 acres of land to Harris County Municipal Utility District number 148.

Item 29, ordinance approving and authorizing contract for termination of water supply and groundwater reduction plan.

Wholesale agreement with North Forest Municipal Utility District.

Item 30, ordinance approving and authorizing amended and restated financing ownership operation and maintenance agreement with Harris County Municipal Utility District number 55.

Item 31, ordinance approving and authorizing purchase and sale agreement between the City of Houston and Juan Rodriguez Martinez.

Item 32, ordinance finding and determining that public convenience and necessity no longer require the continued use of a 10-foot-wide 4,726 square foot waterline easement and 200 square foot water meter easement, both out of PW Road Survey, Abstract Number 645, Harris County, Texas.

Vacating and abandoning the said easements to Methodist Hospital.

Item 33, ordinance establishing the south side of the 700 block of Merrill Street between Watson Street and Reagan Street.

Within the city of Houston, Texas as a special minimum lot size block pursuant to Chapter 42 of the Court of Ordinances.

Item 34, ordinance appropriating 93,771,329.

Approving and authorizing professional engineering services contract with CDM Smith Inc.

Item 35, ordinance appropriating 11, 77,521.1 cent,494,942.59 cent.

Approving and authorizing contract with total contracting limited.

Item 36, ordinance appropriating 10,500.

Approving and authorizing reimbursement agreement between the City of Houston and Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Item 37, motion to receive nomination for the appointments to positions 10 and 11 of the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System Board of Trustees.

Item 38, ordinance appropriating $8,525,000.

$2,501,000 and $20,000 approving and authorizing interlocal agreement by and between the City of Houston and Houston Parks Board LGC Inc.

Item 30.

This I'm sorry.

This item was tagged by Councilmember Castax Tatum and was Item 20 on the agenda of June 17th.

Item 39, ordinance appropriating 26,437,655.

Approved and authorizing contract with Kewit Water Facility South Company.

This item was tagged by Council members, Council Member Castax Tatum and was item 29 on the agenda of June 17th.

Item 40, ordinance adopting 2024 Derecho and Hurricane Barrel Single Family Home Repair Program Guidelines.

This item was tagged by Council Member Ramirez and was Item 8 on the agenda of June 24th.

Item 41, ordinance authorizing and approving use of legal documents, including triparty agreement, deed of trust and promissory note associated with 2024 Derecho and Hurricane Barrel Single Family Home Repair Program.

This item should only be considered after the passage of item 40.

This item was tagged by Councilmember Ramirez and was item and was Item 9 on the agenda of June 24th.

Item 42, ordinance approving and authorizing water supply contract with Harris County Municipal Utility District number 612.

This item was tagged by Councilmember Ramirez and was Item 29 on the agenda of June 24th.

This completes the reading of the captions of the agenda of Wednesday, July 8th, 2026.

Stay tuned for the next City Council session to begin at 9 a.m.

And with that, I wish everyone a happy and wonderful Wednesday.

Thank you, Mr.

Secretary.

Thank you, my number one council member.

Say that in the mic.

I'm on the record.

Thank you.

My number one council member.

Public hearing on the windshire apartments, four percent tax credit.

Secretary, please call item one.

Item one.

The public hearing to provide a resolution of no objection for applicants seeking four percent housing tax credits.

We have staff analysts Paul Yindig.

Mark with housing community development here to present.

Good morning, and thank you for being here.

Good morning.

Mayor, Council members, uh the Housing and Community Development Department recommends council approval for this resolution of no objection for an applicant seeking four percent housing tax credits for their multifamily development, development name is Winshire Apartments.

Development addresses 4415 Shaver Street, Council District E.

Construction type is rehab.

Target population is family.

TDACA Administer State Housing Tax Credit Program, which provides federal tax credit to spur the development of quality and affordable housing.

In order to apply for 4% tax credits, the development must present a resolution of no objection from the governing body of the jurisdiction in which development is located.

HCD perform a threshold review and recommends a resolution of no objection for the preservation of affordable housing.

A public hearing on this resolution is held today, July 8, 2026, and Housing and Affordability Committee was held on June 16, 2026.

That concludes my presentation.

Very well.

Any questions?

Thank you.

No one is signed up to speak.

Anyone president would like to speak?

If there are none, uh is your motion to close the hearing.

Motion made in second to close the hearing.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

A vote on the item one.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Item number two.

Uh Director Tran.

Would you please present item number two?

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning, Council members.

The Chapter 42 Parks and Private Parks Ordinance Amendments that are subject of the public hearing today fall into two categories.

Amendments to align with the changes in state law to address a fee and lie for multifamily development, as well as recommended amendments to address implementation challenges on the fee.

State law-driven changes for multifamily are designating areas of the city as suburban, urban, or central business district to meet the criteria for setting fee.

Adopting a fee not greater than two percent of the median household income.

Requiring a fee only and no dedication of land, collecting fees at issuance of certificate of occupancy, and adding an appeal process.

Staff also recommended changes to the fee in lieu, which are allowing 30% of the fees collected to be used anywhere within the city, extending the time for funds to be obligated from three years to five years, and designating parks director as the authority to manage and expend funds.

BFA and the Planning Commission had presentations as well as public hearings on the amendments between February the 3rd and June the second, totaling six meetings.

We received a total of six 16 comments from the public, of which 12 are from organizations.

Both BFA and the Planning Commission recommended approval of the amendments to City Council.

Mayor, we are ready for public comments.

Thank you.

Any questions of council?

Thank you.

We do have some mayor pro Tim.

Thank you, Director.

I want to just uh reiterate.

Are we saying that 30% of the fees that are collected will be able to be used anywhere in the city of Houston?

I want to reiterate that point.

Yes.

True.

Correct.

So right now, what's the what is the availability anywhere in the city for the use of those funds?

So currently the funds can be used only in the park sector that it is collected.

So this is an opportunity for us to move towards some park equity.

So utilizing 30% of the funds collected, we can determine where we can use those funds anywhere in the city of Houston.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

We have some public witnesses.

Mike Dishberger.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council.

I built exclusively in the city of Houston Hap for the last 30 years.

I am also representing the Great Houston Builders Association.

So we've been banting this about.

I bill mostly in district C, and so I'm a payer of these fees.

And it seems like this money should be some of it should be moved around the rest of the city to other areas that need parks.

Mr.

C that does have a lot of parks.

I and this move the way this now with these 21 23 park districts, it seems crazy.

Why don't they have just one?

But that's how you guys did it.

So we are for uh the 30 percent.

Um the fees have been collected for a lot of years.

The only thing we'd ask is I think part of the ordinance is you're supposed to have an annual report on where the money's being spent.

And just tell me where some of the parks are being built, or if you build a swing set or something, just uh a list that would be nice to have to go.

The original ordinance did have that in there, and uh that's it.

I just wanted to say we're in support of it.

Well, thank you, Mike, and thank you for what you do in primary district C, but certainly your participation across the city uh as you well know.

Been a lot of discussion about this in committee hearings, and certainly Chair Alcorn has led to we're following a lot of her recommendations from her passion for parks.

Uh Kenneth Allen would be here days out on personal business, but um he supports this and is really emphasized the need, certainly as a mayor approach him for in terms of equity.

There is some neglected areas uh that need these funds attached to them, so it's really a win-win for the city and for uh the quality of life in which supports your industry and your personal uh business.

So it's all about uh doing the right thing and director uh Tran has done an excellent job in planning.

I would certainly applaud the Planning commission for the transparency and uh inclusion of all stakeholders, but I can't say enough about Ken O'Thallin.

Constantly brings and demonstrates some parts that are just been neglected.

So this will address that.

And thank you.

Um Councilmember Alcorn, but this is uh this is doing the city's business in the right way.

Yeah, I agree.

We we need more parks in Houston.

I helps quality of life.

I'm a native Eustonian, so I just want to see parks everywhere we can, and this will help get us there.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Justin Schultz.

Good morning, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Can you get to the microphone?

This one.

You could you couldn't hear me?

Uh good morning, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak about parks, which are incredibly important.

I'm Justin Schultz.

I'm the president and CEO of the Houston Parks Board.

We are a nonprofit that for the last 50 years has been about expanding, improving, and protecting parks and green space throughout the city.

We have partnered with the city for the last 50 years, and we are here today to strongly support the proposed changes to the open space ordinance.

Y'all do a lot of work all the time, and I think sometimes it's hard for the general public to understand what's in it for me, what are the benefits for me living in District F or living in district G.

Parks are such a tangible way to make our city a better place.

It improves the quality of life, it improves our economic competitiveness, it reduces the heat in our city, and it helps to absorb stormwater when it rains heavily like it did unexpectedly last night.

Um through the open space ordinance and the fees collected over the last 15 to 20 years, the City of Houston, along with the Houston Parks Board has been able to invest approximately $80 million in neighborhood parks with y'all's support.

So about 20 million dollars of open space fee has come in the Houston Parks Board has been able to leverage that and bring in an additional $60 million from corporate and philanthropic entities.

What is that done?

That has improved 48 of the 180 neighborhood parks around this city.

Those are multiple parks in each council district, and these are the parks that are the most in-need parks, parks that otherwise would not have received any sort of investment.

That's upgraded lighting, that is safe playgrounds, that is ensuring that the sidewalks and the walking paths are clean and clear.

These are really important improvements that are made to local parks that again would not be able to have investment otherwise.

So I want to thank y'all so much for taking the time to address this.

Councilmember Alcorn, you have been leading the charge, and we just are so indebted to the work that you've done.

I would urge the city in the future to look at increasing the fee.

It hasn't been increased in a long time, and that does put us at a disadvantage from an economic competitiveness standpoint.

I understand, you know, Mike and the home builders, for them, it's really important to have a city that people want to move to, a city where people want to stay.

It's part of the reason I moved back to Houston after being gone for 20 years because Houston is a great place to be.

So thank you all for your work, and please continue to make Houston the best city in the country.

Thanks.

Uh thank you just a moment.

Uh thank you for your public service and your currently parks board.

Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Justin, for coming and for the speakers that have all come.

I I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I do want to say to my colleagues, this is part one of the changes that we're going to make and to the open space ordinance.

Very important changes, changes that were brought up.

You know, you've got park sectors where there's a lot of development, so you've got a lot of money in those those park sectors, and then you've got areas of town that don't have a lot of as much development with a lot fewer resources to go towards the park.

So the 30 percent move, kind of like we do in affordable housing, great great to be able to spread that money around to parks.

I also uh you brought up the annual report or Mike, you brought up the annual report.

That's something that hasn't been done since two thousand nine, and it's part of the ordinance.

It's supposed to come.

It's very important that we know taxpayers know developers know residents know how that money is being spent so that's gonna be a real thing that's being worked on right now so I expect for an annual report to be made to the planning commission by the end of the summer or September and I will expect an increase to this fee that has been $700 a door since 2009 you hit the nail on the head Justin people want to live near a nice park I mean of sure they want affordable housing but they don't want an apartment right next to the crummiest park in town they want a nice park next to that their their uh apartment so or home so I will if we had done the annual reports the way we were supposed to every year you're supposed to bring the appraised value the values of land it's a park fee in lieu of that developers pay so that's based on what the park land is worth so year after year if we would have been following that that $700 fee would now be $1470.

We never did that we never came once with a fee increase or a an uh or an annual report since when?

Since 2009 I knew the answer I just wanted to now the state as they love to do has inserted itself into this uh situation and they have limited we can't even collect the $1470 the highest we can collect is $1296 and 28 cents.

Every other city in the state has a higher fee in lieu of if we just adjust to CPI it's $1,113.

You can't tell me that we're not paying more money to maintain and improve these parks this is one of the only sources of part of money for capital improvements other than our bond funds which we can't afford to do any bonds right now because we can't pay them back and so this is our only source of funding and like Justin said has said this is what leverages the corporate funding this leverages other money to be able to invest in these parks.

So like I said and I won't won't quit saying it this is part one of the changes that'll be coming to the open space ordinance and really appreciate all you've done justin for parks the parks board just incredible work spreading money all over the city we have had a green renaissance in this town but it hasn't hit all of our neighborhood parks and and we all know that so uh I just used your standing there to pontificate so you're doing an excellent job.

Thank you for coming I love the builders I love the apartment people but I also love the residents and the residents want nice parks in their neighborhoods.

So this fee is due to increase and I'm looking forward to the next speaker.

It's a great step I don't think we can recapture everything at one time you and I have had that discussion we'll build a consensus around council what's reasonable to get to where your goals are I would add though uh we're getting significantly more money from the legislature and I could do shout outs to Amanda Wally and honor and those and really our delegation that have really stepped up and brought uh state funds into the city and then it's also appropriate to mention uh Commissioner Brianis Commissioner Garcia the Commissioner's court are collaborating with us more than every I couldn't agree more the state the state and county funding is incredibly helpful but we own the parks okay the city owns the park and out of the 13 most populous cities in the in the country we rank at the very bottom per capita in what we spend on parks at the very bottom so I don't think that's where we want to be realize that and uh that's why we ran for office to improve things.

Thank you for your thank you for your passion.

Thank you, Justin, for your work, and uh we're moving in the right direction.

Thank you.

Mayor Council, thanks for having us up here.

I am somebody that actually volunteers a lot with Houston Parks Board.

I've met many of you out at parks.

We've done the walk and talks, we've been at Havilland Park, which was in an area builders are not over there building.

In that park, we walked it, you saw what it was.

And this 30% to spread across the city will make a huge impact on the areas of this city where the builders are not building.

You've got older neighborhoods with single family homes.

Builders aren't going in there unless they're buying out the properties.

And those residents deserve to have nice parks also.

Because I've been all over this city, and I've seen some of these parks that are embarrassing.

And I appreciate what you're doing with the parks that you've got a set, I believe it's 25 that you're wanting to have done.

I've been on many of those getting input from the residents that will be using those parks.

And I feel like this would be a great way to bring the city into where it needs to be.

That's my input.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Protein Peck.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Ron, I just wanted to thank you for coming and for all the work that you do with the Houston Parks Board and all of the things that you do also in District A.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, sir, for mentioning the uh neighborhood parks that we're making a priority, the 25 that we've identified, and Kenneth came up with Let's Play Houston to identify them.

So we're certainly moving in the right direction.

Thank you for your contribution.

Thank you.

Uh Charles Jones.

Good morning.

As I listened earlier, and as I looked at what I wrote down, I may sound a little redundant, but as a preacher, I dare not write it down because if I didn't, I'd be here for about 10 minutes.

Amen.

So good morning, Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Pastor Charles E.

Jones, and I'm honored to speak to you on behalf of one church at Bethel's Family, located in the Fundron Southwest area of Houston, where Walter August Jr.

is our senior pastor.

And in collaboration with Houston Parks Board, our church has faithfully served this community and district K since 1994, partnering with countless families, schools, nonprofits, community organizations, in order to strengthen the life of our many neighbors.

One of the greatest assets in our community is Havilland Park.

Parks are more than just green spaces.

They are places where children learn.

Families gather.

Relationships are built, and communities grow stronger.

And we want to also say that we're especially grateful that improvements to Havilland Park are being made through the Let's Play Houston Initiative, a mayoral effort to improve 25 neighborhood parks across the city of Houston.

This investment, we believe, demonstrates what's possible when the city prioritizes neighborhoods and creates opportunities for every resident to enjoy safe, welcoming, and public spaces.

And at one church, we are deeply invested in our families and our young people through our many on-campus ministry opportunities, and through what we call Bethel's University, which is our outreach youth ministry that currently offers track, basketball, football, and boxing, with additional programs that are planned for the future.

And we utilize Haviland Park as an opportunity to bring all of those activities together.

So safe and well-maintained parks like Havilland Park are essential for providing healthy, positive opportunities that keep our youth active, engaged, and connected to caring adults.

These improvements will directly benefit the children and families that we serve every week.

And please know that we will continue to partner far into the future.

And I also want to thank the Houston Parks and Recreation Departments and the Houston Parks Board, the mayor, and the city council for making these improvements possible.

Your investment is already making a meaningful difference in communities like Fondren Southwest.

So today, I encourage you to support the proposed amendment that would distribute a portion of open space funds more equitably across all park sectors.

Every family in Houston deserves access to safe, attractive, and functional parts, regardless of their zip code.

And I want to thank you so much for your time and your consideration, and may God bless you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor, for being here.

I want to share with you the um pastors representing uh Bethel's family and district K, and that particular church congregation, when they have their members go to Havyland Park, they have the men at the church go to stand around while they have practice because they want to make sure their students are safe at the park.

Yes.

Um and when we talk about our parks, we have to also talk about the safety in the park.

Havidland park is in one of the toughest areas of Fondra Southwest, and there are a lot of things that we don't like to see happening at that park that happen at that park.

Um there's a big um wall around like around the park that I think needs to be cut knocked down because you can't see what's happening in the park under the basketball goal.

Um, so Pastor, I just want you to know that we see you.

Um we see the men at your church who are making sure the students that are practicing football and practicing track to make their lives better and have the access to park spaces, is a beautiful 18-acre space that could be such a value-added asset to our community.

But the work that y'all are doing to ensure that those students have access to park play is incredible, and we'll continue working as a city to make sure that our parks are not only beautiful but they are safe.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, and just to um uh suspend the order to move Ruben to the bottom of the list.

He's he's on his way, he's just a little waiting.

Thank you.

We'll come back.

Uh Green of Blast.

Mayor City Council, Sam Martinez, thank you so much.

At large uh Ramirez, thank you so much for having me here.

I'm here to echo the support for the 7030 split.

I am so grateful that y'all will pass this because it will change the lives of so many Houstonians.

As you are aware, we have a Houston arrow that goes from Memorial Park all the way into Midtown, and it makes an arrow shape there that is in social sciences well known to show such degree of disparity.

So equity in parks is what you're bringing to us.

As you know, our quality of life will greatly increase.

And although Brookline Park, Fonda Park, and Greg Park are not included, we have a wonderful facility, uh, Great Park where H Park's headquarters is.

I want to thank you for all those 25 parks that will benefit.

I also want to let you know that just like I started Friends of Fonded Park at the call of neighborhood activist uh Paulette Wagner, whom I'm very grateful for.

So many years ago, she started Friends of McGregor Park.

We want to make sure that the communities have a voice in the design of their parks and the type of facilities that they need, such as covered space because of shade in Houston.

As you know, we're a very hot city.

We want to make sure that every single park has a shaded structure.

So I want to, in addition of asking for your uh support of the 7030 to ask for your accountability to H.

Bards and to the Houston Park Sports to ensure that the money that is being spent is being spent well, and that we can partner with all of this friends of parks organization so that we can put grants with the equipment manufacturers because these grants are out there and they're out there for communities like mine that are in the 95%ile vulnerability index, and that so desperately need a place to gather and access to non-medical drivers of health and recreation.

I want to thank the family of Corinne Fonday for her legacy and advocating for recreation as a means of civic engagement, as you all know, healthy body, healthy mind, which allows us to engage civically in making our city better.

Thank you.

Mayor.

Please, Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Karina, just want to say thank you for your advocacy, and we look forward to the ribbon cutting uh soon at Fondee Park uh for the work that you've done with the with the neighborhood out there as well.

Um and uh one thing that I want to kind of lift up, you know, as Karina mentioned, there's friends of Fondi Park.

We have friends of uh Mason Park now.

There is a movement uh for community be more engaged because again we see the the benefits of uh what the green spaces uh provide to our community.

And I'm gonna use this this time right now since Ruben's not here to kind of uh get on my soapbox, uh similar to Councilmember Alcorn.

Um definitely want to first and foremost thank uh the planning department and the parks department uh for coming together to identify this this uh this green space essentially it's an equity uh um you know policy, so that way we can see uh uh a very a more um transparent way of how we're we're spending these dollars.

District I has 60 parks, um, from regional parks to pocket parks.

And sitting with uh Director Allen and his executive team last week.

Uh what we've noticed too is that if we really want to see green spaces thrive, then we really need to uh get go back to figuring out how we can right size the parks department.

Um for two years I was talking about solid waste.

Um I'm I'm gonna commit to the parks department for the next year and a half uh in in office because the fee schedule uh just in general has not been updated since the mid 90s.

Uh when we start looking about thinking about uh what does it cost to uh uh maintain and mow um the number that was given to me was about six million dollars for all the medians in the city of Houston.

Uh the medians are public works uh right-of-way, um, and for parks department to take on that.

It it it kind of it bothers me a bit because those dollars could go back to maintaining uh city facilities, and just off the off of uh the meeting that we had, quite frankly, uh district guy could use about 1.2 million dollars in HVAC for in ground up park, um, Deisavala Park, Clinton Park, Hartman Park, Garden Villas, um, Charlton Park, and I can go on and on, and that's just an HVAC.

Uh, but there's a a number an itemized list of what else could be improved.

Um, and when we start talking about what these efficiencies look like, we also know that uh Parks Department maintains about 30 libraries, 14 multi-service centers, uh, and those are all dollars that are being pulled from green space funding uh back to your point, uh Karina, where we really want to make sure that um if we we want to be proactive on public safety as well, then we should be uh in increasing these this type of funding.

Um the 30 percent uh which I've talked to the director uh about is would be helpful in the five to ten percent design costs usually that comes into a lot of the the improvements that they're having, and as we all know, those those prices are escalating as well.

Um, and so we really need to um you know be intentional about what we're we're trying to do with green space.

Uh this is the first step the right pathway, uh, but there is still a lot of work that the parks department needs.

Uh one of my budget amendments was uh, you know, questioning why we're increasing the budget for the uh for tennis.

Um, you know, and I was able to uh see one of the tennis uh facilities on my way to a park out in in Maripotent's uh Cassus Adams district, where um it I appreciate that that, but I don't I don't believe that that is a priority when we need to make sure that we're mowing delittering and maintaining the parks, and several of district I parks are are not being maintained.

Uh one that comes off the top of my head right now is Walter Jones Park, and I've had this conversation with uh with uh Director Allen and his team.

Uh we we really want to see uh these parks um accessible, clean, so that way families would want to go to those those facilities.

Um, and so uh in saying that you know I'm I'm committed to making sure that we uh continue to do the work, Karina.

Uh not just for the disp for district, but quite frankly, we need to identify how we right size the uh the parks department in general to ensure that um families have a safe uh uh a clean uh neighborhood park, pocket park, regional park, um that ultimately addresses a whole bunch of other uh uh challenges that we might have, whether it's health inequity, uh public safety, and so again, thank you for being here.

Uh committed to continuing to do the work with uh Councilmember Alcorn um and and of course with you and your your team there as well.

Um, and you really want to push on partnerships.

Last but not least.

Um I say this a lot as someone that used to manage uh youth programs.

I'm I'm in favor for after school programming and summer programming, uh, but there's several organizations that can do that work.

Um, and I know that the parks department is currently having some of these partnerships.

Um, but we need to do this a lot a lot more intentional as well.

Uh, because again, uh at some point government can't do it all, and and there's a lot of support out there uh with nonprofits and geos that would love to engage our young folks uh out of school time programming uh year-round.

So again, just want to say thank you for being here, Karina.

Um looking forward to the ribbon cutting again and yes, 21st, 530.

You're all invited.

Come to Fonday Park and come see what we have done together.

And it there was a lot of input from the community from the design.

It was it was a really great experience, yeah.

Thank you, Karina.

Hopefully, Ruben's here now.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Uh Mr.

Gars is not arrived.

We can leave this pending.

Could get to item three.

Uh if he arrives after three, we uh certainly want to allow him to testify.

So let's go to item three.

He just won't find come on up, uh Mr.

Garcia.

Oh boy.

Sorry, I'll thank you so much.

Take a deep breath.

Yeah, we waited for the uh all I can say is uh whoever designs the routes on the way, Mos need to figure out how to get to City Hall a little better.

I'll say that.

Uh thank you guys.

Thank you, City Hall Mayor.

My name is Ruben Garza.

I'm a local conversation leader for Strong Towns Houston, and as I'm running out of breath, I'd like to make it very clear that uh we support the updated open space ordinances.

But as Councilmember Alcorn flagged earlier that this is just phase one.

There's a lot more that can be done here, including a draft amendment that we submitted that hopefully gets uh included into the later amendments specifically.

Uh we would like to try to work with the planning department and the city of Houston to have a gray space for green space trade-off where essentially as there's more dedicated space uh for parks, that offers the developers a reduction in their parking burden under chapter 26.

As we all know that the parking mandates under 26-492 are very burdensome, particularly for multifamily developments, and it's harder for these developments to uh dedicate space for green dedicate green space because of the parking requirement.

So they opt for the inloof fee, which I do agree it does need to be raised and scaled based on density, and we do have that in our proposal, but I wanted to stress more so the trade-off for uh green space here.

I think it's important that as we do commit ourselves to park space and for multifamily housing, not just single-family housing in the city of Houston, that we can relieve some of the burdens on developers and for homeowners alike by um by reducing their overall parking burden.

Uh we're happy to be working with the city on uh these amendments, and hopefully we'll see them in the next round of uh amendments as they go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Alcorn.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ruben, for coming, and and we have uh make sure that planning has all of that information.

I know in the legislature, um they did something uh that run required per apartment.

Do you know about that bill?

Somebody told me about there was a bill in the last legislature about there must be one parking place per apartment, correct?

Correct, yes.

Uh SB 840, which passed in the last legislative session, does I don't know what the specific criteria are, but there is basically some sort of tie between multifamily housing, basically apartment complexes limiting uh there's a cap on the parking requirement to be one per unit, which I mean, if you ask me to pick the least bad parking mandate, that would probably be.

What's our current chapter 26 on apartment?

Well, uh for multifamily units, we are capped because SB 840 is the statewide preemption law.

I don't happen to know that one off the top of my head for residential purposes.

I know uh the uh livable places initiative back in 23 did reduce a lot of the parking burden uh to closely to one per unit, but I still think in some cases that can be too high, depending on where uh depending on where these buildings are located as um depending on where they're located, their proximity to transit, etc.

Instead, we would advocate for a more flexible market-based approach.

Okay, okay.

Well, I appreciate your bringing something to us, and I know that we're reviewing it.

Thank you very much.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Happy to work on that as uh as the planning commissioner views it as legal reviews it as we go forward.

Thank you.

Councilmember Panzrella.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ruben, for being here.

Um just a quick question.

I know we're talking about the park fee and potentially raising that um for developers here, and I recognize that other cities throughout Texas generally have a higher uh park fee for developers.

Is there an opportunity here as we talk about parking reform to be able to reduce the maximum parking requirements for developers to kind of allow for a higher uh park fee without passing costs on to you know residents?

So if I understand that correctly, you're asking for how do you simultaneously raise a fee while also reducing a parking requirement?

Yeah.

Uh I mean it can be done for sure.

Uh I don't know of any other case studies.

In fact, I'm not a hundred percent.

We we talked with the national parking reform network about um the park space for green or the parking for park space uh recommendations and they quite haven't seen anything else.

So at least that's from a preliminary skim.

So we would be pretty much taking a pretty a pretty bold initiative if we adopted that or not going forward.

I think as far as the fee is concerned, and I correct me if I'm wrong, Councilmember Alcorn, it's still 700.

Yeah, that's really low.

Um it's incredibly low.

But at the same time, uh a lot of developers are gonna, my understanding is a lot of developers and home builders are constrained by, among other things, parking requirements, so then they just kind of opt for the in-loof fee.

Something that could be worked out is again kind of scaling that uh fee to residential areas where it is a little more costly uh to build kind of helping helping them uh work that out.

I'm I'm a to be fully frank.

I'm a little more dedicated to the parking for park space trade-off, but we're again we're happy to flesh out the um the density scaling for the fee a little uh further as the amendments get discussed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Protean.

Thank you.

This is um I want to make a motion to add someone to the speaker's list.

Uh Taylor Valley is here and she would like to speak.

Ruben, thank you.

Love to hear that you wrote in a Waymo.

Yeah, it was great.

Uh, fix the route.

Just leave earlier.

Taylor Valley.

Motion to add motion made in segment.

Go for it.

Okay, thank you.

Good to see you.

Good to see you too.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm Taylor Valley Presley, the parks equity analyst and advocate for the coalition for environment, equity, and resilience.

We have been in strong support of the proposed amendments, and I've previously gone to the public hearing and at planning commission to support these efforts, and I'm really happy to see it here at council today.

Um, I ask that the actual fee amount is taken into consideration in the near future, and that these amendments remain only the first step.

I know councilmember Alcorn has been staunchly supporting this, and I thank her for that and strongly support those efforts.

The $700 development fee has been the same since 2007, which we've previously heard, um, which is now nearly 20 years old, and if adjusted to today's inflation would be just a little over eleven hundred dollars, which is still under the threshold for the low fee option, which is on the table.

This absolutely needs to be raised in consideration of our parks, which help build a community just as much as the actual homes do.

These amendments plus the fee raise will be highly beneficial towards smaller neighborhood parks, which impact the overall quality of life to the people of Houston by creating more equitable safe spaces to exercise, meet, play, and congregate, in addition to doing our environment a favor through providing shades, support, supporting native plants, and water absorption in times of inclement weather events.

We hope that this is only the beginning to an upward trend to the attention towards our underserved neighborhood parks and the overall importance of parks to our society.

Thank you for considering this matter and let's keep up the momentum.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else present would like to testify?

Not there, motion to close hearing.

Motion made in secondary closed hearing.

All in favor say yes.

Those closed and I'm closed.

Item number three.

Mr.

Secretary, you please call it.

Item three is a public hearing on proposed issuance of bond by the bonds by the public finance authority.

Okay.

Thank you.

We don't we do not have a presentation, but we have a couple of witnesses.

Dominique Lazar.

I saw him.

Yeah, he's here.

Yeah, he's over here.

I'm here.

Okay.

Take your time.

Coffee.

I know it's wrong.

I don't mind everybody knowing I want coffee.

Okay.

Good morning, Mayor and Corshoe.

Yes, I did come on the 96 to the red line and walked over here.

Backtrack a hair.

We need to write the red line to Moody Park and see the collaboration between uh Agent Garcia, Commissioner One and the City of Houston and the uh Prince of Moody's Park.

I think Melrose is one that needs to be looked at in the same way because that was a county park at one time before it took up.

Well, this okay.

During the when you came in mayor and started with Metro next, you said we need to do two things.

We need to be prepared for the guests that come to the city, but also prepare the city for those who live here all the time.

The idea of an outpatient facility for people with drug abuse, I think is a wonderful idea.

However, the way this is a blank check.

If you notice there's no paperwork, you know, and I think there needs to be some paperwork involved with this before the council lets this bond out.

For instance, like yesterday, they were talking about the housing department watched the facility on Jensen Drive.

Well, I came up and said it's wonderful, but have you checked the save Metro goes by the place?

Yes, it does.

The six brands every 30 minutes, or the sidewalk's good to get to get to the place.

This is a black check.

There's no indication where this is going to be.

The drug situation.

People are hooked on this stuff as affecting the homelessness.

I know it's affecting the riots on metro, so on and so forth.

But we can't be giving out blank checks.

It don't work.

Anything else that comes before this horseshoe?

Basically, you have a plan.

You know, with this bond, it's going to be set for this, that, and the other.

There's a list.

So my suggestion on this is for council to I think they'll call it tagging or tabling the matter.

Uh go to this group and say, we'll give you the money, but we need a place where you're gonna be, and how you're gonna spend this bond money.

Uh otherwise it's a blank check, and Mayor, I know you're trying to control and Sally and Maria.

I know you're trying to control how we're spending money so we don't go broke.

And by state constitution, we cannot have deficit spending.

I understand that.

But anything we do from here on out has to be uh well defined in way we spend our money and come back to see if these goals are being met.

So with that, I have no comments.

I'm sending it back to council.

Be safe.

Gerald Brown.

No, no, Gerald Brown.

Anyone else president like testify on item three?

Yes, ma'am.

Why don't you state your name, please?

Good morning.

My name's Ronnie Martin.

I'm here from Chapman and Cutler, and I am here on behalf of bond counsel for Flyland regarding the issuance of bonds for the public finance authority.

Just wanted to answer some of the questions that were raised from the prior speaker.

So, in regards to the facility that is hoping to be financed with tax-exempt bond proceeds, the operations at the facility will remain the same.

There's not going to be any changes to the facility in regards to the services that it's currently providing the community.

Um, what we're trying to accomplish is to allow for the current facility that is being operated on a for-profit basis to be transitioned to a not-for-profit facility, allowing for the community to be better supported with a mission-driven facility.

Um, so there's not going to be any changes in regarding to the um types of services that you can obtain there.

Um, and same thing, there's not going to be any paperwork needed or license or anything of that nature because the facility will be operating the same as it currently is.

Um, I also wanted to reiterate that the city of Houston and the state of Texas are not in any way liable for the payment on the bonds that are being used to finance this acquisition.

Um, it will be paid solely by Flyland Holdings, which is the borrower for these bonds.

Um, under the tax code, not for profits have to issue bonds through a uh governmental authority, and that's why we are here today.

We need to have a public hearing to allow individuals where the facilities are located and that are going to be financed with the bond proceeds.

We have to hold a public hearing in that jurisdiction.

So we're here today really just to meet the tax code requirement of holding a public hearing, providing notice to the citizens of the area that this facility is going to be financed with tax exempt bond proceeds.

But again, the city of Houston and the state of Texas will not be liable in any way for the payment on the bonds.

Thank you.

Anyone else president lock tests on item three?

If not, is there a motion to close?

Cast say to move to close the public hearing.

Motion made in the second to close public hearing on item three.

All in favor, say yes, those opposed night.

Motion passes.

Mr.

Secretary, you ready for the consent agenda?

Under the miscellaneous category, item four needs a motion.

Motion made in second.

All in favor say yes, those opposed, no.

Motion passes.

Under the accept work category.

Items five, six, and seven have been removed for separate consideration.

Need a motion for item eight.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes, those opposed to nay motion passes.

Under the ordinances category.

Items 16, 18, 19, 20, 34, and 36 have been removed for separate consideration.

Again, those numbers are 16, 18, 19, 20, 34, and 36.

Need a vote on the balance.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Items removed for separate consideration.

Item five needs a motion.

Cast next tape a move.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Item six needs a motion.

Cast second statum move.

Hex second.

All in favor, motion made and second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed, nay, motion passes.

Item seven needs a motion.

Cast next statum move.

Hex second.

Motion made second.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Item 16 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

All in favor say yes.

All opposed, nay, motion passes.

Item 18 is an ordinance.

Just need to vote.

All in favor, say yes.

Those opposed, nay, motion passes.

Item 19 is an ordinance.

Just need to vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Item 20 is an ordinance.

Just need to vote.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed nay.

Motion passes.

Item 30.

Oh, Councilmember Martinez.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mary.

And uh these uh these agreements with the the Harris uh with Harris County is uh these are important.

Um this is for Turst 23, which is in the East End.

We looked at uh Gulfgate Turds as well, which is in mostly hobby area.

And just wanted to uh make sure that folks know that uh this this partnership allows for Harris County to now start uh adding towards uh the the project specifically when it comes to housing uh homeless homeless uh housing programs uh but also just in general with uh with with the increase increment, and now we can see more projects happening within those districts.

So I want to uh thank uh your your team and your administration, mayor, and of course our county commissioners that are partnering with us uh to ensure that uh the tax dollars are within those areas can be uh reinvested um into uh infrastructure, housing, and whatever other uh uh projects are needed in the area.

So I just want to say thanks uh for colleagues for supporting it as well next.

Item 34 is an ordinance, just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes, collar tag, uh tag back, councilmember Pollard, next item 36 is an ordinance, just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes, those opposed nay.

Motion passes, item 37 is a motion to receive nominations for appointment to positions 10 and 11 of the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System Board of Trustees.

Can we have the first nominees from Council Member Castax Tatum?

Mayor Pro Tim Castic Statum.

Thank you, Mayor and colleagues.

I'd like to nominate John Gilmore, the fourth for the appointment to position 10 for a three-year term for Houston Municipal Employees Pension System Board of Trustees, and then the other nominee we have for position 11.

Thank you.

Councilmember Evan Shabazz.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would also like to nominate Denise Castillo Rhodes for reappointment to position 11 of the Houston Municipal Pension System Board.

Very good.

If no letters, then we just need a motion to close.

Cast next tata move to close the nominations.

Next second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor say yes, those opposed to night.

Motion passes.

Well.

Matters held.

Items held, Mr.

Secretary.

Hey on.

Item 38.

Tag Martinez.

Tag.

38 tag by Councilman Martinez.

That's so we can have the Director Allen here.

Excellent.

Next.

Item 39 is an ordinance.

Just need a vote.

I'd like to like to ask for a motion to delay for one week on item 39.

Very fine.

We need a second to that, please.

Motion made and a second to delay 39.

All in favor say yes.

Those opposed to any motion passed.

One week.

No problem.

Item 40 is an ordinance.

Just need to vote.

Councilman Maris.

Thank you, Mayor.

I tagged this last week as well as the next one, which is related in the hopes of uh using the $50 million for single family home repair in a way that will help more families.

It came out in committee that uh the expectation was that as few as 168 uh homes would be reconstructed using the fifty million dollars as part of the uh DR 24 funding.

And uh I think we should be getting more for our money, quite frankly, and trying to help more families.

Uh this is philosophical difference, I think, with uh a housing leadership.

I hope that going forward uh we will structure it in a way that more money goes to homes that nearly uh uh need to be rehabilitated, which allows up to a hundred thousand per house versus reconstructed, which allows up to three hundred thousand per house.

Um when we started talking about this months ago, uh Councilmember Thomas offered uh an amendment to the original proposal to to allow more money to be spent on housing.

I supported that amendment, voted for it, and I still do.

I would just like to see more more families helped in the future, and so I'll be supporting this, but hopefully in the future we can work towards that.

Very good.

Item 40.

All in favor say yes, those opposed, nay, motion passes.

No, we have a coding.

41.

Item 41 is an ordinance, just need a vote.

All in favor, say yes, those opposed, nay, motion passes.

Item 42 is an ordinance, just need to vote.

All in favor say yes, those opposed to the Ramirez.

It's in the queue.

You want to be recognized before we vote?

Uh I do, Mayor.

Thank you.

I tagged this last week as well.

Uh, this is regarding water rates for uh water supply contract for one of our MUDs, and it was really to get information about um how water rates are set, not just for city residents, but for uh customers who live outside the city.

Uh members of the public may not know, although we have two point three million residents in Houston.

We actually provide water to more than five million people, so more than twice the number of Houstonians uh are served by our water system.

And so I had a great meeting with with some folks from the water department within public works uh last week and learned a lot about this.

Um what it comes down to is is the as water rates increase for Houston residents, they also increase for customers outside the city.

So they're bearing uh the same costs that that Houston residents are, and that will continue to be the case.

The stair step increases that Houstonians have faced each of the last few years was uh voted on by a previous council.

Um, and mayor and mayor.

However, we do have another rate study going on because rate studies have to be conducted, you know, at least every five years, and so we'll see what that reveals.

We should get it early next year, and and that may entail some adjustment to rates as well.

But it's good to know that those who live outside the city who uh receive water from the city are also sharing in these cost increases.

So given that information, I'm happy to support this item.

I just need a vote.

All in favor say yes, those opposed to the motion passes.

This completes the items on the agenda.

Very good.

Thank you, Mr.

Secretary.

Good job.

Councilmember Huffman is absolutely Maris.

Are you ready?

You need a minute.

I'll go for it, Mayor.

And so, you know, the big news story yesterday was a shooting on the east side of an undocumented immigrant by ICE agents.

And um many are calling for an independent investigation and wondering what HPD's role in that is.

Um, I would just like to say, based on past experience from working at the district attorney's office, how these shooting investigations work when a federal agent is involved.

Um basically, because of the supremacy clause in the U.S.

Constitution, federal law and federal agent policies.

They conduct the investigation, the primary investigation, lead investigation when an agent, federal agent shoots someone within the city of Houston or anywhere in the U.S.

for that matter.

And uh based on the way they typically handle their investigations.

Local authorities, including local police department, are essentially cut out of the primary investigation.

Federal agencies will control the scene, they'll control the evidence, they'll take witness statements, they'll collect the evidence, and uh will share what they want to share with local authorities.

And so it becomes quite difficult for local authorities to conduct a decent investigation.

This has been the case over several decades.

It didn't just start yesterday, and um that's that's the circumstances under which our police department and other local departments work under.

Um I just want the community to understand that, although they're calling for the police department to conduct an investigation uh for all practical purposes, that is extremely difficult if not impossible.

And so I just would like people to know that.

Um I know we all have questions about how, according to news reports, uh this individual who had been in our community who'd been a Houston resident for 35 years and was on his way to work, is now is now dead.

And we all have questions, we all want answers, and hopefully um the federal investigation will be transparent enough to where we'll get the answers that we want.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I just want to uh uh join my name with the uh heart and pa heartache and pain many residents and the fear many residents are experiencing as this vibrates throughout our community.

This was a heated uh debated topic in the horseshoe for a very long time.

And I think as we talk about him and mention his name, we just we need to uh lead with that he was a father of three lead with uh his humanity uh and not uh a label of designation on uh immigrant status.

I think that is incredibly important when we talk about these stories, and so definitely looking forward to information about um how this case proceeds, um, and then how we continue to support Houstonians with that.

So definitely uh a sad moment.

Um, on a brighter note, I want to wish Ella Jefferson, my tenth grade English teacher, a happy birthday, um, and my uh assistant principal, she's one of the reasons why I graduated.

Um I have not called her because she is asking me about her 230,000 dollar sidewalk that I have not yet fixed, but I want you to know that I'm working on it, and um hopefully I can deliver on your birthday gifts.

Um, some good news from public works.

We have completed a hundred and forty-five thousand dollar sidewalk uh installation uh on Eldritch and Ashford Point.

Uh lots of aggressive infrastructure projects happening there.

So you would see that.

We also completed an asphalt rehab at Bel Air and Senate all the way to A.

Leaf Clothing in West Park Tollway, which it's been in the in the queue for a couple of years, and that is done, and it looks really, really good.

So thank you for all of that.

And you'll see more updates in our uh newsletter.

I want to highlight that on this upcoming Saturday, July 11th at Agape Christian Fellowship.

My team and several of the partners, we are hosting uh another mobile day of care serving our unhoused population on the west side, and it'll be a little smaller.

We'll be inside and we'll have the mobile shower there as we get ready to kind of address this heat.

Um we listened to the participants last year and the services that they're interested in.

So we are delivering that on Saturday.

Uh we're looking we're gonna have West Houston assistance ministries there to make sure that they are added to HMIS.

Um we'll have Agape Christian Fellowship, we'll have haircuts, the Houston Health Department immunizations, and a whole lot more.

Um, so uh definitely looking forward to uh reporting out our impact when we return to council.

Um and this is my annual summer of safety, and so um on July 30th, I believe we're having um we're having a gun lock distribution.

October of 2021, we hosted the largest gun distribution, gun collection um event in the nation at the time.

We collected over 1500 guns uh at the West Chase Park and Ride in an effort to reduce uh gun access.

And so this summer we're providing gun locks.

We've had a series and increase of uh gun-related violence uh particularly around young people and domestic violence.

So thank you to our district attorney Sean Tier and our interim uh county attorney um for the gracious donation for these items, and so we're gonna ask residents to sign up, one per household.

We're doing all that we can to keep residents safe over the summer, particularly with young people.

Uh, and then some solemn, somber somber news.

The old A Leaf Hennington Library is in process of demolition.

Um we have reserved a hundred bricks in honor of the building.

Um, thank you to GSD for working with our office to um secure that the list has been completely filled.

So we do have a wait list.

Thank you to all who shared your memories about the A Leaf Hennington Library where you received your library card, where you went after school and your parents were working and you had to stay there until they were off.

All of that is documented.

We are excited to report that we are turning that public space for public good.

Um, that will be a site of added detention as we um protect the surrounding neighborhoods with added flood protection.

Uh this was a CIP project, and then we had um some support from Harris County Precinct 4 and the Houston, the Harris County Flood District to do that a project.

So excited about that.

So, no, it won't be a gas station, as many of you have asked.

It will not be a gas station.

Um, uh so stay tuned to our uh newsletter for details on how and when to pick up your brick.

I want to close with just an update about the old Wells Fargo off of Hillcroft in Richmond.

The good news is the building is demolished.

I want to just thank Houston Public Works and the residents that have consistently worked with our office to make sure we can keep this a priority.

As you know, we had a homicide at that location at the top of the year, which we really um put a lot of attention there.

We had close to 15 to 20 um homeless individuals living in that building that was their place of residence with the demolition.

Although that was a uh a win for the community, it also created an increase of visible homelessness at our intersections where we're witnessing um open drug use um right there at the bus stop, right there off the Metro bus stop.

And so uh Midwest HPD, they're handling business, they've added that location and those subsequent sites to their FIFA task force where they've been monitoring particular locations.

So they've been clearing that.

We've been working with Metro PD, the subdivision Briar Meadow.

They also have private security with the constable's office.

So we're all collaborating around that, and so our uh team is canvassing that area to make sure that these individuals also have some resources, but it just goes to show that once we decommission um blighted buildings and encampments, there has to be a place to go.

Um, and uh uh 419 is probably almost fully subscribed at this point, and so uh we need a lot of attention there.

I just want to raise on the record to the residents that we're actively working on this site with our law enforcement partners, and so to stay tuned for updates and then to make sure that you document this with law enforcement, sending emails is a great courtesy.

We appreciate to the office, but when we pull the record and there are no calls for service, law enforcement can't do what they need to do, and we can't activate on the record to make sure that you have the right resources deployed.

So, more information will come out in our newsletter on Friday.

Um, please stay tuned and feel free to call the office for any quick updates.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Mayor Protium.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, wanted to we've talked a lot about parks today.

Um, so I'm very excited to give the update on Cambridge Village Park uh Ramblewood Park update.

Um, colleagues, you may have remembered we voted to um turn part of that park as a dual use park for detention as well as play.

Well, that project is almost complete.

Um the contractors are continuing the excavation um work, the walkways are nearly complete.

There's the installation of the park amenities, and the pavilion is coming soon.

Um, it is exciting to see it actually coming to fruition.

Um, this is a park that uh many of the residents have advocated for since I was a young girl and lived in that neighborhood.

So it it means a lot to see that this park is actually getting so many updates and will be one of our um premier community parks in district K.

Um the Planning Commission hearing for Hillcroft Business Park Platte 2026 0916 um will take place um the public hearing on Thursday, July 23rd at 2 30 p.m.

Uh that applicant is requesting a variance to exceed intersection spacing along Hillcroft Avenue.

So if residents are interested in that project, um they can attend in person here at 900 Bagby Street or submit comments sending an email to speakercomments.pc at Houston TX.gov.

And then want to remind our residents that our next super neighborhood council 40 meeting is um scheduled to be on Monday, August the 17th at 6 p.m.

at the Hiram Clark Multi-service center, and we hope that all of our residents will participate in that next meeting.

And then Mayor, I wanted to amplify um the drainage and street projects that are happening in district K.

Over the holiday, I had an opportunity to really ride around the district, and um we have been very aggressive with neighborhood streets and our thoroughfares.

Um, and it was exciting to see so many projects happening simultaneously.

Um so I know for a lot of residents, you know, we get the calls about you know the street and this, and um, but when it's happening, it's exciting, and um I know it can be inconvenient sometimes when you have to slow down or if you have to take a detour, but as a council member of District K, when I see the trucks out there and the signs and the detour signs, that's excitement because progress is happening.

Um willow bin is being repaved, West Airport Street and drainage project starts this month.

The Westbury drainage project will start um this month.

Um, so all of that activity in that that um area of district K is happening simultaneously, and I think it's um worth noting that uh we are moving our neighborhood streets and drainage projects forward.

Um, and it's exciting for residents to see those improvements.

Thank you, and a shout out to public works and to council.

We're spending an all-time record on drainage and streets.

We notice the thoroughfares and get positive comments, but now we're actually in the neighborhoods with a priority list.

So everyone make certain that you're reviewing and staying in contact with public works because 500 million this year will go to 750 million next year with the settlement of the German watching lawsuit.

So we're definitely uh moving in the right direction and playing catch up from years of neglect.

So thank you for your comments.

Councilman, Vice Mayor Pro Timpeck.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'm excited to announce that Hope City is hosting a food and supply distribution this Saturday at 9 o'clock a.m.

at Spring Spirit.

Um that's 8526 Pitner Road.

Um, this is part of their days of hope initiative, and we're really excited for them to be in our district.

Monday, July 13th, the Carverdale Civic Club is hosting a meeting to discuss an update about the Hawthorne Park landfill.

Um, Harris County Attorney Abby Kaman will be there with an announcement and an update.

It'll be at 7 o'clock PM at the Carverdale Community Center.

Um, that has been an issue for many years, Mayor.

As you are aware, um, air quality concerns and all kinds of other concerns.

So I'm excited for that update on Monday.

And finally, Tuesday, July 14th, the public safety committee will meet at 10 o'clock a.m.

We have two presentations.

Um, the first will be the fire department will present um about the emergency telehealth and navigation system, the Ethan project.

So they'll give us an update on that.

At the last committee meeting, there were a lot of questions about that.

So I hope everyone comes to hear an update on that program.

And then HFD will also present um about the high water rescue vehicle operations in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Martin.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I first want to start off with uh with uh prayers and condolences to the family.

Uh today there is a uh father and husband that will not be coming home in the Magnolia Park, and I also want to lift up the the neighborhood as well.

Uh prayers to the community who's been uh out there since uh this this uh tragic shooting.

Um I continue to stay in communication with Congresswoman Garcia um so we can get as updated uh quick information um from the federal level um as councilman Ramidez mentioned.

Uh I want to reassure community HPD was not there, uh, had no involvement.

Um and important to ensure that we're not conflating the two.

Uh as I've been sharing with folks uh for over a year, is that we need to make sure that there continues to be uh trust in the community with local law enforcement because when we continue to break down that trust and folks continue to be in more fear, um not calling and and so um as as the day has gone on, you know, it does become more and more difficult um to to hear uh you know just some of the the you know the conversations are coming from this.

But I again I just want to uh remind folks that um throughout the investigation uh where it's happening that uh we continue to make sure we're lifting up the family first and foremost.

Um my office will continue to uh to uh stay in communications with uh Congresswoman Garcia who's having a press conference currently.

Uh there's two uh community events that are happening today in the Magnolia Park area.

Um, and just uh want to make sure that as you go and attend, um, you know, to let you know that uh we are looking at everyone's safety as well while you're out there.

Um I plan on being out there if at any point the two different organizations can plan to co-host an event rather than at two different times in two different locations, it would be helpful as well.

I think at the end of the day, the message is um we need to ensure that federal government is being held accountable as well, specifically in this scenario, ICE.

Um the fear is real, the pain is real, and we need to uh ensure that as Houstonians um and as a Houstonian that has left us yesterday that we focus on public safety, um, making sure that that that is our primary primary uh um concern, and so um again, uh prayers to the family uh to the three sons and and uh the the wife of the deceased.

Thank you for your remarks, and the city joins you in issuing uh condolences to the family.

It is a truly a tragedy.

We're monitoring it very carefully.

We're in constant touch with our federal elected officials, insisting that there's a transparent uh independent uh investigation, and if I learn uh of any new information, uh I'll certainly share it with council.

We're in touch with Lou Lulak and community leaders uh, but it's true, truly a tragedy, as I've said two years ago.

I wish it was something that we just didn't have to deal with, but I do uh recognize the good training of HPD and the policies of Chief Diaz, that there was no involvement of HPD, and in fact, two days before there was a chase that uh I was involved in and HPD uh was not involved, so uh it's a very tragic complex issue that is brought to us by our federal officials, so we need to continue to have contact with our elected congressional people that represent here, and obviously we have two U.S.

Senators, but our prayers go out to the family and the community that feels the pain and anxiety.

Certainly our young people that uh and students that just do not understand, except I know per fact they're afraid.

So thank you for your remarks.

I think Councilman Ramirez, uh, with his district attorney experience described the process that uh there cannot be too ongoing investigations, certainly when there's not jurisdiction by one of them.

So let's um continue to monitor it very carefully, and thank you for your leadership, Councilman Castillo.

Really, there's there's many council members that um are taking calls.

We're monitoring it very carefully out of my office.

Uh I think it's unfortunate that some would politicize it.

I think the media needs to be as accurate as possible and not inflame things uh as some would attempt to do.

So our prayers are with the family, the community, and quite frankly, all Houstonians understand the pain and send our condolences.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I want to first start off by uh following up with you on a letter that I wrote earlier this week uh for you to consider a 90-day moratorium on the approval of any new applicants for gas station construction in the city.

Uh I understand that the city has zoning, um, but I have been talking to stakeholder groups and neighborhood groups uh who have real concerns regarding health effects of having a concentration of many gas stations and um a close area that is near residential neighborhoods.

Uh, this is an issue that I brought up a couple years ago that I think we need to look into.

Um we're starting to see um just an abundance of uh gas stations in um in our communities, and uh that has some benefit for sure because uh that business is essential and critical to our day to our daily routine.

However, uh I do think there's some unintended consequences there as well from a health standpoint, from a public safety standpoint, a quality of life standpoint that I do think the city needs to look at, and so this moratorium will give us an opportunity to have those discussions uh and see if there is a way in which we can address some of the concerns of the residents.

So uh look forward to hopefully hearing back from you or someone on your team uh regarding uh that letter.

Um as it pertains to the incident on yesterday.

I too give my condolences to the family.

Um I understand the parameters uh regarding uh federal investigations and their jurisdiction, but this is the city of Houston, and what happens here is our responsibility as well.

I would call and ask that we do all we can to get answers for true transparency.

We have all the right to ask for uh video footage in the area from any business owner, from uh any camera uh that is accessible to us uh to be able to um get witness statements to talk to the community to try to figure out what happened because we can't just leave everything up to the federal government and sit back and hope that they will be transparent regarding their own agency and their own actions.

I think it is very much appropriate that we do all we can and show Houstonians that we're doing all that we can to bring answers to them in a time of grief and a time of uncertainty.

Uh, and we have the ability to do that.

And so I would I would call on uh your office to do all it can with HPD and others uh to get those answers in the quiet that uh that concern that is there.

As we follow this story, I know I continue to look for updates and there just isn't much there.

We're not getting a lot of answers.

And if we're not getting the answers, then I know that the residents are having difficulty getting answers, and we can't give them true communication on what is actually transpiring.

And so, uh independent investigation on our behalf for as much as we can do, I think is the minimum.

And uh I hope that uh you will take that consideration seriously and put it forth.

And if there are any updates that you can give us now, um, that would be helpful so that we can communicate properly with our constituents.

Thank you.

Okay, Alcorn.

Thank you.

I'll just briefly add my um sentiments about yesterday, too.

Um, of course, we're all very sad that this violence has taken place.

I agree with you, Mayor.

I wish I wish we didn't have to deal with it.

I really wish we didn't have to deal with it.

It's not something we had to deal with in the past, and um condolences to the family and all affected by this tragedy.

Thank you, Mayor, and I'll just add my condolences to the community.

Um, death is never easy no matter how uh how it happens or regarding the circumstances.

So my condolences to the entire community.

Thank you.

Councilmember Evan Shabon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, of course, I want to add my condolences as well.

Uh a loss of life is always a tragedy, regardless of the circumstances.

Um I want to take a moment to recap two important community events that took place recently.

First, the McGregor Park, Lunch and Learn was held on Wednesday, July 1st uh at the Houston Business Development Incorporated, located at 5330 Griggs Road.

This Lunch and Learn focused on the McGregor Park project and provided an opportunity for community members and partners to receive updates, ask questions and better understand the work taking place.

I want to thank Linda Carper for leading the presentation.

Camilla for supporting the Houston Parks Board table and John Brant for presenting the technical side of the project.

I also want to thank the Houston Parks Board, including Justin, Chantel, and Lisa for all they do to support our parks, green spaces, and the communities they serve.

Their work continues to make a meaningful difference in District D.

I also want to recap the Harris County MUD 390 Annual Safety and Security Meeting held on Tuesday, June 30th at 6 p.m.

to 7:30 at Hill Day Public Relations 3801 Kirby Drive.

This meeting brought together elected officials, law enforcement leadership, neighborhood representatives, and the Harris County MUD 390 Board of Directors to review action items, evaluate progress, discuss emerging safety concerns, and identify next steps to support community well-being.

I want to thank HPD, Harris County Precinct Seven Constables' Office, and DJ Rashid for her leadership and continued commitment to bringing partners together around safety, security, and quality of life.

Public safety requires partnership.

It takes communication coordination, accountability, and making sure residents feel heard, supported, and protected in their own neighborhoods.

And both of these events reflect what strong community engagement looks like.

Residents, partners, and public servants coming together to share information, solve problems, and move out, move our communities forward.

Upcoming event today here in Chambers, the Arts and Culture Committee meeting, certainly will be convened today.

We'll gather together with the community, the arts community in particular, to uh make presentations and to listen to their concerns to move forward, and that will be today at 2 p.m.

again here in chambers.

And the meeting is open to the public and will also re be broadcast on HTV.

And you know, Mayor, uh last night I was coming back because I was determined, you know, I don't like to miss counsel, and my my flight got diverted to San Antonio, you know.

And they said they were low on fuel.

And I was like, okay, well, you know, I might have to get a car uh and drive myself home.

Especially when they didn't offer us any margaritas and any Mexican food.

But at any rate, I did make it, praise God.

And you know, Mayor, I don't know if this needs to be a pop A, but maybe we ought to meet just one time in July.

We have so can I get an Amen?

We have so many conferences going on, and like me, and my colleagues are like me, we don't like to miss council meeting.

So I don't know if it's gonna be a pop A or what, maybe once or twice in the month of July, but just something to consider.

But certainly um uh thank you for this time, and that concludes what's going on in the I mean you put it out there, right?

And the dis Who's gonna object?

Uh you, Ed Pollard, but the district of destination.

Thank you.

She may council member Continua.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to start by reiterating my condolences to the family and the community that are grieving right now, the loss of a father, a family member, a friend, a co-worker.

The community deserves a thorough and transparent accounting of the facts and a investigation that is impartial and guided by evidence.

Um as we move forward, I will continue to work with Congresswoman Garcia, who represents the area where this tragedy occurred, uh, to ensure that that information is made public and accessible and that every avenue for accountability and transparency is pursued.

Thank you.

Sure.

Councilman Davis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to um give a shout out to uh Hills Day and Text Dot.

I was participating in their uh workshop on yesterday with NAH IP, uh, along with TechSdot in disaster preparation at Finegie Park, which went uh very well in terms of information given to the residents in that community in regards to how they all prepare for the upcoming hurricane, the disasters.

Um, and I think it was very well uh done in a necessity because some of the things the state participation represented was there, uh, and a few others, which I thought was very vital because what happens is that when these disasters come, I I re-emphasize to meet them, contact your district council members, let them know what your um conditions and preparations, you know, to get information, also to emphasize the senior citizens.

Many of our seniors are the biggest priority for us when these things happen.

So I'm really grateful uh to participate in the workshop, and I want to give a shout-out for Hills Day doing a great job and putting that workshop together.

Last but not least, only briefly, um, we're looking forward to within the next uh weeks going into August to have our 11th uh town hall meeting.

As you know, as the staff office of At Large 2, we put a lot of emphasis on our town hall meetings.

We hope to have a robust list of people because we are getting into the hurricane or ended pretty much the hurricane season, and we've got to get all of our community um stakeholders involved, civic associations, HOAs, and other people who are interested in getting that information as was of yesterday.

Uh along with that, we intend to have presence for our law enforcement uh as we are going to hold this uh in the district D area, and we want to make sure uh that people are more informed about uh what uh we we are doing.

And then just last but not least, want to give a shout out to again our city just experienced uh tremendous national presence across the world and uh our law enforcement and fire department and all of them did a phenomenal job, excellent job uh in controlling our city, uh, and then I guess probably the only thing that we saw I saw that is a concern is of course our expressways, which is nothing new.

Uh several big major accidents that are uh on on our expressways, and it created such a backup in our city mobility.

So I do have something I like to suggest to Chief Diaz uh from myself, Mayor, that we really consider that.

Thank you.

Very good, thank you.

Councilman Flickinger.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, we're having a recycling event in the south side of our district down in uh the Clear Lake area is be it uh Ellington Field starting this Saturday from nine o'clock until three or until the trucks are full.

So if the residents can make sure they get out there and uh get it before they are full.

Um also wanted to talk a little bit about uh the World Cup.

I mean, I think uh it was a very successful event.

I mean, obviously, we don't have the numbers in on the sales tax and the hotel and all that, but I think it was wildly successful.

And one of the things that was really special was all of the comments from the international visitors, not just about Houston, but about the state and the country.

Uh the social media posts were over the top.

Uh I wasn't terribly surprised.

I've spent some time in Europe and my wife's relatives have come and visited us, and a lot of the comments being made are the same thing that they've said before, although I admit uh I've never taken any of them to Golden Corral, but uh that seemed to be a hit with some of the visitors as well.

And what's really interesting is you juxtapose it with one of the editorials in our paper of record that really kind of denigrated the city and asking people to go out two twenty-five and roll down the windows and take a big whiff.

Um you know, I realize that isn't the most aesthetic part of the city, but yet it's a vital industry that provides uh the ingredients from everything from our food to our pharmaceuticals to our clothes, uh and you know, and and even with that, I remember growing up and going to Pasadena and 50 55 years ago, and the joke was, you know, you can see the air you breathe.

Uh it is so much better than what it was 50 years ago, and I'm sure 50 years from now it'll be so much better still as we uh innovate and and move forward.

Uh, and it's just a just a shame that uh, you know, I guess something owned by the Hearst Corporation really isn't concerned about reflecting our city in the best manner.

It is unfortunate that we have those constant critics when we all know the accolade that we were receiving, not only from our guests but from Houstonians.

And uh we'll do a show and tell or final report in a couple of weeks after it's over, but uh, fanfest was at capacity every night.

The Shell Dynamo overflow stadium was at capacity.

Uh I don't think we saw the hotel occupancy as had been projected, but certainly Houstonians feeled any shortage of uh participants.

I can't say enough about them here to give their final numbers, but the sports authority, the host committee, Chris Kennedy, our first responders.

And what's amazing is Saturday is to have a World Cup game, fanfest fool for the four o'clock game in Philadelphia, the Astros, and then an all-time, all-time size overcapacity.

Freedom over Texas.

So a shout out to all of our first responders and a shout out to uh Houstonians that uh July 4th events all of us.

Yeah, it was it was really great.

Really great.

So we'll we'll get those final numbers, but uh it was certainly, and let me just close with this comment.

From numerous delegations from around the world, the teams themselves, because of our diversity in our international communities that reside here.

All visiting teams felt like they were a home team.

Let's let that sink in a minute.

Because we're an international community, and our immigrants that have moved here and work in the med center in the chemical oil energy industry.

Uh the visiting teams all felt like they were a home team.

So that's a real outstanding commentary.

But uh, yes, it was well done.

And uh I think we've gotten the national.

Look at you.

Well, I hate to hit sister cities, but I've got a social media shot of Atlanta's FanFest.

Most of the cities divided their fanfest into smaller, smaller venues, but we did it big, safe, and thank you to the volunteers that that helped uh manage all of our sites.

So thank you.

I'm so excited that we held it and it was successful.

Uh councilmember Panzarella.

Thank you, Mayor.

I also would like to share my thoughts and prayers with the family and community members impacted by the tragic incident that occurred yesterday.

Lorenzo Salgado Arajo was killed during an ice operation in our city.

The continued escalation of ISIS enforcement taxes throughout the nation should concern every Houstonian.

We cannot accept a system where the use of deadly force becomes routine.

I join with many of my colleagues and Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia in calling for an independent and impartial investigation into the situation at the federal level.

My heart goes out to the family, and I stand with our immigrant community and with every family living in fear of increasingly aggressive immigrant enforcement.

As we just said, Houston is a city of immigrants, it is an international city, and we must stand by that community.

I encourage our Houston community to join me at the vigil this evening to honor the life of Lorenzo Salgado Arajo.

I'll be there at 7:30 PM tonight at the corner of Wayside Drive and Marcario Garcia.

On a writer note, District C.

Uh, we uh have some new members of our district C team, and I'm really excited to announce them.

They're in the audience today.

So as I say your name, please stand up and and I'll give you a quick little wave.

Um we have Vaughn Aubrey here, our constituent services director, previously worked for several battleground campaigns from New York to Georgia to here in Houston.

Uh she might have actually worked on this administration's campaign.

Um she also served in the mayor's office of innovation and performance.

She now serves our office and the wonderful residents of District C to assist them when needs arise, as well as to help build programs and use technology to ensure efficient operations.

Vaughn, thank you for being here.

Brandon Clements, our communications director, formerly a writer for The Chronicle with extensive experience in video production, graphic design, and marketing.

Brandon's expertise is invaluable as we strive to meet residents where they're at, more increasingly online.

Uh pushing for a more transparent district C and City Hall.

Brandon, thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Gloria Alvarez, our schedule for this summer.

Having served the city since 2017, Gloria has taken a glory at come on, Gloria.

She has taken a brief reprieve from retirement to help us get our office off the ground.

She has been so helpful, and from the reaction I'm seeing here, she's helped a lot of other offices in the past.

So thank you, Gloria.

And then last but not least, we have Anna Smith, our new chief of staff.

Anna, thank you for being here.

A former campaign staffer as well.

Round of applause, yeah.

Uh Anna served under Councilmember Cayman since early 2024, and we are incredibly excited to have her experience in our office as our new chief of staff.

I also want to give a shout out to Cruz Vargas and Cole Wilbur who have transitioned out of the office.

They were super helpful in my first month here, and and we're gonna miss them, frankly.

Uh, we look forward to bringing on a few more folks later on this summer, but our office is hit the ground running to serve district C in a meaningful way.

And thank you all for being here.

Thank you, Councilman Jackson.

Thank you, thank you, Mayor.

And um I too, I joined my colleagues um in sending my thoughts and prayers to the family.

Um it's always it's not a good thing when we lose um a resident, especially in this type of way.

And so um we'll continue to pray and and stand with the community and the family on this situation.

Thank you.

Um, colleagues on Lacks, last week I joined the mayor um and the secretary of hood at the Acres Home Multiservice Center to announce a hundred and one million dollars for generators.

And so we now have generators in all of the acres, all of the multi-service centers in district B.

So we're really excited about that.

I want to thank you, Mayor, um, your team, the residents of District B for their advocacy.

Um, and so whenever we get a storm and the light lights go out, we have a place to go.

I don't know about.

And I know that there's generators in the police stations and the fire stations, and so um just making us a more resilient city.

So thank you, Mayor, for your advocacy on that.

And then I also want to point out um read in the paper that the city credit rating has improved.

Um, so I want to congratulate you and your administration and council.

Because we all, I mean, the big budget has been like a stressful um time, but it's good to see that our um decisions that we made um is making the city better.

So thank you for that.

Um, last but not least, I want to invite folks out to our district B job fair.

Um, be successful job fair on tomorrow at the Acres Home, no, at HCC, um, located on Liddy York, this HCC North Forest campus.

It's gonna be between 10 and 1 p.m.

We have over 50 employers.

Um, that would be there hiring on.

Not everyone is hiring on the spot, but we do have employers hiring on the spot.

So if you know someone looking for a job, contact our office at 832 393 3009.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

If not, we stand adjourned.