City of Houston Government Operations Committee Meeting - May 11, 2026
City of Houston Government Operations Committee Meeting - May 11, 2026
Chair Fred Flickinger called the meeting to order with council members present including Councilwoman Amy Peck, Councilwoman Tiffany Thomas, Councilman Mario Castillo, Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castix Tatum, and Councilman Julian Junior Mares. Later joined by representatives from council offices of Carter, Cayman, Huffman, Alcorn, and Salinas. Three presentations were given covering solid waste tire permitting, parking program updates, and the water bill improvement plan.
Discussion Items
1. Solid Waste Management: Tire Permitting Program
Assistant Director Shiva Singh presented an overview of the tire permitting program initially effective in 2016. The ordinance requires all tire generators and transporters within city limits to be permitted and inspected annually, with fees of $114 for generators and $295 for transporters (plus $52.50 per additional vehicle). Key metrics: 1,800+ permits in system, only 1,100 active, 800 expired; 2,800 inspections performed annually; two-thirds of locations require reinspection; year-to-date 5 citations issued; 612 ordinance violations found. In FY25, solid waste conducted 9,500 inspections (80% responsive, 20% proactive), with 2,600 illegal dumping incidents involving tires. Calendar year through April 2026, an estimated 14,722 tires were disposed of by solid waste. Tires can be taken to all six neighborhood depositories (residential drop-off centers), environmental service centers, and consumer recycling centers. The city has a contract with Liberty Tire Recycling for collection.
Councilman Ramirez asked about enforcement, noting that many small businesses may be unaware of the permit requirement due to TCEQ's 500-tire threshold. Singh confirmed that inspectors often find new locations and that most businesses comply when informed. Ramirez also inquired about the disincentive of permit fees versus illegal dumping, and whether the environmental fee charged at tire purchase covers proper disposal—noting that retailers pocketing that fee while illegally dumping. Singh acknowledged the cost of compliance. Councilwoman Peck asked about hot team collections, which are included in solid waste numbers. Singh stated no changes to the ordinance are proposed.
2. Administration and Regulatory Affairs: Parking Program Updates
Deputy Director Maria Urshad presented updates on four programs:
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Mobile Payment Program: Since 2011, mobile payment adoption reached 50% of 3 million meter transactions. A 2025 RFP selected up to three vendors plus a data aggregator. Benefits include customer choice and accommodating out-of-town visitors. Contracts will be presented to City Council in June 2026 with no cost to the city; go-live anticipated winter 2026.
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Smart Loading Zone Pilot: 19 zones in downtown and midtown using cameras and license plate recognition to charge by the minute for delivery vehicles. Dynamic rates Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Existing commercial loading zone permittees will receive their allotted time (e.g., 2 hours) without per-minute charges. Go-live planned for June 2, 2026. Privacy assurances: license plate data stored only for payment and compliance; other data de-identified. After 18 months, if successful, a longer-term agreement will be sought.
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Ride Share Zones: Four zones primarily on Travis Street and Commerce to address nighttime congestion, especially after 2 a.m. Active Monday–Sunday, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Geofencing will direct ride shares to designated zones, avoiding main street corridor. Go-live by end of May 2026 in advance of FIFA activities.
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Chapter 26 and 16 Updates: Ordinance amendments addressing Controller's audit findings on the Washington Parking Benefit District, clarifying that the $100,000 project hurdle is a one-time threshold (not per project) and that citation revenue is not shared with the district. Other housekeeping updates. These amendments will be shared for public feedback and are anticipated to go to City Council in June 2026.
Councilman Ramirez asked for clarification on the Washington Parking Benefit District audit findings, which Urshad explained in detail.
3. Houston Public Works: Water Bill Improvement Plan
Chief Operations Officer Chris Butler (joined by Deputy Director Gina Gillary) presented an update on the Mayor's Water Bill Improvement Plan, initiated in 2024 to address billing inconsistencies from aging infrastructure. Over 20-year-old meters caused failed remote reads, estimated bills, and customer confusion. The plan focuses on replacing aging meters. FY24 actual device installations: 30,826 of a planned 51,000 (60% achieved). Average monthly manual reads: over 128,000. FY25 installations exceeded plan: 101,000 actual vs. 80,000 planned. FY26 plan: 60,000; to date 40,000 installed (as of the meeting). The presentation was cut off before completion.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the committee received presentations and discussed items.
- The mobile payment contracts and Chapter 26/16 ordinance amendments are scheduled for City Council approval in June 2026.
- The Smart Loading Zone pilot will launch June 2, 2026, and the Ride Share zones by end of May 2026.
- The Water Bill Improvement Plan continues with accelerated meter replacements; further updates expected.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone, council members, staff, members of the public. I'm Fred Flickinger, Chair of the City of Houston's government operations committee. Call this meeting to order and would like to welcome all council members in attendance. Councilwoman Amy Peck, and then we have staff from uh councilwoman Tiffany Thomas, Councilman Mario Castillo, Mayor Pro Tam, Martha Castix Tatum, and Councilman Julian Junior Mares. Council members and staff, please hold your questions until the end of the presentations. If there are any members of the public that would like to participate in public comment, there's a sign in sheet at the front of the table. For the first presentation, uh assistant director of the solid waste department, Shiva Singh will provide a review of illegally dumped tires ordinance. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Good morning, Chair. Good morning, uh committee members. So I'm going to give an overview of the tire permitting program within the solid waste management department. Next slide. So this ordinance was initially effective in 2016. It was to help establish regulations and procedures for the environmentally safe transportation, storage, accurate record keeping, and proper disposal of new, used or scrap tires. Tire shops can no longer use any transporter to discard their tires, they must be registered with the state and the city of Houston. Tires must be disposed of appropriately. The key difference is the TCQ regulation only applied to tire generators over 500 tires per year. City of Houston ordinance applies to all businesses to be all businesses within the city limits are to be inspected and permitted. Next slide, please. I'm reasonable. There you go. Thank you. Well, um, is the presentation it's okay. Um, real quickly to go over some definitions. A tire generator is defined as a fleet operator, an automotive dismantler, or a retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer, recapper, or retreader of new or used tires. Tire transporter is a person who is responsible for causing tires to move along a public street from one location to another within the city. Next slide, please. We are following chapter 39, Article 8, uh, entire permanent process. Uh so every tire generator is to be permitted annually and inspected. This would include reviewing their manifest records, storage, and disposal practices. Tire transporters are permitted and inspected, and they are issued a decal that should be visible on their truck as they perform their services. We are increasing the audit frequency and the depth of the manifest records kept by both generators and transporters through this program because of the TCAQ limit of 500 tires per year. Uh the goal of it is to cut down on illegal dumping of tires. Next slide, please. Tire inspector duties are to conduct inspections, particularly looking for the proper storage and disposal documentation, and that tire generators are following good environmental uh practices. They issue citations, legal warnings, they communicate and educate. They attend court when subpoenaed, process applications and payments for each business, mail out and issue permits and decals, and they respond to any inquiries for a business. Next slide, please. Registration and permit fees. For a tire generator, the permit fee is approximately 114. For a tire transport, the permit fee is approximately 295 dollars for one vehicle. A tire generator, uh sorry, a tire transporter can have multiple vehicles and will pay an additional 5250 per view. Annual registration and inspections are a requirement of the ordinance. Next slide, please. Looking at our permanent metrics, um, for the current fiscal year to date, there's about eight eighteen hundred plus permits in the system. Only 1100 are active. Almost 800 are expired. So it's a combination of smaller businesses going out of business, things that need to be renewed or removed. There's about 2800 inspections performed annually.
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