June the 24th, and the time is 2 p.m.

I'm council member Tarsha Jackson, Chair of the Service Delivery Committee, and I call this meeting to order.

Um, today we will be today.

We are joined by fight vice chair Sam Ramirez.

Councilmember and chambers, and then we also have Councilmember Peck, did you?

Oh, Mayor Pro Vice Mayor Pro Tem Miss Peck that just came in.

Um, we have um staff from Councilmember Castillo's office.

Um we just recently been joined by Councilmember Sally Alcorn.

We have staff by Councilmember Castactatum, um Thomas, and that's it.

So thank you all for joining us.

And online, we have Councilmember Joe Penthella.

Okay, so this meeting has been held in hybrid mode in person and virtually, and it is open to the public.

The chair as the presiding officer of the committee is physically present in chambers in accordance with the provisions of section 551-127 of the Texas Government Code applicable to the governmental body that extends into three or more counties.

All of the council members or committee members have the option to participate in person or virtually via Microsoft Teams.

And today we will be hearing presentations from Mr.

Chris Butler and Mr.

Fabio Capilla.

Did I say that right?

Okay.

From the public works department, and we will be discussing a hot topic, ditch re-establishment program.

So really excited about this conversation.

Um, so council members and staff, please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.

If you would like to act, if you would like to speak or ask a question, if you're in chambers, click respond request to speak.

If you're adjourning joining virtually, type request to speak in the chat pod, and you will be recognized in order.

And when you are recognized, please unmute your microphone and ensure your camera is on.

You will be advised when you have when your 10 minutes two minutes have um expired.

And council members attend virtually, use the chat pod if you experience any type of problems.

Um, when we go to public comment, if you didn't get on the list before the deadline, you can you would like to speak, please go to the sign in sheet at the front table over there and add your name to speak.

And so with that being said, before we turn it over to you, I want to recognize we have um staff from Councilmember Huffman's office just joined us.

And so you can take it away.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chris Butler.

I'm the Chief Operating Officer for Houston Public Works.

I'm joined today with the Deputy Director for Transportation Drainage Operations, Mr.

Fabio Capillo, and we're here today to present on the ditch reestablishment program.

Thank you.

Next slide.

So roadside ditches, if you live in a community that has roadside ditches, you already know what these are.

These are a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way of conveying water from the street and from private property into the right-of-way into a ditch to convey that to a uh either a storm sewer, a reservoir, a creek or a bayou.

So these are ways to get water from private property onto a different system to get out eventually to a bayou creek or reservoir.

Next slide.

So the ditches are maintained, and here's a huge misconception with majority of constituents who live in open ditch neighborhoods.

The open ditches are really the property and the maintenance is for the adjacent property owner, whether it's commercial or residential.

And so when we say maintenance, that is cutting grass and light debris removal.

If there is illegal dumping, then yes, you can call us and we can make sure that we come pick up pick that up.

We have better coordination now now that solid waste has joined Houston Foley Works, so we can make sure that we get out and address those issues with the legal dumping.

But it is the adjacent property owners' property, and they are required to maintain it by completing regularly scheduled debris removal, light debris removal, and also maintaining grass and shrub.

Also, we notice in some cases is where individuals maybe downstream will install their own covert, maybe some decorative rocks, landscaping, any of those things in the ditches because it makes it may make their property look nice, but it impedes the flow of water, so which is kind of disruptive to the ditch.

So we ask the homeowners maintain the ditches, keeping them clear of any debris and any type of landscaping.

Next slide.

So the ditch re-established program.

This program, we do regrading ditches, clearing vegetation and debris, re-establishing the flow lines, flushing and repairing culverts, and removing heavy debris and obstructions.

And once again, the majority of the time where we see standing water in the cover or in a ditch is because either a cover was set at the wrong height downstream somewhere, there's trash that's not allowing the water to flow properly.

So during this ditch re-established program, we're gonna go out, we'll assess all of the ditches.

We will clean light debris or heavy debris, depending on what the case is, regrade, and in some cases maybe reset culverts.

Next slide.

So we do this through a roadside ditch condition assessment, and we rate these from one being good to moderate to three poor, and we're looking at capacity and conveyance.

Does the ditch flow freely?