Member Peck's office, Pro Map Pro Tem Peck office.

We have staff from Panzarella's office, Councilmember Thomas Office, Councilmember Um Ramirez's office, Councilmember Alcorn's office, and Mayor Pro Tem Castactating office.

And so this meeting is being held in hybrid mode in person and virtual, and it's open to the public.

The chair is as presiding officer of the committee is physically present in the 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 other committee members have the option to participate in person or virtually via Microsoft teams.

Today we will hear a presentation from public works on neighborhood inspections.

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

If you would like to ask a question and are present in the chambers, request to speak.

If you are journey 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 the two minutes have expired.

Um council members attending virtually, use the chat pod if you experience any problems.

Um then we will go to public comment.

If you didn't get the list before the deadline and you like to speak, um please sign up at the sign-up sheet right there at the table, and we'll add you to the list.

And so today we will be joined um with Chris Shinenhan with Public Works.

Um, and thank you for joining us.

We're really excited about hearing about the progress you guys have made since um moving um community code enforcement to public works.

And so um the floor is yours.

Well, good afternoon, thank you all for having me, council members and committee members.

Appreciate it.

Um we have the slide deck up.

Just one second, please.

Yeah.

Okay, so we're gonna talk this afternoon about our community code enforcement team within Houston.

And we I can you talk into the mic, please?

Thank you.

Okay.

That's good.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Is that better?

Okay.

So this afternoon, I'm gonna give you guys an overview of our community coast community code enforcement team and the uh some updates from what we've seen from fiscal year 25 uh under the Department of Neighborhoods into the transition merger into Houston Public Works uh with a comprehensive look at uh just some some data and some of our activities over the last uh fiscal year.

Next slide.

So with an overview, we'll look at community code enforcement duties, partnership expansions, highlights of measurable results of FY25 and FY26, contract spend and operational capacity, and FY26 lean assessments and collections.

Next slide.

So this is an organizational view of of this of our community code community code enforcement team within the code enforcement and compliance division with within Houston Public Works.

Um that name Code Enforcement and Compliance is a rebrand from what was formerly known as the Houston Permitting Center.

Um the the department has realigned and we've renamed ourselves as Code Enforcement and Compliance Division, which is um a title responsibility as to what our team actually does within Houston Public Works.

Um the Houston Permitting Center is the building, of course, where we're housed at.

However, that uh we have six partnering departments that that occupy the building and we work routinely with on a day-to-day basis.

So within our division, we have a project delivery construction code and compliance and our financial operations, those are the three branches within our division.

Community code enforcement is a program we're here to speak about today, and you see some of the different functions underneath the community code enforcement team with business support, processing open record requests, contract administration and lien collection, uh call center for customers calling in to inquire about 311 cases or just uh a code enforcement issue in general, as well as our education and community outreach.

We spent a lot of time uh going to different civic clubs, community associations, and town hall meetings to discuss uh concerns for residents.

We have our dangerous buildings team, nuisance abatement and junk motor vehicles, hearings and liens, and one of our most recent initiatives that we have stood up operationally is our prohibited yard parking and enforcement.

Next slide.

So expansion on our partnerships from FY25 into 26.

So under the Department of Neighborhoods, we had Houston Police Department expanding warrant service, Houston Public Works with transportation and drainage operation approach to private and public mowing initiatives.

Over the last year, 15 months or so within public works, we have expanded our partnerships.

Uh we work hand in hand with HPD's differential response team, HPD's environmental enforcement group, uh Houston Fire Department, specifically a lot of interaction with the fire marshal's office, Houston Health Department, Solid Waste, which is now a part of Houston Public Works.

So we have a partnering department is now part of Public Works, which uh strengthens that bond with uh with that working together, housing and community development, Texas Housers, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Harris County Probate Resources, uh, City of Houston Historical Preservations, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and Park Houston, the division with an ARA.

Next slide.

So we're gonna look at some numbers here now, comparisons from FY25 pre-public works merge into our results within FY26 Houston Public Works.

So on the left hand side, you will see an FY25, there was a 169 abatements performed, one junk motor vehicle was crushed, three community education outreach events attended, and roughly 11,500 uh open records requests.

Moving into fiscal year 26, FY26 under in Houston Public Works, we've performed 973 abatements, uh 29 junk motor vehicles have been crushed, 872 owner compliance for junk motor vehicle cases, meaning that the owner has resolved the notice and removed the junk motor vehicle.

Uh prohibited yard parking, 621 cases since we rolled this program out in January of 26.

We've attended 25 community outreach and education events, and across the city, between owner compliance and city demolitions, there's been 483 dangerous buildings removed from the city.

And FY26, we achieved 12,604 open record requests uh completed.

Next slide.

So looking at a high level of where the work is going and uh where the complaints are coming in through 311.

So what we've seen from FY25 and FY26 across the board is a 26% increase in 311 volume.

And we've had an uptick across the board, across all council districts, roughly 26%.

Out of the uh 11 council districts, district F is exhibiting the highest uptick in percentages, and you can see the breakdown in numbers on the left-hand graphic between FY25 and FY26, um, showing that across all districts, there's been a percentage increase on volume of complaints coming into 311.

On the right-hand side, you'll see uh service requests by category.

So this is functionally, some of the operational teams within community code enforcement where we're talking about dangerous buildings, graffiti, junk motor vehicle, minimum standards, nuisances, and prohibited yard parking, just by the numbers.

So in the you can see the the comparison and overall the uptick in volume.

Dangerous buildings, of course, notably with a 51% increase in cases received across the city.

Next slide.

Summary of inspections completed between FY25 and FY26.

So you see owner compliance as a uh a negative.

We've gone down uh 18 percent, dangerous buildings, number of inspections, 5,732 versus 5,011 and 25.

Junk motor vehicle, that program has taken a lot of traction.

We've invested resources and become more efficient uh at addressing junk motor vehicles across the city.

So you see a 49% increase in the number of inspections, and of course, the numbers also speak for themselves on the amount of vehicles that we've actually towed and had crushed.

And then our uh the nuisances at 77,419 in FY25 to 6,749 in FY26.

Next slide.

So summary of compliance enforcement.

So looking at dangerous buildings, city demolished in FY25 before the merger into public works, there was 81 buildings demolished.

In this last fiscal year, Houston Public Works, we demolished 141 structures.

Out of that, the FY25 owner demolished 324 in FY25 to 349, which is uh owner demolished, owner compliance is always the preferred path, right?

We we would like to see owner compliance where the city's not having to expend additional funds uh to remove the problems.

Total demolitions 405 versus 490.

Junk motor vehicles again.

You see from one to 29.

Uh we've we've got a very aggressive team now that's getting this operation stood up to get better compliance.

Um we've and focus in the resources, we're utilizing staff that are dealing with junk motor vehicles as well as our prohibited yard parking enforcement.

And on the right hand side, we see weeded lots.

You see, we've performed 581 abatements.

We have uh decreased the amount of emergency abatements, owner compliance from 8,777 to 7,345, and then resolved lots, which to explain what resolved lots uh we have a lot of cases that may come in through 311 where the team would go back and that would issue notice to uh to the owner of the property.

However, it's been determined at that time that the lot was not necessarily achieved by owner compliance.

However, it could have been perhaps a hot team or one of these uh volunteer groups that have gone out and mowed the grass or remove the problems, um, as well as we have uh several neighbors have been very vocal to us and say, look, you know, we know that this this lot's been a problem before, and they've actually gone out there on their own accord and mowed the grass or removed the problem, cut the weeds, picked up the tree limbs.

Next slide.

So taking a look at our outreach events uh in FY25, like I said earlier, there were three events that were attended now in Houston Public Works, working hand in hand with our communications team.

Um we get quite a bit of requests.

You see, we we attended 25 events last year between civic clubs, town halls, super neighborhood meetings, virtually in person Monday through Friday, and uh there's been a handful of uh events that we've attended over the weekends as well.

Next slide.

So contract spending operational capacity looking at fiscal year 26.

So out of the hundred and one hundred and forty-one structures that the city has demolished, that uh equates to 1.7 million dollars in funds, 978 cases of nuisance abatement, uh 130 or excuse me, 1.34 million, and that's utilizing our six nuisance contractors uh, which were those those six nuisance contractors were onboarded working under the department of neighborhoods, and they have moved into uh working with Houston Public Works as we've moved forward into throughout last fiscal year, and then we have five demolition contractors, so some of which were existing contractors, and then three new Brown and Root Honest Deconstruction Group and Intercon Environmental, which are uh were recently onboarded with city finance into Houston Public Works, and we are getting these they're actively performing demolitions, um, and we are uh looking at having some conversations with these folks as we move forward to look at future demolitions.

Contract capacity and caseload demand.

So the legacy contract portfolio, original nuisance abatement contracts were built with limited funding, resulting in small contract capacities despite high caseloads with Houston Public Works increased investment, existing contracts are being utilized more rapidly and are approaching their capacity.

So limitations on cost recovery, cost for private property abatements can be recovered through liens and penalties.

Cost for city-owned property abatements cannot be recovered, requiring HPW to absorb the full expense.

So city owned properties.

We all know that there's several parcels throughout the city of Houston that may be city owned, whether it's owned by uh a certain city department or on the tax rules as belonging to the city of Houston.

Sometimes there's a need for us to go out there and take action.

So if we are expending funds use it utilizing one of our nuisance contractors, those those funds are not recoverable because we're not leaning ourselves.

Operational impacts, a shift to a more responsive citywide abatement strategy means more properties are scheduled at once.

And with only 11 specialty contractors, vendor availability becomes a main constraint.

So I have to be mindful as well as the amount of work that we're moving through our operation, sending to our contractors if they have the bandwidth or the capacity to perform the work.

Next slide.

So here's a look at our lien assessments and collections over the last fiscal year.

So on the left-hand side, you'll see the liens collected across the board between demolitions, 225 weeding, which is your weeded lots or your nuisances abatement recovery.

Excuse me, lean lien recovery, uh 1,827, and then securing or us boarding or securing a property.

So 1.6 million has been collected in liens.

And then on the right hand side, you will see the graphic of what we have assessed within FY26 mean.

We have applied liens to the tune of $3.4 million to properties, which that those fees are then recoverable as liens are captured and returned to the city.

So the 1.69 excuse me, 1.69 million uh was collected from previously assessed liens, providing ongoing cost recovery.

Those collections occur over multiple fiscal years.

So out of those numbers on the left, the 1.69 million, some of those liens may have been applied 20 years ago.

Um they just come up to where maybe there's something going on with that property during title review, or somebody's purchasing that property, then the lien is being captured at that point in time if there's a transaction on the sale of the property.

3.47 3.47 million in new lien assessments.

So those were assessed for private property nuisance abatements and demolitions, creating future cost recovery opportunities rather than immediate reimbursement.

And so some of the factors to consider with these liens, uh, property size, vegetation and debris volume, structural condition, environmental requirements, equipment and labor required, and scope of work needed to achieve compliance.

We get into some of these nuisance abatements or weeded lots where the grass could be six to eight feet tall, and it it could very well be anywhere between 100 to 300,000 square feet worth of real estate.

We don't know what's out there.

Our contractors get out there and they they bid the job and say it's gonna it's gonna cost us five thousand dollars to to service this lot.

They get out there and they start finding tires and they start finding other debris.

Um so then all of a sudden that quote may change.

Uh, but of course, all of that is documented through the invoicing, and then we lean accordingly as well.

Next slide.

Questions.

Thank you.

Um thank you for that presentation.

And um it's impressive to see you know the progress you guys have made since taking over um this this task.

And so I was looking from slide five on the um abatement increase, it increased what 169 to 973.

So what was what actually changed um that led it to increase by that amount amount, yeah.

So I I don't I can't really speak intelligently as to what was happening underneath Don under the Department of Neighborhoods as to why 169 abatements were performed.

Now public works moving into public works.

We we took Department of Neighborhoods out of the general fund.

We moved them into public works where we have uh larger funding stream.

Um and we we we spent the first couple months at that merger when we took on the complete operational and financial control looking at fine-tuning the workflows within our system of record between three and one and our N4 system, uh trying to capitalize on efficiencies and and move more work through.

Um so it's it's it's been a game of of cups and shells, if you will, moving things around, moving resources around and trying to get creative, thinking a little bit outside of the box and and exploring new opportunities and new options to to capitalize on our performance.

Um and so it's it's it's a substantial increase in the even with the community um the outreach events, the junk motor vehicles all increase.

So I was just curious to know what was happening prior to that.

So the junk motor vehicle team under the Department of Neighborhoods, uh, it was the team was not fully functional at that time.

Um there was staff allocated to it, they were performing it, and when I went over there in the capacity of a deputy assistant director when we first took this group over, was to find out who's doing what, what can we do, what can we make to improve our services.

And you know, I met with the managers and the staff and said, where's where are the problems at?

We've got to be responsive, and we're the goal with code enforcement is to fix the problem.

And so we we allocated staff to it and streamlined their function to focus on the problem at junk motor vehicle.

Um they became very efficient.

We we explored new ideas, uh, again to follow state law, making sure that everything is done by the book, and I got a solid group that is that is running that operation.

Um and so by allowing our resources to and our team members just to focus on those initiatives and say standing up an individual team, if you will, for junk motor vehicle and prohibited yard parking, a dangerous building enforcement team, a graffiti team, a nuisance abatement team.

So specialized groups within the overall blanket of community code enforcement to continue to move work because the problems don't go away if we don't if we don't make them go away, right?

So I have uh Mr.

David Almer right here behind me, who is now most recently been promoted to a deputy assistant director.

He's serving as the deputy assistant director over community code enforcement.

Um David has played a key role in assisting to get a lot of these teams set up and operational.

Um and I can only tell you that we're gonna continue to improve and continue to streamline these operations and make things better.

And a lot of it had to do with just trying to fix efficiencies in the workflow, right?

Were there additional steps that we were taking that were maybe bottlenecking or slowing the process down?

Let's try to be as efficient as we possibly can and uh start making some work move.

Okay.

Um another question.

During the previous meeting, you you mentioned it was mentioned that um you needed more inspectors.

So have we hired more inspectors?

If so, how many inspectors do we have now?

So we uh we public works as a whole has been in in the process of hiring and filling vacancies and this community, our community code enforcement team right now.

Um we I believe the number is around 15 vacancies within this operation.

Now we have active postings up.

We're we're going through the interview process, so we're we're we're we're hiring new folks.

Um and some of these have been promotions from within.

So we have folks that are moving up to a higher uh supervisory level, if you will, and then we're backfilling some of the the field inspector positions.

Um we could certainly use more staff, right?

Um there's always a need for more staff.

The the sheer volume, the numbers alone that we did last year alone, almost 27, almost 28,000 cases in 311.

Um that's a lot of work.

Yeah, and that takes a lot of inspections because one one high grass call yields numerous inspections from the time that we get the complaint to issue notice to conduct a checkback inspection, then if the city is moving forward with abatement actions, then we're having to do a survey inspection and perform this, get this out to a contractor, and then go back behind the contractor.

So multiple visits for one case, so 28,000 cases could yield 400,000 inspections.

Wow.

Right.

So one case, what a month, two months, three months, four months, what is the average time?

It's it's going to it's there's a different SLA that's assigned to a dangerous building as opposed to uh a high weed or junk motor vehicle, and that's all complicit with state law.

So state law dictates the compliance periods, and then if we have to have a hearing with whether that's a building and standards commission or an administrative hearing, getting cases lined up to the hearing docket, make sure that I have uh I'm not overloading my docket for those those committee hearings, and then moving these things through the process because once for instance, if a dangerous building is then presented in front of the building and standards commission, if the commission agrees and says yes, this is a dangerous building by state law, by city ordinance, that then an order is issued.

That dangerous building order then specifies a compliance period for the building to or the owner operator to obtain permits or to demolish the building, and you have typically a 30, 60, 90 day period in there.

Now some folks will actually take the opportunity to start the compliance process, meaning they'll come in and start purchasing permits and showing a good faith effort to improve the property.

And again, that's what I want.

I want the customer, I want the citizens to improve the property as opposed to the city expending funds to do so.

Um so if they show good faith effort, we see that they're they're working with it, or if there's uh extenuating circumstances.

Um, you know there's there's cases where you know somebody may be fought on hard times.

Um I'm very mindful of that.

We look at every case individually and we try to work with these customers.

Um but the longevity of a dangerous building, if you were to call in this morning and report a dangerous building, and we've never touched it before from from today, you're looking at roughly 365 days until that building is gone.

And that's just me being truthfully uh real.

All right.

All right, thank you for that.

All right, we have a question from um Councilmember Alcorn Found.

Oh, Councilmember Martin is how you doing.

How are you doing, Chair?

Um first I just want to say thank you, assistant director, for the work that you and the team are doing.

Um as uh our chairwoman's acknowledged, right?

There's been a huge increase in you know better efficiencies, better outcomes, and I just quite frankly, I think at the end of the day, folks need to know that it was structural reforms, right?

Putting Department of Neighborhood inspectors under public works, and ultimately funding.

Yes.

Funding at the end of the day, uh, we were chasing our tail with dangerous buildings.

Yes.

Uh we'd had to restart a lot of these dangerous buildings 311 calls because there was no funding to actually get demoed.

They'd go to building uh a demo hearing and it'd sit there.

Um, then we didn't have funding to be able to demo it, and then we're back at square one.

And so I think ultimately it's just this administration, this council believing in changing some some real structural challenges in internally.

Yes.

Um so I want to say thank you to that.

I want to uh make sure that we acknowledge that as well.

This this is the work that we're trying to get done at the city to be better efficient, uh more efficient, and then also have um the results that we're looking towards, right?

Um because at the end of the day, the community doesn't care how it gets done as long as it gets done.

Right.

Tear the buildings down.

I don't care where the some folks might say they care where the funding's at.

Majority of folks are gonna say, hey, I just need that building down.

Uh a couple things the junk motor vehicle and yard parking, prohibited yard parking.

We've initially it was DRT that would address that uh with some help from department neighborhoods, but really it would fall under HPD.

We know now I'm learning that it is under you all.

So the process is 311.

We can make sure we get that over to your inspectors, and then they can go out and address these these items.

That is correct.

So the the the with PYP, um, when we rolled the program out in January of of this year, um and today, as of current, it's still 311.

You have to the customer must call 311.

It's not available on the portal, it's not live yet on the portal.

Um, we've been working internally within our our system of record or in four and 311 to make that migration happen.

Just want to make sure so that way our office understands and we can help educate the community.

So there's that takes me to two things that external outreach and educating community, because I used to have civic clubs that are saying, hey, we call HPD and they say hands off, they're not doing it.

Right.

And then it feels like no one is doing it, but want to make sure and reassure the community that we are still doing junk motor vehicles and we are still doing the the prohibitive yard parking.

Absolutely, we are.

Um the other thing that I wanted to uh highlight as well.

Um, you know, uh former staffer, so I just always get the itch to report things.

We had a cleanup this past weekend in one of the neighborhoods.

There is um uh uh it's uh not necessarily a medium medium, but it is a medium um off of uh uh Clinton Drive.

That internal process or training uh is important as well uh to be able to help move these the you know these 311 tasks, you know, these order work orders into whatever department.

Um my understanding is that the parks department is supposed to be maintaining that.

I know there's conversations about shifting that over since it is on each uh uh public works essentially right away, it's on the street.

Okay.

Um how far are y'all in transitioning into taking the ownership meaning over the medians?

Um quite frankly, parks department to pull money out of there.

I think it's about six to seven million dollars a year that they're spending to mow delitter.

Um it's it takes away from the maintenance that they need to do at the parks department, and so that, but then as I was having these conversations with uh with which I appreciate uh the inspector calling me back and and getting getting some more uh information, but those types of things to make sure that he knows that it's in a code enforcement now uh as well.

There's some places where right away you know it's public works because it's uh it's off-road ditch, regrade, flush the culverts, but then when it's the certain areas where it's some confusion, maybe um that is somewhat of an off-road ditch, but it's also a median, and so just making sure that folks internally understand where these uh work orders should be shifting into, um, it would be helpful as well.

Um, because again, at the end of the day, the community I I strongly believe does not care how it gets done, as long as it gets done and it gets done uh effectively, efficiently, and and um so to that one I would end with this the city-owned properties.

Uh when we have city right-of-way uh or city-owned properties, um it's frustrating to see a yellow placard, right?

Yes.

And we know it's our property, and we're still doing that kind of instead of going through that process.

How do we make sure that it just moves a lot quicker through the abatement process?

So I would I would encourage our staff, and I this has come up before.

Um, and I again I if it's an isolated incident, it may very well could be.

But if we're if we're putting a notice out on the city-owned property, we should be doing a better job at researching who's the who's responsible to maintain that, right?

So, you know, it's hard to um issue code enforcement throughout the city when we're not taking care of our own stuff.

Now, to answer your question about medions and the maintenance of the medians, I I don't have a good answer for you today, but we will certainly go back to the department and have a conversation with our our partners at TDO in the director's office um to see if there's a better answer I can give you to speak as to who's gonna maintain that and what it's gonna look like moving forward.

We we've we've been hearing that public works wants to uh take on this responsibility.

I encourage public works to take on uh right-of-way, which is a responsibility, quite frankly, uh alleviating some of those resources back into parks department.

I just uh chairwoman, I just want to say thank you for bringing this to us.

Uh you know, we've we've done the the Ernst Young report, uh, we understand where those lack of inefficiencies are, and you know, it takes time, but we're getting to a space where honestly where we're addressing some structural issues that we've had for years, decades sometimes.

Um so this is this is great.

I'm looking forward to I know this is not in following you, right?

But solid waste now under public works as a utility to figure out where those efficiencies have been met as well, and then just ready and make sure we keep doing the good work.

So thank you.

Absolutely, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Alcorn's office.

Thank you, Chair.

And uh yeah, my question was kind of something that Council Mr Martinez mentioned at the end of his comments.

Um so with the transition from solid waste, uh those employees who help with code enforcement in that department, are they gonna also be brought into the community code enforcement?

And are they gonna be cross-trained to do other um to help with other enforcement other than just solid waste chapter 39 rules?

So I have not personally been I guess at the table to have any of those conversations as to where those code enforcement officers are are going, if you will, within public works.

Um I don't I'm sure that those conversations are forthcoming.

Okay.

Um as this merger is relatively still fresh, if you will.

Um, but those conversations will be happening.

Because yes, I mean we we do work with that solid waste code enforcement group quite often.

Stuff that comes in that may get routed to us via email, said, hey, we've got an illegal dumping issue or something that may be in solid waste purview.

Um we reach out to our our team members, our partners over within that group, and they jump on it.

But as of today, they are not housed within uh with our code community code enforcement team.

Just like as an example, the um the business in the heights that you and I have been talking about with the HVAC, they're now um open and have do not have a dumpster or dumpster permit, and they're just leaving their trash on the side of the neighbor's fence.

So I think that would be like a good opportunity for two birds, one stone with the code enforcement officer to be going out there testing for the HVAC um noise levels as well as being able to cite for the lack of containment of the trash.

And when I when I received that email last night um in regards to the trash as well, um we are actively working on that within our solid waste partners within public works.

Thank you.

And I I just it's it's been a huge difference since y'all have taken this um over.

So we're really grateful for your help and quick response.

Thank you.

Thank thank you.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

If I could add to that, there have been ongoing discussions.

Can you state your name?

I'm sorry for the record.

Reading more deputy director of the Houston Permanent Center.

Thank you.

There have been discussions related to solid waste moving over and some of their um their inspectors uh who you know we're we're exploring all those options as to whether or not there are efficiency opportunities to bring them over into C C E or whether or not we continue to have two two different groups, but they're still have a hand in hand, or there's an easier handoff than it is today.

So it's definitely something that's been um discussed.

Um I know that there's you know with our director, Director Mackay, he's looked at he's always looking for any efficiency opportunities.

I'm sure you've heard that many a times, and so are we.

So you know, we are definitely exploring it, and if there's if it yields you know a positive result, we definitely want to do it.

So that's what that's the status of today.

Sorry.

Thank you.

You good?

Okay, thank you.

Um, Councilmember Peck's office.

Thank you so much for the presentation and all of the data.

Uh I do have a question regarding um junk motor vehicles uh specifically in the backyard.

Can you kind of go over how code enforcement handles these cases when junk motor vehicles are in the backyard?

Uh we receive calls in the about properties in the district species specifically on that, and you know, we get to a point where they start attracting rodents, and so how does that work and what is kind of the best approach specifically, you know, and what we can share with the constituents, you know.

I know it's three on one, but any other information that you can share would be extremely helpful.

So every code enforcement complaint, every yields a different circumstance and uh there's a different challenge, right?

Which kind of makes the job almost fun and unique, sometimes painful.

Right.

It's looking at everything individually and looking at solutions.

Now, in an example where you say junk motor vehicles in someone's backyard, so maybe it's not visible from the roadway or the public right-of-way where an inspector can just drive by and visually see it.

That poses a challenge for staff and for the city.

Now we have to be able to physically access that vehicle to view it, make sure that it meets the criteria of a junk motor vehicle, and then tag it and then take it through the notification process.

Um if there's a junk motor vehicle in a backyard, um, a lot of times those are reported by the neighbor, like you're saying, where there's there's rodents, rats, it's becoming a nuisance, and now it's causing problems for my quality of life.

Um I would say that of course 311 is the preferred reporting mechanism, but sometimes that message isn't clear depending on what the notes say or what the inspector can actually determine.

So on an isolated incident or incidents similar like that, if if if a case doesn't seem like it's moving forward, I would encourage you to reach out to myself or deputy uh assistant director allmer um with the facts, the address of the case.

We can get warrants for different reasons to get onto someone's property.

All right, but I have to go through the administrative warrant process to get access and then take the legal means to provide notice to abate that vehicle.

Appreciate the information.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember Pan Pantherella's office.

Thank you, Chair.

Um thank you, Assistant Director Shanahan, um, for this presentation.

Um first, on behalf of Councilmember Panzarella, we are just so grateful to you and your team's work on code enforcement.

Um District C is a lot of code enforcement cases we work on, and your team's diligent does not go unnoticed.

Um specifically, thank you to um Sean Davidson, Sherry Strong, Chief Inman, of course, Sal and Chris with the director's office.

Um they're all extremely helpful and we appreciate it.

Um Councilmember Jackson touched on this a little bit, but um we have a lot of residents who often express concerns regarding the timeline for these cases, um, resolution for these cases.

Um I understand there are a lot of legal reasonings um and specific guidelines the department has to follow for code enforcement.

But could you walk us through some of those legal requirements or parameters um for inspections, enforcements, and why is there so much time between inspections?

Thank you.

Well, so uh just uh I guess a plain example that I could give you would be the you have a neighbor who has high grass and let's just say there's a dangerous building on the property as well, or what's perceived as a dangerous building because maybe there's broken windows, or you see um boards falling off the structure as well.

So that case traditionally would be routed to 311.

It would come into our intake queue, and then it's going to hit our queue of backlogged inspections, if you will, because like like I said, we have we what we saw last year was 27,000 cases come into 311.

That's a lot of work.

That's a lot of work, right?

Um we get out to investigate that complaint.

If the if the high grass is is observed that or in the dangerous building is observed, we we you'll see a placard put out in the yard, which everybody's probably seen these yellow yard signs.

So state law requires dual notification for code enforcement for for nuisance abatement activities.

So we the dual notification, the first step of notification is that yellow placard.

We're putting a yard sign out, noting the violations and giving a compliance period on there.

Additionally, a uh letter is actually mailed out to the property owner of record as well.

That's the second layer of notification.

Then the clock starts on the compliance period.

So say on July 1st, the violation was observed by an inspector, it was documented, notated in our system.

That compliance period starts for the high grass.

So a check back inspection is then scheduled.

So then I have to make sure that with the new cases that I have coming in today, I still have checkback inspections that have to be done because now I've afforded the property owner that due process of state law to say you have a problem, I need you to correct your problem.

In a perfect world, the customers are gonna say, look, my lawnmower is broken, right?

Um I had to borrow my neighbors, but I cut my grass.

We go back at that check back, the problem is gone.

More times than not, we go back and the problem still exists, and now the grass is taller.

Um so you you could have it anywhere from that by the time we get to the case, so there could be a delay of 30 days from when the customer called in to the time we respond, place notice, placard, conduct our checkback inspection, then okay, you're still in violation, then I'm gonna move it to abatement and start that process.

So it you don't get instant gratification quite often within code enforcement.

There's a lot of work, like you to you said, the of legal processes that we must follow.

Um to reduce kind of any exposure or liability on the city.

I don't want to trample on someone's constitutional rights, right?

To give them afford them the opportunity as opposed to or open the city up to any litigation for us overstepping our bounds, taking taxpayer dollars and utilizing it to fix problems on private property.

Um and again, everything like I said is dictated by statutory authority within state law, meaning that I have to give compliance periods with for high grass varies from a junk motor vehicle to a dangerous building to a graffiti violation uh to a prohibited yard parking violation.

There's certain things that the city can do to utilize funds to make the problem go away and then assess a lien to recover those funds expended.

There, there's some things that we all we can do is issue citations for the violations, which is a municipal citation process through municipal courts.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember Romerin's for the office.

Um thank you, Chair.

I just had a this might have been touched on a little bit, but did you have like specific examples of some of the efficiencies that were implemented that helped yield the 2026 results that we see here?

So one of the the uh let me step back.

So it was in in March of 25 is whenever public works stepped in and took over operational control of the Don IPS team.

Um we took full fiscal financial control, operational control uh July of July 1st of 25, sorry, uh, of the previous fiscal year.

Um there was there was workflows for the different case types within the system that were the team was already actively working on under Don leadership.

Uh we we took a look first off, there was a lot of rebranding that we had to do because now they were no longer department of neighborhoods, they were Houston Public Works.

So we're we're going through the hundreds of different different forms and documents that the department utilizes to make everything read that now you're part of Houston Public Works, but then we looked at the workflows, the actual processes, the bottlenecks in the process, right?

So sometimes government can be not as efficient as it possibly could be, meaning that there's we have too many steps in the process for whatever reason, right?

Maybe it's a it's a milestone in the in the process that I would question as to what's that for, right?

Why does it go to this queue or this bucket and then perhaps it sits there too long?

So we we worked with uh work with staff, we worked with our partners over at HIITS to refine this process, streamline our workflows, um, and then just realign the way we operated in the city, you know.

So you utilizing our staff and just because we've done it this way for the last five years, doesn't mean we have to continue doing that.

I think taking a fresh set of eyes and a new approach, uh, we we just try different things.

And I I am of the kind of mindset, and I know my leadership and and public works leadership is you know, think outside the box, look, explore, find efficiencies, try something different.

All right, let's take a different approach.

And if it doesn't work, or I fail at it, I can throttle back, let me try something different.

But um, you know, it's it's not just one person doing this, it's a team and a team effort of constant communication, constant meeting, having these face-to-face interaction with staff saying, how can we do better?

Because I hear y'all.

I get the phone calls, I get the emails.

I hear the frustration in every one of your voices.

I hear the frustration in all the citizens' voices.

It was said earlier that the problem, it doesn't matter who.

Who's responsible?

They just want the problem to go away.

They don't care who pays for it, they don't care who what department's responsible for it or what group is responsible for, just make the problem go away.

And I understand that.

Our team understands that, and we just we we're just looking for ways to get better.

Um, and you know, I'm very I'm very pleased with the results that we've done just in the short time.

Uh, and I can promise you that a year from now, it it can only exponentially get better.

Uh we are still capitalizing on efficiencies and trying to make our processes better.

Yeah.

That's good.

Yeah, uh, I agree.

I'm really impressed by by the progress you guys made since taking over.

So it was um July 2025 when you took over.

Yes.

Right.

So yeah, I'm really impressed.

So I have a few questions about um the inspectors in 311 and how they're communicating with um residents.

If you know we have a lot of residents call frustrated about cases getting closed.

And so, how are we guiding the inspectors to explain to constituents that even though the case is closed, the and the issue is not resolved, that is still open.

Good very good.

And then one another thing, you can ask this while we're while you're um you can answer this while you are answering this question about the automatic system.

I know that there was some discussion about an automatic um system notification on cases that basically are is dormant, you know, just to remind folks that it still haven't been taken care of.

So have we implemented implemented the automatic system?

And then also there was going to be some system updates where public works will communicate with 311 to make sure that you know we get the information in correctly.

So I was in a I was in a meeting this morning where this this very topic was brought up and discussed.

Um that is a technology sometimes can handcuff us, if you will.

I mean, if our technology isn't performing at its optimal level, then we we could be more efficient at getting notifications out to the customers where these cases are at least there's more transparency.

Because if a case is closed because there's an there's an open case already in the system, and you call 311 today, and then you receive a notification, case closed, and you're going, Chris, the grass is still high, right?

And then they don't know that there's another case that's actually open that the city is working.

It's in a certain process, moving towards abatement or owner compliance.

Um that's a I do know that there's conversations still working with ARA and 311 to fix and solution those problems.

Because if I I don't want to close a case on my side until the problem is resolved, right?

So if you call the the report in and it's a brand new case, and then your neighbors three four three doors down, they call the case, and that case should then merge to that same address.

Where now I don't have you're not just getting updates, but everybody that's calling about that address is gonna get the same update.

Anytime we perform work and update our system, it talks back to 311, which then hence blasts out correspondence communication to the constituents to let them know where this thing's at in flight.

Um that's that is a problem with 311 and our reporting system.

I do know that we are working on that with 311 and hits um to try to make it better.

And I and so when do you it sound like you guys are working on upgrading up?

I can't speak for 311.

Okay, right.

I I do know that conversations are happening.

Okay.

But um Charles Jackson, uh I'm sure you probably folks know that name.

Yeah, I know that he's been acting in active communication with uh HPW leadership about this issue because it's not only affecting our community code enforcement team, it's affecting our groups within Houston Water, transportation and drainage operations, uh the department as a whole.

So we see this problem several places.

Okay.

And one last question before I let you go and we go into public speakers.

So, what is the department's biggest operational need to be successful in 2027?

Oh, the department's biggest operational need.

Um is it staffing, can contractor capacity, technology improvements?

So we we're looking at staffing efficiencies, and we're we are public works is actively taking filling our vacancies between our community code enforcement group, our building code enforcement teams, and then within the various divisions throughout the department as well.

Um I do know the the group, the folks, the positions that I have with under my blanket of control, if you will, or my oversight, um, we're actively working at filling, and we are also reclassing some some positions.

So some positions which may not necessarily be needed on the support side, maybe reclass into an operational position so we get more boots on the ground.

Um I I do know that the more the more folks we have in the field to to respond to code enforcement, your response time becomes better.

Your visibility becomes more pronounced throughout the city.

Um you can look at these numbers right now, and then you can drive through the city, and you're gonna probably go see four or five problems on the way home.

I mean, that's just the truth of the matter, right?

The numbers don't lie, but to make a difference in in over 670 square miles or such of real estate, um, it takes a monumental effort.

Right.

So the more staff we have, the more productive we can be having, or more productive we can be, the more work we can move through towards abatement.

But the more efficient you are in responsiveness to these problems, that comes with the cost as well.

Yeah.

Right.

So if we are then having to go mow grass and tear down additional buildings or fix more problems at the city's expense and assess liens and then hope to recover those liens at some point.

There's a balancing act in there.

Um tractor capacity is is huge to make sure that I have contractors that can perform the work that have enough staff on their own that can give the amount of work that I send them.

You know, if if if one or two contractors can only handle so much work at one time, but I I got this bottleneck of work that's ready to go.

If I'm not moving work efficiently, then it's just it's backing up the process.

So uh staffing and vendors are are two huge components to make this operation successful.

All right.

Wow.

Well, we thank you and all the men and women that the public works, the director, um MACI, we thank you all for everything that you're doing for our city.

Um, again, impressed by the progress that you've made um since taking over the department, and I'm sure our constituents are gonna be um happy to hear that things are moving um a little faster.

So um just thank you, and just know that um anything that we can do, um, just let us know.

And I know council member, you you you have something you want to say?

Okay, go ahead.

You don't mind.

Go ahead.

Um, you you spoke on contractors, um, and usually the one of the biggest challenges is getting paid.

The cash flow for a lot of our small businesses are pretty tight, limited.

And so have y'all had any challenges recently with like making sure that once they submit invoice, what's the turnaround on paying the contractors as well?

Yeah, I don't have the hand, I don't have first hand knowledge of the timeliness of that, but I do know that we're methodical on paying these contractors now.

I know we've been doing better overall, but I just I think uh I think it's important since you brought it up uh that we make sure that contractors once they submit invoice that turn around as quickly as possible just to ensure that cash flow for them because they're having to pay workers and pay for equipment and so on, and so um whatever we can do to make sure that they're successful.

I think you are, and I just wanted to raise that.

I appreciate uh you allowing me to make those comments.

Thank you, thank you.

Absolutely.

And again, um thank you for um the presentation and all the council members' office.

Thank y'all for your questions.

Um, and yeah, so we're gonna go to public comment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so our first speaker.

Our first speaker is Mr.

Clyde Niba.

Come on down.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Chair Jackson, uh committee members and city staff.

Um my name's Clyde Neba.

I live in Zip Code 77020 near Vernon, Waco and Sharon Streets.

For several years, residents here and we have dealt with recurrent overgrowth, illegal dumping, mosquitoes, and other pests on vacant lots besides occupied homes.

Vegetation has also grown around utility and infrastructure, creating legitimate health and safety concerns.

I appreciate Jessica White and the District B team for their help.

I also want to recognize that one Waco property was recently cut twice without another 311 request.

That shows progress is possible, and we've heard some of that today.

But the overall system remains too reactive and too slow.

Seven cases took an average of approximately 47 days to close.

One case took 100 days.

That is more than three months.

Essentially an entire season for neighboring families to live beside the same unresolved conditions.

Another complaint submitted on May 16th.

That's about 55 days later.

Residents should not have to repeatedly restart the process for chronic properties.

Again, for chronic properties, these are repeated cases.

I'm asking that the city flag repeat locations, establish clear timelines for each enforcement stage, and proactively schedule re-inspections when violations continue to return.

I would also like to be part of the solution.

I've heard a little bit of Houston Public Works.

And I appreciate all of that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you for um coming in and sharing your comments.

Appreciate it.

So next we have Miss Vicki Martin.

Another district B resident.

Good afternoon.

Yeah.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all for this assembly.

I have some copies.

Where am I giving them to?

Thank you.

Okay, so basically, today I wanted to speak about dangerous buildings, ditch and sidewalk maintenance, and environmental concerns.

One of them has chairperson, that's for councilwoman Jackson.

I'm in her district.

Okay.

The first one is going to be 8105 Questview.

8105 Quest V is a burnt building.

It burned, and we went through some of your counsel people.

We've seen Tanya, PJ, and also Jessica.

So it's been going on.

Once you look the address up, yeah, that was a fire, and it's across from the street from a church.

So now that's high vegetation, and the building has never been secured.

So someone could drag a body or a child in there, and we won't know until we do.

The next one is 8129, and I apologize for the nine four set.

The tunnel went out.

8129 Snowden, that's the environmental issue.

What's going on there?

That goes back to over 10 years.

There's a owner, property owner, that the house was demoed, and he owns some type of business.

So he has dump trucks to his disposal.

So he's using that residential property as a dumping field.

The neighbors are seniors, and they are constantly complaining about rodents, snakes, and whatnot from the that's environmental, and it's been emailed and photos for environmental.

The other one is going to be Denton.

I showed show a snapshot of the 8,000 block of Benton to the 9106.

You have a complete packet.

Yeah, 9106, and but we are our residents are having to leave the sidewalk and walk on the street because those ditch are not being maintained.

And I think that's it for today.

Follow up with public work.

Make sure that this is on their list of their to-do list.

And then we'll um follow back up with you.

And again, I would just like to request that when an inspector is out surveying assessing a violation, that they kind of peruse the area, and if they see something while they're out doing an inspection, that they note that too, especially when it's next door.

We have repeat offenders, and because of the 45-day turnaround, when we call in a violation, the violation is cleared up by city staff, and so the tone to the to the neighbor is oh, nothing happened, there's no consequences.

So they repeat the behavior because of the turnaround time.

So when you report um the cases to 311, do they do 311 follow up with you or well when it's illegal dumping or junk waste the it's cleared because of the 45 dates.

So if we report it, like if they do it the week of pickup, so because it takes a whole cycle, the following month is picked up so the person doesn't get, they don't there's no sanction.

So they just repeat the behavior because when we say you continue to do this, they say the city don't say nothing.

And they're and they're accurate because it's getting picked up by the city because of the long time for turnaround.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, yeah, we'll make sure, and I'm sure um I'm sure public works got it on there on the radar.

And Chris invited me for a ride alone.

That's on me.

I've yet to schedule it.

But once we get that together, he'll be able to see these things personally.

Thank you all for your time.

And thank you, Miss Vicky Martin, for your leadership.

And I know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, next we have Mr.

Clinton John.

You got this good afternoon.

Good afternoon, lovely people.

Um, I do not know the perfect greeting or how to do this.

This is my first time here, so bear with me.

Uh, not be offended at all.

But um, it's good to see that you all in the right position.

Try to get something going with the community, get some things cleaned up.

Um Mr.

Homer, he's an awesome guy.

Um, I've had the opportunity to call him, he doesn't remember me.

And uh I called him about an elderly um lady who had some builders who were building over her property line, and then they took the remains from what they were putting up and they threw it in her property.

And he and another gentleman went out there and checked it up and got that problem rectified.

Thank you so much, sir, for um taking our time to do that and get that stress off of that lady, um, off of the lady.

I've also heard this other gentleman up here.

Um I kind of walked in towards the end with the um since his takeover and the uh position that they're doing, that he's doing a uh tremendous job and being impactful with regard to the uh delinquent and overgrown lots.

Uh I was unaware that all of this these things were going.

I I talked to Miss White uh occasionally, periodically, and I have my involvement.

Uh my name is Clinton Johns, first.

My name is Clinton Johns the third.

I am uh from Pleasantville uh originally.

And uh I have been uh community oriented with regard to um cutting the vacant lots and stuff like that whenever I see that they have become a nuisance or I see it on the news just in the morning time.

If me and my wife see it and we'll get one like the one that was on Fleming, the kids couldn't even walk on the street.

So she was like, hey, can we take our time today and do it?

Um but uh the the problem that I'm running into is that my pockets are not that deep to be able to keep continuing cutting these nuisances out of my own pocket.

Um you can check channel two or click to news, different uh segments that I've had to go out and do different things.

A lot of stuff I don't try to do for media because it has nothing to do with that.

It just needs to be done.

Saturday I came in to Pleasantville, come around to turn the basin.

It was a hot mess.

So me and my uh another gentleman, we pulled a trailer over and we got out there and we cut it down.

So it's it's it's clean now.

I just don't want to see it.

It it it doesn't look right.

It gives off the wrong, the wrong presentation.

Um this is who I used to be with.

Keep using beautiful.

Okay if you guys remember this photo.

I just saw some of the pictures that this young lady just brought up here.

So this is the binder with all of the different things.

The shirts, the headquarters that's down there, they have all of the gear and stuff that's still in there.

If you guys remember this, the shirts, um, these are some beautiful things when we had all the volunteers that were out there when we were doing this.

You I don't know if you guys remember this.

If any of you guys see has on the shirt, so we used to along with uh, and I saw that they had the uh at the office up there that's closed down.

They had the uh pickers, they have the gloves, they have safety glasses, they have stuff for the kiddos, crayons, colorings.

It's a whole floor full of stuff since they've closed down the office, and it's not being utilized.

It's just sitting there.

What I have been doing, he's talking about a crew.

I'm telling you about me by myself with a zero turn and and a weed eater going in there and knocking down uh uh 6,000 foot lot with with grass this this tall.

So I understand what the crew and the staff, and I don't I don't like I said again, I can't afford to pay my crew, so I have to take our time and do it myself.

There's another gentleman.

Uh if you guys uh have time, check it out on YouTube.

He is labeled as uh G, the Yardman.

He does the exact same thing.

He's out of Pleasantville as well.

Um I his name is uh Gerald um God dog, Gerald uh Fanoy.

And he is on YouTube.

He's been doing the things when some of the elderly people uh fall on hard times, they don't have the money to pay or try to keep uh keep the properties up, then hit himself along with myself collaborative.

We go out and do it.

My question is keep Houston Beautiful when it originally started, was working with the cost avoidance um uh situation.

He's talking about the big numbers when they were contracting according to the do I need to stop?

No, you can go ahead.

You can go ahead and go ahead and um get ready to wrap it up.

We'll give you another minute.

Okay.

According to um what is in here and and what I've acquired, where the the cost appropriations were in the millions, it brought it down.

You're talking about $350 or cut, just managing the uh the overall maintenance coming back and making sure that it doesn't grow.

I was doing 80 87 properties.

I I did that uh with Keep Houston Beautiful with Miss Sherry Strong.

She was in position at that time.

She was spearheading that project.

So we were doing it, call the city out if it was something on there with destroy the blades or mess it up.

They come out and do an initial cleanup, get everything cool, everything uh cleared out, and then my job was to come back and make sure that it that it is not exceed four inches.

If a ruler and I stuck it down in the grass, it was up over four inches, then I needed to cut it to make sure it was done.

It stayed in compliance.

That was very helpful.

Plus, we're only spending $50.

I was getting paid $50 for a $5,000 lot.

I was getting $60 for a $6,000 square, 6,000 square feet and so forth, up to $100.

So you're coming from $350 on a regular on one cut down to $50.

So that went out the window.

And when COVID came, because I was doing it all the way up until COVID in 2020, it never got picked back up.

Right.

So a lot of the growth is uh after COVID.

No one ever picked it back up.

Some of these lots.

I cut a lot that that was that was on um, I think they had it on channel two.

They had the lot on channel two.

I cut that lot.

I went back to go and check it, the one that's in Fleming, all of the stuff is back up here.

Right.

All of the stuff is back up there.

I want to go cut it again, but again, I'm just trying to get a lot of things.

So what so you trying to figure out how you can get plugged in to it was saving taxpayer dollars.

I'm I'm asking people for grants.

Um I'm trying to get grants from grant writers, asking them to try to help sponsor this.

I just want the problem fixed.

Right.

I'm not concerned about where the money comes from.

I just want we we have a will and heart's desire as far as our community to keep it clean.

Right.

You know.

So we're trying to figure out how to get that done.

So I guess we could get with public works to see if they have some type of program to what I know that they partner with contractors that do this type of work.

I don't, I'm not sure, but since they then, you know, they just took over from they just took over this piece from the department of neighborhoods.

And then I know our counter office is we have hot teams that, you know, my office um have a hot team that goes out and um cut yards and cut the medions.

We actually um have supplies at the tool bank, you know, lawnmowers, um, weed eaters, we have acquisitions, we have what the constituents might need.

Um, and so that's our way of kind of supporting um and making sure that you know our neighborhoods are beautiful, or the our neighborhoods have the tools that they need.

I didn't even know they had this stuff.

I was listening to it, I was like, what where are these people?

I didn't know they had this stuff going on.

Yeah, yeah.

And so um we do you talk with Jessica, she does cleanups regularly.

And so we just partner with the communities to try to keep um the neighborhoods.

You you I have they they have uh a lot of justice involved um uh ladies and gentlemen who are coming home, they're looking for jobs.

Yeah, those are the people that I used to hire to get on the truck, or I would give them because they needed, they needed something, something to do.

I I am a justice-involved defender.

I I have gone to prison, so I understand the the struggles with dealing with that.

So giving them an opportunity to do that and participate in the community is a win-win for me.

Okay.

So that's that's what we're on.

Well, we have your information, and you know, we'll follow up if we you know learn of an opportunity the way you can connect, but for right now, we volunteer, you know, we just try to figure out how we can partner with the community and we provide the supplies to do the cleanups.

Yeah, thank you guys so much for your time.

But no, thank you for coming and thank you for everything that you do.

Yes, ma'am, absolutely.

Yes.

We need more of more of you.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, thank you.

All right.

So um, do we have any more comments?

And nope.

No.

Okay.

So with that being said, um, seeing that we have no more speakers, um, I want to remind you that our next com committee meeting, we don't have it's September the 23rd.

Um, and if you're interested in receiving information about the services delivery committee meeting, um, contact our office at district b at houston tx.gov, or you can call us at 832-393-3009.

Um, right now the time is 311 and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you for joining and have a blessed day.