OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Houston City Council Resilience Committee Meeting - August 10, 2026

Committees and Commissions — Monday, August 10, 2026
BodyHouston, Texas
SessionCommittees and Commissions
DateMonday, August 10, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:04:43
Transcript — Verbatim
0:18

Also in the area.

0:20

And then we've got staff from Councilmember Salinas, Jackson, Ramirez, and Thomas's office.

0:26

So welcome.

0:27

And thank you all for being here on this Monday morning, kind of out of order, but summer vacations get us, and we have to shuffle the deck a little bit.

0:35

I'm excited to hear from our friends today from the Texas Gulf Coast Region Voluntary Organization, Active in Disaster.

0:46

I just say VoAD, so it's a little bit easier.

0:49

And here on behalf of VoAd today is Miss Andy Cook with the Just Serve group, my friends from Just Serve, which I'm so excited to see this partnership.

0:59

And Andy is volunteer management committee chair, and then Gary Flattery is here as well chair for Voad.

1:07

And y'all come on down.

1:08

We're excited to hear your presentation.

1:11

I know you guys have been working hard, and as always, for Houston.

1:15

So thank you.

1:16

Thank you so much, Councilmember Carter.

1:18

We really appreciate the invitation to be a part of your resilience committee today.

1:22

If we could have our slides presented here, thank you.

1:39

It's okay.

1:45

Good morning.

2:02

That's okay.

2:04

We're just talking about that.

2:06

They've evidently switched the system or something's updated, outdated, you know, that IT.

2:11

We're fine.

2:12

Thank you.

2:12

No worries.

2:55

Sorry, give us just a second.

2:57

No problems.

3:01

So in the meantime, how was Hawaii?

3:04

Paradise.

3:06

You really need to come.

3:07

Andy's Hawaiian.

3:09

Here we've got him up just in time.

3:11

You didn't you didn't have to be questioned about Hawaii too much.

3:14

Always happy to be questioned about Hawaii.

3:17

Thank you again.

3:18

So uh Texas Gulf Coast TXGC volunteers.

3:22

Info is an official website that we've created uh by the Texas Gulf Coast Region Voad.

3:29

And it's a unified digital platform for coordinating disaster relief volunteering across the 13 counties of the Gulf Coast region.

3:37

The central mission of this site is to accelerate and the relief and recovery communities impacted by disasters along the this region.

3:46

This is achieved through the collaboration of Texas Gulf Coast Region Voad, Just Serve, and Volunteer Houston.

3:54

This site streamlines spontaneous volunteer mobilization, ensuring vetted assistance, reaching impacted areas efficiently.

4:02

It prioritizes OEM and local agency needs and is active in disasters.

4:08

Next slide, please.

4:17

April and May, we experienced heavy rains, which caused tremendous flooding in East Texas.

4:22

And May, we were hit with the Duracho, causing power outages, trees down, flooding, food, water shortages.

4:30

And then on the heels of this in July, we had Hurricane Barrel, which brought more power outages, more damage, and in the heat wave, more heat food and water shortages.

4:41

In short, we experienced compounded disasters.

4:44

Next slide.

4:46

As a result of these back-to-back disasters, we experienced great volunteer shortages.

4:53

We had volunteer fatigue.

4:55

A lot of the same organizations were responding over and over.

4:58

They carried much of the need.

5:00

We lacked skilled volunteers.

5:02

We needed a lot of individuals who could saw, individuals who could tarp, work with roofs, and they were not, they were not plentiful.

5:13

And then our recording, our recruiting pools were very shallow.

5:18

Our volunteer groups, like we said, experienced fatigue, and by the end of August, we had a hard time trying to find enough volunteers to meet the needs.

5:31

Volunteer Houston has done a remarkable job at designing a disaster response platform that will take the spontaneous volunteer user directly to the needs of that disaster.

5:45

They've created a banner that will come up on each disaster, and you just click on the banner, it will take you to all of those needs, and they'll be prioritized according to OEMs and VoAD responses.

6:00

Just serve has a platform very similar in nature.

6:04

Just serve will then link, they have the same disaster banner that will for that event that will link the individual to the website of the responding organization so they'll connect personally with that website.

6:19

The TXGC volunteers.

6:26

So the volunteer just goes in there and they can easily access those needs that are highly prioritized by the VOAD and OEMs as well as other needs.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Disaster Recovery█████████████████████████████████████████████51%
Volunteer Management██████████████16%
Community Engagement██████████████16%
Resilience Planning███████████13%
Infrastructure███3%
Flooding█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Houston City Council Resilience Committee Meeting - August 10, 2026

The City Council Resilience Committee, chaired by Councilmember Carter, met on August 10, 2026, to hear presentations on volunteer coordination and community resilience strategies. Representatives from the Texas Gulf Coast Region Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster (VOAD) and Baker Ripley presented their ongoing efforts to enhance disaster preparedness and response. A public comment from the president of a super neighborhood highlighted local resilience needs.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Vicky Martin, President of East Houston City Gas Super Neighborhood 4950, requested support for establishing a resiliency hub in her underserved community (life expectancy of 66 years). She emphasized the need for tree removal, ditch maintenance education, and partnerships with the land bank. She offered to collaborate with VOAD and Baker Ripley.

Discussion Items

  • Texas Gulf Coast Region VOAD Presentation: Andy Cook (Volunteer Management Committee Chair, Just Serve) and Gary Flattery (VOAD Chair) described the unified digital platform "TXGC volunteers.info" for coordinating disaster relief volunteers across 13 counties. They noted compounded disasters in 2024 (heavy rains, Derecho, Hurricane Beryl) caused volunteer fatigue and shortages of skilled volunteers. They proposed a three-tier volunteer engagement model: (1) magnify outreach, (2) develop teams with matching gear and safety training, and (3) enable organizations to deploy their own teams. They requested referrals and connections to corporations, faith-based groups, and civic organizations.
  • Baker Ripley Presentation: Joe Fuentes (Director of Community Resilience) and Rachio Whittier (Senior Manager) presented their "Prepare, Adapt, Act" strategy. They highlighted that Houston has experienced nine federally declared disasters since 2015, with FEMA's role shrinking. Their four community centers serve over 110,000 residents annually and can act as resilience hubs. They are seeking funding for generators (estimated costs listed) and conduct CERT trainings in Spanish, with 94% of participants feeling more prepared. They reported that 50% of CERT participants already use Baker Ripley services, and 88% are interested in future volunteering. Upcoming events include a Health and Disaster Preparedness Resource Fair on August 28.
  • Q&A: Councilmember Carter offered to connect VOAD with the Astros Foundation. Councilmember Ramirez's office suggested reviewing VOAD's faith-based and civic lists to expand referrals. Councilmember Panzarella asked about takeaways from 2024; Baker Ripley emphasized year-round preparedness and communication. Councilmember Ramirez's office inquired about generator funding and strategies for low-income families; Baker Ripley noted they seek funding from various sources and provide food distributions and benefits enrollment assistance.

Key Outcomes

  • VOAD will share digital materials for council offices to distribute.
  • Baker Ripley invited council members to upcoming CERT training and resource fairs.
  • Councilmember Carter committed to exploring a land bank partnership for the super neighborhood's resiliency hub.
  • The next Resilience Committee meeting is scheduled for September 3, 2026 at 10 AM.

Meeting Transcript

Also in the area. And then we've got staff from Councilmember Salinas, Jackson, Ramirez, and Thomas's office. So welcome. And thank you all for being here on this Monday morning, kind of out of order, but summer vacations get us, and we have to shuffle the deck a little bit. I'm excited to hear from our friends today from the Texas Gulf Coast Region Voluntary Organization, Active in Disaster. I just say VoAD, so it's a little bit easier. And here on behalf of VoAd today is Miss Andy Cook with the Just Serve group, my friends from Just Serve, which I'm so excited to see this partnership. And Andy is volunteer management committee chair, and then Gary Flattery is here as well chair for Voad. And y'all come on down. We're excited to hear your presentation. I know you guys have been working hard, and as always, for Houston. So thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Carter. We really appreciate the invitation to be a part of your resilience committee today. If we could have our slides presented here, thank you. It's okay. Good morning. That's okay. We're just talking about that. They've evidently switched the system or something's updated, outdated, you know, that IT. We're fine. Thank you. No worries. Sorry, give us just a second. No problems. So in the meantime, how was Hawaii? Paradise. You really need to come. Andy's Hawaiian. Here we've got him up just in time. You didn't you didn't have to be questioned about Hawaii too much. Always happy to be questioned about Hawaii. Thank you again. So uh Texas Gulf Coast TXGC volunteers. Info is an official website that we've created uh by the Texas Gulf Coast Region Voad. And it's a unified digital platform for coordinating disaster relief volunteering across the 13 counties of the Gulf Coast region. The central mission of this site is to accelerate and the relief and recovery communities impacted by disasters along the this region. This is achieved through the collaboration of Texas Gulf Coast Region Voad, Just Serve, and Volunteer Houston. This site streamlines spontaneous volunteer mobilization, ensuring vetted assistance, reaching impacted areas efficiently. It prioritizes OEM and local agency needs and is active in disasters. Next slide, please. April and May, we experienced heavy rains, which caused tremendous flooding in East Texas. And May, we were hit with the Duracho, causing power outages, trees down, flooding, food, water shortages. And then on the heels of this in July, we had Hurricane Barrel, which brought more power outages, more damage, and in the heat wave, more heat food and water shortages. In short, we experienced compounded disasters. Next slide. As a result of these back-to-back disasters, we experienced great volunteer shortages. We had volunteer fatigue. A lot of the same organizations were responding over and over. They carried much of the need.

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