‘Emergency’ ordinance shot down by Houston council

HOUSTON — An ordinance that would have declared an emergency in Houston due to high fuel costs has been shot down by the city council.

Councilman Roger Purcell, who penned the ordinance, said he is confused and disappointed by the decision.

“I don’t know exactly why they were so against it,” Purcell said about the council’s Thursday vote. “I was kind of baffled because it opened up so many doors.”

Purcell was joined on the losing side of the vote by council members Lee Himes and Rosemary Burnett.

Mayor Sandy McDonald said she voted against the ordinance because she feels declaring an emergency, at this point, would be arbitrary.

“This is something he’s been working on for some time and you can’t declare it an emergency,” McDonald said of Purcell’s proposal.

The route Purcell chose to pass the ordinance bypassed the usual route an ordinance takes at the city, she said. Declaring an emergency short-circuits a lot of public involvement as it does not require the ordinance face a public hearing where residents are invited to testify.

“We really have to be sure that we are involving the public,” McDonald said. The longer, non-emergency process could be wrapped up in as little as a couple of weeks.

Purcell, for his part, said the process usually takes about a month, time the city doesn’t have. The ordinance needs to pass now to give the city better standing if it hopes to ask for money to deal with energy issues during the state Legislature’s upcoming special session.

“The special session starts in two and a half weeks. We don’t have a month,” Purcell said Monday.

If that window of opportunity closes, he said the next won’t open for another year.

As to whether there needs to be more public hearing, Purcell said he doesn’t think so. The ordinance doesn’t start any projects, it simply declares an emergency — something he believes everyone in Houston who pays for heating oil knows to be the case.

The ordinance would have used money set aside to build a new city hall to instead bring consultants into the city to look at where to save on energy costs. The city would then hold public hearings before deciding on what projects to move forward with, Purcell said.

Underlying the debate is what Purcell hopes the city will accomplish after an emergency is declared. Purcell is an advocate of bringing a wood pellet plant to the city, one that could turn trees into a cleaner-burning, lower-cost alternative to fuel oil.

“The project that Councilman Purcell would like to see move forward has not gone under the scrutiny of the public and I believe it deserves it,” McDonald said. “The council has not had an opportunity to discuss it in a non-emergency public hearing form.”

Purcell said declaring an emergency simply opens the door to many creative energy solutions — solar, wind and, yes, wood pellets. The emergency might make the road to a wood pellet plant smoother but wouldn’t start the ball rolling. That would require further legislation, he said.

“Everybody says you’re trying to get NPI to come and do it,” Purcell said, referring to a local logging and wood processing company. “NPI might not be the one that comes in and does it.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.

Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published at www.frontiersman.com. Visit the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman online daily for breaking news.