“We have some obstacles we didn’t anticipate” Houston City Council begins work after leadership disruptions

At the regularly scheduled Houston City Council meeting, work got under way to return to some semblance of normal business after the mayoral resignations last week left the city without leadership.

Adding to the chaos was the resignation of the city treasurer.

“Without a treasurer, it has been tough to pay the bills, pay the employees, but we’re making it work,” said Councilman Mike Adams, who is filling the role as Chair of the Council until a Mayor and Deputy Mayor are elected on October 17.

Still no reason has been given as to the reasons or the abrupt nature of the departures.

Housekeeping was the word of the night as city council members worked their way through items on the agenda

“There is some housekeeping we need to do throughout the night…We need to comply with Houston City Code. It gives us order and it gives us boundaries,” said Councilwoman Sandy McDonald after a motion was made to vacate the Chair.

She went on to tell attendees that the vote was not valid because there was no quorum, as required by code.

“We just want to keep things legal, we would like to bring this back up to the council and vote again,” she stated.

After re-electing Councilman Adams to fill the role, council got to work.

As expected, with a council made up of new and junior council members, there were some bumps along the way and questions were asked for otherwise routine items.

“Please be patient-this is a learning process,” Adams said while guiding and maneuvering an agenda created under the previous administration, and some items could not be addressed at this time as there is still no full council.

Once again, residents packed the council chambers and showed their support of the new council members, as well as to get a firsthand look at them in action.

One issue that came up repeatedly during public comments was the roads and road maintenance equipment.

“My main concern is the disastrous conditions of King Arthur Road,” stated Houston resident Jerry Gronos, who told the council that areas of the road are so deteriorated that logs from the original construction of the road are visible

“I pick up mufflers and pieces of equipment, and everybody just tearing everything up,” Gronos stated, adding “there are places that logs are sticking out of the road. The grader comes by but it doesn’t help because by the afternoon the potholes are back.”

Others backed up his statements while also addressing that the road is a main thoroughfare for heavy equipment, school buses, and big trucks, which may be exacerbating the situation.

Public Works Director George Thompson acknowledged and addressed the concerns, stating that the city’s road grader has been in desperate need of expensive repairs for most of the year that have nearly paralyzed his department’s ability to provide better road maintenance.

“It’s about $12.5 million dollars to fix the roads at this point,” said Councilman Carter Cole.

State Representative Kevin McCabe attended the meeting, and among his remarks, he too acknowledged the city’s roads issues.

“The state is aware of your grader plate and we’re working to help resolve it.” He then added that he was on hand during Governor Mike Dunleavy’s recent visit to areas hit by flooding earlier this summer, and met with city officials to come up with a response plan.

“I went with the Governor out to look at the roads after the flooding, and what could be done. I can tell you the Governor is very concerned, especially with the (Little Su) River and why it’s flooding faster with less rain than 2008.”

He went on to tell council that the state administration is looking into the flooding and flood mitigation studies to help improve the conditions.

Others attendees commented on wanting to see more accountability while understanding that the city has limited resources, crime and safety issues, and wanting to see more work done on code enforcement policy in regards to trash and junk littering homes and yards.

The council appointed a new councilman after having public interviews on Monday, appointing Jeff Brasel to a seat made vacant earlier this summer when a council member resigned after moving out of the city limits. The vacancy was not tied to the resignations last week.

“I want to thank the fellow councilmembers for their confidence in my abilities and hope to be a useful member of the council,” he commented.

McCabe went on to say that he has been impressed with how the Councilmembers Adams and Carter Cole have handled the situation

“It could have been really contentious situation and it was impressive,” he said before adding, “I was a freshman last year and made plenty of mistakes on the floor of the House. It’s a learning process.”

The council recognized that there is a lot of work that needs to get done over the next several months and beyond

“There is a process and I feel very strongly that we have to have a process and we have to do it rightly in order. We have city laws and we have to abide by them. It’s always much quicker to do away with them and get right to the problem, but that could be abused,” said Councilwoman McDonald before asking the public to give the council the opportunity to do things right and in order.

“We have some obstacles that we didn’t anticipate, and that’s going to take some time,” said Councilman David Childs, who expressed his desire to get started right away and encouraged the public to keep attending the meetings.

The next Houston City Council meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 pm in Houston City Hall.