Update: I’m still trying to hit on a system that works and isn’t too confusing. This week, I’m going to add the RCA/backup update to the original post. This way, the train of thought for each individual item is maintained. Not every item will have comments about the backup. Where they do, it will appear below the prior comments and be marked “RCA” The complete backup will be available here for a week or two, perhaps as much as a month.

It’s a short agenda this week, due to the holiday.

Readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable; also that comments added are a mix of my own opinions, best guesses, snarking, and judgements, and therefore may not be entirely accurate. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please follow the link in the sidebar to the posted agenda.

Public Comment & Action Meeting: 7/5, ROLL CALL @ 9:00 am, COUNCIL CHAMBER – SECOND FLOOR – CITY HALL – 901 BAGBY

Public Comment: 9:30 AM The Public Comment session would fall on the 4th this week, and so has been moved to this morning.

Mayor’s Report: After public comment.
REPORT FROM CITY CONTROLLER AND THE CITY ADMINISTRATION REGARDING THE CURRENT FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE CITY including but not limited to, a revenue, expenditure and encumbrance report for the General Fund, all special revenue funds and all enterprise funds, and a report on the status of bond funds.
I suspect that, as important as it is, everyone will be put to sleep by it. This isn’t a problem to the Powers That Be, since as Anne pointed out yesterday, what they say how much something costs, and how much it actually costs, are often two different things.

Items 1-5: Miscellaneous
1. REQUEST from Mayor for confirmation of the appointment of the following to the HOUSTON ARTS ALLIANCE:
· Position One – MR. KEIJI ASAKURA, for a term to expire June 30, 2007
· Position Two – MS. LESLIE BLANTON, for a term to expire June 30, 2008
· Position Three-MR. JOHN GUESS, JR., for a term to expire June 30, 2009
· Position Four- MS. FRANCES JETER, for a term to expire June 30, 2009
· Position Five- MS. YOLANDA LONDOÑO, for a term to expire June 30, 2007
· Position Six – MR. MICHAEL ZILKHA, for a term to expire June 30, 2008
Gotta keep the important folks happy, working on the important things. We’re not world class without Art!
RCA: I’m not going to do reviews of their individual resume’s this week (too time consuming), but it’s worth noting that the Arts Alliance Houston is being formed by the merger of the Municipal Arts Commission, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, and the Civic Art Committee. It is a 31 member council, of which six are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by council. From the Mayor’s letter:
Arts Alliance Houston will serve in a leadership role as:

• An Advocate for the Arts – shaping public policy, coordinating
  marketing of the arts and enhancing Houston’s image as an
  international arts community. Committing to constantly improve
  efficiency and effectiveness of art creation and grant making processes
  to be more supportive of artists and arts organizations.
• Development – managing and developing funds provided by public
  and private sources including City, County, State and Federal funds,
  civic groups, foundations, individuals and businesses.
• Civic Art Management – managing and conserving the City’s art
  collection, overseeing art offered as gifts to the City, managing the
  creation of new works of art, managing the percent for art projects in
  the Capital Improvement Plan.
• Education – educating children and the general public to build
  audiences for Houston’s artists and arts organizations.
• Collaboration – identifying opportunities and bringing organizations
  and leaders together to benefit both the arts community and the
  citizens of the area, reaching out to and communicating with business
  and education communities.

2. REQUEST from Mayor for confirmation of the appointment of MS. MONICA C. THURMAN to Position Two on the CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION FOR MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF HOUSTON and the POLICE OFFICERS’ AND FIREFIGHTERS’ CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, for a term expiring June 14, 2009
And now you see why I roll my eyes whenever someone says, “But you’re protected by Civil Service, aren’t you?”
RCA: Just because there’s only one and I’m a city employee, I’ll briefly cover it. Monica Thurman is a senior manager in Employee Relations with Halliburton, and counsel in their Human Resources Legal Department. Before that she was with Arthur Anderson as a Senior Consultant working on ERISA. Prior to that, she was with the U.S. Department of Labor as an investigator, which is where she went after working in Trust administration. BBA from Florida A&M and JD from Indiana U.

3. Request council approval for an extended leave of absence without pay for Sr. Community Liaison, Mike Edmonds, employee #118299.
RCA Somehow, I completely missed adding this item. It looks odd; I never realized council had to approve these things. Mr. Edmonds is suffering from a lengthy illness (not specified) and has already exhausted the allowed 180 days unpaid leave. This will extend his leave for six more months to continue treatment.

4. RECOMMENDATION from Director Department of Public Works & Engineering for establishment of a connection charge in the amount of $0.8178 per square foot for properties connecting to the 8-inch sanitary sewer line constructed by SILVESTRI HOMES OF TEXAS, INC located along Stanford Street.
I don’t understand why the council has to set a charge for this–it seems like it would be standard. Time to hit the backup…
RCA: Ok, I’ve read the backup, and I might understand it: “Article IV of Chapter 47 of the Code of Ordinances, Houston, Texas (Houston Code) includes provisions for the reimbursement of developers who have constructed a water or sanitary sewer extension. Establishment of a connection charge provides that the owner of each successive property that connects to the line built by the developer will pay a pro-rata share of the cost to construct the line.” Is this saying that the developer builds the sewer, then the people who buy the property from him have to pay the developer for the sewer connection? In effect, we subcontract out the expansion of our sewer system to the developers themselves?

5. RECOMMENDATION from Director Department of Public Works & Engineering to approve refund for Water & Sewer Account for THE LANDING AT WESTCHASE – $28,175.00 – Enterprise Fund.
Nice refund there… someone’s deposit? That would be my guess, thanks to the round numbers.
RCA: Spot on, it was a deposit. They closed the account and sold the property.

Item 6: Property

6. RECOMMENDATION from Director Department of Public Works & Engineering to purchase Parcel DY6-002, located in the 11100 block of Old Katy Road, owned by MH 3.876, Ltd., a Texas limited partnership [MH 3.876 Realty GP LLC, a Texas limited liability company (Mac Haik, President) General Partner], for the OLD KATY ROAD SANITARY SEWER LINE PROJECT, CIP S-0700-OC-2.
Where do they come up with these names? One of the hardest problems we have to deal with in Public Works is trying to pin down the responsibilty through all these shell corpororations, partnerships, and what not.

Items 7-9: Purchasing and Tabulation of Bids.

7. PIXELPUSHERS, INC dba CIVICA SOFTWARE for Automated License Plate Reader System for Houston Police Department – $209,374.00 – General and Grant Funds
Is this to go with the camera system? or is it something else entirely? If the former, what happened to the camera company fronting all the costs?
RCA: “The Department will initially utilize these devices in and around airports, schools and high crime areas with a particular focus on stolen vehicles, outstanding
warrants, amber alert information, and vehicles with possible terrorist connections. This will increase the overall security of the patrol officers as well as the general driving public .” This is to put ten cameras in police vehicles that can read license plates so the officer doesn’t have to type it in, which could be unsafe while he’s driving. That’s ten police vehicles out of how many? I’m sure the officers driving those vehicles will like the ability, but is it worth it? I note most of the funding is coming from a 2005 federal “Urban Area Security Initiative Grant.” Is this a case of “use it or lose it?”

8. AZTECA SYSTEMS, INC for Software Maintenance Services Agreement for Infrastructure Management System for Department of Public Works & Engineering – 1 Year – $110,000.00
Software license fees again?
RCA: Idiot! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize this one. It’s the IMS, a database used by PW&E to track the locations & data on everything from water mains to valves to fire hydrants to sewers, etc. If it’s infrastructre, its probably in there.. There’s also a graphical version, known as GIMS, that is accessable by the public. Both are hideously complex and not user friendly at all, but almost have to be. If I have one complaint about IMS, it’s that it interfaces poorly with the city’s 3-1-1 call center, CityWorks (work order tracking) and capital projects databases. When researching citizen complaints, there’s no direct link between them all.. If a customer calls up to complain about a problem caused by a city contractor, it’s difficult to determine exactly whose fault it is, which office is in charge, and if anything was done about it.

9. IMPCO, INC (Bid No. 4) – $334,842.48 and SECURITY SAFETY & SUPPLY, INC (Bid No. 5) – $36,016.88 for Beverages, Electrolyte Replenishment for Various Departments – $378,427.92 minus a commission fee for Internet-based reverse auction services for a net award not to exceed $370,859.36 – General and Enterprise Funds
In other words, generic Gatorade, for departments that put people out in the heat. If this includes meter readers, it will mark a change though–I know ten years ago they were pretty much on their own.
RCA: Correction: Brand-name Gatorade. Powdered. One oddity: of the 21 bids on the first half, 12 of them “Did Not Meet Specifications” and were rejected. All 12 were less than half the cost of the winning bids; the worst losing bid was twice the winning bid. On the second half, the 7 lowest bids were all rejected as “Partial/Higher Unit Price” and averaged about one-ninth the price of the winning bid. The worse losing bid was three times the winner. This strikes me as an extremely wide variance, and I have to wonder what the bid specs were like, that this could happen.

Items 10-31: Ordinances.

10. ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 45 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, HOUSTON, TEXAS, relating to the Residential Parking Permit Program.
Probably more necessary delegation to the Parking Authority.
RCA: The backup for this item is missing. Veddy interestink, no?

11. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing the sale of the Fannin Street Garage, 1112 Clay Street (the property) to Fannin Street Garage – GP, LLC (Buyer); and authorizing, in connection therewith, the execution and delivery to buyer of (1) a Special Warranty Deed conveying the City’s interest in Parcel SY6-064A, (2) an Assignment and Assumption of Ground Lease Agreement assigning the City’s leasehold interest in Parcel SY6-064B, (3) an Assignment and Assumption of Lease Agreement assigning the City’s interest as landlord in a lease of a portion of the property, and (4) ancillary closing documents; all in consideration of buyer’s payment of $8,050,000.00.
Dang, I think I read something about this months ago, but it’s not coming back to me… I thought the reasoning behind the deal was very flawed. The article was in the local media but I don’t remember if it was blog or mainstream. What bothers me is that we’re selling this downtown property for only $8 mill and then leasing back part of it.
RCA: Doesn’t add anything new.

12. ORDINANCE consenting to the addition of 35.205 acres of land to HARRIS COUNTY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 220, for inclusion in its district.
RCA: “The district desires to add 35.205 acres, thus yielding a total of 1616157 acres. The district is served by a regional wastewater treatment plant, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 23. This tract of the district will be served by the City of Houston … Potable water for this tract will be provided by the City of Houston .” Say what? If we’re serving it, why is it in the MUD?

Is anyone else thinking there’s an awful lot of head-scratchers in our city? Maybe there’s actually a reason for these things, but when you first look at them, the reaction of any normal person is “Huh?”

13. ORDINANCE establishing the north side of the 2300 block of McClendon Street within the City of Houston as a special minimum lot size requirement area pursuant to Chapter 42 of the Code of Ordinances.
RCA: Ok, I have a grip on what’s going on here now. It’s backdoor zoning. If 50+% of the people in a block sign a petition to have some special restriction placed on their properties, the Planning and Development section will consider it. Other property owners have a right to protest, but it’s pretty much a given that their protest will be ignored, since the majority petitioned for the change–probably to block the development of the adjacent properties. In this particular case, there were 2 protests from property owners planning to build townhomes on the property.

14. ORDINANCE establishing the south side of the 4600 through the 4800 blocks of Rusk Street within the City of Houston as a special building line requirement area pursuant to Chapter 42 of the Code of Ordinances.
RCA: Similar to above, mandating a setback from the street edge.

15. ORDINANCE approving the Hurricane Rita Relief Efforts Mutual Aid Agreement with HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
RCA: “The proposed Interlocal Agreement will allow the City to apply to FEMA for federal funds in order to reimburse HISD for its costs . No funds will be allocated until the City receives payment from FEMA .” $219,348.21 for shelters during Hurricane Rita.

16. ORDINANCE authorizing the Mayor and designees to contract for Interlocal Mutual Aid Agreements valued at $25,000 or less and relating to services performed in the event of a disaster.
In other words, the department directors will be able to make agreements with other cities and local government agencies for assistance and offer reimbursement of up to $25,000 without having to go to council first. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Flexibiity is good, but what are the limits on the total number of agreements? This has the potential to remove a great deal of spending authority from council oversight.
RCA: The RCA doesn’t really add a great deal of insight to this request. There are no restrictions on the ability to make emergency contracts with other local goverments, and no oversight.

17. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing the submittal of an application to the U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL for Network Implementation of the National Environmental Public Heath Tracking Program (The “Grantâ€?); and to apply for and accept all subsequent awards, if any, pertaining to the grant – $3,800,000.00
Is that the grant, or how much money we’re spending to apply? The way this is listed is confusing… it looks like we’re spending that much money.
RCA: Still unclear, it looks like the authority to apply for the grant and spend the money, all wrapped up in one package. It’s definately to develop a database on people treated, immunizations, etc., for real-time data mining. This sort of information is probably on paper currently; as I’ve noted before, the Health Department is one of the biggest holders of personal data on citizens, aside from HPD.

18. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing agreements to reimburse HUFFMAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, AMIGOS POR VIDA – FRIENDS FOR LIFE and JOHN PAUL II CATHOLIC SCHOOL, and for payment of School Crossing Guards from the Child Safety Fund.
RCA: Fund and actions required by state law.

19. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing an interlocal agreement between the City of Houston and TEXAS ENGINEERING AND EXTENSION SERVICE (TEEX) for Paramedic Training for the Houston Fire Department.

20. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing an interlocal agreement between the City of Houston and the METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY (METRO) for the purchase of testing time at the University of Houston Diesel Vehicle Research and Testing Facility
The city’s buying time at an experiemental facility owned by UH, but they’re paying Metro. Why? Does this mean that Metro bought time and then found that they had too much? Or they needed a quick infusion of cash, so they sold a non-tangible asset? What exactly is the city experimenting with? I’ll be looking at the backup on this one too.
RCA: I had it backwards. The City made the initial purchase (not less than 40 hours per week), and Metro is purchasing time from the city.

21. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing compromise and settlement agreement with ADVENTURES IN BIRDS & PETS, INC and BETTY JEAN JORDAN to settle a lawsuit and appropriating $65,000.00 out of Water & Sewer System Consolidated Construction Fund No. 755, which lawsuit arose out of activities financed by the Fund.
RCA: The backup for this item is missing.

22. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing second amendment to contract between the City of Houston and LLEWELYN-DAVIES SAHNI, INC for Professional Landscape Architectural and Engineering Services – $59,478.36
RCA: Prettyfying (I don’ t think that’s a word…) the I45-South Loop interchange, especially the old pedestrian bridge. Additional work being added to the original contract.

23. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing Professional Services Contract between the City of Houston and SMITH & COMPANY ARCHITECTS for the African American Library, GFS E-0144-03-2 – $89,000.00
No doubt, soon to be followed by the Mexican-American Library, Asian-American Library, Arab-American Library, Samoan-American Library, Canadian-American Library, Hyphenated-American Library, and the I’m-Not-An-American Library. At least the Phillipino-Americans here can pay for their own statues.
RCA: The backup for this item is missing.

24. ORDINANCE appropriating $240,504.00 out of Parks Consolidated Construction Fund, approving and authorizing first amendment to construction contract between the City of Houston and CARRERA CONSTRUCTION, INC for Construction of Parks Master Plan – Sylvester (I’m Not a Dead Politician Yet) Turner Park.
RCA: Raising the cost overrun contingency to 17% to pay for additional improvements “to address citizen safety and vandalism of the park and irrigation of the baseball fields…

• Security fence at park perimeter and at detention pond
• Safety netting at NCAA baseball field outfield fence
• Irrigation systems for all baseball fields

They didn’t plan for safety netting around the outfield fence? Well, normally, you only need it behind home plate to prevent foul ball injuries, but if vandalism is an issue, I have to wonder how long before mere netting is in tatters.

25. ORDINANCE appropriating $66,085.00 out of Police Consolidated Construction Fund as an additional appropriation for a contract between the City of Houston and ASTRO FENCE COMPANY for Purchase and Installation of Security Fence for South Central Police Station. Right. Because it would be really embarassing if someone stole the police station….
RCA: Decorative iron fencing, with a powered security gate. Because it might look, like, unfriendly, if it had a barbed-wire topped chain-link fence, like some Public Works or Park n’ Loot facilities.

26. ORDINANCE approving and authorizing Environmental Services Contract between the City of Houston and TERRACON CONSULTANTS, INC and WESTON SOLUTIONS, INC for Environmental Assessments in support of the Brownfields Redevelopment Program – $400,000.00
I’m not going to snark this because frankly, they’re necessary. Some corporations were not good neighbors and they have left behind awful messes that have to be cleaned up before you dare let people live there again. Or build anything else there.
RCA: Um…. I said I wasn’t going to snark, so I won’t. But two things are bothering me about this. One is a possible brain fart on the part of my memory, so I’m not going to point a finger. As for the other…. If anyone knows someone with environmental experience, could you put page 70 of the pdf in front of them and see if this makes sense? It seems…. unusualy verbose and obtuse….

27. ORDINANCE appropriating $3,836,700.00 out of Water & Sewer System Consolidated Construction Fund; awarding contract to BRH-GARVER CONSTRUCTION, L.P. for abandonment of Northborough Wastewater Treatment Plant.
We annexed the Northborough district 20 years ago, and it had issues way back then. Apparently it was significantly under capacity at the time. If I had to guess, I would say it was too small and old to warrent upgrading.
RCA: This project is to shut down the Northborough plant and re-route waste through a 12 inch line running down I-45, Greens, and Banmar to the Northgate plant. Projected time, 545 days.

28. ORDINANCE appropriating $3,169,600.00 to METRO CITY CONSTRUCTION, L.P. for Water Line Replacement in the Magnolia Park Area.
RCA: Some very, very old lines here. A variety of main sizes will be replaced.

29. ORDINANCE granting to UNITED WASTE SERVICES, INC, a Texas corporation, the right, privilege and franchise to collect, haul and transport Solid Waste and Industrial Waste from commercial properties located within the City of Houston.

30. ORDINANCE granting to SURE DISPOSAL SERVICES, INC a Texas corporation, the right, privilege and franchise to collect, haul and transport Solid Waste and Industrial Waste from commercial properties located within the City of Houston.

31. ORDINANCE granting to QUICK SILVER HAULING, LLC, a Texas corporation, the right, privilege and franchise to collect, haul and transport Solid Waste and Industrial Waste from commercial properties located within the City of Houston.
RCA: No interesting details on the prior three items, other than the fact that they have to pay the city of Houston 4% of their annual gross revenue for the privilege of doing business here, and open their customer records to city inspection. Nice VAT there, though not as bad as the EU’s 17.5%

END OF CONSENT AGENDA

CONSIDERATION OF MATTERS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA

Items 32 & 33: Matters Held

32. RECOMMENDATION from Department Finance & Administration to award to RANGE KLEEN MFG. INC for Vinyl Magnets, Universal Lids, Fat Trapper Bags and Holders for Department of Public Works & Engineering – $54,750.00 – Enterprise Fund – TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER WISEMAN
This was Item 6 on Agenda of June 28, 2006
RCA: (Fat trapper bags? Get them away from me!) These are for use in publicising efforts to get citizens to stop pouring grease down their drains. This is a constant problem for the city; that stuff collects in sewers and treatment plants, which clogs lines and increases maintenance work. Not to mention causes backups into people’s homes, if it gets severe enough! No opinion on whether this is the best way to do it, or if it’s a good price on the bid, but we definately need to publicize this issue.

33. ORDINANCE amending Ordinance No. 2004-0495 to increase the maximum contract amount to Contract C56063 between the City of Houston and ARCH WIRELESS OPERATING COMPANY, INC for Pager Rental Services for Various Departments – $143,429.16 – General, Enterprise, Grant and Other Funds – TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS WISEMAN and ALVARADO
This was item 33 on Agenda of June 28, 2006
RCA: Extending an existing contract through 2007. Council pressure to justify use resulted in a reduction from 3,883 to 2,197 pagers.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS – Council Member Edwards first.

End of Agenda