Election Information - NOTE: NEW POLLING PLACE

Only voters who are registered to vote within WCID#89 (Brunswick Meadows, Brunwick Lakes, Brunswick Place, or Morningside Place neighborhoods) will be allowed to vote in the District's Board election. If your voter registration card has any other address, even if it is in within Harris County, please IMMEDIATELY e-mail tax_voters@hctx.net or call the Voter Registration Department at 713-368-VOTE (8683) to request an application by mail.

If you wait to vote until 11/6/12, you will need to go to Christa Adair Park on Cullen, south of the Beltway. You may choose to take advantage of the early voting opportunity, which starts October 22, 2012. Here are a few places nearby where you can vote early.

Palm Center: JP/Constable Entry 5300 Griggs Road, 77021

Astrodome Area: Fiesta Mart, Inc. 8130 Kirby Drive, 77054

Hiram Clarke Multi-Service Center 3810 W. Fuqua, 77045

Early voting hours are:

October 22 to October 26 from 8AM-4:30PM  

October 27 from 7AM-7PM

October 28 from 1PM-6PM                                            

October 29 to November 2 from 7AM-7PM

WCID #89 is governed by 5 Board members who serve 4 year terms of office. Three Board members, Sharyn Smalls, Arthur G. Washington, and Byron Watson, all live in Morningside Place and their terms of office expire on 11/6/12 - the day of the presidential election. AK Babers and Jeraine Root from Brunswick Meadows also serve on the Board, but their terms of office do not expire until November 2014.

Elections for the WCID#89 Board are only held when an incumbent has a challenger petition to be on the ballot. Four challengers have emerged for the three seats: Victoria Lastee (resident of Morningside Place and former member of the Board who was defeated in the 2010 election by AK and Jeraine) and three residents of the Brunswick neighborhoods. They are Karri Garza and Charles "CG" Johnson from Brunswick Meadows, and Mike Smith from Brunswick Lakes. The candidates who receive the most votes will win the positions - there is no runoff.

The WCID#89 place on the ballot is the VERY LAST PAGE, past all the propositions. You will be allowed to vote for up to three candidates, but not more than three. Here’s what it will look like, in this exact order:

Harris County W.C.I.D. No. 89

Directors

Vote for None, 1, 2 or 3

□ Karri Garza

□ Sharyn Smalls

□ Michael Clancy Smith

□ Victoria D. Lastee

□ Byron Keith Watson, Sr.

□ Charles "C.G." Johnson

□ Arthur Washington

As you can see, there is no indication of who the incumbents are, or in which neighborhood each candidate resides. If you choose to vote a 'straight party' ticket (all Democrats or all Republicans) the machine will immediately move you to the propositions portion of the ballot. After voting on these, you will need to click "NEXT" to move you to the WCID#89 ballot. When you review your ballot, please be sure to see that you have voted in the WCID#89 election before hitting "SUBMIT".

 

 

Come Meet WCID#89 Candidates

Brunswick Lakes is hosting a residential HOA meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 18 at New Beginning Church (4251 Schurmier Rd.)  Although National Night Out will be the leading topic at this meeting, they are inviting all candidates running for election or re-election for MUD 89 Board seats to speak.

Don't miss this opportunity to meet the candidates!

LPAA - An Example of Mismanagement

On December 10, 2010 just 7 months after AK and I were elected to the Board, Arthur Washington joined us in voting for a Limited Purpose Annexation Agreement (LPAA) with the City of Houston. It was the only real victory for me and AK in the 2+ years we've served on the Board. Why did we want an LPAA?

It is a way to increase revenue streams into the District's funds. We would get 50% of the 1% sales tax revenue that Houston charges businesses that are within our District. The down side, depending on your viewpoint, would be having to abide by Houston ordinances (for example, no fireworks) and that full annexation would not be allowed for a period of 30 years. But honestly, Houston is not likely to want to annex us while we are carrying so much debt.

Well, time passed, and last year we had the first opportunity to get an LPAA. The lawyer and engineer did the prep work for the application. Then the lawyer found out that an open meeting was required within the district boundaries. Instead of bringing this to the attention of the Board, he contacted Sharyn Smalls and she told him that there was no facility to hold such a meeting. So the attempt was abandoned. Now, Sharyn and Byron Watson were in the minority on this particular vote. Yet Sharyn, using her power as President, simply did away with the LPAA on a technicality, instead of trying to find a public venue within the district. 

Note: We have held open meetings at the Water Treatment Plant in the past. We also could easily have requested the clubhouse at the Alta Cullen apartments for this meeting. None of that was even considered, apparently.

When it was announced at a subsequent meeting that the LPAA didn't go forward because of Sharyn's decision, I was upset. But knowing that we'd have another opportunity to apply in a year, I decided to just hold my tongue. The opportunity arose again four months ago. This time Arthur voted with Sharyn and Byron and the LPAA opportunity was defeated.  

At the San Antonio conference, I attended a seminar on district funds and learned that LPAA's are welcome additions to funding streams. Free money! I also had an opportunity to talk with our tax attorney, who was also at the conference, about the Board's decision to not pursue this funding stream. She was shocked and asked why we'd decided not to go for the free money. I said that the only reason given was Sharyn thinking that it would cost more to track than it was worth to collect. I had even volunteered to track the money at no cost to the District, which was dismissed immediately by those in the majority. I asked her if she could let us know how much money we might get from the LPAA and she said that she'd be happy to run the numbers.

On August 21st, I requested that we put an agenda item regarding that information on a future agenda. Sharyn and Byron protested that I had gone way beyond my authority to instruct a contracted vendor to do research without the Board's approval. So, the information that she had already gathered was never to be presented to the Board. I think that's wrong.

I continued to ask the tax collector for the information and she sent me this reply:

I have found that HC WCID 89 does have 5 businesses that would charge sales tax. I also believe there are more businesses going in at Cullen & Beltway 8. A District must have 4 to enter into an LPAA with the City of Houston. I was told that based on these 5 businesses, the district could receive approx $2,000 per month in sales tax. This is STRICTLY an estimate since we have not been given permission by the Board to really put some time into this to charge for the research. 

If this whole matter were to move forward, after approval , the District’s attorney and engineer would get the agreement drafted to send to the city and after about 6 months the district would see revenue. At this time the Board would decide to hire SRI, Inc to track this revenue and to make sure the businesses were paying and that the State Comptroller has them on file and transferring all funds to the district ‘s bookkeeper. Please let me know if you have any questions.

The businesses she mentions on Cullen & Beltway 8 are the now empty strip center called Y Shops. The ones now in business include the Jack in the Box, Sonic, Valero, Exxon, and Fireworks. Let's assume that the addition of the Y Shops would double the potential sales tax. $4000/month would nearly cover the cost of an additional Constable Deputy to patrol our district!

What can you do to rectify this situation? GO VOTE ON 11/6! Be sure to start by going to the bottom of the ballot and locating WCID#89 candidates. The 3 who are challenging the incumbents from Brunswick neighborhoods include Karri Garza, CG Johnson, and Mike Smith. You will be allowed to vote for all three.