Specifics on District Community Building - Ethics Policy - LPAA

At the 11/16/10 Board meeting, the architect of the District Building, Mr. Mosely, presented all the design plans. In a nutshell, the building will be about 7000 square feet with a parking lot of 100 spaces and 8 designated handicapped spaces.  The building will be multi-functional and ADA compliant (meaning it is built to accommodate people with disabilities) having two offices, two conference rooms (24'x16' for one and 18'x12' for the other) and a large 50'x50' space complete with a stage (22'x15') and dressing room (8'x16') with A/V booth. The large room can be divided into four separate meeting areas, each with its own ceiling fan, and hold up to 330 people comfortably if left without dividers. A/C has been designed to function in just the part of the building being used, in order to save energy.

In addition, a fully equipped kitchen (21'x21') will be built right off the main room. There will be work tables and a grill in addition to all the appliances. The outside of the building will be made of brick and steel, with a metal roof, along with acoustical tile ceiling.  President Smalls said that the proposed building will act as a command center in case of emergency and is built to withstand hurricane weather. She was less clear on the specifics of what the command center activties might entail, and who might benefit directly by such a use.

$1.3 million has been earmarked for the construction and maintenance of the building, which comes primarily from already issued bonds. The rest comes from a $500 fee paid by the developers for each water tap installed and a $2500 fee for each commercial acre developed. Perhaps the building will be ready for use sometime in 2011 - but definitely by 2012.


Mr. Mosely will be handling the bid process, and stated it would take another 6 weeks or so to get all the necessary permits from the state and county before publishing the request for bids.  Because of the poor quality of the soil on which the foundation will rest, it will require building up that area. In case you haven't seen the sign marking the spot, the construction site is near the curve of Fellows Road  right across from Tom Bass Park II - the golf course section.

At the 11/2/10 meeting, an ethics policy that I introduced was not well received. The other members of the Board requested that the District's attorney, Chris Richardson, create an alternative policy that would quote the relative ethics laws from the state of Texas and the District Board's intention to abide by them. The one that Chris prepared will be discussed and voted on at the 12/7/10 meeting. I will have more to say about this after the next meeting.


Also at the 12/7/10 meeting will be a discussion of a Limited Purpose Annexation Agreement (LPAA) with the city of Houston. Under such an agreement, we would get to vote for 'District D' City Council races and in all other City elections (mayoral, council members-at-large, ballot proposals, etc.) but would not be paying city taxes nor receiving city services (i.e. security through HPD, emergency responders like firefighters or EMTs, garbage pickup or the other kinds of services that the District already provides). We would have to abide by City ordinances as well. Why would we want such an LPAA?


Now that we have a few commercial enterprises in the District (recent Jack in the Box on Cullen, soon-to-come Exxon/Sonic, and existing PODs facility) we can get a 50% cut of the city sales tax by entering into an LPAA. That additional revenue stream is the up side - in addition to having voting power and representation in City Council meetings. 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.

Security Report For October 1-31, 2010

This is the first monthly report from Constable 7 May Walker since we contracted with her office to provide 3 deputies. It's hard to read, but if you'll click on each table you can then print it out and see the details of the report. The contracted deputies spent 99% of their time patrolling WCID89 (although the contract only requires them to stay within the District 70% of the time) and response times for dispatched calls were on average 3-5 minutes. Quite an improvement over the Sheriff's Department. Thanks again to the security liaisons in the Brunswick neighborhoods who made this happen!

I, for one, certainly appreciate Deputy Minneweather giving so many verbal warnings rather than writing citations for all those traffic violations. But folks, beware of your driving. We're being patrolled :--)

Ethics Policy & District Community Building on 11/16/10 Agenda

After several attempts to get the Board of Directors to consider a written Code of Ethics policy for WCID#89, a draft that I developed was discussed at the last meeting. President Smalls and Director Watson were not impressed with my efforts, and requested that the District's attorney create one instead. We will be discussing it at the next meeting 11/16/10 at 11:30AM.  Please note the address for this and all meetings is the new office location of the District's law firm,

Strawn & Richardson, P.C.

6750 West Loop South, Suite 250

Bellaire, Texas  77401-4111

This is in the Frost Bank building. Free parking is available.

Also on the agenda is a presentation by the architect on the District Community Building. President Smalls had stated that the bidding process was ready to move forward on construction of the building at the 10/19/10 meeting. I requested that the Board be presented with the design and be given more information about the purpose/use of the building before requests for bids were sent out. 

The original annexation agreement between 308 Furman, Ltd. and WCID#89, dated 4/9/2002 (I finally know how  the developer got that name - 308 acres near Furman Street. Cute, huh?) noted an estimate of $300,000 to be used on the "community center" which was to have parking capacity for 132 vehicles and might also include a basketball court, tennis court, and/or jogging trail. The $300,000 was to be provided by a $500 fee for each lot sold in the Brunswick neighborhoods, and $2500 for each acre sold out of commercial reserve acreage. 

There were apparently changes made to the original concept for the community center along the way. One of these changes included the funding for construction, because one of the bonds issued by WCID#89 over the past 8 years has an $800,000 earmark for the District building. We should know more about the other changes when the presentation is made at the next meeting. 

Tax Hike - Have Your Voice Heard!

The District's financial advisor made a presentation at the September 17th meeting explaining why we needed to consider raising our tax rate. I suppose most of you know that we are not the only taxing entity having to do so.  

Current tax rate is $1.34/$100 value of property, out of which 85 cents is dedicated to debt service and 49 cents is for operations and maintenance (O&M) of the District. The total 2010 HCAD appraised value for the district is $241,322,069 but the taxable value is only $208,602,094 because of homestead, senior citizen, and disabled person's exemptions. The amount under protest by homeowners on their personal appraisals is $11,296,713, which if successful would lower the overall taxable value to $197,305,381.

Here's the facts:

• Taxable value of homes decreased by 11% between 2008 & 2009 according to HCAD. This meant a loss of $19.9 million in the tax base.
• Every penny of tax levy equals approximately $21,000 of tax revenue for the District.
• The annual operating expenditures are approximately $2,400,000 while debt service requirements are $2,750,000 for a total annual expenditure of roughly $5,150,000.
• Tax rate collection is typically in the 98% range.

The financial advisor recommended we raise the debt service tax rate to $1.04 and set the O&M tax rate to 40 cents for an overall tax rate of $1.44/$100 value of property. After much discussion, we decided to set a total rate of $1.39/$100 with $1 for debt service and 39 cents for O&M.


The public hearing for the 2010 tax rate will be held at the beginning of the next District meeting at 11:30AM on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. The new meeting place is the Frost Bank Bldg. located at 6750 West Loop South, Suite 250, Bellaire, TX. Free parking is available.

New Meeting Place in Bellaire

Beginning with the September 7th meeting, the location for WCID#89 meetings will be at the new offices of Strawn & Richardson in the Frost Bank Building.

This is near the corner of Bellaire and the West Loop South. The actual address is:
6750 West Loop South, Suite 250
Bellaire TX 77401

New Security Contract

The security contract that we had with Sheriff Garcia has been canceled. It became official on August 10, 2010 when the Harris County Commissioners Court approved a request by the Sheriff to eliminate the positions that were created by the contract. After having a presentation by Constable Walker of Precinct 7 (which covers our District boundaries) the Board voted to request a similar contract for 3 deputies from her office to patrol our neighborhoods. It has the 70-30 provision (presumes that the officers hired under the contract will be on patrol within the District 70% of the time and 30% patrolling the rest of Precinct 7) because this is the only contract that Harris County offers. Constable Walker said that we can count on upwards of 90% of the time our contracted deputies are on duty to actually be patrolling our neighborhoods.

Special thanks to CG Johnson and Dave King of Brunswick Meadows, and to Johanna Williams and several other Brunswick Lakes residents for coming to the Board meetings to represent the security concerns of their neighborhoods. I believe there was also a rep from Brunswick Place and I apologize for not knowing her name. CG and Johanna - please comment on this posting and provide the names of all those who volunteered their time to act as security liaisons. It was all of you who really made this happen!!!!!

Have An Alarm System? Then You Need An Alarm Permit From Harris County

First, let me say that Constable Walker will be at the WCID89 meeting on 8/3/10 to make a presentation. You are welcome to attend. If you have any questions you'd like to ask her, please submit them to me at jroot@wcid89.org before 10AM tomorrow morning.

Second, I am passing on some information here that the Sheriff requested. I know it's likely to just make you mad, given the lack of service that the Sheriff provided while under contract to the District. But, it is good information. If you have a monitored alarm system (one where the security company calls you when the alarm goes off) you will need to present them with your alarm permit. Please note that all the CAPITAL LETTERS in the rest of this posting are not me shouting at you. They were put in by the Sheriff on his information letter regarding alarm permits. And now, I copy and paste it for your reading pleasure...

PERMIT MUST BE ISSUED BEFORE ALARM SYSTEM IS ACTIVATED TO AVOID FEES AND/OR FINES (Note from me: I didn't have my permit the first year (2005) I had the alarm system because I didn't know anything about it. This house was the first one I ever had an alarm installed. But my monitoring company, Brinks Security, contacted me and said I needed to fax a copy of my alarm permit to them. I had no problem getting the alarm permit without extra fees or fines. But maybe the policy has changed in the last 5 years to include some sort of penalty charge. Every year when the permit is about to expire, I get a postcard from the County Auditor telling me to pay my $10 renewal fee, along with a due date.)

$35.00 New permit for residential and non-residential alarm sites

$10.00 Annual renewal for residential and non-residential alarm sites

$50.00 Reinstatement for residential and non-residential alarm sites

Incomplete or illegible applications will be returned. Applications received without the permit fee will be returned. PERMIT FEES are not required for government offices or for residential alarm sites if the permit holder is sixty-five (65) years of age or older. (Note from me: You can get a copy of the application in a Word document format by clicking here and then clicking on Forms and then on Alarm Permit Application.)

PERMIT TERM: An alarm system permit shall be valid for a twelve (12) month period from the date of issuance as stated on the permit, and shall expire on the last day of the twelfth month. The beginning for the renewal permit term shall be the first day of the month following expiration.

PERMIT RENEWAL: The permit holder, on or before the expiration of the alarm system permit shall submit to the Alarm Detail a renewal permit application, as promulgated by the Harris County - Alarm Detail, along with the applicable renewal fee.

CHANGE OF INFORMATION IN PERMIT APPLICATION: The permit holder has an affirmative duty to amend any information contained or attached to the permit application that has changed or is out of date and filed with the Alarm Detail within thirty (30) days after the information changed or was out of date.

ANY PERSON OR ENTITY OPERATING AN ALARM SYSTEM WITHOUT A PERMIT IS SUBJECT TO A SERVICE RESPONSE FEE OF $75.00 FOR EACH FALSE ALARM. In addition to the service response fee, a citation may be issued and a fine imposed by the Justice of the Peace Court for operating an alarm system without a permit.

REVOCATION OF ALARM SYSTEM PERMIT: An alarm system permit may be revoked if the permit holder:

(a) has violated a provision of Chapter 237, Texas Local Government Code (County Regulation of Alarm Systems), any provision of the Revised Rules Governing the Regulation of Alarm Systems within Harris County, Texas (“Rules”), or any order of Harris County Commissioner’s Court pertaining to the Rules;

(b) has failed to make payment in full to Harris County for any fees, fines, charges, costs and/or court judgments entered by a court of competent jurisdiction within forty-five (45) days of the date the Alarm Detail has mailed a notice to the permit holder;

(c) accrues more than nine (9) false alarms, including the first five (5) charge free false alarms, during the term of the permit;

(d) accrues three (3) or more false alarms subsequent to a reinstatement renewal permit during the remainder of the then current permit term;

(e) is required to attend alarm abuser class as set forth in Section 17 of the Rules, and has failed to satisfy this requirement prior to the expiration date of the current permit term;

(f) fails to renew the alarm system permit prior to the expiration;

(g) fails to update the alarm system permit application;

(h) submits payment by check or credit card made to Harris County, and is dishonored or charged back.

BILLING INFORMATION: Locations with a valid permit are allowed five (5) false alarms each permit year (issue/expiration date on permit) without charge.

EACH FALSE ALARM AFTER THE FIVE (5) FREE FALSE ALARMS ARE CHARGEABLE AND WILL BE ASSESSED AT $75.00 FOR EACH RESPONSE BY A COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.

For all payments to the Alarm Detail for fees, fines, charges or costs, payment by check or money order should be made payable to the HARRIS COUNTY TREASURER and sent to:

HARRIS COUNTY ALARM DETAIL
9418 JENSEN DRIVE, SUITE A
HOUSTON, TX 77093