Volunteer Fire Dept and the 2012 Election

The Dept of Inner City Emergency Response (DICER) presented an interlocal agreement to the Board for furnishing fire protection, fire fighting rescue, search and rescue, high water rescue, crime prevention, neighborhood protection, and emergency medical services to the WCID #89 District. If you'd like to know more about DICER, click here.

The term of the agreement is from December 1, 2011 to November 30, 2014 unless terminated by either party. However, the agreement has no instructions on how such termination would be effected. The vote was 4 for and 1 against to accept this agreement. I was the 1 against.

The reason I voted against this agreement was because I didn't think it necessary. We are serviced by the Houston Fire Department, from the 55 Station House on Cullen. I prefer professional fire fighters to volunteer fire fighters if my house is ablaze. Another reason I voted against this agreement was because DICER has no experience engaging in such an agreement with any other MUD. Finally, there seemed to be some agreement that land within Brunswick Lakes had been promised to DICER to build a facility for their operation within the District. When I asked more pointed questions about that, the answers were vague. Director Smalls said that there would be no cost to the District for any construction costs. Yet the DICER representative was not forthcoming with any details on how the facility would be paid for -- I can only presume that the interlocal agreement was some sort of first step toward gaining grant funds.

The other major decision undertaken at the last Board meeting was when/how to conduct the 2012 election for three of the seats on the Board. Those of you who voted in the 2010 election may recall that it was held at a woman's house in Morningside in May. Because of changes in the federal law, the state of Texas has allowed local government entities to choose to have their elections in May, move them to November to be a part of the regular general election, or not hold them at all in 2012. The Harris County Clerk had advised that any local government would not be allowed to rent the voting equipment in May due to the changes in the law that were creating havoc for them in the primary election process.

The Board chose to move the 2012 election to November to be a part of the general election. This automatically added 6 months to the terms of office of every member of the Board. The positions currently held by Directors Sharyn Smalls, Byron Watson, and Arthur Washington are up for re-election. The positions held by AK Babers and me will not be up for re-election until November 2014.

The advantage of having the election in November is that it will be held at the regular polling places that people will go to vote for the president and other elected officials. The District will only pay a pro-rated fee to be on the ballot (about half the cost of holding the election on our own in May) and the only real downside is that the candidates for our District Board will be at the very end of the ballot. Because Texas elects so many state and local officials, it will take quite some time in the voting booth before you see our election slate.

Security Report for September 2011

At the request of a constituent, I will be posting a summary of the monthly security report provided by the Constable so that everyone can see the numbers of actual (rather than perceived) crimes taking place in the District. If you watched the news a few weeks ago you might have been misled into believing that the Brunswick neighborhoods have hundreds of home burglaries. That reporter wasn't careful in what he was saying, as these numbers make clear. Double click on the image to enlarge.

Tax Rate Will Remain the Same

The Board was advised to raise the debt service tax rate by a penny to keep the budget balanced. We all know the economy has tanked and nearly everyone's house value has gone down considerably in the last 3 years. However, because the Brunswick neighborhoods continue to expand our tax base through the ongoing development we have not been affected as much as other taxing entities.

In addition, the final sections of Brunswick Meadows have already added infrastructure in the way of sewer and water lines as well as additional streets, lights, and sidewalks. Slowly, but steadily, homes are being built on the lots in these final sections.The District will soon be issuing bonds to cover this development. Knowing that we must issue bonds and not taking fiscal responsibility for them is wrong in my mind. That is why I voted to raise our debt service tax rate by the penny recommended by our financial advisor. It would have meant less than $35 per household and would have kept us in the black. AK also voted for the penny raise in taxes.

Directors Smalls, Watson, and Washington all voted against raising the District taxes. Personally I would much rather pay the extra in taxes, which I can then take as a deduction on my income taxes.

Water Plant #2

The District has awarded a contract to begin construction on Water Plant #2 which will help with water pressure issues on the north side of the Beltway. We should start seeing construction begin before the end of September. The site for #2 is on the triangular plot of land between the fences and the older little houses on the east side of Furman at the edge of Brunswick Meadows.


There has been an ongoing discussion between the District's Engineer and the city of Houston regarding where the meter will be attached and on which side of Furman the underground pipe will be laid to hook up #2 to the city of Houston's water supply. A meeting was held between the District and Houston City Departments involved, but nothing was resolved. AK Babers attended this meeting and argued that where the city wants to place the meter was unsafe because of the amount of traffic (including 18 wheelers and other construction vehicles) at the corner of Furman and Almeda-Genoa. As we all know, this intersection has had its fair share of accidents and how difficult it is for big vehicles to turn the corners without running off the road.

Hopefully these issues will be resolved by the time #2 is nearing completion. That is projected to be July 2012.

Payment Options for Water Bill

Drought Contingency Plan & LPAA

Did you know that this year's drought is not the worst one in Texas history? Check this out. As a direct result of the drought from the 1950s, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) was created. TCEQ requires all water suppliers to have drought contingency plans in place. These plans are staged according to the current conditions. We are in stage one (voluntary compliance) while Houston is in stage two (mandatory compliance) of their plan. Across the state, 418 water providers have mandatory restrictions and 268 have voluntary restrictions currently activated.

I tell you all this because at the September 20th meeting the Board will be revising our contingency plan. The current plan was written in 2007 and needs to be updated to reflect the current state of the District. For example, none of the Brunswick neighborhoods are mentioned in the existing plan. In addition, it's quite possible that the Board will take a vote on moving to stage two of our plan - mandatory compliance. You may have seen some of the signs around the neighborhood. TCEQ requires that when a drought contingency plan has been activated. If you've seen these signs you've probably noticed that there are strips hiding other information. Those strips will be removed when we go to stage two of our plan.

If you want to voice a concern about the contingency plan, please be sure to get to the 9/20/11 meeting at 11:30AM when Public Comments are entertained. If you want to see what the Board is doing to the current contingency plan, be prepared to stay through the rest of the meeting. Meetings are held at the office 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

The Board voted 3-2 last week to pursue a Limited Purpose Annexation Agreement (LPAA) with the city of Houston. Under such an agreement, we can get a 50% cut of the city sales tax. That additional revenue stream is the up side. 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. AK Babers, Arthur Washington and I all voted for the LPAA. Sharyn Smalls and Byron Watson voted against.

National Preparedness Month

Hello again. It's been a long time since I updated the blog. Sorry about that. I had surgery in June and have been recuperating over the summer. I didn't make any of the District Board meetings during my recovery, but will be returning tomorrow and will give you an update on what the Board did in my absence.

Wanted to take this opportunity to give you some information about National Preparedness Month (NPM).


NPM falls on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, inspiring this year’s theme of “A Time to Remember, A Time to Prepare.” For Harris County residents, the past decade brings to mind Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricanes Rita and Ike, the most devastating hurricanes to hit the Texas coast since 1900. But, NPM also recalls the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when Harris County sheltered 230,000 people driven from their homes in New Orleans.

NPM is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which works with thousands of government, corporate and non-profit organizations to promote public emergency preparedness.
For disaster preparedness tips and more information on how you and your family can be prepared, please visit http://www.readyharris.org/ or http://www.ready.gov/ .