2005 Archives

2004 Archives

2003 Archives

Thursday               January 27, 2005

Texas Transportation Commission

The five member Texas Transportation Commission, which usually meets in Austin, is meeting in Houston today.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough, Greater Houston Partnership President Jodie Jiles and other civic and elected officials welcomed the commission to the Gulf Coast Region.

"We appreciate you and we salute you," Jiles said, expressing appreciation for the Texas Mobility Plan.  "We look forward to a continued partnership for the good of this community first, and the state second."

TTC Chair Ric Williamson said the mobility plan is a result of flexibility provided in HB 3588 in the previous session of the Texas Legislature, but that more legislation will be required in the future.

"As you know, our state's legislators are currently in session," said Chair Ric Williamson.  "In addition, Congress has convened, and we hope that this year will see a surface transportation reauthorization bill passed that meets the needs of our growing state."

Williamson said the state has begun negotiations with an international consortium willing to invest $6 billion on a project to build the Oklahoma to Mexico section of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The commission presented the 2004 National Partnership For Highway Quality "Making a Difference" Award, Partnering Category, to the Houston District of TxDOT for the I-10 Katy Freeway Tri-Party Agreement.

Photos and a broadcast quality audio recording of the opening speeches, formatted for download to an MP3 player, will be posted on The Online News Station.

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Clear Lake Area Council of Cities

Elected officials of most Clear Lake area municipal governments reported on their cities' activities at Wednesday's meeting of the Clear Lake Area Council of Cities.

"We have seen tremendous economic growth, especially in the medical and retail sectors," said Webster Mayor Donna Rogers, crediting a set of strategies developed by the city council.  "In the coming year, we anticipate over $200 million in medical development and expansion, making us the medical center of the south."

"We are a pretty small city," said Taylor Lake Village Mayor Natalie O'Neill, explaining that except for five townhouses and five businesses, her city is totally residential, thus quality of life for the residents is the main goal of the city council.  "We have one subdivision left that is undeveloped, that will hold 11 lots.  We have less than 20 lots left in the whole rest of our city, so we are almost at full build out."

Shoreacres Mayor Nancy Edmondson said her city is one hundred percent residential as well, with the only business being the Houston Yacht Club, where the meeting was held.

"We are a one hundred percent zoned community, as well," Edmonson said, adding that the community has character and variety.  "We have a very activist community.  For 1,600 residents, we have folks that are engaged in whatever the current fight might be, or even whatever the current focus they think the community ought to have."

"We're going through a building boom right now, both residential and commercial" reported Seabrook Mayor Robin Riley.  "We have a new shopping center coming in on NASA Road 1; we have a couple of new subdivisions coming in.  So, even though we are currently around 12,000 (population), our master plan states that when we are filled, we will be around 23,000."

Nassau Bay Mayor Pro Tem John Haugen reported that his city, which was developed to be a support area for the Johnson Space Center, is primarily residential.

"It is a city that is just a great place to be, but over the years we probably became just a little bit too comfortable and weren't paying attention to what was going on," Haugen said, explaining that city officials have worked to "turn things around" during the past 15 years.  "The infrastructure was kind of going astray, the commercial area was going astray."

Friendswood Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Ericsson reviewed the growth of his city over the past years, and the city council's move to broaden the tax base by increasing commercial development.

"Our infrastructure was aging as well; we needed to improve a lot of those things," Ericsson said, explaining that maintaining the quality of life also was necessary as the city changed.  "Folks wanted a whole-life community where you could live and work and play, all in the same area."

"El Lago did not face into the future until very recently," admitted El Lago Council Member John Tully.  "We were zoning by variance."

Tully said that the city council has taken steps to emphasize planning, as well as zoning; and a committee was formed to develop a comprehensive, long-range plan. 

"Clear Lake Shores has been a little fishing community; I always think of it as a poor man's Galveston," said Clear Lake Shores Mayor Kathrine McIntyre, reporting that infrastructure improvements are planned.  "We have a bond issue that will give us new water lines, which we very much need.  And on our own nickel, we are taking care of roads and drainage."

Mary Chambers from the League City Planning Department gave her city's report.

"League City adopted their comprehensive plan in the spring of 2004," Chambers reported.  "Today we are a planning department of five planners, three of us are certified planners, and I think we are moving right along in trying to plan League City's future."

O'Neill, chair of the Council of Cities, noted the differences and similarity of the reports,  "We want to maintain our small town quality of life, we want to have adequate facilities, we want to repair aging infrastructure." 

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Photos and Audio

Galveston City Council

City Manager Steve LeBlanc today updated Galveston City Council on problems with the control tower under construction at Scholes International Airport at Galveston.

"The concrete foundation for the airport tower failed the testing strength requirements," LeBlanc said.  "The contractor will have to completely remove the foundation and replace it. This will be at no cost to the city."

LeBlanc reported that the installation of new water meters is progressing.

"Over 4,000 radio-controlled meters have been installed," LeBlanc said.  "We are approximately 20 percent complete and are on schedule.  The meters have been replaced in the far East End up to the area of Fourth Street. They then moved to the West End and have finished Spanish Grant working east.  They are working this week in the Historical District."

LeBlanc announced that the Texas Department of Transportation has scheduled a public meeting to discuss priority boarding of the Bolivar Ferry, at 6 p.m. on February 22 at Ball High School.

Landry's representative Steve Greenberg appeared before the city council in workshop to complain about negotiations underway for additional airport property for Schlitterbahn.  Listen

"As you know, months ago Mr. Fertitta was interested in leasing some of the land at the airport for development," Greenberg said.  "At that time, the city felt that because of the new development out there with Schlitterbahn that the land was going to be more valuable, and they put a moratorium on it.  The city was going to get it appraised and come back."

Greenberg said Fertitta was very surprised to learn recently that the city is negotiating with Schlitterbahn for more parking space at the airport, "without contacting us to let us know that it was available."

The city council did not discuss the issue with Greenberg and instead went into executive session to discuss it.

The city council will meet in formal session at 5:30 this afternoon.

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Houston City Council

Houston City Council on Tuesday continued to debate the merit of Mayor Bill White's Safe Clear Freeway Tow Policy, which would authorize the police chief to enter into contracts with several wrecker service companies to quickly remove stalled or wrecked vehicles from the freeway.  However, final action on the matter was delayed by the city council tag rule.

"The Safe Clear towing program is severely flawed," said Council Member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who had moved to rescind the program.  "Since New Year's Day when the mandatory towing program took effect, I have received dozens of emails and phone calls from concerned Houstonians, the majority asking that the program be stopped."

Council Member Adrian Garcia attempted to amend the motion with a written motion of his own, which did not require a second.

"The City of Houston will amend contracts between City of Houston and Safe Clear vendors to reflect credit for confirmed free tows against any amounts owed by the Safe Clear vendors to the City of Houston for their assigned segments," Garcia moved.  "Such credit shall be reflected when the next payment by the Safe Clear vendors is due." 

However, the item was tagged for one week, with Carol Alvarado, Addie Wiseman and Ada Edwards joining Sekula-Gibbs in the tag.

The city council confirmed White's appointment of Maribel H. Barrera to the Houston Read Commission.

The city council approved a $1,701,908.18 contract with Bearden Contracting Company for construction of the Water Line Grid Extension Package II Project at various locations.

Several other items were tagged by members of the city council.

A proposed contract with the Mitre Corporation "for the purpose of expediting the reliability performance process of the Consolidated Computer-Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems located at the Houston Emergency Center" was tagged by Gordon Quan and Sekula-Gibbs.

A proposal to accept work on a $3,857,807.18 contract with Thyssen Stearns, Inc. for passenger loading bridges at William P. Hobby Airport was tagged by Carol Mims Galloway and M.J. Khan.

Proposed amendments to the Code of Ordinances relating to the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care was tagged by Wiseman and Sekula-Gibbs.

A proposed $552,000 two-year renewal of the city's contract with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP for legal representation in Washington DC was tagged by Wiseman and Sekula Gibbs.

Acceptance of work on a $4,400,666.87 contract with Pedko Paving, Inc. for Neighborhood Street Reconstruction Project No. 441 was tagged by Edwards.

Acceptance of work on a $7,521,636.50 contract with Texas Sterling Construction, Inc. for construction of West Fuqua from South Belt to Campden Hill was tagged by Edwards.

A proposed interlocal agreement with Harris County to provide up to $4,000,000 in Community Development Block Grant Funds to assist in the design and construction of the Aquatic Center-Natatorium was tagged by Edwards.

All other agenda items were approved.

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Jefferson County

Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith announced on Wednesday that he would ask the management company selected to conduct a management review of county government to ensure that one of its executives not be involved in the study.

Wayne Scott, former director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, now works for MGT of America.  MGT was recently selected by the commissioners court to review operations in Jefferson County.

"I met Wayne Scott in the early 1990s, along with many other local officials, when we were all working to bring the state prison system to Southeast Texas," said Griffith. "Through that contact, I knew him to be a hard-working and dedicated public servant.  Other than running into him occasionally at meetings or conferences that's really the only contact I ever had with him." 

Griffith said that he didn't learn that Scott was working for MGT until the firm already was the front-runner. 

"The man ran one of the largest prison systems in the country, so I thought he would bring great expertise to the project," Griffith said.  "Some people have attacked his veracity, though, or implied some inappropriate connection, so it's best at this point that Mr. Scott not be involved." 

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Texas City Independent School District

The Texas City Independent School District will hold its annual hearing for public discussion of the Academic Excellence Indicator System on Tuesday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. 

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University of Texas Medical Branch

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has announced a series of new courses for senior citizens offered by the Academy for Lifelong Learning. Schedule of Classes 

The college-level courses are open to all seniors 55 or older regardless of education.  There are no credits, no exams and no grades. 

Registration is from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday, February 9, at Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church, 2803 53rd Street in Galveston. 

To register or for more information, contact Michelle Sierpina, M.S., at (409) 747-4657 or email msierpin@utmb.edu.

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Scheduled Meetings
Meetings will be held in the regular meeting place of the city council or other governmental body, unless otherwise specified.

Today, January 27
4:00 Bay Area Transportation Partnership Board of Directors, Bay Area Community Center, 5002 NASA Parkway
5:30 Galveston City Council
6:30 Citizens for Economic Growth in Port Arthur, Third Floor of Lincoln Tower 
7:00 Kemah City Council
7:00 Santa Fe City Council
7:30 "Luisa Miller", Opera in the Heights, Lambert Hall, 1703 Heights Boulevard, Houston

Friday, January 28
9:30 Houston Galveston-Area Council Transportation Policy Committee 
12:00 Greater Houston Partnership Health Care Advisory Committee Luncheon, Hyatt Regency in Houston.  American Medical Association president, Dr. John C. Nelson, will speak
5:00 - 12:00 Galveston Mardi Gras Entertainment District Opens

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Gulf Coast E-news, published by Guidry News Service, provides comprehensive coverage of posted public meetings in Galveston, Harris and Jefferson Counties as well as regional news impacting the Upper Texas Gulf Coast.

Jim and Lynda Guidry are publishers of Gulf Coast E-news and The Online News Station.

Jim Young is Houston City Correspondent.  Dana Patricia Burke is the Bay Area Houston Correspondent. Chuck Lawrence is Galveston City Correspondent.  Carl Guidry covers events in Jefferson County.  Anita Donatto covers the education beat in Galveston.  

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