The Houston-Galveston Area Council Board of Directors on Tuesday engaged in a spirited discussion of “sustainability” and whether the board should take a vote on support of projects with that designation. Listen

H-GAC Executive Director Jack Steele explained that contracts in the sustainability program will be on next month’s agenda for action, thus the board’s officers had asked him to present an overview of the program.

Steele’s presentation included explanations of what sustainability “is” and what it “is not”.

“For me, sustainability is using our resources to meet today’s needs while also ensuring that we will have the resources of all kinds to address tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities,” he said.  “There are now 150 local, livability, sustainability or access management programs underway or completed in our region. This is really not new.  It’s been going on for a number of years.”

His list of what sustainability is “not” included mandates, requirements and rules.

“It will not recommend smart meters, scanners or red light cameras,” he said.   “It will not have anything to do with Agenda 21 or the United Nations.”

Galveston County Commissioner Ken Clark had asked Steele to put "sustainable development" on the agenda for an “up or down” vote, noting comments on the program at a series of public hearings.

“At those public hearings there has been some fairly contentious opposition,” Clark said. “I’m a county commissioner and I represent the people and I stand for election.  I thought I would like to have an up or down vote on sustainable development just because of the simple fact it gives me the opportunity to say yes or no on this item.”

“I just wonder whether we are reading too much into the word ‘sustainability’,” said Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald.  “Now it appears that sustainability is a very, very bad word.  I guess I’m a little naive with regards to worldly things.  I’m just a country boy from Bay City, Texas but I can tell you my only goal in county building is to build something that benefits all the citizens of my county and outlives me.”

The board voted unanimously to name Manville Mayor Delores Martin, who is chair of the H-GAC, and Pasadena City Council Member Darrell Morrison, who is vice chair, as the board's delegate and alternate to the Texas Association of Regional Councils' Board of Directors.

The board voted unanimously to table action on recommendations concerning the proposed Pintail Landfill and Pintail Transfer Station in Waller County.  Listen

H-GAC staff found “no evidence of inconsistency with plans, policies and H-GAC review criteria” to forward to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which will consider the applications.  However, several representatives of the area spoke in opposition to the landfill and transfer station and Iowa Colony Council Member Kay Mudd made a motion to oppose it.  But the full board eventually voted to table the matter to allow more time for consideration.

All other agenda items were approved unanimously.  Agenda

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Harris County Commissioner Jack Morman, Baytown Council Member Brandon Capetillo, La Porte Council Member Chuck Engelken, Jr., and Hitchcock Independent School District Trustee Estelle Holmes were absent and not represented by alternate members.  Houston Mayor Annise Parker was represented by Council Member Ellen Cohen, her alternate; Houston Council Member Oliver Pennington was represented by Council Member Jerry Davis; and Deer Park Council Member Thane Harrison was represented by Council Member Beckie Stockstill-Cobb.