By Travis McGee
Rebuild Houston was voted on in 2010 and 14 years later its still missing in action. Rebuild Houston was said to be a dedicated fee that could only be used for drainage and infrastructure. The alleged “Lock Box” seemed to have an excessive number of keys and a wide range of individuals who were aware of the combination, making it easily accessible.
The voters basically voted without knowing who, what, when, where, how, or how much of Rebuild Houston they would receive if any at all. Details of the program became apparent months after the proposal was passed by voters. The taxpayers basically voted unknowingly on giving the City of Houston a blank check to do everything, but fix drainage and infrastructure. We essentially pay for excessive flooding, problems with our drainage systems, and driving on extremely poor roads. The plan was supposed to have 10-year planning cycles to identify the worse cases first to reduce flooding, improve mobility, and reduce structural flooding, but when we ask longtime community leaders like Tracy Stephens who is a retired Public Works Engineering Supervisor with almost 3 decades of experience about the state of city services, he has a great concern about the wasteful spending, lack of services, and routine maintenance just to name a few.
From his experience the city provided much better services when it was proactive vs reactive. Routine services include such things as mowing, street sweeping, drainage maintenance, mosquito spraying, street repair, and etc. The commonsense approach worked better than the reactive approach of the 311-call center that is basically a counting mechanism that may or may not address your problem or concern in a timely matter. The customer service was better even though they didn’t have the technology the currently have. Stephens recounts the times they had to go speak to taxpayers face-to-face to address their issues and concerns versus them waiting months for things that could be corrected in a matter of minutes. He also believes that the proactive street maintenance and preventative programs can save the city hundreds of millions when it comes to our drainage and prehistoric infrastructure.
The Proposition known as Rebuild Houston was very misleading to voters. Instead of addressing drainage and infrastructure the “Lock Box” actually paid off debt, but what debt was actually paid and how was bonds paid prior to this particular PROPOSITION. The ordinance doesn’t mention any past or present debt being paid with the drainage fees charged to Houston citizens. (The Utility Drainage Maintenance Ordinance 2011-254 Chapter 47) When Capital Improvement and SNAP -Super Neighborhood Action Plans were in place communities were actually getting things done, but now most if not all of the projects submitted for review are ineligible for funding.
The city once had a program called” Neighborhood to Standard” which addressed all issued proactively on a more routine preventative basis versus calling 311 and becoming a service request number. Simply throwing money at the problem without properly diagnosing or identifying it only makes it that more expensive. The City of Houston department heads only answer to the mayor, but everyone should be answering to the taxpayer. In order for the city to set a standard, they must bring back” Neighborhood to Standard.”
