Government
BY MELISSA ENAJE & JESSICA SHORTEN
Humble city officials discuss potential for future bond issue
Harris County revives nonviolent 911 program Harris County commissioners voted 4-1 on June 4, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ram- sey dissenting on all three votes, to continue and expand a countywide program that aims to use hospital-based interventions for nonemergency 911 calls instead of law enforcement. The details The Holistic Assistance Response Team pro- gram, referred to as HART, was created in March 2022 to improve community health and safety by providing responses to residents experiencing homelessness, behavioral health issues, or none- mergency health or social welfare concerns. HART dispatches 911 calls to interdisciplinary, unarmed first responder teams trained in behav- ioral health and on-scene medical assistance. The program was paused in May after commis- sioners failed to reach an agreement on whether
$122M in upgrades planned for jails Harris County commissioners approved on June 4 an estimated $122 million to address some of the most immediate needs through- out various Harris County jail facilities. Two county-appointed jail committees agree with the need to begin working on items expeditiously, including maintenance items related to fire safety, plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The impact Examples of high-cost priority items include: • More than $79 million for additional floors, renovations and upgrades to the facility at 701 N. San Jacinto St., Houston • More than $5 million for a fire sprinkler system at 1200 Baker St., Houston
HART engages underserved residents by linking them to needed services. People served by HART since 2022
Humble City Council held a special meeting June 25 to discuss options for a potential bond issue as city officials anticipate a potential $4 million budget shortfall in the future. What residents should know Council members heard from bond counsel regarding the city’s financial standing and what a potential bond issue could look like. The city’s bond counsel includes Ben Rosen- berg, managing director at U.S. Capital Advisors, and Clay Holland and Justin Hicks, partner and associate at Hunton Andrews Kurth, respectively. Rosenberg said the city would be able to incur a $0.01 tax increase on the debt service portion of the city’s property tax rate without causing “significant” increase to the burden on residents. City Manager Jason Stuebe said the amount would translate to a roughly $115 increase to property tax bills on the average Humble home and allow the city to obtain roughly $30 million
in bond funding, which could go toward capital improvement projects. Why now? The last bond issue called by the city was used to construct the Humble Civic Center in 1995. According to Stuebe, the removal of red light cameras will impact the future revenue to the city for capital improvement projects. House Bill 1631 in 2019 prohibited local entities from the use of red light cameras; but allowed for cities with existing contracts to continue collections until the contract expired. “[Red light cameras] was a major money maker, and it did fund a significant portion of law enforce- ment needs,” Stuebe said. “We are going to have a $4 million hole to fill in the future.” Stuebe said the city is still utilizing leftover funds from red light camera enforcement oper- ations, but the funds will likely no longer be an option in two to three years.
Mental health/substance use
Red light camera collections Red light camera collections are allowed until the city’s contract expires and the end of 2024.
172
Housing/shelter
118
$6M
Food assistance
69
$4M
Other
60
$2M
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH/COMMUNITY IMPACT
$0
2018
2019 2020
2022 2021
to pay Disaster Emergency Medical Assistance Consulting and Management, the vendor oversee- ing it. At the June meeting, commissioners also voted 4-1 to pay the vendor’s $200,000 invoice and improve the contract’s language to avoid further discrepancies. They also voted 4-1 on a seven-part plan to create an internal county system to oversee the HART program instead of contracting with an outside vendor.
SOURCE: CITY OF HUMBLE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
“We need to start thinking about this now before we hit a deadline,” Stuebe said. What’s next? Stuebe said the city is not looking to call a bond election this year, but is looking within the next year to potentially get citizen input.
PORTER 23611 Hwy 59 (281) 354-0733 HUMBLE 19322 US-59 (281) 540-7202
KINGWOOD 1420 Kingwood Dr (281) 359-7115 ATASCOCITA 7034 FM 1960 E (281) 812-3100
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