[Houston] Mayor admits defeat, drops drainage fee plan

The people have spoken...and Kristen Mack seems pretty ticked off about it. Seems like the answer to all this is in the very last paragraph.

Mayor admits defeat, drops drainage fee plan
By KRISTEN MACK
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 4, 2003, 6:37AM

Mayor Lee Brown's $1.2 billion flood-control plan is dead. Going down the drain with it are millions of dollars in planned drainage projects and neighborhood street reconstruction.

Now residents and city leaders -- including the two men vying to become mayor in less than a month -- face the question of what to do about flooding in a region devastated by floods over the years.

Realizing he did not have the votes on City Council, Brown admitted defeat Wednesday and had the final part of his expansive, 15-year plan referred back to his administration, a move that essentially killed the entire program.

That included the most hotly disputed part: a drainage fee that was expected to produce about $41 million a year for flood-control work, but which sparked an outcry from residents and officials who called it an illegal tax. The fee, averaging about $2 per month for homeowners but much more for larger properties, was to apply to churches and public schools, as well as residences, businesses and government buildings.

Opponents of the fee rejoiced Wednesday that the long fight had ended.

"The mayor's drainage plan is DOA," Councilman Bruce Tatro said. "It's over. We can declare victory."

Now someone has to come up with an alternative.

With Brown's administration in its final weeks, Houston will be left with no money for ditch mowing and storm sewer cleaning, in addition to the delay of $75 million worth of neighborhood street reconstruction work and $250 million in drainage projects, city officials say.

Brown has warned that residents could be hit with a 15 percent increase in water and sewer rates because the council did nothing to provide a funding source.

"The ultimate decision will not be made by this administration," he said.

The administration made clear earlier this year that implementation of the city's five-year Capital Improvement Plan, which includes most of the drainage and street work, depended upon approval of the drainage fee and a refinancing of the water and sewer system's debt. The council approved the CIP and, later, the drainage fee.

Now, Councilwoman Ada Edwards said, council members share the blame for the current situation.

"It's not only irresponsible, but it's arrogant," she said of Wednesday's vote. "(Opponents) don't have a plan to do anything different; they just said no."

Now, many observers say, the city is worse off than it was a year ago.

"It will be, unfortunately, a dramatic test of the next mayor's ability to navigate council and come up with a solution," said Jim Thompson, whose engineering and consulting firm, J.F. Thompson Inc., handles most of the city's drainage work.

"The need will still be there."

Frank Sturzl, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, has watched cities around the state debate how to pay for drainage and has paid close attention to Houston.

Ultimately, he said, the only options he has seen are raising water/sewer rates, charging a drainage fee or putting bond money in escrow.

"Houston has been hit harder with flooding in the last several years than most other Texas cities, which doubles the need for Houston to have a dedicated fund for drainage problems," Sturzl said.

A federal requirement that cities collect and treat stormwater runoff before releasing it into bayous only increases that need, he said, and educating residents about the need has been the greatest battle.

"No matter who's elected, the federal requirements are not going to go away and the potential for flooding is not going to go away," Sturzl said.

The solution will be left to the winner of Saturday's mayoral runoff between Orlando Sanchez and Bill White.

Sanchez said Brown played a "high-stakes poker game" with his flood-control plan and has left the next mayor with an unfair burden.

"A new administration will have to resolve the crisis," he said. "You can only go to the taxpayer wells so many times. At some point, the taxpayers will say `enough.' And that's what has happened here."

Sanchez and White have said they would refinance the city's debt as part of the solution. Sanchez said he would supplement the funds with spending cuts, while White said he would would add money from the sale of unneeded assets.

If elected, White said, he would make a flood-control plan his first priority. He said he would create a task force to recommend funding sources for a dedicated drainage utility and set a $50 million annual target for drainage work.

"Right now, there's no public consensus on how to fund drainage," White said.

To those who opposed the drainage fee, refinancing debt in the water and sewer system remains the most popular option. Brown's proposal projected that that would generate about $50 million annually.