They’ve been more than patient.
A Houston advocacy group warned Mayor John Whitmire and council members Thursday that the city is risking a lawsuit if it continues to ignore the will of voters by participating on a regional planning board without having a greater say in its decisions.
Council members in October voted to renew the city’s membership in the Houston-Galveston Area Council, which is in charge of distributing federal funds for infrastructure, climate mitigation and workforce development projects such as the contentious Interstate 45 expansion and flood relief.
Under Proposition B, which was championed by the grassroots organization Fair for Houston, the city and Harris County were supposed to receive “population proportional” representation on the council or they would have to leave it.
Negotiations with H-GAC ultimately failed to provide more representation for Houston on the board, and when Houston leaders voted to renew the city’s membership on the council, critics argued the decision violated the will of voters.
Whitmire, at the time, said the city was going to take up the issue with state lawmakers to get clarity on Houston’s representation issues.
In Fair for Houston’s Thursday letter, legal representatives gave the city three possible pathways to avoid legal consequences. Either the city could pass a resolution backing out of the council within 30 days of receiving the letter, or the city could re-open negotiations for a proportional voting structure and come to an agreement within 60 days. If that negotiation is not reached, lawyers are requesting Houston pull out of H-GAC.
“If the city fails to meet any of these deadlines, our clients will be forced to immediately pursue legal action,” the letter reads.
See here for the background, and here for a copy of Fair for Houston’s letter. Maybe Mayor Whitmire has made progress getting some legislation passed this session to bolster Houston’s representation in H-GAC. I mean, it’s been a great session for Houston’s ability to chart its own destiny so far. Go ahead and go back to the negotiating table if we can – if the other H-GAC members will be bothered to sit down with us – but call me a pessimist on that front. I don’t love the idea of abandoning H-GAC, warts and all, especially since we have no idea what would happen afterwards – among many other things, we don’t have a sympathetic federal government to deal with now – but elections are supposed to mean something. A reminder of that would be good.
Not sure what a great session for Houston to chart its destiny means, as the link does not work.
I assume that you mean that somehow Whitmire has stopped the state from fighting with Houston as much as usual.
But we do have a MAGA mayor thanks to all those Democrats who voted for him, even though he had MAGA supporters like the mattress salesman, a billionaire sports team owner.
fighting should have been f..ing
The link is now fixed. It’s a Chron story about a Bettencourt bill that would forbid cities from ever taking road lanes away from cars for bike lanes.