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Houston City Council on Wednesday delayed votes on a package of high-profile ordinances that include next year's budget and a massive financial settlement with Houston firefighters.
The delays, triggered by a combination of council member motions and City Controller Chris Hollins’ decision to hold off on certifying the $1.5 billion fire union deal, came as Mayor John Whitmire races to meet a July 1 deadline. The city charter requires the controller to certify the availability of funding for ordinances prior to a council vote committing the city to future financial obligations.
Whitmire will try again at the June 12 council meeting, where members also will have an opportunity to offer amendments to the mayor’s proposed $6.7 billion budget.
The annual budget vote typically is one of the most highly anticipated council meetings of the year. Not only are mayors’ financial proposals put to the test, but members have the opportunity to try to secure funding for their own priorities.
Last year, former Mayor Sylvester Turner announced an 11th-hour plan to fund ditch and drainage projects after facing a pressure campaign from activists based in northeast Houston. This year, those activists are pressing Whitmire to uphold his campaign pledge to boost flood control infrastructure.
Whitmire has a priority of his own: The sweeping settlement with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, whose members have been operating without a contract since 2017. Whitmire and the fire union say the settlement will right a longstanding wrong while allowing HFD, which is struggling to promptly answer calls, to boost its ranks.
A group of council members have questioned both the deal’s cost – it would drain much of a more than $450 million fund balance left over from Turner – and its effect on HFD operations through major, non-financial changes to the firefighter contract.
Hollins told council Wednesday he had received the proposed five-year collective bargaining agreement with the union only on Monday afternoon, leaving him little time to evaluate its financial implications. He declined to certify the funding for the ordinance authorizing the settlement.
“It’s my responsibility to – at baseline level – to understand what’s going on before putting it forward to you,” Hollins said.
Separately, At-Large Councilmember Sallie Alcorn “tagged” the ordinance approving the budget for the 2025 fiscal year, automatically delaying consideration to next week.
In another development, council unanimously approved without debate a proposal from District J Councilmember Edward Pollard and four other council members to make it easier to install speed cushions.
Council members long have voiced frustration with their attempts to respond to neighborhood complaints about speeding get snarled in red tape at the Department of Public Works.
Pollard’s ordinance was the first proposed under Proposition A, the charter amendment that allows any three council members to add items to an agenda, to pass. The ordinance was cosponsored by Tiffany Thomas, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Fred Flickinger and Tarsha Jackson.
Last year, another measure proposed under Proposition A to change water billing practices was incorporated by Mayor Sylvester Turner into a larger package that won council approval.
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