HCFCD Director Requests Hotel Allowance of Almost $1200 Per Night
7/9/2025 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) Executive Director Dr. Tina Petersen has submitted a travel request for approval by Harris County Commissioners on 7/10/25. She wants to attend a three-day Urban Land Institute (ULI) conference in San Franciso. Her request includes $3500 for a hotel room. That works out to $1167 per night.
Petersen filed the request just two weeks after she projected a $1.3 billion shortfall in 2018 Flood Bond funding that led commissioners to defund 80% of projects in the bond.
I called ULI to see what the price range was for hotel rooms they blocked out. High was $349 per night and low $249. Booking.com showed a price of $215 per night at the Mark Hopkins, one of the nicer, top-rated hotels in San Francisco. It’s at the top of Nob Hill with beautiful views of the Bay and a short cab ride (or walk) to the convention center.
Net: Petersen is requesting 3X to 5X more money for a hotel than she might need. See this and other items in the red box below.
Altogether the request comes to $8,120.
Almost 2X the Registration Fee Also
The request also lists $1700 for a registration fee. But ULI is charging $945 for people from the public sector if they are members and $1070 if they join ULI.
The pricing for non-members is more than $3000, so Petersen is using at least some modicum of restraint.
Flight Cost 8X Higher
Expedia shows roundtrip flights on all major carriers during the time of the conference ranging from $185 to $310. But Petersen has requested $1500. That’s a significant upgrade!
Astronomical Taxi, Mileage, Parking Estimates
She’s also requested $400 dollars for taxis – $133 per day. The Moscone Center where the conference will be is about three quarters of a mile from the Mark Hopkins. That’s a five minute cab ride. Or a 15 minute walk. And a three-day cable-car visitor pass for an unlimited number of rides costs only $15.
A cab to and from the San Francisco airport to the Mark costs about $130.
Then there’s her $200 reimbursement for mileage on her personal vehicle, i.e., going to/from her home to Houston’s airport. The IRS allows $.70 per mile for business expenses. So that implies she’s estimating 285 miles of travel on the Houston end of this jaunt.
That’s in addition to $200 for three or four days of parking. But parking at Bush Intercontinental is $25 per day.
And no, these costs are NOT for multiple people. Petersen’s request shows they are for one person.
What I really want to know is who signs off on these expenditures? Tina Petersen?
Putting It All in Perspective
Petersen’s taxi costs alone exceed the capital improvement construction costs of all flood-mitigation projects in Kingwood in the history of the Flood Control District; together, they total a whopping $0.00.
No wonder the Flood Control District is running out of money and Commissioners Court voted to defund 80% of the projects in the 2018 flood bond.
For what it’s worth, I’m sure Petersen is not padding her expense reports. She doesn’t need to. She makes $434,000 per year after a $90,000 raise earlier this year.
I look forward to hearing about what was learned at this conference and the benefit to Harris County taxpayers at the November 13th Commissioners Court meeting.
I also look forward to seeing the expense report and associated receipts, which are public information, after the trip so we can see the true cost of this conference.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/9/2025
2871 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
