HCFCD Still Has Steep Hill to Climb on CDBG Projects

8/1/26 – A transmittal from Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to Commissioners Court for their 8/6/26 meeting shows the updated status of all Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Projects.

Since Dr. Tina Petersen’s last update on 5/1/2026, the new schedule shows that, of 28 projects in the Disaster Relief (DR) and Mitigation (MIT) groups, expected completion dates have:

• Slipped on 10
• Remained the same on 8
• Sped up on 10.

However, schedule delays exceeded gains by a total of 862 days. I assume that’s due to more accurate reporting under HCFCD’s new Executive Director Marcus Stuckett.

Of an additional seven neighborhood drainage projects, six should finish before the end of this year.

Beating the CDBG Clock

Stuckett replaced Petersen a little more than a month ago. Petersen resigned under pressure when it finally became clear that the county could lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to missed deadlines on CDBG jobs.

As Petersen came under increasing pressure, she developed a plan with the Texas General Land Office (GLO). The plan applied spending from three different types of CDBG jobs against the $322 million designated for the DR group. Those have the tightest deadline – February 28, 2027. Just seven months away!

The other two types of projects being applied against the DR total include Mitigation (MIT) and neighborhood drainage.

By applying spending from the latter two groups against the DR total, HCFCD hopes to meet its obligation to spend $322 million by the end of February, 2027. Worst case, HCFCD will reduce its potential losses.

Only $56.77 million has been spent to date in the DR and MIT groups, with $67.33 million in the neighborhood drainage group. Those total $124.1 million. That means…

…the $322 million finish line is still $197.9 million away.

Calculated from HCFCD spreadsheet submitted to Commissioners Court for 8/6/26 meeting.

How Deep is the Hole?

This transmittal shows that Stuckett still needs to get HCFCD out of a deep hole that Petersen left HCFCD in.

• About one third of the $322 million has been spent to date.
• That leave two thirds to spend within the next seven months.
• Seven months represents about 15 percent of the time between the announcement of the CDBG-DR award and the deadline for spending it.
• So, HCFCD must spend the remaining two thirds in 15 percent of the time.

That’s a tall order. It’s sad that Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia defended Stuckett’s predecessor to the bitter end and delayed her exit by a year or more as the CDBG funds fell into a deeper and deeper hole.

Now, it will take extraordinary effort to climb out of that hole.

The spreadsheet submitted by Stuckett for the next commissioners court meeting is extremely detailed: about 40 lines deep by 51 columns across.

Such updates will hopefully let commissioners discuss any concerns they have. And help HCFCD answer their questions.

In the next few months, accurate and timely updates will also show whether the current “running rate” will get us to the $322 million finish line in time.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/1/26

3259 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.