10/17/24 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) held a meeting Wednesday night at the Kingwood Community Center to explain the scope of its maintenance activities. The exhibits were designed to raise awareness of the types of things HCFCD does in order to help educate the public in advance of the vote on HCFCD’s Proposition A.

Proposition A would increase HCFCD taxes 63 percent.

Not discussed at the meeting:

• A basis for the percentage increase in the tax rate
• Justification for the amount of the tax increase, i.e., linking objectives/tasks to cost estimates and budgets
• How, where or when the additional money would be deployed
• Prioritization of maintenance projects, i.e., the Equity Prioritization Framework for Flood Bond Projects.

For those who couldn’t make the meeting, I’ll provide a brief recap of the exhibits below. There was no formal presentation. Residents walked from table to table and asked the staff questions about the oversized poster exhibits shown below. Some of the type gets pretty small when reproduced on a cell phone or tablet, so I’ll provide some context.

At the end, I will also provide some feedback from attendees.

What Does Proposition A Include?

The first poster talked about the proposed tax increase. The small type explains the before and after tax rates if Prop A is approved. The HCFCD tax RATE would go from 3.316 cents to 4.897 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That’s a 57% increase in the rate. What they don’t show is an average 6% increase in valuations this year, bringing the total increase in your tax BILL up to 63%. The rate is applied to a larger base.

Here is the language you will find on your ballot. Notice that it says the new tax would go toward “operating and maintaining the District’s flood-risk-reduction infrastructure.”

The reference to operations would let the $100 million be spent on virtually anything…like the $3 million Commissioners Court approved last week to hire a consulting firm to write the county’s resilience plan.

Scope of Maintenance Activities

The rest of the posters discussed different types of maintenance.

They vary throughout the year by season. This chart shows seasonal shifts in emphasis. For instance, they plant trees in the fall and winter.

HCFCD also does major maintenance projects that border on capital improvement projects.

See before-and-after examples below.

Service Requests

The pie-chart below shows the major types of service requests that members of the public request. The top categories are:

• Debris 29%
• Ponding Water 13%
• Tree 12%
• Unauthorized use 11%
• Erosion 10%
• Vegetation Overgrowth 9%

This heat map shows where the most service requests came from in the county.

Beryl and the Derecho

The biggest effort in recent years has been debris removal following Hurricane Beryl and the derecho.

Mixed Feedback/Support

Dee Price, KSA President, was positive. She said, “After attending the Harris County Flood Control District’s public meeting on Proposition A, it is my assessment that Harris County Flood Control District needs additional funds to maintain all of the infrastructure for which it is responsible. It is my opinion that Kingwood would benefit if HCFCD receives additional funds that would enable them to maintain the drainage infrastructure in Kingwood.”

Jeff Miller, an Elm Grove resident who lives near Taylor Gully, said, “HCFCD freely admitted that their performance has been falling short for a long time but that with more funding, they can catch up. I plan to vote for Prop A, but based on our experience with the 2018 flood bond, I’m doing so reluctantly.”

I was skeptical based on previous experiences with the 2018 Flood Bond and 2022 Bond. County commissioners changed those deals after voters approved them. “The same thing could happen with Prop A and the Lake Houston Area could wind up funding projects everywhere but here.”

Turnout for the meeting was approximately 40 people – very low compared to the 13,000 that flooded in the Lake Houston Area in recent years.

Only one thing is certain – either way, you have the power to send a message with your vote.

Two Additional Meetings

HCFCD has scheduled two additional Zoom meetings for people who couldn’t attend in person.

• Thursday, October 24 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m
• Wednesday, October 30 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/17/24

2606 Days since Hurricane Harvey