This week’s city council meetings are consolidated and in person. We are returning to the council chambers for our Wednesday meetings. Tuesday, public sessions will remain virtual until further notice. Council members will discuss our submitted budget amendments with the administration and our colleagues during the June 2, 2021 meeting.
This year I submitted 8 budget amendments. The first one, on behalf of Houston neighborhoods, asking to hire 11 additional code enforcement officers for the Department of Neighborhoods and for each district to have an assigned code enforcement officer to work with council offices to address district and community concerns.
Five of my amendments are pertaining to the Solid Waste department: including $3000 sign on incentives for drivers; hiring a licensed CDL driver instructor to train additional drivers in house; referral fees to COH employees who refer a licensed CDL driver to solid waste who is hired in FY 2022 and a plan to for COH to identify, tag and charge any resident putting out more that 8 cubic yards of junk waste each month.
My final budget amendment is to hire a seasoned compliance company to bring the compliance workload to a manageable level for the Office of Business Opportunity. They currently have 7 compliance officers however are in need of 30 per their time study, to manage over 1,300 contracts each each year.
Here is how you can watch the meeting: