In a heated exchange on Thursday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she had lost confidence in the leader of the county flood control district over its ability to complete bond projects before looming federal funding deadlines.
Hidalgo grilled Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Tina Peterson over the status of 28 flood mitigation projects that were delayed after revelations of a multi-million dollar funding shortfall.
In an update to commissioners court, Peterson acknowledged concerns about delays with the flood projects, which were established through a $2.5 billion flood bond approved by voters in 2018 after Hurricane Harvey. The flood control district last year revealed a $410 million shortfall on dozens of those projects, noting that many of them were determined to be unfeasible after engineering analyses.
Peterson said the flood control district has worked to advance projects since that revelation — but many have yet to break ground. Though she presented transmittals to commissioners on Thursday showing the status of those projects, Hidalgo raised questions about how the department is advancing the projects to meet crucial funding deadlines in upcoming years. If missed, the county could be forced to pay back funds that were received through federal grants to complete the projects.
Hidalgo said her office requested data to show the status of the projects, whether they are on track and how they are planning to stay on track. The documents shared with commissioners court, she said, did not answer those questions, with Hidalgo also telling Peterson, “I just lost my confidence in you.”
“I’d be embarrassed to show this to any member of the public,” Hidalgo said as she held up documents during the interaction. “You’re not providing anything that provides any sort of assurance to the community, much less to me, that you’re on track. I’m totally baffled by this.”
Following the exchange, commissioners voted to direct the flood control district to return with monthly updates on the status of the flood bond projects. In a recent interview with Houston Public Media, Hidalgo drew attention to 26 additional projects outlined in the bond that were indefinitely paused.
“There’s chatter around the county about well, you know, we’ll have them extended or we will get shoveling and if it’s not done, they wouldn’t dare claw something back that’s in the middle of being built,” Hidalgo said. “My take is, look, even if the GLO [Texas General Land Office] and the [federal] housing and urban development department have deadlines, the hurricanes don’t. And so we need to build these as fast as possible anyway.”
The 2018 bond — which has since been encumbered by an 8% inflationary cost increase — immediately presented hurdles for county engineers and flood control staffers since it was created to have a significant funding gap. The $2.5 billion OK'd by voters that year would only cover 50% of the $5 billion needed for flood mitigation projects in the aftermath of Harvey, which flooded much of the Houston region in 2017.
Projects outlined in the bond were set to include major repairs to flood-damaged drainage infrastructure, channel modifications to improve storm water conveyance, voluntary buyouts of flood-prone properties and a major overhaul of the county’s flood warning system.
Though the county secured billions of dollars through the 2018 flood bond, Hidalgo said that amount was never enough. The flood control district has secured another $2.7 billion in partnerships from local, state and federal funding sources to complete those bond projects, according to a presentation last year.
Peterson said the flood control district is still awaiting environmental clearances from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to proceed with several of the flood bond projects. The county has broken ground on seven of the 11 projects backed by disaster recovery grants from HUD, which face their nearest deadline in 2027.
The county’s goal is to have those 11 projects under construction by the end of June.
“We know that there are deadlines,” Peterson said. “We know that they are challenging and we also were implementing a plan and we are making progress on that plan.”
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