Is it just me, or have the last month’s-worth of agendas had more interesting material than the rest of the year combined? Is it something in the air? Or is it that everyone’s overdosed on the political campaigns, and tuning out the news? That would make it a good time to pass a bunch of ordinances, wouldn’t it?
So here we go for this week. Note especially items #15, 24, 31, 39, and 41:
Item #2: $120,000 for outside litigation support. The City of Houston wants AT&T to move some facilities that are in the city right-of-way, at their expense, to permit flood control improvements. AT&T wants the city to pay. They’ve been arguing in various courts for two years now; AT&T lost in federal court, is still pending in state district court, and is now trying Harris County Civil Court.
Item #3: Proposal to pay a citizen a $165,000 settlement for a negligent city employee who ran a red light in his street sweeper, and hit a pedestrian downtown. Apparently he was not caught in doing this by a red light camera.
Item #5: Appoint two independent appraisers to evaluate 19 acres located at Lockwood and Buffalo Bayou for sale. It used to be a sewage treatment plant. I hope the buyers realize that the city didn’t take up the shallow concrete pits and metal pipes, but merely buried them under a few feet of dirt. Therefore, any foundation work for a building is going to be even more problematic than normal for something on the banks of the bayou.
Item #15: Now that we’ve approved purchase of a new police radio system, we need somewhere to put all the people responsible for installing it
