1972 VERSION
The original Harris County Flood Control Task Force was created in 1972. Members of the original task force included representatives of environmental conservation groups, development and real estate interests, engineering organizations, and economic development organizations. Task force membership did not include regular citizens, flood victims, housing advocacy groups, or representatives of low income or minority groups.
NEW VERSION
Back in July of 2020 Harris County Commissioners Court, at the urging of the county’s chief elected official – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, initiated a process to reboot the old task force. The new version of the task force, which will be called the “Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force” (emphasis added), will include regular citizens, flood victims, housing advocacy groups, and representatives of low income and minority groups. The word community has been inserted into the title to signal that this group won’t consist of only experts or industry groups.
The new Task Force By-Laws outline membership qualifications. The by-laws require that each member of the Commissioners Court appoint one person. Those five appointed members must then select and vote upon the remaining 12 members by the end of 2020. The 12 members must meet certain qualification requirements. The final by-laws define slightly different membership provisions than those defined in the July proposal. I prepared a table that illustrates the similarities and differences in the composition of the task force members. As of this writing, the first five appointed members are:
- Judge’s Appointee: Iris Gonzalez, Director, Coalition for Environment, Equity and Resilience (CEER)
- Precinct 1 Appointee: Earthea Nance, PE, CFM, PhD, Professor, Texas Southern University
- Precinct 2 Appointee: Lisa Gonzalez, President, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC)
- Precinct 3 Appointee: Bill Callegari, Former State Representative and Former Owner of a Water Utility Operations Company
- Precinct 4 Appointee: Bob Rehak, Retired Businessman, Publisher of reduceflooding.com
The Task Force by-laws indicate the following task force objectives (paraphrasing a bit here for simplicity):
- Evaluate overall approach to strengthening flood resilience;
- Evaluate projects;
- Evaluate schedules and compliance with the equity based prioritization framework;
- Help identify funding;
- Provide oversight to resilience planning; and
- Assist with community engagement.
INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE TEAM
On September 15, 2020, in a 3 to 2 vote, the Commissioners Court established another entity called the Infrastructure Resilience Team (IRT). The IRT includes managers and practitioners from the following Harris County Departments and entities:
- Office of the County Engineer
- Community Services Department
- Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- Public Health
- Toll Road Authority
- Harris County Flood Control District
The activities of the IRT will be coordinated by Dr. Paula Lorente, formerly with Texas A&M University, who was hired by the Office of the County Engineer. The September 8, 2020 letter to Commissioners Court requesting the creation of the IRT mentions the development of a 2050 Flood Resilience Plan for the county. It also outlines the budgetary needs and staffing needs for the IRT. I encourage folks interested in additional details about the IRT to read the court letter.
In general the IRT and the Task Force will work together to implement the the Harris Thrives Resolution adopted by Commissioners Court with a 3 to 2 vote on August 27, 2019.
EXPECTATIONS
I anticipate that the IRT and the Task Force will be able to effectively work together to advance flood resilience in our community, but it will take time. Flood risk reduction and resilience enhancement work is challenging, expensive, and is needed across the entire 1,777 square miles of our county. Some estimate that a total investment of $60 billion would be needed to reduce the annual risk of inundation for all structures in the county to 1% or less.
The IRT has the expertise to plan and design projects, estimate costs, and build them, however, elected officials and their agents (like the Task Force) must reach consensus on which projects to build, where to build them, when to build them, and, more broadly, how to invest limited public funds so we can reduce flood risks and realize other community benefits at the same time. Consensus building takes time, so I anticipate that the work of the IRT and Task Force will take longer than we think it will. I urge all participants and observers to listen to each other and to be patient with each other as our community does this important work.