Posts published in July 2011

By GILBERT HOFFMAN Star-Courier
PCT. 2, PASADENA– Harris County held the first of four public meetings last Monday night, so that citizens could voice their opinions on the new redistricting boundaries proposed for adoption by the county commissioners.
The meeting was hosted by Pct. 2 Commissioner Jack Morman, but the meeting was conducted by Doug Ray and Gene Locke from the law firm of Andrews Kurth LLP, Harris County Asst. Attorney Terry O’Rourke, and Professor Richard Murray of the University of Houston.
On display were maps depicting current and projected boundaries for the County precincts. Handouts and a slide show also reviewed legal criteria for the redistricting effort, as well as goals that the County Commissioners had set for the work.

As explained by Locke and Murray, the maps had to adjust for a 20% increase in Harris County population from year 2000 to 2010, according to the census. The problem was that most of the growth was in Precincts 3 and 4 to the west, but voting law requires all precincts to be relatively equal in size, within 10% of each other. Other important requirements were that minorities must not be discriminated against, and the 14th Amendment provision prohibiting race-predominant decision making must be observed.
The resultant map takes territory from Precinct 1 and adds it to Precinct 2, while on the western edge Precincts 3 and 4 give up voting precincts to Precint 1 to make up the difference.
The resulting proposed plan, labeled A-1, shows equal sized precincts, within 5% of each other. However, the public speakers had several concerns and objections they voiced.
The first speaker was State Senator Mario Gallegos, a veteran lawmaker familiar with drawing voting districts. He strongly objected to this map, saying it did not respect or preserve Hispanic communities and diluted the “Minority Opportunity” district that was originally the intent of Precinct 2 when drawn in year 2000.
He also questioned whether the boundaries respected the Department of Justice’s criteria for a compact district. He said the configuration was highly “gerrymandered” and would not survive a court challenge for this and other reasons. However, he urged the authorities to work on a revised map, and not let the courts decide for the voters.
Precinct 2 boundaries have been extended to include Kingwood, Atascocita, Huffman, Crosby, and areas in the Aldine district. This took voting precincts from Jerry Eversole’s Pct. 4, and El Franco Lee’s Pct. 1.
About 300 persons attended the two hour meeting, and when asked for comments, about 40 people spoke for up to the allowed three minutes.
Although there were some supporters of the map boundaries, most of the comments were against it.
A number of persons from the Highlands area were present for the comment session, including Betty Michalsky, Carl Cooper, and several more from McNair and Barrett. Michalsky’s concern was how the realignment might affect the Pct. 2 budget and whether ongoing programs would lose some of their funding or not.
Some of the objections to the map were because although the Hispanic population held a 57% majority in Pct. 2, the voting age population was only 52%, low enough that the Precinct might lose its “minority opportunity” status. The other major objection was that the combining of voting precincts from Kingwood to Clear Lake did not create a required “compact” district, and also combined voters with dissimilar interest and lifestyles.
The meeting was a requirement to meet federal voting rights laws, according to Locke. There will be three other meetings this week, one in each precinct. Scheduled for Precinct 1 is a meeting at 7 pm on Wednesday, July 27 at the Cavalcade office. Pct. 4’s meeting is Friday, July 29 at 6 pm at the Mangum-Howell Center, and Pct. 3’s meeting is Monday, August 1 at 4:30 pm at the Sosa Community Center. After the meetings, Commissioners will decide to modify or adopt the maps.

NORTHEAST HARRIS COUNTY – The most changed area in Texas following redistricting is here. The most change in representation is for northeast Harris County and the changes will be effective beginning at the next election and probably last for decades.
A public hearing is to be held Monday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. in the East Harris County Activity Center7340 Spencer Highway, Pasadena, Texas 77505 For more information call (713) 755-6220 or (281) 479-4232 to discuss re-drawing Harris County Precincts. Northeast Harris County will now be within Precinct 2 seated in Pasadena. Jerry Eversole’s District will shrink from 1.12 million folks to 1.02 million. Jack Mormon’s Precinct 2 will expand all over the East of Houston and shrink in population. It will be called “the slower growing district” by the City of Houston and remain a majority Hispanic District.


U.S House of Representative’s 2nd Congressional District, Ted Poe’s District once stretched from Beaumont to Tomball now it is a tiny area inside Houston and includes most of Huffman but not Highlands and Crosby. Of four new congressional seats in Texas a new district that willl include most of Poe’s seat up to the San Jacinto River will be call U.S. Congressional District 36 whenthe 113 Congress convenes in 2013. Poe will keep all of Newport, the subdivision just East of itself and Huffman.Poe keeps West of Peter’s Rd. to Ramsey Road but East of that is within District 36 East of FM 2100 within Crosby proper is within the new district. Poes’ new district now ends at Jones’ Rd. in West Houston and begins to encompass all of Huffman North of Stroker Rd. The new district 36 runs as far south as NASA Rd. 1. and East to Beaumont outside the Baytown area. Follow the railroad tracks North in Crosby, they divide the Poe’s district from the new district. Overall Harris County will lose one U.S. Congressional seat from 25 to 24.
In the State House of Representatives Crosby can say hello to District 128 and Wayne Smith of Baytown and Deer Park and the Houston Ship Channel and farewell to Dan Huberty. Most of Huffman remains within Dan Huberty’s repersentation except where the High School is located and some of the most easterly parts. In northern Crosby Huberty keeps the western end of Spanish Cove, North of Stroker. Those easterly parts down to Barrett Station go to Wayne Smith’s 128th District and runs south to Spenser Highway, includes La Porte but Barrett Station is now within District 142, connected by the keenest Gerrymander line yet. District 128 resumes again after Barrett Station. Highlands is busted into two state representative district right down FM 2100 West of FM 2100 goes to Pasadena’s District 144 while the easterly rest of Highlands generally goes to District 128.
Ken Jones, Precinct 3 Constable, will address the Crosby/Huffman Chamber of Commerce concerning redistricting begining at 11:30 p.m. at American Legion Hall 648 in Crosby on Thursday.

CROSBY – The Crosby-Huffman Chamber of Commerce is moving toward new organizational direction by changing name of President of Board of Director to Chairman of the Board of Directors and hiring a paid President.
The Crosby/Huffman Chamber of Commerce has embarked upon new ventures to meet the highest standards for community service and is in the process of developing a new marketing program. The new President will be visiting businesses in the surrounding areas and especially the Crosby/Huffman areas to inform potential members of neworking opportunities and marketing potentials with the Crosby/Huffman Chamber of Commerce.
Glenda Logsdon-President, is hired by, and responsible to, the Chamber’s Board of Directors, and is responsible for the day to day management of the Chamber’s functions carrying out policies and procedures established by the Board of Directors.

Glenda will be focusing on membership as one of the main goals the board decided to move to the new position.
Julie Gilbert-maintains her current position as Chairman of the Board of Directors held since January 2010.
Please also say something to the effect that Glenda will be visiting all the businesses in the Crosby-Huffman community and eventually reaching businesses outside of the Crosby-Huffman area.

HIGHLANDS– A Water Main burst on Prairie St. here last Saturday. H.C. WCID#1, the water supplier for Highlands, issued a boil water warning to residents, the problem has been remedied now.
When a boil water warning is issued residents should bil water to be consumed for just over 2 minutes allow it to cool before drinking.
Water mains have been erupting throughout Texas due to the extended heat with little rain according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. That entity requires that when water pressure falls below 20 lbs. per square inch that the water companies issue boil water warnings.
There was a small rain on Satuday morning but the manager of Highlands water said he did not know if the incident of the rain had anything to do with the rupture.

According to Mark Taylor of HCWCID#1, “On July 16, 2011, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) required Harris County WCID #1 the Public Water Supplier for Highlands Texas, (PWS # 1010159) to issue a Boil Water Notice (BWN) to inform our customers that due to the presence of contaminants or an interruption in service, water from our system must be boiled prior to consumption.
Our system has taken the necessary corrective actions to restore adequate pressure, disinfectant levels, and/or bacteriological quality and has provided TCEQ with testing results that indicate that the water no longer requires boiling.
If you have questions, contact Mark Taylor at 281-426-2115.”
Monday morning Taylor took the samples to the TCEQ labratories for examination, the exam is an 18 hour process.
Highlands purchases 80% of its water from the City of Baytown’s Water service and about 20% from local aquifers. The water from Baytown ultimately comes from the Trinity River and the well water from the San Jacinto River.