Corbett On Bellaire City Council

Part 1: Taking Advantage of Our Great Opportunity for Progress by Being Proactive and Specifically Communicating Our Priorities

(This is the first in a two-part article. The second part of this article will discuss three specific issues I have an interest in working on in 2012.)

Bellaire is a wonderful place to live; Bellaire will be an even better place to live by the end of 2012 if we commit to being proactive and put forth the effort necessary to move Bellaire forward. I believe we will be proactive and motivated to put forth the effort, if we understand the specific priorities of our fellow community leaders (city council, city staff and Bellaire’s boards and commissions). As specific examples of what I am advocating for, I will discuss three specific priorities of mine in the second part of this article.

Read the rest of this entry »

Update (July 6, 2011) Recent Documents

Mayor Cindy Siegel’s message on the budget (July 1, 2011)

Letter to Southwest News Editor I wrote on Setting Tax Rate (June 21, 2011)

Bellaire Residents,

On June 8, 2011, I wrote an article in Bellaire Examiner explaining budget discussions and upcoming process. I have accumulated certain documents pertaining to Bellaire’s FY2012 Budget discussions for you to review, and (hopefully) better equip you to provide comments to City Council and staff.

• FY2012 Presentation Given by City Manager Bernie Satterwhite at May 24, 2011 City Council Meeting
• FY2011 Adopted Budget
• Letter I wrote to Southwest News published October 5, 2010  related to the FY2011 tax decisions
• Fact Sheet related to FY2011 tax decisions
• Portion of my Policy Paper dealing with Bellaire financial issues that I wrote October 2, 2009  during my campaign

[Here is what my Policy Paper During '09 Election Said About Economic Issues. ENTIRE POLICY PAPER. My comments in October 2009 are the same discussions of the decisions being made by City Council currently]

I would like to clarify a few points in recent discussions regarding the proposed Bellaire tax rate increase.   City Council is proposing a tax rate that is 1.73% higher than the effective tax rate, which means a homeowner of an average Bellaire home will pay $78 more in property taxes in FY2011 than FY2010.  You might ask why is City Council raising taxes in a bad economy?   Why doesn’t the City just tighten its belt, like Bellaire families have done and cut the fat out of their budget?

The short answer is that we have tightened our belt and cut the fat out of the City budget.  We are now at the point of making the really difficult decisions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Horn Construction, water rate increases, First St. Hospital expansion, goals & objectives for next 2 years, mid-year budget review, and closing recycling center are just a few of the recent issues Bellaire Council has discussed and taken action on. Here’s brief information on these and local newspaper recaps. [See Bellaire property value projections HERE] Read the rest of this entry »

It’s never good news for a city’s revenues when property values decrease, but it appears from preliminary numbers that Bellaire did better than expected. It was stated at this past Monday’s City Council meeting that the city expected to be close to Harris County’s overall 4% decrease. In fact, Bellaire’s overall tax roll value is expected to decrease 2.525% ($3.301B to $3.218B). Bellaire’s residential and rural improved tax base is expected to only go down 1.57% (from $2.747B in 2009 to $2.704B in 2010). This is  more than one third of the 5% drop expected in Houston’s residential property (see Houston Chronicle article1 and Houston Chronicle article2). Bellaire commercial property plummeted 11.17% (from $349M in ’09 to $310M in ’10), which is slightly higher than the projections for Harris County commercial property.

The certified tax rolls for all cities will be available April 30th.

You can see HCAD’s summary sheet of all the various models used to compute Bellaire property values here.

At its February meeting, the Bellaire Arts Commission swore in its two new Commissioners Dr. Johnnie Frazier and Cassie Neumann. Bellaire City Clerk  Tracy Dutton administering the oaths of office. The Commission is now back at full seven members.  For those interested in contributing ideas or attending a meeting, the BAC meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Bellaire City Hall.

Bellaire mayor challenges Dynamo stadium plan; others on board – Bellaire Examiner, Jan. 28, 2010

(Above is an article about the proposed Dynamos stadium site at South Rice/Westpark disclosed at Harris County Commissioners’ meeting, and includes Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel’s letter addressing her concerns)

Mayor Siegel, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and City Staff did an outstanding job envisioning the positive economic development that can take place in Bellaire’s Research and Development District (RDD) through Council’s recent adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. The RDD is across the street from this new potential stadium site owned by Midway Companies.   Mayor Siegel and other city planners were understandably surprised with the recent news, since envisioning for the RDD did not include any discussions of a potential stadium as it was not contemplated at the time.

Personally, I am excited about the possibility of the Dynamo’s new home being Bellaire’s next door neighbor, but share Mayor Siegel’s concerns about how it will affect Bellaire’s residential quality of life.  With the discussions between the Dynamo organization and Midway just beginning, there has been no serious inquiry into these concerns and issues such as positive/negative impact on surrounding community, possibility of easing site into residential neighborhood, environmental issues,  traffic patterns, etc… which are mute if the site does not make sense financially.

I look forward to learning:  (1) Whether Midway can present a financial package comparable to the East End stadium site which makes this proposed site feasible, (2) The public-private partnerships that are available (i.e. is there more private money available for this site in current economic conditions?), (3) What more advanced site designs for the stadium and surrounding area will look like and include, and (4) The questions, concerns, and comments of Bellaire residents, particularly those in close proximity and more significantly affected. The answers to these questions will help determine whether this is a good, better,  site for a soccer stadium.

The Dynamo have remained committed to not only being a first-class organization, but also a great community partner. On numerous occasions the Dynamo, and President Oliver Luck individually, have answered my requests to partner with the Rotary Club of Houston Skyline (as they have many other service organizations) to better the Houston community and help us help others.