(1) NEW HORN ACADEMY CONSTRUCTION = On Monday 4/19, Council held Special Hearing for almost 2 hours on the proposed plans for the new Horn Academy.  There was a great amount of feedback from Bellaire residents that were mostly supportive of the plans, but had gate access, parking, and Bellaire Little League concerns. Unfortunately, we learned that despite prior hopes, HISD has no money set aside for the rebuild of baseball fields. Bellaire Council will vote on HISD’s Special Use Permit on May 3rd. [Recaps = http://bit.ly/didzQg and http://bit.ly/c8P16X and http://bit.ly/c4IEs1]

(2) FIRST STREET HOSPITAL EXPANSION. Council will hold a Special Hearing on Monday, April 26th to discuss abanding the city property and construction expected to begin next month to double the size of the hospital to 34,000 square feet= http://bit.ly/aOAByv

(3) WATER RATES LIKELY TO RISE. Due to the City of Houston’s vote to raise water rates and Bellaire’s rate needing adjustment to help city keep up water-related capital improvements, Bellaire Council has discussed raising water rates. = http://bit.ly/cBS7EC (Bellaire Discussion) and http://bit.ly/aPWOxW (Houston Vote to Raise Rates)

(4) COUNCIL GOAL AND OBJECTIVE SETTING. Council held a public special session to continue setting our goals and objectives for the next two years. Council previously met in chamber discussing each of our individual goals and objectives then presented this list of goals and received residents’ feedback at a Saturday workshop. The goals and objectives were then grouped into 5 areas, and Council spent the Special Session discussing and amending each objective. We made a significant number of changes and anticipate meeting again to prioritize the resulting goals and objectives. The revised goals and objectives will be posted on city’s website once they are drafted. The video of the Special Session is available for those wanting to watch the entire discussion. I look forward to discussing Council’s comments with any resident that has questions or comments. [Recap = http://bit.ly/cmuwNh]

(5) MID-YEAR BUDGET REVIEW = http://bit.ly/9ed7J8

(6) TENTS IN TOWN IS THIS SATURDAY= http://bit.ly/dpdkOi

(7) EVERGREEN BATH HOUSE RENOVATIONS ARE COMPLETE = http://bit.ly/aUaojJ

(8) COUNCIL VOTES TO CLOSE RECYCLING CENTER IN 2010 = http://bit.ly/ba4pk5

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.

Timeline of Relationship and Activities with Oliver Luck and Dynamo Organization

Oct 2008 = Until their recent move to GRB, the Dynamo’s offices were in the same building I work in. I first met Oliver by approaching him in parking lot to speak to the Rotary Club I founded at our weekly meeting, which he did in January 2009. Shortly after he spoke, the club setup a community service tutoring program with the Dynamos’ Under 15/18 Soccer Academy where we tutor those student-athletes that require it.

Mid-May 2009 = Oliver was the MC for club’s Outstanding Community Impact Awards held at Hyatt. Many Houston city officials and community leaders attended this great celebration of profoundly serving the community.

End-May = Oliver bought me and about 10 other tutors lunch, and offered us Dynamo tickets for our time spent tutoring. Later in season I attended the only Dynamo game I have ever been to with another tutor.

Mid-July 2009 = Oliver asked the club to move one of our weekly meetings to a luxury tent the Dynamo were placing at East End stadium property during October. They thought they were about to break ground on construction and intended to start the buzz on the new stadium and get as many community groups as possible into the tent. The club began making plans to do a reception on Oct. 29th.

August 25th = I asked Oliver if he would introduce me at a campaign reception/let me use his name as supporting me from our working together on tutoring program. At this point, the Dynamos were moving forward on groundbreaking on East End site, and my guess is Midway still hadn’t approached Dynamos yet.

August 31st = Club was told by Dynamo Charities that they were no longer doing community organization events in the tents at East End stadium site, so club canceled planned reception.

Sept 15th = Oliver introduced me at campaign reception at Bellaire home (media present). OLIVER CONTRIBUTED ZERO DOLLARS TO MY CAMPAIGN. My campaign contributions are mostly Bellaire residents and longtime family friends, none are related to Dynamo. (All my campaign finance reports).

Sept 15th – Dec. 14th = I did not talk to Oliver about or hear a single thing about any developments as to East End site. I did offer him congrats in early Nov. about the successful season his son and Stanford were having.

Dec. 15th = Oliver asked me to have coffee before work, which is the first time I heard anything about potential Westpark/S. Rice site. He told me Midway recently approached him and that he told them to put together financial package comparable to the East End stadium site. He stated that they were very early in preliminary discussions, and that the Dynamos were not going to waste timing chasing/researching deal or let it interfere with his East End stadium site. I told him about Comprehensive Plan and pointed to the section discussing Bellaire’s plans for RDD.

Dec. 16th-Jan 26th = I did not talk to Oliver about or have any developments as to potential site given to me.

Jan 27th = I found out that possible stadium site was discussed in Commissioner’s Court. In the very phone call I learned of this, I told city staff  that I was friends with Oliver and had previously heard that Midway approached Dynamos about this but that it wasn’t far along at all. I also called the City Manager and Mayor and discussed it with them, including discussion with Mayor of abstaining from voting if the stadium site ever came to fruition.  When asked by Bellaire Examiner if I had a conflict of interest, I immediately answered possibly and that I would look into it.

Summary and Additional Facts

1. I consulted Bellaire’s City Attorney, relayed to him the majority of these facts, and was told that it was NOT appropriate for me to recuse myself.
2. Oliver Luck did not give me a penny before, during, or after campaign.
3. To my knowledge, my law firm has never represented the Dynamo or Oliver Luck or had any other contact with them in any capacity.
4. I have never had a conversation with or even met anyone from Midway, even though I talked to everyone I could during the campaign (tons of conversations about RDD area). I also did not even know that former Councilwoman Pam Holm (also a friend of mine who spoke at Rotary club) was helping Midway. Despite us being friends, she never contacted me, nor did any of my other community leader friends before the Commissioner’s Court discussion.
5. I have zero financial interest from the Dynamos getting a stadium built, much less where it is built.  I do not own (and no one related to me owns) any property in/near the RDD area. I have not been given or promised a single penny from anyone in anyway related to any potential Dynamo stadium.
6. At no time have I tried to conceal or play down my friendship with Oliver Luck whether with city staff or council, or when asked by the media. I told Bellaire’s Mayor in our very first conversation that I was friends with Oliver and discussed with her whether I should abstain if anything came to vote…and did same with City Attorney.
7. I am VERY active in community (often attend social/political/charity events) and there are a significant amount of other community leaders that I have developed similar friendships to through serving Houston community. I gave up and continue to give up a huge chunk of my salary serving the Bellaire, Houston and International community and supporting others that are impacting community.
8. I have responded to every resident email/call almost immediately upon receiving it, and every media request. It would have been nice if those residents accusing me of impropriety had picked up the phone to inquire about a single line in newspaper, in which I openly admitted friendship with Luck and consideration of my conflict.

Now that you have the facts, feel free to share them with those residents questioning my integrity without having the facts.

Corbett

Related Articles: State of the City: mainly anxiety over stadium, Dynamo chief cautious about stadium plan, doubts ‘private’ funding, Who knew? Dynamo private stadium deal was privileged info, Mayor catches heat for stadium stand but ‘had to do it’ (Bellaire Examiner 2-3), “There’s no such thing as a project like this without public money” (Off the Kuff 2-5), Not in Dynamo’s pocket, councilman says (Houston Chronicle 2-2), Bellaire mayor fears traffic, noise from stadium (Houston Chronicle 1-30), Bellaire Residents Voice Opposition To Stadium Idea and Parker Says No Conflict Of Interest With Dynamo Stadium (InstantNews Bellaire 2-1)

(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.

There is unanimous agreement among Cedar St. residents that there has been an increase in parking on Cedar St. in the past year since the commercial gate at Brighton Gardens began being opened during the day. However, there is not consensus among residents that the proposed ordinance was the preferred solution.

The proposed ordinance did not address the root of the issue, instead it would merely force parking to one side of the street and make it even harder for residents to park near their home. I was not in favor of implementing the ordinance as a temporary or permanent solution, which is why I voted for Council Member Nathan’s motion to give the residents the time necessary to meet and discuss what solution is preferred. Working towards a private solution (Brighton increasing its parking spaces on site, or contracting with 1 of the 2 next door churches for shared parking, additional solutions privately negotiated) instead of enacting restrictions on the residents is preferred.

We learned during meeting that (1) Brighton Gardens is not in violation of their special use permit or other agreement with the city, (2) Brighton Gardens has told city staff that they are wiling to address the issue, and (3) the additional parking needs are a result of Brighon needing more staff due to its increased provision of hospice-type care to its residents (as opposed to just independent/assisted living).

On a related matter, I look forward to learning from city staff if in fact the residence on Cedar being used commercially is being utilized for purely commercial purposes (as alleged), and whether this has added to the recent increased traffic and parking.

NEWS ARTICLES ON CEDAR PARKING

Cedar Street Parking Prohibition Postponed Again (Instantnews Bellaire)

Bellaire parking issue goes back to the drawing board (Houston Chronicle)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/bellaire/news/6790944.html

Council Bids Goodbye To McLaughlan, Faulk [InstantnewsBellaire]

Bellaire council veterans part with kudos, gifts [Bellaire Examiner]