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Colleen DeGuzman<\/p>\n
Tina Peterson is the director of the Harris County Flood Control District.<\/p>\n
In a heated exchange on Thursday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she had lost confidence in the leader of the county flood control district over its ability to complete bond projects before looming federal funding deadlines. <\/p>\n
Hidalgo grilled Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Tina Peterson over the status of 28 flood mitigation projects that were delayed after revelations of a multi-million dollar funding shortfall<\/a>. <\/p>\n In an update to commissioners court, Peterson acknowledged concerns about delays with the flood projects, which were established through a $2.5 billion flood bond approved by voters in 2018 after Hurricane Harvey. The flood control district last year revealed a $410 million shortfall on dozens of those projects, noting that many of them were determined to be unfeasible after engineering analyses. <\/p>\n Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n Peterson said the flood control district has worked to advance projects since that revelation \u2014 but many have yet to break ground. Though she presented transmittals to commissioners on Thursday showing the status of those projects, Hidalgo raised questions about how the department is advancing the projects to meet crucial funding deadlines in upcoming years. If missed, the county could be forced to pay back funds that were received through federal grants to complete the projects.<\/p>\n Hidalgo said her office requested data to show the status of the projects, whether they are on track and how they are planning to stay on track. The documents shared with commissioners court, she said, did not answer those questions, with Hidalgo also telling Peterson, \u201cI just lost my confidence in you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be embarrassed to show this to any member of the public,\u201d Hidalgo said as she held up documents during the interaction. \u201cYou\u2019re not providing anything that provides any sort of assurance to the community, much less to me, that you\u2019re on track. I\u2019m totally baffled by this.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the exchange, commissioners voted to direct the flood control district to return with monthly updates on the status of the flood bond projects. In a recent interview with Houston Public Media, Hidalgo drew attention to 26 additional projects outlined in the bond that were indefinitely paused.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s chatter around the county about well, you know, we\u2019ll have them extended or we will get shoveling and if it\u2019s not done, they wouldn\u2019t dare claw something back that\u2019s in the middle of being built,\u201d Hidalgo said. \u201cMy take is, look, even if the GLO [Texas General Land Office] and the [federal] housing and urban development department have deadlines, the hurricanes don\u2019t. And so we need to build these as fast as possible anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2018 bond \u2014 which has since been encumbered by an 8% inflationary cost increase \u2014 immediately presented hurdles for county engineers and flood control staffers since it was created to have a significant funding gap. The $2.5 billion OK’d by voters that year would only cover 50% of the $5 billion needed for flood mitigation projects in the aftermath of Harvey<\/a>, which flooded much of the Houston region in 2017.<\/p>\n