Bellaire Stands With Ukraine

Next time you drive by, be sure to take a look at the flagpole outside Bellaire City Hall.  Today we’ve joined a growing number of cities around the world that are either flying the Ukrainian flag, or have lit their municipal buildings in blue and yellow as a show of solidarity.  Not just with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, but with free peoples and defenders of liberty everywhere who support the rule of law and international order.

We proudly stand with the Ukrainian people in their time of need.  We admire their bravery, courage and strength in the face of extreme adversity and against overwhelming odds.  We pray for an end to the bloodshed and suffering, for the restoration of peace, and for the successful defense of a sovereign nation against an unprovoked and unlawful invasion.  Godspeed to the Ukrainian military, her civilian leadership, and to all the ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things.

Sincere thanks to our friends at Kronberg's Flags and Flagpoles for generously donating the flag, and to those Bellaire residents who came together and made it possible.  We appreciate all of you who have reached out over the past week with your ideas and offers of help, and have inspired this meaningful gesture.  Anyone looking for other ways to support Ukraine, please check out this list compiled by The Bellaire Buzz.

A Roadmap for Our Next City Manager

We’ve made hiring Bellaire’s next City Manager a top priority early in this new Council term, and through our first month in office we’re well on our way.  We’ve selected an executive search firm to assist us in identifying and recruiting qualified candidates, and we’ll soon be kicking things off with them.  But looking beyond the hiring process, we also have some other work to do if we are to give our next City Manager—and ourselves—the best chance at success.

For him or her to be able to hit the ground running, we'll need to have established where we’re going.  Council sets the overall vision and policy direction, which the City Manager and staff are then charged with implementing.  We’ve taken an important first step, starting this term with a professionally facilitated planning session in which we worked on refining our governance model, and on developing our priorities, strategies and goals as a Council.

Continuing that emphasis, and with the caveat they’re still in draft form and haven’t yet been formally adopted, I organized this year’s State of the City Address around the Strategic Focus Areas we’ve come up with:  Community, Governance, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Quality of Life, and Land Use and Zoning.

In my address I talked about the unusually high number of staff vacancies we're currently experiencing, and what we’re doing to get those positions filled.  And I shared with you some of the highlights of the past year within each of our Strategic Focus Areas.  These are our guiding principles for the organization moving forward, and will help ensure the staff are aligned with Council’s policy direction when our next City Manager arrives.

Weathering Winter

The arctic blast is here.  Though we certainly don't expect this to be a repeat of last February’s severe winter storm and resulting statewide electrical grid failure and local water system issues, lessons learned from that event have informed our preparedness for this one.  Public Works has this week provided a high-level overview of our winterization improvements made over the past year.

To better protect our water and wastewater systems against prolonged freezing temperatures, we’ve implemented such safeguards as heat tape, cables and industrial blankets for outdoor equipment, with generators at the ready should we lose power.  We’ve brought in propane heaters for indoor mechanical controls and SCADA devices.  Throughout the City we’ve been replacing aging valves and pumps that are prone to failure in freezing conditions.  All of these improvements have been tested in anticipation of the incoming weather and are functioning properly.  We’ve additionally been in touch with the City of Houston, from which we source half our water supply due to regional subsidence regulations, and they assure us they’re also far more prepared now than they were a year ago.

The Bellaire Emergency Operations Center is activated at Level III—Increased Readiness.  Crews have been out making preparations for potential impacts and are on standby to respond as needed over the coming days.  As of now we anticipate all city offices and facilities will remain open as normal, but there could be some service delays, such as for solid waste and recycling collection, as conditions deteriorate.  Be sure you’re signed up to receive our emergency communications and updates through PrepareBellaire and Notify Me.

In preparing your own property, remember the 4 P’s:  People, Pets, Pipes and Plants.  Register with the City’s AquaHawk utility portal if you’ve not done so already, to receive automated notifications of water leaks in case of any pipe damage.  The roads may become slick overnight with sleet and ice, so please be safe and don’t take any chances.  For non-emergency assistance the Bellaire EOC can be reached at (713) 668-0487; for life-threatening emergencies call 911.

Introducing Our New Mobile App

Come across a pothole to report?  See something that’s broken or doesn’t look quite right?  Snap a pic and send it in!  The City of Bellaire’s new mobile app, powered by SeeClickFix, makes it easy to submit non-emergency service requests for these types of issues and many more.

All you need to do is open the app and follow the prompts.  Specify the location on the map, or, if you’re still there let the app find you.  Select the issue by category, type a brief description, and submit.  If you’ve entered your e-mail address the system will automatically send you status updates as city staff work to resolve your concerns.

SeeClickFix-Bellaire replaces our old, sometimes clunky Resident Request Center, providing an improved, intuitive user interface and the convenience of submitting requests directly from your smartphone.  It can also be accessed online at bellairetx.gov/seeclickfixbellaire.  For staff on the receiving end, request tracking and workflows are more automated and efficient.

The app also includes some links to helpful information on the City website, like the holiday trash and recycling schedule.  The SeeClickFix platform supports other functions as well, and over time we’ll look to upgrade the app with additional features.  It’s still somewhat of a work in progress, and your feedback in that regard is welcome.

Download SeeClickFix for free on the App Store or Google Play.

     

Expanding Our ALPR Network

Flock Safety

Bellaire’s first ten automated license plate readers (ALPRs) were installed as a pilot project in January 2021.  Deployed at strategic locations along our major thoroughfares, special cameras capture license plate data and send out an alert to the police department whenever they record a hit on a “hot list” vehicle.  The program has been such a success in its initial year that (1) those original ten ALPRs are now being funded in the police department budget on an ongoing basis, and (2) we’re acquiring ten more units as a Phase 2 pilot project, supported once again by a grant from the Bellaire Police and Fire Foundation.

The system has proven its value as a law enforcement tool in Bellaire.  Over the course of this first year we got 996 hits on wanted vehicles, of which the police apprehended 452; these stops resulted in the recovery of 66 stolen vehicles.  Not included in those statistics, of course, are the crimes potentially prevented by those stops, and by the deterrent effect of the cameras generally.

The ALPRs have also been useful in tracking down vehicles wanted in connection with crimes that have been reported in Bellaire.  When witnesses provide only generic descriptions, such as “a late model white sedan,” for example, officers can use that information in searching the database for any matching vehicles that were picked up by one of the ALPRs around the time of the offense.  The department credits the cameras with helping increase case closure rates, and improving efficiency by automating what is otherwise a tedious, manual process of pursuing such leads in an investigation.

At an annual cost of $27,500, budgeting for the continuation of the first ten ALPRs beyond the Phase 1 trial period was a no-brainer.  For the next ten, the plan is to install seven of them at strategic locations not already covered, and the remaining three will be mobile for use in investigations and for traffic counts as part of the City’s traffic management program.  As before, we’re under no obligation with respect to the second set of ALPRs after the Phase 2 pilot, and will simply wait and see how things go before making that decision.

A Consensus Vision for Organizational Alignment

I’ve always looked forward to the beginning of a new Council term as an opportunity for a fresh start.  To candidly assess what we’ve been doing well and what we could be doing better.  For me the biggest takeaway from the last term is that we as a Council never quite managed to coalesce around a consensus vision and policy direction.

Making the Most of 2021

After 2020 was pretty much canceled by the pandemic, it was wonderful throughout 2021 to be able to get back together in person again and to enjoy a return to somewhat normalcy.  Unfortunately COVID isn’t going away anytime soon, as the current Omicron surge underscores, and we don’t know what the future holds.  But looking back, despite a few setbacks along the way we’ve made the most of our situation over the past year and are poised for an even better year to come.

#OneBellaire 2022 City Calendar Photo Contest

2021 City Calendar

How would you like to be featured in our official city calendar?  Now’s your chance!  Residents of all ages are invited to participate in the second annual #OneBellaire City Calendar Photo Contest.

The 2022 calendar theme is Celebrate Bellaire—photos reflecting how you celebrate our community and highlighting the quality of life here, while acknowledging this place we call home means something different to each of us.

Entries are being accepted through December 20.  For contest rules and to submit your photos please visit the Calendar Photo Contest page on the City website.  A panel of judges from our citizen Culture and Arts Board will select the winners.  Good luck to all participants and have fun!

Thankful for Our City Staff

Last week Interim City Manager Brant Gary announced his resignation, having accepted a job offer elsewhere.  His last day with the City of Bellaire will be December 3.  We appreciate his service to our community over the years, as Public Works Director in his prior stint with us, and then as Assistant City Manager and Interim City Manager.  Brant truly rose to the occasion in leading the City through some tumultuous times—made all the more challenging by his indeterminate status in the role, and on top of his regular duties no less—quite capably and always with the utmost poise and professionalism.  We’re better off for it (as is he), and we wish him all the best in his new position.

While at first his leaving may seem a major disruption to the organization, it really doesn’t change things all that much considering we’re about to begin the hiring process for our next permanent City Manager anyway.  With a new Council set to take office in January, this is already at the top of our to-do list.  Brant’s departure does mean that the current Council will need to appoint a replacement to serve as Interim in the meantime.

It also highlights, along with other high-profile resignations of late, we’re at a critical juncture with our staff.  It’s no secret that morale is low, and has been for some time.  The organization has surely been affected by all the prolonged uncertainty (16 months is an unusually long time to operate with an Interim City Manager), an often-hostile political climate, and more recently a particularly dispiriting budget process.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  The opportunity to hire our next City Manager is also an opportunity to begin repairing our relationship with staff, to rebuild mutual trust and respect, with an appreciation of our respective roles in working together on the same team.

This week of Thanksgiving let’s remember how fortunate we are to live in Bellaire, and acknowledge the hard-working, dedicated professionals who help make our special town what it is.  The people who show up day in and day out, to provide the municipal services we all rely on but frequently take for granted.  Let’s assure them their efforts don’t go unnoticed, and that we value each and every one of them.  Want to recognize a staff member who has gone above and beyond?  I know they’d love to hear from you!

I wish you and your families, and our staff and their families, a Happy Thanksgiving and a blessed holiday season.

CRS Restoration Update

City staff have been working diligently toward the restoration of our Community Rating System classification, and with it our flood insurance discount.  They recently provided an update on their progress.  As shown below all of the required activities are proceeding on schedule and according to plan.