Jersey Village is a great place to live and raise a family. JV residents have a lot of pride in our schools and the security of great Fire and Police protection. JV residents include young families, some families recently moved to Jersey Village, and families that have lived here for more than 45 years.
This website was developed and paid for by Jersey Village Concerned Citizens Committee members to provide a communication platform to allow neighbors to discuss various issues, projects, causes, and solutions. Our group is always open to new members and their ideas. The information provided here is presented to look at issues, projects, and concerns from the resident’s point of view, while the information coming from the Jersey Village City Council and/or Mayor is presented from City Hall’s point of view. This forum allows questions to be asked, concerns raised, and additional information presented that are not allowed during normal City Council Meetings.
Our group of Jersey Village residents has concerns that involve a number of issues regarding actions taken by the Jersey Village City Council over the past several years. Most of the issues have three basic areas of concern; priorities, spending, and transparency.
City project priorities are influenced by a fairly small group of residents that make up the “in-group” that have a common view of “what would be nice” for the city. The “in-group” has been well represented on the various committees by the selection process used by City Council where there will be “common interests”. Because of their “common interests”, the “in-group” is usually present at meetings in numbers to provide support to City Council on all issues. This provides a false impression that they have broad support from most of the residents of the city. There is a concerted effort by City Council to avoid much input from the residents as a whole. Simply put, City Council does not like to have residents vote on projects even when involving millions of dollars.
City spending on most projects is presented as investments rather than as costs to the taxpayers. The actual cost details are sometimes hard to identify with the way the information is presented and sometimes some of the expenses are carried in different accounts. City Council has spent very large sums for consultant and design fees during the past several years with little benefit from those expenses. In some cases, there are fees for the same projects multiple times when they don’t like the results from the first attempt. All city spending affects the amount of property taxes paid by the residents of Jersey Village. As residents, we expect to pay for operating expenses for good police, fire, city services, and a pleasant living environment. However, it is not unreasonable to expect City Council to be accountable to the taxpayers regarding spending on other major projects.
In 2021, City Council was prepared to sign a contract for around $11 million to build a new city hall across 290 in the “Village Center” after over 900 residents had signed a petition requiring a vote by the residents whether to allow or prevent the city hall from being moved to that location. City Council rejected that petition and was prepared to sign the contract to build a new city hall on the land across 290 even though they had known for months that the developer had lost financial backing for the project and that the developer had not fulfilled a single requirement of the agreement. If City Council had done due diligence upfront by investigating the developer and the other companies involved with the presentations, they should have known there were issues with their representations. The information that those companies provided about their current and past projects did not match the available facts. More information is available at VC Meeting-General-Commentary – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and Petition Facts – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org)
Recently, the city council just approved another consultant contract for about $75K with one of the companies involved with the failed “Village Center” project to study building a “stadium” on that land and this new project also involves building a new city hall in that area again. The City Council has also approved a contract for another design for a new golf course clubhouse and an event center at the golf course. This is the third version for that project and the expected cost exceeds $5 million. There are no current plans for the City Council to put any of these projects on a ballot to allow the residents to vote to support or reject their plans. More details are available at Village Center Comments-5-12-21 – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and KHJR-Questions – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and KHJR Unsupported Facts – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and Golf Course Financials – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org)
City property taxes are too high and it should be obvious to all residents if for no other reason than the fact that the City Council has many millions in surplus funds that make it possible to pay for huge projects without requiring a vote by the taxpayers. That can only happen by setting the tax rate higher than required over years just to have funds available for projects that City Council does not believe the taxpayers would approve. More information regarding city taxes and comparison to other cities in this area is available at Property Tax Comparison – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org)
The City Council says they are providing the most transparency ever and many people believe that because financial information is posted on the city website. However, the City Council is controlling what is presented and how it is presented to the taxpayers while concealing or making it hard to find what is actually being spent on their pet projects. The golf course is a good example. They will publish remarks like “the golf course is profitable”, but they will never provide a true financial report that shows a Profit/Loss Statement that covers from the purchase date to the present date that includes all transfers from the city or any payments toward the purchase of the golf course. True transparency would provide what the cost to the taxpayers is for the city to own the golf course along with identifying how many residents actually use the golf course. The last time the City Council provided that information regarding the golf course was when the city sold the golf course many years back so that the city could focus taxpayer funds on projects that provided benefits to more of the residents. Transparency should require disclosure of conflicts of interest between council members and board members of the TIRZ#3. The fact that family members of a council member received one of the first buyouts at a price that exceeds the HCAD values should be explained to the taxpayers. More information regarding city transparency is available at Transparency in Council Meetings – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and TIRZ#3 Information – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and Good Governance – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org)
City Council and the Mayor have stated several times that flooding of homes within Jersey Village is not an issue that the city is responsible for resolving. They have said that they got the berm installed around the golf course, but they don’t disclose that they paid for multiple engineering designs by different firms. Then they worked to get funding from the Federal Government to help pay for the berm at a lower top-of-bank level than was originally determined to be required. Only time will tell if that was a mistake. The only reasonable conclusion for the lower level would be to reduce the risk to the golf course during flooding events. The city has also sought and got federal funding to assist with elevating a number of homes; however, the selection process for the elevations appears to be less transparent. The city also created a TIRZ#3 zone that includes homes on one end of one street within the city. While a project plan was produced for that zone, a lot of details are not included and many questions remain unanswered. It appears that the City Council will make up those rules as they come to them. Transparency demands that the details are available before a plan is even voted on. More details are available at E127-Channel Modifications – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org) and JV Flooding and Golf Course – Jersey Village Neighbors (jvccc.org)