Lawyers for advocacy group Fair for Houston have filed an injunction against Mayor John Whitmire and the Houston City Council after urging the city to comply with a local law to give the city more representation on the region’s transportation board.
Houston City Council voted in October to renew its membership on the Houston-Galveston Area Council, a body that’s tasked with distributing federal funds for infrastructure, climate mitigation and workforce development.
That vote came with backlash from Fair for Houston, the group that championed the charter amendment greenlit by voters in 2023 that would give more representation on the board. If that greater representation didn’t happen, city charter dictates the city would have to leave the group.
H-GAC negotiations did not result in more representation for the city, and since then, advocates with Fair for Houston have argued the council’s move to renew Houston’s membership violated the voter’s wishes to have more representation.
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Michael Mortiz, one of the group’s organizers, told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday that Fair for Houston and its lawyers had received only radio silence from the city since sending its letter. City leaders have also not responded to multiple correspondences from the group’s lawyers, Mortiz said.
“Now more than ever, citizens have a responsibility to hold all levels of government accountable to both the rule of law and the will of the voters,” Mortiz wrote in a Tuesday statement. “Although we tried everything in our power to enforce Proposition B through good faith negotiations, the inaction on the part of city officials has made it clear that we must resort to the courts to compel our elected officials to do their duty.”
See here and here for the background. I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I have no idea what happens next. This has all been one giant step into the unknown, and there are some definite downside possibilities out there. On the other hand, and I’ve said this before as well, we had an election with a clear result, and that needs to mean something. Kudos to Fair for Houston for standing up for that principle. Houston Public Media, which has a copy of the lawsuit, has more.