Harris County Commissioners Court members agree projects from the flood control district’s $2.5 billion bond program should equally benefit rich and poor watersheds, though their disagreement over what equity means — and which projects should be completed first — has fueled suspicions in neighborhoods across the county that they will be left behind.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo this week blamed a television news report she said was inaccurate for sparking confusion about the bond program among state lawmakers and Houston City Council, and has sought to reassure residents each of the 237 bond projects will be completed over the next decade. She said the massive size of the program, however, means the flood control district must rank each project by priority.

“All the projects on the bond list are getting done, and they’re getting done as quickly as we can,” Hidalgo said.

The equity discussion touches a nerve for many residents, who want their watershed projects pushed to the front of the line as the second hurricane season since Hurricane Harvey looms and the county has built little new flood infrastructure since that storm. It also highlights the balancing act Houston and Harris County leaders must perform as they manage federal dollars — some of which can be spent only in affluent neighborhoods — while attempting to steer local money to poor ones, for which there is no other funding source.

The squabbling threatens to divide Commissioners Court for the first time over the bond program, which the previous court unanimously drafted last summer and campaigned to secure its passage. A prolonged fight over how to manage the bond, the largest flood program in county history, could undermine public confidence in the flood control district at a time the county can ill-afford it. With cost estimates to fully protect Harris County from 100-year storms as high as $30 billion, Commissioners Court may need to persuade voters to pass another bond in the future.

Hidalgo said much of the current confusion about the program can be traced to a misleading story aired by KRIV Fox 26 on Feb. 21, that said her administration was proposing changes to the bond program that could affect how the money is spent. A group of 11 Houston state legislators cited the report in a letter to Hidalgo on Wednesday expressing concern her office was changing the way projects are prioritized.

The letter, authored by Rep. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, urged Hidalgo not to prioritize bond projects based on “neighborhood and/or individual income levels,” warning that doing so could undermine the Legislature’s efforts to provide billions in state aid to Harris County.

Murphy said he and Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Humble, were alarmed to read the Fox 26 report the day after they had met with Hidalgo in Austin and been assured the projects would be continued as planned.

At issue, Murphy said, was a prior draft of the county’s equity guidelines that proposed to consider “low-moderate income” data generated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hidalgo clarified the county no longer plans to include that in its guidelines.

The judge’s response assuaged many of the state lawmakers’ worries, Murphy said. He added that his concern was rooted in the timing of the projects, not whether the county still intended to complete them.

“I’m satisfied we’ve made some concerns known,” Murphy said. “I’m not sure we’re resolute, on the county’s part, on addressing those concerns. But I’m content it is working.”

Complicating the issue for local officials is that federal rules governing funds for the recovery are in conflict. While billions in FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers funding for flood mitigation projects are driven by cost-benefit formulas that seek to minimize damage to high-value properties, HUD regulations tied to billions in housing and mitigation aid mandate, or are expected to mandate, that most of those dollars are used to benefit low-income residents.

Stuck in the middle are local entities, such as cities and counties, who face difficult choices about where to direct those funds, and how to spend their own local dollars.

“We have to use our money, local money, to try and fill in the spaces for communities that historically have been left out of the equation,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said.

Hidalgo and Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Russ Poppe wrote a letter in response to the lawmakers, laying out eight proposed equity guidelines by which projects would be ranked: existing drainage conditions at a site, the number of residents a project could remove from the floodplain, the suitability of a site to also serve as a park or other recreational purpose, the efficiency of a project expressed as its cost divided by the number of structures protected, long-term maintenance costs, environmental concerns, whether or not a site has been served by a flood protection project in the past decade and whether a project can be funded by partnerships.

The flood control district plans to publish a master schedule with estimated project completion dates a month after Commissioners Court approves the equity guidelines.

The dialogue over bond equity also seeped into Wednesday’s Houston City Council meeting, where council members Dave Martin and Greg Travis raised concerns about “social engineering” and projects being “pushed back.”

Travis, whose district was particularly slammed by Harvey, also conveyed his frustration with city-adopted guidelines that earmark 80 percent of HUD housing recovery funds — more than the federally mandated 70 percent rate — for families earning up to 80 percent of the area median income.

Those who advocated for the higher rate, including Mayor Sylvester Turner, say the city should use its limited resources to prioritize the most vulnerable Houston residents — namely, very low-income families, the elderly and disabled, and households with children.

Also, Turner noted Wednesday, the city operates a reimbursement program for which high-earning homeowners are eligible. That initiative, one of five under a $428 million Harvey homeowner assistance program, prioritizes households that already have performed repairs, meaning successful applicants are likely to have higher incomes.

Through that program, families earning up to 120 percent of the area median — roughly $90,000 for a four-person family — can receive up to $40,000 in reimbursement funds. Those above the 120 percent threshold can recoup up to $20,000.

Travis, whose district encompasses some of Houston’s wealthiest areas, such as the Galleria, Memorial and River Oaks, contended even high-income families who lose their homes cannot necessarily rebound if they receive just $20,000 in aid.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle says the county can relieve resident anxieties by completing the bond program in five years rather than 10 by outsourcing more of the work to consultants.

“If a flood event happens in year seven, and you got pushed back to year 10, and you get clobbered because we didn’t get to you, those folks are going to be justifiably concerned and unhappy,” Cagle said.

Flood control district leaders expressed doubt about the feasibility of doubling the pace of bond projects.

Matt Zeve, the flood control district’s deputy executive director, said the current pace of the bond program has left his office struggling to hire additional engineers quickly enough. Other potential delays, such as right-of-way acquisition, utility line reroutes and environmental permits are beyond the district’s control.

Reporter Mike Morris contributed to this story.

zach.despart@chron.com

jasper.scherer@chron.com

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