The Questions Council Hasn't Answered Yet

Most of a budget is settled by the time it's printed. But a good budget also surfaces the questions staff can't answer on their own — the ones that are genuinely political, where reasonable people disagree, and where the City Council has to set direction.

The FY2027 budget contains three of these. In each, staff laid out the facts and options and then explicitly declined to make a recommendation. That's not indecision; it's staff saying this one is yours to decide. Here they are.

1. Should you pay for trash pickup?

Right now, Jersey Village collects garbage twice a week and recycling once a week, and residents pay nothing directly for it. The cost — $618,856 a year — comes out of the General Fund like any other service.

Staff poses a straightforward question: what if that cost were billed directly to residents instead?

The math is striking. The City pays its hauler about $16.10 per month for garbage and $4.60 per month for recycling per household. Billing the City's 2,136 residential accounts directly would generate roughly $530,582 a year. And if that revenue were used to lower the tax rate, it would support an M&O rate reduction of about $0.04175 per $100 of value — larger than the entire tax rate increase proposed in this budget.

In other words, the City could more than offset this year's tax increase by converting trash collection to a direct fee. Whether that's a good trade — a lower tax bill but a new line on your monthly statement — is exactly the kind of call that isn't staff's to make.

A few caveats staff flags:

• Dumpster service for City facilities would stay a General Fund cost regardless.
• Implementing a residential fee would require amending Section 54-42(a) of the City Code.
• It's presented purely as a discussion item — but Council direction is requested.

2. Should you light the golf course?

This one comes with no appropriation attached — it's a concept staff wants Council to weigh in on before anyone spends money.

The idea: light nine holes of the Jersey Village Golf Course using Dark Sky- compliant LED technology engineered to keep light inside the course boundary, so neighboring properties aren't affected. Similar systems already run at courses like East River 9 and Beacon Lakes Golf Club.

The revenue case. Using Houston's actual sunset calendar, evening play would be viable about 197 nights a year, concentrated in the cooler months. At four players per tee time, a tee time every ten minutes, and 80% utilization, staff estimates:

The cost. Design and construction for nine holes runs an estimated $1,000,000 to $1,500,000, including a 25-year product warranty. The payback math is favorable either way:

The vendor also offers revenue-share financing. If Council wants to move forward, staff's proposed path is to fund design work in FY2027 and bring construction into the FY2028 budget once a firm cost is established — but they need direction now to begin engaging vendors.

3. Who gets the new park fields, and when?

Clark Henry Park has a new multiuse athletic field under construction — able to host youth baseball, softball, and T-ball, plus rectangular-field sports like soccer, flag football, and rugby. It can run two baseball groups at once, or one diamond sport and one rectangular sport simultaneously.

The fee schedule is largely worked out (mid-market rates, with nonresidents paying a premium). The open question is scheduling — and it matters because demand already exists, and without a framework, one or two organized leagues could effectively monopolize the fields at the expense of everyone else. As staff puts it, Clark Henry Park is a community park first.

Staff offers two approaches and, again, no recommendation:

• Option 1 — Reservation caps per organization. Set a maximum number of hours or days per week or season that any single group can reserve. Protects availability for everyone else, but requires tracking and enforcement.
• Option 2 — Designated public-access windows. Block off certain times (say, weekend mornings) when no reservations are accepted and the fields stay open for drop-in use. Simpler to administer, but reduces total reservable hours.

The two aren't mutually exclusive — Council could set public-access windows and cap organizational reservations within the remaining hours. Staff needs direction before the fields open for organized play.

Why these matter

None of these three is an emergency, and that's precisely why they're easy to defer. But each one shapes the City for years: whether your tax bill or your utility bill carries the cost of trash, whether the golf course becomes a revenue engine, and whether the new fields serve the whole community or a handful of leagues.

These are the decisions worth showing up for. For the full budget picture, start with the overview.

Source: City of Jersey Village FY2026-2027 Proposed Budget, filed with the City Secretary July 1, 2026. All three items are presented in the budget as discussion items pending Council direction.