Harris County Water Control and Improvement District No. 96 will hold an election on
Saturday, May 7, 2016, between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
to elect two (2) members of the Board of Directors of the District. The polling place will be
7930 Fall Creek Bend, Humble, Texas.
Early voting by personal appearance shall occur on each day from April 25, 2016, through May 3, 2016, that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or official State holiday. The place for early voting by personal appearance is 7930 Fall Creek Bend, Humble, Texas. The early voting location will be open during the following hours for early voting:
April 25, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
April 26, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
April 27, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
April 28, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
April 29, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
May 2, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
May 3, 2016 8:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m.
Candidates
Ben Bates
I have lived in Houston since 1989 and moved to Fall Creek in September 2002 shortly after homes were first available to occupy. My wife Michelle and I celebrated 25 years of marriage last August and have two daughters Nicole (17), Courtney (15) and son Matthew (8). We moved within Fall Creek in 2009 to a larger home when our third child was born
In addition to serving Fall Creek by becoming a director on the WCID 96 board in 2013, I have been actively involved in our community since 2002. I am a member of the Houston Golf Association (HGA) for over 13 years and have held leadership positions in hosting the Shell Houston Open since it moved to Golf Club of Houston (formerly Redstone). I am on the Board of Directors for The First Tee of Greater Houston raising funds and supporting their youth development activities. I am a volunteer coach at The First Tee for more than 10 years. I was the Chairman of the Fall Creek Landscape committee from 2003 – 2012 helping to spend HOA funds wisely while providing the best possible appearance for Fall Creek. I am a Den Leader for Fall Creek Cub Scout Pack 909. I also coach basketball and any other sport my kids are playing.
In my professional life, I am a Senior Project Manager at Shell Oil Company responsible for Project Excellence and consult on major capital projects to improve the cost, schedule and quality they deliver. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University (1989) and am accredited Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute.
I decided to run for WCID 96 board in 2013 so I could continue serving Fall Creek and bring my engineering experience in building and maintaining cost competitive facilities. As a Fall Creek resident for 14 years I am passionate about making Fall Creek the best community to make a home.
Jennifer Daniel
My name is Jennifer Daniel and I am a candidate for WCID 96. As your new board member I’ll bring fresh ideas to the board. Specifically, I am a CPA with a large public accounting firm, and have over 10 years accounting and auditing experience. As a Senior Manager I have handled and audited entities of all sizes, and handled their SEC and other regulatory filings.
I grew up in Chambers County just east of Fall Creek and graduated Valedictorian before continuing my education at Baylor University in Waco. I completed my undergraduate and masters degrees at Baylor in accounting. After completing business school, I moved back to Houston and began my career in public accounting.
With the pending arrival of our second child, my husband, Chris, and I decided to look for a community in the suburbs to raise our growing family. We concluded that Fall Creek was the perfect community to raise our kids and made the move early last year.
While new to the neighborhood, I am not new to service. My husband and I are active in the Republican party and work with the party for the betterment of our county and community. I will care for this board and our neighborhood, just as I care for my family and two young children.
I bring a fresh perspective to the board and will use my business experience to insure our funds are used responsibly for the betterment of our community. I worked with public and private companies as well as government agencies as a part of my firm. We all have unique skill sets and I specifically bring my accounting background to this board.
Brett Sileo
Hello. I’m Brett Sileo. I’ve had the privilege of serving Fall Creek as a director of Harris County Water Control & Improvement District 96 since the people of Fall Creek elected me in May 2012. My current term expires this May and I would greatly appreciate your vote to allow me to serve you with another term on the WCID 96 board. I have worked hard to communicate with and inform the community about the issues and decisions facing our neighborhood during my term. I look forward to continuing to work for you to improve Fall Creek and make our neighborhood more than just a place, but truly a home for us all.
I grew up just a few miles from Fall Creek in East Aldine and graduated as the valedictorian of Aldine MacArthur High School in 1988. I earned a National Merit Scholarship that helped me attend Rice University here in Houston. I graduated cum laude from Rice University in 1992 with a triple major in economics, political science and managerial studies. I earned my law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 and, although I feel that I cannot possibly be this old, I have been licensed to practice law now for over 20 years.
I moved to Fall Creek from elsewhere in Houston in late 2008 with my wife and young son after spending nearly two years looking at houses and trying to find the best place to raise our family. Fall Creek was one of the first places we looked, and we should have just stopped looking then, because after looking everywhere else, we discovered that nowhere else in Houston had the combination of location, amenities and sense of community that we have here in Fall Creek!
In addition to my work with the WCID 96 board, I am actively involved in the Fall Creek community. I coach a youth soccer team in the Texas Heatwave league. I served as the co-coordinator of the Cub Scouts’ “Souper Bowl of Caring” food drive the last two years, and I am proud that the Fall Creek Scouts turned out, worked hard, and collected more food than any other pack in our district (all of Humble, Kingwood, Atascocita, Porter, New Caney, Splendora, and Huffman). My son is now in the fourth grade at Fall Creek Elementary.
I also was actively involved in the effort to stop subsidized housing from being built in our neighborhood a few years ago, and I am working hard now against the current proposed tax credit subsidized apartment complex proposed for the northeast corner of our neighborhood. You may have seen me speak out against this development on Channel 13. http://abc13.com/news/fall-creek-community-at-odds-over-proposed-low-income-housing/1270006/ You may have also seen me at the public hearing in opposition to this project. I also made it a point to be one of the first Fall Creek residents to personally tell this developer how wrong-headed it is by attending the March 2016 meeting of MUD 49 when I found out that the developer would be there. MUD 49 covers the newest eastern sections of Fall Creek and I want to make sure that the boards of WCID 96 and MUD 49 both work together to make Fall Creek even better.
In my law practice, I handle civil litigation matters, primarily insurance defense. A significant portion of my practice has involved defending utility districts and other special districts like WCID 96. I’ve defended a wide variety of claims made against water districts including claims that development of the water district caused widespread downstream flooding, claims for payment by contractors for alleged cost overruns and delays, property damage claims caused by the operation of the water or sewer system, claims from developers for reimbursement under the terms of development agreements, and personal injury claims. I have also successfully argued to the Texas courts of appeal to uphold favorable trial court rulings in favor of my water district clients. My work has also given me knowledge of the special types of insurance coverage that water districts have and the types of claims that can arise. I’ve seen how other water districts have become mired in disputes that escalated into lawsuits and my experience can help guide WCID 96 to act proactively to avoid litigation and unnecessary expenses. After attending dozens of meetings of other water districts to advise those boards about pending litigation matters, I decided to run for election to the WCID 96 board here in Fall Creek so I could make a difference right here in Fall Creek where my family lives.
My commitment as a director is to keep the community informed.
I have worked hard to keep everyone in WCID 96 and Fall Creek informed about issues affecting our neighborhood. One of the biggest complaints I have heard around the neighborhood was that the developer just did not engage and inform the community about the actions it was taking when the developer still controlled the HOA. I’ve worked to make sure that everyone in Fall Creek stays fully informed about the actions of the WCID 96 board and that WCID stays transparent in both activities and finances. I’ve worked actively to post relevant and timely information about WCID 96 for the community to stay informed, first on the myfallcreek.com discussion board and now on the NextDoor platform that quickly blossomed into a great asset connecting our community. While I have been on the board, WCID 96 also started its web site and posted its meeting agendas and minutes along with news and information. I have also exchanged emails and private messages on Next Door and had numerous phone and face-to-face conversations with many of you to discuss your concerns about the neighborhood. I have tried to always quickly respond to any concern and promptly answer inquiries on NextDoor or however anyone contacts me about our neighborhood issues. Just search Brett Sileo on NextDoor and you will see how much I care about keeping our community informed.
As part of WCID 96’s commitment to community participation, WCID 96 also held the community forum at Fall Creek Elementary to discuss the erosion problems in the creek, and I was glad that so many of you turned out to discuss WCID 96’s efforts to solve the problems with the creek. WCID 96 reached out and we had the participation of Congressman Gene Green personally and representatives from the Harris County Flood Control District and Commissioner Cagle’s office at the forum to answer your questions.
I have become the informal liaison between WCID 96 and the Fall Creek HOA since the residents gained control of the HOA board from the developer. In addition to attending the WCID 96 meetings, I also have attended nearly every HOA board meeting in the resident control era–more than almost any other Fall Creek resident other than the board members themselves. After there was an increasing concern about crime in the neighborhood last year, I met with representatives from the Harris County Sheriff’s department and the HOA to participate in coming up with the plan to add additional deputies and new times for patrol for the neighborhood, and to come up with the plan about how to pay for that from the WCID 96 and HOA budgets. I look forward to continuing to foster the cooperation between the WCID 96 and the HOA as we work on projects such as the final completion of the new road to the Sports Complex, the possibility of adding a real dog park to Fall Creek, refining and improving the deputy patrols for maximum public safety, and completing the project to repair the erosion damage to the creek.
I am proud that WCID 96 has continued to be fiscally responsible while still delivering high quality services to our neighborhood. I have strongly supported our efforts to aggressively re-finance our bond debt at lower interest rates which have yielded net present value savings for our taxpayers of $2.1 million from 2012 through the present. WCID opened the Sports Complex and more than tripled its water storage capacity. WCID 96 also continues to complete its build out and is now building the infrastructure to allow more commercial development (including recent development such as the expansion of Izzy Plaza, the Children’s Learning Adventure, Los Cucos restaurant, the Kelsey Seybold Medical Clinic, and more soon to be constructed professional and commercial buildings near the Kelsey Seybold clinic). WCID 96 is also continuing to move forward with its plans to bring a reclaimed water line through the District to water the medians and HOA common areas, which will save us all money in the long term and help conserve our precious water. WCID 96 also has consistently reduced its tax rate, a trend that I believe will continue to happen as we carefully manage WCID 96’s financial resources. The current WCID 96 tax rate is now $0.86 per hundred dollars, down from the 2011 rate of $0.97 in effect when I first gained my seat on the board. I look forward to seeing how much we can lower our tax rate in the future while keeping WCID 96 on its current firm financial footing.
I look forward to speaking with all of you and continuing to represent you on the board of WCID 96. I want to earn your vote and I would sincerely appreciate it if you could take a few moments and stop by the Fall Creek Clubhouse during the voting period and cast your ballot for me.
I have also posted most of this same information about my campaign at BrettSileo.com.
To view the official notice of the election, please visit www.hcwcid96.com. If you have any questions regarding the election, please contact the agent for the election, Sanford Kuhl Hagan Kugle Parker Kahn LLP at 713-850-9000.
Leave a Reply