Houston city attorney's memo shows doubts about Proposition B

• Leaving the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) might not be as easy as it sounds, per the memo from city attorney Arturo Michel to Mayor Sylvester Turner, sent Aug. 20.

Catch up fast: Houston is one of 37 local governments represented on the H-GAC board of directors and one of 28 governments on its transportation policy council.

• The organization makes myriad policy decisions for the entire 13-county region, from doling out federal funds to approving transportation projects like the North Houston Highway Improvement Project.

The intrigue: Houston and unincorporated Harris County account for 57% of the region's population — but get only 11% of the vote on the H-GAC board of directors, per January Advisors, a Houston-based data science consulting firm.

• This means Houston misses out on critical funding, receiving, for instance, only 2% of recent federal flood mitigation funds.

What happened: More than 20,000 Houstonians signed a petition to place Proposition B on the Nov. 7 ballot. The proposition would require H-GAC to change its representative makeup within 60 days; if H-GAC didn't, Houston would leave the organization and create a new MPO.

Driving the news: The memo, whose authenticity Michel confirmed, outlines the "substantial barriers" the city would face in trying to leave H-GAC: Proposition B would require governor approval and support from 75% of the region's representatives — a majority of whom represent suburbs interested in maintaining the status quo.

• Read the full memo here.

Also: Michel said the city would lose access to federal funds and regional Transportation Improvement Program funds if it left H-GAC.

• "While current projects in the queue would proceed, new projects would likely not be added, nor would the city have any influence over their funding," Michel wrote.

The other side: Representatives with Fair for Houston, the grassroots organization that led the push for a referendum, said they could beat the 75% threshold if Fort Bend County — which Fair for Houston says is supportive of the initiative — can vote on their side.

• "We maintain that, because federal law is clear about the requirement for the participation of the largest city in an MPO, there is not a substantial risk of Houston losing a seat at the table," Fair for Houston representatives Ally Smither and Evan Choate said in a statement.
• Read their full statement here.

Between the lines: Despite the worst-case scenarios outlined in Michel's letter to Turner, the city might not even have to leave the MPO. H-GAC leaders appear willing to work with Houston if Proposition B were to pass.

• "I am confident that as a region, we can work our way through whatever the result may be," Chuck Wemple, H-GAC's executive director, told Bloomberg last week. "The board has been open to discussions like this in the past."
• He told the outlet that his position is "positive and constructive and open."

What's next: Early voting ends Nov. 3, and Election Day is Nov. 7.