Whoever is elected to the District C seat will take office as City Council begins its review of the Mayor’s proposed new budget. Nick Hellyar has worked in two City Council offices and will use the experience gained in those jobs to hit the ground running on the budget review as an active participant on Council. District C cannot afford to have someone learning the process on the job. Nick has the experience and understanding of City Hall needed to step in on day one and effectively advocate for the district during the budget process.
That is why Nick has been endorsed by Council Member At-Large Position 5 Sallie Alcorn. CM Alcorn chairs the Council’s Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee and oversees the budget review. Alcorn has faith that “Nick will be able to jump right in as an effective participant and contributor.”
Nick has also received the endorsement of Former Houston City Controller Chris Brown.
- Budget amendments are the only way Council Members can affect the city’s budget. Nick will have amendments ready to propose to the budget to ensure that District C gets its fair share of city expenditures. These include expanding funding for speed cushions on residential streets experiencing dangerous speeding and cut-through traffic, ensuring that air conditioning systems in Solid Waste Department trucks are properly repaired and maintained, and improving heavy trash collection response times so debris that remains uncollected more than 30 days after its scheduled pickup is removed promptly.
- City Council Members each receive $1 million in District Service Funds. Nick plans to use those funds in areas such as public safety, including the HPD’s Homeless Outreach Team, the Differential Response Team and Hotspot Overtime; flood mitigation projects; and mobility issues, including speed cushions, sidewalk improvements and pedestrian and bike safety.
- Real Estate Revenue—Nick will utilize his real estate expertise to help the City manage its assets like a high-performance portfolio: using “found money” to fund services without raising taxes.
- First, conduct a Market-Rate Lease Modernization—An immediate audit of all City commercial leases. Many legacy tenants are paying far below 2026 market rates. Nick will encourage the City to bring these leases up to market value to reclaim millions in lost revenue.
- Second, Liquidation of “Zombie Lots”—Identify small, unproductive parcels that cost the City money to maintain and auction them off. This stops the maintenance drain and gets the properties back on the tax rolls.
- A forensic audit of TIRZ budgets. Many TIRZ are spending far too much on overhead.
- Restructure management of City departments—Some departments are top heavy with too many managers. Some of these managers have only a few employees directly reporting to them. This is inefficient and wasteful.
- Better management of contracts—For example, one vendor to Fleet Management has eight contracts. These should be consolidated into one.
