Houston City Council

The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.

Currently, there are sixteen members, 11 elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, with the most recent election being held in 2015 and the next being held in 2019. Council Members are limited to two terms of four years. Under the current city charter, if the population in the city limits went past 2.1 million residents, the previous nine-member city council districts would be expanded with the addition of two city council districts. Since the threshold was passed, the city created two new districts.

The Council works with the mayor in a strong mayor-council model. The City Council monitors the performance of city agencies, confirm the mayor's appointments, and makes land use decisions as well as legislating on a variety of other issues.

The Mayor chairs meetings of City Council and has a vote in the proceedings in all cases. In the event of the Mayor's absence, the Mayor Pro-Tem, a member of the Council chosen for the position by fellow Council Members, presides over Council meetings.

The Administrative Office of City Council (AOCC), a division of the Administration & Regulatory Affairs Department which serves administrative duties for the council, has its offices in the City Hall Annex in Downtown Houston.

Between the Reconstruction and the enacting of court-ordered city council redistricting in the 1970s, none of the city council members were black. Until 1972 all of the members of the city council were white.

As of 2011 the City of Houston has eleven city council districts, A through K.

The current City Council Districts were announced in 2011. District J and K were newly added. As of 2011, the populations of four districts (in terms of overall population and voting age population) are majority Hispanic, the populations of three districts are majority White, two districts have a majority African-American population, and one is close to being majority African American. Of the districts, one has a significant Asian American population. Both new districts are in Southwest Houston.

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