According to City Manager Jason Stuebe, the city was approached by the owners of Ingenious Brewing Co. with hopes of amending a city ordinance that subjects transient businesses—such as food trucks—to a permitting process. As part of its business model, Ingenious Brewing Co. regularly hosts food trucks such GastroCraft, Refill Station and Dem Rolls.
"A big part of their business model has been incorporating food trucks into their operation—they've been doing it for quite some time now," Stuebe said during the May 26 council meeting. "Coming out of the pandemic though, it's become more difficult for them to attract quality food trucks ... because of the transient business permit that we have in place being so restrictive."
According to Stuebe, the ordinance was last amended in 2013 with the intention of restricting "undesirable" food trucks from operating within the city. Over the past decade, however, Stuebe said the general public's perception of food trucks has changed.
"It's had unintended consequences; moods have changed about food trucks," Stuebe said.
In hopes of making Humble-area breweries more desirable locations for quality food trucks, Stuebe proposed an ordinance exempting brewery food trucks from the transient business permitting process. The council approved the ordinance in a 5-0 vote; Council Member Bruce Davidson was absent from the May 26 meeting.
"The rational basis behind doing this is because a brewery is a destination place, so to speak," Stuebe said. "It's a matter of tourism, and they do good by the city, so we want to help them out."
Canvassing election results
Following the results of the May 7 election, Place 4 and 5 incumbents Paula Settle and David Pierce, respectively, were sworn into office during the May 26 election. Davidson—who was also re-elected to Place 3 in the May 7 election—was absent from the May 26 meeting and therefore was not sworn in.
As previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper, Pierce received 74.26%, or 352 votes, while challenger Linda Greenan received 25.74%, or 122 votes. Meanwhile, Settle and Davidson ran unopposed and were re-elected with 406 votes and 422 votes, respectively.
At the May 26 City Council meeting, Mayor Norman Funderburk also nominated Pierce to serve as mayor pro tem for one year. Pierce has served in that capacity since February 2021.
"Thank you; I'm very honored to serve and appreciate the nomination," Pierce said during the May 26 meeting.
Pierce's nomination was approved by council with a 5-0 vote.
The council also adopted an ordinance ordering and declaring the renumbered and revised Humble City Charter as adopted. As previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper, each of the city's nine propositions amending the city charter were passed by voters in a special election May 7.
