City staff recommended that Seabrook pursue a contract with Harris County to administer future city elections, and the council directed the city secretary's office to explore that option and include associated costs in the upcoming budget.

Rachel, who presented the item, said voters expressed frustration in May about having to vote in separate locations for city and school district elections. She said contracting with Harris County would allow voters to cast ballots at more county locations and could reduce the need for city staff to run early-voting operations that last multiple days. Rachel also said the city has incurred about $5,000 in legal costs so far for public information requests arising from the election and that staff hours for handling public information requests had increased.

Rachel provided an estimate of contracted costs: Harris County charged $2.90 per registered voter in the recent year. With Seabrook's registered voter count at 9,777 for the election referenced, that per-voter rate would have been roughly $28,000; combined with other unavoidable election expenditures, staff estimated total costs around $40,000. She asked for direction whether to include that amount in the FY26 budget.

Council members discussed the tradeoffs: contracting for county administration would remove local control over exact polling locations but could allow voters to use county early-voting sites elsewhere in Harris County. Council members also noted the staffing and legal burdens the city has faced. One council member summarized: "I think we we just direct the city secretary's office to explore this contract with Harris County." Other members agreed and asked staff to include the estimated $40,000 in the budget planning.

There was no formal ordinance or binding contract approved at the meeting; the council directed staff to explore the contract and to reflect the projected cost in the budget.