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08 February 2006

Holm: Pension funding crisis not over

Tom Bazan forwarded this interesting blurb about the city's ongoing troubles with its pension plans from KTRH-740 earlier this week:

According to the city council's new pension committee chair Pam Holm as long as the city has to borrow against taxpayer money to pay for pensions, the funding crisis can't be considered "over."

Figures show a projected funding gap of close to $2 billion in the police and municipal worker retirement systems. City officials say, however, that those numbers are old and may no longer be accurate.

City officials haven't had much to say about the pension plans since Mayor White crafted a plan to use the Hilton Americas Hotel as security on a note to reduce the municipal employees' pension fund's massive liability.

The most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) from the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System is located here (pdf).

Whether or not Houston's elected officials fully fund the pension plan, at least muncipal employees can feel good about the security of the plan's database!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ Pension funding crisis not over"> 02/08/06 10:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

11 December 2008

City borrows more money for pension obligations

A week ago, the Chron's Carolyn Feibel reported on a "positive" development in the city's looming pension nightmare.

Over at Houblog, Ubu Roi took a closer look, and came to a, um, different conclusion:

This article is pitched as good news, but what it really says is that the City just borrowed an additional $59 million to finance the police pension fund and $41 million just to pay the deferred interest on the previous $300 million debt. The last sentence of the quote makes it obvious that the first sentence is misleading. Worse, the math doesn’t add up. Here’s what happened, if we cut out all the smoke and mirrors.

Go forth and read. And shake your head.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ pension obligations"> 12/11/08 07:16 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

22 October 2009

Unca Darrell calls attention to city's pension mess

"UNCA DARRELL" Hancock calls attention a fine recent Chronicle op-ed by John Diamond on the city's pension mess.

Mayor Bill White couldn't resist writing a letter in response, to disagree with Diamond (of course). We wish Andrew Prieditis would send them a letter on the topic!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ pension mess"> 10/22/09 10:19 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (0)

20 May 2007

Lemer on the pension fund problems

A few days ago, the Chronicle ran a letter from local government watchdog Bob Lemer on the continuing municipal employees pension fund problems.

Here are a few key points he made:

The city's June 30, 2005, audited financial statements (the most recent available, as 2006 is still unreleased to the public, a blatant violation of state law) shows the net assets of the employees' pension plans were $6.8 billion, even without receiving the still-to-come huge underfunding makeup payments.

The $6.8 billion greatly exceeded the city's $4.5 billion in net assets, only $2.8 billion of which was invested in the city's true core mission, infrastructure. In fact, the city invests a great deal more in its employees than in its residents - even excluding the under-funded liability to the plans.

[snip]

Instead of depositing the proceeds of the pension bonds directly into the pension plans to cover past underfunding, the mayor has been dumping the proceeds into the city's general fund to cover general operating expenses. This avoids compliance with the total revenue and expenditure cap of the 2004 voter-approved Taxpayer Bill Of Rights amendment to the city's charter.

The city's 2007 budget showed that of the $570 million of pension bonds then considered payable, $470 million would not begin coming due until at least the year 2031, creating total interest costs of $899 million. Who would finance their home with this kind of exorbitant, interest-bearing, backend loading of their loan?

The mayor neglected to point out to voters that when they authorized the pension bonds, they thereby irrevocably committed the city to paying that portion of the unfunded pension liability and forever forfeited any negotiability on that debt.

The entire letter is available in the Chron.com archives here.

Lemer's perspective is always interesting.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ pension fund problems"> 05/20/07 09:06 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

01 June 2009

Houston's budget: balanced or not?

The Chron's Bradley Olson bats the topic around with opinions from various locals. Here's a key point:

Although the mayor is right that the city has not borrowed to pay for operating expenses, Parker said, it has used debt to pay for obligations that in previous years would have been paid through the tax- and fee-supported general fund, the city’s main operating budget. In other words, the use of debt for certain expenses freed up money for the city to spend on operations.

The debt, much of it the result of borrowing to meet pension obligations, also is a primary reason the city has built up its reserves, the city controller said.

“Part of the reason we have healthy fund balances is that we borrowed the money instead of tapping the fund balance,” Parker said. “We used pension obligation bonds to meet current (pension) obligations.”

For some, the $49 million dip into the reserves is enough to declare the budget unbalanced.

“How do you justify expenditures being greater than revenue?” Councilwoman Holm asked. “How is that being fiscally responsible?”

For Lemer, the author of a 2004 ballot proposal to limit city spending, the $49 million question is moot. He argues that the city racked up a cumulative deficit of $1.5 billion from 2004 until 2008.

“That is absolutely frightening,” he said. According to his research, the main driver of that has been borrowing to keep up with costs for the city’s pension debt.

Imagine what your personal finances would look like if you handled your mortgage obligation the way Mayor White has handled the city's pension obligations.

PREVIOUSLY: Lemer on the pension fund problems

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/01/09 04:59 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

30 September 2004

Could Mayor White please explain?

The Chronicle's Ron Nissimov sounds a little exasperated over the White Administration's refusal to answer a simple question:

On Sept. 20, Mayor Bill White said an agreement had been reached to reduce an $846 million shortfall in the police pension to $535 million.

But an actuarial report presented to the Houston Police Officers' Pension System the same day said the pension shortfall already had been reduced from $846 million in July 2003 to $685 million in July 2004 because of stock market gains.

That would mean that the agreements would reduce the shortfall by $150 million, not the $311 million White claimed.

City and HPOPS officials have repeatedly told the Chronicle that they cannot explain the discrepancy. No council members have asked about the matter in public sessions.

Cannot or will not?

It's really unacceptable that no administration official will explain Mayor White's seemingly erroneous claim, that no council member will ask for an explanation, and that no journalists in town (besides Nissimov) are bothered by it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/04 10:57 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

23 January 2008

A novel counterproposal

As commenter Rorschach notes here, the City of Houston is apparently considering selling the Hilton Americas Hotel to help finance another convention center hotel. Nancy Sarnoff and Carolyn Feibel report for the Chronicle:

The city of Houston is considering selling its 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston convention center hotel.

The sale would allow the city to pay off bonds used to finance the property and create more financial flexibility to undertake another project, such as a second convention hotel downtown.

That's according to Richard Campo, chairman of the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corp., the nonprofit created by the city to develop and own the hotel.

City leaders have been talking about bringing another large hotel to a site next to the George R. Brown Convention Center and across the Discovery Green park from the Hilton Americas, Mayor Bill White said Monday.

For a sale to occur, however, the city would first have to clear up hotel-related obligations tied to its employee pension fund.

The City Council approved a proposal in 2004 to use the Hilton Americas as collateral to cover $300 million of a $2 billion shortfall in the Houston Municipal Employees' Pension System.

Instead of issuing a bond, the city worked out an arrangement with the pension system allowing it until 2033 to pay off the obligation. In exchange, if the city defaulted, it would have to turn over ownership of the hotel.

But as soon as next week, the city plans to seek council approval to issue pension obligation bonds that would pay off the note to the pension fund, said Judy Gray Johnson, the city's director of finance and administration. The city owes the pension fund about $360 million, including interest.

Here is a novel counterproposal for city leaders: Fund the pension instead of (mis)using the Hilton Americas as collateral, sell the hotel, get out of the hotel business, and stay out of the hotel business.

BLOGVERSATION: Houston's Clear Thinkers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/23/08 11:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)

14 March 2005

Chron discovers ongoing pension plan problems

The Chronicle's Dan Feldstein begins his recent article on the continuing precarious state of municipal pension finances in a peculiar manner:

City officials told the truth last year when they said new agreements lowering worker pensions would improve city finances and offer better job security for city employees.

But the whole truth, not just the happiest part, can be found in a new city bond prospectus — a 198-page document that must be candid under penalty of law.

An overview of city finances used by bond investors, it says that city retirement benefits might have to be cut again in the future and that taxpayer contributions to the pension funds will continue to rise.

This weblog hasn't been around all that long, but we've criticized Mayor White's funny pension numbers before, and we've called attention to an astute Houston Business Journal article that pointed out much of the reduction in the massive unfunded liability in the resolution touted by Mayor White (and repeated in the city's only newspaper) was a result of transferring the "asset" of the Hilton Americas hotel to the pension plan.

Just a few days ago, Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen spoke of journalists who "act as independent watchdogs of government."

Unfortunately, the Chronicle has thus far seemed inclined to repeat Mayor White's spin on the pension plans instead of engaging in more critical "watchdog" coverage -- so to many Chronicle readers, Feldstein's articles probably come as a surprise.

Of course, the Chronicle's lack of critical coverage when the Brown Administration was helping create these problems in the first place wasn't exactly "watchdog" journalism in an ideal state either.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ pension plan problems"> 03/14/05 10:17 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

20 December 2004

Pension plan revisionism at the Chronicle

Today, the Chronicle runs a seemingly sensible editorial that lauds "good guy" Mayor White's plans to abolish the generous "Group C" time accrual provisions in the city's pension plan:

Few City Hall insiders paid attention in 1999 when the head of the municipal employee pension board and former Mayor Lee Brown's chief administrative officer, Al Haines, went to Austin to lobby legislators to change pension rules. The subsequent bill created an exclusive Group C category allowing the pension fund executive director and high-ranking city bureaucrats and department heads to receive double credit for every year served. The credits would be applied toward a maximum pension of 90 percent of their salary after 20 years.

As the Chronicle's Dan Feldstein later reported, that obscure law resulted in a lucrative gain for Haines; his successor, former City Attorney Anthony Hall; and other city administrators. When Haines left the city in the waning months of Brown's tenure in 2003, his pension had jumped from $36,000 a year to $103,000. It's a case of a bureaucrat negotiating a deal that just happened to provide himself some well-funded golden years.

It's a shame the Chronicle has just now decided to cover the shenanigans that took place in the Brown Administration.

It would have been nice if the newspaper had shown such interest five years ago. Contrary to the Chronicle's revisionism, the pension plan revisions were hardly "obscure." What was obscure was the Chronicle's coverage. It was virtually nonexistent.

That's why it's hard to take what follows seriously:

It's unfortunate that council members didn't raise more questions when Haines and others were busy pushing the perk. Mayor White's call for greater transparency in pension fund transactions aims at curing the root cause of this ill-conceived and self-serving boondoggle.

What is most unfortunate is that the city's monopoly newspaper did not raise questions on its editorial pages about Mayor Brown's questionable leadership when he was in office, or provide readers of its news pages enough information to reach informed conclusions about the pension plan (or numerous other issues). Instead, the newspaper was a big booster for Mayor Brown, endorsing him repeatedly and generally giving him a pass on its news pages, which frequently celebrated his "world class" plans for the city.

As I've written elsewhere, the pension plan problems that Mayor White "discovered" earlier this year might not have been a discovery if the city's only newspaper hadn't been busy with other matters (such as rail and Lee Brown boosterism).

Leaving aside the Chron's effort at revisionism, the editorial is spot on in urging the city to end the Group C benefit. The sooner the better.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ Pension plan revisionism at the Chronicle"> 12/20/04 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

23 May 2007

Things not intended

The mayor is back today with a new letter released to the city employees (and one presumes, the Chronicle) about his plans to continue underfunding the civilian employee pensions.

May 23, 2007
To: City of Houston employees
From: Mayor Bill White

You probably have been following the public discussion in recent days of the City of Houston Municipal Employees Pension Plan (HMEPS). I know that it can be complicated and I appreciate and understand your concern about pensions benefits. So, let me share some simple facts with you.

The municipal employees' pension plan is healthier than it has been in years, as are the pension plans for Police and Fire. Keeping pension benefits secure is a very important issue for me -- today and tomorrow.

As we negotiate with the HMEPS Board, I do not intend for you to lose any benefit you have earned.

In 2004 we agreed with the HMEPS Board to make a schedule of substantial annual contributions. Those agreed upon contributions were $66 million in Fiscal Year 2005, $69 million in FY ’06 and $72 million in FY ’07. That equates to about 15.8% of City payroll.

Prior to the agreement, from 2001 through 2003, the City’s contribution was 10% of payroll. During Fiscal 2004, also before the agreement was reached, it was 14.7%. So, under the agreement we have increased both the annual dollar amounts and the percentage of payroll contributed to the pension fund.

In addition, I offered and the Pension Board accepted a $300 million interest-bearing note secured by a lien on one of the most valuable buildings in Houston, the Hilton Americas Hotel. We have fulfilled those obligations.

Both parties agreed that we would discuss the City’s contribution beginning July 1, 2007, after we had evaluated the progress we made since 2004 in reducing the unfunded liability of the pension fund. Since the changes in 2004, we have cut the unfunded liability in half. That's real progress in three years. We expect to come to an agreement soon that continues this kind of progress and makes your pension fund even more secure.

Meanwhile, I repeat, municipal pensions are secure. I am dedicated to keeping them that way.

Bill White,
Mayor

I find this statement the most interesting: "I do not intend for you to lose any benefit you have earned." (Emphasis added.)

My first reaction is that he intends to be in the governor's mansion before the pension goes broke, so he can shed crocodile tears and claim he did everything he could to save the program. The second thing that occurs to me is that his definition of "lose" as applied to city employees doesn't appear to include "be forced to give up what we were promised." Given his earlier statements about offering the "option" of retirement packages with less money, and that I can't imagine anyone volunteering to accept less, his definition of "lose" seems at odds with "keep," as in promises, and "obey," as in the law that dictates the city's contribution.

Thoughts and comments?

Posted by Ubu Roi @ 05/23/07 03:13 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

03 December 2008

KHOU's Greenblatt continues scrutiny of Hilton Americas/pension fund finances

KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt is continuing his reporting on the pension fund shortfall and related Hilton Americas accounting.

Yesterday, Greenblatt described the refinancing proposal that was discussed in a budget hearing:

The problem started when Houston tried to use the Hilton Americas Hotel to reduce some of the debt it owed to pension plans by handing over a promissory note. The note promised that the city would eventually pay $300 million to the pension fund.

The $300 million was supposed to come from the sale of the convention center hotel. But the city has not found a buyer yet, which means it still owes the debt.

“I called it an accounting sleight of hand,” said City Controller Annise Parker.

Parker said she warned city leaders years ago not to do the deal. However, the promissory note is not the only thing she doesn’t like.

Parker doesn’t like the huge interest rate that the city agreed to pay on the $300 million loan.

“We have been deferring the interest on those payments. So you do not have just the 8.5 percent, but the interest on the interest,” said Parker.

Greenblatt had difficulty getting any sort of substantive response from Mayor White's staff on the matter.

Today, Mayor White defended the financial arrangement:

“I want to assure Houston employees that their pensions are secure. And I want the taxpayers to know that these debts are all affordable,” said Mayor White.

[snip]

“We have borrowed money to make some of the pension payments. And that's because the pension payments are a long term obligation,” said the mayor, when asked if this is the right thing to do.

Local accountant Bob Lemer is unconvinced:

“When you cut through all the fluff, all the Mayor did was take an existing debt and shove it into the future,” said Bob Lemer, retired partner from Houston’s Ernst and Young. “It’s beyond me why they are turning their head to this.”

It seems fairly simple, actually. Most politicians prefer to defer painful decisions if at all possible. Shrinking that unfunded liability in the pension plan significantly would have required either upsetting municipal workers by going after promised benefits, dedicating much larger contributions to the pension fund (most likely funded by a tax increase), or some combination of the two. Painful! Therefore, the problem gets some band-aids and future pols will get to revisit the issue.

But hey, we'll have a Tolerance Bridge at least!

UPDATE: Carolyn Feibel reports some better news re: the hotel and pension fund (which still has a huge unfunded liability, but not quite as huge).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ pension fund finances"> 12/03/08 11:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (25)

11 October 2009

Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (#4)

Put a band-aid on the city's pension obligations early on, then ignore them. Lots of money "saved," cha-ching!

We are referring, of course, to the massive unfunded liability at the Houston municipal employees pension fund*, which Mayor Bill White inherited from Lee Brown, made a lot of noise about early on (including the bizarre Hilton Americas asset transfer), then proceeded to ignore for most of his term.

The next mayor will inherit the problem, as we've been saying for quite some time. In today's Chronicle, John Diamond (a Fellow at the Baker Institute) decided to call attention to the problem**:

It's no secret that Houston has a major problem with its pension funds. Liabilities -- or promised benefits -- are much larger than the assets that have been set aside to fund them in the future. The city reports that as of July 1, 2008, the ratio of assets to liabilities is 96 percent for the firefighters' pension, 82 percent for the police officers' pension and 70 percent for the municipal employees' pension. In other words, only 96, 82 and 70 percent of promised benefits, respectively, could be funded by accumulated assets. The unfunded liability -- promised benefits that the city has not set aside enough funds to pay in the future -- for all three pensions is equal to $1.7 billion, according to the city.

However, the problem is much worse than the current city government appears willing to admit.

We would suggest that it is a secret, at least an open one, since there's just not that much reporting or editorializing on the matter (or, to be fair, interest in the same). We do agree that the problem is worse than current financial reports suggest, mainly because those reports are out of date and the situation continues to deteriorate.

Perhaps the local media covering the mayor's race will ask the current crop of (me too!) mayoral candidates how they plan on dealing with the massive unfunded liabilities in the pension plans (psst... ask about other benefits too). And perhaps the media covering the race for a U.S. Senate seat that isn't yet open will also ask about the problem.

08 February 2007

A little bad news to go with the financial ratings boost

The city got some good financial news at the end of last week -- a boost in its financial rating -- but there was this ominous tidbit tucked away at the end of Matt Stiles' story for the Chronicle:

The Moody's assessment also includes "challenges" that could negatively affect the city's position, including large long-term liabilities in the pension funds and a pending legal challenge of the revenue-cap measure.

Many Houstonians are probably under the mistaken impression that the problems with the municipal employees pension fund were solved some time ago. In reality, the massive long-term liability was reduced slightly -- and then Mayor White promptly moved on to other priorities. Unfortunately, the long-term problem remains, and will no doubt be revisited after Bill White has moved on and Houston has a new mayor.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/07 09:48 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

30 November 2008

City lays out agenda for Austin, prefers that you not think about city pensions too much

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel lays out Mayor White's to-do list for the 2009 legislative session in Austin.

Closer to home, KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt ran a story just before Thanksgiving on the perilous state of Houston's municipal employee pension fund finances. It's too comprehensive to excerpt, so we urge readers to go have a closer look.

Many Houstonians are probably under the mistaken impression that the referenced pension plan problems were "solved" shortly after Mayor White took office and discovered the "gift" (in the form of a massive unfunded liability) he had been left by Lee Brown.

In reality, the political pain of completely solving the problem would have been much too high for someone of Mayor White's ambitions, so band-aids were applied, some structural adjustments were made for the future, and the issue was largely left for the next mayor. But the unfunded liability was and remains huge, as we have pointed out from time to time. Kudos to Greenblatt for reminding Houstonians (not to mention Mayor White and the "watchdog"* city controller who wants to be mayor).

12 October 2005

Latest Fitch bond ratings assume Prop. 2's failure

This Business Wire news release talks about the latest Fitch Ratings. I am far from an expert in these business/math/accounting things (feel free to help out in the comments), but these paragraphs caught my eye:

Despite recently agreed upon program changes and funding commitments that have reduced the $1.8 billion unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) of the city's municipal employee pension system by an estimated one-half, that program and the police officers' and firefighters' pension plans all face potentially sharp increases in UAAL over the near term. In addition, Fitch views the city's debt financing of a portion of the city's annual contribution to both the municipal and police pension systems as an indication of financial stress and considers this funding approach an unfavorable credit factor.

The impact of pension-related borrowing as currently envisioned is expected to have a minimal effect both on the city's capital improvement plan and projected debt service tax rates. The city's debt ratios, both on a per capita basis and as a percentage of taxable assessed valuation (TAV), are moderate. The pace of repayment on the city's tax-supported debt is slightly above average.

The new revenue limitation, also referred to as Proposition 1, is a measure approved by voters in November 2004 that applies to ad valorem tax revenues and water and sewer rates. The measure became effective in the current fiscal year, and the budget is in compliance with the new mandate. However, the limitation has the potential to hinder service delivery and capital financing going forward, including pension plan funding. The current rating and outlook presumes that the legal challenge by supporters of a competing, more restrictive measure that garnered less voter support is unsuccessful.

Isn't that interesting? Of course the second bolded part refers to Prop. 2 which voters approved last fall and which the city has been fighting ever since.

Also notice the references to the city's pension responsibilities.

(Just for fun, check out this page on Prop. 2's website.)

PREVIOUSLY: Fitch downgrades Houston bond rating (bH)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/12/05 09:19 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

17 May 2007

Pension fund issue looms over budget

The message local media were supposed to take away from the unveiling of the Mayor's new budget yesterday was increased public safety spending without a property tax rate increase.

Instead, as Matt Stiles reports for the Chronicle, concerns over the city's attempt to back away from a commitment to fund the pension at a negotiated level detracted from the intended message:

After proposing a $3.8 billion city budget Wednesday, Mayor Bill White's administration today begins wrestling with one of its more contentious details: funding city employees' retirement program.

The mayor's chief administrative officer, Anthony Hall, and the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System's executive director, David Long, are to begin negotiating the size of the city's contribution to the retirement fund in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Long says the mayor's proposed contribution of $75 million falls short of an agreement both sides reached in 2004. He also questions why the mayor, who must get approval of the pension fund's management on the contribution amount, placed a figure in the budget before the parties began formal discussions.

White called any assertion that he's underfunding the pension "ridiculous." He said his administration has a long-term plan to give employees more retirement options while securing the system for the future. He said the city's pension expert has been working on the issue for months.

The city under this mayor agreed to a certain amount. Now the mayor's budget has proposed less than that amount. How is it ridiculous to use the term "underfunding?" It seems accurate enough.

Anyway, the mayor may not be able to change the clear meaning of words, but he can always resort to the old tactic of demonizing one's perceived political opponents:

The tension over the pension issue was obvious during White's budget presentation to the council Wednesday. The pension system's unfunded liability grew after 2001, when benefits were enhanced under former Mayor Lee Brown, markets slumped and financing assumptions proved wrong.

White likened the situation to the collapse of Enron and criticized Long's stewardship. He has headed the pension system since 1993.

Council members weighed in, too. Councilwoman Carol Alvarado labeled Long a "fat cat," and others challenged him to speak before the council to answer concerns about his compensation.

Long, who has attended recent council pension meetings but has not been asked to speak, sought to stay above the fray. "I have never personally attacked him. I have never personally attacked a City Council member," he said. "Yet, I have been personally attacked."

KTRK-13's Miya Shay posted about the personal nature of the attacks as well:

Basically, Mayor White accused Long of using scare tactics, and David_l_long [sic] bending the truths to decribe [sic] an employee pension system. The Mayor also talked about how basically Long makes more money than just about every city employee... among other jabs. Council Member Carol Alvarado ventured as far as to say that she doens't [sic] understand why Long even has a job.

One has learned not to expect much in the way of decorum from the crude councilwoman, but Mayor White ought to comport himself better than that if he truly fashions himself a future statewide leader of Texas.

There's hard work to be done on the pension mess Mayor White inherited to be sure, but the namecalling and petty personal attacks don't need to be a part of it. They don't really solve any problems.

BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ Pension fund issue looms over budget"> 05/17/07 09:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

06 November 2004

Kristen Mack profiles Mustafa Tameez

Chronicle local politics columnist Kristen Mack profiled political consultant Mustafa Tameez in Friday's Chronicle.

Tameez is the consultant who helped engineer the victory for Mayor White's referendum to change the municipal employees' pension plan earlier this year, as well as Proposition 1 in this most recent election. He also managed the campaign of Hubert Vo (D), who narrowly leads incumbent Talmadge Heflin (R) in votes counted so far (with some absentee and provisional ballots outstanding). That's a nice recent track record.

Tameez may well represent the future of politics in Texas for Democrats, if they are to have one any time soon. His ability to reach across the aisle on specific issues -- for example, he had the KSEV crew eating out of his hand on the pension plan referendum -- is the sort of coalition-building his party will need to do while it is the minority party in this state. That he knows how to do so definitely makes him a consultant to watch (and makes Mayor White someone to watch as well).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/04 09:18 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)

04 March 2005

Fitch downgrades Houston bond rating

Mayor White must be very pleased that Fitch released its latest Houston bond ratings this afternoon, when they are unlikely to receive much scrutiny or attention. It's certainly not good news for the mayor who touted his financial and business acumen in the last election:

Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'AA-' rating to the Houston, Texas $57.83 million taxable general obligation (GO) pension bonds, series 2005. Additionally, Fitch downgrades to 'AA-' from 'AA' the rating on the city's $1.7 billion in GO bonds and $33.5 million in certificates of obligation outstanding. The new issue is scheduled for a negotiated sale through a syndicate managed by Lehman Brothers the week of March 7. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

The bonds are general obligations of the city, secured and payable from a limited ad valorem tax levied on taxable property within the city. Proceeds from the bonds will fund a portion of the city's annual contribution to the municipal employees pension system and will refund a $22.9 million pension obligation note.

The rating downgrade is based upon large unfunded pension liabilities that are expected to increase over the near term, and upon a revenue limitation recently approved by voters that may exacerbate pension funding problems and also challenge the city's ability to adequately fund programs serving a growing population and service area. As a result, the city's credit profile has been sufficiently altered to warrant the rating change. The Stable Outlook recognizes recent significant efforts by the city to address the pension problem from both the asset and liability side. Positive rating considerations contributing to the high-grade rating include a resilient, broad economy, a moderate direct debt burden, and adequate general fund reserves.

As blogHOUSTON has noted -- while Mayor White and his council have been preoccupied debating a citywide smoking ban -- the city's municipal employees pension plan still suffers from a massive underfunded liability, to the tune of $850 million. Also, although most local press celebrated Mayor White's efforts in trimming the unfunded liability, it is worth pointing out that much of the "trimming" was a result of transferring the "asset" of the Hilton Americas Hotel to the fund -- and that given the recent performance of downtown hotels, that may well be more of a liability than an asset down the road.

There is some good news in the Fitch report:

Evidence of a rebounding local economy is provided by sales tax revenue collections, which registered a nearly 8% increase in fiscal 2004 after declining in fiscal 2003. Current projections anticipate a further 7% increase for fiscal 2005.

With those healthy increases in sales tax revenues, perhaps Jared Woodfill can encourage some members of council to be more resistant to the mayor's plans to create new revenue streams at every turn and be more critical of how the city is spending existing revenues.

RELATED: Houston bond rating downgraded (Joe Stinebaker, Chronicle).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/05 05:03 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

12 March 2006

City's credit rating outlook downgraded

dBusinessnews Austin reports that Houston's credit outlook has been downgraded:

Fitch assigns an 'AA-' rating to the $63.8 million taxable pension obligation bonds, series 2006A; $23.2 million public improvement refunding bonds, series 2006B; and $3.5 million certificates of obligation, series 2006C, of Houston, Texas. Additionally, Fitch affirms the 'AA-' rating on the city's $1.8 billion in general obligation bonds, $81.9 million in certificates of obligation, and $2.8 million in tax notes outstanding. The issues are scheduled for a negotiated sale through a group led by Morgan Stanley during the week of March 6. The Rating Outlook is revised to Negative from Stable.

The change in Rating Outlook to Negative reflects increased uncertainty in general fund operations in light of a summary judgment by a district court judge who upheld the enforceability of one of two revenue limitations measure recently approved by voters. Fitch typically views revenue limitations negatively given that they restrict financial maneuverability. The all-encompassing nature of one of the two propositions (Proposition 2) is cause for additional concern, and Fitch considers its possible implementation as a potential challenge to the city's credit quality, given ongoing and future spending pressures. The city does maintain several options regarding the limitations, and an outcome in the city's favor could result in a more stable credit profile.

[snip]

The two revenue limitations, also referred to as Proposition 1 and Proposition 2, were approved by voters in November 2004 and are scheduled to take effect in fiscal 2006. Proposition 1 is a city council initiative and targets only ad valorem tax revenue and water and sewer system revenues. Proposition 2, which is a citizen initiative, targets combined revenues of essentially all city operations and has the potential to more severely restrict revenue growth.

[snip]

Despite recently agreed upon program changes and funding commitments that have reduced the $1.8 billion unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) of the city's municipal employee pension system by an estimated one-half, that program and the police officers' and firefighters' pension plans all face potentially sizeable increases in UAAL over the near term. In addition, Fitch views the city's debt financing of a portion of the city's annual contribution to both the municipal and police pension systems as an indication of financial stress.

The White Administration bought itself some time with regard to the unfunded pension liabilities that it inherited, but as this reporting makes clear, the administration (or its eventual successor) still has some work left to do in shoring up those unfunded liabilities. The legacy of Lee Brown continues to affect Houston.

UPDATE: Mayor White took the opportunity to play politics with the downgrade, criticizing Proposition 2 in a press release. He neglected to comment on the unfunded liabilities in the pension funds, however.

BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/06 07:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)

16 May 2007

Are the Editorial LiveJournalists auditioning for mayor's PR staff?

Do you sometimes get the idea that the Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists are envious of their former colleague, Frank Michel, the mayor's communications director?

It has seemed that way so far this week.

On Tuesday, the Editorial LiveJournalists praised City Hall's fancy new $36,000+ desk, calling it a "long term investment" that "showcases Houston's values." We doubt Mr. Michel could have phrased it much better than that!

Today, the Editorial LiveJournalists praised Mayor White's efforts to deal with the pension problem and adopted the mayor's tactic of demonizing HMEPS director David Long. The mayor's press people had to be smiling.

If the mayor eventually wins statewide office, maybe he'll bring some of the Editorial LiveJournalists (dubbed Mrs. White by some bloggers) on board as PR staff. They certainly seem to be auditioning for the part.

Incidentally, HMEPS director David Long has responded to the mayor's attack from yesterday with his own letter to the Chronicle. It's posted below in the [Read More] section. Long disputes the mayor's insinuation that the HMEPS board (which included five representatives appointed by the city) has committed "outright fraud." As we've said previously, that's a reckless statement the mayor (or the staffer who wrote the letter to the Chronicle) should not have made without evidence.

14 May 2007

White: City can't/won't meet pension funding obligations

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports today on Mayor White's latest response to the massive underfunded liability in the municipal employees pension fund:

Short of layoffs, the city won't meet its full obligation to the municipal pension fund in the next fiscal year, Mayor Bill White says, citing rising public safety and health care costs that are expected to strain resources.

In the next budget, expected to be unveiled Wednesday, White's administration will propose paying only two-thirds of the statutorily required pension contribution — an arrangement that still would need approval from a skeptical pension fund board.

[snip]

The city has prepared for some of these looming payments, White said, building up tens of millions in an undesignated fund in recent years. But that is not enough to meet the additional $39 million for the increased pension obligation.

That has sparked concern from David Long, the fund's executive director, who said the system needs full annual payments to remain viable over time. He also said White's move could upset morale among the 12,000 civilian city employees.

White said he can't make the payment, which he agreed to in 2004....

[snip]

Facing the prospect of having to make huge annual contributions to comply with state law, the city got the fund's board to agree in 2004 to reduced payments for the past three years. The contribution was to increase in this year's budget.

[snip]

Controller Annise Parker said she's concerned the city hasn't started negotiations with the pension fund, but she said the statutorily required contribution — roughly 24 percent of payroll — isn't supportable.

Long, who's asked the mayor in writing for meetings but got no response, called it "disappointing and frustrating."

"We're hoping at some point that they will answer our letters, and he'll appoint somebody to sit down and have a discussion with us to try and figure out what we can do to bridge this gap," he said. "Ultimately, we're sort of coming to the end of the line here."

The massive underfunded liability and the requirements of the 2004 agreement (that Mayor White now says he won't honor) haven't been a mystery over the last few years (just search the blog for "pension"), so it's really strange that the administration has not been engaged in meet-and-confer negotiations with the pension board to work on the problem.

29 August 2009

HMEPS board scuttles budget increase; Chron editorial board mischaracterizes

The Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank weighed in today on the news that the board of the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System (HMEPS) scuttled a proposal to increase its staff payroll budget by 6% from last year's figure, mischaracterizing the proposal in its lede:

A proposal to raise city municipal pension staff salaries by 6 percent rightly raised a ruckus at City Hall this week.

Apparently, the Caucasian Think Tank did not bother to read Bradley Olson's reporting for their newspaper, which stated the following:

The 6 percent increase includes health benefit costs and money for unfilled positions and does not mean that each of the system's 30 employees will get a 6 percent raise.

Merit pay increases that equate to 3 percent per employee have been incorporated into the budget, but not every employee is guaranteed to get a raise, [HMEPS spokeswoman Laura] Tolley said.

The pension fund's investments declined last year, although much less sharply than many similar investments.

As Olson noted in his earlier reporting, director David Long has "quarreled" with Mayor White at times*, and the mayor attacked Long personally in a successful effort to head off the increased payroll budget:

“Do I think it's a good thing if somebody gets a pay raise while they have that kind of decline in their assets? Absolutely not. Period,” White said. “And I'll bet you this, if Mr. Long is getting a pay raise, there's not anybody else who would hire that guy. So how could you really say that it's justified by market conditions?”

We strongly suspect that Mayor White is dead wrong about that, and if David Long were on the market, there would be plenty of suitors.

Regardless, the question of the proposed budget increase certainly gave the mayor a political opening to play populist, beat up a sometime foe, AND try to gain more power over HMEPS with a last-minute appointment (which Council refused to support, to their credit). Mayor White seems to have a long memory for officials who defy his edicts (also see Tollett, Jordy).

Unfortunately, the entire debate over this relatively minor "scandal"** -- and the Caucasian Think Tank's mischaracterization of the details -- completely ignores the real ongoing scandal with regard to the city's pension funds: the massive unfunded liability.

We can certainly understand why Mayor White prefers not to talk about those details much these days, after some early efforts on his part to chip away at the liability. It will be the next mayor's problem.

We are reproducing relevant portions of the statement from the chairman of the board of the pension system below, since it lays out details of the proposed budget increase that seem not to have been understood very well.

* Another characterization would be that David Long has asserted the relative independence of HMEPS from Mayor White's meddling. Long is not a mayoral appointee, and answers to the HMEPS board. His job is to promote/defend the interests of the board and the system, not the political interests of Mayor White. It's not surprising that Mayor White would regard such independence as quarrelsome.

** Cory Crow's observations from two days ago seem spot on to us.

12 July 2009

Why Bill White chose to run for senate

From Rick Casey's June 27th column:

He said Friday he is convinced that his background in energy both in the private sector and in Washington as deputy secretary of energy in the Clinton administration, as well as six years as mayor, gives him “experience that can make a difference for this state and country.”

He reportedly has said privately that another reason is that he could not with a straight face say as a gubernatorial candidate that he wouldn’t raise taxes in the face of the problems the state faces.

He fears he wouldn't be able to sweep the state's financial challenges under the rug as he has the city's pension mess, so he chose to run for the easier office?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/09 06:37 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (0)

23 June 2005

Spirit-filled city council approves mayor's budget

City council approved Mayor White's proposed budget yesterday and Matt Stiles provides some details:

The council, with two dissenting votes, approved the general fund — the tax- and fee-supported portion that covers city departments' operating costs — as part of a $3.2 billion overall budget that also includes enterprise funds such as those dedicated to aviation, water and sewer, and convention facilities.

About 64 percent of all nondebt costs in the general fund will go to public safety, which increased about $48 million, or 5.8 percent, in a budget that doesn't require large cuts or spending increases in most departments.

Part of the added public safety costs comes from $19 million set aside in the event that the city's firefighters approve a collective-bargaining deal in the coming weeks.

[snip]

"This is a strong mayor form of government. The mayor is going to always do what the mayor wants to do. There's very little that a council can do unless they are all united against the mayor," said Councilman Mark Goldberg.

Among several other amendments passed by the council was an $878,000 cap on city spending for the Safe Clear mandatory freeway towing program. That figure, which doesn't affect additional contributions to the program from the Metropolitan Transit Authority and tow-truck operators, was the fiscal 2006 Safe Clear expenditure estimated last week by Controller Annise Parker.

The two council members who voted against the budget, Addie Wiseman and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, criticized the decision to issue $71 million in pension revenue bonds to help cover payments to pensions instead of using tax revenue.

"We're relying on $71 million in pension bonds, passing the burden on to future councils," Wiseman said.

The story also included this amusing quote:

"City Hall is operating in a businesslike fashion," White said. "There's a good spirit around the council table that we're working toward some common goals of creating a good quality of life in our neighborhoods, greater mobility and better value for the taxpayer dollar."

Aha. We can look to Councilman Mark Goldberg for the definition of "good spirit":

"This is a strong mayor form of government. The mayor is going to always do what the mayor wants to do. There's very little that a council can do unless they are all united against the mayor," said Councilman Mark Goldberg.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/23/05 11:04 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

27 February 2005

City should focus on loan-default "revenue stream"

On February 23, Anne Linehan called attention to a KHOU-11 report by Mark Greenblatt on the city's seeming indifference to multimillion-dollar defaults on city loans made to various downtown developers.

Readers of the Chronicle found out about this news in February 26 print editions of the newspaper.

Apparently, city officials were able to get their talking points in better order for the Chronicle story. Recall the statements of John Walsh, the city's point man on this matter, to KHOU's reporter:

The Defenders couldn't find a single payment that the Magnolia Hotel has ever made to the city of Houston. When asked if that surprised him, Walsh said, "No. I can't vouch for the reason why it has taken so long for us to pursue the collection of these loans."

But Walsh says the city might not be able to collect.

"Then if we can't collect it, we'll just take our lumps and do the best we can."

After a few days, though, the mayor's spin machine has Mr. Walsh sounding much better for the Chronicle:

The city intends to "aggressively pursue" repayment by the owners of the Magnolia Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Hotel, said John Walsh, Mayor Bill White's deputy chief of staff for neighborhoods and housing.

Tom Kirkendall calls these defaults -- along with the city's partnership in the Hilton Americas hotel -- "two more examples of why the City of Houston should not be in the business of financing redevelopment projects."

It is worth noting that Mayor White effectively used the Hilton America's hotel to collaterize part of the city's underfunded obligations to the municipal employees pension fund, and that even with optimistic assumptions regarding that hotel's performance (which may not pan out), that pension fund remains underfunded to the tune of some $850 million dollars.

Clearing up matters with such short- and long-term revenue implications for the city deserves much higher priority than revenue-enhancement efforts such as red-light cameras, expansion of downtown parking meters hours and coverage, or parking authorities.

RELATED: Hyatt Regency in Foreclosure.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/05 05:54 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

23 October 2005

Chron endorses Mayor White for second term

The Chronicle has glowingly endorsed Mayor White for reelection. Actually, glowingly doesn't quite describe it. It's so syrupy-sweet it'll make your teeth hurt. There are a few bits, however, that make me wonder what in the world the idealists are talking about:

First up was the issue of putting the city's massive unfunded liability for future pension payments to retired employees on a sound financial footing.

Transferring the pension mess to the underperforming, city-owned Hilton Americas might not be called "a sound financial footing." In fact, Fitch downgraded Houston's bond rating back in March citing concerns with "large unfunded pension liabilities," and recently expressed concern again, saying that it views "the city's debt financing of a portion of the city's annual contribution to both the municipal and police pension systems as an indication of financial stress and considers this funding approach an unfavorable credit factor."

Sound financial footing? That's questionable. But any downside to "fixing" the pension problem the way Mayor White did will probably not become apparent until after he's moved on to a higher elected office.

Recently, White achieved a major goal for his first term by securing approval from Houston firefighters for a new wage and labor contract that provides for a salary hike that aligns their compensation with other Texas cities.

Well, there were a few problems down that road, as Mayor White tried to play hardball with the firefighters, and in turn was dealt a rare public defeat by the city's firefighters. A new contract finally was approved, after all that played itself out.

White's strengths as a corporate manager have served him well in dealing with financial and technical issues, but they have backfired a few times when he rolled out new programs without first selling them to constituents.

An initial wave of criticism followed the launch of the Safe Clear freeway towing program due to concerns for low-income motorists who would face steep towing fees.

[snip]

When state legislators threatened to outlaw Safe Clear, the mayor worked out an opposition-defusing compromise with politically powerful Houston Democrat Sen. John Whitmire.

This one really astounds me. The editorial board at Houston's lone major daily paper fails to mention the news that SafeClear must undergo a big overhaul due to a judge's ruling. That changes the whole issue, and the idealists in their ideal state either don't know about it or decided to ignore it! Wow!

After years of deadlock, White secured the support from Reps. Tom DeLay and John Culberson and from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that resulted in Houston finally receiving federal transit dollars for light rail projects.

Eh, saying "light rail projects" is a bit generous. The revised plan (that voters haven't approved) includes one new light rail project, an extension of the "booming" Main Street light rail line, and many miles of (don't say Bus) Rapid Transit and commuter rail.

There's also plenty of unfinished business from his first term to deal with, including the lingering cleanup of the Houston police crime lab.

Not to mention a police manpower shortage, which the editorial fails to, uh, mention.

And then there's this:

Implementing the regional mass transit plan with additional light rail lines will be another challenge, as will hanging on to federal transit funding in the face of the current instability in Houston's congressional leadership.

The idealists are ever-hopeful, aren't they?

There are other things the editorial board doesn't mention, besides the police manpower shortage, including Prop. 2 (which the voters approved and which Mayor White is fighting), the mayor's desire to fund an African-American museum, the mayor's push for a grand new downtown park, the mayor's underwhelming interest in the growing problem of graffiti, the neverending problems at the Houston Emergency Center, the mayor's program to harass downtown pedestrians, and the MediaSource brouhaha.

RELATED: Sedosi has some similar thoughts on Mrs. White's love letter to her man.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/23/05 09:17 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)

20 December 2004

An editorial from left field

The Chronicle editorial page is in rare form today.

After its bit of revisionism concerning the pension plan, it moves on to tackle a topic that has been troubling Houstonians for some time now:

King Mswati III's opulent habits ignore Swaziland's poverty and hurt African nations desperate for relief of foreign debt

Unlike the newspaper's last big editorial foray into international politics, the editorialist does not refer to any nonexistent treaties this time (a mistake that still has not been corrected).

I can't help but wonder which member of the editorial board fancies himself (or herself) such a scholar of international politics.

If anyone down at 801 Texas Avenue (yeah, we know you read us) knows which member writes these "international" editorials and would like to pass along that info anonymously, we'd be grateful. Just click on my name at the bottom of this post and send away!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/04 09:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)

29 June 2005

Chron editorialists discover Brown Administration "rotten dealings"

The Chronicle editorial board weighs in with a shocker today: things were really bad during Lee Brown's administration!

Of course, the Chronicle editorialists did not feel that way during the Brown experience, instead preferring to make excuses for the bumbling mayor as they endorsed him over and over.

Note to editorialists: Your support of the man for six years didn't exactly hold his administration to account, but that's over and done with. You can make amends by focusing attention on the city's current problems, such as: the unfunded municipal employees pension fund liability that Brown bequeathed to Mayor White and that still has not been solved, the HPD manpower shortage that Mayor White and his council haven't done enough to correct, the bait-and-switch tactics of METRO with regard to the METRO Solutions plan, and the growing MS-13 gang problem (for starters).

Readers should feel free to add their own suggestions for the editorial board in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

07 November 2005

Mayor White wants world-class internet bubble

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports on a last-minute campaign pledge by Mayor White:

Mayor Bill White stated Monday that if he wins re-election, one of the first things he'll do is push forward a plan to make the entire city of Houston Wi-Fi accessible.

He claimed that he would call for bids within the first three months of his next term and plans to place the necessary equipment atop utility poles throughout the city.

Having solved HPD's manpower shortage, the unfunded liability in the municipal employees' pension plan, graffiti, and potholes, Mayor White apparently feels free to move on to those sorts of quality-of-life matters that will surely make Houston world-class!

Oh, wait, those other basic problems aren't solved?

Never mind.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/07/05 09:39 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

29 July 2009

August Texas Monthly offers interesting article on Houston dogfighting, and a Tribute To White

The Chronicle's Bradley Olson calls our attention to Mimi Swartz's Texas Monthly article on the Houston Mayoral race.

It almost reads like Mrs. White* back in the day: Bill White good, VERY VERY good. In comparison, the three serious contenders to replace him are small.

There are other touches that remind us of Houston's Biggest Blog**:

“We’ve never had a mayor who wanted to run for higher office,” says Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University. “Different ambitions set up different agendas. . . . Lanier’s idea was to pick three things and do one. White picked ten things and did fifteen—well.”

That's Houston's Expert on Everything, Bob Stein, a sometime mayoral advisor. Oh, and someone named Marty Stein is the mayor's agenda director. Those little tidbits don't turn up in the story.

There is a reference to Bill King, who decided not to run for the office this time:

For more than a year, a prominent conservative businessman, Bill King, has been showing local breakfast groups a Cassandra-like PowerPoint presentation that purports to reveal how the city employee pension fund and other “unfunded liabilities” will bring financial disaster to Houston soon—maybe even before the election. If King is right, Brown and Parker, as public servants, will be in big trouble. “Annise hasn’t been waving her hands and saying the sky is falling,” said one campaign junkie. “After eleven years, she can’t run as an agent of change.” A fiscal crisis in the middle of a Senate run would also be bad for White—if he saw one looming. “In brief, Mr. King is just wrong,” White says. “Because we planned ahead and built up cash reserves, Houston is in far better shape than other cities...."

In a relative sense, perhaps, but that bit of politico-speak doesn't really refute the story that King has been telling. As we've noted for quite some time on the little blog, the unfunded pension fund liabilities still loom, despite minor improvements that Mayor White made early in his administration. We hope Mr. King keeps talking about municipal finances***, and that whoever wins the race taps his expertise in addressing the looming problems.

Anyway, those were the parts we found most interesting in this Great White Tribute.

Unsurprisingly, we didn't even think that was the best Houston-centric article in the August issue. We would bestow that honor on Skip Hollandsworth, for his fine (but disturbing) article on the undercover officers who got inside Houston's underground dogfighting culture, before busting many of the sickos involved in it. It's well worth reading if you're a subscriber.

* Cory Crow's name for an earlier Chron editorial board.
** AKA the Chronicle, another term coined by Crow.
*** We're not a breakfast group, but we'd welcome his presentation at a future blogger meetup.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/09 10:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

01 February 2006

Why Harris County might want to sell HCTRA

In a post over at the Houston Architecture Info Forum about Harris County studying whether or not it should keep HCTRA (Harris County Toll Road Authority), there are a couple of intriguing responses:

Because they (may) want a short term gain, the future be damned since they won't be around to deal with it. Obviously, the future cash flow can belong to Harris County or a private firm, and the since the private firm needs to earn a profit and pay all the Wall Street fees, and net present value to Harris County has to be less than if it remained in County control.

Don't underestimate politicians desire to mortgage the future. Bush can do it by explosively increasing the national debt. State and local governments need to use indirect methods to mortgage the future (such as unfunded pension obligations), and now with mechanisms like selling off transportation assets they have a new way to realize a near-term gain.

And:

My sources say Harris County TR has so much debt, it's hurting their bond rating.

That's [why] they are looking to sell.

BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/01/06 08:27 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)

19 April 2006

City budget will require borrowing, using cash reserves

KTRH-740 says the city of Houston will need to borrow and dip into its cash reserves, according to a new budget plan:

The City of Houston will borrow about $100 million against taxpayer money and spend cash reserves to make budget, according to planning documents delivered recently to City Council.

Mayor Bill White says there will be some borrowing for pension obligations, and it will use some cash surpluses that have been deliberately built up over the past two years.

White says City Council won't finalize the plans until it votes on a budget in June.

Look for Mayor White to use this as ammunition in his campaign to derail implementing Prop. 2.

PREVIOUSLY: City, METRO are enjoying sales tax windfall (April 15, 2006), City's credit rating outlook downgraded (March 12, 2006)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/19/06 12:36 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

31 July 2005

Chronicle reports on HPD manpower shortage

The Chronicle's Anne Marie Kilday reported Friday on the graduation of 63 new officers from the Houston Police Academy:

After 26 weeks of intensive training, 63 new police officers were sworn in at graduation ceremonies from the Houston Police Academy on Friday night, a giant step for them and a small step toward reducing a serious staffing shortage in the department.

[snip]

The graduates will boost a police department that is struggling with a lack of officers.

The department currently employs 4,365 officers, compared with 5,384 officers in 1996. More recently, about 660 officers have retired since a 14 percent pay raise went into effect in April 2004. Many had been waiting to retire with the increased pension benefits the raise allowed.

Hurtt said earlier this week that it would take about five academy classes each year to return to 1996 staffing levels by 2009 or 2010.

It's good to see the Chronicle give some coverage to HPD's manpower shortage. Aside from KHOU-11, most major Houston media have been strangely silent about the problem, allowing Mayor White and his Council largely to ignore it.

It still needs to be more of a priority.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/05 08:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

26 September 2004

Another endorsement for Proposition Two

Our friends at Chronically Biased have finally taken time from commenting on Twinkies, endangered bugs, and cancer-detecting dogs to address two competing referenda that will be on ballots within the city of Houston this fall.

The CB folks recommend a no vote on Proposition One (Mayor White's initiative, which would limit increases on property tax and water rates) and a yes vote on Proposition Two (a citizen's initiative, which would place an overall cap on municipal revenues).

Taxpayers stand to benefit if either of these proposals wins, but Mayor White's is obviously the watered-down version. Those who are serious about limiting the growth of municipal government -- and forcing local political leaders to set better priorities than the Brown Administration (which left us deteriorating infrastructure, underfunded pension plans, and a bigger, less efficient municipal government) and the current administration (which has proposed spending $2 million on an African-American museum but still hasn't adequately funded police cadet classes despite looming manpower issues) -- should indeed support Proposition Two.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/04 10:35 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

01 June 2005

Crime lab investigator moves to next phase

KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams reports that yesterday's revelation that the HPD crime lab faked some test results may only be a precursor of more bad news to come later this summer:

The man in charge of investigating the Houston Police Department's Crime Lab says a new phase of his probe later this summer could uncover even more trouble, beyond his early finding that lab workers faked test results.

Independent investigator Michael Bromwich has been on the job for the past eight weeks and says the next phase of his investigation will begin in early July and include more in depth reviews of cases that involved forensic testing.

[snip]

One of the labworkers who was found to have fabricated test results has left the department. The other one still works in the lab under tighter supervision.

Isn't it reassuring to know that a crime-lab worker can fabricate test results that potentially are about life and death, and still remain employed by the City of Houston, no doubt accruing generous pension benefits?

The Brown/Bradford legacy continues to grow.

UPDATE (06-02-2005): The Chronicle runs additional coverage from Steve McVicker.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

10 September 2008

Mayor White pulls trigger on downtown hotel development scheme

On a day when most Houstonians are focused on that little hurricane out in the Gulf, Mayor White decided to announce that he's moving forward with plans to sell the Hilton Americas and boost downtown hotel development. Carolyn Feibel reports for the Chronicle:

The city of Houston has put its downtown convention center hotel, the Hilton Americas-Houston, up for sale, officials announced this morning.

"We do believe there can be significant interest in this property at a very good price," said Mayor Bill White.

An offering memorandum placing the hotel on the market was issued today by CBRE/Concordis Real Estate. Hilton is the operator of the hotel, located across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center.

White told City Council he personally would be involved in sale negotiations and that he had a "reserve price" in mind that he would not share with anyone.

[snip]

The Hilton Americas has seen its average occupancy increase to more than 70 percent since opening in December 2003, city officials said.

KHOU-11's Lee McGuire offered a bit more detail:

Houston Mayor Bill White says it’s time to begin a new push to add more hotel rooms in downtown Houston, and he’d like to start by selling the building that houses the Hilton Americas to a private company.

[snip]

It has been 10 years since city leaders began to address the issue of a lack of hotel rooms downtown. In the late 1990s, White said, there were only 1,700 rooms to attract conventions to come to downtown Houston. Today, there are five thousand.

White says that is still not enough. “We lag far behind other big convention cities,” he said. “Next month, I will come to council with something to provide additional incentive for new hotel rooms in the downtown area.”

[snip]

The city, through a hotel corporation set up to build the property, still owes about $270 million on the project in secured debt. White says he believes the city could sell it at a profit, and then re-invest what he calls “significant” additional money into existing pension obligations and other new hotel projects downtown.

The most recent figures available show the Hilton Americas operates at about 64 percent capacity, on average. Just after it first opened in 2004, it was at fifty percent capacity.

So, which occupancy figure is correct -- the one cited by the Chronicle or the one cited by KHOU?

In any case, Houston lags behind other big convention cities for various reasons (climate, lack of tourist attractions, and other perceptions about the city) that do not include a lack of hotel rooms downtown. It's hard to see how a massive injection of taxpayer (your) money will change that dynamic significantly (although we imagine that developers and associates will cheer the proposal).

Our preference would be to see the Hilton Americas sold for a profit, that profit to be used to shore up the ongoing, massive unfunded liability in the pension plan (which Mayor White apparently plans to pass on to the next guy, much as he was left the problem by Lee Brown), and the city to get out of the business of downtown development/speculation, which is not a core function of municipal government and not something that should be distracting us given our current difficulties with core functions of government (like police and public works, or as we learned yesterday, well-functioning courts).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/08 11:13 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (20)

01 November 2004

Police or playgrounds?

Here's a "Wrap-Up" story in today's Chronicle:

In a project called "City of Houston: Problem Solved," teams of fourth- and fifth-graders have been learning about government by allocating a fictitious $2.8 million among city departments.

Needless to say, the departments' needs exceed the money available.

At first, said computer lab teacher Lilene Caldwell, "some of the children wanted all the departments to get the same amount of money. Otherwise, they said, 'It's not fair.' "

Caldwell said she explained, "You can do that if you want to, but you're going to have to fire half the police."

Then there's this:

City Councilman Mark Goldberg, whose district includes the school, visited with the students recently.

"They were really interested, on more of an adult level than a children's level," he said. "There wasn't much talk about playgrounds. It was more about public safety and what the police do. There was even one question about the pension."

Interesting, huh? Fourth- and fifth-graders, when faced with city budget funding dilemmas, chose to fund public safety over playgrounds. Mayor White, on the other hand, when faced with a police manpower shortage, has chosen to focus on Houston's own Central Park. Among other things.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/01/04 09:44 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

29 June 2007

Mack: Clarence Bradford eyes run for DA post

In a column about Democratic aspirations to sweep Harris County in 2008, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack includes this bit of hilarity:

Former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford will take on GOP District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

[snip]

The most intriguing matchup will be the DA's race, given the long history between Bradford and Rosenthal.

Bradford, who served as police chief in Mayor Lee Brown's administration, still has some battle scars.

Among them, a last-minute pay raise Brown gave Bradford that increased his pension, the crime lab debacle that began during his tenure, and an indictment on a perjury charge that eventually was dismissed by a trial judge.

Bradford was considering running for sheriff — going from the top cop in the city to the top officer in the county seems a more natural jump — but his strategists advised him that Thomas would be able to capitalize on each of those mishaps.

A matchup against Rosenthal would play like a grudge match, potentially giving Bradford some inoculation.

It will be difficult for Clarence Bradford to inoculate himself against his own record during the Lee Brown reign of error, not to mention the pointed criticism he received in the Bromwich reports on the crime lab fiasco.

Come to think of it, Bradford never really has answered to the public following the criticism from Bromwich. His campaign for DA ought to provide an excellent opportunity for him to answer all sorts of questions about his significant role in the crime lab fiasco.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/07 11:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)

27 December 2008

Holiday slowdown linkpost

We're still playing with new Christmas toys, but here are a few local stories that have caught our attention:

Vasquez sworn in as county tax assessor

City sends woman a $4,700 water bill as an early Christmas present Lest you think the city doesn't have a heart, "The city agreed to reduce the bill from $4,000 to $1,000, which is still a big jump from Baylous’ $10 a month bill."

City's pension plans lose $1.9 billion in value But, the experts assure that there's nothing to worry about.

Garcia, Lee offer deal for Dynamo: Commissioners propose to offer $10 million for stadium project

Suit claims city withholding red-light camera study

Mayor Bill White's office attacked the lawsuit as a publicity stunt.

Considering the study was supposed to be released in "a couple of days" back on December 10th, there might be some merit to the suit. Maybe NOW the city will release the study...after it's cleaned up:

The mayor's office later asked Stein to make some changes for clarity so the public and reporters could more easily understand the conclusions.

Ooooo, a Bob Stein-sighting!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/27/08 08:39 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

04 August 2006

Metro boss gets a $1,000 per month car allowance!

Thanks to Tom Bazan for pointing out Rad Sallee's follow-up story on Metro President Frank Wilson's super-secret pay raise:

The Metropolitan Transit Authority revealed Thursday that the raise it voted for July 20 for President and CEO Frank Wilson brings his annual salary to $279,400, a 10 percent increase.

The raise is retroactive to May 1, the date of his employment in 2004. Wilson was hired at $254,000 a year with a five-year contract that allowed for increases. He did not receive a raise after his first year on the job.

The present contract runs through April 30, 2010, and includes pension and benefits, $1,030 monthly car allowance, five weeks' vacation, two weeks' sick leave and membership in the Houston Club.

Metro Board Chairman David Wolff refused to disclose the pay raise details when questioned by Sallee last month, so Sallee filed a Public Information Act request to get the information.

That's a pretty nice salary for Wilson. It's too bad his contract doesn't stipulate that he should live within walking distance of the Main Street Danger Train line. What kind of a message does it send when Metro's own boss doesn't take the train to work, AND requires a car allowance??! Isn't his car one more that's clogging up the roads??

UPDATE (9:05 am): Michael Berry is discussing Frank Wilson's pay raise on KPRC-950.

BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/04/06 06:01 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)

21 October 2007

Reflecting on White, Brown

Roy Reynolds comments on Mayor White and reminisces about his predecessor in today's Chronicle:

[Mayor] initially concentrated on long-neglected financial restructuring, including the unfunded liabilities of the employee pension fund, to put the city on a firm fiscal base.Few can deny that White has made certain strides in the right direction for the city. But the reason for his popularity might have less to do with his initiatives than outsiders might perceive.

Bill White brought Houston some sorely needed credibility in the city's head office. He actually kept some campaign promises, including syncing up the green lights downtown. Never mind that the light rail keeps traffic moving in a distinctly staccato manner.

Working with then-County Judge Robert Eckels in giving refuge to victims of Hurricane Katrina was not only noble, but provided a boost to the city's reputation around the nation.

But honestly, White benefited most from the man he replaced. The lowered bar helped curve up White's reputation before he ever put a photo of his wife on the mayoral desk. Anyone would have looked good compared with the previous administration of Lee Brown, who inexplicably stuck to Houston like some political napalm of mismanagement.

The day city workers took a crowbar to remove Brown's photo from the airport sign, flowers began to bloom. Birds chirped. Off in the distance, a small child laughed.

Lee Brown was a constant source of entertainment and embarrassment for many of us. He was EXACTLY the guy you want to follow if you are an ambitious pol. Of course, the Chronicle endorsed Lee Brown repeatedly for mayor, which just goes to show what those sorts of endorsements are worth.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/21/07 09:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

08 June 2005

Lee Brown's legacy cont'd: Expensive art for fire stations!

Rich Connelly does some original reporting for the Houston Press:

Few things say "culture" more than government-sponsored art, and Houstonians should prepare themselves for seeing more and more of it.

A 2001 ordinance, just now beginning to be implemented, calls for 1.75 percent of the construction budget for some city buildings to be devoted to public art. One of the first projects under the ordinance is a new fire station in the Denver Harbor neighborhood.

The city wants to spend $43,650 on a ceramic-tile mural by Suzanne Sellers, but the expenditure has been held up by councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes Denver Harbor.

"When we saw '$43,000 for art' [on the agenda], we just had some questions," says Giovanni Goribay, Garcia's chief of staff.

It turns out other bids had come in at $90,000, so the city got something of a bargain. (Disclosure: Eleven years ago Sellers painted the mural on the building the Houston Press now occupies.) Still, as the new ordinance is implemented, councilmembers are hoping for more information on neighborhood input and what happens to any of the 1.75 percent that isn't spent. (With a politico's appreciation of things artistic, Goribay notes of any excess cash, "The councilman would like it to stay in his district, at least.")

Surely nothing says Houston is a world-class city like spending tens of thousands of dollars on "public" art for a fire station (where most of the public will never see it)!

Now let's try and remember.... Who was mayor when this latest instance of fiscal insanity was apparently conceived?

Yes, that would be one Lee P. Brown!

The legacy (of corruption, potholes, crime-lab mismanagement, pension-plan mismanagement, and general nitwittery) continues to grow. Who knows how many more gifts he's left for us that we'll soon be discovering?!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/08/05 09:55 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (13)

03 October 2004

Chron editors misrepresent unreleased study

In a staff editorial today, the Chronicle endorses the smoking ban that has been proposed by Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

One can't help but think that the city ought to be considering more important issues than a smoking ban and a $2 million giveaway for an African-American museum, especially given the current manpower shortage at HPD, municipal pension plans that still have underfunded liabilities and will require the issuance of bonds, and ongoing controversies at the HPD crime lab.

There are two sides to the smoking debate, of course, and HoustonSmokingBan.org promises to be a repository of information on the topic. Given the Chronicle's infamous rail-memo controversy, they'll have to pardon us for not trusting them to provide balanced coverage on this issue they've just adopted.

To wit, this sentence from the Chronicle editorial:

A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburg discovered that a single exposure to tobacco smoke can cause the sort of DNA damage that, after repeated exposure, leads to mutations and cancer.

First, that's Pittsburgh. With an H.

Second, the editors are apparently reporting from a press release about the study, which isn't scheduled to be released until October 5. Further, the press release reports that the study involved exposing cells to condensate obtained by burning cigarettes. While that's useful for scientists studying cell mutation and cancer, the results aren't necessarily analagous to a person exposed to secondhand smoke, and it's a stretch for the Chronicle to conclude that any exposure to secondhand smoke causes DNA damage that can lead to cancer based on this press release.

The Chronicle editors have misrepresented the results of a study that hasn't even been released yet, and seem to have read the associated press release in a fairly self-serving fashion.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/03/04 02:56 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

21 January 2005

Olds: Chron editorial board criticizes Brown administration

Yesterday, we briefly noted a Chronicle staff editorial criticizing the administration of former mayor Lee P. Brown.

Here is an excerpt from that editorial:

The indictment of another Brown administration official indicates influence peddling at City Hall might have been widespread.

When Mayor Lee Brown finished his term-limited six years in office at the end of 2003, one of the best things that could be said about his sometimes rocky tenure was that it had been free of major scandals. With the indictment of a second high official in Brown's bureaucracy in recent months for accepting bribes to influence contracts, time is rapidly eroding the clean image the administration once enjoyed.

[snip]

It's unfortunate that it took a multi-year interstate federal investigation to begin unraveling misconduct among staffers close to the former mayor.

It's also unfortunate that the Chronicle neglected to mention its own role as Lee Brown cheerleader and booster during his tenure as mayor. The Chronicle editorial board endorsed Brown repeatedly in his races, and rarely leveled pointed criticism at his administration even as the city seemed to be falling down around us at times. It was almost as if the former mayor's championing of Chron causes like light rail got him a six year pass from the city's only newspaper. As it turns out, the administration didn't deserve that pass.

It's good that the Chronicle editorial board is now taking a more critical interest in the Brown Administration. It just comes a few years too late.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/21/05 08:05 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

26 January 2008

Lee Brown's legacy

In Matt Stiles' story about the arrest of Mike Surface and Andrew Schatte, he garnered a laugh-out-loud quote from former Mayor Lee Brown:

Brown said Friday that the corruption alleged in the indictment should not tarnish his legacy of running the city.

He noted, for example, that the city's inspector general had launched an investigation of McGilbra before deferring to the federal authorities. Brown also said he had no dealings with Schatte or Surface.

"Many very positive things happened during my administration," the former mayor said. "It's one event, which does not characterize six years of my administration."

Pause and let that sink in for a minute. Actually, it may take several minutes, once you realize he wasn't kidding.

How should Mayor Brown's administration be characterized? Well, there was plenty of corruption, as has already come to the fore.

He loved going on international trade missions, earning the nickname Out-of-Town Brown. He abhorred bandit signs, with a passion. He didn't get bogged down in the intricacies of public infrastructure. And his dazzling budget skills eventually landed him the chairman's seat at a bank.

How about some more?

He left behind a $1.5 billion pension mess; he required a personal chef; and government work seemed to go on without him even when he was in the same room.

Remember when Laurence Simon cracked that Rice University would use a dumpster to house Mayor Brown's personal papers? Yeah, that's closer to Lee Brown's legacy.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/26/08 06:02 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (12)

08 October 2004

Mayor White comes out for smoking ban

Ron Nissimov reports that Mayor White has endorsed a more moderate version of the smoking ban that has been supported by council member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs:

Houston restaurants may soon be smoke-free.

Mayor Bill White announced Wednesday that he is drafting an ordinance that would ban smoking in restaurants, but not in bars.

"I have been listening to people who want a ban everywhere and the people who don't want to lose their market," White said. "I'm trying to find the middle ground."

White said his proposal would be phased in over two years to try to minimize any negative impact on restaurants.

Under Houston's current ordinance, restaurants and other public buildings are allowed to have smoking areas if they are properly ventilated. Smoking is banned within 25 feet of entrances to public buildings.

White said that under his proposal, any restaurants with bars in their establishments would be allowed to maintain smoking areas in the bars, as long as there is "real separation" from the dining areas.

Sekula-Gibbs remains hopeful this is only a first step towards her more comprehensive ban:

"I feel like it's a step in the right direction," Sekula-Gibbs said.

She pointed out that many cities that have barred smoking in public places started off with partial bans such as White's proposal.

"I think most Houstonians would support a full ban, but the mayor won't do it right now," Sekula-Gibbs said.

Sekula-Gibbs concludes with her best impression of Sheila "I can always be found when a camera is nearby" Jackson Lee:

She added that until Wednesday's proposal, she had not gotten much support from White in her efforts. Sekula-Gibbs said she believes White may have proposed the ordinance because she has pushed the issue by having two meetings in the last month with various constituency groups and community leaders.

As someone who has portrayed herself as a conservative, the doctor-councilwoman should, perhaps, just back away and let the mayor (a former Democratic state party chair) take credit for proposals that impose new burdens on business owners and seem an odd priority given Houston's many ongoing problems (ranging from HPD manpower shortages to municipal pension plans that still have liabilities that will require issuance of bonds to the HPD crime lab).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/08/04 12:13 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

21 December 2004

Council approves traffic cameras

Council today approved yet another of Mayor White's priorities, the generation of new revenues for the city via an automated red light/traffic camera system.

The measure passed with only two no votes. According to Chronicle reporter Ron Nissimov, Addie Wiseman voted no because she believes the ordinance violates the spirit of legislation passed by the Texas legislature (she's correct). Ada Edwards voted no because she believes the citations will have no teeth (contending that people cannot be arrested for refusing to pay any citatons they receive).

Interestingly, the KHOU-11 coverage indicates that road sensors will be deployed, meaning road construction and delays. That's a curious way to "get Houston moving," to borrow from the seemingly forgotten priorities enunciated in the Mayor's last election campaign.

So far, Mayor White has had few problems getting council to sign off on an agenda that has included Tasers, enriching downtown developers to create a new Central Park, enhancing municipal revenues with new downtown parking meters and expanded hours, reconfiguring the city's pension plan with some unusual arrangements regarding the city's convention center hotel, and enhancing municipal revenues via cameras at traffic lights. The only major initiative that Council has forced the Mayor to back down on was his proposed African American museum, which will almost certainly make another appearance down the road. Neither the Mayor nor his Council have, thus far, seemed interested in addressing HPD's ongoing manpower concerns.

COVERAGE: Ron Nissimov/Chronicle, KTRK-13, KHOU-11.

RELATED: Red-light running, from a Houston officer's view (Hans Marticiuc, Chronicle)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/21/04 10:27 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

16 January 2006

HBJ business humor: The bank of Lee P (cont'd)

The usually staid Houston Business Journal seems to be trying its hand at business humor today:

Popular ex-mayor banks on new career
Newly minted investor Lee Brown wants to expand Unity National Bank's focus in his new role as chairman
Jim Greer

Lee Brown, the former three-term Houston mayor, has been elected chairman of Unity National Bank six months after becoming an investor in what officials call the city's only African-American-owned bank.

In July, Brown and Houston energy executive Kase Lawal led a small group of investors who took a stake in the local community bank. Coinciding with Brown replacing Limas Jefferson as Unity's chairman, the Lawal-led investment group has assumed majority ownership of the bank.

[snip]

"I was kind of surprised to see Lee Brown as head of that investment team and come in to be chairman," says Hugh Barrett, a longtime banking consultant who runs Houston's The Strategic Alliance Group.

Although Barrett doesn't think of the former mayor as a banker first and foremost, the consultant points out that Brown's name means something, especially in the African-American market.

"My background has been in managing organizations," says Brown, who was the national drug czar in the Bill Clinton administration.

[snip]

Meanwhile, Brown's background in law enforcement and city governments could come in handy in the heavily regulated banking industry.

"The things that I've done in the past, whether it's in law enforcement or as mayor, we had to follow regulations, too," he says.

Ah yes, and as the guilty pleas regarding corruption keep coming in from former Brown Administration officials and more damning news continues to be released regarding the HPD crime lab, we can see that Brown ran a tight ship while serving the city of Houston. And then there's the matter of the underfunded municipal employees pension that developed under his watch, which we would (wrongly) think ought to be of concern to those who would put the man in charge of a bank.

And what is with that headline? Popular?

Like I said, the HBJ must be trying its luck with business humor.

PREVIOUSLY: The bank of Lee P.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/16/06 08:37 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)

05 February 2007

City of Houston Agenda 2-6-07

Readers might remember that for a few months, I summarized the City of Houston agendas, first on Houblog, and later, here on blogHOUSTON. However, work commitments and the fact that it took me upwards of six hours to craft those posts led to my abandoning the effort. It's past time I picked the task back up, though I'm not going to go so overboard this time. I will no longer attempt to post explanations or comments about each and every item on the agenda; instead I will select the items I think are most noteworthy and bring them to readers' attention each week. This will make the articles much shorter and easier to get through as well, perhaps inviting more comment.

The drawback is that the original style allowed the reader to decide what was important; now it's up to my judgment. I invite readers to bring any overlooked agenda item to my attention in the comments if they believe it is important; I'll endeavor to update the article prior to the meeting if I have any input to add.

Once again, readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please follow ths link to the currently posted agenda. Note that I use the full "backup"; the agenda with the actual Requests for Council Action appended. These are often quite illuminating, but are not available online to the public prior to council meetings.

It's a long agenda this week, and I've cherry-picked some really good items for you. Head below the fold and check it out.

[Read More]

Posted by Ubu Roi @ 02/05/07 09:53 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)

20 May 2005

Feds accuse local developer of bribing former city official

Dan Feldstein has quite an eye-opening story in this morning's Chronicle:

The developer of the Houston Emergency Center gave cash in a bag to a top city official and promised her boyfriend about $250,000 if he was awarded another city deal, federal prosecutors allege.

Documents in Cleveland and Houston courts describe evidence that prosecutors had planned to use against Monique McGilbra, former head of Houston's Building Services Department, who instead pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy charges in both places.

[snip]

It was Keystone Group, then headed by Andrew Schatte, a politically connected Houston dealmaker. Schatte has not been charged with any crimes and denies many of the statements and all of the implications of the documents.

[snip]

U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby of Houston said after McGilbra pleaded guilty this week that related investigations are continuing. McGilbra has agreed to cooperate with authorities to get a reduced sentence.

Schatte has several close friends among state and local elected leaders and has been active setting up leases and investments for the city, Harris County and several local pension boards. The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund has invested more than $57 million in his recent deals.

Competitors sometimes have complained about his success. But Schatte says he's simply more in tune to local government needs and works hard on his specialty.

[snip]

Prosecutors allege some of Hardeman's [McGilbra's boyfriend] money was supposed to be funneled to McGilbra. They say Keystone also gave her a $1,000 Neiman Marcus gift certificate for her birthday, seven tickets to Texans games, use of a condominium in northern California and $1,000 cash in a bag also containing champagne.

Dang! This will be very interesting to watch unfold, and what great work by Dan Feldstein digging up this story.

RELATED: McGilbra supervised construction of 911 call center (blogHOUSTON)

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: It's also worth checking out the archived Chronicle stories on the sidebar of Feldstein's story today. Those stories were also written by Feldstein, and help tie together some pieces. Feldstein deserves credit for digging deeper into this story.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 06:57 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (7)

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