30 September 2009

Texas Watchdog investigates adventures in no-bid contracting, METRO-style

Recently, we've seen Mayor Bill White skirt the city's contracting rules to put the artist now known as The One* in place to clean up a BARC mess that had not previously been a priority and that threatened to be a drag on Senate Candidate Bill White's campaign.

That's nothing, however, compared to METRO's use of no-bid contracts for consultants under Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson.

Texas Watchdog has the details in this story today.

METRO contends that the use of such consultants can actually save the taxpayers money, and gives the organization flexibility.

We're open to the argument that one-off consulting can sometimes be more efficient, but we also think public organizations should operate with much greater transparency than this.

When deals are ramrodded through by high-ranking public officials with no public debate or scrutiny -- especially when those deals involve former colleagues of the officials or even self-promoters who are known as The One* -- what is the public supposed to think? Indeed, how is the public even to know, in an age of shrinking newsrooms?

That's why public organizations should make the case with the public well in advance of any such deals (and in our view, should try to keep them rare).

* We are referring to BARC "change agent" Gerry Fusco, who has referred to himself as "The One" in public interviews.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/30/09 08:56 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

28 September 2009

Chron returns to topic of police shootings

The Houston Chronicle has returned to a favorite topic with this article about how shootings by law enforcement in Harris County have risen this year. According to reporter James Pinkerton, as of 24 September there have been 44 police shootings in Harris County. This has already surpassed the total number of police shootings for the last two years.

Read the explanations offered by our community.

First, HPOU President Gary Blankinship cites the end of the city's paid overtime program. He also cites rising unemployment due to the state of the economy as of late. However not everyone who is out of a job is out committing a crime. Police are hearing that excuse from people. However it's usually from the same people who were out screwing up when the economy was good.

Next we have media-appointed community activist Quanell X. He seems still hung up on Chuck Rosenthal. He also refuses to look at the whole picture, particularly from the perspective of the officer at risk, who doesn't have the benefit of hindsight. He wants to see more officers charged regardless of the facts.

Next was a shock. Donna Hawkins, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, blames permissive gun laws! Was she reading a bad script? She was quoted as follows,

If more people have the access and it becomes easier to carry them, there tends to be more shooting and more situations involving police officers.

[Read More]

Posted by Jason @ 09/28/09 07:25 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

26 September 2009

KPRC's Dean reports on Park-and-Pillage failures; METRO tries to shield data from public

KPRC-2's Stephen Dean reports that METRO's ongoing experiment with camera surveillance as a replacement for live security officers at the Park-and-Pillage lots is still going poorly:

The Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority reported that 271 camera failure reports have been filed since January 2008, with 10 instances of entire Park & Ride lots being offline and invisible to police officers who are supposed to watch the cameras for crime.

Some METRO police officers told Local 2 Investigates the problem is much more widespread than those numbers suggest. Those officers said they are being posted at Park & Ride lots nearly every day in response to crimes that were never detected by the network of 354 cameras.

So, the camera system that was supposed to enhance public safety and cut labor costs doesn't seem to be working out all that well.

A well-run, responsive public organization might reconsider the whole cameras-as-replacement-for-security gambit.

METRO, on the other hand, responded as it usually does:

METRO transit headquarters has filed documents in an effort to keep quiet about its camera failures. In response to a Local 2 Investigates request for complete camera maintenance and outage reports, METRO filed with the Texas Attorney General, asking that the documents be kept secret.

That's outrageous -- but not surprising.

Recall that METRO chief Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson once asserted that METRO operates "in a completely transparent manner."

Right!

PREVIOUSLY: BH Park-and-Pillage Archives.

Photo by flickr user Andyrob used via a Creative Commons license.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/09 02:01 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)

Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom? (#2)

As reported by the Chronicle's Bradley Olson, Senate Candidate Bill White recently warned voters to be wary of any new spending proposed by Houston's mayoral candidates:

White, who has shied away from endorsing or even offering tacit support to those vying to replace him, weighed in last week with surprising advice for voters: Beware of any promises of new spending in 2010 and 2011.

“Texas has not come out of the recession, and sales tax receipts are dropping,” White wrote in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday. “Be sure not to vote for our next mayor based on commitments of more spending in the next two years.”

Houston Mayor Bill White, of course, has not been shy about spending money on his priorities. This week, KTRK-13's Wayne Dolcefino checked out White's prized weatherization program and found plenty of wasteful spending.

In Part 1, Dolcefino examines the high cost of the city's light-bulb replacement program (as opposed to the cost at Home Depot).

In Part 2, Dolcefino examines the high cost of other items (caulk, ceiling fans) purchased as part of the program.

In Part 3, Dolcefino reports that the State of Texas has been much slower to spend federal "stimulus" dollars that have been allocated for a similar weatherization program, in hopes of avoiding some of the expensive missteps of the Houston program:

Part of the delay is making sure Texas and other states can actually manage to spend all that money efficiently.

"The problem and challenge now is that you're going from a $13 million program to a $327 million program," said Gerber [from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs].

[snip]

"There are going to be a different set of rules the city is going to have to adhere to."

That will mean an end to spending the money the way Houston Mayor Bill White has been spending it: in handpicked neighborhoods where 50 percent of the homes met the guidelines.

We are not optimistic that the state's program will be significantly less wasteful than Mayor White's boondoggle, but kudos to Dolcefino for his investigation (we would love to see a followup on contractors who have benefited from the program). Be sure to click over, or check out the embedded videos below.

BLOGVERSATION: Live Oaks.

PREVIOUSLY: Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom? (#1).

Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (#1)

Senate-candidate White donned his mayoral cap this week to caution Houston's mayor-wannabes about excessive spending during the current recession (via the Chron's Bradley Olsen):

White warns against new spending
Mayor tells voters to be wary of promises by candidates who are vying for his job

“Texas has not come out of the recession, and sales tax receipts are dropping,” White wrote in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday. “Be sure not to vote for our next mayor based on commitments of more spending in the next two years.”

That's good advice: Be wary of promises by candidates.

However, a new press release on the mayor's official website touts his success at spending millions for his own green preferences:

The City of Houston and Mayor Bill White have been recognized by Automotive Fleet Magazine as one of the nation’s top Green Fleet Leaders and will receive the first annual “Green Fleet Leadership” Award at the 2009 Green Fleet Conference, October 19-20, in Chicago.

The City of Houston’s green fleet accomplishments include:

-- Replacing 683 passenger vehicles with hybrids through the Mayor’s Hybrid Initiative, as well as scheduled replacement of 34 heavy-duty vehicles with hybrid and clean-diesel vehicles.

-- Surpassing Houston’s own emissions reduction plan by achieving total 2009 fleet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 90,864 tons per year (tpy), 6.1% below Houston’s 2010 Emissions Reduction Plan goal of 96,761 tpy and 7.8% below the 2010 business-as-usual projection (Of note: overall GHG emissions have increased by only 3% despite the fleet increasing in size by 12%).

-- Reducing fleet fuel consumption from 9.4 million gallons in 2005 to 8.8 million gallons in 2009.

So, let's do a little math, using some reasonably guesstimated numbers:

683 passenger vehicles (Toyota Prius') x $25,000 = $17.1 million
.6 million gallon fuel consumption reduction x $2.20 = $1.32 million

Mayor White spent $17 million (give or take) to save $1.5 million (give or take). You may now insert the joke about the wife who justifies her shopping spree by telling her husband how much money she saved.

Indeed, Texans should be wary of promises by candidates.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/26/09 12:02 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)

Congrats to BH favs Cory Crow and Mike McGuff!

We're a little behind on praising a couple more BH friends who won awards this week (from the corporate-posing-as-alt-media types...)

It's definitely worth noting that Village Voice Houston recently honored BH favs Cory Crow (Best Blog) and Mike McGuff (best twitterer).

We're much more partial to a certain icehouse that opened a few decades ahead of this year's winner, but hey, corporate-alt-media has spoken.

Congrats to our friends who did manage to garner praise! We're open to buying 'em a beer (or several, most likely) at the Best Icehouse in Texas (if not in Houston *eyeroll*) whenever they'd like. We may even turn it into a BH event (we like good excuses like this).

Open comments on these winners and the others -- knock yourselves out!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/26/09 12:12 AM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (3)

24 September 2009

KHOU's Greenblatt scores Emmy for stories on HPD homicide misreporting

KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt just won an Emmy for his investigative series on HPD's homicide misreporting.

Recall that city officials once tried to smear Greenblatt for his reporting, before conceding his points.

Congratulations to Greenblatt for a job well done! The KHOU-11 press release is below.

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/09 09:55 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

23 September 2009

Tyler Cowen and commenters address Houston, zoning, and land-use restrictions

Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution blog recently linked to this old (2005) paper by Michael Lewyn on "How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City without Zoning)."

As readers well know, Houston does not have the sort of macro-level zoning that severely curtails how certain land can be used. However, Lewyn contends that some of Houston's micro-level land-use restrictions are, in some ways, as far-reaching as zoning -- and that a less restrictive environment might actually lead to less sprawl and less automobile dependency. We've seen some of these topics addressed on NeoHOUSTON and Houston Strategies, but this paper and the comments on Cowen's blog make for interesting reading (be sure to look for Houston Strategist Tory Gattis in those comments).

Since our audience is more local, we'd be interested in your thoughts.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/23/09 08:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

22 September 2009

Chronicle is (quietly) looking for some reporters

We've been hearing rumors from journalist friends attending conferences that the Houston Chronicle has been quietly advertising some jobs for a while now, but hadn't been able to track down anything concrete (the Chron "reader rep" doesn't answer our emails, which makes it hard to get questions answered).

Until yesterday, that is. Chron business editor Tara Young was tweeting about attending a seminar with other journalists, and announced:

Folks were surprised to hear that the Houston Chronicle is hiring. But it's true! We need: an oil and gas, a county and a political writer!

All of the people laid off in March must be heartened to know that the Chronicle is in growth mode again.

Come to think of it, maybe THAT is why the positions aren't showing up on JournalismJobs.com!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/22/09 09:51 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)

21 September 2009

Shay: Council turf battle over NASA?

KTRK-13's Miya Shay blogs about a little turf battle between At-Large Councilmember and Mayoral Candidate Peter Brown and Councilmember Mike Sullivan.

Apparently, Brown suggested that Council take up some vague resolution in support of NASA. Councilmember Sullivan rejected Brown's meddling (NASA resides in Sullivan's district), suggesting his colleague's recent interest in the matter could harm the strategy Sullivan had been pursuing in support of NASA. Be sure to click over to Shay's blog for all the details.

Here is the part that stood out for us:

The Mayor’s office replied that it does not in general issue resolutions on issues, but that it will discuss it in its weekly meetings.

Now, if one of the mayor's favorites needed a letter to help promote expensive condos, or needed someone to use eminent domain to seize land for an otherwise unplanned park in support of a favored development*, THAT might get some attention from the mayor.

Useless resolutions on issues? Apparently not. The Houston Way is more about making things happen than declarations.

BLOGVERSATION: Bay Area Houston.

* Speaking of that Galleria-area land taking, the folks at Texas Watchdog filed an interesting addendum to that story last week when reporting on spousal campaign finance disclosures more generally. "None other than Anne Brown was an investor in the development," they noted, "and her husband [Councilmember Peter Brown] voted to condemn the patch of land." To repeat -- The Houston Way is more about making things happen than declarations!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/21/09 11:20 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

Letter writer Andrew Prieditis visits with blogHOUSTON

While catching up on the Chron letters page back in August, we ran across a writer (Andrew Prieditis) who managed to have two letters published in one week, a violation of the newspaper's stated letters policy. One of those letters was published in multiple newspapers across the country, with Prieditis claiming to be from the hometown of each newspaper. We discovered that Prieditis had published such letters all over the world, and wrote it up in this post (which was picked up by Romenesko, and led to other people looking into Prieditis and his letter writing).

At the time, we emailed several addresses we found for Prieditis to try to secure an interview. We finally heard back from Prieditis, and this is the Q&A we conducted via email. Of interest to local readers is his admission that the Chronicle never attempted to contact him to verify any of his information. The unprofessional and unresponsive newspaper ignored our questions about their letters policy at the time, and our recent followup questions (just as it ignores our legitimate corrections requests), but let it be noted that we did ask for comment. Here is our interview with Prieditis.

BH: It appears you lived for some time in the Germantown, MD area here in the states, but recent reports suggest you're in Australasia now. Could you tell me what place is truly "home" for you at the moment?

AP: Sure. Hamilton, New Zealand is currently where I reside.

BH: Why did you claim to be from the home cities of all those different newspapers?

AP: I usually put my address local to the newspaper in question to maximize the chance of being published. I've found that, as a general rule, if I were to put my actual address, I'd stand a lower chance of being published than if I were a local. Also, I just don't want to take any risks of not being published. Being published is really the big thing.

20 September 2009

Linkpost: 09/20/09

The little blog may have taken the weekend off, but many folks were posting away. Here's a selection from local blogs. Oh, and how about those Texans?!

17 September 2009

Chron: METRO approves massive new budget, fare increases; public in the dark until last minute

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel reports that METRO approved a massive new budget today that contains another round of fare increases.

Feibel reported this morning on the proposed fare increase. There hasn't been much awareness or discussion of the fare increase, mainly because METRO prefers to keep the public in the dark on its full budget.

Feibel recently reported on METRO's lack of budget transparency, and today even the Chronicle editorial board, one of the enablers of METRO's nontransparent and arrogant behavior over the years, chided METRO for its budget secrecy.

Not that any of it really matters. As long as Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson is running METRO and we have a mayor who is disinterested in METRO, Wilson is going to do what he pleases. Too bad if public watchdogs, or the public itself, object.

It will be interesting to see if the fare increases actually produce an increase in revenues. If Bill King is right, revenues won't increase, and may well continue their decline.

BLOGVERSATION: Texas Watchdog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/17/09 10:27 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)

Senate-Candidate White orders investigation into Mayor White's favorite "low-income advocacy group"

KTRK-13 ran this tidbit yesterday afternoon:

Houston Mayor Bill White is taking a closer look at the city's connection to the low-income Houston advocacy group ACORN. That comes after the group's CEO, Bertha Lewis, ordered an independent investigation into the group's systems and processes.

And this too:

Mayor White didn't think anything was done wrong, but he looked at a $155,000 grant given to ACORN from the City of Houston just to make sure everything was on the up-and-up. The grant was to help people facing home foreclosure.

Senate-Candidate White is getting good at this.

FROM THE MAYOR'S PRESS RELEASE ARCHIVES: Mayor White & ACORN team up to fight foreclosure

Photo of Senate Candidate Bill White by flickr user STANANDLOU.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/17/09 06:09 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

16 September 2009

TV news elaborates on recent print stories

On Sunday, the Chronicle broke the news that area taxpayers might have to bail out the Sports Authority, despite repeated promises that such a thing could NEVER happen. In a followup blog post, Anne Linehan pointed out Gene Locke's connection to the Sports Authority. Yesterday, KTRK-13 followed up on how the news might affect the mayoral race. Chron.com's Houston Politics blog called attention to the KTRK story today (while noting that it failed to credit the Chronicle's reporting).

Way back on 2 September, the Houston Press posted that a change in UH's book-loan policy was forcing students to buy books at the offical university bookstore, as opposed to the off-campus College Store. Today, KTRK went to the campus to report further on the change. We can't say we're THAT surprised that the university would funnel book-loan proceeds towards its own bookstore.

In other news, we're pretty sure print media reported the mayoral candidates all exclaimed "me too!" at some gathering or another, and TV media presented audio/video confirmation of the "me too!" moments. But we're too lazy to track down those links tonight.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/16/09 11:00 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (1)

15 September 2009

Linkpost: 09/15/09

The local blog talk backlog has gotten a little ridiculous, so here is a selection of good links from the last few days.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/09 10:18 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (0)

Rice Prof gives good grades to SAFEclear program he helped design

In today's Chronicle, Carolyn Feibel reports on a study by Bob Stein (Houston's expert on everything) that found a correlation between SAFEclear response times and a reduction in traffic accidents:

Houston's mandatory towing program has continued to reduce crashes on the city's freeways, according to a city-commissioned study released Monday.

[snip]

“It makes the program look exceptionally effective,” said Bob Stein, a Rice University professor who co-authored the study with Tim Lomax of the A&M Texas Transportation Institute. (Stein's wife works for the White administration as a City Council agenda director.)

Cory Crow offers (tongue-in-cheek?) congratulations to the Chronicle for identifying Stein's wife (something that is not always done by the newspaper).

However, we would have preferred that the newspaper identify Stein as one of the architects of the SAFEclear program, a relevant fact reported previously by Rad Sallee for the Chronicle.

Helping design a program for the City of Houston and THEN being commissioned by the city to study its effectiveness is a pretty good gig!

Come to think of it, it's not unlike mayoral staffer Anthony Hall approving various expenditures by Richard Vacar at the Houston Airport System, and later overseeing the investigation of the same when Vacar's mysterious departure raised questions.

That's how the connected class rolls in Houston. We like to call it The Houston Way.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/09 09:57 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

14 September 2009

King argues for fare rollback, community discussion on METRO's goals/resources

Last week, we posted the most recent METRO transit utilization data from Tom Bazan, which show a significant, ongoing decline in ridership across the system.

On Sunday, the Chronicle ran the latest public-policy op-ed from Bill King. His latest topic? The ongoing decline in METRO's ridership.

We encourage you to go read King's argument in its entirety. We found these points most notable:

King contends the significant, ongoing decline in ridership tracks very well with METRO's recent fare increases (and proposes rolling back those increases).
King also contends that Frank Wilson's decision to try to boost revenues at the expense of ridership represents "a monumental policy shift" with minimal public discussion that is representative of the organization's ad hoc decisionmaking.

The op-ed has produced grumbling from some Dem partybloggers (King is a Republican after all, and that is disqualification enough for some), but like Cory Crow we think it ought to generate a more substantive discussion.

Isn't it time to have King's community discussion about METRO's goals and the resources required to achieve them, instead of just deferring to Frank Wilson's whims? Are the projects and budget numbers laid out by METRO Solutions at all realistic in 2009? Should we consider rolling back the fare increases, and further subsidizing poorer riders who depend upon transit? Do our mayoral candidates have any opinions beyond "me too!" on these topics?

Please discuss.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/14/09 10:05 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (16)

Chron editorial board struggles with basic facts (again), should have just linked to local blogs

The Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank* had a few problems in their one editorial in today's tiny newspaper.

The trouble starts with the lede:

Houston Community College Board Chairman Abel Davila pulled one of the more dramatic no-shows in Houston's electoral history last week, when he failed to file for re-election.

The problem is that the filing deadline wasn't last week, but on 2 September -- nearly two weeks ago.

The Chronicle reported on the filings, but local bloggers actually described the significance of the Davila maneuver before the newspaper, which got around to that angle in a 5 September story.

And that brings us to the second problem with today's editorial:

A Chronicle op-ed written by Davila effusively praising HCC Chancellor Mary Spangler that ran the day after he failed to file contained no mention that he wouldn't be around to enjoy her future company at board meetings.

The op-ed actually ran in the 5 September edition, the same day as the belated Chron news story on the filing intrigue (but several days after the filing deadline). This was also noted on local blogs at the time.

Is it too much to ask for timely topics and minimal fact-checking from the Chronicle editorial board?

Apparently so.

They would have been better off outsourcing to local bloggers on this one.

* Cory Crow's amusing nickname for the editorial board that was formed after the March 2009 bloodletting.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/14/09 09:13 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)

13 September 2009

Sports Authority may need infusion of taxpayer cash

Five years ago, the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority came face-to-face with declining tax revenues, and had to issue millions in new bonds to make up for the shortage (via Kevin Whited's Publiustx.net):

Issuing the bonds was necessary to persuade one of the three major investment rating agencies, Moody's, not to downgrade the authority's bonds from investment grade status to junk bonds, said Ric Campo, chairman of the authority's finance committee.

The new bonds were needed to make up for declining hotel and car rental tax revenues, which the authority receives to pay off bond debt. In 2002 and 2003, the revenues sagged 10 percent.

To meet the annual payments for $900 million in previously issued bonds, the authority had projected annual 3 percent increases in hotel and car rental tax revenues.

And taxpayers were assured that all was well:

Many of those who supported building the venues said the county's residents would not pay the bills -- they would be borne by visitors who stayed in local hotels and rented cars.

"The taxpayers of Harris County really aren't affected," said Sue Millican, the authority's chief financial officer.

Not everyone believed all was well, however, and despite calls to shut down the unaccountable, quasi-governmental agency, the behemoth survived. Former HCHSA CEO Oliver Luck worked to bring a MLS franchise here, then became president of it. Former Houston City Attorney Gene Locke became general counsel to the Sports Authority, and now is a mayoral candidate. The agency is politically well-connected and will not be dismantled, despite its dubious raison d'être.

Remember KTRK-13's Wayne Dolcefino's exposé of the agency? How the Sports Authority foots the bill for the Rockets' parking garage while the Rockets pocket most of the earnings? How the agency was maintaining a suite at Minute Maid Park? And don't forget how former chairman Billy Burge let slip that the Sports Authority even paid for the ice for Aeros games.

And now we await the inevitable announcement that the city and county will be working together to help build a new soccer stadium. However, in today's Chronicle we learn that, contrary to every assurance that Harris County taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for the stadiums, the Sports Authority faces new financial challenges that may force officials to break that promise:

Harris County may be forced to pay $4 million or more to the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority due to a cascading series of challenges initiated when $117 million in stadium bonds soured at the peak of the financial crisis last year.

The payments indirectly could upend a promise to taxpayers that public money would not be spent on professional sports stadiums.

City, county and stadium authority officials have struggled to avoid that outcome for months as the due date for a balloon debt payment approaches in November.

The sports authority debt ran into trouble about a year ago when MBIA, a financial firm that insured the variable-rate bonds, was downgraded by investor analysts. The city recently experienced similar problems with about $182 million in variable-rate debt. It avoided heavy charges by using the county as an investor of last resort.

So, by all means, let's add a new soccer stadium to the mix. What could go wrong?

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: If anyone EVER wondered why we are so skeptical of government promises (of utopia, world-classness, a free ride, or what have you), we're happy to point to this as the latest illustration. We are admittedly skeptical when government tells us that taxpayers won't be on the hook for quasi-governmental projects (whether it's the sports authority or the convoluted dealings of the Houston Airport System that Richard Vacar put together with some as yet unclear level of supervision from Anthony Hall and Mayor Bill White, who assure everything is fine).

The question is, why aren't local media just a little more skeptical?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/13/09 12:22 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (11)

10 September 2009

"Ladies for Locke" draws rebuke

Nancy Sims, who describes herself as the primary female blogger covering the mayoral race, isn't pleased with some recent campaign literature that targets female voters.

Specifically, the "Ladies for Locke" invitation, posted on Sims's "Mayoral Musings" blog, was not a hit with her or others in her office:

Honestly. It is 2009. When are the women going to get seats on the Finance Committee and stop being segregated? When? Women can raise funds for political campaigns. Frankly, we don’t need to be segregated.

The Locke campaign had a boilerplate response for Sims:

Kim Devlin, spokesperson for the campaign indicated that the invite was the work of an overzealous supporter and it did not receive approval from the campaign prior to distribution.

Funny, but when I look at the invitation, I can read very clearly at the bottom: "Political Advertising Paid for by Gene Locke Campaign."

Maybe the campaign should be vetting materials that it's paying for more carefully. If the candidate and his staff can't manage that, it's not a good indicator that they can manage the more numerous and important details of municipal government.

Ladies by flickr user thenoodleator used via a Creative Commons License.

BLOGVERSATION: Houston Politics.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/09 08:18 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Linkpost: 09/10/09

It's a "slow news week" edition of the blog links, so click away for some good local blogging! And don't forget to check our Local News Headlines links through the day!

The Landry's debacle (Houston's Clear Thinkers)
"The Roving Mike": A shooting, a house fire and more mayhem (Bayou City History) More from Marvin Zindler's radio days!
Houston Chronicle Flexes Previously Untapped Powers to Mold Public Policy, Turns Mayor Into Its Willing Stooge (Well, That’s One Opinion) (Slampo's Place)
A Good Idea Implemented (Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center)
Augustine report out: Hard decisions loom for President (SciGuy)
I Disagree! (Cigars Donuts and Coffee)
Bad diagnosis, good prescription (Unca Darrell)
AFL-CIO Labor Day BBQ Cook Off (Big Jolly Politics)
Voter Interest and Likely Turnout in the 2009 Mayoral Election (Prof 13)
City Election Turnout (Greg's Opinion)
Low Turnout: Advantage Parker? (Musings)
On the economy... (Houston Politics)
I MUST chime in (Same Blog, Different Day)
Interview with George Foulard (Kuff's World)
Interview with Dexter Handy (Off the Kuff)
Interview with Jack Christie (Kuff's World)
Inside scoop on media blogging (Mike McGuff) As blogging grows up, many publishers (hobbyists and professionals alike) are faced with the tradeoff between spontaneity/timeliness that instant publishing affords, versus the cleaner copy of an edited product. The NYT goes for cleaner copy. Other pros (KTRK, Chron.com) seem somewhere in between. This is nice background from a guy who really moved TV newsblogging forward in Houston.
Climate scientists should talk about what "may" happen, rather than what "will" happen (SciGuy) SciGuy Eric Berger's mind has seemingly been made up on climate change/global warming for some time, to the point that other perspectives (no matter how scientifically grounded) were excluded from a blog many people read. It's good that Berger now professes to be opening his mind just a bit. We hope more diverse perspectives make it onto his blog moving forward.
Dunta Robinson Q and A (King Solomon's Mind) Robinson's biggest media advocate got the early interview! Unsurprisingly, it was all just business, and Robinson says he's ready to play.
Passing PECOTA: Astros set to surpass projected win total (The Crawfish Boxes)
Tiny Fountainview Fish Market is that and a litte more (Cheap Eats Examiner)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/10/09 10:21 AM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (0)

09 September 2009

Transit system continues to suffer from declining ridership, collisions

Tom Bazan passes along the latest information he has obtained from METRO via his public information requests.

Here is the METRO ridership/revenue spreadsheet compiled through July 2009.

Here is the Main Street light rail accident information from January through July 2009.

Obviously, the declining ridership figures for 2009 stand out. The accidents won't look so bad compared to the at-grade rail alignments that are being proposed downtown and in the Galleria.

Please discuss this and anything else you find interesting.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/09/09 08:49 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)

07 September 2009

Better wait a few days before trying the Chron recipes (cont'd)

The Chronicle corrections page (which frequently declines to correct factual errors like this one) is usually pretty good about correcting errors on previously published recipes (doh!), which occur with such regularity that we recommend waiting at least a week before trying any recipe published in the newspaper. Here is the latest correction, from the 3 September 2009 edition:

A recipe for pesto on Page B6 Wednesday left out an ingredient. For the complete recipe, see Page B8 today in the Letters column.

Thanks!

Surely most Chron readers already look to the letters column several days later to see why the recipe they pulled from the Chronicle wasn't a big hit. *eyeroll*

Or not. As a friendly Public Service Announcement to all, we would suggest once more that it's a really good idea to wait at least a week -- and to check the corrections section during that time -- before trying any recipes published in the Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/07/09 09:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)

05 September 2009

Linkpost: 09/05/09

Here are some local blog links to click open when you're taking a break during all those glorious football games. Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Rally for Reform? Paid Activists Support Single Payer System (Big Jolly Politics)

There were three buses that arrived between 5:45 and 6:30 pm. I think that ACORN paid for them but was never able to nail that down for certain, although I did try. Two people from the buses told me it was ACORN but a third person told me, in very broken English, that his job sent him there. He identified himself only as Rodrigo and was carrying a SEIU sign. I asked him if he was getting paid and he said yes. I also asked him where he worked, he said at a hotel but wouldn't tell me the name. But regardless of who actually paid for the buses or was paying his salary, the fact is that a large portion of the supporters at this rally were provided transportation, given t-shirts and signs, and paid to be there.
David Jennings continues his fine town-hall citizen-journalism at his new blogging home.
Chronically classy (Lone Star Times)
A Question for the Mayoral Candidates (First in A Continuing Series) (Slampo's Place)
It was a gift from comedy heaven... (Unca Darrell)
Lobbyists Can Now Register With Harris County, If They Feel Like It (Hair Balls)
Can't get downtown? Follow court cases online (Inside East Harris County)
Union Friggin’ Station (Keep Houston Houston)
Houston doesn't need zoning, but it does need better development regulations (Mean Green Cougar Red)
Mike McCoy on a mission for the Houston Police Department (Isiah Carey's Insite)
Locke, Parker spar over budget issues (Houston Politics)
Freeman and Bradford spar over SEIU endorsement (Off the Kuff)
Check Out Houston Council Candidate Karen Derr’s Classy Campaign Sign Locations (Texas Liberal)
All in the family, HCC-style (Off the Kuff)
The lineup, slightly revised (Off the Kuff)
Interview with Richard Sedita (Kuff's World)
Truce! (Musings) It's good that everyone calmed down and decided to play happy, we suppose, but here's the lesson to be drawn: If you're going to cut-and-paste from any source, you'll never be accused of plagiarism if you attribute, and attribute in great detail. Here on the blog, when we cut and paste from news stories, our attribution generally includes a link, as well as the name of the author and publication. And we've been trying hard lately to limit the length of the excerpt, because ripping 10-12 grafs in a short post with little attribution is a not-dissimilar abuse of the work of others (something many bloggers ignore). Proper attribution and fair use are good practices!
Isiah responds to allegations of blogger plagiarism (Isiah Carey's Insite)
An Open Letter To Isiah Carey of Fox 26 News Houston (Musings)
Isiah Carey simply got caught (Bay Area Houston)
Dude! Get your own blog! (Bay Area Houston)
Openings and Closings: Restaurant Revamp Edition (Swamplot)
Giacomo's Cibo e Vino: the return of chef Lynette Hawkins (Cook's Tour)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/05/09 12:43 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (0)

04 September 2009

Harris County Sheriff's Office makes the right call on media access

We were amused yesterday when Harris County Republican Party chairman Jared Woodfill issued his latest* over-the-top** email blast.

According to Woodfill, Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia had irresponsibly signed off on a plan for a quasi-terrorist organization to infiltrate the Harris County Jail! Here's an excerpt:

I was shocked and highly troubled to learn that our Democrat Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia had agreed to open the doors to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) to the Arab media network, Al-Jazeera. As you probably know, Al-Jazeera has been linked to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and numerous other terrorist organizations committed to the destruction of America and our allies.

These links are well established and not the stuff of closeted rumors. Examples include the Al-Jazeera reporter, Tayssir Alouni, who was jailed and charged in Spain for collaborating with al-Qaeda.

Even more disturbing is an account that parallels the Harris County visit, which was reported by Accuracy in Media, that reported, “Al-Jazeera International made a visit in May to Crosby, North Dakota, prompting inquiries from the local Sheriff, Lauren Throntvei, and U.S. Border Patrol. The local paper, the Crosby Journal, quoted a Border Patrol official as asking, ‘What is the interest of an Arab news organization in Crosby, North Dakota?’ The paper said that a U.S. Border Patrol agent asked for the names of the Al-Jazeera journalists, whether they had been near the border, and their stated motivations. The agent "said there were potential international implications to the journalists' visit, on which he could not elaborate." Read the full story by clicking here.

Apparently, Sheriff Garcia does not share Sheriff Throntvei’s suspicions of terrorist-linked media groups.

Woodfill went on to exhort recipients to call the sheriff's office and voice their displeasure. His initial email apparently included the dispatch number, which reportedly clogged up dispatch lines for a time.

Now, before we turn to the local angle, please indulge me for a moment while I lay out some thoughts on Al Jazeera. I suspect many Americans have not actually watched Al Jazeera's English television news broadcasts, or followed the news on their website. I use both, because my day job requires that I collect news from all over the world. Now, it's certainly true that the news organization's "perspective"*** on Israel, not to mention some Arab/Muslim nations and their relations with the United States, can come through strongly in its reporting, and sometimes that perspective is jolting to many of us (to say the least). However, it's also true that the organization covers some neglected parts of the world as well as any news organization, and that much of its English news reporting is pretty good (when traveling internationally, I'd rather watch it than CNN International if given the choice).

Turning back to the portion of Woodfill's email that I've bolded -- here is the news report by Al Jazeera English that resulted from that suspicious trip to Crosby, North Dakota:

That seems like much more of a respectful, almost Tocquevillian, look at the depopulation of rural middle America than it does quasi-terrorist propaganda! And Part 2 is well worth watching, for anyone who's so inclined. By the way, the reporting was done by Josh Rushing, the same individual who is here in town to visit our jail facilities (and to speak with HPD Chief Harold Hurtt). Today's Chronicle story describes Rushing as "a former public affairs officer for the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq." To be fair, he has also done more controversial reporting, as highlighted by David Benzion on Lone Star Times. But the question of what in the world he was doing in North Dakota seems to be answered sufficiently by the video I've embedded.

And now for the local angle.... According to Bradley Olson's reporting for the Chronicle, Rushing and Al Jazeera are working on "a long-form news story about treatment of the mentally ill by U.S. law enforcement." Olson's story notes that Chief Hurtt agreed to be interviewed. Sheriff Garcia was not interviewed, but did provide access to the Harris County jail (with a chaperone).

This afternoon, I spoke with Alan Bernstein, the director of public affairs for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, about the process of approving the request from Al Jazeera. Bernstein told me that when any such request comes in, the office basically asks two questions: 1) Is the request coming from a legitimate media organization? and 2) Is the level of access appropriate for the story being proposed?

02 September 2009

Council drama (real and fake) plays out over The One's lucrative contract

Today's City Council meeting had two types of theatrics, one of which we are not accustomed to seeing under Mayor Bill White. There was the very real drama of a councilmember who dared to defy the mayor, and prevailed despite a rare council vote on the matter of upholding a tag, and the very fake drama of "change agent" Gerry Fusco (aka The One) threatening to take his gifts from God right on to the next savior-seeking client as a result of the delay in approving his lucrative contract.

Earlier reporting indicated that Mayor White had cut a deal with Fusco for $208,000 for roughly six months of consulting. $49,500 was paid on a no-bid contract that didn't require Council approval so The One could get started right away, with the rest of the contract to be approved later by Council*. Recently, the amount was reduced, so Mayor White was hoping to have the remainder of the new contract -- $135,000 over the next five months -- approved at today's meeting.

Councilmember Jolanda Jones gummed up The Houston Way, so to speak, when she put a "tag" on the matter, a prerogative of councilmembers that delays a vote until the next Council meeting. The councilmember indicated that she (like many of us!) had questions about Fusco and the contract that had not been answered satisfactorily. As Bradley Olson reported for the Chronicle, this led to some very real drama:

White, who appeared irritated in the meeting, urged council members to override the tag, saying that it would send “the wrong signal” to Fusco and many other corporate officials he's attempted to bring into the city.

[snip]

Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck proposed that [Jones'] tag be overridden, but that vote failed to capture the required 10 votes, with several council members stating they did not want to create a precedent for overriding tags.

Fusco's current lucrative deal will expire on Friday. Since Council is not meeting next week, that means that he won't be paid further for at least two weeks.

And that brings us to the very fake "drama" that also played out today.

Linkpost: 09/02/09

It's a midweek local blogtalk compilation, for your clicking pleasure!

The Zindler tapes: The return of "The Roving Mike" (Bayou City History) Marvin Zindler: Houston's original podcaster?
Gene Green Town Hall 9-1: 65% of My District is Hispanic (Big Jolly Politics) David Jennings may have moved to a new blog, but he continues to set a great example for all citizen-journalists as he covers these town halls.
Nothing to Nothing (Camposcommunications’s Blog)

Too bad that most folks have already wrapped up their questionnaires, screenings, and endorsing or they could go and ask all the mayoral candidates “SHOW ME THE CUTS!” I think it is fair to ask the candidates today – “if you were mayor today, specifically lay out your plan on dealing with the $50 million budget shortfall?” Let’s see who demonstrates leadership and courage.

[snip]

Speaking of, last summer my old pal Bill King was warning us about City of H-Town finances and City Hall insiders were smirking at Bill and wondering what he was smoking. Any day now I expect Bill to lay out a big “I told you so.”
He's probably too classy for that. It should be a cue for people to pay attention when he talks about policy, though.
Is a 'SmartCode' the answer to Ashby? (Houston Strategies)
"SmartCode" isn't Smart (Live Oaks)
Barrelscraping (Defending People)
Former BARC Vet Sues City Over His Firing (Hair Balls)
About that disclosure (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport)
Houston: You Have No Idea Who You Want As Your Next Mayor (Hair Balls)
Texas Dem Spokesperson Takes Sides (Big Jolly Politics)
Refreshing (Unca Darrell)
Interview with Carlos Obando (Kuff's World)
Text Messaging: The Missing Link in the Houston Mayoral Social Media Strategy (David Ortez)
Insite's nice councilmember of the week (Isiah Carey's Insite)
Flu Season is around the corner! (Houston Police Chief Harold L. Hurtt's Blog) Thank you, Chief Hurtt.
The Chron Once Again Not Reporting An Astros Story (The ClownVision Chronicles)
Shocking News -- Miguel Tejada May Be Lying Again (Hair Balls)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/09 04:32 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (1)

01 September 2009

Mayor's spokesman confirms BARC move, following last week's denial

An email from a city official was floating around earlier today, and KRIV-26's Isiah Carey has confirmed the news with Mayor Bill White's communications director Frank Michel: BARC will be moving out from under the city's Health Department.

Click here for Michel's statement. According to Michel, the city is still deciding whether BARC might become its own department.

Interestingly, when Carey first reported a week ago that he was hearing rumors BARC might move, the same Frank Michel emphatically denied the rumor:

The fact is BARC will remain under the auspices of the Health Department. There are no plans to move it.

I am happy to speak to you if you have further questions.

Regards,

Frank M.

So, the possibilities would seem to be that: 1) Michel misled the media about this move, 2) Michel didn't know about the move for some reason, or 3) Mayor White decided to reverse course over the last week for some reason that he could share with the public, perhaps, being the transparent executive and all.

UPDATE: The Chronicle's reporting on the topic has been interesting as it has "evolved" today. Here is the lede that was posted on this afternoon's version of the story:

Mayor Bill White on Tuesday reversed course and announced the troubled Bureau of Animal Registration and Care will be moved out of the city health department and could be run as a free-standing agency or added to another city department, top aides confirmed.

Later in the day, that lede evolved to this much more positive one (with no warning to readers):

Mayor Bill White, impatient with the slow place [sic] of reform at the city's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, has changed course and decided to separate the troubled agency from the city Department of Health and Human Services.

To interrupt the cheerleading for just one second.... given how long this problem has lingered because it hasn't been a mayoral priority, isn't it a little silly to editorialize about the mayor's impatience" at the "place" of reform? And wasn't the earlier lede, with just the facts and without the editorializing, in fact a better news lede?

BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/01/09 02:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

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