05 January 2009
Murders decline in 2008
KHOU-11's Jeff McShan reports that murders as reported by HPD declined in 2008:
In 2006, there were 376 homicides within the city limits. In 2007, the number dropped to 347, and in 2008, it dropped again to 292.
300+ murders was an outrage, so it's good that the city is now (barely) below that number.
That is, if we can trust the numbers reported by HPD. Recall that McShan's colleague Mark Greenblatt has exposed past misreporting of murders by HPD.
It will be interesting to see the overall crime numbers for 2008.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/05/09 10:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 January 2009
Rebuild UTMB
Way back in November, we noted the problems caused by Ike to UTMB, and pointed out that it would be nice if various pols could get behind rebuilding the important resource.
While people were busy shopping and decking the halls and such in December, the issue did get some attention from opinion leaders.
Mayor Bill White, County Judge Ed Emmett, and Dr. Red Duke pointed out the gap in medical services caused by UTMB's service reduction in an op-ed in the Chronicle.
Local industry has sounded the alarm regarding the loss of UTMB's excellent trauma services.
And Texas Monthly's Mimi Swartz effectively blasted UT's board of regents for its response to UTMB's plight (and its likely illegal November meeting that resulted in massive layoffs at the institution).
A lawsuit is pending regarding the regents' likely illegal meeting, but that lawsuit will have about as much impact on the UTMB decisionmaking as a Facebook page or online petition (not much). If area pols (and people) don't get behind restoring this important medical resource, it seems likely that its decline will be permanent (and it will hardly surprise if a shiny new med school opens in, say, Austin, eventually). As a growing region in a growing state, we can hardly afford any permanent reduction in area medical capabilities, so here's hoping our area pols get their act together on this.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/09 10:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
30 December 2008
Houston tops a list it doesn't want to be on
I found an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle. It's titled:
"Study: Houston leads in homicides by black youths"
Allan Turner writes a good article citing a study done by James Fox and Marc Swatt. Their study puts Houston at the top of the list of homicides by young black youths. Mostly the victims are also black youths.
This is a touchy subject due to the politically correct status quo we live in. So, to avoid controversy, what do these academics suggest is the reason?Focusing on the period between 2000-01 and 2006-07, the study found Houston at the top of a list of 28 U.S. cities, with a 139 percent increase in the number of young African-Americans suspected in killings.
In 2006-07, 129 young black men were murdered in the city, up from 42 in 2000-01.
Okay, we've got the federal government to blame.Fox and his associate, criminologist Marc Swatt, argued in the report that the increases occurred as the federal government cut support for community policing and intervention programs put in place to combat a rise in gang violence in the 1990s.
"Kids can't wait, and crime doesn't wait," Fox said. "There is a significant need here — a large group of kids with inadequate, inferior education and a ready access to guns. A teenager with a gun in his hand is a dangerous individual."
Okay, kids and guns don't mix. Never mind that millions of kids (like me and my brother) were raised around guns but were taught about responsibility and consequences at an early age by our father.
Of course Quanell has to weigh in since he is the Chronicle's duly appointed community activist.
Isn't he considered a 'leader in the African-American community?' Then this is an indictment of him too.Houston community activist Quanell X called the study a "blanket indictment of the city and government officials in the city and a greater indictment of ministers and political leaders of the African-American community."
Shape Community Center's Deloyd Parker questioned the way the study was conducted. "When they say 'offender,' does that mean someone who's charged with a crime or been convicted?" he said. "Sometimes even being convicted doesn't mean you're actually guilty."
Of course we have the 'ostrich' response!
I wish I could find the young black woman I met two years ago in southwest Houston. She works hard trying to raise her two young boys whose father left them. Her oldest son was on probation and her youngest son had just been arrested for auto theft. Who did she blame? She was upset at her son, not the police. Ask her. She could shed some light on this problem. We talked for over an hour about absentee fathers, lack of positive role models, the glorification of the 'gangsta' lifestyle by rap music, and the lack of personal responsibility. This extraordinary woman could answer this problem better than academia. I wonder how Houston will wear this scarlet letter!
Posted by Jason @ 12/30/08 11:17 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
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 (4)
18 December 2008
METRO police babysit the Danger Train
For the past month, METRO police officers have been doing something a little different:
The transit agency has parked officers at six downtown intersections every day for the past month, aimed at preventing motorists from making illegal turns into the path of oncoming light rail trains.
There have been 57 accidents on the rail line this year — five fewer than in the first year of operation — many of them the result of illegal turns, the transit agency has said.
The officers are monitoring the intersections as part of a pilot program that began Nov. 17, said Police Chief Tom Lambert of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. Last month, the city of Houston and Metro made adjustments to traffic signals at the same intersections to allow rail cars to proceed a few moments ahead of motorists.
"Some may say we're being very aggressive with having officers at every intersection," Lambert said. "But we have a responsibility to public safety to make sure we reduce accidents."
Lambert said he will scale back the number of officers at the intersections along Main at St. Joseph, Franklin, Texas, Prairie, Preston and Congress. He said his review revealed no accidents had occurred at those sites since the start of the pilot program.
Starting Friday, he said, officers will be assigned to patrol "as appropriate" between Pierce and Commerce.
The change could not come soon enough for Metro officers, who have questioned the wisdom of requiring police to sit at the intersections for an entire shift rather than being out on patrol, said Dean Goodrick, the president of the Houston Police Patrolman's Union.
Remember, this is the same police department that said it cannot possibly patrol its entire service area. But it can spare 6 officers to sit and watch the Danger Train all day long.
That's how Chief Lambert does safety.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/18/08 07:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
Elizabeth Shelton sues driver she hit, while drunk, for her mental suffering!
Remember Elizabeth Shelton? The daughter of the Harris County judge who was drunk, rear ended a box truck and ended up killing her boyfriend who was her passenger? I can't remember her ever showing remorse that her boyfriend was killed. She and her father blamed the truck driver for the accident, trying to distract the jury from the fact that she was 20 (too young to be legally drinking alcohol) and three times the legal limit. In other words, the girl was drunk!!!! She was given basically a slap on the wrist. Again she amazes us all with her poor sense of judgment! She is suing the box truck driver she hit while she was drunk!
So she is arguing that while she was driving drunk, she rear ended a box truck, killed her boyfriend, and she's suffering mental anguish! She must still be in denial or trying to convince the public it wasn't her fault even though she was drunk. Or her insurance won't pay off or got canceled because she was drunk and she wants a new Lexus SUV. I didn't want to lump her in with her father's position as a judge. Even judges can have bad apples. Yet, according to the article, her family, and the family of the dead man are also suing the box truck driver. So maybe she isn't the only one with a lapse in reasoning.Shelton, her family and the family of the boyfriend who was killed are suing for $20,000 for the destruction of the Lexus SUV she was driving and an undetermined amount for mental anguish, pain and suffering.
Posted by Jason @ 12/18/08 11:07 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (25)
17 December 2008
Airport survey to cost almost $700k
KHOU-11 reports that city council has approved Houston Airport System's request for a passenger survey:
The people that run Houston two major airports want to know what you think about them.
They asked the city to spend $686,000 on a survey of passengers passing through Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport.
The city council agreed. The survey will ask about everything from ground transportation to ticketing to concessions.
I'd LOVE to see what people think of Terminal C's concessions.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/17/08 06:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
13 December 2008
Swamplot award nominations (updated!)
Swamplot has added to the Houston real estate fun by introducing the Swampies -- awards dedicated to the "best and most of Houston Real Estate in 2008." There are ten categories, and the blog's proprietor(s) are looking for nominations.
I have my own idea about what is the "Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate in 2008," but we'll see if it makes the cut.
Best of luck to all the nominees!
UPDATE: And the nominees are:
1. Construction Is Completed on the Katy Freeway
2. Vestalia Opens for Business
3. The Astrodome Goes Dark
4. Discovery Tower Begins Construction
5. The Opening of Discovery Green
6. Inland Houston Escapes Extensive Flooding
7. Get-to-Know-Your-Neighbor Week
My fave made the list! Woo!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/08 02:34 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
Shuttle fly-by
How cool is this?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/08 12:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
Klein Oak student accesses non-password protected file with school-issued laptop, gets expelled
At Klein Oak High, a freshman reportedly gained computer access to thousands of employees’ personal information while in class.
"He was just clicking on folders in a network. Then he clicked on a folder that was not password protected," said Daniel Merritt, the boy’s father.
When Klein Oak handed out 3,000 laptops last fall, it became apparent within, oh, about 30 seconds that Klein ISD was in over its head. That's about how long it took the teens to start exploring their new little toys. And we all know how kids love to test boundaries.
What it essentially boils down to is that the district was completely unprepared, which is just mind-boggling.
Michael Garfield, a computer expert, said that a network is a shared pipeline where any number of people can share the same files.
“If you don't want anybody else accessing it, you have to make sure it’s locked down with password encryption,” said Garfield.
Daniel's father and uncle are standing behind him. They said the teen realizes he made a mistake, but so did the school.
The school district admitted that not all files are password protected, but other restrictions are in place to prohibit access.
"Not all files are password protected." Stunning.
And so, yesterday, a computer generated call was made to all Klein Oak parents warning of the consequences of students doing things they shouldn't be doing:
On behalf of Klein Oak High School administration, beginning Monday, December 15th, students will no longer be issued warnings for technology violations. All technology violations will receive a discipline based upon the severity of the incident. Please remember that these disciplinary measures may affect your child's exemption status.
Secondly, due to the number of violations of the district's technology acceptable use procedures, students will no longer be able to run executable files from their USB or media ports. Also, in lieu collecting the tablets for the holiday and in order to ensure safety and prevent violations of the acceptable use procedures over the winter break, all students will be denied internet access except to the district's LMS site from the afternoon of December 19th to the morning of January 5th. During this period, students will also have zero access to USB and or media ports.
In the comments at the end of KHOU's story is this:
Klein ISD knew they had poor security back in October. They were warned by a security expert.
So when does Due Diligence play a part for Klein ISD when it comes to protecting peoples data? Giving students access to the same network this data is stored on only proves they have a very poor understanding of security.
Their new policy to restrict the use of portable devices via the USB port will NOT stop a full breech of the system.
As for the student:
Simply taking the files because they were in an unlocked folder is the same as saying it’s ok to take stuff from someone’s house because they didn't lock their door; it simply doesn't fly.
That being said Klein MUST accept the fact that THEY failed to practice Due Diligence and therefore MUST accept at least HALF the responsibility of this breech.
Following the same analogy of the house:
If you live in a violent neighborhood (and any network can be violent) and are warned to lock your doors, and fail to do so and get robbed, you must accept at least half the responsibility of the theft as you failed to follow due diligence in protecting yourself.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/08 11:16 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (25)
10 December 2008
Snow?!
Goodness! It was snowing as I left work this afternoon, and it had actually covered my windshield. That was unexpected!
Thankfully, no shoveling needed. We moved here to get away from that nonsense. =)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/10/08 06:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
09 December 2008
Dynamo Stadium (con't)
KHOU-11 has a blurb posted with the latest on Dynamo Stadium negotiations:
Dynamo officials are prepared to invest $50 million in the stadium, but they still need approximately $10 million from the city and another $10 million from the county.
The Dynamo presented a plan to the county, but on Tuesday Commissioners Sylvia Garcia and El Franco Lee said they will ask the county to run the numbers again.
They said they want to make sure that the deal is feasible in a weak economy.
Back in June, it was a $110 million project; now it's $70 million? And since the city's already spent $15 million for land, is Mayor White willing to drop another $10 million on a sports stadium, at the same time he's planning on cutting back on infrastructure improvements due to the credit crisis?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/09/08 07:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
08 December 2008
Fast Company profiles Opportunity Houston
The latest Fast Company has a feature on Opportunity Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership's multimillion dollar effort to market Houston. Here is an excerpt from the article:
Houston's corporate mandarins set a goal of creating 600,000 new jobs by 2016. But the region was doing a lackluster job selling itself. "Houston had no brand," says John Hofmeister, an architect of Opportunity Houston and former president of Shell Oil. Even when companies took the initiative to inquire about moving to Houston, the partnership, with its shoestring budget, had little capacity to reply helpfully. Its leaders regularly declined invitations to fly to make presentations, citing a lack of funds. The city government did little -- it had only one full-time economic-development employee.
So two years ago, Hofmeister joined Moseley, Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane, and marketer Gio Tomasini on a fund-raising tour of executive suites. They collected $30 million, a fund initially directed toward building buzz with a new marketing push and attending economic-development conferences. In March, Richard was recruited from the consultancy Hawes Hill Calderon to help turn hype into deals.
Since last spring, the relocation pipeline has ballooned from fewer than 500 corporate candidates to well over 1,100. And during 2007, Opportunity Houston's pilot year, the partnership tallied $500 million in new capital investment and $15.2 billion in new foreign trade directly related to its efforts.
The entire story is here. Please give it a read and come back to discuss!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/08 10:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
Olds: Prospects for Astrodome Hotel financing still dicey
Here is the lede on Bill Murphy's latest Chronicle story on the proposed Astrodome Hotel boondoggle:
The credit crunch has not killed the effort to turn the Astrodome into an upscale convention hotel, but the project's developers and county officials are unsure whether financing for the $450 million plan can be obtained.
As Tom Kirkendall has pointed out since Astrodome hotel fantasy first surfaced, the prospects of anyone financing the dubious project (absent a huge "investment" by government) were always slim, not that one would ever guess from Murphy's cheerleading/reporting.
Indeed, in a serious newspaper with more demanding editors, Murphy would never have been allowed to report so optimistically and glowingly for so long about the dreamed-of boondoggle without at least including some hard financial analysis to balance the cheerleading. Cory Crow also points out that the Texans and the Rodeo remain as significant hurdles that have yet to be overcome.
At some point, we're going to have to start considering some realistic solutions to the Astrodome problem. Judge Emmett has peeked at the little blog in the past -- so feel free to leave him your recommendations in the comments!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/08 09:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
07 December 2008
Reform you can believe in: Lykos targets short skirts!
Following last week's purge of experienced prosecutors and investigators who supported the wrong political candidate, the new regime in the Harris County District Attorney's Office took the opportunity to address misdemeanor prosecutors.
Given the problems the DA's office has suffered in the last year, not to mention the big "reform" campaigns run by both candidates, one might expect that top Lykos lieutenant Jim Leitner had plenty of serious issues to discuss.
And perhaps he will, one day. But as Murray Newman reports on his blog, last week's message was that Pat Lykos is not opposed to pant suits. Seriously. However, Lykos apparently does NOT like short skirts. Seriously!
Mark Bennett has a nice post on this "Reassurance of the Pants."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/08 02:12 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
Adventures in homeownership
Sometimes owning a home can be a challenge (via KPRC-2):
Mountains Of Hurricane Mulch Invade Houston Neighborhood
If you haven't already, you should watch the video to see just how big the mountains of mulch are.
Homeowner Finds Roof In Unexpected Place
And this is unbelievable. Maybe the homeowner should see if the roofer in question has registered with the city.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/07/08 07:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
05 December 2008
KRIV: Bettencourt resigns! (UPDATED)
KRIV-26 is reporting some shocking political news (via Mike McGuff and Twitter):
FOX 26 News has learned Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt has turned in his resignation to Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.
Sources tell FOX 26 Bettencourt turned in his resignation letter Thursday, and it is effective Wednesday.
Betterncourt has been unavailable for comment.
[snip]
Sources said Bettencourt has chosen to work in the private sector.
There's not much to say until this story is fleshed out a bit more, but if this is another case of a popular Republican running and winning while planning to step down the whole time (à la Judge Eckels), the little blog will be displeased once again. But perhaps there are mitigating circumstances, so we'll withhold judgment for now.
UPDATE: The Chronicle is now reporting the same story, citing Joe Stinebaker.
UPDATE 2: KHOU-11's Doug Miller has more.
UPDATE 3: The story seems to be that Bettencourt resigned to pursue a business opportunity he just received. Maybe that's even true. Unfortunately, the appearance is that Bettencourt misled voters about his intention to serve them just as Robert Eckels misled voters about his intention to serve them, because local Republican Party leaders (oxymoron?) knew that a non-incumbent Harris County Republican running in 2008 (and on) would be in a lot of trouble. Perhaps someone should inform the aspiring Machiavelli behind these moves that the Texas Republican brand is damaged, and that misleading voters about one's intention to serve if elected further damages the brand.
UPDATE 4: Paul Burka speculates about what's behind the Bettencourt resignation.
UPDATE 5 (12/07/2008): Bettencourt is finally quoted in the Chronicle, and doesn't seem at all bothered about misleading voters and citizens, who had every reason to expect he would serve out his term:
"I've had a wonderful 10 years of service with great people at the office who have done good things for the taxpayers of Harris County," Bettencourt, 50, said Saturday, a day after word of his planned departure was leaked to the media and broken on the late-night news.
"But there comes a time when you decide that further challenges await you and that you know you need to accept those challenges before maybe you get to the age where someone won't offer you the opportunity," he said.
[snip]
Bettencourt said he first entertained the idea of leaving the county during the summer, well after the GOP primary, when it looked like he and every other Republican in Harris County were headed for defeat. But he insisted no serious discussions about the offer he chose to accept occurred before the Nov. 4 election.
"This business venture is something that took shape after the election and not before," he said.
"You can always think pie in the sky, what do I do if the election doesn't turn out your way. It's another thing to have a thought like that and be approached to have a discussion about a new business venture.
In other words, the man isn't bothered by breaking his commitment to voters but has offered no compelling information as to why we shouldn't be bothered. It's the latest case of a local GOP official misleading citizens and voters, and it's deplorable.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle's Liz Austin Peterson has this quote from Bicyclist Bob Stein:
It is almost unheard of for an incumbent to resign before being sworn in to his new term, Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said. The timing of Bettencourt's decision was suspect, he said, because a lesser-known Republican might have struggled to win in a year Democrats so heavily dominated countywide elections.
True enough. However, Peterson might have added that Bob Stein is a Democrat. For that matter, perhaps the Chronicle could, on occasion, find some source other than Bob Stein to cite.
Peterson does confirm that the news was leaked to local media late Friday. There's only one reason to leak political news that way: Because it stinks and someone wants to bury it. While one can understand why the Harris County GOP's local Machiavellis might want to hide the fact that they have deceived voters and citizens (again), a better move would have been not to do it in the first place, especially after the Eckels example!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/08 09:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (28)
04 December 2008
Study: Accidents in Texas decline signficantly at red-light-camera intersections
Earlier in the week, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported on a state-mandated red-light camera study:
A statewide study by institute researchers shows that monitored intersections had an overall 30 percent decrease in collisions.
The state-mandated report, released Tuesday by the Texas Department of Transportation, examined data from 56 intersections across the state, including many in Houston, from July 1, 2007, to June 30.
The data and analysis are limited because some cities' cameras went online during the study period and their post-installation data were not complete. But the report states that the cameras could be changing driver behavior.
"While these results cannot conclusively determine that red light cameras are responsible for the overall reduction in crashes ... the presence of the treatment provided some effect on the frequency of crashes at the selected intersections for the limited time period of this analysis," the report states.
The study examined crashes at select intersections from 12 cities that were required to report accidents under a new state law. The data show that right-angle collisions were reduced by 43 percent, while rear-end collisions increased by 5 percent, mirroring the results of other studies across the nation.
Chronicle letter writer Dell Ayres remains skeptical, however:
In response to Wednesday's Page One story "RED-LIGHT CAMERAS CUT WRECKS 30% / A&M analysis finds that system does more than collect millions of dollars for cities": I would be more impressed with the 30 percent reduction figure if Texas A&M University had also included statistics from a comparable number of intersections that do not have cameras.
I suspect that $4-a-gallon gas had more to do with the drop than cameras. Since there were fewer cars on the road, it makes sense that there would be fewer accidents. Camera or no camera.
It's doubtful that traffic at dangerous intersections declined 43% (the reduction in right-angle collisions at monitored intersections), but the letter writer does raise a good point about needing to have some standard of comparison. It would be helpful to know statistics about dangerous intersections that don't currently have red-light cameras.
It does stand to reason that highly-publicized enforcement efforts are likely to result in a reduction of the undesired behavior, all things being equal. That's why I've never understood why the signage at intersections monitored by red-light cameras in Houston is so minimal (almost invisible). Some communities that use red-light cameras have much more prominent signage, which acts as a deterrent. Indeed, some places have even been known to use prominent signage and dummy camera equipment for the deterrent effect. If it's all about safety (and not at all about the revenue), then one might expect more prominent signage at Houston's camera-monitored intersections. But there is minimal signage in Houston, and the city refuses to do more.
And that brings us to my other longstanding concern. Even if the city's motive is some combination of revenue and safety, the red-light camera vendor's motive is revenue. In other cities, we have seen the red-light times adjusted in ways that "catch" more violators and boost revenue. We trust Mayor White when he says that he won't put up with that here, but the fact is he's already plotting his next political campaign, and won't always be in charge here -- but the company that has an incentive to boost its revenues will still be around.
And finally, we come to my last objection to the current system -- the inconvenience it causes to someone wrongly accused. The city could easily have required a system that would snap a photo of the driver and provide positive ID of violators, but it declined to build what would have been a fairer system. We do know that camera-enforcement errors can happen, and it's a pain to straighten out such errors. It would have been nice if Houston's system had been designed with more of a positive ID-component.
Still, it's good news that bad drivers are paying a little more attention to red lights at some intersections. If the cameras are responsible, great. They're obviously not going away. So who could object to improving the signage, educational, and due-process components of Houston's system (if it's not at all about the revenue)?
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/08 11:33 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
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 @ 12/03/08 11:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (25)
02 December 2008
The Lykos political purge begins
Harris County District Attorney-elect Pat Lykos has already begun to purge perceived political enemies from the DA's office.
Here's an excerpt from A Harris County Lawyer, the prosecutor whose blog has provided an invaluable look inside the DA's Office, about the process:
The Lykos Administration took affect last week with District Attorney Ken Magidson extending the professional courtesy to Jim Leitner of hiring him on to do Pat Lykos' bidding prior to her taking office on January 1, 2009.
Yesterday, all District Attorney employees learned the drill: Leitner sent you an e-mail that invited you for a "meeting" where he told you that the Lykos Administration would not be re-hiring you as an employee. By the end of yesterday's count, he had taken out four investigators and one prosecutor.
[snip]
We walked into his Office, where former-Judge Roger Bridgwater was working.
Jim started fumbling with his desk, saying he didn't know where "the letter" was. Judge Bridgwater told him it was in his desk. Jim ultimately found it.
It was a letter from Lykos thanking me for my service, but letting me know that my services were not needed under her administration. I found it a bit disingenuous considering the letter she had sent all District Attorney employees after the Republican primary run-off where she told us all that as long as we didn't campaign for Bradford that our jobs would be okay.
Wow. Never trust a politician. Who knew?
So, anyway, I read my "thanks for trying 55 felony cases more than I will ever try" letter from Lykos and calmly put it back in the envelope.
Go read the whole thing.
While these sorts of purges are to be expected -- certainly from someone with Pat Lykos' reputation for vindictiveness -- one would hope that the local media would at least give it a little bit of attention as some good career public servants are shown the door and Lykos acts... pretty much as those in the legal community who know her expected she would.
UPDATE: The Chronicle reports on the issue here.
UPDATE 2: KPRC-2 has more.
RELATED: Week of Republican hatchet jobs continues (Defending People), In defense of Murray Newman (Ron's Insanity), Lyin' Patty Lykos starts swinging her claws (Lone Star Times), The Lykos strikes back (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport), Lykos brings changes to Harris DA (Grits for Breakfast), A very, very rare purge begins at the DA's office (Hair Balls).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/02/08 11:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
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ACTIVE TOPICS
The threads above are the most recently active in the blogHOUSTON comments (RSS).
LOCAL BLOG TALK
This section is regularly updated with posts from local bloggers who add to the blogversation about Houston media, politics, and life. It is powered with a little help from Furl.
LOCAL BLOGS
- Pure Bloggers
- +A Certain Slant of Light
- +A Veneer of Certainty
- +Ain't Chicken
- +Around Town Houston
- +B.S. Houston ArtBlog
- +Baboon Pirates
- +Bayou City Madman
- +Beldar Blog
- +Blue Bayou
- +Boyd's Blog
- +Brazosport News
- +Business Unusual
- +By the Bayou
- +Chelsea Hotel No. 2
- +Chief Hurtt's Blog
- +Connections
- +Custos Fidei
- +Defending People (Mark Bennett)
- +Diana's Place
- +Dissonance
- +Down the Writer's Path
- +Fabulous Jen
- +Fireballs, Lightning Bolts and Hell Storms
- +Food In Houston
- +Greg's Opinion
- +H-Town Grooves
- +High Tech Texan
- +Houblog.com
- +Houston Calling
- +Houston Consigliere
- +Houston Photobloggers
- +Houston Strategies
- +Houston's Clear Thinkers
- +Houston, Hot and Humid
- +Houstonist
- +Houtopia
- +Intermodality
- +Jeff Balke
- +John Little
- +Laurence Simon
- +Laurie Kendrick
- +Liberty's Blog
- +Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
- +Lone Star Times
- +Lose an Eye
- +Lou Minatti
- +Metroblogging Houston
- +Midtown Live
- +Misunderestimation
- +Off the Kuff
- +Perfectly Cromulent
- +Perry vs World
- +Polimom
- +Professors R-Squared
- +PubliusTX.net
- +Quaint Quiescence
- +Rant Fever
- +Red Ink: Texas
- +Rep. John Culberson's Blog
- +Right of Texas
- +Run Houston
- +She Eats
- +Sit, Ubu, Sit!
- +Slampo's Place
- +Stolen Thunder
- +Talk In Texas
- +Texas Liberal
- +Texas Safety Forum
- +Texas Yankee
- +The County Seat
- +The Light Bulb
- +Twelve Two Two Fondue
- +WILLisms
- +Write on METRO
- Journo Bloggers
- +Brent Clanton
- +HC: About Chron
- +HC: About Last Night
- +HC: Baseball
- +HC: Bayou City History
- +HC: Cook's Tour
- +HC: David Barron
- +HC: Hand Stamp
- +HC: Helpline
- +HC: Houston Departures
- +HC: Houston Politics
- +HC: Inside Central Houston
- +HC: Jerome Solomon
- +HC: John McClain/NFL
- +HC: Loren Steffy
- +HC: MeMo
- +HC: Nick Anderson
- +HC: School Zone
- +HC: SciGuy
- +HC: Sports Justice
- +HC: Sports Soup
- +HC: Tag's Baseball Plays
- +HC: Tech Blog
- +HC: Texas on the Potomac
- +HC: The Unofficial Scorer
- +HC: UH Cougars
- +HP: Eating Our Words
- +HP: HouStoned
- +HP: HouStoned Ballz
- +HP: HouStoned Rocks
- +Isiah Carey's Insite
- +KTRK: Consumer Blog
- +KTRK: Miya Shay
- +KTRK: Prof 13
- +KTRK: Roussel Report
- +KTRK: Tim Heller
- +Matt Lavine's Left Field News
- +Mike McGuff
The local blogs above cover topics of interest. Drop us a line if you blog about local topics and would like us to consider your blog. While a link back to blogHOUSTON is not required, it would be much appreciated.
LOCAL NEWS
+Examiner News
+Houston Business Journal
+Houston Chronicle
+Houston Community News
+Houston Forward Times
+Houston Press
+KPRC-2 (NBC)
+KHOU-11 (CBS)
+KTRK-13 (ABC)
+KRIV-26 (FOX)
+KTRH-740 AM
+KPRC-950 AM
+KUHF-88.7 FM (NPR)
LOCAL INFO
+AOL Cityguide
+B4-U-Eat
+Citysearch Houston
+Crime Maps & Stats
+Houston Architecture Info Forum
+Houston Chronicle Dining
+Houston Press Dining
+KPFT Music Calendar
+Links to Houston
+Pollstar (Houston)
+RadioInfo.com (Houston)
+Red Pub
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+Radio talker Chris Baker
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+Chron columnist Ken Hoffman
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+Slampo
"You harp and whine and snipe. I stopped reading weeks ago, but some guy still e-mails me bits, which I don't have the good sense not to read."
+Chron columnist Richard Justice
"Some of my colleagues probably refuse to click here, or say they refuse. It's not the kindest blog toward the Chronicle, but I don't mind."
+Former Chron columnist John Lopez
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+Ken Layne
"While I may not necessarily agree with it 100% of the time, your comments are thoughtful and reasoned."
+Councilman Michael Berry
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+Laurence Simon
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+Rob Booth
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+Charles Kuffner
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+A prominent local PR official
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+Cindy Chaffin
"... a nice, professional site...."
+Chris Elam
"... blogHouston.net looks *great*."
+Alex Whitlock
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+Vikk Simmons
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+A local news exec via email
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+Aziz H. Poonawalla
"Brilliant ... absolutely brilliant."
+Greg Wythe
"[A] lot of public masturbation...."
+Bayou City Madman
"I am amazed that you ... have time to worry about things like this."
+Chron cartoonist Nick Anderson
"[I]t's clear your reality and facts are not one and the same."
+WOAI/San Antonio talker Joe Pags
[T]heir political commentary involves absolutely no analysis, ever.... It's hackery."
+Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
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