Please check out our new Local News Headlines page.

19 October 2009

Houston mayoral candidate loans money to campaign, charges usurious interest rate

Political candidates loan themselves money all the time.

Indeed, mayoral candidate Peter Brown has surged into the lead in Houston's mayoral race largely based on media buys made possible by the large amounts of money he has loaned his campaign.

And then there are lesser candidates who loan themselves money.

At usurious interest rates.

The current prime interest rate (as of posting) is 3.25%.

As per the most recent local campaign finance filings, mayoral candidate Roy Morales loaned his campaign the relatively minor sum (as Houston mayoral campaigns go) of $927.86

Morales is charging his campaign 15% interest on that loan.

It's not the first time candidate Morales has charged his campaign usurious interest rates.

In 2007, he loaned his campaign a truly minor sum (as local campaigns go): $100.

He charged his campaign 23% interest!

In contrast, Peter Brown has not charged his campaign any interest on the considerable loans in this campaign.

We have no idea why any candidate (even a marginal one) would charge usurious interest rates for relatively small amounts of money, so we will crowdsource this one. What do you think?

UPDATE (10-20-2009): David Jennings obtained an explanation from the Morales campaign.

BLOGVERSATION: Red Ink: Texas.

All campaign finance references courtesy of the CoH searchable campaign finance database. We've checked, doublechecked, and triplechecked our figures, but always welcome extra eyes. Unlike the Chronicle, we make prompt corrections.

Roy Morales screencap courtesy Roy Morales campaign website.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/19/09 11:11 PM | Comments (2)

13 October 2009

Texas Watchdog: M.J. Khan still can't decide where he lives

Lame-duck councilmember and city controller candidate M.J. Khan apparently still can't decide where he lives.

For years, questions about his true residency have dogged Khan. And as Steve Miller and Jennifer Peebles point out at Texas Watchdog, Khan's latest campaign donations raise those questions once again:

When Khan filled out his 2009 personal financial statement -- due back in April -- he listed under "address" 6289 Wilcrest Drive, No. 6103 --that's in Alief, inside both the city limits and Khan's council district. However, Khan did not check the adjoining box that said "check if filer's home address."

The home at 6289 Wilcrest is also the address that Khan had listed on his Harris County voter registration as of Monday. And it's the address that Khan gave to John McCain's presidential campaign when he gave money to the Arizona senator in 2007, and which the McCain camp listed on Federal Election Commission disclosure filings.

But when Khan donated last year to the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat who was the first Muslim elected to Congress, he listed another address -- a 10,000-square-foot home in Piney Point Village listed in county property tax records in his wife's name.

It must be very confusing trying to keep track of two residences and where one lives for political versus practical purposes.

Nonetheless, that's just sloppy.

Political candidates who hope to move up the political food chain via carpetbagging really need to be much smoother in their ~~lies~~ presentations of their case to the public.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/13/09 07:43 AM | Comments (1)

11 October 2009

Bill White's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (#3)

Don't pay the bills (via KUHF-88.7):

Jeanette Rash is on the SafeClear Management Team. Her company is one of the contractors for the program. She says councilmembers' concerns about maintaining a fair market are valid.

[snip]

One of the challenges is the overhead required for companies to participate. Rash says smaller operations get frozen out because financially they can't compete.

"For instance, it has been three months since we received payment because the money hasn't been allocated. "

With sales tax revenues dropping, one presumes financial prioritizing becomes key for the city.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/11/09 09:56 AM | Comments (1)

10 October 2009

Mayor White backtracks from Mayor White: immigration screening program

Oh sure, he's already backtracked from this once before, but now he really, really means it (via the Chron's Susan Carroll):

White, who is running for U.S. Senate, now appears to be backing away from the program, saying ICE officials were "bureaucratic" in the negotiations. Vincent Picard, an ICE spokesman, declined comment on the Houston negotiations.

"Rather than letting us simply write the agreements on our own terms, they want to put language in there that we object to," White said. "We don't want anything that creates obligations on the part of the city, or that would be inconsistent with our policies not to divert patrol officers from solving crimes."

Mayor White is used to being the big chief, but being told by the feds that if he wants to participate in the feds' program, he'll have to follow the feds' rules is just too much for him to tolerate.

White said he would have preferred for the city to just have access to the government's immigration database last spring, but was told by DHS officials that he would need to sign up for 287(g) in order to use the database.

But there's even a problem with that:

However, the city so far lacks the technical capability to directly access ICE's immigration database. White said he plans to have the technical problems resolved before the end of year, when he leaves office.

When he leaves office -- meaning the next mayor will get to deal with it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/10/09 08:49 AM | Comments (1)

07 October 2009

Which of these does not belong?

Texas Watchdog has followed up on their interesting story on Gene Locke's A&K/Sports Authority connections with this more general post on mayoral fundraising (including Locke's A&K fundraising connections).

The post includes a nice roundup of posts from local bloggers, who have done a good job devoting attention to a mayoral race that, frankly, has bored us to tears (although we have enjoyed the recent, overdue dissection of Gene Locke's insider ties and Houston Way connections).

Oddly, Slampo's latest and greatest is not included in the roundup, but The Plagiarist's lazy, weak column for the Chronicle is. Still, the Watchdogs saved us from doing the roundup*, and for that we're thankful!

* We realize we haven't done a blog talk linkpost in a while... life has been busy, but they'll be back soon!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/07/09 09:43 PM | Comments (2)

26 September 2009

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 | Comments (6)

17 September 2009

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 | Comments (2)

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 | 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 | Comments (1)

31 August 2009

Last-minute entrant into Houston mayoral race stuns political observers

Houston political observers were still buzzing on Monday night after a last-minute entrant into the mayoral race surged to a huge lead in the latest public polling.

Candidate Don't Know, who had hinted at entering the race earlier in the year, only to back away from such plans during the summer, would easily coast to victory if the mayoral race were held today, according to a KHOU-11/KUHF-88.7 poll conducted by Bicyclist Bob Stein:

Poll of Likely Voters in Houston Mayoral Race (08/30/2009)

69.2% Don't Know
13.2% Annise Parker
09.6% Gene Locke
05.2% Peter Brown
02.8% Roy Morales

Margin of error: 4.5%; Source: KHOU-11/KUHF-88.7

A spokesperson for the Don't Know campaign said on Monday night that the candidate was enthusiastic about his commanding lead after a last-minute entry into the race: "It's astounding and flattering that we are so far ahead in this race, what with our late announcement and all. We believe it justifies our decision to enter the race after the three major contenders failed to distinguish themselves all summer long. We look forward to continuing to take a message other than 'me too!' all across this fine city and building on our lead!"

The Peter Brown campaign announced that they would be unveiling a plan for more television ads sometime next week, when the councilmember returns from his vacation in France.

City Controller Annise Parker tweeted that her campaign disputes the numbers, and that their internal polling shows that she is much more competitive against Don't Know.

The Gene Locke campaign reminded three bloggers at a hastily called Social Media Happy Hour that Locke has more endorsements from important organizations than any candidate, including Don't Know.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/31/09 10:20 PM | Comments (7)

25 August 2009

Locke offers his "me too!" on Ashby highrise; campaigns free to move on to other areas of agreement

On Sunday, we posted about the decision by the City of Houston late Friday to notify local media (but not the developers) about its decision to approve the latest revisions to the Ashby highrise proposal. We noted that mayoral candidate Annise Parker was first out of the gate with a Saturday news release crafted to appeal to the well-heeled residents opposed to the highrise, followed by Peter Brown's brief interruption of his vacation in France to tweet about the matter. Rich Connelly elaborated on their responses here yesterday.

The Locke campaign did not weigh in immediately on the Ashby highrise, as campaign advisors undoubtedly preferred the media to focus on the HPOU endorsement of their guy, and candidate Locke did have the good sense/discipline not to muddy the establishment endorsements message with digressions. Today, however, Locke finally shared his "me too!" on the Ashby highrise decision that came out Friday, and Rich Connelly has those details here.

Wouldn't it be great if we had fewer "me too!" moments from our mayoral contenders, and a more diverse, robust debate on various issues?

Rendering of Ashby Urban Plaza courtesy of Buckhead Investment Partners.

UPDATE (08/27/09): And two days later, Mike Snyder offers his "me too!" by informing Chron.com readers of Gene Locke's "me too!"

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/09 10:37 PM | Comments (11)

09 August 2009

Witness Mayor White's business expertise

You know how Mayor White loves to talk about how he runs the city like a business?

He's fond of using his management experience as a selling point in his senate campaign. Today's Chronicle story of how the feds raided a Southeast Houston waste facility contains a nice little example of that expertise:

The city sued the company in January, initially seeking to temporarily shut down the Griggs plant.

The two sides settled the next month, with CES agreeing to pay the city more than $100,000 to move some operations away from the facility and to put an end to the odors.

[snip]

Last week, Mayor Bill White defended the city's oft-questioned decision to settle with CES.

“We took action which was pretty aggressive, at least by historical city standards,” he said. As a result of the settlement, CES agreed to move “a significant portion” of its operations to another location.

“I know that various attorneys and inspectors have been on it,” White said. “The aggressive action we've taken has been vindicated.”

He wielded the power of his office to get a little revenue for the city, and then he walked away.* A few months later, after the feds swept in to shut things down, Mayor White became defensive (as he tends to do) when questioned about his administration's handling of the settlement, and used his standard "we were aggressive/tough" line -- a usual indicator that he's been neither.

But hey, he garnered $100,000 for the city. And by "historical" standards, he was aggressive. What more can Texans ask for?

*Perhaps the neighboring residents are not what the Chronicle's editorial board would call "well-heeled, civically-active voters," therefore not as deserving of Mayor White's attention as, say, Ashby high-rise opponents.

Photo of Houston Mayor Bill White by flickr user STANANDLOU, used via a Creative Commons license.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/09/09 04:59 PM | Comments (2)

16 July 2009

Mayor White backtracks from Senate-candidate White

Remember when Senate-candidate White tried not to look so wimpy on illegal immigration?

Standing in front of a bank of TV cameras this week, Houston Mayor Bill White took the federal government to task for not deporting an illegal immigrant with a criminal record before he allegedly shot a Houston police officer during a recent drug raid.

[snip]

To plug any potential remaining gaps, White this week said he plans to ask Hurtt to consider participating in the federal government’s controversial 287(g) program, which trains local jailers to assist immigration agents.

Of course he didn't mean it:

It was interesting to read this blog post from Katherine Leal Unmuth of the Dallas News. She reported on a recent LULAC event White helped headline in Dallas.

The mayor gets a little defensive when pressed about immigration training for Houston jailers through the 287g program. He emphasizes that he hasn't signed off anything yet, even though he hasn't indicated locally any reluctance to join the program.

Different audience, different position.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/16/09 06:30 PM | Comments (4)

03 July 2009

Mayor White: If HPOU wants more cadet classes, HPD officers can take a pay cut to pay for it

This is NOT senate-candidate White talking:

Houston’s largest police union, citing the death of six officers during Mayor Bill White’s tenure, called on the mayor and City Council this week to hire more officers, restore $14 million in overtime pay and overturn the long-standing policy of not questioning residents about their immigration status.

In a letter to White, Gary Blankinship, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, called last week’s slaying of veteran officer Henry Canales a “trifeca failure” of federal, state and city government to protect citizens and police officers from criminal illegal immigrants.

White responded with a news conference Thursday to make clear there would be no change in the department’s policy on illegal immigrants.

Adding four new cadet classes as the union wants would cost the city $20 million, requiring an increase in property taxes or a wide-ranging curtailment of city services that also would require laying off 500 civilian employees, White said.

Or, he said, the union could fund the cadet classes by voting to reduce their own pay by $4,000 an officer.

That is Mayor White speaking. First, he says there will be no change to Houston's sanctuary policy. You'll recall a few months back, senate-candidate White attempted to talk tough on illegal immigration, laughably saying that he was making it "a cause." Right. He said he would no longer "tolerate some of the excuses that we’ve heard about lack of resources." Which is exactly what MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have done for the past several years.

Second, he presents false choices to the HPOU and local Houstonians: the only way to get more staffing is to increase property taxes, curtail city services, or rank and file police officers could take a pay cut to pay for new police officers.

Hogwash. The city just gave $11 million to the Houston Arts Alliance, an agency that has proven it cannot manage the taxpayer dollars it is given. There's half the money right there. It would probably take our commenters a few nano-seconds to come up with other frivolous budget items that could be cut to fund the cadet classes AND overtime. How about getting METRO to fork over the money it still owes the city of Houston? That would fund the programs, and the city would still have money left over.

As Kevin Whited noted a couple of posts down, dealing with staffing issues will be the next mayor's problem, when MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are long gone.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/03/09 10:15 AM | Comments (8)

21 June 2009

Where in Texas is Mayor White?

With apologies to Carmen Sandiego, we've been amused to see Senate-candidate White traveling the state in search of money and votes, trying very
hard not to sound like the good progressive he resembles in, uh, more urban settings.

A week ago he was in East Texas, talking jobs and the economy:

White says, "You know the people of East Texas they just want the American dream, they come from different backgrounds and they know education is important and the economy, so is worker re-training cause there's a lot of people, they get laid off they need to be able to get re-trained so they can have a job that has a future for them."

Do you think he talked about hybrid cars and weatherizing homes, too?

He also squeezed in a bit of grooming as well.

A couple of days later, he was in the Rio Grande Valley, talking education and balanced budgets:

White said his experience in dealing with disasters, balancing budgets and handling other municipal chores would serve him if he is elected to the U.S. Senate.

"I know how to improve productivity and I know how to balance budgets," he said. "Those skills are really important in Washington."

Mayor White's idea of a balanced budget involves borrowing lots of money to pay current debt obligations in order to free up money for operating expenses. It's similar to using a credit card to make one's mortgage payments.

It's also worth remembering when Mayor White hit the trifecta of his disaster/budget/municipal chore acumen: when he proposed using leftover Hurricane Ike funds to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores. Yeah, that went over real well.

As the campaign season rolls along, we'll try to keep an eye out for the further adventures of Senate-candidate White as he treks across Texas.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/21/09 06:44 PM | Comments (14)

09 June 2009

Peter Brown for mayor AND school superintendent

Peter Brown showed that he's not just an expert in the architectural arena. No, he's also quite the expert when it comes to local school issues, as the Chron's Bradley Olson recently posted on the Houston Politics blog:

Noting that he [Peter Brown] would soon present details of a plan to "restructure" Houston-area schools, he talked about HISD's closure of Clinton Park Elementary School in 2005, calling the surrounding neighborhood "distressed."

The closure "pulled the rug out from under" city efforts to revitalize the neighborhood, Brown said.

And then he added this:

"Now, by the way, that the neighborhood is turning more Hispanic, HISD has decided, well, maybe we better reopen Clinton Park Elementary School."

Actually, HISD is not even considering reopening Clinton Park, nor has there been any discussion or board agenda items dealing with the matter, according to Norman Uhl, a department spokesman.

And the reason it was closed, he said, was because enrollment had dropped precipitously, down to less than 150 students in its last year of existence.

So there you go. With an absolutely firm grasp of the issues, Peter Brown demonstrates why he should run Houston AND all its schools.

It's worth noting that none of the other candidates for mayor is interested in a mayoral takeover of local schools. Nor is Mayor White in favor of it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/09/09 05:04 AM | Comments (4)

03 June 2009

City Council budgets increase for 2010

Bradley Olson's Chron story notes the increase is small, but with times being what they are...

In an austere year for the city of Houston, when the 2010 budgets of several major departments that provide essential services to taxpayers were cut, one highly public group managed to broker a rare increase: City Council.

Although the $13,331 increases scheduled for each council office form but a fraction of the city’s $4 billion budget, they have taken on a symbolic power this week as the police chief and other department heads have endured multihour grillings in budget hearings from council members about every jot and tittle of their spending plans.

Unlike with the department heads, council members on Tuesday spent less than 30 minutes reviewing their budget.

According to the article, Councilwoman Toni Lawrence says she will propose a two percent cut to the Council's budgets.

And there's this:

Much of the increase comes from pay raises that are mandated for council staffers as part of the city’s contract with its union [...]

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/03/09 04:37 AM | Comments (6)

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 | Comments (0)

24 May 2009

More on Richard Vacar's hasty departure (updated)

We noted last week that eyebrows were raised when Richard Vacar hastily retired as head of the Houston Airport system. Today, the Chron's Bradley Olson has more, and it appears the non-profit agency Vacar created could have been the problem:

The genesis of the Houston Airport System Development Corp. came in 2000, when City Council authorized the city aviation department to assist a company making a bid to manage 13 airports in Mexico. Under the “technical services” agreement, the city would be reimbursed for the time aviation employees spent on international development at a rate of 1.8 times the actual costs, plus expenses.

The idea behind the development corporation was that money eventually would flow into city coffers, and airport employees would add cosmopolitan élan to their résumés by consulting for other airport systems around the world.

But little money has made its way into the city treasury . Houston airport officials said they could not provide details last week on how much time employees have spent on HASDC activities, how much money the city has been reimbursed, or even how many employees have performed work for the corporation.

Vacar said he believed there had been between $60,000 and $70,000 transferred to city airport operations from HASDC and stressed it would be much more in the future.

From Olson's previous story, we learned of the city-approved agency:

Under a 2000 agreement in which City Council authorized the consulting activities, employees in the aviation department are allowed to do work for HAS Development Corp., and the city is reimbursed 1.8 times the cost of the employees’ time, plus expenses. A percentage of revenues generated annually is given to the city, board member Dionel Aviles said, although he declined to say how much.

According to 2006 and 2007 financial forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, HASDC took in a little more than $1.1 million each year.

“It’s a very good concept,” Aviles said. “It will benefit the city of Houston in the long run.… Eventually, as these contracts take shape in other airports, they will accumulate a lot of money that will go back to the city of Houston.”

So ... we have a non-profit, quasi-governmental agency that's been flying under the radar, promising big financial rewards for the city sometime in the (distant) future. It's interesting to note that in nine years of existence, this appears to be the first time the agency is receiving any scrutiny.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Chronicle's lazy plagiarist of a metro columnist (Rick Casey) writes that he and Olson both tried to get Mayor White to tell them why he effectively fired Vacar, but that White wouldn't. Unbelievably, Casey leaves it at that, basically whining that White wouldn't write his column for him and that may lead to rumors. John Kass or Mike Royko this is not.

In fact, one wonders how much longer the salary of this Jeff Cohen pet can be justified, in light of all the layoffs of real journalists who actually contribute something to the newspaper. The fact that a column on this explosive comment generated only ten (!) comments says a great deal.

Also, Rich Connelly emails that he posted about the Houston Airport System's international dealings back in March, and that the organization was not forthcoming about its finances back then.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/09 01:39 PM | Comments (3)

17 May 2009

Mayor White's 2010 budget

Yesterday, one of the Chronicle's ~~two~~ multiple editorial writers praised Mayor White's fiscal brilliance as Houston faces the "harsh economics" of today:

It’s a credit to the term-limited mayor’s management skills that the final spending plan of his six years in office significantly increases funding for public safety, which now accounts for more than half of general fund operating and maintenance expenses, while holding the property tax rate at its current level. White plans to re-evaluate spending levels in September and will issue a draft budget outline for 2011 before leaving office next January.

[snip]

“These are times when hard choices need to be made and we’re not punting any of those choices,” said the mayor in unveiling the proposed budget.

He cautioned that the economic downturn could be lengthy and would require both patience by residents and continuing efforts to reduce city spending.

Inquiring minds want to know if the hard choices include the mayor's plan to retrofit 11 million square feet of city buildings to meet the Clinton Climate Initiative's Energy Efficiency program standards.

Inquiring minds want to know if the hard choices include the mayor's plan to help subsidize a new soccer stadium.

Inquiring minds want to know if the hard choices include cutting back funding for the Houston Art Alliance, which has proven it fritters away taxpayer dollars.

Inquiring minds want to know if the hard choices include a pause in the city's hybrid vehicle-buying program (spend millions of dollars to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know).

The point is when times are tough, citizens do face hard choices with their budgets. Rarely do we see government officials make those hard choices -- they'd rather cut back on essential services and infrastructure improvements than actually get rid of non-essential fluff. And whenever possible, they like to sweep some things under the rug completely.

[Read More]

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/09 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

[Previous 20 Entries]

SITE MENU

+Home
+About
+Archives/Categories
+BH Commentary (RSS)
+Bloggers
+Blogroll
+Contact Us
+Donate
+Forum
+Local News Headlines
+Syndication
+Twitter

WEATHER/TRAFFIC

(local traffic via TranStar)

ACTIVE TOPICS

City's Inspector General quits, suggests strengthening the office

Chron nails quasi-governmental agency behaving badly

Sheriff Garcia's media flack tries to intimidate law firm, fails

Ready-fire-aim: Houston ready to regulate auto repair shops

The threads above are the most recently active in the blogHOUSTON comments (RSS).

LOCAL BLOG TALK

Feed temporarily unavailable.

This section is regularly updated with posts from local bloggers who add to the blogversation about Houston media, politics, and life.

WHERE'S MAYOR WHITE?

Thank you

THE TIME IS NOW!

Vote today & spread the word

Today is Election Day!

Houston mayor Bill White has been very busy of late running for a Senate seat that isn't even available yet, leaving the city on autopilot. Fortunately, his campaign staff keeps us up to speed on his travels outside of Houston.