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09 February 2012

City's Inspector General quits, suggests strengthening the office

Authority 'not there' for city of Houston investigative arm, Inspector General Bob Doguim says as he quits job - Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog

In Chicago, the office of the inspector general issues a quarterly report running dozens of pages describing the findings and results of its office. In Houston, the quarterly report amounts to simple tallies of cases closed. It took a public information request and a state Attorney General’s ruling to obtain all of the complaints fielded by its inspector general office. Even then the city attorney’s office violated the state’s open records law by failing to provide the records in a timely fashion.

And the office that was once said to be revamped via an executive order from Mayor Annise Parker has yet to issue a report on its findings over the past year.

The former FBI agent, Robert Doguim, hired to lead the office, stepped down. His last day was Friday. He lasted 14 months in the job and left on what he said were good terms. He also provided some candid advice to City Attorney David Feldman on how the office might operate in the future.

Be sure to read the entire Texas Watchdog piece.

We don't have a big problem with Mayor Parker moving the Office of Inspector General under the Mayor's Office in an effort to raise its prominence and authority, but as with many mayoral initiatives, the follow-through seemed lacking, and the Texas Watchdog story strongly implies that Dogium is departing because of lack of authority to do the job as he thinks it should be done.

Unfortunately, that's not entirely surprising. Houston pols (and Texas pols generally, for that matter) like some oversight on ethics and transparency, but not too much oversight -- hence the toothless nature of so many of these entities and their lack of independence (ultimately, Dogium is right that the office probably needs to be more autonomous, certainly not under the authority of the city attorney, who is usually a political ally of the mayor).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/09/12 07:57 AM | Comments (0)

07 February 2012

Chron nails quasi-governmental agency behaving badly

Salaries soar at Harris County Housing Authority - Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle (11/20/2011)

Harris County Housing Authority leaders have received steep salary increases and staggering bonuses in recent years, nearly tripling some executives' pay since 2004.

As CEO, Guy Rankin's salary has gone from $99,507 when he took over in July 2004 to $263,965 three years ago. That included a $60,000 bonus, dubbed "equalization pay" in authority records. This year, while not scheduled to receive a bonus, he stands to make $242,008.

The authority's second-in-command, David Gunter, was making $74,256 as a senior accountant when Rankin became CEO. He since has been promoted three times, to chief administrative officer, and will receive $220,001 this year. That includes a $55,000 bonus. His pay exceeds that of all housing authority CEOs in Texas, as well as those of some of the nation's largest housing authorities.

[snip]

The agency is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and collects fees from housing it develops with private builders. It receives no local tax dollars.

Rankin and authority board members defended the agency's pay scale. They pointed to two salary surveys, including one last year, that used "extensive private sector data" to show authority employees were paid 8 percent to 40 percent below "market rates." The 2010 survey also polled other housing authorities to create a pay scale "slightly above the median of the relevant labor market."

County housing agency criticized over costly Patriots project - Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle (01/31/2012)

The project, called Patriots by the Lake, was envisioned as a $400 million "living monument to America's veterans" on the shore of Lake Houston. It was to include hundreds of homes, armed-forces memorials, restaurants, shops, a marina, a hotel and a town hall containing a replica of the Oval Office.

Critics accuse authority CEO Guy Rankin and the agency's board of commissioners of pouring money into the project after it was clear it would not be built. County officials say the largely market-rate development went against the authority's mission of providing affordable housing, and question some of the project spending, such as $18,000 on letters said to be penned by Abraham Lincoln, bought from a shop in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Rankin and board chairman Casey Wallace say the idea was an inspired concept that was derailed by many factors....

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/12 08:54 PM | Comments (3)

04 February 2012

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

Houston is poised to enact a new revenue stream which will regulate automotive repair shops:

The Houston City Council is scheduled to consider a proposed ordinance to regulate the automotive repair and collision industry at an upcoming city council meeting. The Automotive Service Association (ASA) contacted the mayor and council members asking that they address a number of concerns with the proposed ordinance.

Although the proposed ordinance has gone through multiple revisions, ASA is concerned that there are still significant issues with the ordinance.

No! Significant issues with a Houston ordinance? Unheard of!

A December op-ed by the past president of the Houston Automotive Service Association has more specifics, and includes this gem:

The ordinance includes pages and pages that regulate how records will be kept, how repair shops may gain approvals from customers and establishes fines for sometimes honest mistakes that must be paid to the city.

Wouldn't want that fine to go to the customer who was actually involved in the transaction, now would we?

PREVIOUSLY: Is this necessary? - Camposcommunications's Blog.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/12 06:26 AM | Comments (3)

02 February 2012

KTRK: DA's not-investigation "could now pose problems"

DA Pat Lykos launched examination of grand jury after ABC13 report - Ted Oberg, KTRK-13 News

This all started the day after we broke the news a grand jury was investigating DA Pat Lykos' office. According to people involved in the search, Lykos wanted details on the grand jurors because she thought they had become hostile to her. She wanted her chief investigator to find evidence of their political bias and plug the leaks to the news media -- especially Eyewitness News.

[snip]

Using the confidential list of grand jurors' names, the DA's chief investigator looked at Facebook, Google, the state bar and then accessed a county paid for, password-protected database called Accurint -- which gave him a list of grand jurors' addresses, jobs, relatives, bankruptcies, all sorts of information and connections.

"It's more than just collecting information on people," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

Our legal analyst says using those confidential names for a political purpose could now pose problems.

The fact that KTRK's headline uses the term "examination" rather than "investigation" is a nice touch!

But it doesn't really matter if DA Lykos insists we all call what happened a "cursory review," "internet search," or even a lullaby! The facts, at least as reported by Oberg, suggest that DA Lykos deployed resources of the District Attorney's Office (taxpayer resources) to snoop on perceived political opponents. Quite a Nixonian lullaby, hmm?

In my view, that's an abuse of power. It's not clear that it rises to the level of an illegal abuse of power, although the DA's political opponents will probably make that case (yes, she has political opponents, in her own party and outside her party -- that's sometimes how elected offices work). But it certainly doesn't reflect well on the DA.

BLOGVERSATION: From Frying Pan to Fire? - Defending People, A Petty DA - Camposcommunications’s Blog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/12 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

01 February 2012

KTRK: DA Lykos uses investigative resources to not-investigate Grand Jury, perceived political opponents

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos: What investigator did is not an 'investigation' - Ted Oberg, KTRK-13 News

Only after we told [DA Pat] Lykos what we learned today, she told us she didn't order an investigation, but did order in her words "a cursory internet search... to learn if there was a political motivation behind the attacks" on her office.

No matter what she calls it, here's what we know about what was ordered.

According to sources, on Saturday, October 22, 2011 the DA's chief investigator was called while off duty. He was told by the DA's first assistant, Jim Leitner, to collect information on members of the grand jury themselves -- specifically the foreperson, Trisha Pollard, and another member who shared a last name, but no relation with DWI defense attorney Mark Theissen.

[snip]

A week later, on Saturday, October 29, sources confirmed the chief investigator was called again and told to expand the scope of his examination to include the special prosecutors, the judge in the case Susan Brown, and her husband, and a potential Lykos political opponent Mike Anderson and his wife.

Sources tell us the investigator was told the orders were coming from the boss -- meaning Lykos....

So, after all that posturing in front of media yesterday about being the victim of political shenanigans, it turns out that Lykos was actively engaged in word-parsing games in an effort to obfuscate the fact that she herself had deployed DA resources in what appear to be politically motivated shenanigans. Surely there are better (even ethical!) uses of DA investigative resources than engaging in not-investigations of people the temperamental DA thinks are out to "get" her politically!

NOTHING about this affair reflects well on the Harris County District Attorney's Office led by Pat Lykos. Not one thing.

BLOGVERSATION: Investigating the Investigation Investigating the Other Investigation - Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/01/12 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

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

Why Does the Sheriff's Department Want to Censor Our Law Firm Website? - Steph Stradley Blog

Ultimately, I am certain that running one of the busiest jails in the country isn't easy. And at least, [Alan] Bernstein agrees with our law firm site that Harris County Jail is not a fun experience that leaves some people feeling fatigued and humiliated. But doesn't the Sheriff's Department have better things to spend their money on than scouring the web to find unhappy words about them and send long, whiney letters? And what's with a former journalist using his position to try to censor other people's points of view?

Be sure to read the whole thing.

This isn't the first time Bernstein's heavy-handed approach has been questioned. The bullying tactics aren't that surprising given the source, but they don't make the department look all that great.

BLOGVERSATION: Sadistic Harris County Jailers. And the Streisand Effect - Defending People.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/01/12 09:03 PM | Comments (12)

31 January 2012

A tale of two porn-craving Houston public "servants"

Tale of two porn-viewing Houston public servants

An attentive reader called our attention to the page above from Friday's Houston Chronicle (sometimes, there really is no substitute for the print edition).

On the right side of the page, we have a story about a disgraced HFD captain who was investigated after engaging in online chatting with an underage girl and was found to be in possession of child porn:

Houston police confiscated Fiszer's laptop and media storage devices that held pornographic images and a video of children, investigators said. Officials said they found at least 450 images of child pornography.

On the left side of the page, we have a photo of disgraced METRO CEO George Greanias posing for some METRO promotion or another. Unlike the HFD captain, Greanias has friends at the highest levels of city government, the most important being Mayor Annise Parker. Unlike the HFD captain, Greanias didn't have to deal with HPD searching his computer after he was caught visiting apparent gay child porn sites using METRO resources. Rather, the disgraced CEO's insistence that no laws were broken interestingly resulted in... no police investigation at all!

It helps to have friends in high places.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/31/12 09:30 PM | Comments (2)

30 January 2012

Not that he's covered this topic objectively for years...

Are Houston’s TV forecasters climate change skeptics? - Eric Berger, SciGuy/Chron.com

This weekend the Chronicle ran a story I wrote on the Forecast the Facts campaign, a controversial initiative which essentially seeks to out TV meteorologists who hold contrarian views on climate change science.

Contrarian, eh?

Well, at least the Chronicle's in-house global warmist is no longer pretending to be merely an objective reporter without an opinion on the matter.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/12 09:03 PM | Comments (3)

24 January 2012

Bitter former mayor offers "advice" to Rick Perry

Last week Bill White pictured Rick Perry . . . - Unca Darrell

[Former Mayor Bill] White ... proposes "three simple actions" by which [Gov. Rick] Perry could restore his credibility with Texans. You can read them for yourself, but the three simple actions boil down to one simple principle: Be more like me, the good brother, and less like your perfectly awful self.

Think Bill White is still just a little bitter over those stupid voters re-electing that stupid Aggie when they could have chosen a smart, successful Democratic mayor instead?

Again, click over to read the whole righteous takedown.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/24/12 09:57 PM | Comments (5)

Chron's Holley gets the BattleSwarm treatment

An Example Of What’s Wrong With Journalism These Days - Lawrence Person's Battleswarm Blog

This Houston Chronicle piece by Joe Holley is an example of why so many people are dissatisfied with the job the legacy media is doing of reporting events.

No argument from us. Be sure to click over and read the whole thing, and check out the BattleSwarm Blog regularly. It's one of the good ones.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/24/12 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

Harris County assistant attorney pleads for leniency for Eversole

Harris County asst. attorney - 'ethics watchdog for the county' - urged judge to exercise leniency in Jerry Eversole case - Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog

A letter to a federal judge from Harris County’s legal counsel supporting ousted Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole was “inappropriate” and demands a revisiting of the county’s ethics policy, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said in an interview.

The letter from First Assistant Harris County Attorney Terry O’Rourke to U.S. District Judge David Hittner asked for leniency – a sentence of probation in a case where the penalty allows up to five years in prison - for Eversole, who was indicted in 2010 for accepting bribes to steer millions of dollars in contracts to a developer, Michael Surface.

[snip]

“In my professional review of the Murworth properties … I found that the county procedures had been followed and that there was no evidence of undue or improper outside influence on the decision makers," O'Rourke wrote, contradicting the federal indictment.

“As a civil litigator with only the burden of preponderance of the evidence, I would not, and did not, recommend the filing charges of either bribery or unlawful gift to a public servant to the appropriate officials. Based on this, I recommend that you grant probation in the case.”

In other words, one of the branches of Harris County government we count on to keep an eye on OTHER public officials isn't really all that interested in doing so. That would be handy to keep in mind around election time.

This was a nice catch by Texas Watchdog yesterday morning. The Chronicle ran a similar story in today's edition.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/24/12 07:42 AM | Comments (0)

23 January 2012

Hiking and biking past one of METRO's greatest hits

Swamplot notes that construction of a bikeway north of downtown continues, and there'll be a "highlight" for hikers and bikers once it opens:

One highlight of the journey: a close-up view of the 17.3 acres of swampland Hakeem Olajuwon flipped to Metro back in 2005 for a cool $15 million.

He made a $13 million profit. Quite a fine example of Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson's outstanding leadership, wouldn't you agree?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/23/12 06:50 PM | Comments (3)

22 January 2012

City negotiates red-light-camera settlement; Bill White's opt-out removal costs city millions

City of Houston Negotiates End to Red Light Camera Vendor Lawsuit - Office of Mayor Annise Parker

The City of Houston has reached a $4.78 million settlement of the lawsuit filed by American Traffic Solutions (ATS). The agreement brings to an end the legal fight that began when Houston City Council approved ending Houston’s red light camera program. The funds to pay the settlement will come from previously collected fines that are in escrow and the approximately $25 million the City is still owed in outstanding red light camera fines issued when the program was still operational.

[snip]

Under the terms of the agreement, ATS will be paid $2.3 million up front. This represents the amount ATS would have received had the red light cameras remained on from the date they were initially turned off following the voter initiative in November 2010 to December of 2011. ATS will also receive another $2.4 million over the next three years. This additional amount is meant to address the amounts ATS could have received under its contract with the City, based on collection of delinquent red light camera fines.

In exchange for the payments, ATS has agreed to end its legal fight with the City and remove all of its cameras from Houston intersections within 60 days of approval of the settlement by Houston City Council.

Red-light camera settlement going to City Council - Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle

It will cost the city of Houston at least $4.8 million to get out of its contract for red-light cameras, according to a lawsuit settlement headed to the City Council on Wednesday.

American Traffic Solutions has agreed to take down the cameras within 60 days in exchange for $2.3 million upfront and a cut of future collections of delinquent fines from red-light runners.

[snip]

If collections don't cover the obligation, the city will pay $2.4 million in installments over the next three years.

[snip]

Beyond that, a future ATS payday depends on the city's success in collecting from the 240,000 delinquent red-light runners. If the city were to collect all $25 million in outstanding fines — highly unlikely since some of them are already 5 years old — ATS's payout could reach $12.3 million.

What's missing from this story?

Any reference to the fact that Bill White's gambit to remove an opt-out provision from the contract with ATS and "outsmart" the state legislature is now going to cost the City of Houston millions.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/22/12 09:54 PM | Comments (2)

20 January 2012

BH meetup: Saturday, Jan. 21, West Alabama Ice House

To celebrate this lovely 70+ degree January weather, we've decided to have an impromptu BH meetup.

We'll be getting together at the West Alabama Ice House tomorrow (Saturday, January 21, 2pm-??) to hoist a few brews, maybe have a gyro or taco, and chat about stuff. Please feel free to drop by if you're out and about.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/20/12 08:06 AM | Comments (1)

14 January 2012

Danger Train draws blood on Friday the 13th

Woman gets pinned under METRORail in downtown Houston, hospitalized - Jessica Willey, KTRK-13 News

According to METRO, the woman was walking on the tracks near Polk toward the train. The driver sounded the horn, but she never moved. She was struck and pulled under. The train came to an abrupt stop.

"Everybody was just shocked, they were taken aback. Everybody was on their phones, everybody was trying to see what had happened. We couldn't get a good angle but all the police and the ambulance showed up and it was chaos," Dupre said.

The woman ended up under the cab and not the wheels. And on this scene Houston firefighters didn't use hoses, but rather airbags for the rescue.

"To help lift the train just a couple of inches, she wasn't that far under there. It required a couple of inches of life to get her up from under the train," METRO Spokesman Jerome Gray said.

Quote of the year so far from METRO's very expensive TV mouthpiece: "She wasn't that far under there."

That's reassuring.

Meanwhile, METRO continues to build additional, expensive at-grade tram lines down busy streets. Because we wouldn't want this sort of Friday the 13th fun restricted to just one short stretch in Houston!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/14/12 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

03 January 2012

From the gang that can't shoot straight...

Houston Mayor: 'Occupy' protestors need 'end game' - Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News

The “Occupy” movement has cost Houston considerably less than other major cities. As of late November, the city had racked up more than $11,000 in police overtime. No updated numbers were immediately available.

Did the mayor's office supply those numbers to KHOU? Hard to know, since the reporter doesn't say.

However, the newspaper of record in Houston (such as it is) reported back in December that HPD had "racked up $366,734 in additional costs" related to the Occupy Houston squatters. The newspaper story did not report how much Mayor Parker's "free electricity for the Occupy Houston Squatters" policy had cost the city (read: taxpayers).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/03/12 09:57 AM | Comments (6)

20 December 2011

A Happy Holidays news and views roundup

The holidays are upon us, and we've overwhelmed.

So, here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you do or do not celebrate. We'll be taking a little break, but here's a news dump in the meantime to clear out the backlog. May Pancho Claus be good to you this year!

Rash of improper influence over high-dollar contracts at Houston ISD -- while teachers are cut and schools are closed - Mike Cronin and Jennifer Peebles, Texas Watchdog
The needs of elites and their crony friends outweigh the needs of “the children.” You'd think liberals and conservatives alike would be outraged over this, but chances are pretty good you won't see many links to this on local blogs.
DA's office stalling on BAT van issue - Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle
Harris County ADA testifies "fix is in" in grand jury case over BAT vans - Ted Oberg, KTRK-13 News

Eyewitness News asked the Lykos' office for comment about a DA refusing to testify and for two days in a row now, we haven't received an answer.

Where is DA Pat Lykos? At the risk of scaring children, should we put her mug on a milk carton under "Missing!?"

Seriously, all of this looks terrible for the DA's office, whatever motivations you may think are at play (and anyone who tells you with 100% confidence they know and understand the motivations should be disregarded). Of course, it won't shock anyone that we find it entirely unsurprising that when voters choose someone whose experience and temperament for the office are suspect, you sometimes get the leadership that might have been expected.

If you're not already, be sure to follow posts AND comments on the blogs of Murray Newman, Mark Bennett, and David Jennings. You can get all sorts of theories about what's at play from players and non-players alike!
After seasons of scandal, TSU blooms under new leadership - Monica Rohr, Houston Chronicle

The official tagline for the campaign to reinvent Texas Southern University is lofty, ambitious and, some might say, hyperbolic. The phrase - "A Renaissance of Excellence" - evokes the notion of rebirth, of a battered institution rising from the ashes.

It's also undeniably apt.

Matt Bramanti rightly described this as gushing on twitter, which drew objections from the Chron editor for the story, who nitpicked that "Renaissance" was TSU's word, not the Chron's. Except the Chron described the term as "undeniably apt." Their words. You can't make this stuff up (and because it's the Chron, don't really need to).

No doubt, there has been progress from the dark days in which there was a real possibility the state might consider stepping in and shutting down the institution or removing its independence, but Renaissance of Excellence? Just a bit over the top.

Still, we're not sure why the Chron would be so defensive when called a cheerleader. Honestly, as I've noted before, they do the genre better than anyone else I read. They should embrace this one small bit of excellence.
Officials consider plan for convention center hotel - Nancy Sarnoff, Houston Chronicle

Despite the officials' enthusiasm to boost downtown meeting business, hotel consultant Bruce Walker is not convinced another large convention center hotel can be built in downtown Houston.

In downtown's 77002 ZIP code, he said, occupancy and room revenues are too low to justify such the development of such a large property.

And the cost to build a full-service hotel, which he estimates to be around $400,000 a room, is too high for the proposed project to be profitable.

"Those numbers don't even come close to working," he said.
File this sort of sensible and sober economic analysis under "Things That Don't Matter in Houston When Public Officials Are In Hot Pursuit of the Latest World Class Boondoggle."
Houston airport's customized trucks raise questions - Stephen Dean, KPRC-2 News
Vacar may be gone, but a bizarre, unaccountable culture seems to endure at HAS.
An app for Metro's bus system - Houston Chronicle
See below.
(Still) Waiting For Something We Already Have - Greg's Opinion
This! +1 Ditto x2 or however else we can express complete agreement.
Brenda Stardig pulling a Clinton in transition to Helena Brown? - David Jennings, Big Jolly Politics
More rape kits than thought remain untested at HPD - Zain Shauk, Houston Chronicle

The Houston Police Department's backlog of untested rape kits totals between 6,000 and 7,000 - 50 percent more than what officials previously acknowledged, according to a memo from Chief Charles McClelland.

HPD for years has insisted that the backlog of untested rape kits was around 4,000. The details from the chief's memo confirm a Houston Chronicle report that the backlog likely was far greater.

The backlog also is likely to continue to grow. According to McClelland's memo, HPD receives some 930 new rape kits each year. HPD officials previously have said the department is able to test only 30 to 40 a month.

Of course. And we're getting further behind. Think that unanticipated $366k police bill for the Occupy Houston squatters might have been put to some better use?
Houston VA cemetery director transfers after fallout from alleged attempt to ban use of 'God' and 'Jesus Christ' from ceremonies - Erik Barajas, KTRK-13 News
A firing would have been better, but of course bureaucrats can never be fired.
Climategate (Part II) - Steven F. Hayward, The Weekly Standard
Reading that you'll never find on the blog of the Chron in-house global warmist, SciGuy Eric Berger.
Another scalp for Dolcefino's wall - Harris County Almanac
Yep, even though those caught in questionable behavior are trying to spin it otherwise. Meanwhile, Undercover Man is after a few more scalps elsewhere. See below.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/11 11:03 AM | Comments (2)

14 December 2011

Occupy Houston squatters have cost HPD (read: taxpayers) an extra $366k so far

No clarity on why tent was used to cover arrests of Occupy activists - James Pinkerton and Safiya Ravat, Houston Chronicle

So far, Houston police have racked up $366,734 in additional costs to deal with the Occupy Houston protesters, who set up camp in Tranquility Park across from City Hall on Oct. 6., HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said.

The amount includes $10,789 in overtime paid to officers, but does not include costs associated with Monday's protest at the port.

Those were the last two grafs of the story. Talk about burying the lede!

For a followup, it would be nice to know how much Mayor Parker's decision to give away electricity (safely!) to the Occupy Houston squatters is costing taxpayers.

Interestingly, TIME just named this drain on productive society, generally speaking, its Man of the Year. Neat, huh?!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/11 08:03 PM | Comments (0)

METRO spreads holiday cheer to local hospital

Ho, Ho, Ho...METRO Blue Santa Cheers Young Patients - Write on METRO

METRO Blue Santa arrived by a custom-decorated Polar Express METRORail to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital on Dec. 10, bringing bears, coloring books and cookies to young patients - along with X-boxes and Play Stations.

Siblings also received bears and coloring books.

This was the second annual Blue Santa visit to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital - an event made possible by the hundreds of METRO employees who donated time, money, and bought barbeque, hot dogs and raffle tickets to raise funds.

Well, good for METRO for giving a little something back to the community. We do question the wisdom of letting disgraced CEO George Greanias (who was caught surfing apparent adolescent gay porn sites at work earlier this year) anywhere near children, however.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/11 07:48 PM | Comments (0)

13 December 2011

McGuff: Parker Administration campaigns for KPRC reporter

Houston City Hall campaigns for KPRC 2's Mary Benton - Mike McGuff

Tweets started going out from Houston City Hall staffers Wednesday morning promoting a new campaign. This was not a campaign about getting out the vote for Saturday's runoff elections or a new city council proposal, it was to get some TV coverage:

jessicamichan Jessica Michan
Starting a #Twitter campaign for @KPRCLocal2 to send @MaryBenton to cover City Hall. We need her here! She gets it!! #Mary2CityHall

This is just the latest amateur move from the Parker Administration, which shouldn't be naming reporters they'd like to come cover them. However innocuous it seems, it looks bad (like the Parker Administration is playing favorites) and puts the reporter in a tough spot (to avoid the appearance of being a City Hall fav, the reporter might well feel the need to be more critical than is warranted).

Mayor Annise Parker is working on her second decade of elected service in Houston municipal government. Given her experience, it's really surprising that her mayoral administration so regularly stumbles and bumbles like it does.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/11 09:39 PM | Comments (3)

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