Rep. Coleman: Mayor White is overturning an election by fiat
Kristen Mack's column yesterday about Mayor White selling his new $2 billion Metro expansion plan included some criticism from several elected officials:
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, said Metro still has to "earn back the trust of the area I represent." His district includes the east side of Houston.
"I may not be the majority leader or in the majority party, but I sure can make things hard," Green said.
And:
Other elected officials, including state Rep. Garnet Coleman and Councilman Adrian Garcia, who met with White late last week, still have not signed on to the plan.
"You don't take an election and overturn it by fiat," Coleman said. "What White didn't want was anyone pre-empting their announcement."
Coleman contends that White made a unilateral decision and did not attempt to build consensus. Federal money is important, but the sales taxes local residents pay and the fares riders contribute also should buy them a role in the decision-making, Coleman said.
Garcia still has questions as well."I was never told anything about ridership threshold. I was not told there would be an indefinite time period when we would go from guided transit to rail," he said. "My constituency has been looking for light rail, and I've been fighting to keep it on track for my district."
Rep. Coleman lays it all out, very succinctly.
I foresee some outreach by Mayor White to get Rep. Coleman on board with his plan. It's what Mayor White does when he's faced with dissent.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/25/05 04:48 PM | Print | Comments (1)
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