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15 March 2010

MAYOR ANNISE PARKER has vowed to shake up METRO's leadership team, but KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt reports tonight that firing Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson could be costly:

If his contract is terminated before 2012 and the firing is not "for cause," it could trigger a pricy escape clause Wilson negotiated into his most recent contract.

The clause includes an automatic two years worth of salary (more than $600,000 in total), an agreement to move his family to any city in the United States, automatic qualification for a pension and payments of $40,000 a year for the rest of his life, which would begin when he reaches retirement age.

If Metro terminates his contract "for cause," those provisions do not become effective.

Well, won't it be interesting if a possible relationship with a female staffer is the "cause" that gets taxpayers off the hook? If not, former Mayor Bill White's lack of interest in overseeing METRO could turn into a costly headache for taxpayers.

Greenblatt also reports that Wilson was trying to jump to Denver several months ago, but their transit authority board had the good sense not to hire him. Perhaps they vetted his background more thoroughly than David Wolff and the Houston Chronicle when Wilson came on board here in 2004. Imagine if Wilson's track record had been examined more carefully back then by Houston's political leaders and newspaper of record. Alas...

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/10 10:26 PM | Comments (10)

ANOTHER COLLISION between a METRO bus and the Danger Train has taken place.

KPRC-2 reporter Mary Benton posted this photo of the accident and has twitter updates.

Houston needs more at-grade rail down busy streets!

UPDATE: Here's more on the KPRC-2 website.

UPDATE 2: Here is more coverage from KTRK-13, KHOU-11, and KRIV-26.

UPDATE 3: KHOU's report has been updated to include a passenger who asserts that the bus had the green light, and the Danger Train rammed it. Raequel "9 Volt" Roberts promises another investigation. Perhaps someone should obtain an injunction that keeps METRO from destroying/altering the evidence!

KHOU's report also includes this great quote:

Janet Gates was a passenger on the light rail train.

"You just got to pray every day, because you never know what will happen from one moment to the next," Gates said.

Not when it comes to the Danger Train!

UPDATE 4: Here is the lede for the pro-METRO Chronicle's story:

Nineteen people were injured, none seriously, when a Metro bus and a light rail train collided Monday afternoon in front of Metro's downtown headquarters, the second such crash at that intersection in five weeks.

So, all nineteen people were transported to the hospital by ambulance, but the pro-METRO newspaper editorializes that their injuries were not serious in their news story?!

Perhaps the injuries were not life-threatening, but it strikes us that injuries that result in ambulance transport to hospitals should not be deemed not serious. The 19 people whose commute was interrupted by a bus/rail crash and ensuing ambulance ride to the hospital probably thought it was serious!

But why editorialize at all? Report the facts and let readers decide what to think. This is just another data point for why we refer to the Chron as America's worst big-city daily.

UPDATE (03/16/2010): METRO has released a video that would seem to show the bus driver ran a red light.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/10 02:47 PM | Comments (7)

14 March 2010

ON FRIDAY, THE CHRONICLE'S SENIOR METRO/STATE COLUMNIST startled us with a column headlined as follows:

Metro can't let rail jeopardize its buses

The pro-establishment newspaper is a little late to the party (METRO has been cutting bus service and losing riders for quite some time, even though the 2003 referendum promised a 50% increase in bus service), but we welcome them nonetheless.

It's a shame they haven't been a more forceful advocate for area transit users over the last decade, though.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/14/10 09:38 PM | Comments (7)

SLAMPO writes that "they're getting downright PISSy at the Houston Chronicle."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/14/10 09:21 PM | Comments (0)

13 March 2010

LAUGH OF THE DAY: METRO's press release after last week's visit before the judge to discuss document retention:

JUDGE RULES IN METRO’S FAVOR ON PLAN FOR PRESERVING DOCUMENTS: ALL DOCUMENTS TO BE SAVED

Yes, let's recall METRO's plan for document preservation:

District Judge Al Bennett laid down the law Friday, ordering the embattled Metropolitan Transit Authority to stop shredding and start saving all of its documents.

The order comes after Metro tried to argue against it [...]

METRO's 9-volt battery could use some recharging.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/13/10 09:49 AM | Comments (5)

12 March 2010

KRIV-26'S ISIAH CAREY reports that Richard Celli has resigned as head of the City of Houston’s Housing and Community Development Department.

Celli was appointed by Bill White to head the agency after friend David Mincberg got so preoccupied with an unsuccessful campaign for Harris County Judge that it became necessary to replace him.

Mayor Parker promises a search for a new and non-traditional leader for the organization, although the late-Friday release of this news would suggest it's not one of the busy new mayor's highest priorities. She has been left with more than a few messes to clean up, after all.

BLOGVERSATION: Houston Politics.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/10 08:13 PM | Comments (2)

THE CHRON HOUSTON POLITICS BLOG notes that Borris Miles remains ahead of Al Edwards in the great HD 146 Buffoon Blood Feud rematch, after a canvassing board looked at provisional and mail ballots. Edwards is apparently still considering his options:

I asked the veteran lawmaker just a few minutes ago what he plans to do. "I haven't revealed that yet," he said. "We're looking at all different angles."

Borris Miles did not tell the blog, "The first thing I plan to do is plant a big smooch on the lips of the first babe in sight, whether she's willing or not" but he may have been thinking it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/10 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

11 March 2010

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS reports that public policy pundit Bill King testified to the Senate Finance Committee yesterday on the state of Houston's finances:

A longtime critic testified that during White's six years as mayor, Houston masked an operating deficit by issuing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of pension bonds.

Nearly half flowed through its general fund, which would have run out of cash last year if not for the borrowing, William E. King of Houston told the Senate Finance Committee.

"It's a way to kick the can down the road and not have to pay for your current expenses," said King, a small-business owner and lawyer.

Bill White's gubernatorial campaign was quick to assert that Bill King previously had little interest in the issue, until he decided to run for political office, even though he ultimately didn't run for political office. That's certainly a muddled talking point, but then again, even the best talking point can't change facts.

The fact is, Bill King has been a frequent -- and frequently sensible -- commentator on area public policy, did not run for any office in the last election cycle, and is not running for any office at the moment so far as we know. So the notion that a self-serving pol would accuse King of being a self-serving pol is more an amusing distraction than a rebuttal of what King had to say.

The other fact is, the City of Houston under Bill White did punt tough financial decisions down the road, as fellow Democrat and current Mayor Annise Parker made clear yesterday:

“For years now, we have spent more money than we have taken in,” she said. “You can't spend more than you earn. It is a very unbusinesslike approach to running things.”

We have not seen any variant of the DMN story in the Chronicle. Perhaps the Chron editorial board will offer the promised "rebuttal" for their man in a few days!

BLOGVERSATION: Pondering Penguin.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/10 03:04 PM | Comments (2)

BILL KING has a nice new blog post, "Would you like a transit lesson with that shoe shine?"

Under the current METRO leadership, the needs of those who actually use transit in Houston seem much less of a priority than the desires of urban-planning special interests, developers, and insecure editorialists to craft their version of a world-class Houtopia.

Here's hoping Mayor Parker's promise to change the leadership at METRO will return the focus to transit users (whose numbers are shrinking despite record METRO expenditures).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/10 06:59 AM | Comments (2)

10 March 2010

THE CHRONICLE reports that Mayor Annise Parker is skeptical whether METRO can afford to build two controversial rail lines (the Westpark/University and Uptown lines), and that she reiterated her call today for new management at the rogue organization.

Question 1: Will the rogue agency's embattled leadership blast ahead on the two projects before Mayor Parker actually delivers her promised changes?

Question 2: Was that a collective gasp from every urban-planning/architectural/development/minority/bond-underwriting/consulting special interest that was banking on its part of the (previously) generous METRO boondoggle pie?

BLOGVERSATION: Campos Communications.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 09:46 PM | Comments (4)

MAYOR ANNISE PARKER said today that all options but tax increases will be considered in trying to make up a multimillion dollar budget shortfall. Here's an interesting quote from the Chronicle story by Bradley Olson:

“For years now, we have spent more money than we have taken in,” she said. “You can't spend more than you earn. It is a very unbusinesslike approach to running things.”

That could have been in a Dave Carney email!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 09:24 PM | Comments (4)

MATT BRAMANTI scores with this tweet:

Chron tweet

We expect Jeff Cohen will be hitting the links the rest of the week.

Honestly, though, did America's worst big-city daily really need to devote 30+ grafs to this not-story?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:42 AM | Comments (1)

MARC CAMPOS notes that new HISD chief Terry Grier has been busy in his first six months, upsetting the usual suspect:

So far it looks like to me that the only person that is publicly unhappy with the Superintendent is the teachers’ union honcho [Gayle Fallon]. Everybody is A-OK, just observing, or keeping their pieholes shut. Commentary is one of the ones that is A-OK.

The folks who hired Grier had to know they were getting a reformer. He has hit the ground running. That all seems A-OK so far to us.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:12 AM | Comments (4)

THE CHRONICLE reports on METRO's plans to issue $2.6 billion in bonds to finance its light rail construction (and, ostensibly, to avoid the limits imposed by the 2003 referendum on the boondoggle's skyrocketing costs).

The Examiner's Michael Reed reported on METRO's bond plans last week.

BLOGVERSATION: Rhymes with Right, T F Stern's Ramblings.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 08:00 AM | Comments (1)

BARRY KLEIN passes along a guest commentary ("More trains + short blocks: The coming downtown mobility mess") that we have posted here.

We have previously reviewed METRO's coming downtown mobility mess here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/10 07:53 AM | Comments (0)

09 March 2010

ONE OF THE (MANY) DISTURBING ASPECTS OF SHREDDERGATE is how chatty METRO officials have been about the firing of Pauline Higgins, former chief counsel for the transit agency. They even released personnel documents purportedly showing what a terrible employee she was. Now, Texas Watchdog's Lee Ann O'Neal reports that one of METRO's reasons for dumping Ms. Higgins is that "she held meetings after-hours at the agency's offices for a charity golf tournament named in memory of her dead son."

Metro also accused Higgins in the report of giving Metro jobs to people who also helped out with the golf tournament. But one of the four people referenced told Texas Watchdog Tuesday that he's been doing legal work for Metro since well before Higgins arrived at the agency. Another one of the four was hired as a summer intern, not as a full-time permanent employee.

But, you see, this can't stand. The transit agency that employs Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, and his close friends, has standards and policies, and Higgins violated them with her charity golf tournament.

That revelation led me to a bit of rummaging around METRO's website, and in their Outreach section, there is one M. Helen Cavazos, METRO VP of Human Resources and Diversity, who was recognized by the Dynamo as a 2009 Outstanding Hispanic Community Leader for "her continuous contribution and giving back to the community." Did Ms. Cavazos do ALL her continuous contributing and giving back after hours AND off-site? Ms. Higgins' problem, apparently, was having after-hours meetings at the Lee P. Brown Administrative Building.

Since METRO is a-okay with speaking at length about personnel issues, METRO should disclose how many other employees it has investigated (and fired!) for after-hours charitable work done at METRO HQ. We're most curious.

Except that now, METRO spokeswoman Raequel "9-volt" Roberts says, "We've said all that we're going to say as far as personnel issues." Smearing complete, mission accomplished.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/09/10 08:27 PM | Comments (10)

08 March 2010

SLAMPO checks in with an update on his favorite, non-resident Houston Councilmember, Al(oysius) Hoang.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 11:18 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON'S SENIOR METRO/STATE COLUMNIST (and plagiarist) apparently decided that it was time at least to acknowledge METRO's Shreddergate scandal.

It's a typically lazy, lackluster effort that breaks little new ground*, save that we learn METRO's PR blitz apparently included a meeting with the Chron editorial board,** one of the organization's biggest cheerleaders over the years (along with some transit "reporters").

UPDATE: Apparently, The Plagiarist's column had an embarrassing problem for those reading the print edition (the online version has been corrected): It referred to fired attorney Pauline Higgins as Wiggins repeatedly:

In Rick Casey's Sunday column, former Metropolitan Transit Authority chief counsel Pauline Higgins' name was spelled correctly the first time, but misspelled in subsequent references.

Whoops! Copy editing is not a strong suit of America's worst big-city daily.

*Reader Participation Opportunity 1: Go help out Cory Crow by answering his question, "Can someone tell me the point of this Rick Casey column?"

** Reader Participation Opportunity 2: Imagine the fun naming possibilities of that meeting of the minds! We immediately thought of, "LET'S TRASH THE WRITTEN WORD TOGETHER!" Feel free to add yours in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 08:30 PM | Comments (1)

THE CLEARLY UNRETIRED UNCA DARRELL explains that the Chron editorial board's latest health care screed is "unprincipled, deliberately false, and wrong."

How does that distinguish this one from most of their output exactly?

UPDATE: On a sort-of-related note, Matt Bramanti called our attention to this brutal graf that the editorial board generated over the weekend:

The proposed loan guarantees are also a clarifying recognition by the administration that nuclear power, which supplies 20 percent of the nation's electricity, has a significant role to play in the steady greening of the nation's energy supplies backed by Obama.

They also called nuclear energy a "fuel."

Dreadful prose. Dreadful substance. Occasional dishonesty. The editorial board certainly does its part at America's worst big-city daily!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

THE CHRON EDITORIAL BOARD sums up the mentality at America's worst big-city daily very well today:

In a pre-primary interview, White said he fully expects the GOP to make the state of Houston an election issue. He expects the rebuttal to come not only from his own campaign but from Houstonians and local news media.

Local news media might not completely go along, but the Chronicle will be cheering loudly for their man, we're sure. America's worst big-city daily loves to play cheerleader for favorites (pols, causes, and boondoggles alike), even if the folks at 801 Texas Avenue are usually not so candid about it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/10 05:36 PM | Comments (3)

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KHOU: Firing Frank Wilson could get expensive

A good indicator that the political winds have shifted

Another METRO bus/Danger Train collision downtown

Slampo: Downright PISSy at the Houston Chronicle

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