21 March 2006
Mayor Pro Tem's office: Forgeries R Us?
Remember when (temporarily former) Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado was shaken as she saw a memo that contained her allegedly forged initials? Courtesy of Houblog, here is the side-by-side comparison of Councilwoman Alvarado's initials and the allegedly forged ones.
Then Isiah Carey posted a couple of other Bonusgate documents with an entirely different set of initials/signatures (lower left corner). And as Ubu Roi points out, who signed in Mayor White's spot (lower right corner)?
And now fired Mayor Pro Tem office staffer Christopher Mays says that HIS signature was forged:
Mays collected more than $30,000 in extra pay. His signature appears on many of the documents that allowed the employees under investigation to pad their paychecks.
Now, there are questions about whether Mays' signature was forged.
He told KPRC by phone, "I can tell you this. My signature was forged, forged many times."
KPRC checked some documents to compare Mays' signature with his authentic signature.
One of the documents was a memo from former City Councilman Gordon Quan that surfaced last week.
A former employee of Quan said a memo requesting additional money for the mayor pro tem's office is absolutely fake. She is not sure if Mays was in on it.
Another document approving the bonuses showed Mays as the one who prepared the paperwork. But sources told KPRC Local 2 that Mays did not have access to the software that would have allowed him to fill out the document.
Are there ANY initials or signatures on ANY documents from the Mayor Pro Tem's office that can be authenticated??? Was this only going on in the Mayor Pro Tem's office under Alvarado, or is this SOP throughout city government?
PREVIOUSLY: Now it's Gordon Quan's initials that may have been forged
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/21/06 09:57 AM |
20 March 2006
City Council topics: Parking Commission members and renaming a park
This week's city council agenda has a couple of interesting items.
First, Mayor White's recommendations for the city's new Parking Commission:
3. REQUEST from Mayor for confirmation of the appointment of the following to the PUBLIC PARKING COMMISSION:
Position Six - MR. ROBERT EURY, as an ex-officio representative of the City’s Municipal Management Districts
Position Seven - MR. GERARD TORRES, for a term to expire 12/31/2006
Position Eight - MR. MARCUS L. DAVIS, for a term to expire 12/31/2007
Position Nine - MR. M. MARVIN KATZ, and to serve as Chair, for a term to expire 12/31/2006
Position Ten - MS. MICHELLE LYNN COLVARD, for a term to expire 12/31/2007
Position Eleven - MR. JOE R. MARTIN, for a term to expire 12/31/2006
Position Twelve - MR. ANDREW F. ICKEN, for a term to expire 12/31/2007
Position Thirteen - MS. EVALYN LAING KRUDY, for a term to expire 12/31/2006
Position Fourteen - MR. CHARLES D. REEDSTROM, for a term to expire 12/31/2007
Position Fifteen - MS. MARY JO (JODY) MCFADDEN, for a term to expire 12/31/2006
There are definitely some Houston Cocktail Party Circuit names on that list. Thanks to Tom Bazan for the heads up and no thanks to our local media for their coverage. Talk about dropping the ball! A whole new quasi-governmental agency is getting underway and our local newshounds can't be bothered to tell us who will be doing the decision-making (as unelected officials). So much for our watchdog media that keeps the public's right to know at the forefront. Mayor White must be pleased.
Second is this fun one, courtesy of bH commenter Vernon Guy:
5. RECOMMENDATION from Director Parks & Recreation Department to change the name of WEST LITTLE YORK PARK, located at 2800 West Little York to SYLVESTER TURNER PARK DISTRICT A - LAWRENCE
I guess we now know what some of those Tour de Houston funds will go to -- new park signage.
UPDATE: Ubu Roi does some Googling on the soon-to-be Parking Commission members.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/20/06 05:34 PM |
Bonusgate documents
Isiah Carey has posted copies of a couple of Bonusgate documents. Go check them out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/20/06 05:05 PM |
16 March 2006
KPRC: DA bonusgate investigation to start from scratch
KPRC-2 reports that the Harris County District Attorney's office will be starting over with the investigation of financial irregularities in the Mayor Pro Tem's office:
The Harris County district attorney said the investigation into the City Hall bonus scandal would have to start all over again, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.
The Office of the Investigator General conducted the initial investigation into the improper bonuses that four employees of the Mayor Pro Tem's Office received.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said the investigation his office's investigation into the incident will start from the beginning since the OIG's investigation was not as beefed up as it could have been.
"They didn't do a criminal investigation so we're basically going to have to start from scratch. They can't investigate elected officials, but there are people with (the Houston Police Department) that are able to do that," Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal said his office would investigate every city office and employee, elected or appointed.
More and more, the OIG investigation seems simply to have provided political cover for the administration, perhaps with the hope that the issue would die for lack of public and/or media interest. Clearly, that didn't happen, and a more thorough investigation will now take place.
UPDATE: KHOU-11's Doug Miller also reported on the investigation last night. The travel of former Councilmember Orlando Sanchez may be drawing attention, according to Miller.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/16/06 10:10 AM |
14 March 2006
Investigators seize more documents from Mayor Pro Tem's office (updated)
For the second time Tuesday, investigators from the district attorney's office took documents from former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado's office.
In their second trip, they took one box from the office.
Officials would not comment on what kind of documents were in the box.
Earlier Tuesday, a source told 11 News five or six investigators took about five filing cabinets' worth of documents from the office.
KTRH-740 is reporting that the DA's office is looking for more than just Bonusgate information. District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said his office is looking for evidence that "city officials and not necessarily elected officials" may have used the Mayor Pro Tem's office to run expenses through that they didn't want showing up in their own offices' expenses. (I'm going off memory here, but that was the basic gist of what the KTRH report said.)
UPDATE: KTRK-13's story carries even more details:
On Tuesday morning, a truck full of boxes containing documents were removed from the mayor pro tem's office. Rosenthal apparently got a tip on Monday night that if he didn't remove the boxes by Tuesday, they would disappear.
"There have been allegations made over the years that that office has also been used by some city officials to use their budget to do some things that officials didn't want to do on their own budget," said Rosenthal.
[snip]
We asked Rosenthal to give us an example of what he might look into. He says over the years, he's heard rumors that perhaps an elected official would want to take a trip that wouldn't appear proper going through that person's budget. Rosenthal says he's heard that the official would funnel the trip through the mayor pro tem's budget.
He says he's heard those allegations for years, but never had an opportunity to investigate. Now he has that opportunity. Rosenthal says he plans to look back as far as the statute of limitations allows, which could stretch back to the Lee Brown administration.
Wow!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (10:40 pm): Charles Kuffner points out in the comments that the linked KTRK story has changed, and is now different from the excerpt reproduced above. That's really annoying when that happens.
KHOU-11 reports the following:
The DA's investigators came without warning, armed with a letter making a request from the embattled mayor pro tem's office.
They wanted documents, lots of documents.
The file cabinets are now empty at the mayor pro tem's office.
There were thousands of pages seized Tuesday.
"They pretty much took everything," said Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.
That's because Rosenthal says his investigation is moving well beyond the four city employees fired in the "bonus scandal".
Rosenthal confirmed they were talking about multiple city departments and multiple elected officials being affected.
The investigation's speed picked up Monday evening after a phone call to the DA from a person he said he trusts.
"It was his contention that there may be documents in the file cabinets in the mayor pro tem's office that would disappear," Rosenthal said.
KPRC-2 runs a similar report.
Hang on folks. This could get much more interesting.
UPDATE (03-15-2006): KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey posts to his blog (here and here) some comments from and about Harris Country District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal that didn't show up in the MSM accounts linked above.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog, More Houblog, Off the Kuff, Isolated Desolation, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/14/06 03:59 PM |
13 March 2006
City of Houston Parking Management website
The City of Houston's new Parking Authority now has a dedicated website. It includes FAQ's, parking tips and a section on how to resolve tickets.
Unlike other cities' parking authorities, this site does not include a section on how the new quasi-governmental agency is set up, who is on the board, how the board is chosen, whether or not it has the power of eminent domain, bond-issuance, and debt management.
In the interest of transparent government, surely the city will add all this information -- very soon.
PREVIOUSLY: Most of the Parking Commission members have been chosen
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/13/06 07:21 PM |
10 March 2006
A dented file cabinet -- Bonusgate intrigue?
I am wondering if this story about a dented city council file cabinet:
Damage to a locked cabinet containing documents from the Office of Mayor Pro Tem, which is at the center of a payroll-padding probe, has prompted officials to notify police investigators about possible tampering.
The black, 5-foot-tall filing cabinet, which sat in an unlocked City Council break room adjacent to the pro tem office, contains a visible dent just above a drawer handle. The cabinet was accessible to at least 80 council employees.
...which contains this paragraph:
The damage was discovered when an employee asked the City Hall Annex building manager to unlock the cabinet so documents could be retrieved. The records had been requested under the Texas Public Information Act, Michel said.
...means that Tom Bazan's FOIA request will be filled.
Don't forget, Sunshine (in government) Week is nearly upon us!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/10/06 08:39 AM |
09 March 2006
Houston's hurricane response leads to online water bill payment
Rich Connelly found a letter from Mayor White in his latest water bill that explains the city's new online payment system is courtesy of the city's generous outreach to Katrina evacuees...or something like that:
Houstonians received a letter from White with their most recent water bills, informing them they could now pay those bills online. (Welcome to the 21st century!! Finally.) Somehow, that mundane announcement tied in with our sainthood: "We, as a community, have opened our arms to new residents displaced by the recent events on the Gulf Coast," White's letter began. "With that, we recognize our continued responsibility to serve our own citizens. We thank everyone for their generosity and good will shown to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and now as much as ever the City of Houston's top priority is to serve everyone's needs efficiently."
Huh?
Connelly decides there's gold in the mayor's thinking:
We can hardly wait for other improvements to city documents:
"As Katrina showed, Houstonians have hearts as big as Texas. That said, you have jury duty in municipal court."
"Unlike Houstonians, who passed with flying colors an inspection of their generosity in trying times, the inspection sticker on your car was expired as you drove near Richmond and Montrose at 2:17 p.m. March 2. Pay up."
"Martin Luther King could not have been more giving than Houstonians were during Katrina. Therefore, there will be no trash pickup on January 15, MLK's birthday."
Apparently the city of Houston has a Department of Non Sequiturs!
It's reminiscent of the Chron's many "In the aftermath of Katrina (or Rita)..." editorials. Not really related to anything, but a sort of claim to fame, nonetheless.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/09/06 11:22 AM |
08 March 2006
Bonusgate investigation expands; Editorial LiveJournalists dismayed?
KHOU-11's Doug Miller is reporting that the OIG's investigation has been expanded to other City Council offices, and that the four Mayor Pro Tem employees in question have been fired. The link includes an audio report.
KTRH-740's report includes this from the lawyer of one of the terminated employees:
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Hernandez suggests that City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado knew what was going on in the pro tem office when the improper bonuses were being paid. Attorney Walter Boyd says only "one side of the story" has been aired, and what the public has heard so far is only "posturing" by politicans.
As an advocate for his client, Boyd could be saying that for the media's benefit, but if there is anything there, the DA's office will get to the bottom of it.
And as pointed out in the forum, here's Nick Anderson's take on Bonusgate. Maybe he will turn out to be an equal opportunity skewerer occasionally.
UPDATE: KHOU-11 now adds this from Mayor White:
Mayor White later tried to clarify some remarks about how the OIG had been investigating some City Council offices, which caught reporters by surprise.
The mayor said they had not, to his knowledge, found any problems in those offices, but the OIG was taking a look anyway just to make sure.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Chronicle editorial board's latest apologia for Carol Alvarado seems as if it could have been written by the embattled councilmember's high-priced PR firm.
Here's the opening:
SINCE a city of Houston official uncovered excessive bonuses and raises given to four employees she was supposed to supervise, Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado has taken much of the heat for the scandal. After waffling about who was to blame for the breakdown in supervision, Alvarado accepted full responsibility for trusting the employees enough to delegate to them authority to sign funding requests.
She accepted full responsibility for those BAAAAAAAAD (unsupervised) employees victimizing her? Sorry, Editorial LiveJournalists, but the Alvarado-as-Victim meme didn't resonate with anyone on the first try.
It continues:
After reviewing a report by the city's inspector general, Mayor Bill White said the evidence indicates the workers improperly authorized their own illegal payments, and nothing links Alvarado to "any aspect of these payments or the scheme."
Of course, the Office of Inspector General couldn't actually investigate Alvarado, as a KHOU report indicates, but why let inconvenient facts get in the way of good PR work?
There's more:
At a joint news conference with the mayor at City Hall Monday, Alvarado wisely decided to remove herself from the public line of fire by temporarily relinquishing the mayor pro tem post until the Harris County district attorney and a grand jury review the evidence. As she described it, the decision was made after discussions with the mayor and was motivated by the desire to allow City Council to move on to other matters.
The Editorial LiveJournalists just HAD to work in "temporarily." Meanwhile, back to the world of political reality: Had Alvarado not resigned ("wisely") when she did, Anthony Hall almost certainly would have announced (on behalf of the mayor) that she would be replaced. She was allowed to save face, and still managed to put the mayor on the spot with her talk of "temporarily" stepping down.
They're not done:
If Alvarado's sole failure is misplaced trust in deceptive employees, then she should be allowed to resume her previous status with no penalty after the criminal investigation is completed.
Her failure wasn't misplaced trust. Rather, at the least, her lack of oversight was professionally and politically negligent, and she cannot be trusted to return as Mayor Pro Tem. Period. Someone else will have to be found to build consensus on smoking bans.
And the grand finale:
The district attorney is deciding whether to charge the four city employees. With both Mayor White and Councilwoman Alvarado providing full cooperation, the investigation of City Hall's bonusgate should be quickly put behind us.
The DA also has to decide whether an actual investigation of Alvarado or anyone else is merited, and Anthony Hall announced today that the investigation had been expanded, so this matter is far from over. The Editorial LiveJournalists are more out of touch with political reality than usual if they think it's time to sweep this mess under the carpet and move on.
RELATED: Chronicle
BLOGVERSATION: Incompetence, not such a bad thing after all. (Isolated Desolation)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/08/06 12:13 PM |
07 March 2006
Budget warnings were sent to Mayor Pro Tem's office
KHOU-11 and KPRC-2 are reporting that warnings were given to the Mayor Pro Tem's office about budget overruns. This is from KPRC:
Judy Gray Johnson, the director of the city's Finance and Administration Department, said during a fiscal affairs committee meeting Tuesday morning that the Mayor Pro Tem's Office was sent at least three warnings that they were going over budget.
KPRC Local 2 left messages for Johnson but she did not return the calls.
"I didn't get them," Alvarado said.
She said not only did she not see any warning letters, no one from the Finance and Administration Department contacted her directly.
"When something would potentially become a problem in my district office, I would get an e-mail. There were times I would get an e-mail from Regina Dixon in F&A. That never happened with the pro tem office," Alvarado said.
And from KHOU:
Also Tuesday, finance officials with Mayor White's office said they had warned Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado months ago that her office was spending too much money.
But Alvarado said she never got the warnings.
When asked if this was more evidence that she should have kept a closer eye on her budget, she got testy.
"We've been through all this, I'm not answering any more questions about that. I answered these questions when this first happened, so I'm not going there," she said.
"I want justice to be served," said Alvarado. "We have people that stole taxpayer money and there need to be -- uh, it needs to go through the proper procedure, through a grand jury, and people need to pay for what they did."
Maybe Rosie Hernandez intercepted the warnings. She seems to have done everything else in that office.
BLOGVERSATION: You Were Warned! Sort of… (Houblog)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/07/06 08:03 PM |
Alvarado: taking responsibility for doing nothing wrong
Here's another Carol Alvarado quote from yesterday's Bonusgate press conference:
"I did nothing improper and I've accepted responsibility."
She did nothing improper and she's accepted responsibility.
But if she really thinks she's done nothing wrong (er, improper), then what is she taking responsibility for?
Even after almost four weeks of this, she refuses to admit what she did wrong, and of course she did something wrong: she didn't exercise oversight of her staff, a basic duty of anyone in a leadership position. The fact that she still refuses to acknowledge this is a huge black mark on her leadership ability.
In a soundbite on KTRH-740 this morning she said that she is sorry this has become a distraction. She didn't apologize for her failure as a manager, or for not being a good steward of the taxpayers' hard-earned money, or for besmirching the character of so many decent, hard-working city employees. No. She apologized for the distraction.
A distraction caused by her failure.
Now she is all about helping Mayor White come up with reforms so this will never happen again -- reforms that are necessary due to her unwillingness or inability to supervise her own staff! Mayor White will use this as an opportunity to look like a reform mayor, while he increases mayoral power and reduces councilmembers' control over their own employees.
Thanks to Carol Alvarado.
But she did nothing wrong...or improper.
PREVIOUSLY: Alvarado: Oh all right, I'll take responsibility...but it's still not my fault
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/07/06 10:02 AM |
06 March 2006
Beginning week four of Bonusgate (updated: Alvarado steps aside)
***Keep scrolling for updates***
Here's what's going on so far today:
KHOU-11 is reporting that the four employees in the Mayor Pro Tem's office will be suspended indefinitely (government-speak for fired?).
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that the DA's office has received a "partial report" from the Houston Police Office of Inspector General, and prosecutors are reviewing the material.
Also, Mayor White is expected to discuss the report later today with the media, but may not release the full report, according to spokesman Frank Michel.
And on KTRH-740 this morning a councilmember (maybe Councilwoman Sekula-Gibbs?) was complaining that Mayor White is leaving Council in the dark about details of the investigation.
UPDATE: KHOU-11 is now reporting that Carol Alvarado will temporarily step down as Mayor Pro Tem:
Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado will temporarily step aside as a result of the payroll scandal in her office. Mayor Bill White issued a statement that "the Office of Inspector General's report reveals a pattern of misconduct of the mayor pro tem's office."
The mayor went on to reveal there was some evidence of attempts to conceal the activities that granted four employees of that office more than $140,000 in improper bonuses.
Well. That's intriguing.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: As noted previously, Alvarado's move was entirely expected.
In my view, the move is likely to be permanent, not temporary. Mayor White's agenda and priorities trump Carol Alvarado's political needs.
ANNE ADDS MORE: KPRC-950 news is reporting that Michael Berry will take over Mayor Pro Tem duties, and the office's responsibilities will be curtailed.
Check out this Alvarado quote from Matt Stiles' updated story:
"I intend to temporarily - make sure you wrote that down right - temporarily, step down, pending the outcome of the investigation," she said.
We got it. Temporarily. Wanna bet? (Not that we do that here at bH, of course.)
MORE: From KTRK-13:
"Clearly, this is not what I prefer, but I think it's the right thing to do for the Houston city council and for the city as a whole," said Alvarado.
But it IS what Mayor White preferred. Refer to Kevin Adds above.
EVEN MORE: Mayor White's statement.
That's a pretty fast turnaround for a mayoral press release. Often we hear or read something in the local media relating to Mayor White, and it takes days and days before the press release shows up on the city's website. Obviously, this situation is such that the mayor wants to make sure there is NO delay in getting his side of things on the public record.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE: KSEV-700 substitute talker Chris Begala is claiming on air that he "broke" the rumor that Alvarado would resign on Friday. At 5:20 pm. Except by that time, the scuttlebutt had been circulating among the city's journalists for hours. And KRIV-26's Isiah Carey had posted about it on his blog at 1:32 pm.
So no, Chris Begala didn't "break" the story at 5:20 pm, and his claim that he did shows a clownish lack of awareness of local media that we've seen before over at KSEV.
BY THE WAY: Rosie Hernandez is still listed as the contact person on Carol Alvarado's website:
All invites or scheduling requests can be emailed to [email protected].
Or, they can be faxed directly to Rosie Hernandez, Scheduler, at 713.247.3413.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/06/06 12:21 PM |
Most of the Parking Commission members have been chosen
Whoa! At the very end of this Chron story on new downtown parking meters is a whole 'nother -- much more important -- story:
A new city Parking Commission will determine where meters are placed. The City Council approved the creation of the group last fall, and 13 of its 15 members have been chosen, Rambo said. The commission will comprise nine voting members with experience in the field and six non-voting members who represent the city, county and Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Hello! Thirteen of the 15 members have been chosen? Where's the story on THAT? Who are they? Who chose them? When did this happen?
It's almost Sunshine (in government) Week. Would the Chronicle or any other local media outlet care to shine a light on Houston's new Parking Commission?
RELATED: Blueprint Houston November 2005 interview with Liliana Rambo (Word doc.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/06/06 11:07 AM |
05 March 2006
Would this be considered a red light camera shenanigan?
TheNewspaper.com covers Houston's delayed red light camera contract and adds this:
The initial police request for contract proposals specified that the red light camera system must photograph both the front and rear of vehicles. Systems that photograph the front of the car allow identification of the driver, ensuring that the ticket only goes to the individual responsible for the infraction. At the last minute, officials changed the requirement to rear photos only when they learned that sending tickets to vehicle owners regardless of whether they committed any crime would generate substantially more revenue. Rhode Island vendor Nestor Inc. complained that they were not given sufficient notice of this change.
"I got notification during the demo or right before the demo that it wasn't going to be front-plate capture," said Bert Keller, a Nestor lobbyist and former Houston city councilman.
Which officials made the change? Remember when Houston bicyclist Bob Stein assured us that Mayor White would be on the lookout for shenanigans? Did Mayor White know about this last minute photo change (that just so happens to produce more money for the city)?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/05/06 07:11 AM |
04 March 2006
When will Alvarado resign?
Local media outlets can't seem to agree whether or not the report on the bonus pay scandal in Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado's office has been passed on to Mayor White and the Harris County District Attorney's office. The Chronicle and KUHF-88.7 say the report will be out next week. KTRK-13 got two answers from Mayor White on the report (that it should be out next week AND that he expected to see it this weekend). KHOU-11 says the report is already in the hands of the DA's office.
It does seem to be the case that the White Administration is beginning to nudge Carol Alvarado out of the Mayor Pro Tem position.
From the Chronicle:
Mayor Bill White spoke with some City Council members Friday to feel them out about who should be mayor pro tem if Councilwoman Carol Alvarado relinquishes the post amid a payroll-padding scandal.
"I want to get this OIG investigation complete before drawing any conclusions," White said. "I haven't done a formal poll of all the council members. I have asked some people what we do to get this behind us."
The mayor would not go into further detail, but one of the council members with whom he met on Friday was Ada Edwards.
"That's his call," Edwards said about whether Alvarado should step down. "He didn't ask me my opinion when he appointed her. It's not clear to me why he needs my opinion about what he should do now."
White also met with Councilwoman Toni Lawrence.
"He's considering one of the council members who's been in the same party as he has," said Lawrence, a Republican.
The nature of politics suggests that when councilmembers start talking to the press about their conversations with the mayor on potential replacements for the Mayor Pro Tem, the current Mayor Pro Tem isn't going to be holding the job much longer.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog, Isiah Carey's Insite (I, II).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/06 09:56 PM |
03 March 2006
Mayor White to ask Alvarado to step down as Mayor Pro Tem?
Embattled Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado is still a hot topic among local journalists, despite the best efforts of her high-powered PR firm to change the subject.
The Chronicle's Kristen Mack devoted her entire politics column to Alvarado's difficulties:
Alvarado's natural instinct was to talk, but she didn't help herself with the things she said.She said she felt betrayed. And to subsequent questions about a $66,000 increase in this year's mayor pro tem office budget, she said. "I don't know why this $50,000, or $60,000, is such a hot issue."
Having Marc Campos, her political consultant, serve as her mouthpiece — once she decided to stop talking about the investigation a week after the fact — only made it look like she was looking for a political solution. This week the role of speaking for Alvarado passed to Householder.
Hiring Householder and Hardin underscored Alvarado's realization that the payroll matter is serious and not going away anytime soon.
Metro/state/New Orleans editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey also took up the topic, although he devotes most of his column space to past clients of Alvarado's PR and legal firms. His research assistant must have been busy with that one.
And finally, KRIV-26 reporter Isiah Carey posts some buzz about the future of Mayor Pro Tem Alvarado:
The Insite has learned from credible sources that Mayor Bill White 'may' have quietly consulted with some Houston City Council members to gain their support in 'possibly' asking embattled council member Carol Alvarado to step down from the Mayor Pro Tem's office...
KTRH-740 has also been reporting on speculation that Mayor Pro Tem Alvarado will be asked to resign from the post, so it's obviously a hot topic at City Hall today, at least among journalists.
And that's Alvarado's biggest problem right now. Mayor White has given Mayor Pro Tem Alvarado a reasonable amount of time to get this issue under control, and she hasn't been able to do so. It's beginning to crowd out press coverage of the mayor's agenda and priorities, which can't please the administration. And the fact that Houston now has a Mayor Pro Tem who will only speak through a PR firm is an embarrassment for the city and for the mayor who selected her for the position.
It's difficult to imagine that Alvarado can retain the office much longer.
UPDATE: KPRC-2 reports that Mayor White has been soliciting opinions from other councilmembers on Alvarado's status.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/03/06 05:59 PM |
01 March 2006
Alvarado: Oh all right, I'll take responsibility...but it's still not my fault
Embattled Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado's PR team has seemingly convinced her that playing the victim is not the way to go, if she wants to survive politically. So, in an about-face, she has written an op-ed for the Chronicle and sent out a letter to her constituents (paid for with campaign funds) saying that she really, really, really does take full responsibility:
As mayor pro-tem, I accept responsibility for what happened — as well as the responsibility for making sure it never happens again. I employed these individuals and gave them my trust, and I trusted that the systems the city has in place to make sure we properly handle the taxpayers' money worked. I was wrong on both counts.
Well, okay. She takes full responsibility for her staff and government failing her. It's still the fault of the people she trusted and the city for not having the proper checks and balances in place. Oversight, shmoversight.
Meanwhile, at City Hall, I intend to work with Mayor Bill White and his Finance and Administration Department, City Controller Annise Parker and her staff as well as all of my colleagues on City Council to refine the process to ensure that this sort of thing cannot be repeated.
It would appear that officials who actually review budgets and other financial documents haven't had the problems we are now seeing with Councilwoman Alvarado's "leadership."
In my District I City Council office and in the office of the mayor pro-tem, I intend to make sure the people I employ are of the highest ethical and moral character, as well as the most professionally skilled individuals available. I will supervise them intently.
How many years has she been a public official living on the taxpayer's dime, and NOW she decides she will supervise her staff intently??! That inspires confidence, doesn't it?
It would be easy for me to point fingers of blame and attempt to deflect responsibility for this violation of the public trust.
Which she did, up until a couple of days ago...
Instead, I do accept responsibility for what occurred under my watch, and I accept the responsibility of fixing the problem and maintaining the confidence of the people who have elected me to this office.
For any government to meet the needs of the people it serves, it must have an effective mechanism in place to manage all of the matters for which that government is responsible.
Again, she accepts responsibility...by saying that government failed. What Councilwoman Alvarado still won't admit is that one of the mechanisms in place is her oversight of her staff, which she hasn't been exercising!
Even if what occurred resulted in the misuse of only a single taxpayer dollar, as opposed to tens of thousands of dollars, it cannot be tolerated.
That would be more believable if she or the PR people she has hired hadn't insisted on that correction Kevin Whited noted yesterday. The above quote is a sentence inspired by her new PR people and is not what Ms. Alvarado really thinks. What she really thinks is what first popped out of her mouth when this whole thing initially came to light, "I don't know why this $50,000, or $60,000, is such a hot issue."
One last point: it appears the Chronicle decided to run this op-ed as an op-ed and not as a chopped up letter to the editor, as it did with op-eds submitted by Rep. John Culberson and D.A. Chuck Rosenthal. Strange.
BLOGVERSATION: Off the Kuff, Isolated Desolation, Houblog.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/01/06 10:34 AM |
27 February 2006
Nestor to contest red light camera contract this week
A couple of weeks ago, we posted about a red light camera company's plan to contest the city's contract with American Traffic Solutions Inc. (ATS). Today the Chronicle's Alexis Grant (with an assist from Matt Stiles) explores that topic with some interesting tidbits. First:
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee likely will hear not only from the Houston Police Department, which recommended Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc. for the project, but also from a representative of Nestor Traffic Systems Inc., which failed to win the recommendation.
ATS Inc. is Arizona-based. Hmmmm. Arizona rings a bell, doesn't it?
Now, here's the really interesting piece of information:
One of Keller's criticisms of ATS is that its system does not use collision-avoidance technology, which keeps opposing lights red to prevent other traffic from entering and intersection when the system detects an imminent violation. The systems predict violations by calculating the speed and distance of approaching vehicles.
Montalvo said city traffic engineers recommended the technology not be used because it interferes with the synchronization of traffic lights and puts the camera company in control of light cycles instead of the city.
As long as the camera company doesn't control yellow-light times, the collision-avoidance technology sounds pretty good. Of course, some of us already have our suspicions about the city's yellow-light times.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/27/06 06:53 PM |
25 February 2006
If it quacks like a duck...
Now HPD is calling its quotaproductivity policy a duck program:
Johnnie McFarland calls it a "ticket quota", which is illegal according to state law.
McFarland gave 11 News an internal HPD memo as proof. In it we learn in the northwest division what a captain expects from his patrol officers -- at least two "ducks" a day.
"A duck is a traffic ticket," said McFarland
We asked HPD that same question. A spokesman said the term "ducks" includes all types of arrests from felonies to traffic tickets.
He also pointed out that HPD does not have traffic ticket quotas.
"What we do have is standards of productivity. Every patrol officers is required to perform a certain number of activities," said Lt. Robert Manzo.
HPD confirmed the authenticity of the memo.
PREVIOUSLY: HPD's "productivity policy" begins
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/25/06 09:50 AM |
24 February 2006
Newly Mute Mayor Pro Tem's spokesman: Others at fault
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles may get himself in trouble with Newly Mute Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado's enablers at his own newspaper if he keeps cranking out writing like this:
"It was all doublespeak," said former Councilman Mark Goldberg, referring to the justifications given last summer for increasing the office's spending. "It was all a lie."
The budget figures, released to the Chronicle under the Texas Public Information Act, detail expenditures in the office that handles administrative duties for the 14 City Council members.
For some, the figures also raise questions about why city officials didn't notice the budget overruns, especially while a Finance and Administration Department employee was assigned to compile spending reports for council offices, including the pro tem office, each month.Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who oversees the office in addition to her elected job representing council District I, says she wasn't alerted.
"That's why they call them checks and balances," said Marc Campos, Alvarado's political consultant.
He questioned why city finance officials didn't say, 'Hey, we might have a problem there.' "
But Alvarado didn't notice, either.
It keeps coming back to that, doesn't it?
The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists can portray Alvarado as a victim. She can portray herself as a victim and apologize to Council (but not taxpayers or citizens). Then she can go mute and let her political consultant blame other people.
But ultimately, Newly Mute Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado's inattention to detail and lack of oversight seem to be at issue, as that highlighted snippet from the Stiles reporting makes clear.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/06 10:35 PM |
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