17 June 2005
How to identify Bob Stein
Chronicle politics columnist Kristen Mack reports today on the companies vying for the city's red-light-camera contract, and the city-hall ties of some of their lobbyists.
The column concludes with a proper identification of Rice University political science professor Bob Stein:
"It's going to be ugly. There's a lot of money involved," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, whose wife works as the mayor's agenda director."The mayor will be watching carefully to ensure that the contracts are handled properly and that there are no shenanigans."
On that bolded part -- how does Professor Stein, sometime advisor to Mayor White himself, know? Is it because he's an omniscient objective political analyst, or because of his personal ties to the White Administration?
There's no way for readers to know, which is why it is important for journalists to note his association with the White Administration in their reporting. Otherwise, readers simply think he's an outsider doing objective political analysis, which is misleading.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/05 07:08 AM |
16 June 2005
Another disappearing Metro press release? (updated)
For some unknown reason, Metro's press release announcing Mayor White's new expansion plan is no longer listed in the News Releases section. (Update: the press release is listed again in the News Releases section. Hmmmmm.)
You can still access the release by clicking on the above link, but in case that changes, I'll reprint the whole thing:
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 06:26 PM |
Transcript of mayor's speech won't be posted
On Monday night Mayor White gave a speech before the Progressive Forum. I emailed Frank Michel and Pat Trahan in the mayor's office asking when a transcript of the mayor's speech would be posted. Today Frank Michel responded, saying that since the speech was "mostly impromptu," there is no "written copy of it."
Oh. Well, how impromptu could it have been if the Chronicle highlighted it at least three days before the speech?
I also emailed the Chronicle's news desk asking if there would be a follow-up story on the mayor's speech. I was told that something was planned for next Tuesday.
I would really like to see a transcript of that speech, since Monday was when the big Metro deal was announced, and according to one person who was at the Hobby Center, Mayor White did talk about Metro's new plan in his speech.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 04:08 PM |
Does Mayor White trust the voters?
We nearly passed out this morning when we saw Rad Sallee's story in today's Chronicle:
Two days after Metro's revised transit plan was announced, criticism was bubbling up in the minority communities whose votes for light rail tipped the scales in a close election.
"It's clearly a slap in the face," the Rev. William Lawson said of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's decision to begin with a guided busway system in his southeast Houston neighborhood and three others. Metro says these will be upgraded to light rail when ridership increases.
[snip]
"The largest percentage of Metro riders are people from the southeast quadrant," Lawson said, "and they needed the votes of those people to get the issue passed."
State Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, and Councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes the largely Hispanic Near Northside, said the Uptown-Galleria connection was a surprise.
"I've never seen any language in what I sold to my constituents that had the Galleria in it," Gallegos said.
"When you go to the fine print, they're telling me it's perfectly legal and when we wait a few years we'll get light rail, but that's saying 'trust me.' "
Minister Robert Muhammad, head of Nation of Islam's southwest region, who endorsed the 2003 Metro plan, said the change of plans "may be the straw that broke the camel's back politically. We can't trust anything that they say."
The referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.
About 74 percent of low-income blacks and 80 percent of middle-income blacks voted for the Metro light rail plan.
So did 57 percent of Hispanics, compared with 45 percent of middle-income whites and 42 percent of upper-income whites.
We have wondered how the minority community feels about Metro's endless cutting of bus routes so it can concentrate on 7.5 miles of downtown light rail. Mayor White no doubt thinks he has salvaged Metro's expansion plans, but my guess is he never consulted anyone from the communities that REALLY rely on Metro for transportation. Heck, since we haven't heard a peep out of Judge Eckels, we wonder if Mayor White consulted with anyone from Harris County about the new plan.
Since the new plan IS dramatically different from the 2003 voter-approved plan, Mayor White should tell Metro to put it to a vote. $1 billion of local tax money is a big commitment and we know from past experience that Metro will require more and more funding. Light rail has an insatiable appetite, just like the Metro Bigs pushing for it. Plus, Houston-area residents are getting smarter -- we don't want to keep hearing the "trust us" refrain. We are tired of trusting and getting squat in return.
If Mayor White and Metro think it is such a good plan, they should have enough confidence to put it to a vote, just like the mayor did with SAFEclear and the smoking ban. Oh that's right...we didn't get to vote on those -- Mayor White made an executive decision, and convinced City Council to agree with him.
Maybe Mayor White doesn't trust the voters.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/16/05 10:17 AM |
15 June 2005
McShan reports on HPD manpower shortage
Jeff McShan did some excellent reporting on HPD's manpower woes for KHOU-11 this evening.
The entire report should be read, but here are some excerpts:
For months, Houston police officers have been telling 11 News about what they're calling a severe shortage. They believe the shortage of police officers and detectives hinders their ability to fight crime, and often puts them in dangerous situations.
Union president Hans Marticiuc says he's hearing the cries for help, too.
"We're getting calls all the time," says Marticiuc, "We've got officers working a district by themselves, sometimes roll calls are two or three people for an entire roll call. The numbers just don't add up for the amount of calls that we have to cover."
If you live in Houston, you might be surprised to know that the number of officers working at HPD is actually 258 less than it was 11 years ago.
Since 1994: 893 officers have retired, 596 resigned, 412 were part of phase-downs, 156 were terminated and 60 officers died.
If you live in Houston and read this blog or listen to Chris Baker, you won't be surprised.
When asked how serious the situation is, "I think we're at a critical point. I think we're at a critical point and our council people need to prioritize here," Marticiuc says.
Mayor Bill White says he's working on a solution that includes adding five academy classes this year. There were none a year ago.
He blames the current situation on past administrations and an HPD retirement plan that wasn't fiscally responsible.
"The police contract was designed when I came in. It was designed to provide an incentive for people to see if they made the pay raise and then resign, because you paid on your retirement based on your last two weeks," says Mayor White.
The city has not been adding enough cadet classes. It's been a massive failure of leadership on the part of Mayor White and his council, as they've spent time and money on other priorities. Certainly, the Brown Administration did not leave matters in great shape, but he's gone. Mayor White has been in office long enough to tackle this problem -- or to focus on other issues, like Tasers and new badges for cops and downtown parks and finding overtime pay for some cops to harass downtown pedestrians. This is Mayor White's problem now, not Lee Brown's, and he has dropped the ball thus far.
"We're already at a point where we don't have enough officers on the streets to back each other up," says Marticiuc.
He says additional money for overtime to place officers where they are needed the most could help.
Council member Ada Edwards disagrees. "Over 80 percent of our budget goes to public safety, so for me it's not the dollars, it's the management and I don't know who's to blame, but I think we really need to talk about it."
That may be the first time in her political life Ada Edwards has ever suggested that it's not the dollars. Unfortunately, it IS partly the dollars. Cadet classes take money. Hiring police officers from other cities takes money. Keeping officers from retiring or seeking police jobs elsewhere takes money. It IS about the dollars, dollars that Mayor White and his council have diverted to other priorities.
Chief Hurtt says he knows his men and women in blue are short-handed.
"I think the citizens of Houston should really continue to support them because we all realize several years, we went without having any academy and several people have retired in the last year or so, but the Houston Police Department is up to meeting the challenge," says Hurtt.
We DO support the HPD rank and file. We just wish Mayor White, his council, and his police chief could help them out with some more bodies.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/05 10:50 PM |
SAFEclear costs go up up up! (cont'd)
City Controller Annise Parker's limited audit of the SAFEclear program was released today.
The audit estimates costs for SAFEclear from January 2005 to June 2005, and then for the next fiscal year. The full report is available here in PDF format.
Last week, HPD presented to council an estimate of $1,586,767 for the cost of SAFEclear from January 2005 to June 2005. The controller's estimate of costs over that period is $1,643,917.
For the coming fiscal year, the report notes:
The HPD and the Administration represented to City Council on June 8, 2005 that FY 2006 estimated expenses would total $3,000,000 and the expenses not covered by Metro and freeway segment fees would be $600,000.
We believe the estimated expense not covered by Metro and the freeway segment fees to be $878,000 or $278,000 greater than HPD's estimate, if the Safe Clear Program remains unchanged.
Parker estimates the total cost of SAFEclear for next year will be $3,288,000 -- or nearly ten percent more than HPD/White Administration estimates that were presented to council roughly one week ago.
Interestingly, this ominous paragraph is included in the first page of Parker's report:
HPD estimated $578,300 for towing costs for the five-month period, but only has $567,000 available to pay for free tows for the period. This $567,000 is derived from a contractual monthly cap of $25,000 ($125,000 for the five-month period for free tows; February through June 2005), plus Metro's $442,000 contribution received in May 2005. To date, HPD has forwarded to the Controller's Office $1,143,000 in Supplemental Allocation Letters, which is $576,000 in excess of City Council's authorization of $567,000. Until HPD resolves this matter, the Controller's Office has suspended payments to the Operators. [Emphasis supplied]
News that this critical report was ready for release may have prompted action with the tow companies by the city. Parker's report notes the following:
[I]n the afternoon of June 14, 2005, we were supplied with a new draft contract between the City and its Tow Truck Operators. The effects of these contracts, if any, on this report have not been determined."
We would email Mayor White's staff for that information, but neither Frank Michel nor Pat Trahan have bothered to answer any number of emails that we have sent to them previously requesting various information. Apparently, that's how customer-oriented government works! So, we'll encourage any of the local reporters who read this blog to follow up on that with the White Administration.
RELATED COVERAGE: Doug Miller (KHOU-11), Matt Stiles (Houston Chronicle).
PREVIOUSLY: SAFEclear costs go up up up! (bH).
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: The genesis of SAFEclear was a trial program on the Katy Freeway. Since that program seemed to go without a hitch, the mayor decided to implement it on ALL of Houston's freeways, all at once. When a hue and cry went up about the highly punitive nature of the original plan, the mayor was forced to scramble up a Plan B. Now we learn that the mayor's Plan B completely overwhelmed HPD:
"We think the program was poorly vetted in the beginning, that it was placed with a police administrative division that was unprepared to handle it. They were overwhelmed," said Annise Parker, Houston City Controller.
Houston police had problems handling an avalanche of paperwork verifying that wrecker drivers had really towed the cars they claimed to have towed.
If there is anything we have learned about Mayor White, it is that when he wants something done, he expects everyone involved to jump. We can imagine that HPD was told to jump, and we can see what the result of that was.
UPDATE (06-16-2005): I didn't comment on the Chronicle story last night, because I assumed it was a work in progress, but that's pretty much the version of the story that ran today. It's really some weak reporting. A separate critique will follow with specifics later.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/05 06:41 PM |
MS-13 has met its match: HPD's Operation Jaywalking
Yesterday the Chronicle had a story on the first day of HPD's jaywalking crackdown:
Bicycle messenger Ken Fairbanks sat down in the shade outside Chase Tower shortly after 3 p.m. Monday, unfolded the ticket he'd been issued minutes earlier on Main Street, and said it came as a surprise.
"I hardly ever get tickets," he said. "There was a person kind of lollygagging along and so I passed him."
Fairbanks said he and other bicycle messengers who work downtown were aware of the Houston Police Department crackdown on all traffic violations � pedestrians, bicycle riders, drivers � but he said he hadn't realized he was breaking any law by passing a car in the same lane.
He was ticketed on the first day of the latest phase of HPD's Downtown Mobility Initiative, a plan city leaders say is intended to deal with the dangers of congested streets and bad walking, biking or driving habits. The first phase focused on educating the public to obey traffic laws.
HPD spokesman John Cannon said the eight police officers assigned to intersections during morning rush hour on Monday stopped 190 people and issued 23 citations, 14 to pedestrians and nine to drivers.
Three people got citations for crossing the street in the middle of the block and 11 for crossing against the light, Cannon said. Four drivers were ticketed for running red lights and five for "other" violations.
That's weird -- I thought HPD required cameras to handle the problem of red light running.
For the proper perspective on Operation Jaywalking you had to listen to Chris Baker (KTRH-740) yesterday. Ken Charles was on air with him and this was their take: MS-13 has finally met its match, as gang members will be so blinded by shiny new police badges and distracted by new police shirts that they will walk right into HPD's jaywalking trap.
It's brilliant.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 05:42 PM |
Rad Sallee's Metro story, con't.
As I mentioned previously, Rad Sallee's Chronicle story presents both sides of Metro's new expansion plan, and is filled with interesting bites including this:
[...]the agency plans to build rail corridors served by specially outfitted buses, a system called bus rapid transit.
"Right now, we're projecting about 8,000 on the busiest one when they open," he said, referring to the North line from near downtown to Northline Mall.
[snip]
Wilson said opening-day ridership on the next planned light rail line, a crosstown route linking the University of Houston's central campus, Greenway Plaza and the Uptown-Galleria area, is likely to be 15,000.
But that will climb quickly, he predicted.
It's no secret how Metro builds rail ridership -- it cancels bus routes.
Sallee also talks about Rep. Culberson's appearance on Edd Hendee's show (KSEV-700) yesterday when Hendee expressed his displeasure with the expansion plan.
And the funniest part is where former Metro head Shirley DeLibero offers her thoughts on the new plan:
Former Metro President and CEO Shirley DeLibero said she is pleased to see a rail line was going near the Galleria.
As for the rest of the revised plan, she said, "As long as this (bus rapid transit) is a stopgap to the ultimate rail system, I'm OK."
What a relief! Shirley's okay with the plan. We can rest easy.
RELATED: White changes mobility plan (Owen Courreges, Lone Star Times), Sucking up all the oxygen... (Sedosi Alhambra)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 12:47 PM |
MeMo's tip of the day
MeMo directs us to something that, uh, could come in handy? Not that we're advocating its use, of course...
No, no, no. Absolutely not.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 09:47 AM |
14 June 2005
What's the penalty for not paying a red light camera ticket?
So what happens if you get a red light camera ticket and you don't pay it? HPD says your case could be sent to a collection agency:
It says, in fact, right on the citation that it's a "civil penalty" and won't affect your insurance rates and will not be reported or appear on your driving record.
So if they don't pay?
"We're asking the vendor to go with a collection agency if you will," says HPD Asst. Chief Martha Montalvo.
[snip]
Don't pay your parking tickets and, at least, the city can give you the boot. But with only a camera's eye as testimony of your red light running, there may be nothing the city can do.
Interestingly, one person purposely ran a red light in Garland, TX, so he could challenge red light cameras in court:
"I'm against it enough that I want to file suit against it. I want to block it," says Michael Kubosh who was caught running a red light in Garland, Texas, at 3:23 in the morning.
He did it intentionally, so he could go to court with a legal challenge.
"There's all kinds of legal things they say could happen if I don't pay it," he says.
But it's been a year and nothing's happened.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/14/05 09:46 AM |
13 June 2005
Jaywalking ticket-writing begins today?
There appears to be a bit of confusion as to whether or not HPD's new crackdown on jaywalking begins in earnest today:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced the plan June 1, allowing two weeks to "increase public safety and awareness" through "education and enforcement."
On Sunday, however, HPD public information officer Joanna Abad said she wasn't aware that officers would begin actually writing citations today — including both warnings and tickets — in a crackdown on jaywalking.
"I wasn't sure it started (Monday) so I can't confirm that," Abad said.
Bob Eury, president of Central Houston, Inc., which was supposed to work with the department on the initiative, said Sunday:
"The last time I discussed it with the police department was about 10 days ago, and I haven't heard anything since."
"Let me say that we've been urging discretion, and that only the most flagrant people are ticketed for jaywalking," Eury said.
"Flagrant" jaywalking includes, "crossing streets at midblock, ignoring "walk/don't walk signals" and walking in the street."
Interestingly a Chronicle letter to the editor two days ago said this:
I HAVE been reading with interest the articles on the push to ticket jaywalkers. My wife and I often travel to the Texas Medical Center by MetroRail and we have observed many violations at the rail stations, mainly due to the nonsynchronized action of traffic lights. After pushing the walk button, we've had to wait through at least two light cycles before being allowed to cross. Perhaps if the city would correct this, the Houston Police Department would not need to ticket citizens who are only trying to cross the street.
For rail to be truly functional and for Houston to become a pedestrian-friendly city, some easily managed changes are needed.
- TOMMY SCOTT, Pearland
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 08:16 AM |
Watch your rear -- red light cameras are coming
Last night KHOU-11's lead 10 p.m. story was about red light cameras coming to Houston -- soon.
And today Matt Stiles has a story in the Chronicle about the revenue-generating, uh...safety cameras:
"They are going up, you bet," said Mayor Bill White, during a recent news conference. "Every time that somebody is killed or seriously injured in an intersectional collision, where somebody was speeding through a red light, I and council members take that as a personal responsibility."
The timetable isn't certain for setting up the cameras, which the City Council approved in December. The goal is to have some working by the end of the year, city officials said.
What will Mayor White say the first time someone is killed in a rear-end collision due to a red light camera? He could have tried lengthening yellow light times, but dismissed that proven option. Councilwoman Addie Wiseman is quoted in the story as saying she wished the city would have studied yellow light times.
KHOU's story last night said the city will begin receiving bids within the next 30 days, to be followed up by test cameras at several intersections.
The citations would be civil documents technically issued against a car's owner rather than its driver, and would carry lower penalties than tickets written by officers who witness infractions.
The camera fine likely would be $50 to $75, compared with the criminal penalty of $215.
It's not hard to predict that city officials will raise those ticket prices down the road -- you know, in the name of safety. And, of course, the mayor will eventually proclaim the cameras a tremendous success (providing little statistical backup, à la SAFEClear), and say that Houston needs cameras at MORE intersections. That's what is going on in Washington, D.C.
The city — which might give the vendor a cut of ticket revenue to save money on the installation — also is exploring the option of setting up decoy cameras in some places to serve as deterrents, officials said.
Even decoy cameras or signs have their drawbacks, as one town in Ohio recently discovered:
A truck spilled gallons of corn syrup yesterday at the intersection of Yankee Road and Verity in Middletown, Ohio after its driver, Todd Hellrigel, panic-braked after seeing a red light camera sign. He wanted to avoid being ticketed.
[snip]
The sudden stop popped open the seal on the top of the trailer causing 4,500 gallons of corn syrup to begin spilling on the road, which had no red light camera -- just the sign. It took most of the day to clear the sticky substance from the intersection. Police did not cite Hellrigel who said that he was not speeding.
RELATED: Getting Rear-Ended by the Law (The Weekly Standard)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/13/05 07:37 AM |
11 June 2005
One battle the city isn't interested in fighting
Remember when Mayor White got approval to spend $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to have Proposition 2 declared illegal, even though Prop. 2 was passed with 56 percent of the vote?
Well, the residents of one Houston neighborhood have discovered that Mayor White does have a bit of fiscal restraint in him, after all:
In a neighborhood called Candlelight Estates, garage sales are about the only thing that brings traffic. But what's about to happen on these streets has people around here worried.
"It's going to destroy the fabric of the neighborhood," says neighborhood activist Ray Bush.
It's a neighborhood that has a sort of border -- a big old ditch.
A developer wants to build a subdivision on a piece of vacant land. But first, he wants a bridge built across the ditch connecting his property to the nice houses over in Candlelight Estates. And for years now, the people in Candlelight Estates fought it.
Now Houston's mayor has sent neighborhood residents an e-mail saying in part, "I have been advised that the City of Houston cannot stop the building of the Rosslyn Street Bridge without substantial risk to taxpayers' money in a lawsuit against the City."
And so it appears the developer who owns this land will get his bridge.
So sorry, Candlelight Estates residents.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/11/05 05:41 PM |
10 June 2005
Houston firefighter explains rejection of labor deal
Most media coverage hasn't really gone into much depth why members rejected the deal, and the Chronicle even wrote a nasty editorial yesterday about the HFD members that reads like a Tim Fleck special -- plenty of smear and condescension, but not much fact.
In the interest of providing a little balance, here's a comment left by an apparent Houston firefighter to an earlier post:
Fire fighters voted down the Labor Contract Offer. If we could line item the contract we would have. The reason it was a NO vote is because it impacted Fire Fighter and Public Safety. Minimum Manning means 4 assigned to heavy apparatus at all times, not just when it is convenient. The City wanted Fire Fighters to agreed to lower this standard mandated by City Council in 2001. The key is we had to agree. If we agree then we cannot gripe about it when the COH cuts manpower. Another sticking point is an hours increase. They want to add 5-24 hr shifts to our schedule. Thats equal to 120 addtional hours. In the private sector that is equal to 15 working days is it not? We said no! The City gives us Accrued benefit leave. The problem is we can't take much of it. If we call in sick we must go to a Doctor and get an excuse. No matter what our health issue was, we must go to the Doctor and we must do it five days. If one uses COH medical benefits one must see a Doctor in the Renaissance Group or at Kelsey-Seybold. Do you know how hard it is to get a Dr's appointment in five days. If the paperwork is not turned in on time the employee is docked. Thats the way it is now, without a contract. In this Contract the COH wanted to punish us even more for using these benefits. They want us to agree to termination. Not likely. If any employee in the private sector causes property damage or loss of property belonging to the employer that employee is terminated. Possibly sued. At least they get a day in court. If we signed this contract we would agree to reimburse the COH up to $3000. No mechanism in place to determine who is at fault. We are currently capped at $250 per item.
Would it have been that hard for local media to find a Houston firefighter to explain that perspective as well as our commenter?
Actually, it's not too late for any reporters who'd like to do some good journalism.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/10/05 08:49 PM |
Houston Emergency Center is feeling the heat
The Houston Emergency Center has been dealing with a new problem:
An air conditioning problem at the Houston Emergency Center has at least one police officer concerned that dispatch calls could be delayed, Local 2 reported Wednesday.
An officer with the Houston Police Department, who asked not to be identified, told Local 2 the public could be put in danger because the department's computer system is at risk of overheating.
A broken air conditioning unit at the downtown station, which is used to relay information to computers in patrol cars, has the officer concerned that the system could overheat and cause information to not be delivered.
The officer said this issue is only part of a bigger problem.
"If that's the case then that shows how ancient the system is in there -- that you're depending on a certain temperature to keep your equipment up and running. Somebody has to do something, especially in the age of terrorism. You know that we need those systems up," the officer told Local 2.
HPD officials told Local 2 that they are cooling the system with large fans and hope to have the air conditioning unit operating again by Thursday.
We may have a tired and worn out emergency response infrastructure, but cheer up -- soon we'll have a beautiful downtown park and some lovely publicly-funded art work!
RELATED: Old, outdated equipment to blame for 911 call center failures (blogHOUSTON), Public safety priorities (blogHOUSTON)
UPDATE: An emailer clarifies the story a bit. The a/c problem is at an older police station, 61 Riesner, not at HEC. I am assuming (always dangerous!) that a computer system used by HEC is located at the station.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/05 12:31 PM |
08 June 2005
Lee Brown's legacy cont'd: Expensive art for fire stations!
Rich Connelly does some original reporting for the Houston Press:
Few things say "culture" more than government-sponsored art, and Houstonians should prepare themselves for seeing more and more of it.
A 2001 ordinance, just now beginning to be implemented, calls for 1.75 percent of the construction budget for some city buildings to be devoted to public art. One of the first projects under the ordinance is a new fire station in the Denver Harbor neighborhood.The city wants to spend $43,650 on a ceramic-tile mural by Suzanne Sellers, but the expenditure has been held up by councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes Denver Harbor.
"When we saw '$43,000 for art' [on the agenda], we just had some questions," says Giovanni Goribay, Garcia's chief of staff.
It turns out other bids had come in at $90,000, so the city got something of a bargain. (Disclosure: Eleven years ago Sellers painted the mural on the building the Houston Press now occupies.) Still, as the new ordinance is implemented, councilmembers are hoping for more information on neighborhood input and what happens to any of the 1.75 percent that isn't spent. (With a politico's appreciation of things artistic, Goribay notes of any excess cash, "The councilman would like it to stay in his district, at least.")
Surely nothing says Houston is a world-class city like spending tens of thousands of dollars on "public" art for a fire station (where most of the public will never see it)!
Now let's try and remember.... Who was mayor when this latest instance of fiscal insanity was apparently conceived?
Yes, that would be one Lee P. Brown!
The legacy (of corruption, potholes, crime-lab mismanagement, pension-plan mismanagement, and general nitwittery) continues to grow. Who knows how many more gifts he's left for us that we'll soon be discovering?!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/08/05 09:55 PM |
Did Jerry Eversole HAVE to vote for the Grand Parkway?
Rick Casey's column today is enlightening, but probably not in the way he intended. He discussed who has the power within Harris County -- the judge or the commissioners:
The judge may be elected countywide, and his $137,424 salary may be about $7,000 more than the commissioners, whose turf is a quarter of the county, but neither the area of the turf nor the amount of the salary defines power.
Consider this: On countywide issues, such as determining the budget of the hospital district or the sheriff's office, the county judge and the commissioners each have one vote.
But when it comes to building parks or roads or other matters within each of the four commissioner precincts, the commissioner is king.
"I prefer 'czarina,' " says Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
State Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, who was county judge for 20 years, summed it up: "The commissioners in Harris County are the most powerful politicians in the state other than statewide officials."
And if anyone would know about power, it's Sen. Lindsay.
Here is the really good part:
The power each commissioner exercises over these budgets is as absolute as it can get in a democracy. That's because each commissioner respects the turf of the others and expects his or her turf to be respected in return.
"El Franco Lee knows his precinct better than I do," Radack said. "If he has the money and wants to do something, I'm not going to second-guess him."
Not only do they get to decide what roads will be built and parks enhanced, individual commissioners have considerable power over what engineering and architectural firms will be hired in their precincts.
Now, why did that interest me? Because at that Grand Parkway meeting a couple of weeks ago, Commissioner Jerry Eversole said he HAD to vote for HCTRA's study of the Spring segment because the other commissioners were in favor of the Grand Parkway. He said if he voted against it, he wouldn't have a say in the route, so he was really doing Spring residents a favor by voting for it.
Tsk, tsk. Commissioner Eversole fed us a bodacious bucket of blarney.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 05:30 PM |
It's not about revenue, it's not about revenue, it's not about revenue...
In Orange County, CA, a grand jury has been studying the use of red light cameras within the county. What is especially noteworthy are the reasons why some cities have chosen NOT to install the cameras:
Grand jurors interviewed traffic engineers, as well as police, in Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Westminster, and Orange–all cities that do not use RLCs. They were asked why they do not. In general, representatives of these cities said they do not need RLCs because they do not have a red light violation problem that warrants use of the devices, or because they are using other ways to deal with the problem. Some of those methods are:
* Coordinating traffic signals, thereby reducing driver frustration
* Using four-way red signals so that everyone has to stop for a few seconds
* Creating better signage for complicated intersections
* Using greater police presence at problem intersections
* Replacing incandescent bulbs in traffic signals with larger, brighter light emitting diodes (LEDs) that cost less, operate more efficiently, and can be powered by battery for up to four hours in the event of a power failure.
* Creating double left-turn lanes where practical
* Installing LED systems, commonly known as "rat boxes," that can signal a traffic officer when someone has run a red light. This enables an officer to be positioned so he will not have to chase the offending motorist through a busy intersection, creating a potential danger for him and other motorists than the red-light-runner has already created.
But none of those methods will generate any revenue for the city of Houston.
In Maryland, a judge investigated red light cameras after hearing numerous complaints from motorists in Baltimore. His full report is well worth reading, but it's interesting to note that yellow light times figure prominently in the report, including these observations:
There are reports that yellow light time variations occur on the same light. A rough analysis of several citations issued in Baltimore City documented this phenomenon. A light at the intersection of Falls Road and Northern Parkway has a City listed standard of 3.5 seconds. In four citations, the length of the yellow light on the citation was recorded at 3.2, 2.9, 3.2 and 3.0 seconds. When asked about this at a meeting, both DOT and ACS stated that the problem had been noted and was "being looked into." In response to the Court's written inquiry, the DOT described inconsistent yellow light times as being caused by "fluctuations in the voltage supply that cause minor variances in the timing circuits within the devices."[14] However, the DOT's voltage explanation accounts for only a 0.1 second variance and not the 0.3 variance described in the Falls Road and Northern Parkway intersection example described above.[15]
There is also a failure of the yellow light timings to adhere to the city's own set standards. The DOT sent the court a list of its yellow light settings at the intersections where there are RLCES. See Attachment 1. A rough analysis of approximately 181 citations yielded the following statistic. Approximately 39% of the citations had inconsistent yellow lights or a yellow light setting inconsistent with the city standard. Most alarming are instances when the inconsistent yellow light times have been less than the 3 second federal minimum. Nearly 10% of the 181 citations surveyed had a yellow light prior to the red light of 2.9 seconds. This is inconsistent with Federal standards and presents a grave danger to Baltimore City drivers.
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have made it abundantly clear that adjusting yellow light times will not be considered in Houston, even though at least two city councilmembers asked that yellow light times be studied at problem intersections, and even though almost every study and investigation shows that lengthening yellow light times can make a big difference in reducing the number of red light runners.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 10:50 AM |
05 June 2005
Mack on the potential scramble to succeed Eckels
If Harris County Judge Robert Eckels (R) upholds a pledge to leave office after three terms, the race to succeed him is likely to be a mad scramble.
Kristen Mack's column from Friday examines the candidates lining up for a potential run at the office.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/05/05 08:16 PM |
03 June 2005
Firefighters reject proposed contract
Houston firefighters have rejected the labor agreement negotiated by their leadership and the city's team by nearly a 2-1 margin.
The overwhelming rejection of the deal represents a setback for Mayor White, whose public comments at a sensitive point in the negotiations may have tipped the deal too far in the city's favor for HFD rank and file to stomach.
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that it would have been the city's first contract with HFD since 1999.
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/05 11:11 PM |
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