31 May 2005
Mayor White's success in Austin
Kristen Mack has a wrap-up story of how Harris County and the city of Houston did during the just-ended legislature session:
The city of Houston got off to a rocky start, with Whitmire threatening to kill Mayor Bill White's marquee traffic initiative, the Safe Clear mandatory freeway towing program. But the two brokered a deal to save Safe Clear.
The city fended off several attempts at gutting its plan for using cameras to catch red light violators. Houstonians can expect to see cameras at 50 intersections with the highest accident rates by this fall.
White also wanted to close late-night clubs after 2 a.m. He didn't succeed, but a Moreno bill tightening regulations against after-hours liquor sales was passed in his honor.
"The city started out the session thinking they could roll over us and get whatever they wanted," said Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston. "They realized that wasn't going to work. They became a lot more cooperative as the session went on."
We saw that in action: Mayor White made peace with Sen. Whitmire and voila! We have the new and "improved" SAFEclear and soon we'll have red light cameras. Houstonians can rejoice at how much safer their lives will be. (It's not about revenue, it's not about revenue, it's not about revenue...)
A perennial measure that would remove the Houston mayor's effective control over the Metropolitan Transit Authority by changing the makeup of its board died quietly near the end of the session.
Probably many of you already knew that. I didn't and it took me aback. Does that mean we should hold Mayor White accountable, also, for all the "improvements" made to bus routes? If he chose to speak up, could he convince Metro to quit cutting the only transportation lifeline some area residents have?
Then Mack highlights one Houston victory that we didn't hear about until now:
The city had some quiet but huge victories, according to White.
"We could not advertise what our strategy was on all of our priorities," he said, because lawmakers whose bills the city opposed were trying to find city of Houston legislation they could kill. Among the below-the-radar successes, he said, was legislation to increase the city's authority over tax increment reinvestment zones to make sure they pay their fair share for all services.
Here's the city's explanation page on Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones.
And remember how the mayor was criticized for his lobbying team? He feels vindicated:
White praised the city's lobby team, led by his director of Government Affairs, Ann Travis, even though before the session he said the city's best lobbyists were the mayor and city council members.
"We adopted a set of principles and we accomplished most of it. It wasn't always easy or pretty."
I think it's safe to say the best lobbying done was by the mayor, especially that infamous late-night meeting he had with Sen. Whitmire at the Austin airport which saved SAFEclear. Did the subject of red light cameras come up in that meeting? We shouldn't be surprised if it did, since Whitmire effectively took care of the legislation that would have banned the revenue-generating devices.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/31/05 07:03 AM |
30 May 2005
Houston funds day labor sites
Yesterday's Chronicle had a story that just boggles the mind:
Yupe, a volunteer at the nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe church, makes it sound simple. But if she and the organizers behind the East End Worker Development Center manage to get their facility off the ground, leaders say, it will be one of the first day-labor sites in the city to actually work.
Despite annual funding from the city of at least $100,000, day-labor centers have had a troubled history in Houston.
[snip]
"We feel very good about what's happening there," said Richard Cantu, head of the mayor's office on citizens services.
The city has pledged $90,000 annually to fund the East End center, in addition to the $100,000 already spent on the Oscar Romero site.
Of course, this relates to priorities:
By year's end, the Houston Police Department will have lost an estimated 740 officers — as many as the city of Orlando employs — to retirement in a two-year period.
For comparison purposes, in 2003 the department lost 138 officers through retirement, resignation, termination or death.
And there may not be enough money available in the next two fiscal years to train replacements for even half the officers the department is losing. Or to hire the 1,000-plus civilians the department is missing.
$100,000 here; $90,000 there. But even if we don't have enough police officers, at least we'll have some city-funded day-labor sites.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/30/05 12:55 PM |
29 May 2005
Harris County late with 300,000 property tax appraisals
The deadline to protest a property tax appraisal is Tuesday, but according to KHOU-11, hundreds of thousands of Harris County homeowners still haven't received an appraisal:
When it comes to notifying homeowners about 2005 appraisals, the Harris County Appraisal District is barely in the game.
With the deadline looming to file tax protests 300,000 homeowners don't even know what their property is worth.
"It shouldn't take that long. They don't want to wait to get their tax money though," says homeowner Cindy Wolters.
11 News has learned that appraisers are looking at every piece of property in Harris County. That is more than a 1.5 million homes and businesses.
"We're working very hard to get it all done. We hope to have the bulk of the noticing done within the next two weeks," says HCAD Chief Deputy Sands Stiefer.
Stiefer says homes in areas that overlap into other counties or with school districts based in other counties, will be among the last to be appraised.
But don't worry about filing a protest after the May 31st deadline.
"Your notice is going to have a new protest deadline. It usually rolls over 30 days from the day we mail it," says Stiefer.
We've learned the Harris County Appraisal District has done enough of the math to determine the average increase this year will be about eight percent.
The average increase is eight percent. That's more than the rate of inflation, and more than most people get in a yearly pay increase. But the government machine must be fed, no matter what.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/29/05 08:41 PM |
27 May 2005
Summer reading?
Here's the link to Mayor White's proposed 2006 city budget.
And here's the link to Metro's FY2004 Annual Report, including Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). You have to skip to Page 16 to begin reading the good stuff. What immediately jumps out is the increase in sales tax revenues and the decrease in fare revenues which Metro attributes to declining bus ridership (strange, how did THAT happen?). Also Metro says the higher sales tax revenues are due to Houston's economic recovery, but says the accompanying job growth has not been significant enough to have a positive impact on ridership.
Uh huh. That's because Metro's transit offerings have become so woefully inadequate that people won't even consider the public transportation option.
But Metro has given Houston 7.5 miles of downtown light rail. You just have to get yourself downtown to use it.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/05 11:15 AM |
Maybe this is why we need red light camera revenue
The city of Houston is expected to lose $2 million next year due to diminishing telephone landline franchise fees. More and more people are ending traditional phone service and relying only on cellphones, and that is costing the city millions of dollars, according to this KHOU-11 story:
So many cell phone users are simply dropping their landlines that it's causing problems at Houston City Hall. Unlike for landlines, the city does not collect franchise fees on each and every cell phone.
Houston's budget anticipates phone franchise fees to drop about $2 million next fiscal year. But has Houston really lost that many landlines to wireless phones?
"Frankly, I'm very suspicious," said Mayor Bill White. "I haven't been able to get a straight answer from SW, you know, Southwest Bell, SBC, in particular, why they've been paying less and less every year. And I don't think it's right."
SBC responds it "accurately reports access lines totals to the city, as required by law..." and that the fees "…are paid by customers through charges on their bills. SBC simply passes the fees through to the city. SBC does not profit from them."
It's a good thing we'll have red light camera revenue soon, not to mention that newly enacted fine for pocket motorcycles.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/05 08:18 AM |
24 May 2005
Chief Hurtt is leaving a trail of red light cameras
Following up on my red light camera post, a reader passed on an interesting tidbit that is easily verified through Google:
Oxnard, CA was one of the first cities in the nation to utilize red light camera technology, in 1997. Guess who was Oxnard's police chief in 1997?
Yep, Harold Hurtt.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/05 05:56 PM |
23 May 2005
Mayor White unveils budget proposal
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles has filed an early report on Mayor White's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year:
The $1.69 billion preliminary budget — a five percent increase over the current fiscal year that ends June 30 — continues to make public safety a priority, with about 64 percent of all non-debt spending on fire, police and emergency medical services.
[snip]
The mayor emphasized what he called a disciplined, "performance-based" approach to crafting the budget. He said the city should do more with fewer people and less spending thanks to increased efficiency.
"We are always striving to have increased performance," he told reporters at an afternoon news conference. "Everything that we've done we've tried to get more value for the taxpayer dollar."
The Mayor's press office must be pleased with that coverage.
As Miya Shay reports for KTRK-13, raises for firefighters figure prominently in the new budget:
A plan for Houston to spend more than a billion and a half dollars is now on paper. Among the many pages of the latest proposed city budget is good news for Houston firefighters, men and women who have been working without a raise for years.
For the past six years, they battled blazes without a pay raise. That will change dramatically in a new contract, which over four years, will increase Houston firefighters' pay by 34 percent.
KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that Mayor White has also included spending for new police cadet classes:
The budget also calls for two new fire stations and for four new police cadet classes.
Four new classes aren't going to solve HPD's manpower shortage, but at least the problem finally seems to be on the "Public Safety" mayor's radar.
UPDATE (05-24-2005): The updated reporting from Matt Stiles for today's print edition of the Chronicle is much more thorough. Here is an interesting blurb:
The general government sector, which includes citywide costs that can't be attributed to specific departments, would get the largest percentage increase: about 33 percent.
33 percent? That sounds like real money!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/23/05 11:00 PM |
22 May 2005
Student asks city to fight murders, shootings, other crime
We can now add a high-school student troubled about rampant crime in his southwest Houston neighborhood to the blogHOUSTON chorus wondering when Mayor White and his council plan to address the Houston Police Department's manpower issues.
Here's an excerpt from Rick Casey's column today:
IT was not a situation Lee High School student Donald Hanks could easily have imagined.
Standing at a microphone in the school library Thursday night in front of a crowd of 200, he was politely but firmly asking for specific commitments from two City Council members and enough police brass for several school bells.
[snip]
They wanted help cracking down on the crime that has left four students and former students dead and seven more shot, that has drug dealers patrolling the neighborhood, that has prostitution run out of "spas" and rent-by-the-hour motels.
They asked for and received promises of:
•A police storefront office in the area.
•The closing of one particularly bad nightclub and efforts to identify and close other problem clubs.
•A school zone to cut down on speeding traffic on Hillcroft. (High schools are not normally given school zones.)
•An effort to increase the number of 70-member cadet classes from two to four to begin to make up for the loss to retirement of 500 Houston police of all ranks in the past 18 months.
•Monthly meetings with the Lee group to plan and assess crime-fighting efforts.
•A commitment to conduct a study to determine the number and kinds of crimes being committed in the school's area.
Mayor White and his council enacted SAFEclear under the guise of public safety. They plan on installing red-light cameras under the guise of public safety. They have banned smoking under the guise of public safety.
Why won't they address HPD's worsening manpower difficulties, which are directly related to public safety?
UPDATE: KPRC-2 joins the chorus tonight as well, with a story entitled Police Shortage Affects HPD Response Times:
Last year, the Houston Police Department received more than 1.6 million 911 calls. Yet, the department is suffering through a critical manpower shortage. The shortage is now affecting how quickly officers are responding to some of the most urgent cries for help, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Sunday.
[snip]
[HPD Chief Harold] Hurtt said he knows his department is struggling to keep up in certain areas, but it's a problem that's not going to get better anytime soon.
"In the time since I've been here we've lost probably 500 officers. We're hiring them 70 at a time, so it's going to be a long time before we can catch up," Hurtt said.
Hans Marticiuc is the president of the Houston Police Officer's Union. He said it is not just the public, he's also hearing from officers who are worried about getting backup quickly.
"It's a concern and it ought to be a concern for the citizens," Marticiuc said. "I'm hoping our elected officials hear this stuff, see this information, and realize staffing over here has got to be the highest priority because it's a public safety issue."
It sounds as if KPRC shamed former HPD officer and current councilmember Adrian Garcia into promising to act on the manpower shortage. We'll have to keep watching to see if he follows through, or if he can interest Mayor White and the rest of council in this problem that this blog and KTRH-740's Chris Baker have been pounding on for a while.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/05 09:40 PM |
Exposing the "safety" myth of red light cameras
Since it appears Houstonians will now face two different standards for red light offenses (criminal, if written up by a police officer; civil, if caught on camera) let's look back at the City Council minutes from last December when Council debated the issue. What I find especially noteworthy is that in public comments several people suggested lengthening yellow light times, and several councilmembers appeared to be interested in the idea, even asking city officials (Mayor White included) if it had been studied. The disappointing response from one city official follows: (pdf, page 7):
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/22/05 08:37 PM |
20 May 2005
Feds accuse local developer of bribing former city official
Dan Feldstein has quite an eye-opening story in this morning's Chronicle:
The developer of the Houston Emergency Center gave cash in a bag to a top city official and promised her boyfriend about $250,000 if he was awarded another city deal, federal prosecutors allege.
Documents in Cleveland and Houston courts describe evidence that prosecutors had planned to use against Monique McGilbra, former head of Houston's Building Services Department, who instead pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy charges in both places.
[snip]
It was Keystone Group, then headed by Andrew Schatte, a politically connected Houston dealmaker. Schatte has not been charged with any crimes and denies many of the statements and all of the implications of the documents.
[snip]
U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby of Houston said after McGilbra pleaded guilty this week that related investigations are continuing. McGilbra has agreed to cooperate with authorities to get a reduced sentence.
Schatte has several close friends among state and local elected leaders and has been active setting up leases and investments for the city, Harris County and several local pension boards. The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund has invested more than $57 million in his recent deals.
Competitors sometimes have complained about his success. But Schatte says he's simply more in tune to local government needs and works hard on his specialty.
[snip]
Prosecutors allege some of Hardeman's [McGilbra's boyfriend] money was supposed to be funneled to McGilbra. They say Keystone also gave her a $1,000 Neiman Marcus gift certificate for her birthday, seven tickets to Texans games, use of a condominium in northern California and $1,000 cash in a bag also containing champagne.
Dang! This will be very interesting to watch unfold, and what great work by Dan Feldstein digging up this story.
RELATED: McGilbra supervised construction of 911 call center (blogHOUSTON)
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: It's also worth checking out the archived Chronicle stories on the sidebar of Feldstein's story today. Those stories were also written by Feldstein, and help tie together some pieces. Feldstein deserves credit for digging deeper into this story.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 06:57 AM |
17 May 2005
Did you know the Sports Authority held a public meeting today?
I check the Sports Authority's website every day, just in case something pops up. It's rare that something does, but look what's new today:
TAKE NOTICE that the Board of Directors of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will meet, open to the public, at First City Tower, 1001 Fannin, 10th Floor Conference Room, Houston, Texas, 77002 at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 17, 2005.* At such meeting, the Board will consider the following matters:1. Call to order; roll call; invocation. (Burge, Johnson)
2. Report from CEO. (Luck)
3. Report of the Construction Committee Chairman.(Warwick)
1. Report from Jerry Dinkins on the status of the punch list and other final completion matters regarding the Toyota Center.4. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Harris County for construction manager services in the development of an aquatics center and youth recreational facility and approving other maters related thereto (Friedman)
5. Discussion and possible action on resolution approving an agreement with Hermes Architects to serve as the architect for the new Aquatics Center and approving other matters related thereto (Friedman)
6. Discussion and possible action approving an amendment to the Garage Operations Management Agreement with Central Parking and approving other matters related thereto (Warwick)
7. Discussion and possible action on resolution authorizing participation with bringing incoming sports events to Harris County and delegating authority and approving other matters related thereto (Catuzzi)
8. Presentation and discussion of Quarterly Investment Report and Quarterly Portfolio Compliance Report for the period ending March 31, 2005. (Catuzzi)
9. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to provisions of Chapter 551, Texas Government Code, the Board shall deliberate in Executive Session on the following:
1. Real estate matters
2. Consultation with attorneys on potential and actual litigation matters relating to construction issues and Toyota Center.
3. Personnel matters
4. Discussions or deliberations regarding commercial or financial information received from a business prospect or the offer of financial or other incentives to a business prospect.
(Burge)Reconvene in Public Session
10. Comments by Directors (if any)
11. Comments or Announcements by Chair (if any)
12. Adjournment
I'm guessing numbers 4 and 5 are related to the pool and youth center Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee wants the Sports Authority to build.
I didn't see this agenda posted yesterday, and the meeting was this afternoon. That's one way to keep public input to a minimum!
RELATED: Billy Burge: THE best reason to shut down the Sports Authority! (blogHOUSTON)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/05 06:55 PM |
16 May 2005
Northline residents suffer as result of HPD's manpower shortage
KHOU-11's Janice Williamson reports that Northline residents are the latest to feel the effects of HPD's manpower woes:
People in the Northline community, just north of downtown Houston, accuse the department of leaving them to fend for themselves. They said the officers are out and the crime is in.
Some unwelcome changes have the community very concerned.
On Houston's north side, graffiti covers signs and buildings.
Grover Oliver didn't expect to see a spray-painted message on the front door of Bethany Lutheran Church. "That's graffiti to me. We wouldn't have done anything like that. None of our members would have done anything like that," he said.
"I'm just really, really sad. Things aren't very well around here, we have a lot of crime," said Claudia Landin, north side resident.
There is still glass in the church parking lot from a car thief who struck during Sunday services. Even the landscaping can't escape the crime wave, which residents said began last fall.
"We had an article that was written about us in the "Leader" for having a rally here, that we were complaining like a bunch of babies because of police protection," Oliver said. "Where is police protection when this is happening?"
Houston police said they have a manpower shortage.
Mayor White and his council seem unwilling to address the shortage. Northline won't be the only neighborhood to feel the effects.
The mayor must have excluded Northline residents from that unscientific poll that found Houstonians LOVE his leadership.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/16/05 10:19 PM |
The effort to make toll road authorities more accountable
Kristen Mack highlights the Citizens Transportation Coalition's efforts to make toll road authorities more accountable to local citizenry:
The coalition wants road-building entities, such as the Harris County Toll Road Authority, to seek approval of their projects from affected residents or municipalities and hold at least three public meetings — day, evening and weekend.
Those changes aren't likely to happen soon, lawmakers say, so the group is taking what it can get.
Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, has passed a bill requiring longer public notice about upcoming hearings. Toll road hearings are conducted as part of regular Harris County Commissioners Court meetings, which are held downtown every other Tuesday morning.
This has been a bone of contention with Grand Parkway opponents in Spring. It is not easy to communicate with Harris County commissioners or HCTRA officials, and having to head downtown on a weekday morning is out of the question for most folks. I suggested that if HCTRA was really interested in hearing public input -- as it likes to say it is-- it should hold regular, evening meetings in Spring, right where state Sen. Jon Lindsay wants the Grand Parkway built.
Of course, it doesn't take much to guess that HCTRA is fighting any proposed changes to how it conducts business. Saying you are open to public input and actually being forced to be open to public input are two entirely different things.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/16/05 05:12 PM |
13 May 2005
Houstonians think Mayor White has the greatest ideas!
Kristen Mack writes that Mayor White has commissioned a poll and the results, amazingly, show that Houstonians LOVE his ideas:
With less than 20 days left in the legislative session, Mayor Bill White has released a poll favorable to his positions on some of the key city issues before lawmakers.
The survey wasn't scientific, and the questions seem designed to evoke preferred responses — a technique called "push polling" in political parlance.
[snip]
The results showed overwhelming support for the city's position on regulating wrecker drivers, using cameras to catch red light violators and closing down after-hours clubs.
That's not surprising, given the questions, which were listed under the heading "Protecting our neighborhoods:"
•"Should the state give Houston the power to refuse towing licenses to people based on their criminal and driving records, as we do on highways?"
•"Should the state allow Houston to install cameras in traffic lights to catch people running red lights, so we can use our police to stop other crimes?"
•"Should the state allow our neighborhoods to protect themselves by closing bars in their areas at 2 a.m.?"
Mayor White is very good at the PR game, as we all know. His one big misstep so far was SAFEclear and he managed to turn that into a positive, although he got a little banged up along the way.
The red light question, though, is really something. For the 1,000th time, if the mayor was serious about safety, he would make sure the worst intersections have longer yellow light times AND a period of a couple of seconds where all lights in an intersection are red at the same time.
But adjusting traffic light times won't bring in revenue.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/13/05 10:57 AM |
12 May 2005
Mayor White takes HFD negotiations public
Yesterday, KUHF-88.7's Capella Tucker and KHOU-11's Doug Miller separately reported Mayor White's comments that negotiators for the city of Houston and the city's firefighters were bogged down in a disagreement about overtime compensation.
Today, the Chronicle reported further on Mayor White's comments yesterday, which drew criticism from firefighters:
The overtime issue came up when a council member asked the mayor about the status of the contract negotiations.Saying he wanted the city government to be transparent, White told the council and the audience about what he described as a miscalculation.
Reporters who gathered for his regular briefing after the meeting asked questions about the issue, prompting more comments.
It seems clear that Mayor White intentionally revealed details of ongoing negotiations in order to try to push things along in a manner favorable to the city. The Chronicle's reporting suggests as much:
"We've had a lot of great progress," he said. "But there comes a point — with or without a contract — where we have to have a number in the budget."
The firefighters don't know how to play at this level:
"It does nobody any good to have a 'he said, she said' in the media," [firefighters' representative Rick] Mumey said.
Not true. It did the mayor some good. By calling out the firefighters as asking for more than is required under state law with regard to overtime, Mayor White has painted the firefighters as greedy to the public, and has gained a negotiating advantage. It's hard to believe it happened inadvertently.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/12/05 10:44 PM |
New nominees for Sports Authority
Mayor White has nominated five directors for the Sports Authority Board. Two are renominations and three are new nominations:
Houston Mayor Bill White today announced five nominees for the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority Board of Directors. Three of the nominees are new to the board and two are being reappointed.
“We’ve got a slate of good, conscientious nominees who take this role seriously and help us fulfill our commitment to the kind of diversity that reflects Houston,” said Mayor White. “We are proud that they are ready, willing and able to serve.”
The appointees, who must be approved by City Council, are:
* Neal S. Manne, a partner with the law firm Susman Godfrey LLP., to Position 1, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2006.
* Ba Mau Nguyen, an attorney with Vinson & Elkins, reappointed to Position 2 for a term to expire Aug. 31, 2006. He was first appointed to the Authority in August 2003.
* J. Kent Friedman, reappointed to Position 3, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2006. Friedman is vice chairman of the board and general counsel of MAXXAM, Inc.
* Janie Reyes to Position 5, for a term expiring, Aug. 31, 2005. Reyes is a community activist who has served Harris County as director of personnel, Equal Employment Opportunity officer and several other positions.
* Roland Garcia, to Position 11, for a term expiring Aug. 31, 2005. Garcia was a partner with the law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP., and is now managing partner of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Are any other Chris Baker listeners laughing as they repeat the mantra, "Diversity is beauty"? Because nothing makes a Sports Authority run more efficiently than diversity.
RELATED: Billy Burge: THE best reason to shut down the Sports Authority! (blogHOUSTON)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/12/05 04:54 PM |
09 May 2005
District C candidates off and running
Friday, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack provided some interesting coverage of the District C council race, which already seems to be heating up:
One of the candidates in the crowded race to succeed Mark Goldberg, who is term-limited in the southwest Houston district, is lawyer George Hittner. His father is U.S. District Judge David Hittner.
Supporting one of George Hittner's opponents, and circulating letters on his behalf, is Houston businessman Jack Weingarten.
His daughter, Lea Fastow, is in federal prison on an Enron-related charge.
Judge David Hittner put her there.
Weingarten has sent a letter to friends and District C residents endorsing candidate Herman Litt, a Houston Community College System trustee.
Typical of such a letter, it touts Litt's achievements, describing him as a talented and qualified leader.
And then the letter takes a turn.
" ... there is one candidate who will probably emerge as a well financed contender. That candidate is George Hittner, son of judge hittner," Weingarten writes, using lower case in a letter that otherwise is grammatically sound.
"I am troubled about visiting the sins of a father on his son, but I am comfortable with the fact that Hermann Litt is especially well qualified, while George Hittner is very inexperienced and unqualified."
This race is liable to get very interesting. The Litt people already seem to be engaged, and Hittner signs are starting to show up around town. Candidate Anne Clutterbuck presumably will put together a good grassroots campaign, having learned those ropes working with John Culberson (R) and Bill Archer (R). Other announced candidates are Brian Cweren, Mark Lee, and Judy Siverson.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/09/05 08:03 PM |
07 May 2005
Now 911 dispatchers have a productivity policy (updated)
Here are two sentences from Mayor White's most recent State of the City speech:
As a community we must build consensus to put emergency services on a sound, sustainable financial basis.
Public safety will come first in our City's budget, as it did last year.
So, how does the city "put emergency services on a sound, sustainable financial basis"? Maybe this is one way:
When a person calls 911 and needs the police, you're transferred to an HPD call taker like 16-year veteran Latrella Thomas.
She says a new policy at HEC has made gathering information for police more difficult.
11 news obtained a document which states call takers must process each call in approximately 80 seconds.
Anything over 90 seconds needs improvement say HEC officials, and if the call takes more than 121 seconds, that's unacceptable.
You know, there comes a point when one wonders if any city official has an ounce of common sense. If an HEC dispatcher talks to someone in an emergency situation for 41 seconds too long, that's considered unacceptable?
Ms. Thomas, quoted in the KHOU-11 story, cites one example where she chose not to follow the policy:
She remembers telling a young victim of a home invasion to immediately go upstairs.
"I told her to go in the bathroom and lock the door," says Thomas. "We had to stay on the line with them which HEC wanted us to get off, but I didn't get off because that lady's life was in jeopardy."
Thank goodness!
But hang on, because this next part is going to make you scream:
Joe Laud is with HEC. He says the new rules were put in place to increase productivity.
"Well, it's part of the mayor's new plan for their evaluation, their performance and that is part of their requirements that they will have to follow," says Laud. "But it follows the Department of Justice, their guidelines for all public safety call taking procedures."
Is there some problem with dispatchers goofing off? If so, then where's management? Working the floor or hiding in an office? Or is this because HEC is short of help? Maybe the city should address the issues that keep HEC perpetually understaffed, instead of standing over the staff it does have with a stopwatch. I'd bet -- with everything we know about HEC -- that it's more about staffing problems.
What an interesting look into the mindset of city officials: the city moves forward with planning a "centerpiece park," while implementing a policy that limits the amount of time a 911 call-taker can be on the phone.
RELATED: HPD's "productivity policy" begins (blogHOUSTON), Can the Houston Emergency Center be fixed? (blogHOUSTON)
UPDATE: Laurence Simon offers an apology for the call center's bizarre new policy.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 11:40 AM |
Here's the new definition of world-class: an $81 million park
Isn't it nice that a New York-based company can come to Houston and tell city officials that if they would just spend $81 million on a 12-acre park, Houston "could" be redefined as a "great city"?
Local officials are hard at work on plans to transform a teacup-shaped, 12-acre plot of asphalt lots and vacant land downtown into a major urban park on par with those in New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
[snip]
Other urban parks, such as Chicago's Millennium Park, include world-class architecture, sculpture and outdoor concert venues.
White, who announced the Houston park in October, has said the $81 million park could spur economic development in that section of downtown and raise property values nearby.
[snip]
A New York-based nonprofit, Project for Public Spaces, is helping with the initial planning. It recently held focus group meetings and will conduct today's workshop.
Today's event is expected to move outside onto what will be the park's grounds, now mostly covered by surface parking lots and a small park, said Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces.
[snip]
"It's a big challenge," Kent said. "This could help redefine Houston as a great city."
Random thoughts:
1. Didn't the light rail make Houston world-class?
2. How many jaywalking tickets, red light camera citations, heavy trash violations, and truck zone parking citations will be required to help fund the $81 million world-class park?
3. Doesn't Houston have some money problems? For example, didn't the city shift its pension problem by transferring the debt to the underperforming Hilton-Americas?
4. Why does Houston feel inferior to New York, Atlanta and Chicago? Seriously. Houston is a wonderful place to live and I'd rather live here than those three cities, any day.
RELATED: Project for Public Spaces, Mayor White's "Centerpiece Park" press release, City acquires land for downtown park (Houston Business Journal), Who will pay for Houston's own Central Park? (blogHOUSTON)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/05 08:48 AM |
06 May 2005
Harris County GOP posts guide to Houston-area elections
On Saturday, May 7, a number of Houston-area municipalities (Deer Park, Hilshire Village, Jersey Village, Morgan's Point, Pasadena, Seabrook, West University Place) will be holding elections.
The Harris County Republican Party has posted its candidate questionnaire, and answers from those candidates who chose to respond. The information is here, for those voters who might find it helpful tomorrow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/06/05 10:02 AM |
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