30 July 2009

Houston Shakespeare Festival opens this weekend

The Chronicle's Everett Evans has a nice writeup of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, which opens its 35th season this weekend.

This year, the festival will feature Twelfth Night (which they have done before) and Pericles (which they have not done before). More information is available on their website.

The Shakespeare Festival is one of the city's true treasures. If you've never taken in one of the free performances (or even if you have), give it some consideration. They do a great job every year.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/09 09:55 PM |

29 July 2009

Linkpost: 07/29/09

It's an extra-large group of blog links tonight, since we hear some talk-radio hosts like that sort of thing. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/09 11:21 PM |

August Texas Monthly offers interesting article on Houston dogfighting, and a Tribute To White

The Chronicle's Bradley Olson calls our attention to Mimi Swartz's Texas Monthly article on the Houston Mayoral race.

It almost reads like Mrs. White* back in the day: Bill White good, VERY VERY good. In comparison, the three serious contenders to replace him are small.

There are other touches that remind us of Houston's Biggest Blog**:

“We’ve never had a mayor who wanted to run for higher office,” says Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University. “Different ambitions set up different agendas. . . . Lanier’s idea was to pick three things and do one. White picked ten things and did fifteen—well.”

That's Houston's Expert on Everything, Bob Stein, a sometime mayoral advisor. Oh, and someone named Marty Stein is the mayor's agenda director. Those little tidbits don't turn up in the story.

There is a reference to Bill King, who decided not to run for the office this time:

For more than a year, a prominent conservative businessman, Bill King, has been showing local breakfast groups a Cassandra-like PowerPoint presentation that purports to reveal how the city employee pension fund and other “unfunded liabilities” will bring financial disaster to Houston soon—maybe even before the election. If King is right, Brown and Parker, as public servants, will be in big trouble. “Annise hasn’t been waving her hands and saying the sky is falling,” said one campaign junkie. “After eleven years, she can’t run as an agent of change.” A fiscal crisis in the middle of a Senate run would also be bad for White—if he saw one looming. “In brief, Mr. King is just wrong,” White says. “Because we planned ahead and built up cash reserves, Houston is in far better shape than other cities...."

In a relative sense, perhaps, but that bit of politico-speak doesn't really refute the story that King has been telling. As we've noted for quite some time on the little blog, the unfunded pension fund liabilities still loom, despite minor improvements that Mayor White made early in his administration. We hope Mr. King keeps talking about municipal finances***, and that whoever wins the race taps his expertise in addressing the looming problems.

Anyway, those were the parts we found most interesting in this Great White Tribute.

Unsurprisingly, we didn't even think that was the best Houston-centric article in the August issue. We would bestow that honor on Skip Hollandsworth, for his fine (but disturbing) article on the undercover officers who got inside Houston's underground dogfighting culture, before busting many of the sickos involved in it. It's well worth reading if you're a subscriber.

* Cory Crow's name for an earlier Chron editorial board.
** AKA the Chronicle, another term coined by Crow.
*** We're not a breakfast group, but we'd welcome his presentation at a future blogger meetup.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/09 10:56 PM |

Feds: Houston's crime rate is too low to qualify for COPS funding

KPRC-2 has Mayor White's reaction to the news that Houston is one of several major cities that will not be receiving federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funding:

"This is the wrong decision for the wrong reasons," Houston Mayor Bill White said. "We were told that Houston did not receive funding because our city budget is not distressed and our crime rates have gone down to the lowest levels in decades. Cities should not be penalized for good law enforcement and sound financial practices."

Ironically, a couple of years ago, KHOU-11's Mark Greenblatt caught HPD under-reporting crime statistics. Chief Hurtt was apoplectic when Greenblatt dared challenge HPD's numbers, but after a while, HPD began reclassifying some homicides as murders.

Who knows if the city's crime stats are accurate these days, but the Justice Department is using that criteria as one reason why Houston doesn't need extra COPS funding.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/29/09 04:48 AM |

28 July 2009

Texas Watchdog: Some councilmembers late paying their property taxes

Texas Watchdog's Lee Ann O'Neal noticed that some of members of City Council hadn't managed to pay their property taxes on time (click the link to find out which ones).

Interestingly enough, those late taxes got paid in a hurry once it was brought to the attention of the councilmembers.

Whoops!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/09 10:21 PM |

Chron goes with team coverage of Bernstein GOP beat

We wondered who might cover the local Republican beat for the Chronicle after Alan Bernstein went to work for Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia.

It appears that there will be a team approach (with a heavy dose of red, if you will).

So, who's going to be covering the local Democratic party activities for the newspaper?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/09 10:03 PM |

blogHOUSTON gathering Saturday, 2pm, Stag's Head Pub

We've decided it's time to have another gathering.

If you're a blogHOUSTON reader, commenter, linker, lurker, or just want to come by and say hi, we and some other local bloggers will be hanging out at the Stag's Head Pub this Saturday (August 1), from 2pm until.... sometime.

Hope to see ya there!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/09 09:40 PM |

27 July 2009

Why won't "transparent" METRO post committee meeting times online?

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel looked into the posting of METRO's meetings, and discovered that the organization doesn't exactly make it easy for people to attend its committee meetings:

Metro does post the time of its regular monthly board meeting on its Web site, but not for the committee meetings....

Metro's media contact, Raequel Roberts, said the only way to find out when the committees meet every month is to go to Metro headquarters downtown and check the lobby bulletin board. A meeting notice also is posted at the downtown Harris County courthouse, she said.

I asked her if there was someone I could call to find out the meeting schedule without using so much time, gasoline or Metro fare. Roberts told me no.

The notices are physically posted on the bulletin board 72 hours before meetings, as required by law. There is no good reason the meeting schedules couldn't be posted to the web (or even given to interested parties who might call). They just aren't. And for some reason, neither Raequel Roberts nor her boss answered Feibel's followup questions about posting the meeting times on the web.

Recall that two years ago, METRO chief Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson asserted "we operate the METRO organization in a completely transparent manner."

Ignoring legitimate questions from the media is not completely transparent. It would be completely transparent (not to mention convenient for METRO patrons with impaired mobility and/or means) to post the meeting times on the web, like any other major 21st century public organization. Surely an organization that can squander resources on TV documentaries and topiary bunnies could make that small, inexpensive improvement. Perhaps posting the meeting notices could even be added to Mary Sit's duties, since her blogging output is so limited!

UPDATE (07/29/09): The Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank scolds METRO (really!) for its lack of transparency.

RELATED: Just a few tidbits on some METRO "olds" from July (bH).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/09 09:31 PM |

Linkpost: 07/27/09

Here are the latest local blog links, for your clicking pleasure.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/09 08:42 PM |

Does Mayor Bill White hate puppies? (cont'd)

Houston Press reporter Craig Malisow reports the disturbing news that a puppy was "washed down" a drain and killed last week thanks to the latest example of negligence/incompetence at BARC. BARC spokeswoman Kathy Barton told him that the employee who effectively caused the poor puppy's death has been suspended for a week, and 68 puppies have been transferred to the Houston Humane Society so their cages can be reconfigured.

Malisow concludes:

Hair Balls isn't exactly sure why it took the idiotic death of a puppy to make the cages puppy-safe. It sort of begs the question, "What in God's name has the Incident Command Team been doing for the last ten months, or however long it is they've been commanding incidents?"

But now that the city is planning on throwing $208,000 at the problem, via "change agent" Gerry Fusco, we can only hope that no more puppies have to be sucked down a drain anytime soon.

The latest incident begs one more question: Does Mayor White hate puppies?

Because fixing the problems at BARC sure hasn't been a priority for him.

BLOGVERSATION: Bears Blog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/09 08:21 PM |

26 July 2009

Texas Watchdog, KHOU raise questions about METRO's no-bid contracts; Chron cheers!

On July 16, Texas Watchdog posted a story by Rosanna Ruiz on one of METRO's expensive no-bid contracts. The balanced reporting contained questions from others about the contracts, and included comments from METRO defending the contracts.

On July 22, KHOU-11's Brad Woodard picked up the story. KHOU's reporting included comments from Texas Watchdog raising concerns about the outside contracts, as well as comments from METRO defending the contracts.

Yesterday, the Chronicle decided to report on some of METRO's no-bid contracts. The story does not reference the earlier reporting by Texas Watchdog or KHOU. Indeed, the reporting doesn't even acknowledge that anyone raised any concerns whatsoever about the no-bid contracts. The only comments included in the story came from pro-contract people praising the contracts. It reads like something that might appear on METRO's expensive blog.

Apparently, that represents Jeff Cohen's vision of watchdog reporting at the new, slimmed-down Chronicle (or as Cory Crow has taken to calling it, Houston's Biggest Blog).

BLOGVERSATION: Texas Watchdog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/09 09:48 PM |

Magaziner: Part One of METRO Solutions -- The Other Side of the Story

We're running a guest editorial essay today by Paul Magaziner, a local businessman and a member of Corridors United. As an alternative local opinion outlet, blogHOUSTON is interested in running more occasional opinion pieces by outside authors (which we have done in the past). If interested, please feel free to contact us. We should note that the views expressed are, as with our blog posts, those of the author.

Part One of METRO Solutions: The Other Side of the Story

By Paul Magaziner

If it's true that you can't teach old dogs new tricks, then METRO must be in the ranks of Moses. Everyone knows METRO started the construction of the Main Street alignment in Year 2000 without voter approval or federal funds. METRO even started construction in the middle of the night. Bad Habits are hard to break.

Business people always study their business's past history, from failures to successes. The following is my version of the history of METRO under Mayor White, David Wolff and Frank Wilson.

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/26/09 09:25 PM |

25 July 2009

Councilmember, firefighter union chief go at it over "house negro" reference; Mayor White comments on Sen. Cornyn

Local print media, television news, and talk radio were buzzing at the end of the week over the latest controversy involving the Houston Fire Department.

Apparently, a discussion between Councilmember Jolanda Jones and Jeff Caynon, the head of a local firefighters' union, grew heated -- so heated that (according to a letter from Caynon) Councilmember Jones made reference to Caynon and used the term "house negro" (both parties seem to agree that the term was used, but seem to disagree over the exact context; we obviously weren't there, hence this disclaimer).

The local media jumped all over that, and supporters and critics of both Jones and Caynon jumped right into the fray, which ensnared HFD in yet another controversy. Rich Connelly summarizes the mess as well as anyone for the Houston Press.

To his credit, Mayor Bill White is often a calming influence in our city, and there is no doubt that Council during his tenure has been much more collegial and professional than the dysfunctional bickering mess it had become by the end of the Lee Brown era. So we searched various news stories (Chronicle, KRIV-26, KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2) to see if Mayor White had reacted publicly to the latest HFD controversy.

We searched in vain. But we did find this update on twitter:

Candidate @billwhitefortx speaks out about Cornyn's vote on Sotomayor: http://bit.ly/15cW4b

Maybe Senate Candidate White is working behind the scenes on this latest local controversy.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/25/09 02:07 PM |

24 July 2009

Linkpost: 07/24/09

Here are some local blog links to kick off the weekend. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/09 11:45 PM |

23 July 2009

HASDC finally coughs up some info; Mayor's office adopts our view on HAS review (updated)

Texas Watchdog's Steve Miller reports that the City Controller finally has obtained requested documents from the nonprofit spinoff of the Houston Airport System. The nonprofit had previously rebuffed efforts by City Controller, one councilmember, and Texas Watchdog to examine the information.

The press office for Mayor Bill White, which just last week told Texas Watchdog that the mayor's office had also been unable to obtain the requested information, apparently misled the media:

In a letter accompanying the release of the financial documents to Parker this week, [HASDC attorney Hank] Coleman notes that the records “were provided to the Mayor three weeks ago on June 26.”

But as late as last week the mayor’s spokesman Patrick Trahan told Texas Watchdog, in response to requests for HASDC financial records, that the mayor’s office did not have the documents.

On Wednesday, he explained that the records likely went directly through his office to a third party that is reviewing the HASDC financial records for the city.

This must be the latest example of how transparency works when you're busy "running the city like a business," as Senate Candidate Bill White is fond of telling the folks around Texas.

That bolded bit of "oh-by-the-way" news from the mayor's press office is interesting as well. Here is more:

The mayor initially said in May that the review would be conducted by [Anthony] Hall. A group of business experts is now conducting the review, according to the mayor’s office.

“For Mr. Hall to do this would be a conflict of interest,” Trahan said. “Anthony is not doing the review.”

Texas Watchdog has additional questions into the mayor’s office concerning what the conflict might be and who, specifically, is conducting the internal review.

We first criticized the mayor's selection of Hall to conduct this audit on June 28, and called for an independent review committee to be appointed on July 9 and again on July 14. We're pleased that Mayor White has come around to our view on Hall's role in the audit, especially since it seems to have flown under the radar of the Chronicle editorial board and metro/state columnists Rick Casey and Lisa Falkenberg.

The next step in transparency (as we understand the term) would be answering Texas Watchdog's questions about the exact composition of the "group of business experts" now conducting this review and questions about how much money this consulting effort will cost the city (especially important in light of recent controversies over the mayor's consulting picks).

UPDATE (07/25/09): As noted in the comments, Texas Watchdog filed a story Friday night that updates the information above. The two key bits of information are:

  1. The City is using the Bracewell & Giuliani law firm to review HASDC financial activities.
  2. Mayoral press staffer Patrick Trahan now claims he "misspoke" in the earlier Texas Watchdog story, and now says that City Hall insider Anthony Hall is "still over the review" and that there is no conflict of interest.

Huh?

As previous reporting has noted, Anthony Hall was involved in approving some of Vacar's activities. As we have argued previously, that alone means Anthony Hall should not be a part of any audit of Vacar's activities (aside from providing any requested information to the auditors). He certainly should not be "over the review" (whatever that means).

Furthermore, Trahan's change of tune raises another issue. He previously told Texas Watchdog that the mayor's office hadn't been able to obtain the requested financial information from HASDC. Documents later showed that the mayor's office had been in possession of those documents for weeks. When Trahan was asked why he said the mayor's office couldn't obtain the documents when clearly HASDC had provided the mayor's office those documents, Trahan told Texas Watchdog that it was because Anthony Hall was no longer involved and the documents had apparently simply been forwarded on to the firm conducting the audit. But if that story isn't true (or someone "misspoke"), and Hall is still involved, then we are back to the question of why Mayor White's press office misled the press about documents in their possession.

Somebody in Mayor White's press shop, which loves to tout the administration's transparency, needs to get the story straight!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/09 12:35 PM |

22 July 2009

HPD chief, METRO chairman like mayoral candidate Gene Locke

A few days ago, Chron reporter Bradley Olson posted the news that HPD Chief Harold Hurtt and his wife had donated to mayoral candidate Gene Locke.

Blogger David Ortez has since posted a compilation of donors who gave the maximum ($5,000) to candidates, and that list has turned up another interesting name.

It seems that David Wolff, chairman of METRO, gave Gene Locke $5,000.

Certainly, there is no law against high-profile unelected community leaders donating to political candidates.

But is it a good idea?

We'd rather our high-profile unelected officials maintain at least some degree of political impartiality while they are supposedly serving the public.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/09 10:34 PM |

City traffic bureaucrats reject Ashby again

The River Oaks Examiner reports that the City of Houston has, for the tenth time, rejected plans from the Ashby high-rise developers:

Plans for the Ashby high-rise were rejected for the 10th time Tuesday with the city saying its own traffic evaluation now shows the projects impact would push the Bissonnet Street at Shepherd Drive intersection to nearly an “F” level.

[snip]

The rejected plans were submitted April 7, making the three months until they were returned to the developers unusually long.

Developer Matthew Morgan had said Friday the length of time that passed was “somewhat unorthodox” and that Buckhead partners would resubmit plans prior a receiving decision from the Public Works Department.

It's interesting that this development has effectively been put on hold by the city's traffic bureaucrats because Level of Service (LOS) allegedly declines to F for one intersection, yet the city's traffic bureaucrats remain mute on unbelievable METRO traffic estimates that lane closures, turn restrictions, interlining, and signal issues will have NO impact on downtown traffic mobility (see Coming soon to downtown: A train-traffic-pedestrian-infrastructure adventure only METRO could love).

Unfortunately, this is what can happen when what should be a technocratic bureaucracy begins to serve political interests instead of the public interest. It's not a good precedent that has been set by the White Administration.

BLOGVERSATION: Swamplot.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/09 10:13 PM |

Linkpost: 07/22/09

It's time to throw out a little local blog reading. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/09 07:59 AM |

Mayor White wants to spend $200k on BARC consulting; HFD consulting proposal hits temporary roadblock

Craig Malisow reports on the Houston Press blog that Houston consultant Gerry Fusco is apparently the "change agent" for BARC that Mayor Bill White's press staff recently promised:

BARC has inked a six-month contract with Houston consultant Gerry Fusco to address physical, financial and operational procedures at the troubled animal-control facility.

Houston Health and Human Services spokeswoman Kathy Barton told Hair Balls that Fusco will be paid approximately $200,000 and is slated to begin Thursday.

Conveniently, the contract extends just past the end of Mayor White's term, which seems calculated to make this issue go away so he can focus on that Senate race.

Fusco, who appears to be a Six-Sigma practitioner, does not appear to have any particular expertise in managing an animal-care facility such as BARC. According to Malisow, his hefty contract has apparently been designed so that he can begin work immediately, with Council's rubberstamping of the mayor's spending to follow in two weeks.

THAT raises questions of how and why Fusco was selected as the "change agent" to clean up BARC immediately (after so many years of neglect), why it couldn't have waited for a proper public discussion at Council, and just who Busco might know at City Hall.

If that last sounds overly cynical, we would point out that Mayor White's other recent spending proposal for about the same amount seems to have run into a little roadblock today, according to KRIV-26's Isiah Carey:

WE'VE LEARNED A VOTE BY HOUSTON'S CITY COUNCIL ON A PROPOSAL TO HIRE TWO LAW FIRMS TO ADDRESS SENSITIVITY IN THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WILL LIKELY BE DELAYED TOMORROW. THIS COMES AS HOUSTON CITY ATTORNEY ARTURO MICHEL ADMITS TIES TO AT LEAST ONE OF THE AGENCIES HE PLAYED A ROLE IN CHOOSING. MICHEL PLANS TO SEND A MEMO TO COUNCIL MEMBERS ON WEDNESDAY TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE.

HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JOLANDA JONES TELLS FOX 26 SHE HAS PLANS TO TAGGED THE PROPOSAL TO HIRE THE TWO OUTSIDE FIRMS. JONES WENT ON TO SAY SHE'S LIKE TO SEE AN AGENCY WITH MORE EXPERTISE IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN RESOURCES HANDLE THE MATTER.

Houston's passive Council will almost certainly roll over for the mayor in two weeks, but it really shouldn't. It's not at all clear why these firms were chosen or what their mandate will be, and the public deserves to know those details. Furthermore, while $200,000 may not seem like a lot of money to someone who's busy raising millions for a Senate race, it's not an insignificant sum, and a little (or even a lot of) sunshine is always preferable to no-bid contracts put together by staffers for a seemingly distracted mayor.*

* We learned this lesson during the Lee Brown era.

BLOGVERSATION: The Dog Nanny, Texas Watchdog, ABC13 Political Blog, Hair Balls, Noah's Ark PAC.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/09 12:44 AM |

21 July 2009

Dangerous time/place/behavior update (local reporter edition)

It's been a while, but it seems we have another dangerous time/place/behavior situation (via Mike McGuff):

A Houston television reporter was carjacked and kidnapped at gunpoint early Monday and forced to drive to Beaumont, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Houston police said the gunman approached ABC-13 reporter Eric James at a red light on Westheimer Road near West Creek at about 3 a.m. Investigators said James had just left his apartment and was headed to work.

Okay, so following Chief Hurtt's advice, local reporters should not head to work at 3 a.m. on Westheimer Road near West Creek, if they want to avoid becoming another crime statistic.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/21/09 07:37 PM |

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