20 July 2009

Chron laments number of women in HFD, calls it a news story

In today's Chronicle, reporter Mike Tolson penned one of those one-sided "news analysis" pieces that has, unfortunately, displaced so much hard-news reporting from newspapers all over.

The thrust of the 22-graf, front-page story is that women are underrepresented in fire departments across the country and in Houston. The story also implicitly links recent harassment and bad behavior in the HFD with the "under-representation." Here are some illustrative grafs:

At the same time that U.S. military branches and law enforcement agencies were successfully bringing women into their ranks, the great majority of fire departments — including HFD — failed to follow suit. The result is a percentage of female firefighters well below that of most occupations and much smaller than what anyone might have expected a generation ago when lawsuits and affirmative action put an end to the firehouse as an exclusively white male domain.

Women may represent about 13 percent of law enforcement patrol officers according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, but they are less than 5 percent of the nation's firefighters.

Houston's numbers are even lower than the national average. Its 103 female employees account for only 2.6 percent of the department. That's barely more than one woman per station, meaning that some shifts and some fire houses remain de facto all male, and that women in some stations continue to feel as if they are unwelcome pioneers.

[snip]

“If you put one woman in a fraternity of men, you can pretty much figure out how they are going to be treated,” said attorney Joe Ahmad, who represents the two HFD women whose complaints of harassment recently became front-page news. “If the numbers don't change, it's virtually impossible to fix the problem.”

Synopsis: Women are "underrepresented" in fire departments, especially in Houston, which paves the way for horrible treatment, which perpetuates the mean boys club. And not a single disagreeing voice is quoted! What a fine editorial posing as a news story.

Never mind, of course, that (as Michael Berry pointed out on the radio today) firefighters are expected to pass demanding physical exams, that some women are unable to do so, and that the number of applicants is likely limited, in part, by the physical demands of the job. That realistic view isn't addressed seriously in this editorial posing as a news story.

Now, none of this is offered as an excuse for the firemen who have behaved badly in the department, which probably does dissuade some physically qualified women from pursuing HFD careers. The City of Houston should make every effort to root out those misbehaving employees, and to establish a culture that does not condone such activity.

Beyond that, though, we're okay with requiring our firefighters to meet appropriate physical qualifications (that might come into play, say, when rescuing people from fires).

If the Chronicle wants to editorialize on the matter, we'd suggest the opinion page is the right place for that. Well, except for the fact that Jeff Cohen fired the only two women on his editorial board in the last purge (since adding one woman to the remaining Caucasian Male think tank). Maybe that section doesn't have the most credibility on the topic.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/20/09 10:02 PM |

They're watching your speed (sort of, if you have an EZ Tag)

In today's Chronicle, Carolyn Feibel discusses the role of EZ Tag transponders in helping TranStar estimate freeway traffic velocity and congestion.

Area bloggers had that discussion nearly five years ago, here.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/20/09 09:12 PM |

Chron: Some in East End start to feel pinch of rail expansion

Today's Chronicle runs a story by Allan Turner on Lenox Barbecue, a longtime East End barbecue joint that will be forced to close down because of the light-rail expansion.

In what is now a familiar refrain, some members of the community feel like METRO has not been responsive to their concerns about the expansion:

East End voters approved Metro's light rail plan in 2003 by a 14 percent margin, but since then, a number of issues have left area residents in an uproar.

“We really feel badly about Lenox,” said Diane Lipton, president of the East End Chamber of Commerce, “but we don't have any control over it.”

Lipton said her group favors light rail development on Harrisburg, but believes Metro disregarded community concerns in designing the project.

“We can't get a response from Metro,” she charged. “They do things behind our backs. They are not community-responsive.”

We feel for those who were naïve enough to trust their political leaders (some of whom undoubtedly have profited from a positive relationship with METRO) and their regional transit authority.

But the political reality has always been this: METRO needed the votes of this community in passing the rail referendum overall. That was the input that most concerned METRO. Details of construction and the impact on the community after the vote? Well, input from "experts" who don't live in the area (but who are affiliated with firms that will benefit handsomely from the expansion) tends to carry much more weight with the like-minded "experts" at METRO. That's The Houston Way, after all!

Incidentally, for those who might wonder what other fun changes are coming to Harrisburg, be sure to check out some of the links (to the various EIS statements and to the Parsons contract) in this post. It's dense, but informative, reading.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/20/09 09:00 PM |

19 July 2009

Linkpost: 07/19/09

Here's an abbreviated, end-of-weekend/time-to-start-fresh dump of local blog links. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/09 10:12 PM |

Mayor/Senate Candidate White's press office announces plan to spend nearly $200k on HFD legal consultants (updated)

In a two-reporter, eight-paragraph story on Saturday, the Chronicle reported that Mayor/Senate Candidate Bill White would like to spend nearly $200,000 so two law firms can look further into issues of equality within the Houston Fire Department:

Mayor Bill White wants to hire two local law firms to examine “equal employment opportunity processes and practices” in the Houston Fire Department, his office announced Friday*.

The effort to initiate an outside review comes about 10 days after two women found racist and misogynistic graffiti near their quarters at a department fire station.

White has asked City Council to authorize a contract of up to $190,000 with the law firms Thompson and Horton, L.L.P. and Lemond and Lemond, L.L.C, who will “work jointly to review, assess and recommend policies and practives on issues that include diversity, conflict resolution, preventive practices, compliance, communication and management practices,” said a city news release*.

[snip]

“In any organization there is always room for improvement. We want this expertise to help us examine how we can do that,” White said in a statement*.

The rest of the story updates us on the lack of significant new developments in the HFD investigation. The two reporters do not, however, inform us what precisely Thompson and Horton or Lemond and Lemond will be doing (beyond the platitudes in the mayor's statement) or shed any light on why those two law firms were chosen (as opposed, to say, management consulting firms or any number of other firms). Apparently the mayor's staff wasn't able to shed much light on those issues either.

We did find one interesting connection. It turns out that Thompson and Horton employs a young associate lawyer by the name of Annie Stein. Ms. Stein, we are fairly certain,** is the daughter of Marty Stein (Mayor White's agenda director) and Bob Stein (Houston's expert on everything).

Now, are we suggesting that the selection of a law firm to handle ambiguous consulting for HFD has much to do with a junior associate lawyer who is related** to the mayor's agenda director? Not at all. It's probably complete coincidence. We are just amused by the small-town feel of Houston at times (being from a small town ourselves).

* Was our mayor too busy running for his next office to participate in this HFD announcement?
** Our multiple layers of fact-checkers and research assistants are out, it being the weekend and all.

UPDATE (07-22-09): As it turns out, there were even more interesting connections between Mayor White's staff and the law firms that apparently influenced their selection without any input from Council or public vetting. See this story from the Chronicle for more details.

BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/09 09:47 PM |

Chron editorial board discovers appraisal creep (then moves on)

We were shocked Saturday to see this graf tucked away in a Chron editorial on Harris County property taxes:

Under state law, valuations for residences cannot be increased by more than 10 percent annually; on the other hand, in areas where home values have risen significantly over the past decade, a 10 percent increase in valuations has come to be viewed as almost automatic. This has fed an active cynicism among many homeowners that elected officials have conveniently been shielded from the onerous chore of voting to increase taxes by these seemingly automatic bumps in valuations dependably churned out every year by HCAD.

It's as if the Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank* has just now discovered appraisal creep, which became a big issue several years ago (not that a reader of the Chron editorial page ever would have known). Apparently that solitary mention was enough for them, though, as they quickly moved on to... well, we're not quite sure, as the rest of the editorial just kind of rambles on with no clear thesis.

Nonetheless, we're pleased to welcome the Chron's editorial board to the conversation about local property taxes, even if it's a few years late.

* Cory Crow's fine name for the new Chronicle editorial board.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/09 02:06 PM |

METRO goes on high alert for anti-rail protesters

Last week, METRO threw itself a big party at Union Station to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Southeast and North Corridors. We hear METRO feared anti-rail protesters would crash the party, so METRO flew into action: There was a special area set aside for protesters, there were bomb-sniffing dogs scouring the premises, there were plans to confiscate banners that might be brought in to disrupt the festivities, etc, etc.

We also hear the massive hordes of violent anti-rail protesters failed to materialize.

We are sure Chief Lambert appreciated an opportunity to deploy his elite counterterror unit, including his sharpshooters, bomb-sniffing dogs, and bomb robot. It's unclear what role METRO's Boat Rescue Squad played, but maybe they provided security for Frank Wilson on his taxpayer-subsidized commute to and from work. You know, to protect him from all those violent anti-rail protesters.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/19/09 07:33 AM |

18 July 2009

Texas Watchdog: HASDC refuses to provide information to Mayor's office

Texas Watchdog's Steve Miller reports that the nonprofit HAS Development Corp. has refused to turn over documents requested by the office of Mayor Bill White:

“The HASDC wrote to the Attorney General’s office … It feels that it doesn’t have to provide these records,” said Patrick Trahan, the mayor’s press secretary. “We are waiting to hear.”

Trahan told Miller the mayor's office will continue to press for the information. Mayor White likes to have things his way, so we can't imagine being told "no" by a quasi-public spinoff of the city's airport system is likely to sit well with him (at least if getting the information is actually a priority for his office).

Texas Watchdog, one city councilmember, and the city controller have all been similarly rebuffed in their efforts to obtain financial information about the shadowy spinoff created and operated at least partly with taxpayer resources.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/09 07:43 AM |

Linkpost: 07/18/09

Here's some Saturday morning blog link goodness for you!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/09 07:26 AM |

17 July 2009

Hair Balls on METRO's "civil rights trainwreck" (updated)

The Houston Press Hairballs blog takes a break momentarily from amateurish, incomprehensible rambling to post actual work from a professional journalist* related to METRO. Here's a snippet from Paul Knight, commenting on METRO's adventures with civil-rights laws:

A couple months back, we wrote about Metro receiving notification from the Federal Transit Administration, saying Metro had violated federal civil rights laws, but we hadn't seen a draft of the preliminary report. Now we have, and, apparently, Metro hasn't been too concerned with the federal laws.

According to the report, "the general consensus among the staff was that there was little to no awareness of METRO's Title VI Program," a program designed to ensure that Metro doesn't discriminate based on race, color, or national origin, and it evaluates the "social and economic effects of programs and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."

Furthermore, the report says, no one on staff interviewed by the FTA even knew that there was a person or department where Title VI complaints should be directed.

Tom Bazan, a Houston resident whose name should be familiar to people who follow Metro, obtained the report from the FTA, but since a lot of information has been redacted from the draft, he feels that the agency is still stonewalling him.

"For all their transparency, they still seem to be reluctant to talk about unpleasant topics," Bazan tell Hair Balls.

Our METRO?

Surely not.

* Yes, apparently there are a few such creatures left at the place.

ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Paul Knight's post includes an update:

Raequel Roberts, a Metro spokeswoman, responded to our questions about the report and said that Metro has responded to the FTA report, adding that the agency's final report is complete. (The FTA hasn't responded to Hair Balls.)

Since Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson insists that METRO operates in a "completely transparent manner," METRO should encourage the release of the final report so we can all see METRO's response.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/17/09 11:33 PM |

16 July 2009

Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson awards large no-bid contract to former associate

Former Chron reporter Rosanna Ruiz has a nice story for Texas Watchdog today on curious expenditures by METRO.

As Ruiz notes, METRO is apparently paying a California-based former associate of Frank Wilson roughly $300/hour to oversee the contract for the light-rail buildout. Wilson was able to secure a no-bid contract for his former associate, and it has been extended three times. The consultant will wind up making around half a million bucks for a year-and-a-half of work. Wilson says the hire is justified, because nobody at METRO is qualified to do the sort of work his former colleague is handling.

Since there's really nobody to hold METRO/Wilson accountable to the public/taxpayers (Senate Candidate White is certainly much too busy these days), that's probably about the last word on the subject.

Of course, nobody familiar with Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson's background should be terribly surprised by any of it.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/09 11:28 PM |

Mayor White backtracks from Senate-candidate White

Remember when Senate-candidate White tried not to look so wimpy on illegal immigration?

Standing in front of a bank of TV cameras this week, Houston Mayor Bill White took the federal government to task for not deporting an illegal immigrant with a criminal record before he allegedly shot a Houston police officer during a recent drug raid.

[snip]

To plug any potential remaining gaps, White this week said he plans to ask Hurtt to consider participating in the federal government’s controversial 287(g) program, which trains local jailers to assist immigration agents.

Of course he didn't mean it:

It was interesting to read this blog post from Katherine Leal Unmuth of the Dallas News. She reported on a recent LULAC event White helped headline in Dallas.

The mayor gets a little defensive when pressed about immigration training for Houston jailers through the 287g program. He emphasizes that he hasn't signed off anything yet, even though he hasn't indicated locally any reluctance to join the program.

Different audience, different position.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/16/09 06:30 PM |

Linkpost: 07/16/09

Here is the latest local blog roundup to get the day rolling.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/09 07:58 AM |

Dem commissioners endorse John Sharp; Eversole lashes out

In a two-reporter (!) blog post, the Chronicle reports that Democratic Harris County Commissioners Sylvia Garcia and El Franco Lee endorsed John Sharp (and not Mayor Bill White) for the expected U.S. Senate race. The two Chron scribes link to a press release from the Sharp campaign, which claims the commissioners offered their news together after the latest Commissioners Court meeting.

KTRK-13's Miya Shay has an amusing observation about that joint "announcement" on her blog:

Now, I was there, and Lee and Garcia didn't stand there and make any pronouncements. I guess that's why they have press releases.

Whoops!

Other interesting Commissioners Court news came from Commissioner Jerry Eversole in response to questioning from KTRK-13's Wayne Dolcefino. Their exchange is reported by the Chronicle's Mike Tolson. Eversole told Dolcefino that he will not be resigning his seat, despite the ethics problems KTRK and Dolcefino helped bring to light.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/09 07:12 AM |

15 July 2009

METRO Boat Rescue Squad ready to serve!

Did you realize that in addition to its Elite Counterterror Squad, METRO also has a Boat Rescue Squad?

We didn't either, but METRO's expensive blogger Mary Sit spelled it out for us in this post:

The documentary details how METRO responds to natural disasters, such as storms. A boat rescue squad practices regularly on how to rescue in debris-filled water, including buoy rescues and tethered rescues.

Initially, that seemed to us like another wasteful duplication of services already provided by other safety agencies.

And then we realized that METRO actually does need its own dedicated Boat Rescue Squad.

How else would the organization get passengers off the stranded Danger Train and onto buses when there is three inches of rain?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/09 08:45 AM |

14 July 2009

Texas Watchdog highlights revolving door at HAS; White Administration refuses comment

Last week, Texas Watchdog broke the news that the Houston Airport System, under the direction of Richard Vacar, had created a web of public-private offshore companies that have, to date, been shielded from public review, press review, and even review by the city controller and one councilmember.

Today, Texas Watchdog's Steve Miller follows up with the news that not only were public resources tied to creating and operating these shadowy offshore companies, but that public officials working for the Houston Airport System routinely cycled into high-level positions with the "private" spinoff companies that were created.

Houston Mayor Bill White, who frequently talks about transparency, has refused to answer Texas Watchdog's questions about the latest revelations.

Meanwhile, White Administration staffer (and former Brown Administration insider) Anthony Hall apparently continues to oversee a review of Vacar's expense reports and other activities, despite the fact that Hall was the White Administration's point man for approving many of Vacar's requests (according to previous reporting).

Given the ongoing revelations about the Houston Airport System, it's well past time that Mayor White, acting with the City Controller and City Council, appoint an audit committee (whose members are not tied in any way to the Houston Airport System) and charge them with getting to the bottom of the questions that have been raised to date (and maybe some others).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/09 12:45 PM |

Linkpost: 07/14/09

Here's our latest roundup of local blog posts that we've found interesting. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/09 07:55 AM |

13 July 2009

KHOU finds history of fire-code violations at Gallery Furniture

In a story posted this weekend, KHOU-11 finally reported on documents (inexplicably) withheld by the City of Houston after the big arson incident at Gallery Furniture.

We're not going to steal KHOU's thunder by blockquoting extensively -- please go read their original watchdog reporting.

We will say that the pattern of violations, and Mattress Mack's spinning, and internal HFD discussion related to "Mr. McIngvale" all make for some very interesting reading.

The Houston Chronicle also "covered" this news:

In inspections dating back to 2002, the city fire marshal's office found dozens of violations across the multi-building site, according to records the Houston Chronicle obtained through its partnership with KHOU.

Well, at least KHOU covered it. But we're pleased to see Paige Hewitt back at work after the short stint at KTRK, at least.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/13/09 10:32 PM |

What is this Chonicle?

If you're diminutive Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, how do you know if you've finally fired too many essential staffers (say, copy editors and web editors)?

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/13/09 09:53 PM |

12 July 2009

Mayor to oversee HFD investigation; HAS player still overseeing HAS audit

Here's a tale of two investigations.

On Thursday, Mayor White vowed to take charge of investigating incidents of HFD firemen (or perhaps fireman) behaving badly (very badly):

Houston's mayor said on Thursday that he will personally oversee an investigation into racial, sexual and threatening graffiti left at female living quarters in a Houston fire station, and will seek outside help in improving the department, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Following Texas Watchdog's latest riveting story on the Houston Airport System, detailing a shadowy web of offshore companies (staffed partly by City of Houston employees) that refuse to provide any accounting of activities to Texas Watchdog, Houston taxpayers, or even elected officials (including the City Controller and one Councilmember), Mayor White's response was... to allow Anthony Hall, who was the White Administration's point man in dealing with Vacar and his activities (and a Lee Brown Administration insider back in the day), to continue his audit of Vacar's activities.

The public deserves better than that. Even if Mayor White is disinclined, the City Controller not to mention City Council should be demanding answers from the Houston Airport System and all of the shadowy spinoffs Vacar created, in part with the resources and backing of the City of Houston and the Houston Airport System.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/09 08:24 PM |

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