29 June 2009

Council set to renew $11 million arts contract

The Chronicle's Bradley Olson reports that City Council is about to renew an $11 million contract with the Houston Arts Alliance, a local arts organization that has had its trouble delivering projects on time, not to mention providing a public accounting of its operations. The sidebar to the story includes findings from a recent audit of the organization:

A city review of the Houston Arts Alliance’s $11 million contract found:

*Questionable uses of grant funds

*Numerous instances of missing or incomplete information received from grantees

*Poor tracking of how tourists were exposed to HAA-sponsored art or events

*Failure to turn in annual financial reports or make quarterly payments to grantees on time

*A lack of sufficient written policies at HAA governing nearly all aspects of its operations

Source: City of Houston 2009 Contract Compliance Review

Councilmember Michael Sullivan expresses concern about the organization's operations in the story. City Controller Annise Parker indicated that the group had addressed her concerns from earlier in the year. No other elected officials are quoted.

Olson's full story is here.

UPDATE (07/01/09): The Chron e-edition reports that Council voted to approve the funding yesterday. Councilmember Mike Sullivan was the only dissenting vote.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/09 09:08 PM |

28 June 2009

City official who approved HASDC activities now auditing them

In a flurry of reporting last week on the mysterious departure of Richard Vacar, Texas Watchdog reminded us of the city's ongoing review of the Houston Airport System Development Corp.:

The mayor’s office announced a review last month of the Houston Airport System Development Corp. The development corporation was a nonprofit set up by former airport chief Richard Vacar to use airport employees’ expertise to build and run airports elsewhere. The announcement followed Vacar’s abrupt departure.

Trahan said the city would look into Vacar’s trip to Libya in late February of this year as part of the review. Vacar expensed city taxpayers for $13,557, according to records reviewed by Texas Watchdog under the Texas Public Information Act. The final tab was OK’ed by White lieutenant and Houston chief administrative officer Anthony W. Hall Jr. on March 13, records show, with the trip aimed generally at “developing business opportunities” there.

[snip]

The city review is being led by Hall, the Houston Chronicle reported.

For some reason, we missed this informative line in the 24 May 2009 Chronicle story linked by Texas Watchdog:

Vacar said all HASDC activities were approved by the mayor's office through Anthony Hall, the city's chief administrative officer, whom White has asked to review the corporation's activities.

My blogHOUSTON colleague Anne Linehan had a great reaction to this:

The guy who was in charge of approving all of Vacar's expenses/trips when he was in charge, is now overseeing the review of Vacar's expenses/trips?? Excuse me??

Indeed -- what a great example of The Houston Way! As one local blockquoter has been known to say, stay tuned.

BLOGVERSATION: Texas Watchdog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/09 10:52 PM |

Linkpost: 06/28/09

We tend to have slow weekends, but that doesn't mean other local bloggers took a break. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/09 10:15 PM |

Roundup: What we missed this week

A number of items this week didn't manage to get their own posts, but are worth a comment at week's end.

* * *

Another week, another illegal immigrant killing a cop. It's sad that we're becoming so used to this that it gets the weekend roundup treatment. Here is some telling background from James Pinkerton and Susan Carroll for the Chronicle:

The gunman who shot and killed an undercover police officer during a Tuesday night sting operation was an illegal immigrant who had been picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso and allowed to return home to Mexico 10 years ago.

Municipal records also show that Roberto Pedroza Carrillo, 37, had been stopped and ticketed by the Houston Police Department at least four times since 2002, most recently last November. In 2002, a warrant was issued for Carrillo after he failed to appear in court on a speeding ticket, but the case was resolved when he paid the fine.

[snip]

Municipal court records for a Roberto Carrillo, with the same address and date of birth released by investigators, show several traffic tickets from late 2002 to November of 2008. Several of the charges were dismissed after he provided proof of insurance and registration, and after HPD officers failed to appear in court. Records show Carrillo died owing the city $195 for a speeding ticket.

Under HPD policy, officers are not allowed to inquire about citizenship status during routine traffic stops. Suspects without valid identification can be fingerprinted, even for minor offenses. Carrillo, however, had several forms of ID, including at least two Texas driver’s licenses.

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt refuse to allow a frank discussion/debate/review of HPD's sanctuary policy, claiming it's a federal problem. Meanwhile, Houston cops keep dying. We grieve for the families who have to cope with these needless deaths of good men who have served the community bravely.

Commenter FilioScotia raises a good question in an email: "In view of the legal problems a lack of 'consular contact' has been for Houston and HPD in these circumstances, do you think someone could ask D-A Pat Lykos if those suspects were allowed to contact their respective consulates?"

Various reports indicate that consular contact has been requested, but we haven't seen any indication whether it was granted.

* * *

Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously passed ethics reform measures including "online posting of officials’ personal and financial disclosure forms, ethics training for all county employees and the voluntary registration of lobbyists" ("Harris County adopts list of ethics rules," Roma Khanna, Houston Chronicle). The measures are weaker than those recommended by a task force. County Judge Ed Emmett, who made ethics reform part of his successful election campaign, stressed that he was pleased to pass the reforms that were possible under current state law. County Attorney Vince Ryan has hinted he may need to review the measures, which has drawn criticism from Emmett.

Like our friends at Texas Watchdog, we're all for the posting of disclosure forms on the web, so let's hope these measures passed unanimously by Commissioners Court pass muster with the County Attorney.

* * *

The Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff offered this blurb in her latest column:

The Downtown Redevelopment Authority wants to provide up to $20 million in funding to help build housing for people who work or go to school in and around the Central Business District.

The group has released a “request for information” seeking input from developers that could buy, develop and finance one or more housing projects with affordable price tags.

“We have so many people who have said they would like to live downtown but can’t afford it, like students, office workers and some of the people out of the medical center,” said Vicki Rivers, the authority’s executive director.

“We’re trying to attract a population to the downtown area that typically would not live there,” she said.

The project may be part of a larger mixed-use development or one that stands alone, according to the request. It may also include converting existing market rate condominiums or rental units.

How nice of the TIRZ to try to make it more "affordable" (we use quotes, even though the area's newspaper of record doesn't, because we find the reference ambiguous) for certain types of people to live in certain places! If only we could all have a beneficent TIRZ looking out for our personal welfare. What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports that Discovery Green has been so wildly successful that it's going to cost us another $300,000 per year:

[C]ity council approved a plan this week to pump another $300,000 a year into the park for the next ten years.

"Well, it's [referring to heavy usage] been a challenge no doubt, and we're not solving this problem with city money only,” Hagstette said. "We were thrilled that we got that kind of support [from council]. We were thrilled that it passed."

Taxpayers already spend $750,000 a year on the park in a 50 year deal. The park conservancy also spends three or four times that amount to keep Discovery Green running. Most of that comes from private donations.

The tiny little park has been used much more than we ever would have expected (we're more partial to authentic green spaces like Buffalo Bayou park and Memorial Park), and the city has done a good job keeping it from turning into a haven for the homeless. Nonetheless, it's costing us more than its supporters said it would cost (indeed, Mayor White predicted that the park would swell property tax revenues by millions! But his real-estate buddies are having some trouble helping him deliver on that promise right now).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/09 09:23 PM |

25 June 2009

Linkpost: 06/25/09

Here's the latest collection of local blog posts that have entertained us of late. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 11:11 PM |

Chron columnist: BARC is, like, definitely making progress (OMG)!

The Chronicle's metro/state diarist Lisa Falkenberg weighed in on BARC today, effectively handing her column (such as it is) over to BARC's Kathy Barton in an apparent effort to refute the latest reporting by Craig Malisow on BARC's misadventures with vaccinations. Seemingly satisfied by Barton's spin, the metro/state diarist pronounced that BARC is definitely making progress (OMG)! And that was that.

Craig Malisow followed up with a detailed post today that illustrates how the Chron metro/state diarist failed to ask some key questions that might have led to a more analytical column, questions as simple as the time frame of the alleged new vaccination policies (which, as it turns out, Barton couldn't answer definitively when Malisow did put that question to her). In short, it's not at all clear that BARC is definitely making progress (OMG!), as the metro/state diarist asserted.

Indeed, there remains good reason to question most any assertion coming out of BARC, something that should be clear to anyone who's read Malisow's body of work on the subject.

BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 10:58 PM |

Michel memo illustrates The Houston Way of press management

In their ongoing investigation of Richard Vacar's mysterious departure from the Houston Airport System, Texas Watchdog ran across an interesting bit of correspondence from Mayor White's press honcho (and former Houston Chronicle editorialist) Frank Michel. Here is a teaser from Trent Seibert's post:

On a Thursday in May, City Hall reporter Bradley Olson from the Houston Chronicle e-mailed the mayor’s office a series of questions following Houston Airport System head Richard Vacar’s abrupt departure. The questions were fairly specific. Some could be answered with a yes or no, others by pulling some travel records and counting.

Minutes after the e-mail questions were sent, Frank Michel, a high-ranking press aide for Mayor Bill White, appears to have laid out a plan to keep Olson from getting his answers for as long as possible.

The full post is here. Frank Michel's memo is here. And Patrick Trahan's spin today (in the full post) is well worth the read.

Journalists who ask tough questions about the people's government can be so pesky! How nice to know that Mayor White has some real pros on his staff to stall them.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 10:22 PM |

Jury awards wrongly convicted man $5 million

The Chronicle's Roma Khanna reports that a federal jury awarded George Rodriguez $5 million today as a result of his lawsuit against the city for wrongful conviction:

A federal jury today awarded $5 million to a Houston man who spent 17 years in prison in a kidnapping and rape case built on evidence from the troubled Houston Police Department crime lab that DNA testing later discredited.

George Rodriguez, 48, sued the city of Houston seeking compensation for his years of incarceration and lost earnings. His lawyers argued that city officials, namely former Mayor Lee P. Brown who was police chief during Rodriguez’s case, were deliberately indifferent to underfunding, understaffing and a lack of supervision at the crime lab, creating a risk that an innocent person could be convicted.

The Lee Brown era (or should that be error?) seemingly will never come to an end.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 08:08 PM |

Texas Watchdog follows up on Vacar resignation

Texas Watchdog broke an interesting story today that follows up on the mysterious departure of Houston Airport System chief Richard Vacar a few weeks ago.

There are any number of items that stand out in what we imagine will be a first pass through public information that is finally being made available by the organization: 1) The length of time that Mayor White and/or aide Anthony Hall have been monitoring Vacar's travel and his outside deals; 2) Vacar's extravagant travel tastes; 3) Some of the relationships pursued by Vacar on his junkets, including trips to Libya; and 4) The amount of time Vacar spent on these side deals, as opposed to his day job overseeing the Houston Airport System. Further, the story only hints at Vacar's relationship with spinoffs apparently created to facilitate some of these side deals.

We'll be looking forward to further investigation into all of the above by Texas Watchdog (and any other local media wishing to pursue the story beyond this passive bit of questioning).

BLOGVERSATION: Unca Darrell.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 12:44 PM |

Chron adopts reader representative by committee, neglects to inform readers

Over the years, we've had some useful interaction with the Chronicle reader representative, the individual who received reader (customer) complaints and queries about the newspaper and at least tried to provide a response (if not resolution -- unlike their San Antonio Hearst sister paper, for example, the Chronicle never has liked to admit cases of staff plagiarism). We've at least appreciated someone who would answer questions about the newspaper (James Campbell was generally good about this; Steve Jetton and subsequent replacements, not so much).

For quite a while now, the reader representative has seemingly gone missing. Emails to the reader representative email address are not answered, and the reader representative blog has not been updated in some time. We were wondering if it was time to put the reader representative back on one of those "Missing" notices on milk cartons. Lone Star Timesman Matt Bramanti got to the bottom of the problem on twitter yesterday, when the Chronicle's Dwight Silverman admitted to him that the newspaper doesn't really have a reader representative any more:

@mattbramanti We don't have one reader rep. Senior editors are now responding directly to reader concerns.

Note the clever wording. He didn't say "directly to readers." And if you've emailed the Chronicle reader representative lately, you probably haven't gotten an email response. People we know generally don't (nor do we, but we are an un-blog to the Chronicle). We are told that support staff simply compile emails/phone messages to the reader representative daily and distribute the report to senior editors for perusal (we can't verify that because, well, our emails to the reader representative tend not to get a reply).

The Chronicle continues to act as if it has a single reader representative however, as Jim Newkirk's name is still listed in the e-edition (and presumably print editions) of the newspaper:

Reader rep blurb from Chron masthead

We're not sure we would have minimized what has effectively been a customer-service position at a time when so many customers are dropping the newspaper, but it seems especially strange for a newspaper to tell customers there is a reader representative when there isn't one.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/09 08:15 AM |

24 June 2009

Corrections, Chron style: Wrong = "outdated"

Chronicle transportation columnist Carolyn Feibel posted this interesting clarification/correction towards the end of this week's column:

Speaking of stimulus funds, I gave you outdated information in last week’s column. Metro cannot use $30 million of federal stimulus funds on building the new light rail lines, despite what the agency had expected (and we had reported) earlier. In fact, none of the stimulus can be used on the future rail expansion. That’s because Metro doesn’t yet have final approval from the Federal Transit Administration for the planned North and Southeast rail lines.

Outdated information?

How about incorrect information?

It's easy enough for these mistakes to happen. METRO's PR department almost certainly outnumbers the hard-working journalists who occasionally cover the organization, and facts/figures that METRO supplies surely don't get the rigorous fact-checking and vetting that they should.

Nonetheless, erroneous information is still erroneous (and not simply "outdated").

UPDATE (06/26/09): Carolyn Feibel asks that we post this email, which I am appending to the post:

[Read More]

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/24/09 11:57 PM |

23 June 2009

Linkpost: 06/23/09

For quite a while, we've linked to interesting local blog posts over on the sidebar. Most people probably don't notice it there, so we're going to try reposting them here in the aggregate, maybe with some comments and/or excerpts, maybe not, perhaps in a different order than on the sidebar. This may or may not become a regular feature, but we'll try it for a while and see how it goes. Please do click over and read some of the fine blogs in town that we read regularly.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/23/09 10:42 PM |

Now there is an insurance database

The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel writes about the new database created to help police catch uninsured motorists. Since October, police can run license plates and will see if there is confirmed insurance coverage with the state. The readout will give the officer the vehicle's registered owner, make and model of the vehicle, and the coverage record (i.e. confirmed, expired, or unconfirmed). It's the same as officers running license plates looking for stolen vehicles or expired registration. Just two reminders for the public:

1. It is perfectly legal for officers to run anyone's license plate; and

2. If you find yourself stopped and you know you weren't speeding, don't get confrontational and start arguing. Let the officer tell you why you were stopped and go from there!

Posted by Jason @ 06/23/09 10:36 AM |

22 June 2009

Hair Balls posts the latest on BARC

Over on the Houston Press Hair Balls blog, Craig Malisow posts several updates on BARC (here, here, and here).

Do you think Mayor White discusses his administration's neglect of BARC (and puppies!) when he is touring Texas and talkin' to the folks?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/09 10:14 PM |

Chron.com makes a mess of columnists page, again

Chron.com recently updated its columnists page, after a similar update in May.

Austin politics reporter Peggy Fikac is now listed on the page, as is sports reporter "Gerald" Solomon.

Unfortunately, the RSS feed for Fikac's individual columns is broken, and "Gerald" Solomon's name is actually Jerome Solomon.

The food and wine columnists, who were added to the page in the last update in May (including a photo of Alison Cook that appeared for a short time, inexplicably), have been removed from the page for unknown reasons (it's probably best to add those respective RSS feeds to a reader and forget trying to find them on Chron.com).

Does anyone check these web revamps before they go live?

UPDATE (06/23/09): Solomon's name is fixed now (thanks for reading, guys! Glad we could help *wave*). Now about that Fikac RSS link?

UPDATE 2 (06/23/09): And now, the Chron.com web team has replaced some of the old orange-dominated design with.... a hideous, clashing green:

Chron.com goes green... and orange... ewww!

Do any grownups with taste preview these changes before they go live?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/09 10:10 PM |

21 June 2009

Where in Texas is Mayor White?

With apologies to Carmen Sandiego, we've been amused to see Senate-candidate White traveling the state in search of money and votes, trying very
hard not to sound like the good progressive he resembles in, uh, more urban settings.

A week ago he was in East Texas, talking jobs and the economy:

White says, "You know the people of East Texas they just want the American dream, they come from different backgrounds and they know education is important and the economy, so is worker re-training cause there's a lot of people, they get laid off they need to be able to get re-trained so they can have a job that has a future for them."

Do you think he talked about hybrid cars and weatherizing homes, too?

He also squeezed in a bit of grooming as well.

A couple of days later, he was in the Rio Grande Valley, talking education and balanced budgets:

White said his experience in dealing with disasters, balancing budgets and handling other municipal chores would serve him if he is elected to the U.S. Senate.

"I know how to improve productivity and I know how to balance budgets," he said. "Those skills are really important in Washington."

Mayor White's idea of a balanced budget involves borrowing lots of money to pay current debt obligations in order to free up money for operating expenses. It's similar to using a credit card to make one's mortgage payments.

It's also worth remembering when Mayor White hit the trifecta of his disaster/budget/municipal chore acumen: when he proposed using leftover Hurricane Ike funds to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores. Yeah, that went over real well.

As the campaign season rolls along, we'll try to keep an eye out for the further adventures of Senate-candidate White as he treks across Texas.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/21/09 06:44 PM |

1560 The Game cracks Top Ten for morning drive

The Chronicle's David Barron reports that relatively young sports talker KGOW-1560 continues to show some impressive growth:

Mild surprise No. 1: For the first time since August 2008, one of Houston’s four all-sports radio stations cracked the top-10 in morning drive among men ages 25-54, according to Arbitron.

Mild surprise No. 2: For the first time in the Arbitron portable people meter era, two all-sports stations are in the top-10 in morning drive for men 25-54.

Mild surprise No. 3: The top sports station ranked seventh in the demo last month, the best ranking since an eighth-place finish for the segment leader in October 2007.

By now, it’s no surprise that the aforementioned No. 7 station last month is KGOW (1560 AM). KILT (610 AM) checked in at No. 10 in the morning drive demo.

Arbitron’s copyright interpretation prohibits the use of specific share numbers for the men’s 25-54 demo, but it is fair to note that KGOW more than doubled its morning drive share in May when compared to April, beating KILT by more than a point. KNFC (97.5 FM) was third and KBME (790 AM) was fourth.

In other dayparts, KILT ranks 11th in the demo for middays (10 a.m.-3 p.m.), leading KGOW by more than a point. KILT also leads KGOW by more than a point in afternoon drive (3-7 p.m.) and ranks 13th among all stations. KILT ranked ninth in evenings, thanks, no doubt, to Rockets basketball, and also leads in the weeklong 6 a.m.-midnight numbers in men 25-54.

For a young startup radio station that many people didn't even expect to be around by mid-2009, that's some really impressive growth.

At a time when other local media organizations are shrinking or churning much content from other parts of the empire and cheap/free bloggers, it's nice to see an independent commercial media outfit focusing almost exclusively on the local scene and its loyal audience -- and flourishing. Good job, 1560 The Game!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/09 02:39 PM |

20 June 2009

$180,000 in "undeclared" cash seized at Bush Intercontinental

Someone tried to get a suitcase full of money past customs at IAH last week:

The Customs Border Protection (CBP) stopped an unidentified person traveling to Mexico after the X-ray machine images revealed great sums of money in the lining of his suitcase.

Since the beginning of this year, the CBP has seized more than $1.4 million at the George Bush International Airport, according to CBP representative Yolanda Choates.

[snip]

Since the traveler refused to sign the form, the currency is taken to the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeiture Division, where the U.S. District attorney can choose to hold the funds as evidence or deposit the money into a federal account.

The money is subsequently forfeited unless the traveler decides to file a petition to get the money back.

Choates could not say why this is happening so frequently in Houston [...]

A mystery!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/09 07:29 AM |

18 June 2009

Houston Airport System stonewalls Texas Watchdog on salary request

The folks at Texas Watchdog, who have recently run into resistance with City of Houston public information requests (as have the folks at KHOU-11 News), report that the Houston Airport System is playing the passenger safety card in refusing to release detailed salary information about its employees. The Texas Watchdog request comes on the heels of the mysterious departure of longtime airport system kingpin Richard Vacar, and the city's refusal to discuss the matter substantively with passive Chron scribes.

We're fans of transparent government, to be sure. But we're also sympathetic to the notion that publishing a list of salaries, names, and addresses of personnel responsible for keeping the airport secure may not be a smart security move. Surely there is some compromise that can be reached, though, because there are still lots of questions about the Vacar resignation/firing and how he was running the Houston Airport System. The public deserves some answers, regardless of whether Mayor White would rather be campaigning for the U.S. Senate.

BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/09 10:44 PM |

How does he REALLY feel about the city's efforts?

Here's a fun lede from the Chron's Bradley Olson:

Houston has moved heaven and earth to expand its recycling programs this year after a trade publication ranked it at the bottom of all major U.S. cities in 2008.

Heaven and earth!

No need for the editorialists to weigh in now. The "news" lede says it all!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/09 10:11 PM |

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