01 May 2007
While we're engaging in utopian fantasies...
The Chronicle's Jennifer Friedberg writes that some Houstonians continue to believe in METRO as an economic development organization (as opposed to a regional transit/mobility organization):
Residents who attended the Southeast Corridor workshop on Wednesday night said they are hopeful that Metro rail will bring redevelopment to their forgotten neighborhood.
[snip]
Robert Thomas, a University Oaks resident who is also the executive director of the non-profit Center for Social and Economic Empowerment, which focuses on the Third Ward, said while the rail will not directly go through his neighborhood it will go near it, and he is hoping it will bring redevelopment.
"We need upgraded residential dwellings in our neighborhood, elimination of the blight and commercial development and overall beautification," he said. "It's been an ignored area."
Thomas said he would like to see dilapidated homes torn down and rebuilt, and businesses such as grocery stores, drug stores and restaurants come to the area.
Lori Davis, a Southview resident who is also the program director for the Center for Social and Economic Empowerment, said she would like to see more mixed use residential and commercial development in her neighborhood.
"I'm hoping as a result of the rail coming through it will foster redevelopment of the community," she said. "You've got to have something to support the rail."
I'm hoping that as a result of ill-conceived light rail being laid down busy streets, crime that has skyrocketed under the White Administration will start to decline.
Why not, so long as we're dreaming about things that really have no connection to light rail.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/01/07 11:06 PM |
30 April 2007
ABC: Chron circulation down again
The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released its latest figures, and once again the news is not very good for the local Hearst daily (or very many other newspapers):
Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
As always, we'll be looking forward to seeing Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney's spin in the Chron press-release-posing-as-news article that should follow shortly.
UPDATE (05-02-2007): And here's Sweeney's spin:
The Houston Chronicle's daily circulation dipped 2 percent and Sunday circulation declined 2.2 percent, but the Chronicle remained the seventh-largest daily metropolitan newspaper and is eighth-largest on Sunday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.
The Chronicle's daily circulation is 503,114, and Sunday circulation is 677,425.
Nationally, weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period. Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group.
Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said most of the decline in Houston was in "other paid circulation," which includes third-party sales sponsored by advertisers, hotels and educational programs.
"We needed to shift the bulk of our resources to the all-important home-delivery area, and we had our second straight gain on Sunday," Sweeney said. "There's still plenty of demand for a compelling local newspaper delivered to your door every day."
No author is listed on the reporting. Presumably, no decent reporter wanted to be associated with what amounts to a press release posing as news.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/07 10:51 AM |
Changes at KILT-610
The Chronicle's David Barron has been keeping track of John Granato's ongoing legal dispute with KILT-610, and tonight reports on his blog that Granato and the station have reached an agreement that ends Granato's employment at the radio station.
Barron reports that afternoon host Marc Vandermeer will team with Granato's longtime morning partner Lance Zierlein on KILT Monday.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/07 12:01 AM |
29 April 2007
Ch-ch-ch-changes at Clear Channel
Kristen Mack, the Chronicle's one-woman Michael Berry Bureau, writes about the councilmember-talk host-radio programmer's newest job:
City councilman and talk show host Michael Berry, who has filled in as mayor pro tem for the past year, is adding another title before his name: operations manager for Clear Channel's three Houston AM radio stations.
Berry started calling the shots at news radio KTRH-AM (740), news talk KPRC-AM (950) and sports talk KBME-AM (790) on Friday.
Berry, who has hosted a morning talk show on KPRC for nearly 18 months, has little background in radio. Eddie Martiny, vice president and market manager for Clear Channel Houston, said hiring Berry was a departure from the norm.
"As far as industry standards go, the move I made is about as unconventional as it gets," Martiny said. "Michael is less of an expert and more of a leader, who can understand what it's like to embrace change and evangelize change. We can teach him radio fundamentals."
Berry characterized his role as more strategic than detail-oriented.
"It will entail positioning us in the market, considering new programs, contemplating how to expand our product so the user can use it in more ways."
Berry will continue his morning talk show and will serve out the remainder of his final two-year term on City Council. Berry, who has served as an at-large city councilman since 2002, will step down from City Hall at the end of the year.
"I'm near the completion of my term. If I was in the middle of it, I wouldn't have taken it and they wouldn't have asked me," Berry said, adding that he planned to set politics aside for the foreseeable future.
[snip]
KTRH's news director Bryan Erickson was promoted to program director this week. Berry replaced Ken Charles, who left Houston to take a similar position with two Clear Channel stations in Miami.
Here are a few thoughts (for further discussion in the comments):
1) The Clear Channel email announcing this move spoke of change and new directions, and this story speaks of change also. That sounds great! But what does it mean? Will details follow at some point?
2) The operations manager job sounds like a full-time gig, in addition to the show-hosting duties. Serving as councilmember and mayor pro-tem is also a full-time job. I didn't like Doctor-Councilwoman pretending to be an engaged councilmember during her full-time write-in campaign for Congress, and (likewise) I don't like the pretense here that there's enough time in the day to learn the radio business, run a talk show, and serve the public as a councilmember.
3) Eddie Martiny's splitting the power formerly held by Ken Charles (before he was deposed) across two positions, and naming two people who are not regarded as talk-radio programming gurus to those positions, is interesting, in a Machiavellian-corporate sense. The pattern of regime change in corporate America has become utterly predictable.
4) What are the ratings of Berry's show? Isn't that somewhat relevant to the story of his emergence as a talk-radio ops guy?
Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments.
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff, Radio-Info, Pat Gray.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/07 11:52 PM |
One Casey replacement adopts his art of the smear
Last weekend when I was in New York, the Chronicle ran a revealing column by new metro writer Lisa Gray. Here's an excerpt:
Just before 12:30 p.m. almost every Tuesday, Judge James Squier leaves his 312th Court and heads upstairs to the seventh floor of the Harris County Family Law Center.
There, in an associate judge's chamber, he joins 15 or 20 other courthouse Christians — lawyers, bailiffs and clerks — for Bible study. The group spent about two years combing through the book of Matthew, and another two on Acts. Right now, they're about a year into John.
"Isn't that a problem?" I asked Squier recently. He knew I wasn't talking about the study group's less-than-blistering pace. I meant the very existence of courthouse Bible study. To me, Bible study sounds like "church," and the Harris County courthouse sounds like "state." Aren't church and state supposed to stay separate?
The family-law judge, who has a reputation for fairness, is a funny, folksy guy, and he sounded almost amused by the question. "Is there a problem with people praying and practicing their faith, reading the Bible, on their lunch hour?" he said. "I don't think what people do on their lunch hour has to be government-sanctioned."
The judge knows his law. I checked Squier's interpretation with Martin Cominsky, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, and with Gerald Treece, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law. They both said that Squier is right: It's perfectly legal to convene a Bible study in the courthouse as long as no one feels forced to attend and it's not presented as an official government activity. According to the nation's highest courts, the law doesn't prevent religious gatherings in public spaces such as courthouses, libraries and schools.
But just because something is legal doesn't mean that it's good.
The First Amendment, some might recall, forbids Congress from establishing a religion. The constitutional intent was to head off sectarian religious battles (of the sort that had proven so divisive in the old world) by explicitly denying the national government the power to establish a national religion. The intent of the framers of the Constitution was reflected pretty well in the words they carefully chose. That various government institutions required a Bible oath or entertained an opening prayer or made reference to "God" was not, in the early days of the Republic, thought to raise any Establishment concerns.
Now, to anyone who's thought very much at all about American constitutionalism, Judge Squier's lunchtime Bible study doesn't really raise any substantive constitutional Establishment concerns, as Ms. Gray's two legal sources confirmed.
Nonetheless, Judge Squier's lunchtime study habits make Ms. Gray squeamish. And so she concludes her column with a suggestion, with no evidence at all, that attendance at the judge's Tuesday study group might somehow... improperly... influence... something.
It's unfortunate that one of Rick Casey's two replacements has, so early in her tenure, seemingly mastered one of the plagiarist's favorite rhetorical devices: the smear.
See Greg's Opinion and Houston Consigliere for additional criticism of this column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/07 11:07 PM |
28 April 2007
City has admitted murderers on its payroll
KHOU-11 had a couple of stunning stories last week, reporting on the City of Houston's employment of ex-convicts. First, Jeff McShan's story uncovered that admitted murderers are not only not in prison, they are employed by the city:
Take for example Jermaine Keith Broussard. In 1993, he admitted to killing a man and was charged with capital murder, but pled out to aggravated robbery.
He works for the city's parks and recreation department and was ironically arrested two weeks ago at this park for an alcohol violation.
He is still on the job.
Then there is Tremayn Givens. Recently he was picked up by HPD and charged with possession of crack. He was wearing a city of Houston maintenance uniform.
He told police he was convicted of assault and murder back in 1999 and like Broussard was on parole.
Both criminal records were confirmed by 11 News.
But not to worry! The city says it is very careful about where the ex-convicts are placed.
Then, Jason Whitely followed up with this added information:
11News discovered the City of Houston regularly goes to job fairs at local prisons, including the Lynchner Unit in Humble and the Darrington Unit in Brazoria County.
They advertising [sic] low-level opportunities within city government like street repair, ditch and storm sewer maintenance.
Or the Parks Department, as in the case of an admitted murderer.
Problem is, the city doesn't keep track of how many ex-cons it employs or where they work.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/07 06:40 PM |
Museum of Natural Science to host Terra Cotta Warriors in 2009
Houston will be one of only three stops in the nation for a future exhibition featuring the famous Terra Cotta Warriors from Xi'an, China.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science will host the exhibition from May 18 to Sept. 25, 2009.
Among the items on display will be 20 life-sized terra cotta figures and two recently discovered, half-sized bronze chariots and life-sized bronze animals found inside the tomb complex of China's first emperor, Quin Shi Huan, who lived from 259 B.C. to 210 B.C.
The History Channel recently aired a show -- Engineering an Empire: China, I think -- that detailed some of the amazing things found in that tomb. This should be a fascinating exhibit, and is quite a nice catch for the Museum of Natural Science.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/07 05:35 PM |
27 April 2007
The return of Froot Loops!
We've been missing the Chron.com Froot Loop Bureau of late, so it was amusing to see this dispatch today:
A tanker truck exploded on the Interstate 10 exchange near downtown around midnight, according to reports this morning from KTRK (Channel 13) and KHOU (Channel 11).
Authorities gave reporters this account: A tanker carrying diesel fuel was traveling from the U.S. 59 South ramp to Interstate 10 eastbound when the driver lost control. The crash sparked an explosion, which shook homes nearby.
Just in case you missed that news on the television this morning, the Froot Loop Bureau has you covered!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/07 07:35 AM |
26 April 2007
From Councilmember to radio programmer?
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles posts the news that Michael Berry will be the new top dog for Clear Channel's AM stations in Houston. Radio-Info also has the news.
So, the lame-duck councilmember is effectively the new Ken Charles. That's certainly... different.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how Berry's morning show is doing in the ratings, compared to the Pat Gray show it replaced and the Pat Gray/Edd Hendee show it currently competes against?
One assumes the promotion means it's doing really well, but gossip on the street suggests that may not be true. If you've seen recent ratings, feel free to drop a comment or an email.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/26/07 11:18 PM |
The $36,000 City Hall reception desk
Back in December of 2005, we noted a city council agenda item:
10. Ordinance 2005-1357
ORDINANCE appropriating $36,893.27 out of General Improvement Consolidated Construction Fund for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department,
CIP D-0113a. Motion 2005-1206
FOUR SEASONS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, INC for Construction of a Reception Desk at City Hall for Building Services Department - $35,136.45 and contingencies for a total amount not to exceed $36,893.27
Now Isiah Carey has pictures of the desk and some additional information:
THE MAYOR'S OFFICE TELLS US HALF THE COST WAS PICKED UP BY THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION - A PRIVATE GROUP. HOWEVER, SOME SAY 18-THOUSAND DOLLARS IS STILL TOO MUCH FOR THE CITY TO SPEND ON A LOBBY DESK. THE MAYOR'S OFFICE SAYS THE DESK IS NOT JUST FOR AESTHETICS BUT PART OF THE BUILDING'S SECURITY SYSTEM. BUT THE 36-THOUSAND DOESN'T INCLUDE THE COST OF THE SECURITY SYSTEM.
Security system not included! No wonder the mayor is pursuing a non-profit revenue stream -- these are important things that need to be funded.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/26/07 05:35 AM |
25 April 2007
Connelly ponders Chron.commons blogs
In his latest Hairballs column for the Houston Press, Rich Connelly considers some tasteless reader blogs on the Chron.com website.
He asked Chron online guru Dwight Silverman about a couple of them, and got this response:
Blog chief Dwight Silverman says he's fine with what Reyes posted because it was intended to spark a discussion about comics dealing with tragedy, and because commenters took Reyes to task for it.
“You just can't take one comment out of one particular blog entry and say, ‘Okay, that's a bad thing'; you have to look across the whole landscape of it,” he says.
He says the bloggers have to adhere to the Chron's “terms of service,” but he couldn't recall whether those terms included anything about taste.
We pointed Silverman to another reader blog on the Chron page, one which ranked local murderers as potential “Sexiest & Hardest Ghetto Black Male felon.” One candidate got extra points because his victim was a Bellaire teen, whose smiling photo was posted.
That blog then got taken down.
Now, if the blogger had somehow ranked candidates using the “Hokey Pokey,” he might have been golden.
We've long wondered what exactly the proliferation of reader blogs contributes to the newspaper's core mission (not to mention the judgment of Silverman and others as to what blogs will be granted "featured" Chron.commons status). More recently, we've wondered about the point of certain staff blogs.
But it's entirely possible we don't understand "the whole landscape of it" as well as some of the Chron illuminati. What do readers think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 09:51 PM |
Final weekend approaches for iFest 2007
Many of you probably have already read John Nova Lomax's Houston Press column on the 2007 International Festival, which got underway last weekend (I was out of town).
Houston's best festival, some will recall, nearly died a few years ago, when shortsighted political leaders allowed it to move to the parking lots of Reliant (and the city's parks director at the time seemed to welcome the move, stating idiotically that it is very hard on the city's parks for people actually to use them -- heaven forbid!).
Now, it's back downtown, and no longer on life support. Even better, the indomitable Rick Mitchell is heading up the music end of things. Lomax has more on that excellent news:
This year's model finds the festival in finer fettle than at anytime since the fiasco of '04. As in the glory days, there will be four music stages, as opposed to the measly three of years recently past. Rick Mitchell, the former Chronicle music critic and the owner of one of the more finely tuned sets of ears in town, returns in his role as music curator. (He also did the Ireland-themed fest in '01, '02's French version and Mexico in '03, but has only served in a part-time role once since then.)
Back in those palmy pre-exile days, Mitchell was dispatched to the honored nations to scout for talent, but in the case of this year's honoree — China — he didn't get that chance. “The regional Chinese governments we dealt with this year decided to send us acrobats,” Mitchell says. “With Jamaica, they didn't choose to send acrobats, they sent music. Thank goodness! For China, that's what they are really known for culturally in international circles — martial arts like the Shaolin Kung Fu Spectacular and amazing acrobats like the Shenzhen Acrobatic Circus, so that's what made sense to put onstage.” (Not to mention the fact that the Wu-Tang Clan was too expensive.)
“And this was also the case with India,” Mitchell continues, “but it didn't make much sense that year to put a sitar-based Indian raga out in the middle of a big outdoor music festival. That music takes an hour to build and requires a different type of venue.”
Another of this year's new developments is the late closing time. Look out, Vegas, Bourbon Street, all you other round-the-clock gilded palaces of sin — here comes Git-Down H-Town! For the first time ever, iFest will be running until 10 p.m. on the two Saturday nights of its run.
“This was one of those things we'd talked about every year, but changing the closing time affects not only the people running the stages but also all of the vendors, food vendors and arts and crafts people, too,” Mitchell says. “We'd talked about closing all but one of the zones and trying to drive people over there, but ultimately that seemed like it wasn't going to work. So basically we had to go to all the vendors and say, ‘Look, this is what we're gonna do this year.'”
The festival has always been a fairly PG-rated affair. Mitchell implies that the last couple of hours of each Saturday night this year just might kick that up a notch to PG-13. “The festival takes pride in being a family-oriented event. We want families to be comfortable, we don't want a bunch of drunken people staggering around,” he says. “But if we stay open from eight to ten, hopefully by that time a lot of the families will have gone home, then maybe we can sell some more beer those last two hours and do what every other festival does. And obviously, the acts that we booked on the Saturday nights, particularly George Clinton, show that we had that in mind. We'll still be who we are during the daytime.”
Mitchell has always had a finely honed sense of the “who we are” part, at least in terms of our musical identity. “I've always felt that the Houston International Festival should reflect Gulf Coast Texas music in the same way that JazzFest reflects Gulf Coast Louisiana music,” he says. “Now we can't do the $100,000 headliners like they do in New Orleans, because we don't have a racetrack. Or $100,000. I do think that part of the mission is to bring international music to Houston, but the other half of it is to showcase Houston to the international community.”
The return of Mitchell on the music side of things is the best news for the Festival in ages (or at least since people had the good sense to figure out it belongs downtown). The later hours are another good development, meaning that the Festival is growing up -- and maybe, just maybe, the city of Houston is also.
I'm looking forward to catching the International Festival this weekend, especially the Lucinda Williams show (her last appearance at the Festival was excellent).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 09:14 PM |
The Editorial LiveJournalists: "Late, emotional, and wrong"
Over at the Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti writes that an editorial today "nails the Chron trifecta: Late, emotional and wrong."
That's a great motto for the Editorial LiveJournalists, actually!
Bramanti's full critique of the editorial may be found here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 12:01 PM |
It depends on the meaning of "enamored"
Yesterday, KTRK-13's Miya Shay posted that the shooter who sent the Chronicle's Ken Hoffman numerous letters over the years (some of which were published in his columns) was "enamoured [sic]" with the columnist.
On KPRC-950's Michael Berry show today, Hoffman disputed the "enamored" characterization. The podcast is available for download here. KPRC's odd couple discuss the shooting and more this week.
BACKGROUND: Apartment resident kills manager, self (Rosanna Ruiz, Mike Glenn, and Robert Crowe, Houston Chronicle).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/07 11:09 AM |
24 April 2007
Chron lauds Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" shakedown
Mrs. White (aka The Editorial LiveJournalists) praises her man's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" shakedown today:
The city of Houston has achieved its goal of ending a nebulous 99-year lease at $1 per year in exchange for services provided to this population. It replaces the lease with a contract that allows the city to account for the value of the land on its books.
Houston residents benefit by the continued availability of residential and other programs for this group of citizens in a central location. Those benefits had been jeopardized by rising property values in the area and the city's decision not to honor the center's 99-year lease. Redevelopment of this valuable property for residential or commercial use would have been a short-term gain rather than a long-term investment in human services.
Under the agreement, which City Council must approve, the center has three years to raise the funds or secure financing privately or with the city at 5 percent annual interest. This is the kind of compromise that reflects well on Mayor Bill White and the center's negotiators, who are to be commended for reaching this accommodation.
Nothing about this episode reflects well on Mayor White and his legal/financial shakedown team.
Let us recall that previous Houston mayors and their legal departments did not regard the city's moral and contractual agreement with the Center as "nebulous." It never even crossed anyone's mind until, for whatever reason, Mayor White and his legal/financial shakedown team decided they wanted money (or else they would boot the center and sell the land).
It's good that agreement was reached, thereby eliminating the potential disruption in the lives of the mentally retarded people housed by the center. The center provides a structured environment that allows its residents to live happily. Many people do not understand just how disruptive (and unhealthy) a forced move would have been for these residents -- which is why it's unconscionable that the city's political leaders and Mayor White's legal/financial shakedown team ever threatened the center. That doesn't reflect well on Mayor White, however the Editorial LiveJournalists and his other apologists try to spin it.
Kudos to advocates for the center for defending a segment of our society unable to defend itself (from out-of-control government of all things). The center surely could have put the $6 million involved in Mayor White's shakedown to better use helping the mentally retarded, but at least the payoff averts the danger of eviction by City Hall. That's about the best spin we can put on this sorry episode (then again, we're not planning a run for statewide office and don't really care who is or might be).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/24/07 08:54 AM |
23 April 2007
Maybe they have community pride in Phoenix?
In an interview with KTRH-740's Chris Baker this afternoon, police chief Harold Hurtt stressed the importance of "community pride" in policing.
That seemed very strange coming from the transient police chief who spends so many weekends back home in Phoenix.
The Baker/Hurtt interview is available here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/23/07 09:52 PM |
City's human resources director leaving after three months
In January, the mayor announced a new human resources director for the city of Houston:
January 17, 2007 --Mayor Bill White today announced the nomination of Norma F. Dunn, an energy company senior executive and former executive director of the M.D. Anderson Center for Cancer Economics, as Human Resources Director for the City of Houston.
Today, the mayor announced she's leaving:
April 23, 2007 -- Norma F. Dunn, Director of Human Resources, will be leaving the City effective Monday, April 23, 2007, to return to the private sector. She will be joining a company in the Houston area and an announcement regarding her position is expected from that firm within the next several weeks.
Candy Aldridge, Assistant Director - Human Resources, will be Acting Director. The City will conduct a national search to fill the Director position, said Mayor Bill White, who thanked Dunn and wished her well in her new position.
As an aside, last month Matt Stiles noted on the City Hall blog details of Norma Dunn's severance package when she left a previous job in the private sector.
BLOGVERSATION: Chron's City Hall blog
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/23/07 07:21 PM |
Will Houston's wi-fi be "sniffer"-proof?
Thanks to Tom Bazan for the heads up on this Los Angeles Times story that details a problem with public wi-fi -- a lack of privacy:
Public Wi-Fi is very handy for perusing the Internet away from the office or home. Just remember that you may have company while surfing.
[snip]
On home Wi-Fi setups, password protection can be implemented on the modem, which offers a lot of security — although some hackers say they can break through the most basic protection regimen, known as WEP.
Public Wi-Fi setups, whether paid or free, don't have the luxury of using passwords. That would defeat the purpose of allowing a great many people to use them.
T-Mobile, which charges about $10 a day for HotSpot use, is working to get more people to use them. Last month, the company finished installing a system at Los Angeles International Airport that covers 3.8 million square feet of space, making it one of the largest Wi-Fi deployments in the world.
Also, free Wi-Fi hot spots are being added to more outdoor areas by cities. Fullerton and Long Beach already have them, and there are plans to install a system at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.
So, enjoy the freedom of Wi-Fi. But maybe you shouldn't surf to sites you wouldn't want people to know you're visiting.
"If you watch where people go, one site after another," Cheung said, "it's almost like you can read their minds."
So be careful when surfing the web while lounging at Discovery Green!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/23/07 05:43 AM |
22 April 2007
A two reporter, four contributor Chron story
How loud is the Houston Grand Prix? It took six Chronicle folks to get to the bottom of that question.
Yes, it's local and hooray for that, but come on! Six people to tackle the story?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/22/07 06:51 PM |
Mayor White clears way for Alvarado to regain Mayor Pro Tem title
Last week on the Chron's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles noted a change that's coming to the Mayor Pro Tem office; specifically, administrative duties will now be handled by the city's finance department, as opposed to Mayor Pro Tem staffers. This change comes about as a result of (still temporarily not Mayor Pro Tem) Carol Alvarado's lax oversight of the office while she was in charge:
The idea is to improve oversight by having career finance officials, rather than political appointees, handle the paperwork, payroll and other duties handled by the office. Here's White's take from an interview today:
There is a strong argument and sentiment by council members that there ought to be both responsibility and accountability in a regular city department for the administrative functions in the office.... I don't think any council member welcomes or wants that responsibility.
The plan has the backing of "temporary" Mayor Pro Tem and At-Large 5 Councilman Michael Berry, who outlined the proposed changes in a memo to White [PDF]. He has been running the operation, with the help of an experienced aide from his office, since March.
That's when former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who supervised the four accused employees, stepped down "temporarily" amid an investigation. Prosecutors have cleared her of wrongdoing on the bonuses, but a broader probe into other city officials and procedures continues.
The council sets annual budget totals for each of the 14 offices, and the Office of Mayor Pro Tem has allowed council members some freedom in spending that money under Houston's strong-mayor system.
Not everyone thinks the change is a good idea, however:
Former at-large Councilwoman Gracie Saenz, a lawyer who served as pro tem during the Bob Lanier administration, said:
It is a very strong mayoral form of government. Heaven forbid that anybody gets crossways with the mayor, and that this could be used against a council member. I'm sure that would never happen, but it needs to be discussed.
And former Councilman Gordon Quan, who served as pro tem during the Lee Brown administration, said the change might not be disruptive. But he said it would strip the council members' autonomy in monitoring their offices:
I don't know whether one bad episode means we have to change the whole system.
Well, yes, one bad episode DOES mean drastic changes must occur. That's how Mayor White operates, and managerially-challenged Councilwoman Carol Alvarado agrees:
Alvarado, who knows firsthand the difficulties of maintaining a council office while also overseeing her colleagues' operations, said the mayor's change is "the right thing to do."
Which means she could soon be Mayor Pro Tem again, without having any of that pesky management oversight nonsense to bog her down.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/22/07 09:47 AM |
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