07 May 2009
King: City budget in deficit since 2004
Today's Chronicle ran an op-ed from Bill King, the businessman and former mayor of Kemah who reportedly considered running for mayor and city council in Houston but decided against it. While we are all familiar with the notion that the City of Houston's budget is technically "balanced," King points out some problems with the way city officials have constructed the current budget "balance":
The city’s 2009 budget projects that the city will have general fund revenues of $1.84 billion. These revenues are derived from property taxes, sales taxes, fees and fines and certain miscellaneous categories such as interfund transfers and the sale of capital assets. However, general expenses were originally budgeted at $1.93 billion, leaving a projected deficit of about $70 million. The budget called for this shortfall to be made up by borrowing $20 million and reducing the city’s general fund balance (the amount we have left over in the bank at the end of the year) by about $50 million. In other words, the budget was “balanced” by borrowing money and going into our savings.
However, since the budget was adopted projected revenues have been falling and are now estimated to be about $30 million to $40 million less than originally expected. The city has reduced budget expenses by about $10 million, leaving a projected general fund deficit of $90 million to $100 million.
In the January monthly report, the controller included a line entitled “Amount Needed to Balance the Budget” in the amount of $64 million. (See this document.) In the February report, after the controller had declared that the budget was balanced, this line was euphemistically renamed “Budgeted Decrease in Fund Balance.” (See this document.)
The fact that the city is running this kind of deficit may be surprising to many readers. But the city has actually run deficits, albeit much smaller ones, since 2004.
Hmm, hasn't someone who proposed to run the city like a business been mayor of Houston since 2004? And might that pol, who is busy running for his next office, be more than happy to leave this problem for his successor to solve a few years down the road? Those are just questions -- you tell us.
And be sure to read all of King's provocative op-ed, because it will be up to citizens to try to get the current crop of mayoral candidates to focus on substantive issues like this one, as opposed to pandering to whatever special interest is sponsoring them on any given evening.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport (and here).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/07/09 10:22 PM |
Chron editorial writer gets timely (for the Chron, anyway)
On Monday, we commented on the possibility that Houston voters might get a chance to modify term limits for municipal offices.
Today, one of the the Chron's two editorial writers* weighed in on the topic.
Sadly, that represents a pretty quick turnaround for the two editorial writers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/07/09 09:54 PM |
Originality is overrated (at least judging from the metro/state columns)
A reader emails the following links and a question, as follows:
Lisa Falkenberg: H-Town’s pride on the line
Rick Casey: State lawmaker: 'I'm a victim'
Is it too much to ask from the columnists at my paper that their reporting not be solely based on what they’ve read in other publications?
Frequently -- yes, that would seem to be too much to ask.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/07/09 02:08 PM |
Maybe topiary turtles would have been a better choice
Remember how METRO hoped sunglass-wearing elephants would make riders keep an eye out for terrorism?
Well, METRO's marketing department had another brainstorming session, and the end result is topiary bunnies to make riders think of the (not-so) Quickline bus service:
They are topiary bunnies designed to catch your eye and remind you of our new Quickline Signature bus service - the 402 Quickline Bellaire - we are launching June 1.
[snip]
Each bunny has its own sprinkler head built in it - and that sprinkler taps into our existing sprinkling system at the TMC Transit Center. The large ones weigh at least 200 pounds and are anchored into the ground.
JoAnne Lingenfelter, manager of marketing at METRO, came up with the idea of planting topiary bunnies to market our new Quickline service.
"It was something different, something kind of fun - and something most people wouldn't object to," said Lingenfelter.
[snip]
The 402 QL Bellaire will feature bus shelters with up-to-the-minute next bus arrival info, improved lighting and better benches. The buses will be hybrid diesel-electric and will sport high-end interiors.
The cost to ride? Just $1.25 - the same price as local buses.
Enjoy the bunnies....and get ready for our fast-as-bunnies Quickline service coming next month.
Well, maybe next month. METRO hasn't exactly been able to keep to the Bellaire Quickline timetable IT set more than a year ago:
Metro had been advertising the Aug. 25 launch — and painted large, circular logos into the pavement along the Bellaire Boulevard route.
There was no notification, though, of the delays
[snip]
Bellaire City Councilman Will Hickman was one Bellaire rider who tried to use the new service. Instead, Hickman complained at last week’s City Council meeting, he ended up on the old Bellaire No. 2 bus to the Medical Center.
It wasn’t the sleek, swift ride he had expected. Hickman complained that it took him more than an hour to get to work.
When he finally got to his office, Hickman said he checked Metro’s website. Sure enough, it said the Quickline service was scheduled to fly.
Metro updated its website Tuesday morning, announcing the new service was “coming soon.”
That's our METRO!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/07/09 04:54 AM |
05 May 2009
Some days, the healthy choice may not be going for a jog
A METRO police officer today shot and killed a man who, according to reports, acted in a threatening manner with a knife despite being Tased by officers several times. A woman pushing a stroller nearby was apparently grazed by one of those shots, but thankfully the injury was not life-threatening. All of this took place along the busy Rice University jogging trails near Main and University this morning.
Various accounts of the deadly incident are posted on KHOU-11, KPRC-2, KTRK-13, and the Chronicle.
Some of the story comments are just crazy, especially since so few details were immediately available (or maybe because so few details were immediately available).
BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls, Isiah Carey's Insite.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/05/09 10:21 PM |
Here's an easy one
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg asks, "Did we overreact to swine flu threat?"
Yes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/05/09 09:52 PM |
04 May 2009
State lege takes up municipal term limits
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles posts that Houston voters might soon get a chance to vote on revisions to the city's term limits:
The bill, authored by state reps. Garnet Coleman and Carol Alvarado, would call for an election, allowing voters to decide whether elected officials like the mayor, City Council members and controller would be able to stay in office longer.
Those officials now can only serve a maximum of three, two-year terms. Alvarado, for example, had to leave the City Council after six years, and Mayor Bill White is being forced from office this year. The bill, which still must pass the Texas Senate, would extend that to six, two-year terms or three, four-year terms.
Stiles reports that the Texas House passed the legislation today (131-8), and that it will move on to the Texas Senate.
Term limits have been a topic of discussion at recent blogHOUSTON gatherings, and we've grudgingly come around to the notion that we need to retain term limits in Houston, but extend the terms. What do you think?
BLOGVERSATION: Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/09 10:53 PM |
Houstonians still concerned about crime, despite talking points
The Chronicle's Bradley Olson ponders why Houston political candidates continue to talk about crime, even though Houston crime statistics have shown some improvement:
Crime has emerged as a top issue for Houston political candidates this year, with a host of City Council and mayoral aspirants placing their approach to public safety at the top of their list of promises to voters.
Actual crime, however, is going down in Houston, and markedly so.
In 2008, the number of major crimes committed per 100,000 residents in Houston was lower than any year since 1980, according to Houston Police Department data. In the first three months of this year, violent crimes have declined 8 percent compared to the same period last year.
In the words of a statistician, the decrease in criminality appears to have an inverse relationship, at least for now, with political rhetoric on crime, which has ramped up in recent months.
“It’s probably very difficult for any politician to acknowledge that the problem of crime is decreasing, because that undermines the importance of the issue,” said Dennis Longmire, a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University who has studied public attitudes toward crime.
There is probably some truth to that.
However, there are other possible contributing factors. A bumbling, Phoenix-oriented police chief has done little to inspire confidence. Plus we know from Mark Greenblatt's award-winning reporting that HPD under MayorWhiteChiefHurtt has miscategorized murder statistics, and then tried to smear the reporter who pointed it out. We also know that the White Administration has been fond of using certain (inflated?) population statistics in assessing the crime rate, but treats those same population statistics as completely unreliable when it comes to the pesky matter of City Council redistricting. This is the sort of game-playing by pols that causes normal citizens to trust their gut and what they see on the street (not to mention the fact that they see very few cops on the street, thanks to the ongoing manpower crisis) more than the talking points emanating from pols currently in office.
So far as that goes, MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's talking points do not seem to be resonating with voters, according to Olson:
Nearly three quarters of Houston-area residents interviewed in 2008 for Rice University’s annual Houston Area Survey said that they are “somewhat worried” or “very worried” they or a family member will become a victim of a crime.
That is higher than any year since the mid ‘90s....
Olson concludes with a nice quote from former mayor and HPD chief Lee P. Brown. Sadly, there is no update on the status of Lee Brown's book.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/09 10:24 PM |
Is Houston's storm planning inadequate?
There is way too much disjointed filler in this week's "Move It" column (which is more about infrastructure in general than transit), so we're going to play editor and cut it to what's really interesting and hyperlocal:
When we talked last week, infrastructure was in the news. Floods had left motorists stranded and even led to a drowning in a culvert under the new Katy Freeway. “For a long, long time, we’ve just shrugged our shoulders and said ‘It floods around here,’ ” [D. Wayne Klotz, Houstonian and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers] said. “But I’m just wondering if that’s good public policy.”
Klotz said it might be a good time to reconsider our local storm water capacity: “Our design criteria for drainage in Houston is the lowest of any major city on the Gulf Coast,” he said. Specifically, the city’s pipes are designed for a two-year storm event, one that has a 50 percent chance of happening at any given time. Other places plan for a five-year event, which brings much more water, Klotz said.
That is the sort of thing we'd like to hear being discussed, in detail, by all of the folks running for Mayor and Council this time around.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/09 09:35 PM |
03 May 2009
Reed: Questions about cost of rail expansion "remain largely unanswered"
The Examiner News' Michael Reed posts this update on the ongoing debate over the cost of METRO's planned light-rail expansion:
The Metro Transit Authority signed a contract last week with Parsons Transportation Group to build the next phase of four more light rail lines in Houston.
Still, questions about the cost of at least two of those lines, raised at the board meeting Feb. 19 by longtime Richmond rail foe Paul Magaziner, remain largely unanswered.
The contract, which was initially agreed to by the board last month, was valued at $1.46 billion with a portion of that Phase 2 funding going to the construction of North and Southeast corridors at amounts of $387 million and $441 million, respectively.
However, a March 23 letter of no prejudice from the Federal Transit Administration to Frank Wilson, Metro board president, said the current net project cost estimate for the North Corridor is more than double that amount — almost $896.8 million.
A similar letter from the FTA concerning the Southeast Corridor placed its net cost estimate at $911.2 million.
Adding to the confusion, each set of numbers was provided by Metro.
Confusion? How can this be, since Frank Procurement Disaster" Wilson assures us that METRO operates "in a completely transparent manner"?
PREVIOUSLY: KHOU's Desel exposes light-rail cost discrepancies; METRO refuses to comment.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Strategies.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/09 09:57 PM |
On shady deals (and shady dealmakers?)
Several days ago, Texas Monthly posted a web preview of a story that will appear in its June 2009 issue about State Rep. Allen Fletcher of Tomball and some of his shady business associates.
True to form, lazy Chronicle columnist Rick Casey has a column that recaps the Texas Monthly piece (but doesn't link to it) and "adds" snippets of his own interview with Rep. Fletcher. At least he didn't plagiarize, this time. Attribution isn't that hard, even if originality can be.
Blogger and blogHOUSTON commenter Rorschach has posted on the Fletcher business here and here. The latter post is particularly interesting.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/09 08:56 PM |
"Move It" returns to the Chronicle
After a brief hiatus following Hearst Corp's latest bloodletting, the Chronicle's "Move It" transit column returned this week.
Carolyn Feibel, who previously reported on City Hall, will now be manning the beat.
Her introductory column (on HPD's truck safety activities) is here, and concludes with an invitation to email her local transportation questions and/or complaints ([email protected]).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/03/09 08:02 PM |
Hey, never mind about that flu pandemic
Here's a headline on Chron.com:
Dire warnings were premature, experts suggest
When the World Health Organization raised its swine flu threat level last week to suggest the first pandemic in more than four decades was imminent, the group’s director warned that “all of humanity is under threat.”
Across the country, it’s looked like that. School closings will keep more than 300,000 Texas students at home this week. Stores have sold out of masks that experts don’t recommend. Sports events and concerts have been canceled. Headlines have warned that “Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery.”
By the week’s end, an increasing number of experts were questioning whether it was overreaction.
“I don’t see anything to justify this panic,” said Robert Krug, a flu researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. “From all the evidence, this doesn’t look like a particularly lethal virus. People need a little more perspective.”
Great. Thanks a lot, hysterical media. This news will surely disappoint one Chron editor who found the swine flu a source of happiness in her otherwise (apparently) dull life:
The swine flu panic has had an unintended consequence, but not an unexpected one. It has made people a little happy. Now I am not making light of death, especially a toddler's death, but really, we are all a little in love with anything that takes us out of our daily lives.
Normal people are not made "happy" by the swine flu, and normal people have daily lives that are fulfilling enough, thank you very much.
Meanwhile, if a student has the H1N1 virus strain, the federal government is forcing school districts to shut down affected schools for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! At the end of the school year. For the FLU!
Every year the CDC estimates 36,000 Americans die from the flu, but do schools shut down for two weeks every winter whenever a child gets sick? Of course not.
But it has given the media something new to cover wall-to-wall for a couple of weeks, and it brought some happiness to a Chron editor's life.
BLOGVERSATION: Trent Seibert.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/03/09 08:24 AM |
Channel 2 investigates parking at HPD headquarters
Back in 2005, Mayor White decided he wanted a parking authority, and his right hand voiced the reasons why it was needed:
"You really need an element, an entity, an authority that focuses strictly on parking, on enforcement, on the meters, making sure that they're all working, responsible for valet zones, cab zones, and enforcements of those ordinances," said Carol Alvarado, Houston Mayor Pro Tem.
Last week, KPRC-2 Local 2 Investigates publicized a weeks-long investigation of the parking situation around HPD headquarters. The result: HPD employees think rules are for other people:
Parking spaces were often scarce or non-existent for downtown visitors in a five-block area surrounding the 1200 Travis headquarters, as officers and other employees displayed "Official Police Business" or "Police On Duty" signs in their windshields.
"It's not fair," said Quentin Thompson, who struggled to find a space to have lunch in the area.
"It's an abuse of authority, I think," he said. He was forced to park in a more expensive $8 lot since not a single space was open on Clay Street, one block south of the headquarters high-rise.
Local 2 Investigates recorded license plates and vehicle positions over a three-week time frame, finding entire streets off limits for other public parking on some days. Each day, dozens of HPD employees' cars remained in the same spot without moving for the entire day.
"No comment, please don't do this," said one officer whose pickup truck was a daily fixture, as Local 2 Investigates approached with a camera to ask questions.
Other employees tried some far-fetched tricks to avoid answering questions after word began spreading that news cameras were nearby.
At least three employees walked more than a block out of their way. One officer had unlocked his car, but then rushed away from the camera. One Burglary and Theft Division officer even pretended his car was unfamiliar to him, as he tried to avoid questions about his daily parking routine. He walked a block out of his way, then zig-zagged to jump on a METRO Rail ride to avoid answering questions. He was spotted in his car days later, but he had found a new parking space.
Other employees slammed their doors and sped away without a word as they were questioned.
And what does the city have to say about it?
Mayor Bill White reacted, saying, "People ought to be obeying the policy of the department, period."
Which is...what, exactly? Well, after Channel 2 confronted HPD, a new memo was sent out explaining the department's parking policy for employees.
And where, pray tell, has the Houston Parking Authority been all this time? After all, these are metered spaces that could be pulling in revenue for the city:
On some blocks, each of the 17 to 19 spaces were occupied by police employee cars, but those spaces could be generating $1.25 per hour for the city, or even more if cars leave early and new cars arrive.
The Houston Parking Management Division provided records showing the parking meters that are tied up with police employee cars are pulling in a fraction of the revenue that other meters are collecting.
While some meters, which cover an entire side of a street, record 41 transactions or more each day, the meters near HPD headquarters only recorded eight or nine transactions during the entire day from a sample week in April.
Liliana Rambo, the city's parking management director, issued a written statement.
"We recognize that there needs to be an improvement of the management of the curb space in the area around Police Department Headquarters. We recognize that an alternative solution needs to be developed for the parking of vehicles driven by police personnel. We are working in collaboration with the police department in putting a plan in place to solve this issue."
She did not address a question e-mailed to her by Local 2 Investigates, inquiring about why her enforcement personnel seem to have stopped patrolling the areas heavily occupied by the police employee cars.
Has she been hanging out with Clarence Bradford?
Recall in the past Ms. Rambo tried to crack down on legitimate handicapped parking, for the purpose of creating "more turnover so that everybody has access to that particular parking space [...]" But when it comes to the metered spaces around HPD, she hasn't been so interested.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/03/09 07:08 AM |
29 April 2009
HPOU president to mayor: Amend or scrap the sanctuary directive
In the latest edition of Badge & Gun, the publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union, president Gary Blankinship serves up this rather pointed memo to Mayor White*:
To be sure, Mr. Mayor, the Houston Police Officers Union joins you in urging Washington to live up to its clear responsibilities; but today we also are calling on you, along with Gov. Rick Perry and other state and local leaders, to finally recognize state and local governments also have a vitally important and necessary role to play in addressing illegal immigration.
It's time for you to do your job as well.
For starters, you should amend or scrap the 17-year-old Houston Police Department policy (General Order No. 500-5), which firmly states that "officers shall not inquire as to the citizenship status of any person, nor will officers detain or arrest any persons solely on the belief that they are in this country illegally."
It is outrageous to learn that, as recently as November of last year, you were fully aware that thousands of illegal immigrants eligible for deportation - all convicted felons like Joel Alfaro - were slipping through Houston's jails undetected by federal immigration officials.
You rightly noted the city of Houston "can't deport people;" but isn't that particularly true if the city policy you have repeatedly defended intentionally discourages our officers from reporting them?
We welcome your new support for the 287(g) program that lets HPD train and coordinate with federal immigration officials - and other new pledges of enhanced resources and cooperation - but you can do more. We also hope you will act immediately to change Houston's status as a so-called "sanctuary city...."
Mayor White does NOT like the use of the term "sanctuary city," Mr. Blankinship! Nor does he like to talk about General Order No. 500-5.
Nonetheless, there is no reason that our elected leaders (and the public) shouldn't have a frank discussion about this directive that came from an unelected police chief 17 years ago, something we've been arguing for several years now.
BLOGVERSATION: Hair Balls.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/29/09 10:12 PM |
28 April 2009
Chron publisher spins (and spins and spins) latest circulation decline
As anticipated in the addendum to yesterday's post on the Chronicle's sagging circulation numbers, the newspaper featured publisher Jack Sweeney's spin on the severe decline today:
“We’re concentrating our sales and marketing efforts on our core market, the ZIP codes where our advertisers need it,” he said.
Sweeney said home delivery accounts are up nearly 5 percent Sunday and more than 21 percent on key weekdays in those 75 ZIP codes.
While the Chronicle has fewer seven-day customers, “five-day, three-day and Sunday-only delivery programs have helped fuel that growth,” Sweeney said.
In the core Houston market, Sunday home delivery has continued to grow — a more than 1,000-paper gain in this reporting period. In the core market, daily readership is up 3 percent, Sunday is up 9 percent and seven-day readership is up 4 percent, Sweeney said.
“And when you add chron.com, our reach is nearly 2.4 million adults each week, or 55 percent of the market,” he said.
Combined print and online audience is up 5 percent over the last year, based on data from the Scarborough Audience Ratings Report. Chron.com exceeded 91 million page views in March, up 14 percent over last year.
“Strong journalism keeps consumers of Chronicle content engaged on multiple platforms: print, online, mobile or all three,” Sweeney said. “That’s the way information is consumed these days, and our metrics are large and growing in all modern measurement areas.”
At times like this, saying less is probably better. But the Chron's senior management seems to be in denial. Who knows, maybe the numbers will pick up next time, now that the big blogHOUSTON blogroll exorcism is complete! At least they didn't put a reporter's name on that "story."
The newspaper's so-called reader representative posted this earlier:
The Houston Chronicle's circulation declined 13.2 percent daily and 7.8 percent on Sundays, according to the latest circulation figures. Here's the story.
Also, here are the top 25 newspapers by daily circulation. The Chronicle remained the seventh-largest metropolitan newspaper in the country. Check it out.
He links to the Chron PR release posing as a news story for the 13.2 percent number. Then he links to the Editor & Publisher story, which actually cites a decline of 13.96%.
Isn't that just par for the course?
UPDATE (04-29-09): In a rare update to the About:Chron blog, Jim Newkirk explains the discrepancy:
Update: Several readers pointed out by e-mail a discrepancy between the Chronicle daily circulation figures reported in the Chronicle and the figures reported in the Editor & Publisher online story. The Chronicle story reflects a Monday through Saturday average for daily circulation and our story should have made that clear. The story by E&P reported a Monday through Friday daily average for the Chronicle. Gene Haddock, Chronicle vice president for circulation, told me the Audit Bureau of Circulations considers Monday through Friday as well as Monday through Saturday valid reporting metrics for daily circulation figures.
Story? Just call it a press release.
BLGOVERSATION: Unca Darrell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/09 11:09 PM |
We can be such a pain
Journalists love online public databases, which allow them to look into all sorts of relationships (status with the comptroller of public accounts, political donations, property tax assessments, etc).
Of course, there's nothing to stop non-journalists from checking out those same databases, and sometimes it can be interesting to throw names into those sorts of databases and see what pops up.
So, that's a little background to set up my finally getting a chance to read last week's Houston Press story* on alleged sudden-acceleration problems with the Toyota Prius**.
The story leads with complaints about the car from one Bobette Riner, who apparently has an arbitration case pending over the car. That name seemed familiar, and sure enough it popped up in a few past Houston Press pieces. Plugging it into a few more searches turned up a shared address with Richard Connelly. The longtime Houston Press staffer.
No relationship was mentioned in the story, which seemed liked a glaring omission, so I emailed the author of the story. A comical series of emails followed, which the Houston Press Hair Balls blog rushed to document here yesterday. PLEASE go read Rich Connelly's fine account and come back. We'll wait.
I didn't take offense at the Press editor's email*** (really mild, to be honest), but was still a little confused at the notion that the relationship "probably" should have been disclosed. This is hardly a great scandal (or even a minor one really), but it should have been disclosed, if only to keep people who can be "a pain" from nagging about why a consumer advocacy report wouldn't disclose such a relationship. The publication's onetime media critic concedes as much in the comments at that entertaining post at Hair Balls:
I can only address the last question. My wife had the unintended-acceleration problem and found other people on the web who said they had also experienced it.
I brought up the idea at one of our weekly story meetings, saying it might be worth it for someone to look into.
I then had nothing to do with the story until I read it after the issue hit the streets. And I assumed the connection would have been in it, and it should have been, and from what I can tell it would have been if anyone had thought of it.
Right. It's surprising professional journalists overlooked making that connection in a story that ran across so many Village Voice corporate "alt" weeklies, but mistakes happen. We will now move on to being a pain (but less of a pain than this commenter!) on other topics.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/28/09 11:06 PM |
27 April 2009
Texas Watchdog posts White/Finger correspondence
Those public-information-request junkies over at Texas Watchdog finally got Mayor White to turn over email correspondence with developer Marvy Finger today (how the Chronicle got those documents first, yet cited Texas Watchdog's request, remains a mystery, but as news consumers we like the results of competition!).
We were amused by this warning from our mayor, cited in the Texas Watchdog story:
“I do believe the success of this project is important for the continuing renewal of downtown Houston,” White wrote Jan. 14.
Discovery Green’s part in that renewal is apparent in a Oct. 25, 2007, e-mail in which White outlines the course the city should take against vagrants sleeping or panhandling in the park.
“I don’t want to over-dramatize, but this has been a flash point in other cities, and if we are not clear and on top of this issue from the very beginning we could put at risk the manner in which Discovery Green is perceived,” White wrote. “No citizen, whatever their background ‘owns a bench’ or a chair.”
Now, if you want to write a check to put a nametag on the bench or chair, that might be a different story!
Some 99 pages of correspondence obtained by Texas Watchdog through this request have been posted to their website, and they are asking for help from the crowd in picking through the documents to see if anything interesting pops up. So if you have a little spare time and like that sort of thing, by all means go help 'em out!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/09 10:34 PM |
More misadventures at BARC (or, Does Mayor White hate puppies, cont'd?)
Over at the Houston Press, Craig Malisow continues to keep tabs on the misadventures at BARC, the city's problematic animal control organization. According to the report, BARC failed to have a vet on duty again this weekend, due to some sort of mixup. Then, the city couldn't seem to get its story straight:
[W]hile important folks like HHS Assistant Director Michael Terraso speak openly and freely with some volunteers, he's never spoken directly with Hair Balls. So this morning, Terraso e-mailed a volunteer about the weekend mix-up, stating "The unfortunate circumstance of this last weekend was the result of relief vets not showing up as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday and not calling to let the management know. "
Which is perfectly in keeping with what [Kathy] Barton told us. But at 2:56 pm today, he e-mailed that volunteer again to say, "I apologize, but I was in error in the email I sent earlier. I have been told that a vet was not scheduled for last Saturday. I am investigating as to why one was not scheduled."
So, for publication, Health and Human Services tells us one thing. And then, in a private e-mail, the assistant director says the complete opposite.
That doesn't sound like Mayor White's story of transparency. Maybe he should have a task force look into these ongoing problems. Err, never mind.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/09 10:06 PM |
Not good news if you work at the Chronicle
It shouldn't come as any surprise that newspapers keep going down that spiral. Following a link from Drudge Report you find this story about the top 25 newspaper circulation numbers.
The Houston Chronicle was down almost 14% of daily circulation to 425,138. Sunday fell 7.8% to 583,364 copies.
This number reflects circulation numbers during a six-month period ending March 31, 2009.
Ouch! For the top 25 list go here.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: And yet, some member of Chron management decided that a laughable exorcism of blogHOUSTON from all Chron.com blogrolls should be a priority for the newspaper (and not, say, the precipitous decline in customers).
I feel bad for the poor Chron journalist who has the duty of getting Jack Sweeney's spin on this latest decline. Maybe they will just label it as "Houston Chronicle News Services." Or more honestly, just run a straight press release.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Jason @ 04/27/09 11:13 AM |
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