24 February 2009
New CoH "product": Pay bills of bad credit risks to help secure home loans! (updated)
The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel alerts us this morning to an interesting item on the City Council agenda.
We'll turn to the item first, then Feibel's reporting:
21. ORDINANCE deappropriating $444,064.90 from the TIRZ Affordable Housing Fund 2409 (Fund 2409) under Ordinance No. 2008-828 for the Temporary Emergency Home Repair Program (“TEHRP”) in connection with Hurricane Ike Damage; approving and authorizing guidelines for a New Credit Score Enhancement Program; reappropriating $386,390.00 from Fund 2409 to a New Credit Score Enhancement Program, including delivery costs; and reappropriating $57,674.90 to the TEHRP for Project Delivery Costs
Here is Feibel's description of what's going on:
Houston taxpayers could start footing the bill to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores, under a proposal before City Council this week.
The “Credit Score Enhancement Program” will give up to $3,000 in grants to individuals who are trying to qualify for mortgages through the city’s homebuyers assistance program. City officials say some applicants fall short of eligibility by only 10 or 20 points on their credit scores, and paying off some debt balances can quickly improve their numbers.
[snip]
The $444,000 for the program is leftover money from a $1.5 million appropriation the city made for emergency home and roof repairs after Hurricane Ike.
The city has three programs that provide grants for down payments and closing costs for qualified homebuyers. The most generous one offers a $37,500 grant to buy a home that costs $135,000 or less, but only in certain disadvantaged Houston neighborhoods the city is trying to revitalize. Participants cannot earn more than 80 percent of the Houston median income.
The story has some good back and forth between critics and proponents of the proposal.
Additional information can be found in the City Hall backup documents (PDF, Page 79). The language in that document is particularly amusing, as the city department actually calls this proposed (roughly half-million-dollar) program a "new product." Only in the warped view of big government is this sort of wealth redistribution program a "product." And it's a product whose "customers" are going to cost the rest of us hundreds of thousands of dollars!
So, to sum up -- bureaucratic busybodies in your municipal government are proposing to spend nearly half a million dollars on a "new product" that will help people who are credit risks game the system temporarily (at up to $3,000 a pop!) to take on home loans for which they wouldn't otherwise qualify.
Have we learned nothing about personal (and government) finance in the last year or so?
Have we simply gone mad?
Mayor White frequently tells us he brings a businessman's approach to municipal government. If that is anything more than campaign rhetoric, he will squash this bad idea.
UBU ROI ADDS: Not a chance. The agenda is 100% under the mayor's control in Houston. Nothing makes it into the agenda without his agreement, and the general practice by mayors for decades has been not to add anything to it that they don't have the votes for. Mayor White blew that once, when he tried to sell the land out from under the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. If he's put this on the agenda now, it's because he thinks bailouts are the cause of the day and he can push this one through.
UPDATE: Here's a fun video from Empower Texans.
UPDATE 2: The Chronicle reports that public outcry forced Mayor White to pull this proposal. However, we know that Mayor White rarely gives up on his grand plans, so expect something similar to return at some point, when fewer people are paying attention. It's The Houston Way!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Brent's Blog, Texas Watchdog, Unca Darrell, Pondering Penguin.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/24/09 08:33 AM |
23 February 2009
Why would anyone miss this when it's gone?
The Chronicle's six-days-per-week Austin bureau chief and one-day-per-week lefty editorialist offered this snippet in his latest opinion column:
Although a lifelong Republican of the traditional, country club genre (as opposed to the more-rabid social conservatives who now control the Texas GOP), Straus has in the past voted for Democrats for selected offices and presumably will do so in the future.
Nice, objective treatment from the Austin bureau chief.
I'm sure that's how (other) people who dislike social conservatives feel, anyway.
And I'm sure that Clay Robison's attitude would never come through while he is playing bureau chief the other six days of the week, when he's objective and evenhanded. *wink*
The Chronicle's erratic features editor keeps telling us we're going to miss them (them being newspapers) when they're gone. But this regular business from Robison, a deceitful editorial board, unethical impersonation of hurricane refugees, a featured columnist who's a plagiarist, or even the typical MeMo fare aren't really going to be missed.
We are hopeful some metro/state reporters will still be around if that dead weight is ever cast aside, though, because what they do is important and should be valued.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/23/09 09:00 PM |
22 February 2009
Harris County's secret bailout of Houston
Two months ago, without any mention in the media at all, Harris County bailed the City of Houston out of a bad deal by loaning it $118 million. As reported on the Chronicle's website on Sunday,
A series of unexpected market swings and a relationship with a troubled bank has left the city of Houston paying more than $600,000 a month in interest — far higher than the market rate for comparable securities — to a very unusual investor: Harris County.
The county came to Houston’s rescue in December after a bank that backed $182 million in city bonds had its credit downgraded, leaving the city with a 15 percent interest rate.
The timeline of events may be found here. One might note there's over $60 million difference in the two figures. Metro is apparently part of the difference, in an even more unusual transaction (emphasis added):
More and more, governments that depend on financing for everything from new sewer plants to overpasses are seeing the costs of debt soar, as the many parties involved in their complex municipal finance deals are seized by fear or faltering markets.
As a solution, they have begun to turn to investors that seem a little more stable and familiar: themselves. In October, when interest rates for short-term municipal investments shot up to the 8 percent to 10 percent range, the city of Houston and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County agreed to invest $30 million in each other.
Moncur said the city, in addition to buying bonds from as far away as Broward County, Fla., also has begun investing millions of dollars in its own commercial paper.
Excuse me, but "commercial paper" means short-term loans. How does the city loan itself money? Remember a few months ago when the city refinanced its pension obligation, and those numbers didn't seem to add up either? Lo and behold, this was at the same time the city was being bailed out by the county.
Then there's the point that the city is not alone: "many parties involved in their complex municipal finance deals are seized by fear or faltering markets". The combination of these two statements seems to suggest that local governments across the nation are borrowing money from each other in order to, as they are sure to phrase it: "share the risk." A more appropriate phrase might be "chain-reaction disaster," as a financial collapse by any one of them touches off payment problems for all the rest down the line. We just saw how well banks, the real estate market, financial investment houses, the stock market, and government guarantors worked together to ensure a broad financial collapse. Are our cities, counties, and transit agencies all trying to replicate the same disaster?
Then there's the minor issue of the sheep being fleeced to finance this house of cards: taxpayers from other cities and the county. How do these areas feel about being put on the hook for the City of Houston's increasingly convoluted bookkeeping practices? And one more question -- does anyone remember something that was supposed to be around for times like these? I believe it was called "the rainy day fund." Whatever happened to that?
More and more, it's beginning to look as though the City of Houston is using accounting tricks to remain solvent and fund Mayor White's priorities. Given that the City Controller is thought to be the front-runner in the 2009 race, her cooperation in these questionable tail-chasing schemes and poor selection of investment banks could make 2009 a very interesting campaign year.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I can't say how many times that I've heard Mayor White tell people he brings a businesslike approach to city government, or how many times I've heard that he'd eventually like to take his business and financial acumen to a statewide political office. So I guess I am left wondering how our hands-on mayor doesn't feature at all in this story of debt financing going awry on his watch -- or, as Ubu Roi alludes, why City Controller and mayoral wannabe Annise Parker also don't feature at all in this story. Shouldn't they have some comment on it?
Unfortunately, there is also no quote from Houston's expert-on-everything Bob Stein to tell me what I am supposed to think about this series of events, so we'll throw it out to commenters: What do you think about the story?
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 02/22/09 07:57 PM |
21 February 2009
Thieves hit Kingwood Park and Pillage; METRO's $16 million security system takes a picture
Yesterday Cory Crow highlighted a yet another great moment for METRO PD's Chief Lambert: The Kingwood Park and Pillage was...pillaged:
Commuters were in for a nasty surprise when they got off the bus at the Kingwood Park & Ride Thursday afternoon.
Thieves reportedly broke into multiple cars there, leaving lots of broken glass and busted windows.
KHOU-11's story noted that it was unclear if anyone was watching the security camera feed at Transtar! Recall how METRO touted its $16 million "high-tech" security system back in 2006:
Now, finally, Metro is going to find out whether a camera can do the work of a human on the premises. The first camera was installed at the Kuykendahl Park & Ride lot in August and linked to the Houston TranStar control center, where Metro police can see what the camera sees, Lambert said recently.
Cameras are now being installed at six other lots: North Shepherd, Spring, Pinemont, West Little York, Northwest and Seton Lake. By the end of January, all 25 Park & Ride lots and the Hillcroft Transit Center will have them, Lambert said.
Since Metro eliminated full-time security guards at the lots, the remote security plan has become much more ambitious, with plans now calling for $16 million in new hardware.
"We've totally changed the project," Lambert said. "We didn't envision in the first phase that we would actually be able to remotely open and close and lock down a lot."
The sum covers the cameras, gates controllable from TranStar, call boxes that patrons can use to report crimes, loudspeakers to issue warnings and software to connect all this with the people who will run it.
The software can also identify cars entering the bus bays, suspicious objects left unattended, people moving suspiciously and people entering locations they shouldn't.
"Where Metro police can see what the camera sees." After the crime has been committed and the thief is long gone, that is. Nice job, Chief Lambert!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/21/09 11:37 AM |
19 February 2009
Channel 2 fixes another red light camera ticket error
When last we checked in with KPRC-2's Ask Amy, she was helping a wrongly ticketed red light runner clear her name. At that time, we noted the moral of the story was to call local media if you received a ticket in error, because MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are not interested in helping red light camera victims.
Well, Ask Amy is at it again, cutting through HPD's uninterested bureaucracy, helping a red light camera victim:
After months of calls to the city's red-light program division, she's asking Amy to help clear her name. KPRC Local 2 Investigative reporter Amy Davis has yet another case of a driver getting the red-light runaround.
Christina Tyler tried to solve this problem herself. She said she spent four months making calls, filling out paperwork and faxing it in.
When none of that worked, she called Amy.The camera flashed at the corner of the Sam Houston Parkway and Bellaire Boulevard and Christina Tyler got the ticket.
There's the first problem."It was a picture of a vehicle I used to have," Tyler explained. "I haven't had it in over five years."
When Tyler last saw her Toyota Echo in 2004, it was smashed up from a car accident. She said the other driver's insurance company told her it couldn't be repaired.
But five years later it's back on the road, apparently running red lights, and doing it all with Christina Tyler's maiden name still on the title.
"It's not fair that someone's driving around with my identity for five years for crying out loud," Tyler told Local 2 Investigates. "I just don't think that's right."
Tyler called the city's red-light camera program and tracked down every document they asked for – no easy job after five years, four moves and a marriage.
You'll be shocked to learn that, after Christina Tyler provided everything HPD asked for, she still received warning letters telling her to pay up or else:
The last one came from an attorney's office and told her the city would file a civil suit and block her from registering her vehicle when the plates expired if she didn't pay up.
And there you have it: The city is now threatening not to renew vehicle registrations for those who have not paid red light camera fines, even if the ticket has been disputed.
So Ask Amy called HPD and voila! the ticket was deleted. That led Ask Amy to ask HPD why it takes a call from KPRC to clear up ticketing errors:
HPD chalked it up to yet another isolated case and said drivers have to remember the red-light camera program is still young. They said the city is still working out the kinks.
So HPD is doing on-the-job red light camera ticketing training? At citizens' expense? To the tune of millions of dollars in revenue? How many people have tried to fight a ticket and given up? How many years does it take before the kinks are worked out?
Is it shenanigans or incompetence? Frankly, it's outrageous, but that's MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's government for you.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/19/09 06:05 PM |
18 February 2009
Babe Pages/MOJO experiment fails; Chris Baker back to KPRC
Mike McGuff and the Radio-Info boards both posted an interesting press release from Clear Channel, which we'll post in its entirety and comment afterwards:
Houston gets a Morning Cup of Joe and a Good Baker
KPRC-AM Announces Chris Baker to Follow Joe ‘Pags’ Pagliarulo Starting March 2nd
Houston, Texas , February 17, 2009 –Beginning Monday, March 2nd, Houstonians will get an ever better cup of 9-5-0 Radio Mojo when Chris Baker returns to the airwaves on his hometown station KPRC-AM announced Eddie Martiny, President and Market Manager for Clear Channel Radio Houston. The Chris Baker show will air live from 3-5pm daily, while award winning Joe ‘Pags’ Pagliarulo will move to mornings to host “your Morning Cup of Joe” from 6-9am.
“Chris has a lot of fans in Houston, and he’s incredibly talented. We are excited to bring him back to Houston, back to the same station and time slot in which he began on-air over eight years ago,” said Michael Berry, Operations Director for Clear Channel Radio Houston’s AM stations. “With Walton & Johnson moving up the dial to the Arrow, 93.7 FM, the morning show slot opened on The 9-5-0. ‘Pags’ was the perfect choice for the mornings. If ‘Pags’ can appear on Fox News Channel, CNN, Headline News, CNBC and fill in for Glen Beck, we know he will be the perfect cup-of morning Joe for Houston.” added Berry.
Joe ‘Pags has been honored with multiple AP and broadcast association awards of excellence, and has been ranked among the most influential talk show hosts in America. Chris Baker is a stand-up comic who has been making Houstonians laugh for years, but he also makes them think. Houston loves his brand of talk and humor, and Clear Channel is looking forward to his listeners responding to his message.
The new KPRC-AM 9-5-0 Radio Mojo line up will be:
Morning Cup of Joe with Joe ‘Pags’ Pagliarulo 6a-9a
Michael Garfield 9a-11a
Outlaw Dave 11a-1p
Dave Ramsey Show 1p-3p
The Chris Baker Show 3p-5p
The Michael Savage Show 5p-8pKPRC-AM is the first radio station in Texas, originally broadcasting in 1925. KPRC-AM’s legendary TalkRadio format transitioned to “guytalk” in July of 2007. With the exciting move of ‘Pags’ to the mornings and the addition of Baker and the station will retain the popular Radio Mojo format.
Retain the popular Radio Mojo format? This "new" lineup would seem to be confirmation that the Babe Pages/Radio Mojo approach has been an unmitigated disaster, since this lineup looks hardly anything like the original lineup.
The new lineup isn't bad, although we don't really understand why the nation's fourth largest city gets a non-local talker from San Antonio (Joe Pags) in the morning drive slot of a once-great station (for that matter, we don't understand why the Houston Chronicle has outsourced its UT and Texas A&M sports coverage to the San Antonio newspaper, but that's slightly off topic). And Michael Garfield's previous non-weekend stints have not always been examples of good radio, but at least he's local.
The Chronicle's David Barron couldn't secure a quote from Baker (Advantage: blogHOUSTON), but did manage to get this out of Michael "Babe Pages" Berry:
“Chris did not leave (Houston) because of performance issues, but to pursue other opportunities and over disagreements during contract negotiations,” said Michael Berry, AM operations director for Clear Channel’s Houston stations. “With a talented talk-show host, just as with a professional athlete, sometimes these differences occur.
“We did not want to lose him, and we have wanted him back since the day he left. This move accomplishes that. This is Chris Baker’s radio home.”
Everyone who follows Houston media knows that Chris Baker was terminated (despite his ratings, which were stellar) and that Michael Berry had a hand in it. As a political scientist, I expect politicians (and ex-politicians) to lie, and lie frequently, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me when Berry does what pols and ex-pols do. But let's just say I find it distasteful, and leave it at that.
Thank goodness we can all say goodbye to that dreadful Babe Pages/Radio Mojo experiment on KPRC (whether anyone at Clear Channel will admit it). They have so damaged that radio station in a short time that it may never return to its past glory, but getting Baker back where he belongs is a good first step.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/18/09 11:02 PM |
17 February 2009
Does Bill White hate puppies? (cont'd)
The Chronicle has run another story on BARC, the city's long-problematic animal shelter that hasn't shown much improvement under our seemingly disinterested mayor.
Here's an excerpt, from the top of the story:
In 2005, Mayor Bill White’s task force on animal protection had a heady list of goals, none more ambitious than this: significantly reducing the euthanasia rate at the region’s animal shelters, including the city pound.
Four years later, city officials say progress has been made implementing the task force’s recommendations. The city pound — the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care — has saved lives by transferring more pets to rescue groups. And BARC now scans animals for computer identification chips, making it more likely pets will be returned to their owners.
But city officials, including White, say killings at the facility have not gone down as much as they had hoped. And animal welfare activists say the pound, geared toward picking up roaming dogs and other animals, has not shouldered the responsibility of finding homes for them, work that will require cooperation with volunteers and rescue groups.
“We want a dramatic double-digit percentage decrease in the number of animals that are euthanized,” White said. “There needs to be a new culture at BARC that is friendly to volunteers, works well with nonprofit organizations and survives the loss of a director,” he said, referring to Kent Robertson, who resigned as bureau chief and has not been replaced.
Some animal welfare activists say BARC is poorly run, in part, because it is underfunded. City officials acknowledge that BARC’s statistics on euthanasia are unreliable, and some activists wonder if the euthanasia rate has gone down at all.“BARC’s philosophy is still round the animals up and kill them,” said Margaret Gondo, longtime volunteer at BARC and a member of the 2005 task force. “This goes back to Bill White. He doesn’t want to foot the bill for animal control. He wants the private sector to foot the bill.”
Goals and lofty rhetoric and task forces are great (great ways to put off activists, anyway), but hard statistics might tell us more about how the city is following through on all of the hot air from the politicians.
Unfortunately, BARC still does not keep reliable statistics, which we only learn at the bottom of the story:
The [2005 Task Force] concluded that BARC had not kept reliable statistics on animal intake and euthanasia. That hasn’t changed. BARC officials said they could not provide the Chronicle with reliable statistics for 2005-2008 but said the percentage of animals being killed had decreased.
That says quite a lot about the philosophy at BARC (pre and post-Task Force) -- and it says to me that nothing has changed.
We know that Mayor White doesn't much like criticism, so it's not surprising that he's so defensive with reporters about the problems at BARC. His underlings have been taking pretty much the same approach -- whining to activists that the administration doesn't get enough credit from them for good things they do (to which we reply -- we have all the respect in the world for the animal lovers doing great work for the City. The BARC management and thin-skinned pols in denial about the inhumane conditions? Not so much).
To be fair, these are problems that preceded Bill White. And they seem to be problems that are going to outlast him, unfortunately.
Maybe the next mayor will be a bigger fan of puppies.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/09 09:18 PM |
Calamity: Government officials are putting off some purchases!
We're in the midst of an economic downturn. People are losing jobs and homes. The credit market is tight. And there is a great deal of uncertainty (malaise, even).
Naturally, it's time for the area's newspaper of record to focus on how bad your government has it:
They’re not feeling the economic storm quite yet, but local governments across the Houston region are hunkering down anyway. Some have frozen hiring, others have stopped filling potholes. Planned purchases of police cars, golf course mowers, Tasers and sewage equipment have been halted.
The caution infecting budget offices is universal, whether down south, where Galveston County is anticipating shrinking its budget by $5 million, or up north, where Montgomery County continues to rake in the tax dollars from growth. All are playing it safe, waiting for property reassessments and 2009 sales tax figures to come in before making any major decisions.
“We need to be watching every dollar that we spend,” said Cheryl Hunter, Texas City’s director of finance. The recession may have come to Southeast Texas late, but it has come. Public finance officers fear a future double-punch: lower tax revenues from a slower economy, combined with Hurricane Ike’s destructive effect on tax rolls in coastal towns, counties, and school districts. After years of growth and decreasing tax rates, budget officers now just want to hold on.
If there's one thing I know as a political scientist, it's that government in America does not get smaller. Sure, some purchases may be postponed for a while. If the recession is sharp, some services may suffer in the short term. But beyond the short term -- government in America does not get smaller. So we aren't shedding too many tears just yet for the woes of the government officials quoted in this story.
A journalist friend of mine actually had a slightly different take on the story: "Real readers don’t care about this sort of thing – this is a story written chiefly for the reporter’s sources ABOUT the reporter’s sources." It's hard to disagree, although I think some editors may care much more about these sorts of stories than reporters (hence their recurring nature).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/09 08:23 PM |
16 February 2009
Texas Watchdog is looking for a metro reporter
The Chronicle may be in the midst of its latest downsizing, but not everybody in the news biz is shrinking.
Texas Watchdog, the local watchdog journalism outfit, is looking to add a metro reporter. Here's the ad from JournalismJobs.com:
Company: Texas Watchdog
Position: Seeking Houston political reporter
Location: Houston, Texas
Job Status: Full-time
[snip]
Description: We’re Texas Watchdog, a news Web site that covers state and local government. We’re looking for an experienced enterprise reporter to cover Houston politics. The ideal candidate will demonstrate a firm understanding of public records law and will have a passion for freedom of information, government transparency and getting the goods on politicians and bureaucrats gone bad. The reporter will break news through writing enterprise and investigative pieces, as well as blog for www.texaswatchdog.org. Knowledge of Houston political players is a must. Do you have video and multimedia chops? That would be a plus.
When: Hire date targeted for April.
Where: Houston, Texas.
Learn more: www.texaswatchdog.org
Please send a cover letter and clips to Deputy Editor Jennifer Peebles at [email protected]
We know journos of all sorts read the little blog, so if you know anybody who might fit the bill, please point 'em towards Texas Watchdog. A city can never have enough (paid) metro reporters chasing stories!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/09 08:55 PM |
15 February 2009
Terry Hayes, RIP
Matt Stiles passes along word via twitter that Terry Hayes, the Chronicle's "Cancer Diva" blogger, has passed away from the disease.
Chron.com has posted the unfortunate news here.
The Cancer Diva blog was a real inspiration, and so was Terry Hayes by all accounts. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones tonight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/15/09 09:19 PM |
Happy Valentine's Day
Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. There are thousands of good people who love each other celebrating with each other. It's kind of odd that the Houston Chronicle's Jennifer Leahy writes a touching story of Harris County jail inmates' Valentine's Day. I'm sure you all were concerned about the love lives of inmates.
Posted by Jason @ 02/15/09 01:13 AM |
14 February 2009
Talk about Karma
Last year 25-year old Nicholas Hernandez was arrested for drunk driving:
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Brent Mayr said Hernandez was arrested after the Aug. 3, wreck which killed James Kelleher, 26, and his passenger, 23-year-old Suzanne Penland, who were hit head-on as they drove south on Texas 288.This wasn't Hernandez's first time driving drunk:Mayr said Hernandez was driving a Chevrolet Impala the wrong way on the highway and had a blood alcohol concentration of .30, more than three times the legal limit, when he hit the two friends who were in a Buick LeSabre.
Hernandez was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2002 and again in 2003. Because a third DWI would be a felony, Mayr said Hernandez was charged in last year’s wreck with felony murder, which carries a sentence ranging from probation to 99 years or life in prison. He had been released from jail on $100,000 bond.He was going to be tried for murder following the precedent set by ADA Warren Diepraam years ago. Now it's all a moot point because Hernandez was killed in a crash. He was a passenger in a car that hit a light pole. The driver was . . . drunk! Talk about Karma!
Chronicle story here.
Posted by Jason @ 02/14/09 12:01 AM |
13 February 2009
More staff reductions at the Chron
The Chronicle has announced more staff layoffs. This time, at least 10% of the workforce will be cut.
Banjo Jones has posted the memo from Jack Sweeney.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/13/09 08:58 PM |
12 February 2009
Activists sue to force City Council expansion, redistricting
The Chronicle's Bradley Olson reports that activists have sued to force Mayor White's administration to expand City Council:
Community activists have filed a lawsuit alleging the city of Houston has violated the Voting Rights Act by putting off the redistricting of City Council boundaries as required by its own charter and a decades-old court settlement.
The lawsuit, which seeks to force the city to begin redrawing voting boundaries, could have far-reaching implications, including delaying an upcoming special election to fill the council seat vacated by Sheriff Adrian Garcia and, possibly, even the November elections, plaintiffs claim.
Mayor Bill White, all 13 council members and City Controller Annise Parker are named as co-defendants in the suit, which was filed in federal court today.
The thrust of the filing is that the city is required, based on a 1979 agreement with the Department of Justice to ensure that minorities were fairly represented in local elections, to add two council seats once its population reached 2.1 million.
The city’s failure to take that action has galvanized minority leaders, who see the creation of new seats as a chance to increase the number of minorities on City Council.
For some years now, the administration has been using a population figure beyond 2.1 million (for various funding formulas and the crime rate). It's certainly disingenuous now for the White administration to claim that it doesn't understand the population figures it's been using well enough to expand council and engage in redistricting, although it is true that new census figures would probably make redistricting more accurate and representative.
What a fine mess!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/12/09 09:36 PM |
11 February 2009
Lawrence Marshall clobbers...the big city
KUHF-88.7's Laurie Johnson notes that the bankruptcy of the Lawrence Marshall dealership will impact the city of Houston:
An interesting item showed up on the city council agenda. It was an ordinance appropriating more than $93,000 to a company that no longer exists.
The contract with Lawrence Marshall Chrysler was supposed to cover a new ambulance for the Houston Fire Department.
This raised some confusion at the council meeting.
"Chair recognizes Councilmember Green" "Mayor I also need some clarification. Are we — how can we appropriate the funds without a vendor?"
After some discussion with the city's legal department, council concluded they could still authorize the expenditure but award it to a different contractor.
Houston Mayor Bill White says the city may end up in litigation over Lawrence Marshall's bankruptcy filing.
[snip]
Lawrence Marshall was a city vendor for everything from ambulances to recycled parts and upholstery services.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/11/09 06:08 PM |
KHOU's Desel returns to the newsroom after health scare
The Chronicle's David Barron has a nice profile today on KHOU-11 reporter Jeremy Desel, who is back to work after a health scare that involved heart surgery back in December.
It's good to hear he's making a full recovery, and also good for Houston news consumers that he's back to work. But take it easy for a little while, guy, okay?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/09 09:49 AM |
New Chron Eye profiles killer/rapist
There's a new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy today.
The profile centers on Johnny Ray Johnson, whose rap sheet includes four murders and more than a dozen rapes (including the rape of his pre-teen niece).
As usual for these sorts of efforts, this Chron Eye takes a look at Johnson's "abusive childhood" and alleged problems with the case (claims that his confessions to heinous crimes were coerced by detectives at gunpoint).
The only thing really missing in this Chron Eye is a discussion of the man's discovery (in prison) of his love of poetry. Or ballet. Or some such.* However, the conclusion makes up for that omission a bit:
“God has a time for everybody,” the killer said. “Regardless of what happens, I know that I will be in heaven.”
It's a shame that the area's newspaper of record fritters so much of its credibility (and space) with these insipid profiles of some of the worst criminals ever put away. On those occasions when real doubt is raised about someone on death row, Chron readers can't help but wonder if it's just another of Jeff Cohen/Kathryn Kase Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/09 09:24 AM |
10 February 2009
Chron Froot Loops update, 02/10/09 edition
The Chron Froot Loops Bureau offers this update from KHOU-11 today:
A man who was shot to death by Houston police after refusing to drop a shotgun had sent a text message saying he planned to kill himself, police said today.
Police have not disclosed the name of the man, who was killed about 11 p.m. Monday at the Hammerly Oaks Apartments at 8791 Hammerly at Hollister, according to KHOU Channel 11.
Officers went to the address after being alerted that a man was wandering around the complex with a shotgun, KHOU reported.
Here is a link to the KHOU story (in case you prefer actual reporting to some guy rewriting what he saw on the TV while eating his cereal).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/09 12:22 PM |
09 February 2009
Chapter Three of the Elizabeth Shelton story
Remember the Shelton mess? First, 19 year-old Elizabeth Shelton is drunk and driving on the freeway while her boyfriend is hanging out of the window. Drunk Elizabeth hits a box car from behind and winds up killing her boyfriend. Elizabeth is the daughter of Harris County Juvenile Court Judge Pat Shelton. Their defense was that little drunk Elizabeth didn't cause the accident that killed the young man. It was the driver of the box truck that little drunk Elizabeth hit from behind. The classic 'blame the victim' defense. Fortunately the jury didn't buy it and convicted Elizabeth. She served a few months in jail and is currently on probation. Aside from the relatively light sentence, we thought that was the end of it. Well, we were all shocked when little Elizabeth's poor decision-making skills made it back into the news. She, along with the family of her dead boyfriend, is suing the driver of the box truck she hit from behind for damaging her Lexus Utility and for "mental anguish."
Now for the third chapter of the Shelton family mess: The accident reconstruction "expert" hired by the defense hasn't been paid for his services. So he is suing defense attorney George Secrest who in turn is saying little Elizabeth's daddy Judge Shelton is responsible for the $25,000 (or more) bill. Of course, the judge's lawyer is saying the bill is exaggerated. Don't lawyers and experts work out a price before the service is delivered? Oh well, in a way who can blame the Shelton party for not paying. After all, they hired Joseph Hinton to tell a jury that little drunk Elizabeth isn't responsible for the crash or the death of the young man. How much should it really cost to pay someone to tell others what you want them to hear?
Posted by Jason @ 02/09/09 06:45 PM |
08 February 2009
World-renowned scientist to head UH research center
On Thursday, the University of Houston and Gov. Rick Perry announced the establishment of a major research center at the university. Here is a snippet from the official press release:
Gov. Rick Perry today announced the awarding of a $5.5 million grant to the University of Houston through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF).
As a result of the ETF grant, UH has recruited a top hormones researcher and his team to carry out laboratory research and to create next-generation pharmaceuticals and medical technologies at a world-class center to be established by UH and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI).
“The biomedical industry is one of the largest in our state, and has the potential to greatly improve many Texans’ quality of life with continued research and expansion,” Gov. Perry said. “This world-class research team will lead the charge in developing treatments for diseases that plague our citizens and enhance the University of Houston’s presence as a biomedical research institution.”
Jan-Åke Gustafsson, a renowned figure in the study of hormones and a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Assembly, accepted an appointment this summer to expand his revolutionary research efforts at the University of Houston. He arrived on campus in late January.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Gustafsson join our faculty as a key leader in our biomedical initiative,” said Renu Khator, president of UH and chancellor of the UH System. “He was courted by Ivy League institutions and determined the University of Houston offered the best opportunity to advance his research. He will play an important role in our quest for flagship university status.”
Gustafsson’s hiring represents a key element in fulfilling Khator’s vision for the university, which includes a UH Health Initiative that will expand the university’s presence and its partnerships with Texas Medical Center institutions, filling gaps that currently exist and advancing strengths already in place.
This is a smart move for the university, and another step in making the case for tier-one status.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/09 07:18 PM |
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