29 May 2008
Are we finally World Class?!
The fine folks at Kiplinger's pass along word that they've just posted their 2008 list of Best Cities to Live, Work, and Play, and look who's #1:
No. 1: Houston
No. 2: Raleigh
No. 3: Omaha
No. 4: Boise
No. 5: Colorado Springs
No. 6: Austin
No. 7: Fayettville
No. 8: Sacramento
No. 9: Des Moines
No. 10: Provo
It probably won't be enough to overcome the inferiority complexes of some locals in hot pursuit of world-classness, but it's nice recognition nonetheless!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/29/08 08:17 AM |
28 May 2008
KTRK continues investigation of Sheriff's Office email/spy-gate
While I was away playing last week, KTRK-13 continued its investigation into emails that the Sheriff's Department has worked hard to keep away from KTRK. Here's an excerpt from Wayne Dolcefino's report on May 20:
There are new developments in a 13 Undercover investigation. We've learned the district attorney has opened up an investigation into the sheriff's department over its secret surveillance squad.
We first told you about how the squad conducted surveillance on Erik and Sean Ibarra after they sued the department. Some lawmakers have spoken out saying that squad smells of impropriety.
The revelation of the criminal investigation came this afternoon, via a letter the DA sent to the attorney general that we've obtained. 13 Undercover first confirmed the surveillance of the Ibarra brothers last week. They were the ones who sued the sheriff's office for civil rights violations and won a big judgment against the sheriff. The surveillance occurred just weeks before the trial. Lawmakers demanded the state investigate the spying.
Dolcefino followed with a lengthy, detailed report on May 21 (no excerpt, best to click over and read it all).
Here's an excerpt from Kevin Quinn's followup on May 22:
We have the latest on the Harris County Sheriff's Department's secret squad and its inability to tell us who they watch and when. And now, we're comparing how the Houston Police Department and others have conducted surveillance, and what records they say they have kept.
Generally, law enforcement must be suspicious of some criminal activity before they set up surveillance on someone. That was not the case with the Ibarra brothers, the men who settled a civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office for nearly $2 million.
If the Houston Police Department is sued, Chief Harold Hurtt says under no circumstances does he use officers to investigate the plaintiffs. He says they are only used for internal affairs and criminal investigations.
[snip]
Any surveillance done by his officers, he insists, would result in pages of reports and documentation.
"Whatever information or tactics that we use would be recorded in that report," said Chief Hurtt.
Compare that to the Harris County Sheriff's Office's secret surveillance of Erik and Sean Ibarra, the brothers who sued the sheriff's office, claiming their civil rights were violate when they were roughed up during a drug raid.
The only documentation we've seen of that is a single email. It was an email the sheriff tried to destroy months ago, an email only preserved because of legal action by 13 Undercover. That email details few specifics from the 5-6 hours the sheriff's special investigative unit said they spent tailing the Ibarras over the course of three days. It concludes only that there was no suspicious activity.
And here's an excerpt from a related followup by Dolcefino last night:
Remember when the sheriff defended that mass deletion of 750,000 emails in the midst of the Ibarra lawsuit? High ranking commanders testified under oath that emails being deleted detailing investigations had been saved.
Judge Bernal was reacting to our stories last week. It was our discovery of an email detailing surveillance of the brothers who had sued the sheriff's office for civil rights violations. It is the only written evidence of a surveillance operation now under criminal investigation by a grand jury.
The county's explanation was it was the only email being destroyed that should have been saved. The judge wasn't buying it.
The sheriff's office also unsuccessfully fought to keep the email a law enforcement secret.
13 Undercover complained that having the sheriffs special assistant make the call on what the public sees simply won't do going forward. Plus the pace of email inspection is going too slowly.
Apparently, the judge -- not the sheriff's office -- will now be making the call on what stays secret.
This just keeps getting more interesting!
Question: Exciting stories like this one eventually must have "-gate" attached to them. So is this Email-gate or Spy-gate?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/28/08 10:51 PM |
Hoffman on CW39 news, Chron scoops
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman has good news for local news junkies:
Eight years ago, the half-hour Channel 39 News at 9 p.m. with anchors Sherry Williams and Alan Hemberger signed on.
And almost from the start there were rumors it was being shut down.
That was because the owner of the station, the Tribune Company, was canceling the local news on similar stations it owned in other markets.
But Channel 39 News at 9 p.m. survived.
Then a new owner, Chicago billionaire businessman Sam Zell, took over the station in January.
What a difference an owner can make.
On June 30 — forget being canceled — Channel 39 News will expand to one hour Monday through Friday.
"This is something I've been lobbying for from the get-go," said Channel 39 news director Joe Nolan. "It hasn't been easy. It's hard to think of expanding the news when you keep hearing those rumors that we're being shut down. The economy hasn't exactly been kind to media companies recently."
Nolan got the OK to expand the news back in March. While that is twice the time, it won't mean he gets to double his staff.
While he can hire a new reporter and photographer team, a new editor and a few behind-the-scenes people, twice the time means the current staff simply will do more.
[snip]
"Everybody around here is excited and pumped. The reporters will get more time to develop and tell their stories. We hope to create some new franchises, too. Mia Gradney will do more with her entertainment coverage, and Steve Simon will do more technology news. We will give Elizabeth Lee more time with consumer stories. It was very difficult to cram all the news in Houston into 30 minutes. This is a very newsworthy city," Nolan said.
Good for Nolan and the CW39 crew. This city could use more -- and more serious -- news coverage. Now if we could just get an RSS feed on the CW39 news page....
Further down the column, Hoffman calls attention to a couple of Chron headlines:
A headline in Tuesday's Houston Chronicle caught my eye:
KHOU's Neil Frank announces retirement during newscast
Wow! What a scoop. I never saw that one coming.
But I liked this headline from Dec. 13, 2007 even more:
Meteorologist Neil Frank to retire in 2008
What's he going to do next?
Go on tour with Cher? She's the retiring kind, too.
As the blogfather would say, heh, indeed.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/28/08 10:27 PM |
Different sorts of Chron eyes
With the Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection, we expected a steady stream of the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy as the state once again resumed executions.
A couple of recent stories, though, had a different focus. First, there was this one by Rosanna Ruiz:
It was midnight, but Melody Flowers had to get something off her chest.
The single mother of five woke her eldest. "If something should ever happen to me," she whispered to 8-year-old Tameka, "I want you to know that I will always love you all. I want you to be there for your brothers and sisters. Even if you are not able to see me, I'm still with you all."
The next afternoon, the 27-year-old Flowers was dead.
She had been bludgeoned with a claw hammer, raped, strangled and stabbed. Her body was dumped in the partially filled bathtub of her Humble apartment. The lifeless body of her toddler, Patrick, also stabbed, lay on top of her.
Now, 17 years later, memories of the horrific murders and the years that followed came to the fore for her surviving children with word that their mother's killer would be executed.
Derrick Sonnier, who authorities said stalked Flowers for months, was convicted of the Sept. 16, 1991, murders and sentenced to die. On June 3, the 40-year-old will be the first in Texas to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections last month.
[snip]
Tameka Traylor, 25, and Sebrina Flowers, 23, Melody Flowers' daughters, plan to witness his execution in Huntsville.
"He took everything from us," said Traylor, now a married mother of four. "Nothing will ever bring Melody and Patrick back or remove all the hurt and pain we had to endure. When he gave them the death sentence, he took the only person that loved us away from us ... and my brother didn't even have a chance to live his life."
Most death row killer guys have torn apart lives beyond their immediate victims.
The second story with a focus on victims also came from Rosanna Ruiz:
Their husbands were their soulmates.
They intended to watch their children grow up, then grow old with their spouses.
If not for the fateful 2006 meeting of their husbands, Joslyn Johnson and Theresa Quintero likely would never have laid eyes on each other.
During a traffic stop, Juan Leonardo Quintero, a landscaper, shot officer Rodney Johnson, 40, seven times, killing him. A Harris County jury last week sentenced Quintero, 34, to life in prison without parole.
While Joslyn Johnson will mourn the loss of her husband for the rest of her life, prison bars will separate Theresa Quintero from hers.
It's not the way either imagined their lives would turn out.
In the courtroom, the two women always sat on opposite sides, just a few feet from one another.
Wrestling with emotions
Joslyn Johnson said the seething anger she managed to staunch before the trial resurfaced the moment she locked eyes with Juan Quintero."I just wanted to jump over there and choke him," she said.
Theresa Quintero wrestled with different emotions. She wanted to slap the man she married in 1997 but also embrace him.
The emotionalism doesn't really appeal to me (then again, I'm not part of the demographic to which it's supposed to appeal), but the focus on the victims is unusual for the Chronicle.
Maybe the old Chron Eyes have been retired. We certainly hope that's the case.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Digital Epitaph.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/28/08 10:08 PM |
Putting space between MayorWhiteChiefHurtt
KHOU-11's Lee McGuire has details of a development in HPD's facial hair policy fight:
Houston City Council heard from those officers while debating whether to spend $150,000 on private attorneys to defend the no-beard policy.
Officer Raul Collins says he’s suing to get back on the street.
The Mayor is now suggesting mediation without going before a judge.
Since it appears HPD's basis for the policy is in question (gas masks do fit over beards, according to the officers), this is a ridiculous policy for the city to have to defend, and Mayor White probably would rather it just go away.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/28/08 07:33 PM |
27 May 2008
Even with rising gas prices, METRO's March ridership declined
Six weeks after METRO stopped collecting March data, METRO finally fulfilled Tom Bazan's TxPIA request for March ridership numbers.
Guess what? Ridership declined, both for bus and light rail, when compared to data for March, 2007. Bus ridership was down almost nine percent, and train boardings were down four percent.
Unfortunately, METRO still doesn't provide convenient, timely service for most people, so even with gas prices rising, METRO just isn't a viable alternative.
RELATED: Checking out Houston on the tour bus (Tom Kirkendall); Houston METRO Touted as Model for Transit Solutions (Write on METRO)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/27/08 08:55 PM |
25 May 2008
Chief Hurtt whines
In an op-ed for the Chronicle, Chief Hurtt complains that critics of his department are being unfair. After a laundry list of criticisms, he concludes:
We will continue to work hard to maintain our transparency to the citizens we serve. When mistakes are made, we acknowledge them and take steps to immediately fix the problem(s).
We have continuously demonstrated this, as shown by the work to rebuild the Crime Lab and Property Room operations, to improve extra employment accountability, to demonstrate accountability with Conducted Energy Devices (Tasers, etc).
We want to make our department a more desirable place for our employees to work. We want citizens to have confidence in the effectiveness and efficiency of services we provide. We also want to continuously encourage citizens to join us in our efforts to make Houston one of the safest cities in the United States.
HPD's transparency often begins only after a local media exposé.
The fact that there are so many varied criticisms of HPD, and the criticisms come from varied segments of the populace, puts the lie to Chief Hurtt's complaint that HPD is being unfairly targeted. Many, if not most, of HPD's problems can be traced back to poor leadership, and Chief Hurtt is in charge of that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/25/08 07:40 AM |
24 May 2008
More on city's floodway ordinance
We've blogged previously about the city's heavy-handed floodway ordinance. Last week, the Chron's Kim Jackson wrote an informative story on the topic:
McKee, a Hedwig Village resident, said about a year ago he and his brother, David McKee, were offered $3.5 million for the commercial property their family has owned off Shepherd Drive and Interstate 10 near White Oak Bayou since 1967.
The deal fell through, he said, when the buyer said he could not purchase the property because most of it was in the floodway, and a city of Houston ordinance prohibited any new construction on vacant floodway property.
Rick McKee said he and his brother did not know their property was in the floodway and were not aware City Council revised the ordinance in August 2006.
"The city wants me to continue paying taxes on land I can't sell because of the city's ordinance," McKee said. "It is against the Constitution of the United States to take property without compensation and this is inverse condemnation. We get to keep our property, but they have taken away our property rights by telling us what we can and cannot do with it.
[snip]
Norcini said the ordinance affects about 3,500 vacant properties and a total of 109,000 properties within the city.
He said the city gave almost no notice to the public before making the changes.
"They did this in the dark. They posted notice on a 3-by-5 card on a board in city hall," Norcini said. "They ought to be ashamed of themselves."
Last year we highlighted Councilman Adrian Garcia's reaction to the ordinance:
Councilman Adrian Garcia, whose district includes Shady Acres, said during the Sept. 20 committee meeting that council members didn't get enough information about the measure's impact before they voted on it.
"Why didn't we let folks know in advance that we were going to be going down this track?" Garcia asked. "Everybody has reared up because a lot of people were caught by surprise. At council, we had almost no discussion on this."
Mayor White doesn't like surprises or dissent, and he has shown a tendency to push the most punitive actions as a first resort. Couple that with the fact that local governments don't post public notices in a citizen-friendly manner*, and hold meetings when most folks are at work, and you have a recipe for a government that operates as if the people work for it, instead of the other way around.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/24/08 07:50 AM |
22 May 2008
Memorial Weekend slowdown
Memorial Day weekend is nearly upon us, and that means a slowdown in posting here (especially since some bHers are off on a camping/floating trip).
Here's wishing everyone a restful, long weekend!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/08 08:34 AM |
Red light camera tickets increase dramatically in some locations
Matt Stiles has the latest figures from HPD's red light cameras, and this month he noticed something strange:
The latest numbers detailing the Houston Police Department's red-light camera program show significant increases in citations at several intersections.
Take northbound Wilcrest at the Southwest Freeway, for example. There were 140 citations in March and 1,261 in April -- an 800 percent increase. That's also a significant spike over the six-month average before April.
Other intersections saw dramatic increases, too, while numbers declined elsewhere. Overall, citations increased 10 percent from March to April. Here's a list of all monitored approaches, sorted by percentage increase.
We called Houston police, who said the numbers were accurate, but they aren't yet sure what caused the spike. We're hoping to hear back from them soon with a theory.
Hmmmmm. One intersection goes from 140 tickets to 1261 tickets in one month? Talk about odd!
From Stiles' list, I noticed the most heavily ticketed intersection (aside from the strange instance above) is the one at FM 1960 and the northbound 249 feeder road, over by Willowbrook Mall. I drive through that intersection most days, and there's a reason it's a problem: short green time, medium yellow time, longer red time -- I should try to time it one day. If a driver isn't familiar with that light, the driver stands a good chance of being caught unaware when the light turns red. Also, those "rolling red" right-turn tickets are probably a boon for the city at that intersection as people try to get onto 249.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/22/08 05:11 AM |
21 May 2008
Officer Johnson's widow wants two officers in each patrol car
In the end, the jury deciding the fate of illegal immigrant/cop killer Juan Quintero said he should spend his life behind bars as punishment for shooting HPD officer Rodney Johnson three times in the face. As local news reports make clear, Officer Johnson's family was not happy with the decision, as Quintero was shown more mercy than he had for Officer Johnson.
Officer Johnson's widow, Josslyn Johnson, has filed suit against the man who employed Juan Quintero, and she has threatened to sue the city if HPD doesn't start requiring two officers in each patrol car (via KPRC-2):
Josslyn Johnson said she wants the city to require two police officers per patrol car for the officers' safety. If the city does not make the policy change by June, Josslyn Johnson said she will seek damages from the city from her husband's death.
"The fact that we go home every night is important to us and our family and it shouldn't be an issue," she said. "We need two men in each unit. You need someone there with you to back you up when you arrive on the scene. You just don't know what the scene will result in."
The city of Houston responded to Josslyn Johnson's threat.
"It will be up to Chief Harold Hurtt and his command to make the decision as to what to do with the HPD resources," a spokesman for the city said.
That doesn't inspire confidence. Chief Hurtt blames the feds for not securing the border, but HPD follows General Order 500-05 issued in 1992 which forbids officers from inquiring about a person's immigration status. Under pressure after Officer Johnson's murder, the city revised the directive a bit so that now if someone is arrested, he or she COULD be asked to prove residency.
The Houston Police Department Union said it supports and agrees with Jossyln Johnson.
"The bottom line is HPD needs more man power. Before Officer Johnson was killed, two other officers were killed in he line of duty because they were alone," a union spokesman said.
HPD has needed more police officers for several years. It hasn't been a concern for MayorWhiteChiefHurtt until recently.
RELATED: KHOU-11, KTRK-13, Chron.com
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/21/08 05:08 AM |
19 May 2008
KPRC-2 reports on abuses by Liliana Rambo's Busybody Brigade
KPRC-2 Stephen Dean reports on another of Mayor White's bad ideas in action:
A new state law intended to crack down on one type of parking problem is leading to other parking hassles, Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.
Parking citation books handed out by the City of Houston are allowing security guards and everyday citizens to cause major inconvenience and frustration, leading some people to pay fines that they are not legally required to pay.
They are the same ticket forms that are issued to police and parking meter attendants throughout the city.
Colette Clift-Mayers of west Houston found out the hard way when she said a private security guard rudely informed her he was writing her a ticket.
She said she was parked legally in a private lot with a storeowner's permission when she was ticketed with an official Houston Municipal Court parking citation.
She said the man seemed power-hungry, able to hand out the same tickets being issued by police officers and parking meter attendants throughout Houston. The security guard routinely wears commando boots and drives a car that looks similar to a police cruiser.
"I believe that he sits in the parking lot and contrives to write tickets," she said. "I think that that is his whole purpose throughout the day."
Local 2 Investigates recorded the security guard in action at a strip center on Eldridge Parkway at Briar Forest Drive.
A review of municipal court records found he wrote some tickets for handicap parking space violators, which is legal.
But he also forced people to pay up or fight in court such violations as double parking, being parked "not wholly within a space" and parking in a fire lane. The ticket book issued by the city gives him much more power than other security guards, who would normally have to call police to have official citations written.
Houston's top parking official, Liliana Rambo, said "We will make sure that we call the volunteer in, and that we explain to the volunteer what they're doing wrong. If it's something that keeps on happening, we could revoke the privilege of that person writing those tickets."
She said citizens can appeal their tickets through a hearing officer at municipal court if they receive tickets from volunteers that have nothing to do with parking for the disabled.
Rambo said abuses are rare for the 450 volunteers trained to write handicap-parking tickets. She calls the city's program is a huge success that is being mirrored by smaller cities.
Asked whether the training for volunteers is truly getting the point across to volunteers that they have no legal authority to write tickets for any other violations, Rambo answered, "I believe so."
Liliana believes so?
Nice.
And if her belief doesn't conform with reality, well, you can always experience the fun of appealing your fraudulent ticket from her Busybody Brigade at muni court. Good times!
We believe we were right to question this bad idea of Mayor White from the start.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/19/08 10:58 PM |
Super Bowl 2012
Supposedly Houston's on the short list, and if so, you just know there's a big ol' price tag to go along with it.
It's taken more than $5 billion to get downtown in the shape it's in today, but you can bet it won't be good enough for Super Bowl 2012.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/19/08 06:32 PM |
18 May 2008
Helfman, et al., call for audit of HPD crime reporting
In their latest op-ed on Houston crime, Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and Bill Wolff call for an audit of HPD's crime reporting.
They make a persuasive case:
What is the true state of crime in Houston? Unfortunately, neither we nor the leaders of HPD know for sure. Basic answers to basic questions are impossible to ascertain with any degree of certainty.
Perhaps the most striking example of this was provided in the recent news stories surrounding HPD's crime counting methods. Just before ThanksgivingIn late November 2007 [sic], KHOU's (Channel 11) Mark Greenblatt revealed that HPD underreported murders in both 2005 and 2006. In perhaps the most egregious case to date, the HPD classified the death of Stephen McCoy, who suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the back of the head, as a "suicide."
Other homicides, in one instance two deaths indisputably by arson, were put into the limbo category of "under investigation." Cases "under investigation" (as to cause of death) may not be classified as murders.
Thus far, due largely to Greenblatt's prodding, six Houston cases "under investigation" have recently been reclassified as murder by HPD.Far from the norm, miscounting murders is significantly more than just a disagreement about interpreting facts or applying rules. Dr. Lawrence Sherman, dean of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania has said, "There is something fundamentally wrong with the practices of the HPD in keeping count of its homicides. There appears to be a clear undercounting."
Other nationally recognized experts agree. Dr. James Fox, professor of law, policy and society at Northeastern University in Boston, a visiting fellow with the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice and the man USA Today described as "arguably the nation's foremost criminologist," was asked directly if he thought the city of Houston was lying about its homicide statistics. He answered: "Well, someone is. Cases that are clear-cut homicides are not being counted."
Yet the beat goes on: The above example of McCoy's death has still not been reclassified to murder, only moved from the category of suicide to "under investigation."
Six cases may not seem like very many, a statistical blip easily repaired. But murder has long been considered a unique bellwether crime because, as Jack Maple, the late crime-fighter who organized CompStat under William J. Bratton in the NYPD once stated, "there are no secret police cemeteries" in which to hide the bodies.
Yet, now we find that in Houston, at least, such a place actually does exist, constructed out of paper much like the Potemkin villages that so pleased the Russian czar.
And the "sharp pencils" that Bratton so loathed were not confined only to the homicide squad. Examples of failures to properly count crimes in other categories abound. Year after year, HPD reported zero (as in none) cases of embezzlement; other recent press reports detailed the use of multiple sets of books to count DWI arrests.
[snip]
Were such similar, repeated and blatant errors committed in a publicly held corporation, the fallout would be swift and painful.
Please click over and read their op-ed in its entirety.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/08 09:18 PM |
In hot pursuit of world class!
As I've caught back up on the news since being out of the country, it's good to see that some Houstonians continue to toss out bad ideas in the hot (mad?) pursuit of world-classness. It lets me know I'm home!
Anne Linehan already noted that Mayor White wants the city to throw out its rules on obnoxious sign lighting downtown for the Pavilions (in the pursuit of worldclassness).
The Astrodome Hotel people continue to pitch their boondoggle, and if that falls through, well, maybe the decrepit old stadium can be turned into a movie studio (in the pursuit of worldclassness).
And then there was this great proposal during the debate over the consent agreement for METRO's ill-advised plans to lay yet more rail down very busy streets:
Stanley "Skip" Almoney, president of Friends of Mandell Park, said Metro should create a "pedestrian corridor" by leaving only one lane of Richmond open.
In the last month, I've zipped along on excellent transit systems in Philadelphia, Athens, and Amsterdam (no trains running down the middle of busy streets!). Those transit systems enhance mobility, rather than purposely reducing it, so they must not be world class. *ahem*
Seriously, it is mind-boggling that anyone thinks Houston will somehow be more world-class if we can just further choke traffic on important streets. Or create another boondoggle convention hotel that demand really doesn't justify. Or have tacky lights on a downtown "destination" that won't be a destination without them.
Maybe one day, we'll just come to grips with being Houston-class, and be okay with that. Because for anyone who sets foot in actual world cities on occasion, this local pursuit of world-classness can be cringe-inducing at times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/08 08:43 PM |
Action 13 Angels help out Chron newspaper vendor (after job injury)
KTRK-13 recently ran this story about a Chronicle street vendor who was partly disabled when a car ran over her foot as she was helping distribute the Hearst daily.
According to the report, two Lakewood church bigwigs ran across the disabled woman (after driving right by her for several months -- apparently the Lord was a little slow to alert them to this woman in need, but not TOO slow thankfully!), decided to try to help her out, and ultimately got her hooked up with a surgeon who agreed to help repair her injured foot. As KTRK-13 reports, she is doing much better now.
We can only imagine the outrage of, say, the Chronicle's Editorial LiveJournalists or the Plagiarist or the Teen Diarist, if some company that's considered a Chron "bad guy" had treated an employee independent contractor so shabbily. But we haven't seen anything about it in the Hearst daily -- only a KTRK-13 video.
The Chronicle really needs to end this dangerous practice of selling newspapers in the streets.
PREVIOUSLY: Chronicle vendor killed in unsafe work environment, Chron sues for constitutional right to sell papers in streets, Newspaper vendor killed in west Houston, Chron: Bad news story is mining company's fault.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/08 08:13 PM |
Chron letters: METRO undercover cops harass downtown professional
From the Chronicle letter section comes another edition of METRO customer-service excellence:
On May 9, I exited the Metro train at the TMC Transit Center station and a man called out to me asking me to stop. I looked at him, saw that he was dressed in a University of Houston jersey, and thought he was trying to hand out information or advertise something. I turned away from him to continue down the platform so I could go to work. He ran up to me before I reached the end of the platform, screamed at me and grabbed my arm. It was only at this time that I recognized him as a plain-clothed Metro police officer.
The only form of identification he had was a badge hanging on his neck that previously was not visible because of the crowd. Even when he identified himself, he shoved me toward the center of the platform where his partner in harassment, dressed in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, verbally berated me as well. This rude behavior from an officer in plain clothes is needless to verify that I, a 34-year-old man in professional dress, paid a dollar to ride the train.
This whole incident could have been avoided if the men were in uniform and clearly identified as Metro police.
CHRISTOPHER DONOHOE
Tomball
Were these undercover members of METRO's elite counterterror unit? We'll probably never know. But if you're riding METRO and someone in a Cougar or Steelers jersey acts belligerently, better snap to attention -- you wouldn't want to get Tasered by Tom Lambert's finest!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/08 07:50 PM |
David Mincberg: Champion of ethics, stickler for deadlines
Good news for Tom Bazan: He now has an ally in his fight to get timely TxPIA requests out of METRO:
David Mincberg, Ed Emmett's Democratic opponent, wants to know why the ethics reform task force the county judge appointed in February hasn't delivered its recommendations.
According to this story about Emmett's announcement of the task force, the panel was supposed to report back within three months, i.e. yesterday.
"I'm surprised Ed Emmett failed to follow through on this promise," Mincberg said in a statement. "He's simply dropped the ball. We need an independent Board of Ethics that is both free of politics and gets the job done."
Finally someone will tell Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson to stop stalling on TxPIA's.
Just curious, though. Back in 2007 the City of Houston dropped the ball in releasing a critical budget report, missing a deadline by months:
Houston Mayor Bill White is under scrutiny concerning last year's city budget report, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.
The chairman of the Harris County Republican party wants to know why city leaders are already looking ahead to next year's budget when last year's report still has not been released.
Party officials said it's taxpayer money and it's time residents knew how their money was spent in 2006. But they said the mayor's office has still not completed an audit of the annual financial statement.
[snip]
There is nearly a four-month-long grace period after the October deadline.
But the city missed that and is now in violation of local code.
[snip]
The mayor said Houstonians should expect to see results soon.
"It's going to be out any day now. Not in response to the letter, but in response to me and the controller saying repeatedly, 'We need to get this thing wrapped up.' And that was an estimate that was given some days ago before I saw this letter," White said.
Let's see Mincberg's correspondence with Mayor White demanding the release of the 2006 budget report. I mean, he's a stickler for deadlines! I imagine he was all over Mayor White's case for what ended up being a multi-month delay in releasing information that is required by law.
And why doesn't he release his communication with Mayor White where he chastised the agenda-setter for handing over a NO-BID, long-term airport concessions contract to a company whose owner, coincidentally, of course, had donated generously to city councilmembers and the mayor?
But above all else, let's see have a look at Mincberg's business dealings, both as an apartment complex developer, and as the city's $1 per year head of Department of Housing and Community Development, to get an idea of his own personal code of ethics.
By the way, if Mr. Mincberg is interested in helping, Tom Bazan's latest TxPIA request is actually a third request for information about all consultants on METRO's payroll. We know of two: Frank Wilson's buddy, Frank Russo, and former Houston councilwoman Carol Alvarado. I'm sure Bazan would appreciate some assistance in getting that information released.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/18/08 12:23 PM |
The Chron's Ethics Policy
Chron Reader Rep. Steve Jetton notes that the newspaper's set-in-concrete-and-rebar Ethics Policy has claimed a victim:
The Chronicle's Ethics Policy has cost one of its sports columnist his extra job as a radio talk show host. Jerome Solomon was hired by KNFC to host a talk show after the radio station adopted an all-sports format last year. All went well until the station decided it needed Solomon to contribute to the bottom line by doing commercials. The Chronicle's Ethics Policy prohibits editorial employees from endorsing products. Solomon had to decline and the station replaced him.
At the Chronicle, there is a wall between editorial employees and advertising employees. Editorial employees don't sell ads and advertising employees don't write stories or edit copy. The paper doesn't want readers to get the impression that the business side of the paper seeps into the editorial product. To allow otherwise would call into question the paper's editorial integrity. For example, if Solomon accepted pay from the Texans or Rockets to tout the team, readers would be justified in wondering if the opinions he expressed in his column had been softened because of the financial relationship. Furthermore, if Solomon and other employees can't sell ads for the Chronicle, they sure can't sell them for a radio station or other media.
Back in 2005, Banjo Jones blogged about Jeff Cohen's Ethics Declaration:
It turns out the rodeo spends a preposterous amount of money to furnish its offices and provide free booze to its friends and volunteers. And, oh, by the way, they give free tickets and free drink coupons to media organizations that provide the interminable, over-the-top coverage of the world's largest rodeo.
(The Chron was quick to point out that only two of its employees made use of the free drink coupons while a shocking seventeen Channel 13 employees used them, which the newspaper evidently felt gave it the moral high ground.)
In addition, the media freebies gave Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen an opening to flex his ethical muscles and declare the city's only newspaper won't be accepting any more free tickets ("outside our sponsorship agreements"), which should further endear him to rank and file employees who will feel better about themselves now that they've been ethically cleansed from on high.
Jetton doesn't elaborate on the what the Chron's Ethics Policy says about the "firewall" between opinion and news. Maybe he can scan the entire Chron Ethics Policy and provide a link to it, in the interest of transparency. Maybe we'll see that the Policy addresses plagiarism.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/18/08 08:26 AM |
17 May 2008
METRO violates Clean Water Act
Well, it appears Mayor White needs to go after METRO:
The Clean Water Act is designed to clean up our waters.
Thousands of people pass through METRO Transit Centers every day, but 11 News discovered that what they’re leaving behind could end up in Galveston Bay.
One of the act’s guidelines says you must prevent dirty water from going down storm drains. Regularly scheduled pressure washing goes on at all 19 METRO transit centers throughout the county.
“It was our understanding we were in compliance,” METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.
But 11 News uncovered they aren’t in compliance.
“The rules really require us to take all available measures to protect the water around us, and the storm sewer system is how all the water gets to the bayou,” Deputy Director of Public Works Andy Icken said.
Here’s one way you can do it: Collect the potentially contaminated water.
Think it’s a lot of work for nothing? Think again. There are high levels of oil, grease, metals and bacteria polluting Galveston Bay.
Galveston Bay is the second most productive estuary for seafood in the country.
Woops! Raequel Roberts (who famously said stray current leakage was akin to what a 9-volt battery discharges) first says METRO thought it was in compliance, but later in the story says, "Now we have a better idea of exactly what is needed to follow the regulations, and we’re going to do that." Which essentially means METRO couldn't have thought it was in compliance because that would have meant METRO had done its homework, and METRO would have known what it was doing was in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Mayor White needs to get on this. This has to be right up there with refinery pollution.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/08 05:05 PM |
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