12 June 2011
Incompetents on Incompetents: Chron editorial board reduces $180 million METRO writeoff to $12 million
$12 million writeoff?Considering that Metro has a nearly billion dollar budget and just this April wrote off $12 million in wasted investments, a $1.9 million a year airport shuttle doesn't seem that extravagant.
Try $180 million ($168 million, as first reported by Mike Reed and the Examiner news -- and later updated to reflect a $180 million writeoff).
Confusing a $180 million writeoff for $12 million is about what we'd expect from the same newspaper that saw fit to turn Mike Snyder and Lisa Falkenberg loose on a reporter actually doing watchdog journalism on METRO: Weak.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/12/11 08:42 PM |
Grier's handpicked Apollo 20 chief leaves
The Examiner's Charlotte Aguilar reported last week that the head of HISD's Apollo 20 program is exiting the district one year after being recruited by Superintendent Terry Grier:
Jeremy Beard, the school improvement officer in charge of Houston ISD's Apollo 20 project, is leaving to take a job with the Harvard-based consultant who devised the school turnaround project, the Examiner learned Friday.
Beard will become a regional vice president for Blueprint Schools Network, an extension of Harvard EdLabs founded by Harvard professor Dr. Roland Fryer.
He reportedly indicated to staff he may still be working with Houston schools in his new capacity, while tackling national projects.
The Chron's School Zone blog has Beard's internal HISD email which includes this:
Watching the impact on student achievement that is happening, in a short time, in Houston, with our team, and the Apollo 20 Program has been an invaluable experience.
At this time, Blueprint Network School(offshoot of Harvard EdLabs) is offering a VP of Regional Program position to me to help them build out this model nationally in order to help other school districts close the achievement gap across our nation. I feel this position is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can continue to work with schools and principals in Houston via EdLabs and Blueprint, while impacting children nationwide.
Sounds like HISD was a stepping stone on his career path.
RELATED: Chronicle editorial gives Apollo 20 an "Incomplete" after first year
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/12/11 03:46 PM |
10 June 2011
How to increase divorce, neck pain, and insomnia
Write On METRO: Long Commutes Lead to Divorce, Neck Pain, Insomnia
The solution, Mary Sit says, is to let METRO do the driving. However, we would encourage potential riders to proceed with caution.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/11 05:40 PM |
09 June 2011
Texas Watchdog investigates The Houston (ISD) Way
Be sure to read the entire investigative piece, and also check out some of the comments on the version that Chron.com posted under Texas Watchdog's Creative Commons license.Those business contacts would suggest that [Nicole] West is a person of many interests and talents. Perhaps fittingly, a 2008 profile of West in a local magazine said she “ascribes her success to her ability to multi-task (and to) generate multiple streams of income.”
But she's also one of the closest friends of the president of HISD's board of trustees, Paula Harris. Harris is the godmother of West's children.
Harris has voted four times to approve millions of dollars in school district contracts involving Westco, a Texas Watchdog investigation has found.
The big question is why Paula Harris wouldn't simply recuse herself from some of these votes (it's not clear that the votes were particularly close). Of course, that leads us to wonder if the other trustees knew of the close relationship between the two women.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/09/11 09:33 PM |
08 June 2011
Mayor Annise Parker: Rain tax numbers provided to voters/council bogus
Parker admits estimate wrong on drainage fee - Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle
Gee, ya think?Mayor Annise Parker acknowledged Tuesday that her administration erred in telling voters that the average homeowner's monthly Proposition 1 drainage fee would be $5. It is actually closer to $8.25, she said.
Parker said that among the options she will send to the Houston City Council to make up for the error is to lower homeowners' bills to the $5 average.
[snip]
"The typical example we used may have given the wrong impression to the voters and to Council," Parker said.
The rain tax proposition narrowly passed, despite the fact that many property owners seemed to rely on the assertions of proponents (and "trusted" elected officials) that they'd be paying $5/month on average (of course, non-property owners probably were less concerned about those assertions). So voters were misled by their elected officials. This is EXACTLY why some of us suggested the proposal needed to be more specific (sadly, a majority ignored us).
Even worse, citizens were misled by the former city controller, who was presumably thought to have some grasp of numbers by the voters who made her mayor.
At least the mayor has finally owned up to the big deception. Just a few weeks ago, shortly after we raised the matter of the excessive rain tax assessments here (before any MSM outlets), the mayor's spokesperson told Texas Watchdog:
So what changed the administration's tune? Believe it or not, some rare watchdog reporting from the Houston Chronicle:"The $5 was based on 1,875 square feet," said Janice Evans, the mayor's spokeswoman. "I don’t know what Renew Houston was saying. She supported the ballot initiative, but they ran their own campaign."
Remember, this is the former city controller who was presumably elected, in part, because voters trusted her with numbers. Whoops!Prompted by an opens records request from the Chronicle, Parker said, the city discovered that there were far more bills above $5 a month than below. As a result the city discovered its error.
Speaking of which, here's more from Moran's print story:
Tax, spend, borrow! Why not?Parker said lowering bills to homeowners enough to stay true to the $5 average would leave the city $10 million to $12 million short of what it needs to collect as decreed by the proposition. She said the city could borrow that money to get through fiscal year 2012.
There's one thing that we probably already knew but has been reported definitely -- this "glitch" (as the headline writer quaintly calls it) won't hold up the bills based on the Parker/Costello rain tax deception! Surely you didn't expect otherwise?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/08/11 08:08 PM |
07 June 2011
Psychic sends law enforcement, media on wild goose chase
Nothing Found After Psychic's Tip Leads To Search For Bodies - KPRC-2 News
Seriously?LIBERTY COUNTY, Texas -- Liberty County officials said Tuesday evening they found nothing after a tip from a psychic that dozens of bodies were in a rural area.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/07/11 10:06 PM |
06 June 2011
It's not a revenue problem, but a spending problem
Controller issues warning on mayor’s budget - Chris Moran, Chron Houston Politics
We thought all along that the Mayor and her Council passed a sham budget because of its *ahem* overly optimistic assumptions. We hope Mr. Green continues to speak up on these matters, because making the same mistakes again will prove costly.This fiscal year, for example, the city banked on taking in $40 million on real estate sales. The controller did not include that in his numbers, and he turned out to be closer to the mark than the administration.
The city now plans to draw down the reserve fund by $28.6 million to close the books on the fiscal year that ends this month to cover unrealized real estate sales.
But now that cushion is gone, so if Green is right again, the city can’t turn to reserves without risking its credit rating.
Cash-strapped Houston paying for past bonds, tax cuts - Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle
Actually, this headline is a poor one. The city is paying now not merely because of tax-rate cuts (tax revenues remained roughly the same, thanks to many years of significant appraisal creep), but because the last administration punted on really tough pension decisions, liked buying shiny trinkets, and wasn't interested in the sorts of spending cuts needed to put the city's financial house in better order (in fairness, the Brown Administration left many of those problems for Mr. White, who might have been a formidable statewide candidate if he had used his political capital to solve them).
Councilmember Sullivan gets it right in the story:
Houston has a spending problem, exacerbated by a pension bill that is coming due.Councilman Mike Sullivan, who was in office to approve the last two tax cuts, said they were the right thing to do.
The real culprit is increasing spending, not lowering taxes, he said.
"Government has grown. The city of Houston itself as a government has grown. More employees, more departments, more programs," he said.
During the White administration, the general fund budget increased by more than half a billion dollars a year - a 37 percent rise in six years.
Interestingly, this sort of assessment did not appear on the pages of the Houston Chronicle when Bill White was making his run for governor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/11 09:15 PM |
Five years later, thousands of rape kits sit in a property room, untested
HPD's untested rape kits delay justice in assaults - Anita Hassan, Houston Chronicle
It is hardly shocking that the current administration isn't prioritizing the rape kits given the current budget crisis that has been allowed to build over the last decade while mayors punted on the bigger problems (more on that in the next post), but it is shameful and disappointing considering what the last administration did prioritize.Five years ago, when the troubled Houston Police Department crime lab resumed DNA testing, more than 4,000 sexual assault kits sat in a property room freezer awaiting testing.
Today, much of that evidence — some dating to the 1990s — is still awaiting processing.
So far, only 200 cases have been shaved off that backlog, according to lab officials who say the slow process is due to a lack of manpower.
[snip]
[State Sen. John] Whitmire said he is shocked that city and police officials have not more aggressively dealt with the crime lab backlog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/06/11 08:46 PM |
02 June 2011
Pardon the interruption...
The blog will be taking a little break over the next few days.
We may check in periodically, but do feel free to comment on any local news/developments in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/02/11 08:56 AM |
01 June 2011
Clear Lake: Parker/Costello rain tax shouldn't apply to us
Clear Lake residents fighting Houston drainage fee - Christine Dobbyn, KTRK-13 News
Not when it comes to money grabs like this one!Clear Lake is a master-planned community in the Houston city limits. But since 1963, all waterworks, sewers and drainage facilities have been operated and maintained by the Clear Lake Water Authority.
Folks who live there say they don't receive any of those benefits from the city of Houston, so they have a problem with paying the city of Houston.
[snip]
"Read the law, read the ordinances, it's pretty clear, so it should be an open and shut case, but unfortunately city politics isn't always like that," Clear Lake homeowner Greg Mitchell said.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/11 07:24 AM |
31 May 2011
HFD endorsed the wrong candidate...
Parker's feud with firefighters snarls city budget - Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle
Ah, details. Why expect the former councilmember and controller to have a firm grasp of numbers when she's busy playing politics?Even with the labor deal inked and her budget released late last week, Parker continued describing the fire department as part of the problem.
"In 13½ years in city government, I have never seen the fire department come in on budget. They routinely blow past their budget and we pick up the slack," Parker told the Chronicle editorial board.
Actually, Parker's finance department numbers show that HFD came in under budget twice from 2006 to 2011.
Chron user jj_monkey asks an interesting question in the comments. Anybody know more about the mayor's salary?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/31/11 11:04 PM |
30 May 2011
How's that "sanctuary city" status working out for Houston?
The suspect accused of plowing down and killing a Houston police officer in north Houston Sunday was found to be an illegal immigrant, under the influence and carrying drugs, according to authorities.
Investigators said 26-year-old Johoan Rodriguez had a blood alcohol level of.238, which is three times the legal limit, and had cocaine in his pocket when he struck and killed Officer Kevin Will.
A horrific and needless tragedy. Our condolences go out to the family of Officer Kevin Will.
Here's hoping Governor Perry will include the "sanctuary city" legislation in the upcoming special session of the legislature. It's certainly not a cure-all for the nation's immigration problem, and it's certainly not a substitute for the federal government doing more about the problem, but it is something that the state can do to remove needless barriers that stand in the way of law enforcement (in the case of Houston, the needless barrier is a directive from the police chief in 1992, with only the most minor modifications since). Democratic maneuvers successfully killed this priority of Gov. Perry during the regular session.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/30/11 08:07 PM |
Do "drastic measures" include cutting the dining and non-teaching tabs?
HISD considers drastic measures to deal with cuts - Cynthia Cisneros, KTRK-13 News
In Austin, the Texas Legislature will go into a special session starting Tuesday to vote on a school finance bill, and local school districts will have to wait longer to learn how big their budget gaps will be.
The Houston Independent School District is already considering drastic measures to deal with state cuts.
It would be interesting if, while KTRK is giving HISD a platform to lobby for their tax increase, their reporters also followed Matt Bramanti's lead and took a closer look at the school district's check register. Or perhaps the district's spending on non-teaching personnel/administration. Maybe the district's reserve funds. Who knows, maybe a good journalist who was trying just a little bit could even come up with a few more!
Oh, and here's a fact that keeps getting left out of MSM accounts of the legislative session (including this one) for some reason: the proposed 2012-13 public education budget actually increases spending in absolute terms compared to the 2010-2011 budget -- by $125 million. We've added students, yes, so per-student funding will decline, and some districts may suffer more than others. But if the school finance deal remains the same in the special session, the 2012-13 budget will slightly increase public education spending overall.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/30/11 07:53 PM |
27 May 2011
HISD pushes tax increase; Bramanti highlights fun HISD spending
HISD has begun laying the groundwork for a tax increase. Here's a snippet from KTRK's story last night:
Apparently HISD Trustee Juliette Stipeche is not following Matt Bramanti on twitter. Bramanti fairly regularly examines the HISD check register. Here are the interesting expenditures he posted this week from HISD's obviously "bare bones" operation:There's a possibility HISD will raise your taxes.
The district has laid off hundreds of teachers. It's closing and consolidating some schools and now the district may raise its tax rate. HISD is still trying to make up for a $60 million shortfall in next year's budget.
[snip]
Most HISD board member say raising taxes is a likely scenario since most are reluctant to make further budget cuts.
"I believe it's something we seriously have to entertain because it's such a significant shortfall and I believe people would be so surprised by the devastating cuts if we have to take cuts further," said HISD Trustee Juliette Stipeche.
Tweet 1: This week's @HoustonISD checks include: $5,700 Schlitterbahn; $3,500 Hard Rock Cafe; $15,000 Four Seasons; $6,100 Kemah Boardwalk. #fun
Tweet 2: More @HoustonISD spending: $1,100 Demeris BBQ; $1,400 Teotihuacan Mexican Cafe; $1,700 Alonti Cafe; $2,900 Don Carlos. All in one day, 5/24.
UPDATE (06/23/2011) - HISD senior manager of media relations Jason Spencer sent us the following note, with his permission to post below:
The first point I would make is that none of the expenses listed in these two Tweets were the result of central office spending. Next to each item, we have listed the revenue source. Those that begin with TA2 are funded by “school activity funds.” This is not taxpayer money. School activity funds come from class fund raisers (such as car washes and bake sales), student out-of-pocket money (prom tickets, for example), or vending machine profits. The Four Seasons bill, for example, is probably related to a high school prom.
Items that begin with GF1 are funded through campus general fund budgets. This is tax money. These expenditures are for campus staff meeting meals, all from reasonably priced restaurants.
This week's @HoustonISD checks include: $5,700 Schlitterbahn (TA2-99-203210-068-99-973); $3,500 Hard Rock Café(TA2-99-203210-020-99-973; $15,000 Four Seasons(TA2-99-203210-016-99-973 & TA2-99-204842-016-99-973); $6,100 Kemah Boardwalk (TA2-99-203210-020-99-973).
More @HoustonISD spending: $1,100 Demeris BBQ(GF1-23-6351-056-10-S1-101); $1,400 Teotihuacan Mexican Café(GF1-13-6351-061-99-S1-101); $1,700 Alonti Café (GF1-23-6351-023-10-S1-101); $2,900 Don Carlos (TA2-99-203243-046-99-973). All in one day, 5/24.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/27/11 07:11 PM |
26 May 2011
Judge: "Jesus" can be named at Houston National Cemetery prayer (updated)
Judge orders VA cemetery to allow "Jesus" to be named in prayer - Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle
Good call by Judge Hughes regarding a ludicrous edict by a VA bureaucrat.A federal judge slapped down the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Thursday, saying it can't stop a pastor from using the words "Jesus Christ" in his Memorial Day invocation at Houston National Cemetery.
"The government cannot gag citizens when it says it is in the interest of national security, and it cannot do it in some bureaucrat's notion of cultural homogeneity," U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes wrote in his order, granting the Rev. Scott Rainey's motion for the court to intercede. "The right to free expression ranges from the dignity of Abraham Lincoln's speeches to Charlie Sheen's rants."
(05/27/2011 UPDATE): The Chronicle reports that the VA made this arrogant "concession" to Judge Hughes:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Hindrichs told federal District Judge Lynn Hughes that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will not demand that Memorial Day prayers at Houston National Cemetery on Monday be as non-denominational as possible.
"(The agency) will let the prayer go on this Monday," Hindrichs told Hughes.
No, the VA won't "let" Rev. Rainey's prayer go on as it has in the past. Rather, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that it will. The VA and its attorneys and petty bureaucrats need to get that part straight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/26/11 10:44 PM |
Bill King: COH finances bleak and getting bleaker
Popular city budget myths obscure structural issues - Bill King, Houston Chronicle
From 2003 through 2011, in the city's general fund, recurring expenses have exceeded recurring revenues by about $430 million. The majority of this deficit was financed by issuing 30-year pension bonds. Also, the city has been selling off everything that is not tied down.
The mayor was still able to pull a few more rabbits out of the hat for the upcoming year, like deferring pension contributions, spinning off the convention center with five years' worth of rent paid in advance, and selling property to a controlled subsidiary. But the hat is just about hareless at this point. As a result, the city is being forced to make real budget cuts that citizens are going to feel.
Michelle Mitchell, the former Goldman Sachs banker who served as the city's chief financial officer during most of Bill White's administration, gave a chilling five-year projection of the city's finances just before she retired last year. Her projections showed ever increasing deficits for as far as the eye could see without draconian budget cuts. She placed most of the blame on the city's pension plans, flatly stating that they are unsustainable.
Read the whole thing. Houston's financial difficulties are not going away any time soon, and indeed the pension liabilities suggest strongly they will get worse, steadily, without significant revisions/reforms.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/26/11 10:42 PM |
Examiner News: METRO finances bleak and getting bleaker
Metro’s finances bleak — and getting bleaker in latest report - Michael Reed, YourHoustonNews.com
The Metropolitan Transit Agency will be facing roughly a $2.6 billion negative cash balance by 2035, if both the general mobility payments to the city remain in place and its light-rail expansion plans go forward.
This according the transit agency’s own March 10 financial plan, based in part on current revenue and ridership projects and submitted to the Federal Transit Administration, concerning the agency’s New Starts Program funding for the North Corridor light-rail line.
METRO's playwright-in-chief is thought to be someone who understands financial reality. When is he going to hit the brakes on the unaffordable rail expansion?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/26/11 10:34 PM |
25 May 2011
Chron columnist suffers broken heart over the color beige
Beige, blotchy and bland - Lisa Gray, Houston Chronicle
Her heart is broken over... beige?Weirdly, the renovation skips over the River Oaks Theatre; maybe Weingarten hoped to avoid another round of petitions and protests. Though the shopping-center building surrounding the theater is being beiged and turreted and blanded, the theater itself keeps its historical marquee and the horizontal black-and-white stripes over it.
The effect is heartbreaking.
With so much turmoil and tragedy in the world, it's good to know that the Chron's arts columnist and editorial board member is *ahem* keeping it all in perspective.
Wow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/25/11 10:15 PM |
HFD: Voting machine fire not arson
Voting machine fire not arson - Chris Moran, Chron Houston Politics
“The fire doesn’t respect what time of year it is, who’s running or whatever,” Brolan said at a media briefing today. “All causes other than electrical heating and/or electrical shorting malfunctions have been eliminated through the course of this investigation. This fire will be classified as the result of an unspecified electrical short.”
An unspecified electrical short? Well, that sure cleared things up!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/25/11 10:07 PM |
Port Authority brings in Rusty Hardin; state lege takes note
KTRK-13's Undercover Man Wayne Dolcefino checks in with the latest at the Port Authority:
Now that Rusty Hardin is involved, you know it's gotten serious.
Indeed, Texas Watchdog reports that the state lege has taken note:
No doubt! A little media oversight really seems to have gotten things rolling.Take a bow, Wayne Dolcefino.
In the teeth of a month’s worth of stories broken by the vaunted investigative reporter for ABC-13 in Houston, the Texas Senate unanimously voted to subject the Port of Houston to the state’s sunset review process.
[snip]
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he thought the Port of Houston could also do with some state oversight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/25/11 10:03 PM |
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