15 December 2009
Gattis on Mayor-elect Parker's inherited challenges
TORY GATTIS posts his extensive "wish list" agenda for Mayor Parker, but starts with the basics:
She faces a difficult financial situation at the city, and obviously her first priority will be getting that under control. In addition to those short-term pressures, there are the long-term financial issues of city employee pensions and Metro's solvency, with rail cost estimates spiraling upward and revenue shrinking. If she does nothing else in the next two years but fix those financial problems and get the city and Metro on a sustainable financial path (without raising taxes), she'll have one of the most accomplished mayoral terms in city history....
To the immediate financial problems, I would add improving the management at both METRO (which has problems with accountability not to mention a bloated PR department for a public agency) and HPD (understaffing, crime lab, and the soon-to-be-returning-to-Arizona chief bungler come to mind as inherited issues), along with some needed public works scrutiny (we'll defer to contributor Ubu Roi's wisdom here). We're good basic-government types, and we hope Ms. Parker will return a needed focus to finances, transit, police, and public works.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/15/09 05:59 PM |
Houston Way update: Uptown TIRZ settles with Collins brothers
THE CHRON'S MIKE SNYDER reported last week that the Uptown TIRZ "paid $990,000 to settle a lawsuit over the city's condemnation of a small piece of land adjacent to a mixed-use project being developed by a major campaign donor to Mayor Bill White."
There was a statewide campaign to be run, after all, so this "Houston Way" loose end really needed to be tied up before the next mayor arrived.
PREVIOUSLY: The Houston Way paves the way in Galleria-area land taking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/15/09 05:37 PM |
14 December 2009
Political donations? What political donations?
TEXAS WATCHDOG broke an interesting political story on Friday that sort of got lost in the shuffle on election eve: The Harris County Republican Party is apparently having difficulties accounting for/reporting some political donations.
Jared Woodfill and his leadership team seem determined to keep giving Republican activists plenty of reasons to make a change. Will it happen?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/09 10:32 PM |
How is Mayor Bill going to run for guv as a problem-solver?
YESTERDAY, THE CHRON'S CAUCASIAN THINK TANK admitted that there are still too many problems with HPD's crime lab:
Seven years ago seven! we learned that HPD's crime lab had botched thousands of cases. But even now, after a complete restructuring, the crime lab's problems persist....
About that long ago, we also started learning of HPD's looming manpower shortage. And of the massive unfunded liability in municipal pensions. Those problems persist, and we can throw in a serious deterioration in muni finances over the last five years.
We wish Mayor-elect Parker well in addressing these and other serious problems that she will be inheriting from Houston's Dem candidate for governor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/09 10:22 PM |
The election and beyond
SLAMPO posts his fine summary of the municipal elections that have mercifully concluded.
And Cory Crow notes that the Chron has fired up the "newly elected public official cliche generator."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/09 03:58 PM |
13 December 2009
Examiner: Uptown Light Rail mobility gives a brake to motorists
THE EXAMINER NEWS ran a story earlier this week by Michael Reed on the traffic/mobility disaster METRO is trying to foist upon the Post Oak/Galleria area.
The headline really drives home the point of the story.
Meanwhile, another area newspaper sat down for tea with Frank Wilson, who assured their fine reporters/editorialists/editors that everything is great and JOHN CULBERSON IS MEAN.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 10:51 PM |
Deficit spending? That had to be news to readers of Houston's newspaper of record
A LOREN STEFFY COLUMN from the past week (or so) had this interesting observation:
Five years of deficit spending have largely depleted reserve funds and left the city vulnerable to rising expenses and falling tax revenue.
Readers of Steffy's newspaper were surely unaware of this deficit spending over the last five years, having been subject to Mrs. White*'s celebration of Bill The Great's tenure and financial acumen.
* Mrs. White being Cory Crow's nickname for a recent iteration of the Chronicle editorial board.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 10:41 PM |
A "non-transparent" holiday media slight?
KRIV-26'S ISIAH CAREY AND KPRC-2'S MARY BENTON both blog about attending Mayor White's big local holiday media soiree.
We asked our friends at Texas Watchdog why they hadn't posted similarly exciting celebrity photos, but they informed us they weren't invited.
That's probably not a big surprise, huh?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 10:28 PM |
More evidence that the city is broke?
KHOU-11 reports that the city is (another) $3.3 million in the red:
The variance is small -- just a fraction of one percent of the overall budget -- but it means some small projects may need to be postponed, said Councilmember Anne Clutterbuck.
Would it be too much to hope that the Dynamo stadium be among those?
A series of relatively small but unanticipated fluctuations in October's tax collections added up to the new shortfall, Parker and Mitchell said. One was heavy rain. The city's Combined Utilities System, which runs the water/sewer system, collected $6 million less in water bills in October because residents watered their lawns less than anticipated.
Just how much the city's budget has been stretched to cover "world class" amenities such as stadiums, bike trails, non-functional electronic parking meters, "mobility teams", etc. is obvious if a little rain can throw the entire budget out of balance.
Clutterbuck, who chairs the budget committee, said city leaders will have to make "hard decisions" and cut planned programs in order to keep the budget from sliding into the red. The city has already dedicated the money in a savings account to close gaps that already exist, she said.
Translation: We've spent our reserves down to zero to cover Bill White's spending priorities; there is nothing left in the bank. It's the Houston (soon to be Austin or Washington) Way!
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 12/13/09 10:25 PM |
The local newspaper goes... trivial
LAURENCE SIMON describes "why the Houston Chronicle will never win a Pulitzer."
Of course, there are many more reasons, but his example is a good one.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 10:20 PM |
A week away, and the Chron's as bad as ever
IT'S UNFORTUNATE WHEN YOU you come back to the metro desk of a bad newspaper after not reading it carefully for a week or so and find...
(1) Brad Olson offering the following: "Council member Lovell is in her own runoff race in which the outcome is not assured for anyone, so it defies logic that she would expend campaign resources on a race other than her own, said [Keir] Murray, who is unaffiliated with any council races this year but worked for Lovell's opponent in 2005. "The rule is, you take care of your own business before you worry about anybody else's."
As we have noted before, when a journalist must run an identifier like that, a good editor should insist that the journalist find another source. This quote is even worse since the Aiyer/Lovell race was particularly acrimonious, eventually resulting in ethics and legal charges. Sadly, "good" and "editor" seem to be mutually exclusive terms at the Chron metro desk.
(2) Carolyn Feibel offering METRO's Frank Wilson this nice PR opportunity. Give Feibel credit -- she certainly isn't imitating the Rosanna Ruiz career-limiting move of critical reporting on the world's worst, least transparent transit organization. And the Chron editorial board has that same mindset. It's too bad that pro-METRO editorial preferences override any chance of honest reporting about the transit organization in the local newspaper. But the fact they ask us to pretend they are actually "reporting" objectively on the organization these days is just offensive.
(3) Mike Snyder getting this nice upbringing from a former Chron and AP reporter:
During my years as a reporter at the Chronicle, it was standard practice to call the subject of a story before publishing information about them. Had Mike Snyder called Judge Emmett, or me (as his spokesman), we could have explained....
Just click over and read the rest (scroll down).
Snyder should now lash out as an off-record and unidentified commenter to various bloggers. That always makes things better. *eyeroll*
(4) And finally, the Chron's expensive-but-pathetic doodler* finally getting some rare attention. Sadly, we think many people are taking Nick Anderson way too seriously. Like other people who moved to Houston hoping to capture a Pulitzer for the paper that just can't win one, we wish Anderson luck when he inevitably moves on after being unable to deliver for this pathetic excuse of a big-city newspaper.
* Yeah, before a certain journo can send that "please don't quote me" email blast -- I realize he's not on the metro desk. But the content fits, no? At least it generated more interest than most of his doodling.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 09:58 PM |
Government is America's only growth industry (even locally!)
THE CHRON'S CHRIS MORAN points out that County Judge Ed Emmett isn't happy about the county housing director's big pay raise this year. The housing bureaucrat's pay jumped from roughly $100k two years ago to $260k this year.
That's outrageous!
How does this happen (and why are the only growth areas of the current economy in the bloated public sector)?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 09:18 PM |
Running the city like a business (not)... to the very end
AS MANY READERS know, I moved across town about a week ago... and have been busy unpacking, sorting out AT&T nonsense, etc., ever since.
One of the best things about taking a week off from commenting on the news of the area is that you KNOW there will be a good one when you get back to paying attention.
For me, that's the news that in the final days of the Bill White Administration, his fine public employees managed to certify a decorative fire hydrant as a live, City of Houston emergency fire hydrant. Pure comedy gold (unless your house in the neighborhood is burning down we suppose).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/09 08:50 PM |
Media labels
YEAH, THAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THE ELECTION: It's been interesting watching national media reaction to Annise Parker's win yesterday. Many headlines are referencing her sexual orientation, continuing an ongoing media obsession with labels. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be a primary issue for her, and for more than a decade now, it hasn't been an issue for voters, despite the recent efforts of some Locke supporters. She's a moderate Democrat with conservative fiscal tendencies, and that combination has translated into electoral success.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/09 12:32 PM |
Mayor Annise Parker
CONGRATULATIONS TO ANNISE PARKER WHO WILL BE THE NEXT MAYOR: She'll inherit many challenges from Bill White, and we wish her the best of luck.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/09 05:52 AM |
12 December 2009
24 Hour Fitness manager now heads BARC
BARC HAS A NEW BOSS: "David Atencio, the new general manager who begins Monday, hails from the private sector and has spent the past 17 years in the fitness industry, working in sales all over the world before taking on management positions for 24 Hour Fitness, the health club chain. He does not have any experience with animals or shelters."
Via the Chron's Bradley Olsen, who notes that Gerry Fusco (management expert/The One) says experience with animals or shelters isn't necessary. For the animals' sake, we hope he's right.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/09 06:44 AM |
08 December 2009
Blogging slowdown
REAL LIFE is intruding on the blogging, so it's probably going to be a little quiet here over the next few days.
In the meantime, feel free to treat this as an open-comment thread.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/09 08:08 AM |
06 December 2009
METRO'S declining ridership numbers
IN LIGHT OF METRO CHAIRMAN DAVID WOLFF'S ADMONITION that Houston should have a "transit ethic," here are some eye-opening stats from the indefatigable Tom Bazan:
BEFORE METRO BUILT URBAN RAIL, FY 2001
Population: 4,262,000
Transit Boardings: 101,914,157
Unemployment Rate: 4.3%
SIX YEARS AFTER URBAN RAIL COMPLETED, FY 2009
Population: 5,090,600
Transit Boardings: 73,080,702 + 11,561,633(rail) = 84,642,335 total
Unemployment Rate: 8.5%
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/06/09 03:20 PM |
Chief Hurtt, thy name is Courage
CHIEF HURTT'S BLAMING PREVIOUS HPD ADMINISTRATIONS FOR FINGERPRINT UNIT PROBLEMS:
As we go through the organization and we find these things, the messenger gets punished, Hurtt said. And this has been going on for many, many years in the organization and through many administrations.
Hurtt added, I'm not too sure that other folks in previous years didn't have the same knowledge but didn't have the courage, or no one had the commitment, to correct it.
Okay, then what does it say about his leadership that the problems are just now coming to light, especially considering what has happened with HPD's crime lab? Meanwhile, councilmembers expressed concern with the $4 million price tag to begin addressing the problems, and with HPD's refusal to release the audit.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/06/09 12:23 PM |
METRO Chairman Saint David Wolff
NEW RAIL LINES WON'T EAT UP TRAFFIC LANES, according to METRO Chairman David Wolff who sat down for a chit-chat with the Chron's Carolyn Feibel. And there's this: "One of the differences that I think we had with Tom DeLay was that he felt that a transit system is sort of a form of welfare. I think this was unfortunate and narrow-minded, because it is not a form of welfare. [...] So I have very short patience for people who think it's a form of welfare, and therefore it's sort of a cross to bear. No, it's an important part of the city and people who don't realize that don't know cities."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/06/09 05:40 AM |
[Previous 20 Entries] [Next 20 Entries]