If you don’t think elections matter, you really aren’t paying attention to new Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and her attempts to turn Harris County into a sanctuary for criminals. After Republican judges and officeholders were swept out of office last year, the incoming Democrats want to make Harris County the model for coddling criminals. Seriously.

A proposed settlement in the landmark Harris County bail lawsuit would significantly change how the county treats poor defendants in misdemeanor cases by providing free social and transportation services and relaxing penalties for missed court dates.

The draft deal includes a number of reforms aimed at ensuring poor defendants arrive for court hearings and are not unfairly pressured into guilty pleas. They would, among other changes: require Harris County to provide free child care at courthouses, develop a two-way communication system between courts and defendants, give cell phones to poor defendants and pay for public transit or ride share services for defendants without access to transportation to court.

(click here to read the article on HoustonChronicle.com. If you are blocked from there, you can read 90% of it over at blockquotekuff.com)

Free childcare, free cell phones, free Uber rides. Aren’t criminals special? Well, to the Democrats that run the county, I guess they are. Elsewhere in the article, we learn that judges will no longer have power to set court dates without the criminals consent. Special.

But, we might be better off than those good citizens of Dallas County. Their newly elected District Attorney isn’t going to prosecute theft under $750 if the criminal says he needs it.

Creuzot says he’ll decline to prosecute theft of personal items worth less than $750 unless the theft was for financial gain. He says he’s in the process of dismissing all misdemeanor marijuana cases filed before he took office with a few exceptions including those where a deadly weapon was used. And he’ll stop prosecuting most first-time marijuana offenses and some misdemeanors that he believes often stem from poverty.

To which Gov. Greg Abbott responded:

I like that first reply because that is exactly what will happen. And then the media will blame Republicans for creating food deserts in poor areas.

The world has gone mad. At least in areas controlled by Democrats.

By Bill Frazer and Craig Mason

“No one can deny that that $8.2 billion unfunded liability has almost been cut in half.” Sylvester Turner, at his Saturday, March 30^th campaign kickoff.

It’s not only deniable, it’s simply not true.

In reviewing Houston’s published financial reports, the City’s unfunded pension liability actually peaked at $6.1 billion in 2016, the year before “The Fix” and stood at $4.0 billion in 2018. Although that would appear be an impressive reduction, those numbers don’t include an additional $1.0 billion of pension liability created by the voter approved pension obligation bonds issued in December 2017. They also don’t include $600 million of pension obligation bond liability issued in prior years without voter approval.

The actual “unfunded” pension liability stands at $5.6 billion, nowhere near the reduction that Mayor Turner would like you to believe.

Mayor Turner will never tell you that in 2016, before The Fix, The City’s total annual pension expense stood at $878 million. In 2018, the full year after The Fix, reported total pension expenses skyrocketed to $948 million. But that’s before adding in approximately $30 million of interest expense on the new $1 billion of pension bonds.  If you add interest on the new bonds, total pension expense climbs to $978 million, an increase of 11.3% in just 2 years.

We think it’s wrong for the Mayor to make up numbers that grossly overstate the impact of his so called “landmark” pension reform. We think it’s wrong for the Mayor to mislead the taxpayers into believing that Houston’s pension systems are improving when, in fact, they are not.  We think it’s wrong for the Mayor to mislead city employees and current pensioners into believing their pensions are getting safer when they are not.

We think it’s time for new leadership at Houston’s City Hall.  We need a Mayor who will be honest with taxpayers and City employees about the health of the City’s pension systems and the true burdens they have on overall city finances.

Bill Frazer is a Houston resident, CPA and former candidate for Houston City Controller. Craig Mason is a retired actuary and former Chief Pension Executive for the City of Houston.

From the InBox:

NEW LEGAL ACTION IN RECYCLING RECORDS SCANDAL

A Harris County District Judge was asked today to put an end to the Mayor’s game of hide and go seek with public records on the controversial new recycling contract.

The legal action by Dolcefino Consulting comes on the same day the Mayor held a ribbon cutting at the FCC recycling plant in northeast Houston, calling the planned opening of the plant monumental.

“It did not happen easily, it did not happen overnight, it did not happen without challenges,” Turner said.

Turner is right about the FCC deal having challenges. City councilmembers and the City Controller all raised questions about the transparency of the city selection. The Mayor has ignored calls to identify consultants and lawyers hired by FCC while they bid on the contract.

The foreign company FCC was chosen to handle recycling in Houston after Mayor Turner killed a planned contract with a company called ECOHUB, who promised to share millions of dollars in profits with City Hall to help pay Houston firefighters.

Dolcefino Consulting filed a motion for summary judgment Thursday April 4, 2019, after nearly two years of fighting for public records about ECOHUB and FCC and will ask Judge Kristen Hawkins to rule Mayor Turner has broken the law. Dolcefino Consulting is seeking tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

“Mayor Turner has become a serial violator of the Texas Public Information Act, and the city is still hiding key records and e-mails about this recycling deal, including a lot of e-mails about FCC,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.

ECOHUB bitterly complained the Mayor helped rig the bidding process to cut them out of the chance to recycle Houston’s trash.

While City Hall hides many e-mails and the records of the evaluation committee who chose FCC, Dolcefino Consulting already has e-mails showing city garbage boss Harry Hayes solicited FCC to come to town, even while city lawyers were finalizing a contract with ECOHUB.

We also have e-mails detailing allegations of unethical behavior in Houston garbage contracts.

ECOHUB had promised to use $800 million of private money to recycle all of Houston’s trash, drastically cutting the wear and tear on garbage trucks and the need for landfills.

Houston City Hall is even hiding records detailing the lack of bidding on city garbage and landfill contracts.

“We are hopeful that this legal action today will put a stop to the City’s seemingly endless delay and games,” says Stewart Hoffer of the Hicks Thomas law firm.

“Later this month, for the first time in this fight, we will get a city official under oath and we will prove this conspiracy of secrecy that continues while the Mayor cuts ribbons on back room deals,” says Dolcefino.

The court showdown in the city hall recycling case is scheduled for April 29th, 2019.

Click here to read the court filing.

Press release and survey results from a survey of Harris County voters by the HRBC.

HRBC Conducts Countywide Survey

New data shows Harris County voters optimistic about economic future, believe Governor Abbott’s emergency items are important, and narrowly prefer Bus Rapid Transit to additional light rail

Houston, TX – Sponsored by HRBC, a survey was released today that reveals many insights into Harris County voters and their feelings towards political leaders and important issues facing Harris County.

“While Harris County voters feel very differently about various leaders and issues, they overwhelmingly believe that our home is a leader in job creation because of its low taxes and regulations,” said HRBC Chairman Alan Hassenflu. “HRBC looks forward to its continued work with state and local leaders to ensure our region and state remains an economic powerhouse,” continued Hassenflu.

The survey was conducted by Ragnar Research Partners, February 24 through February 26, 2019 by telephone, including landlines (28%) and cell phones (72%). Interviews included 400 Likely Voters (LVs) across Harris County. Quotas on age, gender, education, ethnicity, and region were used to ensure a representative distribution. The study’s margin of error is ±5%.

“Generally, we see that voters have a positive outlook for Harris County which is reflected in the optimistic attitudes towards the County’s continued economic prosperity. The voters believe that Texas continues to head in the right direction, but they have a differing opinion on the state of the Nation,” said Chris Perkins, Partner at Ragnar Research.

Click here to review the survey results.

You can click the link above for a pdf or use the images below.

Some interesting results. Obviously, Donald Trump remains unpopular in Harris County, as we saw in the November election. Not much Republicans can do about that. It’s interesting that his personality is still driving people away even though the economy is in great shape. It’ll be even more interesting if the economy continues to roll along as we approach the 2020 election. Will voters vote their pocketbook or their emotions?

The other bit of news is about our new County Judge, Lina Hidalgo. 52% of voters have never heard of her. Clearly this poll was taken before this weeks ITC fire. I guarantee you that if they did the same survey this week, most people would have heard of her and her negative ratings would be off the charts. What a spectacular failure she was during the various press conferences. Shows you what happens when people blindly vote party over candidate. Do you miss Ed Emmett and Jack Morman yet?

The survey also included a question about the New York consultants she hired with your money to tell her where her office was. And guess what? The company she hired with your money has deep ties to the Texas Organizing Project, which just happened to give Hidalgo $200k plus of in-kind contributions during her campaign. Read the following 8 links in order to understand how kickbacks work.

1. “I’m looking at transparency at everything we do,” Hidalgo said, adding she does not want her administration to have “even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
2. “The Texas Organizing Project, a progressive advocacy group that provided $227,000 worth of in-kind donations to Hidalgo last year…”
3. Texas Organizing Project opposes more prosecutors.
4. Commissioners Court rejects Ogg pitch for more prosecutors
5. Hidalgo Hired HR&A consultants from NYC to “to translate her energy and values into her administration: demonstrating that progressive governance can be inclusive, equitable, transparent, and effective.”
6. “Lina Hidalgo, eager to improve Harris County government, defends consultant costs”
7. HR&A Advisors Represent Texas Organizing Project
8. HR&A and TOP have appeared on numerous panels like the Equitable Development and Public Space.

So much for her transparency and swearing off campaign contributions from anyone that does business with the county. Your very first job shouldn’t be as County Judge of 4,000,000 people.

Anyways, it was great to see the HRBC doing a survey on Harris County. Hopefully they will make it an annual thing.

It was a beautiful day for a rally and Houston firefighters made the most of it. A huge crowd rallied first at George HW Bush Monument Park (Bagby and Franklin) and then marched to City Hall to protest Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s refusal to implement or even negotiate the proposition that Houston voters passed last year.

A series of speakers kept the crowd energized and boisterous. Houston City Council member Dwight Boykins told the crowd that he was going to propose three amendments at the next council meeting that would stop Turner’s proposed layoffs (Charles Blain has the details at Texas Scorecard).

Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton really fired the crowd up talking about the Turner administration’s untruthfulness. The crowd erupted when he said, “Let me reiterate this: We are going to win this fight.” My favorite line was when he said something along the lines of “I’m no editorial board expert but the Houston Chronicle editorial board is not an example of a good one” when he talked about board’s treatment of Prop B.

Lancton comes across as authentic and reasonable, the exact opposite of Sylvester Turner and his ridiculously incompetent spokespersons. If you want to know more about this issue, you should listen to yesterday’s Michael Berry show by clicking here.

I saw mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee in the crowd sporting one of the yellow Houston Fire Fighters t-shirts. That was a nice touch, wearing that instead of a campaign t-shirt. He seems like a regular guy that just wants to make the city better. I didn’t see Bill King there but when I was reviewing the pictures, I saw that he was there, also wearing a yellow t-shirt but it said Bill King for mayor. Hopefully one of those guys rids us of the stench of the Sylvester Turner administration.

Houston Firefighters Rally

47 photos

Your anonymous Houston Fire Department Captain is back with another piece on Houston Mayor Turner.

Our pension has been cut 1.5 billion, saving the taxpayers almost net zero (see Bill Kings article about Houston pension reform post SB 2190 two years ago).

A voter referendum was placed and passed by the constituents of the city of Houston, how much more democratic can you get!?!?

We, Houston Firefighters, asked for one thing. The politicians trump it up to way more than it seems, but if you can pay a police officer xxx amount, can you also pay a Houston Firefighter the same amount.

We have a lot of reasons to ask for such a proposition.

With no real cost of living raise, rising insurance, rising retirement costs, and scraps on the table left over from mayors who spend every penny they can get their hands on, I (two promotions and 15 years of service later) have the exact amount of take home pay as I did in 2008. 11 years ago. Meanwhile i have been training and must be fluent in more types of rescue/response. Active shooter and getting medical care to civilians injured in such events. Hurricane/flood response, wildland firefighting, you name it. The Houston Fire Department is the citizens best chance at surviving an adverse event.

To quote Chief John Eversole-

“Our department takes 1,120 calls every day. Do you know how many of the calls the public expects perfection on? 1,120. Nobody calls the fire department and says, ‘Send me two dumb-ass firemen in a pickup truck.’ In three minutes they want five brain-surgeon decathlon champions to come and solve all their problems.”

We are a ISO class 1 fire department, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance a year to constituents by our response model and results from extinguishment efforts. Some of our guys are Houston residents and voters, many others drive in and spend their days away from their families, with no real attachments to our city, to work for YOU. These “out of towners” are some of the best firemen I have ever known. They have received awards and accolades saving a citizen in cardiac arrest, or pulling a victim out of a burning house. I, as an officer, and you, as the public should be proud and feel a sense of pride that they are willing to die, away from their families for a city they cannot vote in, and citizens who they do not share zipcodes.

The citizens voted in a raise for us, and not the Mayor, him alone, wants to layoff 400 firefighters.

A report recently published by a news outlet showed $400 million in mayoral unchecked spending off projects that came in under budget. No checks and balances. No city council approval. What results? Our houses will still flood, our vehicles are still dismantled by potholes. Your house may still burn down because the fire truck at your station is out of service due to repairs that are unpaid for, and the truck is being held for collateral at a shop outside the city.

See through this, and demand accountability. This is the swamp of politics at its worst.

If the money isnt for what they want it to be spent on, then it becomes a doomsday scenario.

$400 million, unchecked, spending, and we are laying off 1/8 of the fire department over 90 million in increased costs.

This mayor needs to be put back in his place. His donors and contributors cut out of our taxpayer funding. Money needs to go to our basic city services, and the democratic process that has told our elected officials to value all public safety officials equally.

We will still be on the front line, regardless of outcome of ineptitude of elected officials.

I just hope our fight has opened even a small door of accountability towards reforming the swamp that is Houston politics.

HFD Captain

(Editor’s note: the writer of this post did not want his/her name published. We have verified that this person is a captain in the fire department.)