Controller candidate Bill Frazer at HPRA

It had been awhile since I talked to Houston City Controller candidate Bill Frazer, so I made my way to the weekly meeting of the Houston Property Rights Association last Friday to hear him speak. He hasn’t changed since I first met him in March – he is still the same professional accountant trying to get people to pay attention to the burgeoning debt that the City of Houston is incurring daily. He hasn’t made that magic transition to “politician” that most candidates make in order to win. In some ways he reminds me of that mythical creature that we hear about but never see – the ordinary citizen entering politics to make a difference, refusing to play by the rules of traditional politicians. We’ll have to wait until election day to see if voters are willing to vote for an ordinary professional.

He brought three charts with him to show the problem Houston has with debt. I scanned them in but they may be hard for you to read with the various shades of colors used. Click the image to enlarge.

You need to make your way to one of his presentations to fully understand those charts. He needs to do a YouTube video for each of them (you listening Phil?). But you don’t need to fully understand them – all you really need to know is that Houston is on the negative side and the other cities with Houston are Chicago, Philadelphia, and you guessed it, Detroit. As Frazer says, we aren’t Detroit, but we could be.

In the last ten years, Houston has had budget deficits of $2.5 billion. All future tax revenues are spoken for (unless there is a rate hike). And Houston’s population has been relatively flat while the surrounding region is booming with growth. Each of these factors contribute to major problems down the road.

But here is where Bill’s professionalism comes into play. He isn’t running around claiming that the sky is falling and there is no hope. He is bullish on Houston and would recommend buying the city’s bonds. How can that be?

Because he believes in the can-do attitude of the people of Houston and thinks that at some point, leaders will step forward and fix the problems. That is his primary purpose in running: to use the bully pulpit of the controller’s office to force leaders to sit down at the table and provide real solutions for the future. He acknowledged that pensions are the biggest challenge and that it is going to be very difficult to get the legislature to change the law but if the city’s leaders do a “full court press” and present a unified solution to the legislature, it can be done.

Frazer also told the truth, which is very unusual for a political candidate. He said that in order to fix this problem, everyone is going to have to make some sacrifices. Employees are going to have to be flexible in their pension plans. The city planners are going to have to cut expenditures. And the taxpayers are going to have to pay a little more. How’s that for truth from a political candidate? Pretty far removed from Frazer’s opponent’s characterization of him as some sort of far-right tea party person no? What would happen if a mayoral candidate decided to tell the truth?

But to make this happen, to fix the problem, Frazer says that all three entities are going to have to answer these questions in the affirmative relating to Houston’s debt:

• Do you believe it?
• Is the source of the information credible?

Frazer believes that he can use the office of controller to get all groups to answer those questions affirmatively. And when that happens, a solution will be forthcoming.

I can’t even begin to tell you how refreshing I think it is to have a supremely qualified candidate for a position who is willing to tell voters the hard truth. I just hope the voters accept it.

So that is why Frazer is running. Can a professional accountant beat a professional politician? That remains to be seen. During the question/answer period, Frazer refused to criticize the incumbent, saying that he was focusing on his campaign and doing the right thing. I hope that strategy works for him because Houston desperately needs Frazer’s ability. And I really like this tagline on Frazer’s website:

Voters in the City of Houston: Please place more emphasis on qualifications and true transparency than on incumbency or ideology. Join our growing list of supporters, sign up for email updates and join on Facebook.