Holy Buckets, Batman! You have a tear in your leotards! That was my first thought when Downtown Houston Pachyderm President Sophia Mafrige introduced the second guest speaker of the day, Gilbert Herrera representing Rebuild Houston. That’s what I get for not paying attention to the weekly email and not coming to the meeting prepared. If I had been prepared, this would have been really, really fun!
So for that, I apologize to you guys. I mean, seriously, having this guy speak at this club is analogous, in terms of current issues in Texas, to having me speak at a club meeting where the members are all parts of the mob that shut down the Texas Senate over the abortion bills and extolling the virtues of the bill. My goodness, what were Sophia and VP Alvin Walker thinking? Heck, I thought I was the only person that liked to rile up the troops once in a while! Awesome – that’s why I like this club so much! Well, that and the cheap lunches. If I’d only been prepared.
Oh well, you do what you can with what you’ve got. What I’ve got is a picture of Mr. Herrera being accosted by members of the club afterward:
Gosh I wish I would have recorded this. Here’s a dude trying to tell a very conservative club that the rain tax was a good thing because “infrastructure” in Houston has been underfunded since former Mayor Bob Lanier’s days to the tune of about $500 million a year. Then he causally mentions that the reason they had to trick voters into voting for the rain tax is because the city has no more borrowing power because it is already $13 BILLION in debt. Which, of course, we still have to pay off, but hey, he’s not on the board that has to figure that one out, he’s one of nine members on the rain tax board. And in case we weren’t aware, those nine members are restricted from involvement in any financial transactions with the rain tax money. Cough. Cough.
So I throw him a softball question: do you think the voters would have approved the “drainage” tax if they knew that the money would be used for bike trails and park employees? And who knows what else? Incredulously, Mr. Herrera claimed not to know about the bike trails and then claimed that they were probably funded from federal funds. I told him to Google “Rebuild Houston bike trails” and get on with the meeting.
I found an old comment from an old partner in blogging, Matt Bramanti that is apropos:
Dedicated funds (and dedicated revenue streams) like this carry double risks — first, they have unique potential abuses. Money is fungible, so the city can reduce its general-fund contributions into the special fund, so that the new revenue stream effectively becomes general-fund money.
Second, such systems get less public oversight and attention than they should, because the idea of a dedicated revenue stream and dedicated fund is an intuitively good idea. It seems more likely to work, so the public can say “hey, it’s a drainage fee, and it all goes to drainage, problem solved.”
Do it in a strong-mayor town with historically weak financial controls, and the problems are just exacerbated.
Municipal functions are pretty screwed up in this town, and I don’t think it’s a left/right, Dem/GOP thing. It’s an inevitable consequence of the public’s failure to supervise its servants.
I doubt that even Matt could have known just how true his statement was. Because when Mr. Herrera was asked “hey, what about Councilman Steven Costello getting $40 million in contracts after pushing this boondoggle through”, he said, and I’m not kidding or exaggerating:
We as a community have tolerated these kinds of conflicts of interest for years. Nobody cares.
And that my friends is a fact. And it is exactly why the City of Houston is out of money. From Mike Morris of the Houston Chronicle:
City’s budget delays paying bills
Houston’s charter requires it to have a balanced budget, and no one jumped up to halt the proceedings last month when City Council unanimously approved a $4.5 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that started Monday.
But is the budget really balanced if the city is putting off bills it ought to pay today? Whether the numbers add up, Mayor Annise Parker acknowledged, is a different question than whether a budget meets all the city’s needs.
“We are dealing with years of underfunding in critical infrastructure,” she said, citing streets and drainage, the water and sewer system, information technology, facilities and vehicles as long-neglected areas.
Councilman Stephen Costello, who chairs the council’s budget committee, has said facilities, fleet and IT get only about a third of the money they need each year.
And despite budgeting a record $289 million for its three employee pensions this fiscal year, the city still is $80 million short of the level that would, over time, fully fund two of the three retirement plans. Under current projections, Finance Department Director Kelly Dowe said, the city’s negotiated annual payment to the police pension likely will not meet the level required to return it to full funding in the foreseeable future.
Parker said pensions are the one “outlier” in the general fund budget, saying she has done what she could to address the problem by giving the police equity in real estate instead of a cash payment and twice trying — and failing — in Austin to force firefighters’ pension leaders to the bargaining table.
The City of Houston is dead broke boys and girls. And yet they send a minion to the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club to proclaim how great they are. Unfreaking believable.
Are you tired of this tomfoolery and blatant lying about your money? Do you really want a change? Then get up off your ass and do something about it.
Hmmm. Thanks for telling us how it is in Houston. Might be time to protest in mass quantities! Like electing a new mayor!
Is it that there are too many lofo voters? David this is the best one yet. Very very good.
A city in debt? Top priority building hike and bike trails ? Sounds like where I live in Fort Bend…
I am still speechless. Sophia You really need to consider equal time. I know your rationale is that Hall spoke against the drainage tax when he came to speak to the club but that is really apples and oranges.
Those that worked against this non-sense have been proven exactly correct. The money is being diverted to buy cars, bike trails, and salaries and not road and flood improvements. It was a huge scam that worked because people such as yourself allowed the floor to people like you had today and there was no rebuttal. Very disappointed and poor judgement.
Don,
I disagree with you. I like that Sophia stepped out of the box and brought in someone that wasn’t speaking to the choir. There are a lot of Republicans that voted for that boondoggle – we need to be able to talk to them and inform them as to why this was a bad thing so that we might be able to block future boondoggles. This one is done, nothing we can do about it. Let’s focus on the next one. The look on his face was priceless when I asked him about bike trails and when you asked him about Costello. Everyone in the room understood that he was nothing more than a shill.
As I told Sophia afterwards, she has to let criticism roll off her back. Heck, Alvin calls me all sorts of names all the time that aren’t exactly flattering and I still come to the meetings. I couldn’t be more proud of Sophia and Alvin today. Clear contrasts help our cause, not hurt it. Just my opinion.
You could be right. I remember during the campaign folks like Suzanne Feather would give Costello the floor with no equal time. There is no question Costello’s ability to bamboozle some really misinformed folks cost us that election. Clyde Bryan and I went to council every Tuesday for six months trying to get all his contracts. Contracts he would not even recuse himself from the vote. The COH is infested with public corruption and the reason is because of people like the guy who spoke today. I had the feeling Sophia approved of his BS. She kept telling me he is Chairman of the Hispanic chamber blah blah yadayada. He lives in Briagrove and I wonder if the dude even speaks Spanish.
Some say the voters were “Tricked” into voting for a “rain tax”….. Maybe the voters wanted a verifiable way to see their streets were going to be fixed. Did they get it?
Admission the city has no more borrowing power….Maybe excessive pension costs have something to do with this. The drainage fee is intended to be an addition to revenues “dedicated” to street repairs WITHOUT the need to borrow more money.
$40 million of conflicts of interest being “tolerated” because nobody cares? I care. And I believe most Houstonians do too. I want to do something to make a positive impact on this issue.
Note the following:
1. The “drainage fee” was intended to raise $125 million a year but, according to the City budgets, has only raised $ 103 million each year.
2. 11.8 cents of property taxes were supposed to go into the fund, less debt service on outstanding infrastructure bonds. This has not happened.
3. Developer impact fees and 3rd party contract revenues? No report.
4. Maximum of 25{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of fund allocated to maintenance? No report
Houston needs more transparency and clarity. Then we can have meaningful debate about which streets get fixed first. Until then….watch out for all those pot holes!
Sometime the best way to expose someone and their cause is to let them speak. I doubt that anyone attending the meeting was fooled by Mr. Herrera’s rhetoric , except maybe for the few, if any, that might actually think that building bike trails to ride to work all over a city with an average relative humidity of X+{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} can create a world class city. Houston is a economic powerhouse because it creates private sector jobs, not because of vegetable gardens at City Hall, bike trails or rental bicycles.
As a side note, Mr. Costello voted no (only he and Cohen vote no) to an increase in the city’s over-65/disabled exemption at the budget hearing. To protect his $40 million he was unwilling to give up just $3.8 million to help the elderly and disabled.
oh boy, this was a fun piece! I thought the debt was around 20 billion…oh well.
It may be politically incorrect to take aim at this blog but sometimes it cannot be helped. Republicans, conservatives, Tea Partiers, and Libertarians have been backed into to a corner where the only way out is to tear down friends and foes alike. The city government is a shell game. it comes from an accumulation of incomplete government, if not blatant corruption. Big Jolly does it share to try to improve and purify the groups on the right but what is the desired end product. Some groups on the right are single issue efforts. In the larger picture, individuals in those groups can have differing opinions with individuals in other groups on different issues. Great enthusiasm and a little knowledge can be very damaging. The Democrats appear to do better with keeping their followers in line than Republicans. We are independant and sometimes unruly among our own which is not good all the time.
With regard to Mr. Herrera, I came to the meeting to hear Mr. Herrera talk about the Renew Houston program. My question to him, ” Are you satisfied with process of how projects for major repairs and modifications are chosen and in what priority?” He answer was revealing. Some of the other questions were statements or accusations. Maybe the question should have been asked…..” Is spending city money on bike paths when matching federal funds may be available, a good thing?….and how much federal money are used on trails ?”. Mr. Herrera came with little knowledge of the details of the plan but in this blog, the fact that he lives in Briar grove, and “wonder if the dude even speaks Spanish” is counter productive. Herrera is an appointee and do not know if he is paid.
I do not know which Bramanti you are refering to. I know the son better than I know his dad because the younger Matt went to grammar school with my son. Both father and son went to Notre Dame and believe the Younger Matt, if not his dad, should run for Controller or another city elected office in the future. I am supporting Mr. Frazer for that position because the incumbent has made no material contribution to the finacial health of the city. Republicans should be in a recruitment mode balanced with youth, maturity, and experience whose principles are apparant. It’s that simple but we do not have many who want to participate.
But last point is the most important………the City of Houston needs serious infrastructure attention. Much of the annexed areas have sub par roads and coupled with Houston’s soil and the heavy growth of traffic, we need a plan. I do not see many Republican talking about an alternative approcah to this issue and how we pay for it. I see more people riding bikes to work, even in this hot weather, so dismissing bike paths completely is reactionary. Spending our money needs strict controls and accountability. We can get candidates elected if we stop acting like we are in a corner. The end product is a better city with financial strength and stabilty. These are my impressions and opinions.
Jack, “this blog” said nothing whatsoever about Mr. Herrera’s residence or his ability to speak Spanish.
I’m glad you liked your question more than you liked mine. When you can explain to me what bike paths have to do with drainage infrastructure, then perhaps I won’t ask my question the way I did.
Beyond that, I have no idea what point you were trying to make with your comment. I hope people don’t confuse your comment with “this blog”.
The Rain Tax is the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN HOUSTON'S HISTORY. It is also the most regressive, with inner city 'high densers' getting subsidized by all the working folks in the outer areas based on the ridiculous formula for 'adding to the runoff'. Funny how the first money that came in from this new tax source was to pay Public Works employees' salaries. The accountability of this new revenue source is less transparent than a London Fog. With the price of oil and Houston R/E at near all time highs, if C of H can't run a surplus now- and in fact needs this new tax to cover expenses- they NEVER will get out of debt. But that's what the muni bond lawyers wanted all along- isn't it?
I believe I should have said a comment included in this blog. You know the point I make. You instigate more vitrole than exploring deeper into reality. I could not hear your question fully and was not refering to your question anyway.
Did you imply that Herrera was in the camp of the protestors of the abortion bill? You said that you commended The Pachdyderm Club for inviting to Herrera.
It is your blog elicting some comments that do not do justice to your committment and effort.
You have room to improve. i am just commenting but apparantly got your attention more than others, including Mr. Hooper’s comment.
Jack,
I didn’t say anything about carpet bagging spoilers who jump into campaigns to undermine good hard working Republicans. When I do please know I am talking about you.
Jack, do you not know the meaning of analogous? Sheesh. No, I did not imply that Herrera was in the camp of protesters of the abortion bill.
What vitriol do I instigate? Is there anyone else in Harris County promoting inclusion of minorities and gays more than me? You said earlier that I “purify” the party. Actually, I try to do the opposite.
I don’t control what commenters write. They are adults and I’ll let others judge them for their comments.
I agree that I have room to improve. You should look in the mirror and see if that applies to you as well.
David…..Munich Analogy……..analogous. Implied from…come on you know that your comments get people excited. Fake question. Demonize anyone you like but you over do it. I see that my comment hit home with Mr. Hooper. He has made many comments, and like mine will be judged by others as you say.
Oh boy, do I have room to improve. Helping to point out exagerations, fake questions, self serving behavior, grand standing, and the wrong focus needs a lot of attention, and I am willing to do my part! The growth of the Democratic Party here in Houston and Harris County needs a strong response based on principles and facts. We need more than insults and accusations. The city has to get its finances right and address the infrastructure issues that are more critical than most know. At the end of his first term, the incumbent controller submitted a required report. The report indicated that the city’s finances were in good shape and improving. I am for drug tests for elected city officials.
I moved out of the City of Houston 13 months ago. Despite the timely updating of the Harris County Appraisal District website to reflect I am no longer the owner of that property, Public Works continues to mail me a quarterly drainage bill.
Whoa, I missed the part about giving the cop pension ‘real estate’ equity. What the hell, does the cop union and pension board own city hall, a piece of the taxpayer Hilton, maybe a water plant or two?
Yes we’re broke, and yes, too few even know.
Some years ago a then city councilman told me that he most enjoyed spending 2.5 billion bucks a year; now he’d be in hog heaven spending twice that.
Sell HAS, pay down some bills.
Bob Lemer was right.
Hey… what's the big deal? It's only $5 a month… right?!?