It’s been a while since I attended one of the weekly Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club meetings but when I saw that Houston mayoral candidate Ben Hall was going to be the speaker, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been meaning to meet him but the one real opportunity I had was on too short of notice.

I have to admit to being skeptical about him and his chances to defeat Mayor Parker. She has grown as a politician during her two terms, handing out large city contracts to multiple public relations firms and getting great press as a result. Hey, money is the name of the game. Do you really think that puff piece in the Wall Street Journal appeared out of thin air? If so, I’ve got ocean front property in Arizona that you might want to look at.

Plus, let’s face it: he’s a Democrat! Yikes! Right? In this era of hyper-partisanship, I’m supposed to attack anyone with a “D” behind their name or else I risk being called…a RINO! Well, since a lot of people already say that about me, let me say this: I like the guy and I liked what he had to say. He reminded me of a conservative Texas Democrat from the 80’s: focused on business growth, fiscal responsibility, future planning, and yes, giving a hand up to those that need it. I know, I know – RINO! Whatever. After meeting him and hearing what he has to say, I think he might have a real shot at ousting Mayor Parker.

First off, he has vision. Mayor Parker may be a lot of things, and most of them good, but a visionary she ain’t. Hold the fort? Yes. Toe the line? Yes. Minor improvements here and there? Yes. But visionary? No. The one thing that she did that was somewhat visionary was to try and “fix” drainage issues. Unfortunately, she did it with a huge tax and a deceptive ad campaign, both of which were targets of Mr. Hall during his comments today. Rather than using the money for shovel ready drainage projects, the money is paying the salaries of Public Works employees.

Hall’s vision is to grow Houston. In fact, he claims his campaign and the election aren’t even about Mayor Parker but about the future of the city. As he said, the greatest danger that the Titanic faced was over-confident. The captain was so confident in the ship that he failed to see the danger lurking ahead. And if you read the various puff pieces that have been written about Mayor Parker lately, it is easy to see his point. It is almost as if she has decided to ride the wave of the positive economy rather than steer around the icebergs that are staring her in the face.

Obviously the largest iceberg out there is the unfunded pensions that Mayor Parker has refused to address. Hall has a few unique ideas, including stratifying the actuarial tables into three decades and purchasing insurance to cover the farthest point, the 21-30 year range. He stated that he had already talked to insurance companies who were willing to issue policies and accept the risk. He claims that this will immediately take 33{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} off the table. I checked his website and this plan is not listed but it does sound plausible.

Hall stated that another of the problems is that the city is anti-business, noting that Mayor Parker often talks of the growth of the Houston “region” but rarely mentions the city proper. That is an excellent point – the growth in Fort Bend and unincorporated Harris County has nothing to do with the City of Houston. In fact, you could make the argument that the anti-business model that Mayor Parker has instituted has driven businesses to leave the city limits. Hall in particular noted:

• 300-400{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} increase in fees during her term
• austerity cuts that were too deep (there’s that old fashioned Democrat)
• the drainage fee that is being misappropriated
• increased ticketing by HPD

He used those examples to underscore his main point: Hall stated that a Kinder Institue/Rice University study shows that 65{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the land mass in Houston is “unsustainable”. By that, he said that the cost to maintain the land is more than the revenue generated by the land. I couldn’t find that study in a quick search but will try and get clarification. One example that he used was a 100 acre plot near Hwy 288 and I-610 South that the city has to maintain infrastructure to service but has no revenue generation.

Hall wants to “transfer” those “unsustainable” properties to “sustainable” ones by offering tax incentives and tax credits to companies that are willing to invest and open businesses. Again, this is an old fashioned conservative Democrat/Republican plan that will work, as has been proven time and time again. The trick is to make the incentives/credits enough to lure businesses without breaking the bank and causing negative revenue flows.

Hall briefly mentioned METRO’s problems and wants to change the philosophy from one of using rail and bus service to “densify” areas to one of connecting areas that are already dense. Basically, use them as connectors to already existing high density areas, such as connecting the Medical Center to the Galleria to Downtown, versus the urbanists plan of using them to cram everyone into areas that they deem “best”.

On crime, Hall wants to be a mayor that doesn’t welcome criminals – his words were that he is not going to be a “hug a thug” mayor. He wants to go back to work programs, using non-violent criminals to clean up weeds, garbage, and trash instead of paying to incarcerate them in air-conditioning cells with television. There’s that old fashioned conservative Democrat again. And probably his most controversial idea – place cameras into public areas to deter crime. He claims that this will reduce crime by 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} and doesn’t want to do it with city funds or have big brother watching. Instead, he wants private companies and individuals to receive tax credits for installing and monitoring them. Interesting idea, I’ll have to think more about that.

So that is a recap of Mr. Hall’s speech. Like I said earlier, I was skeptical going in but very positive coming out. I especially liked his motto that he will be a mayor for all Houstonians and was proving it by reaching out to Republicans. Mayor Parker used to reach out to us but it has been a while.

As for the rest of the meeting, it was good to see the club still rolling along. New President Sofia Mafrige has been working hard to schedule informative speakers, and Alvin Walker is still promoting the group. Mafrige reported that she had recently attended the national convention of Pachyderm Clubs and the Downtown Houston group received an award for highest growth percentage during 2012. Obviously that was thanks to the work of the Kubosh brothers during their time at the helm.

A few candidates were there and I had a good conversation with candidate for Houston City Council District A Ron Hale. I’ve seen him at prior meetings but never talked in depth. After our conversation today, I think I need to do a more formal interview with him so that you can meet him. Seems like a very level headed, positive candidate in that crowded field.

Joe Ablaza also checked in, telling me that Leticia’s campaign for District I was going very well and that she was getting some great endorsements.  He also gave me an update on their golf tournament, telling me that they netted over $4,000 and will be able to sponsor at least 40 children play baseball this year. That, my friends, is awesome. Great work, Joe.

And as they say, that’s a wrap.