Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Pension March Madness

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The City of Houston gotsta get paid. For years, city leaders have operated with the philosophy of spending money that the city just doesn’t have. The Turner administration is no different.

Under Mayor Annise Parker, the media looked far and wide for a way to blame Republicans for the sins of liberal spending by a series of Houston mayors. Last legislative session, Mayor Parker took the position that Republicans refused to give her local control over the City of Houston pensions. Conversely, Parker promised the Houston Police Officers’ Union (HPOU) that she would not seek local control or use the city’s sizable lobbying forces to seek local control. Although Turner’s legislative strategy is a little more sophisticated and he is certainly more eloquent, he shares the same objective as Parker – keep on spending money and kick the can down the road.

Last session, State Representative Jim Murphy offered a bill for local control, which never made it out of committee. This was always the plan. Mayor Parker had to fool people for her last two years in office in order to keep spending money the city did not have in their accounts.

Mayor Turner’s dilemma is different because he was just elected to a four year term with a potential second term in his sights. After many years of working to assist city leaders in the legislature, Turner knew that his sneaky bastard plan had to be far more creative than Parker’s 2015 plan. Turner’s plan is simple: involve all three unions (police, fire, city employees), lobbyists, patsy legislators, and the Lieutenant Governor in the ultimate goal of spending money that the city doesn’t have in the coffers. I will count lining the pockets of lobbyists as a goal for discussion purposes.

Bill King has done yeoman’s work in holding Turner’s feet to the fire for a real solution to the pension problem. King ran on a platform of meaningful pension reform with the solution of moving all new employees to a defined contribution plan. Turner was endorsed by all three unions after he promised to oppose King’s defined contribution plan.

The three unions strongly oppose defined contributions because defined benefit plans are easily manipulated by politicians to benefit the unions. Defined contribution plans remove the politics from the equation. Thankfully and in the face of unfair criticism, King has remained engaged at the legislature in the defined contribution cause. March madness is in full effect and the Houston bracket of bad guy liberal spending is winning the tournament.

Turner knew that he had to employ a kick the can down the road strategy without being obvious. Turner’s first feat was to get Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Senator Joan Huffman to agree with HPOU officials to take defined contribution off the table this legislative session. Ray Hunt, HPOU President, is a smart guy and is always covering bases. I like Ray even though I disagree with him all the time. He is a nice guy who does a very good job for his officers. They are lucky to have him.

Turner also lucked out when Patrick gave Huffman the position of chairwoman of the Senate State Affairs Committee where she is tasked with getting Turner’s bill through the senate.

Word started leaking out last summer that Turner’s scheme would employ a cap on city pension payments. So, the next time you hear Turner say he does not like caps – a la the property tax cap – remind the mayor that he is supporting his own version of a cap on city pension expenses, albeit a fake one. Beginning last summer, policy wonks immediately began speculating how Turner’s cap would work and whether it would it be enforceable. Turner was smart enough to call his cap a “corridor” – but, it is really a cap. Turner doublespeak.

State representative Dan Flynn chairs the House Pension Committee. Flynn’s bill, all 246 pages, has been circulated in the business community in order to garner the support of downtown types who are beholden to the mayor for handouts. Thankfully, King and members of the Arnold Foundation began analyzing the bill and sought edits that would tighten up the language. The devil is always in the details. King, Arnold Foundation representatives, and business leaders met with Senator Huffman in order to make crucial and necessary changes to Flynn’s bill. King and his crew spent hundreds of hours analyzing and tightening the corridor/cap language. The goal of these edits is to force the unions to adhere to Turner’s supposed principals. Anything else bankrupts the city.

Needless to say, after all the hours spent by King and others to tighten up the language, Huffman’s substitute filed on Monday is an exact copy of Flynn’s bill. None of the recommendations by King, the Arnold Foundation, and the local business community made it into Huffman’s bill. The good guys were played – Huffman was the secret agent. 

Huffman had probably been informing Turner and his lobby team of King and the gang’s recommendations all along. It should be noted that Huffman and her husband are longtime friends with Ray Hunt and Mark Clark, HPOU’s top lobbyist.

King has vowed to spend his time next year running against Huffman. King does live in her district and I believe that he is seriously considering the possibility. I will support him for his attempt to do the right thing on this issue alone. We will need to work with him on some other conservative issues but don’t forget that Trump came along too.

On Monday, I was present in the Senate chamber and testified on Senator Bettencourt’s SB 151 that was heard immediately prior to the Huffman pension bill. SB 151 requires a vote on the billion dollar pension bond by city voters. Huffman’s bill did contain this language but I suspect it will be stripped out in conference. Huffman has proven that she is not to be trusted.

Robert Miller, lead lobbyist for the city and law partner of Senator Whitmire, has covered his bases. Miller knows that Turner’s goal is a sleight of hand – appear as though he is doing something without actually doing anything. This was also true for Parker.

The goal is to keep spending money and lining the pockets of cronies. This fraud cannot happen if the bill actually worked because the unions would have to abide by paying their fair share. It was never the intention of Mayor Parker, Turner, Miller, or anyone in Austin to have this pension bill work as advertised. The goal was to grab the billion dollars and hand it over to the police and municipal employee unions so their retiring officers can make a fast break with their multimillion dollar pensions. Did you know that city taxpayers are making millionaires out of city workers? You know now.

Notice that I did not mention anything about the firefighters. The firefighters are actually the fiscally responsible adults in the room. Although their pension is far from perfect, it is financially much better off than the other two pensions. The billion dollar pension obligation bonds (POBs) proposed in Turner’s bill go to police and the municipal employees union. The firefighters get none of it.

The story gets worse for the firefighters because their pension is almost fully funded; but, they are being treated like the bad guys by city leaders. The city is asking for large concessions from the firefighters who are being punished for being good stewards of their funds. I say this because the firefighters always stood their ground and made the city fully fund their pension. The other two pensions did not and allowed a succession of Houston mayors to rack up a ten billion dollar unfunded liability.

Basically, the other two pensions have turned a blind eye to the out of control spending at the City and have taken lots of IOUs. Turner’s goal in all of this is to keep spending money that the city simply does not have. Turner’s pension plan is bogus and falls far short of his claims. Even worse, we really do not know the real fiscal health of the private equity investments held by the unions. The billion dollar pension bond could just be a starting point for the taxpayers. We need an audit by qualified, competent auditors who can be held responsible for erroneous financial information of both funds.

Either way, all of the actors in this year’s legislative tournament are behaving badly. Both Dan Patrick and Joe Straus have lined their pockets with union money. Do not think for a second that Joan Huffman acted without Pappy O’Patrick’s approval. Governor Abbott’s campaign has taken lots of money from unions; so, don’t expect him to do the right thing for Houston taxpayers.

Now is the time to fill out your bracket. My money is on the taxpayers losing bigly. The bottom line is that March madness has nothing on the drama at Texas Capitol. The next big game is Monday when Flynn’s bill is heard in the House.

Houston Chronicle Editorial Board obsessed with gay issues

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I usually leave criticism of the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board to Unca Darrell because he’s way better at it than me. But since he didn’t notice the latest example of their gross incompetence, obsession with homosexual issues, and blatant disregard for a man’s character, I thought I’d point it out.

Over here in east Harris County, Briscoe Cain defeated entrenched incumbent Wayne Smith in the race to represent Texas House District 128. Cain worked his butt off, knocking on thousands of doors in the mold of Harris County Judge Ed Emmett’s first winning campaign out here several decades ago. Unlike the repugnant campaign that Smith ran, Cain refused to use personal attacks in his campaign, relying upon the voters to focus on the issues. And although it was razor thin, his strategy worked, winning by 23 votes. That’s right, 23 votes.

The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board had an opportunity to tell voters about the importance of hard work, focusing on the issues, and that every vote counts. No race illustrated these virtues better. So what did the editorial board choose to do? Mock Republicans and push their daily homosexual views on their readers.

These are the beginning and ending paragraphs of an editorial titled Election Reflections, published May 26, 2016.

After a Tuesday election night of otherwise happy incumbents, challenger Briscoe Cain went to bed with a new lucky number: 23. As in the 23 votes that gave the Deer Park attorney a vic­tory over seven term state Rep. Wayne Smith in the primary runoff.

It was a down-and-dirty battle to be the Republican nominee for District 128 in east Harris County. That race offered voters little insight about the future of their state, but they did learn that Cain once attended a costume party dressed as “gay Hitler.” Thanks to those attack ads, national media outlets had the pleasure of telling their readers that Texans voted yes on gay Hitler, but no on gay Obama.

……

Tuesday posed an opportunity for Democrats to clean out their rogues’ gallery of questionable candidates and seize the virtuous high ground at a time when statewide Republicans face their own moral and legal challenges. That cause will have to wait an­other election cycle, but at least none of their candidates have been caught dressing up as gay Hitler.

To read that editorial online, click here. It appears that it is no longer on the website. But the Houston Chronicle did publish it in their hard copy version and their subscribers each got a copy of it. That’s the thing about hard copy newspapers, you can’t just hit the delete button and say “oopsie!”. Click here and here to view copies of the editorial in print.

The problem with it is that their claim that Briscoe Cain went to a party as “gay Hitler” is false. A lie. An untruth. A factual error. Call it what you want but it is and always will be false. The editorial board, in their glee to mock Republicans about their opposition to homosexuality becoming mainstream, didn’t bother to fact check.

The “correction” that they placed online is virtually worthless to anyone trying to find out the truth. Here it is, complete with link this time.

An editorial published Thursday, “Election reflection” (Page A16), chastising the political process for failing to address substantive issues in the Democratic and Republican primary runoffs held May 24, referenced news coverage about one candidate’s questionable attire at a costume party. The candidate was Kyle Biedermann, who won the Republican primary runoff for New Braunfels-area state House District 73. Briscoe Cain, who won the Republican primary runoff for state House District 128 in east Harris County, was the subject of other attack ads that were irrelevant to public policy and the future of Texas. We regret the error.

I challenge you to read that “correction” and tell me what it is “correcting”. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

If the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board truly wants to correct their grievous error, they need to write an editorial apologizing for their misdeeds and extolling the virtues of hard work, focusing on issues, and the importance of every single vote.

Don’t hold your breath. Look instead for yet another editorial about the positive impact of homosexuality on our country.

And please, do click over and read what Unca Darrell has to say about the Houston Chronicle. You’ll find it enlightening.

Pulitzer prize columnist all wet on bathroom ordinances

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bathroom transgender
Americans are, once again, witnessing the “Tyranny of the Minority”.

If you want to see a classic example of how a left leaning major market columnist shifts blame to the hated Republicans on an issue, please read Pulitzer Prize winning Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg’s latest screed. Titled Bathroom policy fast becoming hot-button issue for politicians, Ms. Falkenberg stretches, bends, and breaks the truth in her quest to demonize Republicans.

“The handwriting is on the bathroom wall: Stay out of the ladies’ room if you’re a man,” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said a few weeks ago, wading into the national debate. “If it costs me an election, if it costs me a lot of grief, then so be it. If we can’t fight for something this basic, then we’ve lost our country.”

Ain’t he brave?

Well, yeah, in a way he is. He knew before he said those words that people like Ms. Falkenberg would attack, smear, and mock him. But he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do.

I know, I know. It’s a slippery-slope thing. If we allow people the freedom to use the bathroom they deem appropriate, one can only guess what would happen next!

Actually, we don’t have to guess. They’ve been doing it for decades. Without much fanfare. Until it became a handy dog-whistle issue for Republican primary voters. Now it’s the end of civilization.

She’s right. People have been doing it for decades or centuries, who knows? But isn’t that the point? No one knew – therefore, no problem. You dress like a woman, no one pays attention. But that isn’t the issue today, is it? No, the issue today is that people want the right to go into the opposite gender’s restrooms and they want to do it in your face, without regard to the privacy rights of 99.9{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the population as a whole.

Do you see that sentence in bold above? This one:

Until it became a handy dog-whistle issue for Republican primary voters.

That is where Ms. Falkenberg broke the truth. That is a flat out lie. The dog-whistle belongs to the LGBTABCDEFG crowd that insists that we have to “accept” whatever it is they want today. There never would be an issue if the LGBTABCDEFG crowd had not started passing laws saying that men could enter women’s restrooms, locker rooms, showers, spas, etc. No issue at all. Republican voters rightly responded to this nonsense and hopefully will keep on responding to this nonsense.

There’s no evidence that this is a public safety issue.

Another untruth, although this one could be considered an opinion, not a lie. Because there has been plenty of evidence presented that this is in fact a public safety issue. Ms. Falkenberg simply chooses to ignore it to form her opinion.

Now check this out: Ms. Falkenberg is suddenly for local control.

Back to conservative values: I thought local control was one of them.

This week, our lieutenant governor, whose office is based in Austin, called for the ouster of Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Kent Scribner because he approved new guidelines to accommodate transgender students in a broad array of areas from dress code to sports.

…

Patrick said if parents are unhappy with the district’s decision, then it’s up to the school board and superintendent to address it. If they don’t, he said, “that’s why we have elections.” It’s up to parents and school boards to “reflect the values of that school district,” he said.

Well, the Fort Worth district has spoken on its values. And they don’t need some politician in Austin butting in.

Ha, you can’t make this stuff up. Can you imagine the outrage Ms. Falkenberg would have if a local community passed an ordinance saying that no abortions would be performed in their city? Or that illegal aliens couldn’t rent a house? Or that Muslims couldn’t bang out their obnoxious calls to prayer all day long? She’d go nuclear. And you’d better believe that she’d want “some politician” from Austin or Washington “butting in”.

She then claims any bill addressing this stupidity will have no chance in the Texas House.

At times like these, we should all bow our heads and say a prayer for Joe Straus, the Republican speaker of the Texas House, who will have to play the grownup once again next session in staving off legislation that would hurt Texans as well as the Texas economy.

The bill doesn’t have much of a chance in the House, which prompts the question: Why try?

Answer: So that a few far-right politicians can say they fought the good fight. And winning isn’t the point anyway.

“Defeat would perhaps be the desired outcome of some of these bill advocates,” says Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. “It would allow them to have their cake and eat it too.”

As a strong supporter of Speaker Straus, I can say this with confidence – he will not block a bill that addresses this. He will allow the will of the House to prevail. If enough House members want to pass this, it will pass. That is being an adult in the room. And as much as I like Mark, he is taking this issue much too lightly with a remark like that.

Incredibly, she somehow wraps this up and blames the rise of Trump on people opposing this nonsense. Talk about not understanding why Trump is where he is. It is precisely because politicians ignored idiotic policies like that that Trump is where he is.

Republicans should stand FIRM and reject this crap. And readers need to understand that columnists like Ms. Falkenberg are not trying to give them an unbiased view of the facts, they are paid to produce biased opinions that support the newspaper’s underlying philosophy. Which is to support the left’s version of “progress”. Don’t believe me? See this editorial from the Houston Chronicle, published one day after Ms. Falkenberg’s screed: Potty politics
The transgender restroom controversy is a hoax crafted by ideologues for scapegoating.

Editors reinforcing their columnist’s opinion, and reinforcing the Houston Chronicle’s left leaning philosophy.

Will Devon Anderson vote for Patricia "Trisha" Pollard?

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Judge Devon Anderson swears in Patricia Pollard to the Texas State University System Board of Regents
Judge Devon Anderson swears in Patricia Pollard to the Texas State University System Board of Regents

Notorious grand jury foreman Patricia “Trisha” Pollard is seeking office in the City of Bellaire. She recently sent an intermediary to ask that I not tell the truth about her; but, I owe it to the people of Bellaire to tell this story.

Some people ask, “How do you know that Trisha Pollard is bad?” Well, the answer is simple. Do you remember what happened to the BAT van controversy? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Trisha Pollard and her merry band of misfits used this fake scandal to get the now deceased Mike Anderson elected meanwhile using lies to besmirch the character of good people.

May 2003 Grand Jury Foreman 262nd District Court – Mike Anderson
August 2005 Grand Jury Foreman 262nd District Court – Mike Anderson
February 2007 Grand Jury Foreman 177th District Court – Devon Anderson
November 2009 Grand Jury Foreman 262nd District Court – Mike Anderson
August 2011 Grand Jury Foreman 185th District Court – Susan Brown
2013 Grand Jury Assistant Foreman 179th District Court – Kristin Guiney

For many years, Pollard was the gold star grand jury foreman for the Andersons. She contributed to their campaign efforts and loyally served on at least six grand juries. Pollard openly bragged about her grand jury service and claimed that she led a grand jury that handled “the greatest number of cases in history.” A rather interesting sense of justice.

The whole BAT van falsehood was fabricated by a group of entitled courthouse folks who did not like Pat Lykos. Specifically, this group reveled in the idea of control and was upset by the fact that Harris County justice was no longer “just us.” To bring it back to the “just us” days, this group created a fake scandal to throw shade on Lykos and many other very good people. While it may have cost Lykos the election, this group has now been forced to ponder an interesting question – Is Devon Anderson “worse” than their mortal enemy, Pat Lykos? That is another story for another time.

We now know that Pollard was the foreman of the grand jury that indicted Alfred Dewayne Brown who was recently released from custody after ten years on death row. Brown was convicted of capital murder in 2005 for the death of Houston Police Department Officer Charles Clark and check cashing clerk Alfredia Jones during an attempted robbery.

Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg won a Pulitzer Prize for her series on Alfred Brown. Falkenberg primarily wrote about the grand jury that brow beat and jailed Brown’s girlfriend in an attempt to change her story about Brown’s alibi, which overshadowed the fact that a rubber stamp grand jury was used to indict Brown. Public sentiment over the Brown case and “professional” grand jurors like Pollard led to this year’s statewide grand jury reform.trisha-pollard-hpd-helicopter-facebook-june-4-2013

A review of Pollard’s grand jury service is disturbing. In 2011 and 2012, she misused her position as grand jury foreman to create a scandal and make inaccurate public statements to get Mike Anderson elected. Following her service on the 185th grand jury, Pollard, along with Jim Mount and Chip Lewis, made a public statement (filled with erroneous statements) about the grand jury in violation of grand jury secrecy laws and common sense. If Pollard was just a regular citizen, these facts would be bad. Come to find out, she is a lawyer. Did Pollard violate the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct by engaging in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation?”

Pollard has a history of making things up and all anyone has to do is look at her testimony in the Texas Senate when she alleged there was some elaborate healthcare fraud in Texas. Following Pollard’s 2005 service, she wrote a letter to Governor Rick Perry and all members of the Texas Legislature claiming that she had discovered massive Medicaid fraud during her tenure on the grand jury. In her letter, Pollard alleged a “widespread, massive, and repeated” fraud.

After legislators received her letter, Pollard was asked to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on January 18, 2006. During the hearing, several senators pushed her on the “widespread, massive, and repeated” fraud allegation. Ultimately, Pollard conceded that she had no evidence to substantiate her allegation. Watch it, and judge for yourself if this is what you want on the Bellaire City Council.

Importantly, as stated during the hearing, Mike Anderson was aware of Pollard’s letter; so, he knew that she was loose cannon as early as 2005 – 2006. He knew that Pollard fabricated wild, unsubstantiated allegations.

Now, Pollard is walking the streets of Bellaire to campaign for city council. Trisha Pollard, a woman who was a strong reason behind the need for grand jury reform in the state of Texas, is seeking to bring that destructive force to the City of Bellaire.

Bellaire residents have an excellent opportunity to openly reject Pollard’s bad behavior. Pollard’s duplicity and corruption will no doubt follow her to the Bellaire City council. No one will be safe in Bellaire with Pollard on council and voters there should think long and hard about this election and the potential legal liability of electing such an individual.

County judge silent on Fort Bend EMS story correction

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At a time when the geographic area served by the Fort Bend County EMS is expected to shrink by 15 to 20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}, Fort Bend County Commissioners plan to release a proposed 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} budget increase for the Fort Bend County EMS. The debate taking place now though has nothing to do with ambulance service response times —-the new controversy has residents asking “Did Fort Bend County Judge Hebert put pressure on the Houston Chronicle to change a story”?

Last Sunday, reporter Jayme Fraser’s story titled “Fort Bend EMS asks for $3 million budget increase” appeared in both the paper and online edition of the Houston Chronicle. The article centered on Fort Bend County’s EMS response times and a proposed 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} increase to the Fort Bend EMS budget at a time when the area covered is expected to reduce in size by 15-20 percent. Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers was reported to be the most skeptical of the size of the increase but County Judge Hebert was reported as championing the $3 million dollar increase requested by new EMS Director Graig Temple.

What caught the attention of a few Fort Bend residents was the version of the online story which has since been scrubbed of the sentence highlighted in yellow.

Here’s how the story first appeared in the paper and online edition of the Chronicle (click on the photo to enlarge):

FBC EMS

“Some are skeptical of such an excessive increase, but County Judge Bob Hebert said he will champion Temple’s request.

When Hebert himself had a medical emergency recently, he said he waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to reach his home.’

You’d think one of the drive-bys would report on the Fort Bend County Judge waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at his home for an emergency—inquiring minds wanted to know.

Here’s how it played out on social media (click on the photo to enlarge):

FBEMS facebook

 

Was the County Judge exaggerating about that 30 minute wait for EMS to arrive at his house? Would answers validating the Judge’s assertion of a 30 minute wait time for an ambulance at his home be forthcoming?

Hmmm-

A complete change of Judge Hebert’s quote is now on the web version of the Houston Chronicle (click on the photo to enlarge):

“Hebert first realized the county “might have a response problem” at a charity event a few months ago when it took about 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive to treat a guest who had fainted nearby.

FBEMS Jayme

Instead of accepting responsibility for his attempted deception in putting forth a false scenario to Chronicle readers (possibly intended to draw support for the budget increase and gin up turnout for the upcoming ESD elections– gasp!) it looks like the Judge went straight to the top for a correction—a complete rewrite which has one county resident wondering if the Judge is still telling the truth to the community (click on the photo to enlarge):

Hebert quote change

With the rollout of Sugar Land’s new EMS units and upcoming ESD elections in the County that together will shrink the geographic coverage of Fort Bend EMS, Commissioner Meyers is right to be skeptical of a proposed 32{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} increase in the EMS budget. Public meetings on the proposed Fort Bend County budget are expected to be held in September.

Show up and tell Judge “Bob” Boss Hogg to rethink his campaign slogan.

Boss Hogg

Damage control??— Missouri City Leadership Luncheon series to feature HCC Chancellor, Fort Bend ISD Superintendent

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Fort Bend ISD and Houston Community College are under the microscope and now both the Fort Bend ISD Superintendent and HCC Chancellor are in full damage control mode in what appears to be an attempt to counter the negative publicity resulting from the Houston Chronicle FINALLY doing their job–educating their readers on legitimate issues of public debate.

Fort Bend ISD continues to be mired in controversy over an unlawful truancy program that is alleged to have created more than 40,000 criminal convictions against FBISD students that lacked the culpability to properly sustain a failure to attend school (“FTAS”) criminal conviction.

The Houston Chronicle reported District Attorney John Healey and an assistant DA were added to the lawsuit filed in May alleging the county has been operating a special truancy court without the proper legal authority and that the Fort Bend Independent School District has been using that court illegally

Fort Bend ISD residents recently learned FBISD Superintendent Dupre holds a Superintendent Certification Waiver  that at the end of the 2015-2016 school year requires Dupre to hold a superintendent certificate—and that Dupre reportedly went to Austin to have the rules changed so he can remain as a Superintendent without the need for the certificate.

So in what appears to be an attempt to counter the growing negative publicity for the District and the trustees who approved an extension of the Superintendents contract, Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen is coming to the rescue— hosting Dr Dupre as the featured speaker on September 10th at the Missouri City Leadership Luncheon series.

Houston Community College faces a criminal complaint by Trustee Dave Wilson alleging the College unlawfully overpaid for a vacant building, calling for HCC Chancellor Maldonado to resign and  one day later barred Trustee Wilson from a closed door meeting of the full HCC Board of Trustees.

And now we learn HCC Chancellor Maldonado will be the featured speaker on August 27th at the Missouri City Leadership Luncheon series.

We’re at this ridiculous and totally unnecessary place because of an abject failure of the drive-by media to do their job and report on legitimate issues of public debate—I’m glad to see the Chronicle get their act together.