The Chronicle has glowingly endorsed Mayor White for reelection. Actually, glowingly doesn’t quite describe it. It’s so syrupy-sweet it’ll make your teeth hurt. There are a few bits, however, that make me wonder what in the world the idealists are talking about:
First up was the issue of putting the city’s massive unfunded liability for future pension payments to retired employees on a sound financial footing.
Transferring the pension mess to the underperforming, city-owned Hilton Americas might not be called “a sound financial footing.” In fact, Fitch downgraded Houston’s bond rating back in March citing concerns with “large unfunded pension liabilities,” and recently expressed concern again, saying that it views “the city’s debt financing of a portion of the city’s annual contribution to both the municipal and police pension systems as an indication of financial stress and considers this funding approach an unfavorable credit factor.”
Sound financial footing? That’s questionable. But any downside to “fixing” the pension problem the way Mayor White did will probably not become apparent until after he’s moved on to a higher elected office.
Recently, White achieved a major goal for his first term by securing approval from Houston firefighters for a new wage and labor contract that provides for a salary hike that aligns their compensation with other Texas cities.
Well, there were a few problems down that road, as Mayor White tried to play hardball with the firefighters, and in turn was dealt a rare public defeat by the city’s firefighters. A new contract finally was approved, after all that played itself out.
White’s strengths as a corporate manager have served him well in dealing with financial and technical issues, but they have backfired a few times when he rolled out new programs without first selling them to constituents.
An initial wave of criticism followed the launch of the Safe Clear freeway towing program due to concerns for low-income motorists who would face steep towing fees.
[snip]
When state legislators threatened to outlaw Safe Clear, the mayor worked out an opposition-defusing compromise with politically powerful Houston Democrat Sen. John Whitmire.
This one really astounds me. The editorial board at Houston’s lone major daily paper fails to mention the news that SafeClear must undergo a big overhaul due to a judge’s ruling. That changes the whole issue, and the idealists in their ideal state either don’t know about it or decided to ignore it! Wow!
After years of deadlock, White secured the support from Reps. Tom DeLay and John Culberson and from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that resulted in Houston finally receiving federal transit dollars for light rail projects.
Eh, saying “light rail projects” is a bit generous. The revised plan (that voters haven’t approved) includes one new light rail project, an extension of the “booming” Main Street light rail line, and many miles of (don’t say Bus) Rapid Transit and commuter rail.
There’s also plenty of unfinished business from his first term to deal with, including the lingering cleanup of the Houston police crime lab.
Not to mention a police manpower shortage, which the editorial fails to, uh, mention.
And then there’s this:
Implementing the regional mass transit plan with additional light rail lines will be another challenge, as will hanging on to federal transit funding in the face of the current instability in Houston’s congressional leadership.
The idealists are ever-hopeful, aren’t they?
There are other things the editorial board doesn’t mention, besides the police manpower shortage, including Prop. 2 (which the voters approved and which Mayor White is fighting), the mayor’s desire to fund an African-American museum, the mayor’s push for a grand new downtown park, the mayor’s underwhelming interest in the growing problem of graffiti, the neverending problems at the Houston Emergency Center, the mayor’s program to harass downtown pedestrians, and the MediaSource brouhaha.
RELATED: Sedosi has some similar thoughts on Mrs. White’s love letter to her man.
