With the Rita excitement, I was remiss in calling attention to Kristen Mack’s column from over a week ago, in which Mack noted that Mayor White recently suffered two rare public defeats in council:
The Council has bucked the mayor twice this month — shutting down a plan to give money to homeowners sheltering Katrina evacuees and refusing to renew the contract for embattled public-access channel Houston MediaSource.
The resistance emerged at an emergency council meeting Sept. 8 as Houston was in the second week of dealing with Katrina evacuees.
The council already had gone along with White’s plan to set aside $10 million for evacuees. But when he called a second meeting for council to consider a $500,000 plan to reimburse Houstonians $15 a day per Katrina evacuee they accepted into their homes, council members rejected the idea. He directed his staff to refine it, but later found private funds for the reimbursements and did not take the issue back to council.
As Mack observes, Mayor White is usually much more adept at working behind the scenes to ensure easy victories (or, if an easy victory is not forthcoming, he simply does not bring matters to Council).
Still, despite the quotes from Michael Berry and Pam Holm, Council has mostly been a pushover for Mayor White, who has moved the important items on his agenda easily. That’s not likely to change (especially after he racks up a big victory in the coming election), the quote about “moderate councilmen” from one of the Mayor’s biggest Council boosters on SAFEclear and the Parking Authority Revenue Stream notwithstanding.
