Local print media, television news, and talk radio were buzzing at the end of the week over the latest controversy involving the Houston Fire Department.
Apparently, a discussion between Councilmember Jolanda Jones and Jeff Caynon, the head of a local firefighters’ union, grew heated — so heated that (according to a letter from Caynon) Councilmember Jones made reference to Caynon and used the term “house negro” (both parties seem to agree that the term was used, but seem to disagree over the exact context; we obviously weren’t there, hence this disclaimer).
The local media jumped all over that, and supporters and critics of both Jones and Caynon jumped right into the fray, which ensnared HFD in yet another controversy. Rich Connelly summarizes the mess as well as anyone for the Houston Press.
To his credit, Mayor Bill White is often a calming influence in our city, and there is no doubt that Council during his tenure has been much more collegial and professional than the dysfunctional bickering mess it had become by the end of the Lee Brown era. So we searched various news stories (Chronicle, KRIV-26, KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2) to see if Mayor White had reacted publicly to the latest HFD controversy.
We searched in vain. But we did find this update on twitter:
Candidate @billwhitefortx speaks out about Cornyn’s vote on Sotomayor: http://bit.ly/15cW4b
Maybe Senate Candidate White is working behind the scenes on this latest local controversy.
