Category Archives: Local politics

Another story on the huge inequities of our property tax system

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Houston Press returns to an old favorite. “I’ve been sued every year by [JW Marriott],” says Michael Amezquita, the fiery chief appraiser of the Bexar County Appraisal District, which is currently ­facing $10.3 billion in appraisal-reduction litigation compared to … Continue reading →

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Nearly 200,000 ACA signups in Houston area

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not too shabby. Like the rest of the country, the Houston area appears to have benefited from a last-minute surge in people signing up for federally mandated health insurance. At least 197,650 local residents enrolled in the program, figures released … Continue reading →

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NDO vote will be next week

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The proposed non-discrimination ordinance was on Council’s agenda yesterday, but it did not come to a vote as it was tagged, which means it’ll be voted on next week. The Chron’s preview story gave some insight into what we should … Continue reading →

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Council hears NDO testimony

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It went about as you’d expect. Houston is the last of America’s largest cities not to have local anti-discrimination protections, a fact some lauded and others condemned Wednesday during the first opportunity for public comment on Mayor Annise Parker’s proposed … Continue reading →

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GHP endorses proposed NDO

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them. The Greater Houston Partnership came out in support of Mayor Annise Parker’s proposed equal rights ordinance, giving the measure a boost as it heads to a City Council committee hearing on Wednesday. Parker plans to put the … Continue reading →

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Mayor Parker releases draft of non-discrimination ordinance

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Mayor Annise Parker today released a draft of her proposed Equal Rights Ordinance. The document is the result of more than two months of collaborative discussions with various stakeholders. “As I stated in my State of the … Continue reading →

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HCC has not begun any 2012 bond construction yet

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I hadn’t realized it was taking this long. A divided Houston Community College board has failed to approve construction contracts for its November 2012 voter-approved bond program, potentially costing the college system tens of millions of dollars in fines. The … Continue reading →

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Council approves hoarding ordinance

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I think they’re on the right track. The Houston City Council unanimously approved an anti-hoarding ordinance Wednesday without a clear idea of how it will be enforced. The ordinance, which does not apply to single-family homes, clarifies when police can … Continue reading →

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Council considers hoarding ordinance

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I hadn’t realized Houston didn’t already have an ordinance to deal with hoarding. Apparently, we are not at all unique in this regard. A proposed ordinance would begin to expand the city’s options for resolving hoarding situations even when the … Continue reading →

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Counting votes on the non-discrimination ordinance

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the Houston GLBT Political Caucus Facebook page: Members have asked for the responses on our questionnaires to the questions below. The President of the Caucus, Maverick Welsh, has asked me to post the information. As the chair of the … Continue reading →

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Pasadena lurches towards redistricting

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s getting ugly. A Pasadena councilwoman was forcibly ejected by armed officers and the mayor was accused of packing a gun during recent meetings on a controversial redistricting plan. Councilwoman Pat Van Houte was removed from a meeting Tuesday on … Continue reading →

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Enforcing non-discrimination

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

In her annual State of the City address, Mayor Parker put a long-awaited item on the table. Mayor Annise Parker on Thursday said she would create a human rights commission to review violations of anti-discrimination laws, saying just talking about … Continue reading →

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Fearing the fire reform

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This ought to be interesting. Rumblings of coming reforms in Houston Fire Department’s operations have union leaders and the department’s command staff wary, despite Mayor Annise Parker’s insistence that these concerns are unwarranted. HFD’s staffing shortage has driven up overtime … Continue reading →

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Last minute health insurance enrollment help

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: The Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS) will open four of its multi-service centers on Sunday and extend their business hours next Monday to help people sign up for a health insurance plan by the Affordable … Continue reading →

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We have our first HFD rolling brownout

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

And nothing bad happened. Three Houston firetrucks were pulled from service Friday morning, the first “brownout” in the city’s fire fleet since the Houston Fire Department’s budget struggles came to light in early February. In keeping with a plan Fire … Continue reading →

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Game room injunction lifted

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The temporary reprieve that Harris County ganerooms got from the courts has been lifted. Houston and Harris County moved one step closer Friday in their quest to crack down on illegal game rooms after a judge threw out a restraining … Continue reading →

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Firefighters union ratifies no-brownout agreement

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Members of the Houston firefighters’ union have signed off on a deal with Mayor Annise Parker that would prevent pulling firetrucks from service to help balance the Fire Department’s budget. “We’re very pleased that the union membership ratified the … Continue reading →

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County enforcement of game room regulations halted for now

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. A quest by the county and city to crack down on illegal game rooms has hit a legal roadblock after a civil court judge granted a temporary restraining order barring Harris County from enforcing strict, new regulations. The city … Continue reading →

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HFD union reaches a deal with the city to avoid “rolling brownouts”

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the Inbox: Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association (HPFFA) President Bryan Sky-Eagle joined Mayor Annise Parker this morning to announce a tentative agreement on an interim contract that will avoid the brown-outs of fire apparatus proposed earlier to solve an … Continue reading →

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State of the county 2014: Let’s keep working together

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Time for Judge Emmett to tell us how things are going in Harris County. (Spoiler alert: They’re going fine, thanks for asking.) On the eve of what could be his final term as Harris County’s top elected official, County Judge … Continue reading →

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Firefighters union sues city to block cutbacks

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure about this. Houston firefighters went to court Tuesday in an effort to block the city from removing personnel, trucks and ambulances from service. But a judge rejected their argument that the “rolling brownouts” plan violates the union’s collective … Continue reading →

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HFD’s budget problems

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m sure you’ve heard of this by now. The safety of Houston’s citizens and its firefighters will be compromised over the next four months as the fire department limits the number of personnel on duty and removes trucks from service … Continue reading →

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More on the audit letters

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron asks some outside experts to go over those recently released audit letters. Houston leaders appeared to have ignored the significance of recurring accounting and management problems or did not have the resources to fix them, according to accounting … Continue reading →

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Harris County threatens to sue Harris County Appraisal District

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

That headline may sound dry, but this is a big deal. Worried about the erosion of the tax base, county officials said Wednesday that they may consider suing the Harris County Appraisal District over concerns it is undervaluing certain business … Continue reading →

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Audit letters

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a thing called audit letters that I hadn’t known existed. We’ve got them for Houston, but we had not been making them public even though other cities do as a matter of course. Houston officials have blocked the release … Continue reading →

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The preservation ordinance is a work in progress

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the tl;dr version of this. In October 2010, an emotional Sue Lovell, then a city council­woman, lauded the passage of a strengthened historic preservation ordinance for Houston after a long, complex and divisive battle she and Mayor Annise Parker … Continue reading →

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City sues HFRRF again

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: In the face of growing concern about its ability to meet long-term retiree pension obligations, the City of Houston filed a lawsuit today against the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF), one of three pension systems … Continue reading →

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Why not three?

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Greg suggests a couple of tweaks to term limits. » Fix the JoJo exclusion. The statute, as written, is amazingly short and simple: Section 6a. – Limitation of terms. No person, who has already served two full terms, shall be … Continue reading →

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Mayor Parker gets married

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Awesome. Houston Mayor Annise Parker and longtime partner Kathy Hubbard are now married – at least in the eyes of 18 states, including California, where the couple formally exchanged vows Thursday in a sunset ceremony in Palm Springs. “This is … Continue reading →

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Council OKs ordinance to help bring grocery stores to food deserts

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Supermarkets now can sell beer and wine next to schools and churches, an exemption to city regulations Houston City Council granted unanimously Wednesday, hoping to encourage grocers to locate in neighborhoods that lack access to fresh, healthy food. These … Continue reading →

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City benefits for same sex spouses back on

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

For now, at least. A federal judge ruled Thursday that same-sex couples legally married in other states can keep health and life insurance benefits that were extended to spouses of city of Houston employees in November. […] [Noel] Freeman’s husband’s … Continue reading →

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Time to talk term limits again

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The subject keeps coming up, though it never seems to get anywhere. As the inauguration of Houston’s elected leaders begins Thursday morning, supporters and spectators gathered at the Wortham Center downtown will see six new City Council members walk across … Continue reading →

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From the “If at first you don’t succeed” files

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Sometimes you have to try try again for 24 years to get what you want. It seems as if he never existed, but he certainly did. For 24 years, Charles Hixon attended nearly every Harris County Commissioners Court meeting to … Continue reading →

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More reactions to the city’s settlement with the strip clubs

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Not everyone likes it. Bob Sanborn, CEO of the nonprofit organization Children at Risk, and other advocates against human trafficking said on Wednesday that they should have been consulted before a deal was struck. Mayor Annise Parker, who brokered the … Continue reading →

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