Houblog

The mayor just announced the new director of PW&E.

Moments ago the Mayor announced Mr. Krueger as the new Director of the Public Works and Engineering Department. Confirmation by City Council is anticipated as early as late July.

Very Respectfully, 

Daniel R. Menendez, P.E.
Deputy Director
Engineering & Construction Division

Menendez was the interim director for the last couple of days.

Frankly, the mayor should have announced a new ITD director. The website rollout is totally botched. As I write this, the city’s front page is HTV. I don’t mean it’s redirected there, I mean it is HTV.

Once again, ITD fubars a project. No surprises there.

I have yet to see it on any news outlet in Houston, but the word at the office is that Director of Public Works and Engineering Michael Marcotte has tendered his resignation to Mayor Parker. The effective date is in two weeks. According to multiple sources, the Mayor was not happy with unspecified job performance issues and requested the Director vacate his position.

What prompted this action now? The City is embroiled in multiple controversies, as the new mayor puts her stamp on the city. A hefty water rate increase, a drainage “fee” initiative that has her tacit approval, upheavals at Metro; now would not seem to be the time to throw more fuel on the fire. All of those involve Public Works in some way. Yet the fact remains: Marcotte is out.

Several questions immediately occur:

• Is Marcotte supposed to take the fall for the rate increase?
• What was the mayor unhappy about?
• Who else, if anyone, will be following, if the mayor is unhappy?
• Did Marcotte balk at some demand involving the rates, cooperation with Metro, backing the initiative?

Taking the fall doesn’t make sense. There’s no way that Parker can shift the blame for needing the rate increase onto Marcotte; not while she was the controller and silently oversaw the vast expansion of debt funding from capital projects into everyday operations and maintenance. So what is going on?

Perhaps we’ll hear when the usual 3:48 pm Friday evening press release goes out, but I’m not holding my breath.

Update: My view of Marcotte is probably not that well informed; I don’t interact with him in any way. Still, my impression is that he’s an even-tempered administrator who doesn’t rush to judgment, isn’t prone to arrogance, and listens to his managers. He’s been a loyal soldier publicly, whatever he’s had to say privately. He’s tried, within budget constraints, to see to it that his employees are compensated as well as in the private sector.

If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say that the rift probably had to do with the rebate program, and/or contract administration and code enforcement. The latter areas have always given me a queasy feel when I’ve dealt with them; contract inspectors sometimes act like they’re working for the contractor, not the city. There’s nothing I can specifically point to as wrong-doing (or I’d be publishing it, screw OIG), but the creation of the rebate program risks letting the rot spread. Not to mention, it removes funding from the utility system and hands it to slumlords.

Well, I’ve said any number of times (though mostly not here) that the drainage fee was coming back. Sure enough, it has.. There were several things I thought were very interesting in today’s uncritical article.

• The assumption that some of the metro sales tax (aka. “general mobility”) funds would be used for drainage and “infrastructure” improvements. In the first place, that assumes that the changing of the Metro guard means a resumption of those payments to COH. Second place, they’re talking about other than drainage if they’re using mobility funds. Third place, I hope they have that much left after paying for lawsuit settlements for breaking the law about open records. Just as Tom Bazan has hounded them about for years.
• User fee is bullshit, it’s a property tax. Council Member Costello: “It’s a user fee!” Funny, I thought my property tax was a user fee. If I don’t pay it, I’m not going to have use of my land for very long.
• Note the article’s reference to developer fees where such development “affects density.” In other words, they’re going to make it more expensive to develop inside the city– not only that, but they’ll penalize and discourage the very density growth that they claim to be encouraging (and needing) for MetroRail.
• Who are these faceless “engineers” of whom the Chronicle speaks? The only one identified by name is the President of this relatively unheard-of “Renew Houston” That’s Edwin Friedrichs of Walter P. Moore, whose online bio reads:

He devises engineering solutions to help build better communities. Some of his signature projects include the Uptown Houston Transportation Master Plan and Streetscape Improvements Program, numerous roadways and facilities at the Texas Medical Center, Sam Houston Tollway Section VII-A, Minute Maid Park, Lake Texana State Park, BMC Software Headquarters, and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Mr. Friedrichs works to find consensus, both in his professional work and his civic activities, with groups such as South Main Alliance, Rice Design Alliance, Greater Houston Partnership, Houston Achievement Place, and various City of Houston committees.

Well, I’d not expect an un-influential person to be heading this project.. Can you say “Front man”? I knew that you could.

Some other notes:

The $8 billion to improve drainage would come primarily from three sources. First, the “Stormwater User Fee” that is expected to amount to about $5 per month for an average homeowner and $90 a month for an average commercial property owner with 14 units per acre.

In other words, a property tax, by another name.

Second, a “Development Impact Fee” would set up a program by which developers have to pay for the degree to which their projects impact density.

Which will discourage it, as noted above.

Third, a “pay-as-you-go” plan that would take the estimated one-sixth of total city property tax revenues used now to pay for interest costs on debt that has financed infrastructure and drainage projects and apply it directly to new projects. In other words, the city would not incur additional debt to pay for infrastructure as part of the plan and as old debts are paid off, money used to make those payments would be put to drainage and infrastructure projects.

How about we use the money for Police and Fire protection, huh?

But that’s not all, not by a long shot. Other funding:

The city also would continue to use other sources of funds to pay for road and drainage improvements, such as “mobility funds,” or sales taxes, collected by the Metropolitan Transit Authority and redistributed to the city.

So Metro’s going to cough up the money at last? Wonder how that will affect their already documented inability to pay for their current plans?

The proposed referendum includes a provision that would continue the program for another 20 years after 2032 unless City Council votes to modify or cancel it.

Keep that gravy train rolling, baby, hundreds of millions a year in public spending. Construction and engineering companies are lining up!

Parker said she preferred that the referendum focus exclusively on drainage rather than “general infrastructure,” and she also is uncomfortable that the charter amendment would prohibit future mayors from leveraging the revenues to issue debt if such a course were needed.

What, she wants to pile on MORE DEBT? Well, she let Bill White pile on all he wanted while ignoring the warning signs. Personally, I’m also worried about the referendum being used as an end-run around Prop 1 and Prop 2, if not to just “accidentally” repeal them entirely. “Oh, we didn’t realize it said that, but since it does…”

Houston’s voters need to wake up and smell the arsenic. The “non-partisan” nature of city elections means that neither the Democratic nor Republican parties feel any need to score points off the other by, Heaven forbid, actually doing what the voters want, instead of treating them as particularly stupid sheep to be sheared.

No, not lesbian. We knew that.

She’s a conservative?

Methinks the LA Times doesn’t know what the hell it’s talking about. Someone who has silently financed Bill White’s spending agenda is not a conservative, fiscal, or otherwise. Conservatives keep government spending restricted to the necessities, and do not waste time with worthless amenities such as sports stadiums, useless/expensive/dangerous trams, and wind energy schemes that only benefit friends. Nor do they spend a million dollars on consultants just to cover their political butts for the next run. That’s been the last six years, and the controller has fiddled while Rome burned. We will now discover if this was political pragmatism or agreement with the Democratic machine that Bill White has built.

We’ll be watching to see just how “conservative” this new mayor is.

It’s a truism that big news that the city government doesn’t want you to hear will always break late on a Friday afternoon. Once again, it’s been proven.

Richard Vacar, who led the Houston Airport System for more than 11 years through several multi-billion-dollar expansion projects, abruptly left the post today, according to an announcement from Mayor Bill White’s office.

It was unclear whether Vacar was fired or left voluntarily. The announcement from the mayor’s office said he had retired.

Hey, he retired so fast, his own staff didn’t know. That happens all the time, right? Seriously, he was definitely shown the door, and the mayor obviously didn’t care if it hit him in the butt on the way out. Special inside knowledge? Nah, just the total abrogation of protocol.

Rorschach suggested that it might be the news leak over the new runway while the Lege is still in session, considering eminent domain bills. I don’t think I buy it.

This has all the hallmarks of MBW in full-blown rage mode. Now Vacar may have wanted the extra runway, and we know he’s the tool of Yellow Cab and the entire airline industry. (Or should I have stopped at “tool”?) But unless there’s a hell of a lot more to this.. as in “Bill, get us this runway and we’ll make damn sure you’re the next jr.Senator from Texas,” I just don’t see White going bonkers over this. In fact, I don’t see him even trying to make that deal unless he thinks such an obvious screw of the public (and our already broken budget) would look good right before he runs for office.

So did he catch Vacar eating babies for breakfast, or what?

Is the real problem that someone has proof that Vacar is as corrupt as we’ve always felt he was?

And is it just me, or is the Chron burying this story under swine flu and knee surgery infections at Methodist hospital?

The proof isn’t in this article.

According to police, they were driving a white Pontiac Grand Prix when they fired gunshots at the driver of a truck. Then they exited the freeway at West Gulf Bank.

The truck driver stopped on the West Gulf Bank overpass and got a rifle from his back seat for protection, police said. As he looked over the side of the freeway to see the license plate of the Pontiac, he saw the car’s driver’s side window open and feared the suspects would shoot at him again.

He fired several shots at the Pontiac, hitting the passenger who was sitting in the front seat and another man who was in the back seat.

The front-seat passenger, 17, was taken to Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, where he later was pronounced dead.

It’s not that the guy said “Screw this, I’m shooting back!” It’s not that three punks got more than they bargained for. It’s not even the comments. Nope, it’s the ratings of the comments.

CPP wrote:
Gang punks shoot at Bubba & Bubba returns fire: end of story!
4/9/2009 11:13:07 AM

Recommend: (945 thumbs up) (18 thumbs down)

Yeowch!!!!!! I mean, damn.

Got the following emails at work in relation to the attack by a virus on the city’s computers. This looks a bit more widespread than “16 computers” as they were claiming to the Chronicle.

PWE Employees,

The City of Houston network is currently experiencing connectivity issues with the following departments/divisions due to a virus outbreak:

* 311 Call Center
* Municipal Courts (Court View Connection)
* Jail Processing Units
* Legal Department
* Parking Management

These departments and divisions have been quarantined and/or isolated by our Information Technology Department who is working diligently to eradicate this problem.

We are asking all PWE users to contact our helpdesk at 713.xxx.xxx, if you experience any problems with your system or if you receive any messages regarding a “Microsoft Installation.” Please do not access Microsoft website for any updates at this time until we receive an “all clear” from Information Technology Department.

If you have a laptop, please ensure your system has the latest updates before your connect to the network.

Thank you for your continued support.

PWE Information Technology Department

The first thing I notice is that the media haven’t said anything about the 311 system. That’s the main call-taking system for non-emergency services. If 311 is compromised, is 911 safe? One hopes they use better security at the HEC, but then, it is the HEC, which has never seemed all that technically savvy.

The second thing I notice is, how do these idiots expect anyone to update their laptop BEFORE connecting to the city’s network? They have to connect to the network to get online! Oh, right, connect to your own network at home and compromise it. Sure. Look, any laptop, anywhere, at any time, is an infection vector because they’re not connected to the network at the time you’re trying to clean it. Since many viruses will spike the update features or spoof AV programs, the odds of an infection never making it back into the network from a hiding place on someone’s laptop are close to nil.

The second email I received Friday said this:

PWE Employees,

Due to the recent virus outbreak that has occurred in various areas in the City; the PWE IT staff is working diligently to ensure the safety of our user community. We are in the process of deploying the necessary security updates to your computer.

We are asking you to shut down your computer before leaving for the day. If you see the option to install updates and shut down please do so.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the help desk at 713-xxx-xxxx.

Thank you for your continued support.

PWE Information Technology

I don’t envy our IT people their job right now… I’ve been fighting an unrelated (I think) virus infestation for the last few days, which I wasn’t able to solve until I junked the major commercial solutions and went to Brand X online. (Specifically: AVG antivirus, and I returned to Zone Alarm for my firewall. Screw you Norton, you couldn’t solve it, and left dozens of tracking cookies you were supposed to remove.)

It will be interesting to see if the city can get the problem solved by Monday.

Carolyn Feibel reports at the Chronicle’s Politics blog, that the city quietly added $60 million to its debt obligation last Friday, in order to pay its obligations on HPD pensions. Amazingly, this was reported as if it were good news.

The city refinanced a portion of its pension obligation - $400 million of it, to be exact. Previously, the city had issued a $300 million promissory note to the Municipal Employees Pension System in 2004, using the Hilton Americas-Houston as collateral. That lowered the unfunded liability left over from the Brown administration. On paper, that is. But the White administration deferred both payments and interest, so the eventual obligation grew to $341 million.

Now, the city has refinanced that old obligation, and paid off the $341 million owed to the municipal pension fund. The old obligation would have cost 8.5 percent interest if the city had stuck with it. The new bond issued Wednesday is worth $400 million, with a 6.29 percent interest rate. The extra millions will be used to pump cash into the police pension, as well.

This article is pitched as good news, but what it really says is that the Cits just borrowed an additional $59 million to finance the police pension fund and $41 million just to pay the deferred interest on the previous $300 million debt. The last sentence of the quote makes it obvious that the first sentence is misleading. Worse, the math doesn’t add up. Here’s what happened, if we cut out all the smoke and mirrors.

(more…)

Tom Bazan had a neat suggestion for an editorial cartoon, so I took his suggestion and ran with it. This isn’t exactly what he asked for, but I like it. The result:

If you want to take your own shot at captioning this picture, here it is (click on it for the link to the full size, or just use the thumbnail):

Herschel Smith over at the Captain’s Journal has a few questions about the National Security Force being proposed by Obama. They’re good questions, like (paraphrasing):

• If it’s just as well funded, where’s the money going to come from?
• If it’s just as well equipped, does that mean tanks, bombers, Strykers?

I’m tempted to make jokes about this organization, such as, “hey, if he wants a civilian defense force, Blackwater’s for hire!” I’ll pass on the snark for once. However, I do have a few questions that aren’t on Herschel’s list, that I’d like to see answered first.

• What is the purpose of this force?
• What will it’s training be like?
• Where will it be deployed?
• To whom does it answer?
• What type of people will be recruited?

There are two kinds of security. Internal, and external. Internal security involves police-type work and enforcement of the law on people who don’t want to obey it. External security involves imposition of a national will on another group of people, whether that will is “don’t shoot your neighbor” or “don’t shoot us.” They’re similar in some ways, but different in others. Given the level of combat in Iraq until recently, a “civilian” force would be nothing more than a collection of targets and hostages. I can’t imagine deploying a super-sized LAPD SWAT team to Iraq, and being nearly as effective against insurgents and Iranian-supplied RPG’s, mortars, AK-47’s, IED’s etc., as the military was.

It’s not just a matter of gear, it’s also training and mindset. The military has over 200 years of experience in getting tens of thousands of people performing widely different tasks, and operating on the same page. One of those reasons is military discipline. You disobey an order in the military, your butt can end up in the slammer. (At least.) You don’t obey it in a civilian job, you can be fired. Whoopee. If I’m a civilian security force member, I have to know that the guy next to me can quit at any time; he might not do it in the middle of a fire-fight in Bosnia, but he’s not exactly the Marines when all hell breaks loose This isn’t to say that there aren’t cultural and human imperatives to support a fellow security force member in a tight spot, just that these are MUCH weaker in a force that has no “institutional” memory and little power to punish deserters. If the force does have the power to punish, not just fire, deserters or those who disobey orders, then it’s not civilian. It’s just a military force in disguise. Therefore, I believe this should not be called a “civilian” force, but what it really is: a “quasi-military” force.

So is the plan to deploy a few million heavily-armed, poorly-trained, volunteer targets around the world? That’s going to be popular with the mothers back home…

Or is the National Security force for internal use? Will the act of Congress that authorizes this force permit or bar it from being deployed in the U.S.? If it is meant for domestic use, then it has to be equipped and trained differently from the “lavishly equipped” military. (Ask a soldier sleeping in a tent in Afganistan just how lavish it is…) Lets look at internal use.

Internal security involves the apprehension of those defined as criminals by the government. It will require forensics, detective skills, informants, databases of criminals, and so on. But wait, we already have these in the FBI. Why do we need a large, lavishly equipped force as big as the military to perform these functions? Why do we need three million extra people under arms inside the U.S.? Is our crime problem that bad? Well, you could give the National Security force enough medium or heavy weaponry to suppress violent outbreaks of up to city-wide level. Helluva police force, but otherwise, there’s no point in having it; existing city and state forces, backed up by the National Guard have sufficed. (”But what about Kent State?” screams the audience. Well, what about it? Do we have rioters at our colleges today? If you’re planning on having any, why? And what does Kent State have to do with anything? Four dead rock and bottle throwers no more validates a national security force thirty-five years later, than the Gulf of Tonkien incident would validate our going back to war with Vietnam today.

So, if we assume this force is meant for external use, it will need to have military training, military equipment, and military discipline. You can’t keep the peace if you’re not willing to wage war on those who would break it. And if it’s for internal use, it needs to be equipped to investigate and detain “criminal” elements, plus, at that size, probably it will be used to suppress disorderly elements among the people. So the aim of the force will be obvious from the training and equipment — which we won’t really know until after the force is being formed, will we? So why would we create this big, expensive force, just as Sen. Barney Frank says (paraphrased) “Let’s cut spending on the military by 25%”?

Now the next question is, if you’re going to form this force, to whom will it answer? If it’s civilian, not the Secretary of Defense. If it’s judicial or prosecutorial, the DOJ would be obvious. But that doesn’t fit either. So, if it’s foreign use, it will have to have its own “department” which may or may not be considered cabinet-level. Obviously, if it’s intended for domestic use, Homeland Security would be the right place.

Homeland Security, with its own quasi-military force of 2 to 3 million people. (Why does that make my butt pucker?) Or some new office entirely? (The puckering gets worse.)

And I have to ask, what kind of people will this force recruit? Or will it be “compulsory youth service?” If it’s volunteer, would it be too much to expect that people who think this force is a bad idea from several perspectives would not join it? And if it’s “compulsory youth service” (read: “draft”) would the members be subject to, shall we say, a certain amount of persuasion that they’re doing A Great Thing? Morale boosting along with the training? Hm. Just realized, if it’s compulsory service, there go those pesky problems with discipline in tight spots; you’re not allowed to quit. Maybe that “Q” in “Quasi-military” should be capitalized.

So will this “Quasi-military” forcet have an oath? No, seriously, the military does. The President does. Police Departments do. Hell, doctors have an oath. In the military, every man and woman under arms with the military, takes an oath, although the last sentence is optional. The enlisted oath of office swears that person to obey all lawful orders. But the officers oath is much more interesting.

I, [name], do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. (So help me God.)

Will this “Quasi-military” National Security Defense Force have an oath…. and will it contain that specific obligation? Or will it instead, call upon its members to uphold “the lawful Government of the United States?”

Huge. Freaking. Difference.

So tell me again, what is the point of creating a large “Quasi-military” force that is “as big and lavishly equipped as the military” that the Democratic party wants to downsize?

And why is my butt puckering again?

And some people wonder why I try to never buy Chinese goods. Bad enough that they fix their exchange rate artificially low; they’ve destroyed our heavy industry, what was left of our semi-conductor industry, our textiles; it’s gotten so bad they’re stealing Mexican jobs from the maquiladoras.

But I’m sure President Osama, I mean Obama, will seek better relations with them by fixing that thorny Taiwanese problem. If I were Taiwan, I’d be cozying up to India, Japan, and Russia right now. None of them alone would be enough to save them, but the combination might keep the dragon at bay.

I wouldn’t put money on it. Wonder if I could find a Taiwanese internet bride, really cheap, in a few months? Heh. If I’m lucky, she might like wearing cat ears… “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Catgirls! Nya?”

A few days ago, after Mayor White pitched a fit over the distribution of some relief supplies, I expressed some concern over Mayor White’s tendency to make harsh demands and slam people whom he felt didn’t meet his expectations:

I am rather disturbed about the Mayor’s tendency to demand other people make heads roll. In general, such behavior tends to cause folks you may need in the very near future to make notes about you like, “Doesn’t play well with others.” And it also sets you up for reciprocal demands. Bill might not want to lash out so much at perceived errors.

Lo and behold, his behavior that morning has come home to roost, and Governor Perry has stepped in to apologize on behalf of Texas. From Ted Olberg of ABC 13:

In storms like this, FEMA sends crews from all over the country to help manage the disaster. One of those crews came from Georgia to dispatch trucks of food and ice to points of distribution, or PODs. Mayor White thought they weren’t getting the job done and the governor of Georgia got offended when White told them so.

Last Tuesday morning, Mayor White visited the thousands of people in line at the TSU POD. All the supplies had been sitting overnight at Reliant Stadium. The mayor wasn’t happy.

“That is not going to happen again,” said Mayor White to the media in the days after the storm.
What he didn’t say from that podium is that before the trucks started rolling, some tough words rolled off his tongue. According to a city witness, he told some FEMA workers from Georgia dispatching trucks, to “Get those (expletive) trucks moving” and “You better get your (expletive) act together.”

Channel 13 keeps trying to carry the Mayor’s water on this one, saying, “We’re not proud of it and it doesn’t sound real nice, but when there’s no AC, heated language is a little understandable, maybe even coming from our Mayor White.” Then there’s this humdinger:

Apparently, those Georgia workers’ feelings bruise easier than a Georgia peach. They tattled on our mayor and the Georgia governor wrote Texas Governor Rick Perry a letter saying, “I would not tolerate the profane berating of Texas or Georgia volunteers here…and I trust that you do not either.”

If not for the involvement of two governors, this sure would seem like a little dealAnd it does seem like a little deal to the guy who supervises the Georgia workers. He told me on Tuesday that they’ve been yelled at by a lot more people than Mayor White and they understand how he lost his cool.

Well, I suspect the reason he told you that, Ted, is that he’s got a hell of a lot more class than the Mayor showed that morning.

The Chronicle, long derided as “Ms. White,” seems a bit disenchanted in her spouse, noting that while the supervisor may be a guy, the Georgia workers the Mayor was so kindly remonstrating with were not.

Gov. Rick Perry yesterday asked his staff to investigate comments White made to two Georgia Forestry Commission employees who came to Houston to help manage the distribution of federal and state supplies to area residents hit hard by Hurricane Ike. Perdue said in a letter to Perry that White had “verbally and profanely abused” the women.

A witness said White told the women, “You need to be getting these (expletive) trucks out of here.” The mayor then began arguing with a Harris County sheriff’s deputy over whether trucks full of Federal Emergency Management Agency supplies had been delivered to a distribution site, the witness said. White told the deputy he had just been to the site and about 3,000 people were waiting for supplies.

White went on to say that if nothing was delivered soon, they were ”about to be in a (expletive) riot,” the witness said.

I’m sure that they now have a really positive view of Texas men. And of General Patton, whom Bill so kindly compares himself to:

“I did use words that I have never used in the Sunday school class I teach, but which were closer to the vocabulary General Patton used when he was trying to keep his army moving,”

As salty as he was towards the press and his own soldiers, I strongly suspect that General Patton would have shot any officer who directed intemperate language like that towards ladies.

Was he ejected, or not?

In a letter sent Friday to Perry, but not White, the Georgia governor [Perdue] described a confrontation last Tuesday that has become a hot topic of conversation in local law enforcement and Republican political circles.

”Apparently, Mayor White had to be escorted from the scene by the Incident Commander,” Perdue wrote.

White wrote in his response that he was not “escorted from the site” but “drove with one convoy of trucks to a site where about 100 volunteers and many thousands of people had been waiting in line.”

Well, at least the Chronicle manages to make it look like it’s all just partisan sniping, by working in “Republican political circles” right after “local law enforcement.” As if it doesn’t matter whether your temper tantrums become local gossip as long as it can be passed off as partisan local gossip.

Another interesting note about the ABC 13 piece: the name that doesn’t show up in here (”right before the trucks got rolling”) is that of County Judge Emmett. When the going got tough, Mayor White pitched a fit. Judge Emmett sat down at a table with a notepad and pen, and started fixing the problem.

And Governor Perry picked up the bruised peaches for Mayor White. Gee, I wonder if it’s time for a game of “Name that Party“? The Chronicle started it…

Well, Mayor White’s been great when it comes to telling private industry how to make allowances for their employees for some time now (or even what to pay them, if they’re unionized janitors), but apparently someone got his ear and pointed out that he ought to set the example. As a result, in the middle of last week, the City of Houston belatedly began to offer ice, water, and MRE’s to employees without power, who had to be at work, rather than scrounging for the necessities. Wednesday, just as a few more gas stations were opening and the early lines easing, they also made gasoline available. However, I think they inadvertently let some information slip that they didn’t intend to bandy about.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:02 AM
To: COH - All Employees
Subject: Fuel to all City Employees

All City Employees who can show a City of Houston active Employee Identification Badge are allowed to get 5 gallons per visit, maximum of two visits, at the below designated fuel locations. Employees will be charged our cost for fuel, $4.35 per gallon, through payroll deduction. When an employee approaches the site for the fuel they will be required to sign that they received the gas and that they agree to the terms of the deduction from their paychecks.

There’s only one thing I can say the city purchasing gas at $4.35:

(more…)

A number of Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) have been established to help people who have already applied for assistance. Note that while applications can be made there, FEMA would strongly prefer to accept registration for assistance by phone or online. (FEMA really doesn’t want to repeat the long lines that occurred after Katrina and Rita, and I don’t blame them. A busy signal may be annoying, but so is standing in line for four hours.)

When an applicant gets a FEMA letter after registering with FEMA it can often be confusing. The DRC will help the applicant understand the denial or award letter they receive. They will also be able to register there, but it is preferred that they register over the phone or online. The DRC also provides different agencies that may help the applicant after a disaster such as: IRS, SBA, etc.

The IRS? (Never mind…. making a joke of that would be like shooting fish in a barrel.)

As of today, four sites will be open Monday thru Sunday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm:

1. Ellington Joint Reserve Base, 14657 Sneider Street, 77034
2. Home Depot Store, 11500 Chimney Rock, Houston, Texas 77035
3. Home Depot Store, 10707 North Freeway, Houston, Texas 77037
4. Home Depot Store, 6810 Gulf Freeway, Houston, Texas 77087

More may be opened later. Before going to the center, residents should make sure to have their identification, Social Security number, insurance information, proof of address and contact numbers on hand.

At the DRC, visitors can:

* Receive information about different types of state and federal disaster assistance.
* Get help completing low-interest loan applications from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for homeowners, renters and business owners.
* Inquire about the status of applications for federal assistance.
* Receive referrals to the American Red Cross and other voluntary organizations to help with immediate unmet needs.
* Learn cost-effective measures to reduce the impact of future disaster losses.

Additionally Nationwide Insurance had a mobile center set up yesterday in the parking lot of Lowe’s at Wallisville and Beltway 8 on the east side for its customers. They looked kind of bored when I drove by at 5pm.

Americares has opened a mobile clinic to serve the public at 215 Westheimer.

Sept 13: In the wake of Hurricane Ike’s landfall, the international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization AmeriCares is moving relief supplies and emergency response specialists to the hardest hit areas of the storm. At AmeriCares headquarters in Stamford today, staff and volunteers are loading a Mobile Medical Unit with essential medicines and medical supplies that are bound for the Galveston-Houston area. The Mobile Medical Unit will provide medical services to returning evacuees in the Houston metro area.

“As Texas officials issued urgent warnings about Hurricane Ike this week, AmeriCares began working to ensure that critical medical supplies will be available in the recovery effort,” said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares. “The need for assistance and support is great. We will remain in Texas as long as is necessary to support the individuals and families affected by Hurricane Ike.”

In addition to deploying the Mobile Medical Unit, AmeriCares is sending emergency response and clinical staff to assess the needs of the communities in the path of the storm and determine the priorities for future assistance. The organization is also working in collaboration with Nestle to send bottled water to the Galveston-Houston Area.

AmeriCares is a private, nonprofit international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, which delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis around the world. Since it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $7.5 billion in humanitarian aid to 137 countries. To learn more about AmeriCares and to find out how to support the relief efforts in Texas, visit americares.org.

And unless you’re some kind of anti-religious bigot, Grace Community Church Senior Pastor, Steve Riggle, announced today that his church will be hosting a community seminar with Houston City Council Member Mike Sullivan at their South Campus location 14505 Gulf Freeway at Dixie Farm Road Monday, September 22 from 7PM-8PM to cover issues with insurance, FEMA and housing. This seminar is open to anyone and everyone. The goal of this seminar is to answer questions many have but are unable to get answered.

Presentations will be given about temporary and long term housing issues for those affected by Hurricane Ike; insurance and insurance claims processes; Texas Windstorm insurance; as well as FEMA related issues. (Actually, they’ll probably let you in, even if you are an anti-religious bigot. Those whacky Christians, never know what to expect from them!)

Speaking of Christians, Catholic Charities Staff and Volunteers will be giving out food and water at the Catholic Charismatic Center at 1949 Cullen Blvd Monday, September 22 from 2 - 7 pm. Donations for Ike are urgently needed to assist with recovery efforts. To donate visit www.catholiccharities.org.

Links to more information:

Chron’s assistance blog/list
KHOU’s help blog
ABC13’s list (with services provided)
Channel 2’s list of POD locations

I also checked the Houston Press, but they were too busy snarking and putting links to two year old articles on the front page (News and Columns; Special Reports) to actually be, you know, helpful. (I suppose that’s rather mean of me after their Hair Balls called me “the ever sharp-eyed Ubu Roi.” I am such an ingrate.) Well, they do have a list of restaurants that are open.

Mmmmm. El Jardin’s. Love their quesadillas.

From CBS News:

About 250 people who withstood Hurricane Ike on a coastal sliver of land will be forced off it so crews can begin the recovery effort, authorities said Tuesday, vowing to invoke emergency powers to make it happen. The Texas attorney general’s office is trying to figure out how legally to force the holdouts to leave, [County Judge Jim] Yarbrough said. Local authorities are prepared to do whatever it takes to get residents to a safer place.

That’s going to go over really well. One bad effect of the cool temperatures we’re having is that people aren’t being forced out of those areas for lack of air conditioning. Ninety degrees and high humidity are no fun.

Meanwhile, Galveston’s mayor has come to her senses. Sounds like she was browbeaten into recognizing her stupidity by the state of Texas. From the Chronicle:

As companies worked to restore electricity to the region, Galveston worked to restore order by suspending its ‘Look and Leave’ program for Galveston Island, indefinitely, effective immediately, officials said this evening.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas initiated the program at noon today, but had to suspend it less than six hours later.

Earlier today, thousands of evacuees, apparently responding to a “look and leave” policy announced by Galveston officials, created a huge traffic jam that was blocking emergency vehicles and badly needed supplies from reaching the island, state transportation officials said.

(Update: the traffic jam hit 8 miles at one point.)

White and Emmett are working together to take control of the FEMA relief efforts after some glitches. I’m really undecided about this. The NIMS training I mentioned earlier makes a big deal about having a unified regional command, and speaking with one voice, but one of the things I’ve noticed is that it runs headlong into local politicians who must have their Moment in the Sun, Looking Decisive and Caring. Still, if it’s not working, it’s not working. Local politicians know the area better, and have already developed working relationships with many companies and key persons. Assuming they’re not named Ray Nagin, the locals are in a better position to get things done. I am rather disturbed about the Mayor’s tendency to demand other people make heads roll. In general, such behavior tends to cause folks you may need in the very near future to make notes about you like, “Doesn’t play well with others.” And it also sets you up for reciprocal demands. Bill might not want to lash out so much at perceived errors.

I have to say though, 200 trucks sitting in Reliant’s parking lot while some centers go unstocked sounds just a bit screwed up. There should be one person in charge of marshaling the yard (”Ice trucks over here, food over there, volunteer parking here, this corner for our own supplies. Trucks to enter here, x number of people to direct them…”), one to head up the effort to inventory what’s available, whats on the way, and what’s dispatched; one to handle logistics for the volunteers and trucks (fuel, etc.) If the feds can’t supply someone who can work that out, they really do have problems. (Granted, doing it on the fly, from a standing start is not a trivial task. That’s where the NIMS training is supposed to come in.)

Re: Centerpoint and power:

Meanwhile, up to half of the five million people toiling without electricity in Houston may still be in the dark next Tuesday, according to predictive models used by the region’s largest utility company, a spokesman announced this evening.

Floyd LeBlanc, vice president of communications for CenterPoint Energy, said the company has restored power to 690,000 of its 2.2 million customers. But by next Tuesday, between 550,000 and 1.1 million will still be without power, he said.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. “We’re working around the clock.”

In short, they’ve gotten the easy stuff; now it gets hard. And hard takes longer.

Meanwhile, people are still finding stupid ways to die, long after Ike is gone:

In other news, two men found inside a southwest Houston mobile home are among 10 in the area whose deaths have been linked to Hurricane Ike, Harris County medical examiners said.

Francisco Garcia, 20 and German Rojas, 32, were discovered about 2:30 p.m. Monday when a relative came to check on them in their trailer in a mobile home park along the 14100 block of Del Papa, Houston police said.

Both men died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas-powered generator found in the kitchen, authorities said.

Internal combustion and enclosed spaces don’t mix.

That’s all for now.

(edited for clarity)