Houblog

We’ve got a tropical storm on the way. No reason to get complacent, just because it isn’t a category 5 hurricane. Just thought I’d post this little blast from the past, courtesy of the National Weather Service:

5 and 2 day rainfall totals:

INSIDE HARRIS COUNTY:

INCREDIBLE AS THESE RAIN TOTALS ARE...THEY STILL PALE IN COMPARISON
TO THE RAINFALL TOTALS PRODUCED BY TROPICAL STORM CLAUDETTE IN 1979.
THE U.S. 24 HOUR RECORD RAINFALL TOTAL OCCURRED IN ALVIN TEXAS ON
JULY 24 1979. 43 INCHES OF RAIN FELL ON ALVIN DURING THAT 24 HOUR
PERIOD. IT IS PLAUSIBLE THAT SOME OF THE VOLUNTEER CO-OP SITES
ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS WILL YIELD SOME EVEN HIGHER RAINFALL TOTALS
THAN WHAT IS LISTED HERE. KHGX-88D RADAR HAS ESTIMATED THAT 30 TO 40
INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN OVER PARTS OF LIBERTY...CHAMBERS AND
HARRIS COUNTIES SINCE JUNE 1ST.

One of the things that made Allison so bad was that it rained heavily for three days prior to the main storm, which mean that the ground was already saturated. Bear in mind that the normal rainfall total for Houston in a year is only 46 inches….

I’ll be getting ready now, thank you.

Update: All three vehicles topped off, some extra gas in cans for the generator, a few gallons of water bought and set aside (plus several more empty jugs ready to be filled). We’d just bought groceries so we’re set there. Might pick up some extra batteries tomorrow; we’d gotten some ten days ago, just in case. But here’s why this storm worries me a bit, per the Weather Nerd:

. . . the National Hurricane Center designated Tropical Depression Five at 5:00 PM EDT, and then at 6:00 PM, upgraded it to Tropical Storm Edouard in a special advisory, noting in the discussion:

WHEN THE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT PASSED THROUGH THE CONVECTION TO THE SOUTHEAST OF THE CENTER A SHORT TIME AGO…IT FOUND MAXIMUM FLIGHT LEVEL WINDS OF 54 KT AND A SURFACE PRESSURE OF 1002 MB…A DROP OF 5 MB IN AN HOUR AND A HALF. THESE DATA INDICATE THAT THE DEPRESSION HAS STRENGTHENED INTO THE FIFTH TROPICAL STORM OF THE SEASON. … EDOUARD IS NOW EXPECTED TO BE NEAR HURRICANE INTENSITY AT LANDFALL.

If this rate of intensification continues, Edouard could be stronger than that. But for now, the official forecast falls for the storm’s intensity to max out at 70 mph. Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings are up for much of the Louisiana and Texas coasts.

The pressure drops strengthen the wind speed and total power of the storm. Last measurement had it at 1002mb. Below about 990 it’s getting close to hurricane status — pressure at the nominal hurricane point is around 980mb. In other words, if it kept intensifying at the same rate (not at all likely, I admit) it’s becoming a hurricane right now as I type this. And it’s already raining. Not part of Edouard, but it’s part of the same conditions that spawned the storm. That suggests a wet storm…

10pm update: It has not grown any stronger, and the track has been shifted slightly north. Both are promising signs… for me. One of those is less so for folks to the east.

Steven den Beste notes:

I started thinking about that when I saw this question someone posted today at ask.metafilter.com:

“As an American, can I hand out flyers detailing the Tiananmen Square Massacre during the Beijing Olympics?”

I’m really glad to see that the many answers were virtually unanimous that this would be an utterly boneheaded thing to attempt.

I was going, “huh?” until I realized the idealistic (and idiotic) questioner didn’t mean during the Beijing Olympics, he meant at the Beijing Olympics. At which point, I became highly amused.

I wondered if someone asked him if he planned to participate in the Tank-Stopping event, and I thought it would make a great snarky comment for this post. So I went to Metafilter for the link, even though I didn’ t have to Lo and behold, the title of his post? “Tank man is Everyman.”

Suddenly, it wasn’t funny any more. I can only believe the guy was trolling.

The Chron was nice enough to print my name and 2007 earnings on their website. Sorry, I am not a public official, and I don’t think my info should be up there. How would you like it if the IRS posted that information about you? Hey, you pay taxes, right? I’ve got a right to know if you’re paying your fair share, right?

A fireman said it best:

As for the idea we somehow have less of a right to privacy simply because we earn our living working for the citizens of Houston, the I vote that any entity, person, company, or vendor, that sells, contracts, or does business with the city post all of thier employees, contracts, and amount of money earned from business with the city each year. It will certainly dwarf the little bit I EARNED.JMHO

I’d cancel my subscription, but I did that long ago.

And the breakdown of city infrastructure continues.

Please be advised that two 2-inch water lines at the intersection of Dallas and Bagby downtown were ruptured during the night. This affects the water and chilled water systems for City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Central Library and the Juila Ideson building facilities. Currently, we have no water or air conditioning at those facilities and repairs are expected to take most of the day.

These four buildings are being closed for today while repairs are made. Employees who work in these buildings are being temporarily re-assigned for the day to an alternate work site - their homes. Employees should be available to their supervisors throughout the day.

This does not affect all City employees. It applies ONLY to those employees working in these four buildings - City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Central Library and the Julia Ideson Building.

Bill White,
Mayor

There’s been some confusion over a request by Ed Wulfe to swap some land and a public road in the Galleria area for his Boulevard Place project. After looking at the maps and reading the proposed ordinance carefully, I wanted to post to set the record straight. This is not S. Post Oak BLVD that’s being handed over to Ed, it’s S. Post Oak LANE. I’ve always been annoyed at the confusion engendered by the developers who want to make money by giving everyone a “Post Oak” address, and this is part and land-parcel of the effect. Although, the actual deal is almost as bad as if it were Post Oak Blvd.

Post Oak Lane is about one block to the west, and dead ends into Ed Wulfe’s Boulevard Place development. It doesn’t go anywhere. Skylark is a half-block further west, and also dead ends. Ambassador Way runs east-west, about a half-block west from S. Post Oak Blvd, and either dead ends or meets McCue’s northern end (maps differ).

The net effect of the land swaps is to either extend Ambassador Way, and/or move it a bit southward, to meet up with an extended SPO Lane. The latter will be itself curved west into line with Skylark, and Skylark’s southern end will be chopped off and twisted to meet SPO Lane from the west. The combined streets will apparently connect to the northern end of McCue, thus relieving congestion on S. Post Oak Blvd, which is only one block east, and providing customers of Mr. Wulfe’s development a less-trafficed access from the rear. Note that spillover traffic coming from the north is currently forced over to Sage or Chimney Rock.

How long until the residents of Chevy Chase (which meets McCue from the west in this area) want their street blocked off is anyone’s guess. My money’s on “when the construction starts, unless they’re reading this.” FYI I’m not sure if the Centre at Post Oak is a Wulfe development, but if it is, this will allow him to assemble a mega-block approximately the size of the current Galleria.

What kept me digging through this until I understood it was the lengthy discussion of the past history of this project — apparently the deal had been through previous incarnations in 2004 and 2006. The 2004 deal involved Ed getting to cut the streets in question off, and having to construct barriers and. Then the deal was renegotiated in 2006:

…City Council authorized the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, four turnaround street easements, two 10-foot-wide utility easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for the conveyance to the City of right of way for the realignment and the construction of South Post Oak Lane and Skylark Lane to City standards at no cost to the City…

Now Ed’s back again, with yet another re-negotiation of the deal. The new ordinance reads:

…an ordinance authorizing the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, two 10-foot-wide utility easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for a consideration of $1,500.00 plus the conveyance to the city of right-of-way for South Post Oak Lane and Ambassador Way…

Notice what’s missing? Ed Wulfe no longer has to construct the streets to handle the additional traffic caused by his development!

.

Boy, talk about some rules for some folks (Ashby high-rise developers) and other rules for Ed Wulfe! Not only does he not have to spring for a traffic study (it’s not a multi-family high rise, after all), he doesn’t even have to build the streets — we get to do that for him at taxpayer expense!

But don’t worry… BLVD Place, a development the size of the Galleria, will be conveniently near a rail station, and that nice park we also got to pay for (screw the owners)!

Huh, a complete disregard for the effects on vehicle traffic, and land development coincidentally near the rail alignment. Y’know, has anyone ever actually seen Metro chairman (and also coincidentally, land developer) David S. Wolff and land developer Ed Wulfe in the same place at the same time? I’m just askin’…..

Ed Wulfe

David Wolff

Spotted in the comments of a discussion of Starbucks (and the politics thereof):

I generally either shut out the “No one I know voted for Nixon” vibe or I eavesdrop and see how many inanities get spouted. I’ll never forget one time, at a Starbucks in Houston, I struck up a conversation with some locals and was told, point-blank, that I had no business being in the gay Starbucks when the straight one was only two blocks down.

Ah, the good ‘ol Big Tent philosophy. Funny how some people are all about inclusion…as long as it’s about you including them.

Crossposted from my comment over at blogHOUSTON:

I’m furious with CBS news again. How this network is still in business after trying to throw a national election is something I can’t explain.

What’s got me glaring at CBS news this time is last week’s coverage of the “5th anniversery” of the Iraq war. It’s not a local subject per se, so I wasn’t in any hurry to blog it here; while the WOT is one of the motivations for starting this blog, I long ago quit opining on it, since there are people much more qualified and influential to handle that job.

But this time, I’ve got to kick in some commentary or blow up in anger. I figured someone else would cary the load, but I haven’t even seen any backlash on this, which makes me wonder… have we just come to accept left-wing ideology and attacks from the media, to the point that we don’t even blink an eye anymore? I’m really angry over their use of the children of deceased soldiers to attack the war, compounded by the commentator saying that children of military personnel shouldn’t play dress-up in their parent’s uniforms. Oh, the horror! The son or daughter of a doctor, a fireman, or a policeman, maybe… but a soldier?

“We’ve all seen children play dress-up in their parent’s clothing…but it should never be like this.” Cue picture of a father and daughter, both in military fatigues, standing in front of a mirror. (emphasis in original. I wish I could replicate the sound of horror and disgust in the newsman’s voice.)

How DARE they suggest that the children of military personnel shouldn’t be proud of their parents and seek to emulate them? The next time one of their precious reporters gets nabbed in Iraq by a bunch of crazies with guns, who’s going to come save their asses? The Boy Scouts?

Oh, wait, I forgot. Al-Queda-Not-in-Iraq-and-Never-Was-Unless-It’s-America’s-Fault doesn’t kidnap allies.

Then this morning, they had to start off an interview with the governor of Illinois (about his endorsement of Obama) with a completely unrelated attack on the war, and the 4,000th casualty.

No, I’m not questioning their patriotism — they don’t have any.

I wonder if anyone TIVO’d that clip and put it on YouTube? Probably been threatened and forced to take it down by now…

Well, they’re at it again, the one department that continues to embarrass the city only somewhat less than the HPD Crime Lab. This time, the Houston Housing Authority is holding hostage all the remaining worldly possessions of several elderly immigrants, for the “best” of reasons, of course.

Back in November, the Bellerieve apartments, had a four-alarm fire, which destroyed several units and left 2o0 homeless. From the KHOU article, dated 11/27/07, the day of the fire:

More than a dozen Red Cross Caseworkers met Tuesday with elderly residents displaced by Monday’s four-alarm apartment fire… The Houston Housing Authority has placed the residents in hotels and is providing meals for them. About 150 rooms are occupied by these residents at the Hilton in southwest Houston.

Well here it is months later, and I have to ask if they are still in hotel rooms or if they’ve found other places to stay, because the apartments aren’t repaired yet. In fact, the building hasn’t even been cleared of the tenants’ possessions — unless it’s been by thieves. The KHOU report was somewhat light on details, like exactly how many residents are affected, but obviously repairs are nowhere near beginning, since HHA isn’t letting some or all of the tenants back in to retrieve their clothes and personal items four months after the blaze. Why?

Asbestos, it says.

Abatement of the units and cleaning of all the items has to be done before they can be returned to their owners. The HHA insists that since the items belong to the tenants, the tenants have to pay to have their stuff cleaned. “But wait,” you say, “why isn’t the landlord responsible? Or the landlord’s insurer? Aren’t they responsible for such costs?”

Ah, therein lies the rub. You see, the Houston Housing Authority is the landlord, and, as mentioned in today’s report, it blames the tenants for not having the money to get their goods back:

The money would pay for the asbestos cleanup, which is required to salvage their personal belongings left inside. Housing officials say that could cost up to $3,400 per unit.. “People would normally have renter’s insurance. The fact of the matter is the Housing Authority’s insurance does not cover tenant’s content,” said Horace Allison, the housing authority’s vice president.

As I said, the tenants are elderly, and some are immigrants. KHOU only found those to interview today, although from the November article it is clear that the residents were, ah, largely multi-cultural. Interestingly, the text of the article posted on the website cuts off just before what I found to be the most interesting part of the televised report.

Under Brown, the entire Housing Department appeared to be little more than “one director’s personal fiefdom” and the waste and mismanagement (if not outright fraud) were so bad, the Federal government is now demanding a refund of $15 million it says the department misused or wasted. A private owner would have the whole place cleaned up, repaired, and back in business by now, because time is money. But the City unelected HHA doesn’t care about a boarded-up eyesore, so we have four months passed while the personal effects of the tenants were still under lock and key. (We hope. Far more likely that they and 2/3 of the building’s wiring have long departed the premises.) Still something didn’t seem right; an element of the story had to be missing. This entire affair seemed beyond even HHA’s normal level of indifference to the very people it is supposed to be housing.

Then the televised report (but again, not the article) continued by saying that the HHA is “doing what it can” by meeting with the tenants next week; in fact, they are going to bring them together with some companies that do asbestos abatement and see if they can get the companies to give them a group discount.

I had maybe a fraction of a second to appreciate the generosity of the City of Houston HHA for going out of their way to persuade some private businesses to charge a little less to people that shouldn’t be paying at all. Then my finely tuned BS detector went off “Some companies? What companies, and how were they chosen? Given the Department’s checkered history of late, and the City’s obvious favoritism towards politically connected parties where property is concerned, a cynic like myself should be excused for wondering if drumming up customers for someone’s business is what this was all about from the get-go.

Perhaps the tenants should count themselves lucky the building doesn’t have lead paint, another thing the City something HCDD seems to trip over a lot. On the other hand, the building was built in 1975, so maybe that’s a forlorn hope, given the department’s city’s laxness regarding lead paint inspections.

UPDATE: After Kevin dropped me a line asking me to cross-post this at blogHOUSTON, I did so, and added some more questions that occurred to me, plus a couple of extra bits of snark. Then this afternoon, on of the blogHOUSTON readers (and the Chronicle itself, strangely enough) pointed out a glaring error in the article: I’d assumed that the HHA was a part of the City of Houston. It’s not –. although the Mayor does appoint the board…

From the Chron:

Both agencies provide housing to low- and moderate-income families, but they do this through different programs and services. Both receive most of their funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and both have experienced considerable conflict and controversy.

I suppose that at least the Chronicle appreciated the chance for a little payback, given the number of times bH have criticised them in the past. It certainly is apparent that they’re keeping a close eye on bH….

Oh, and check out the HHA’s front page today:

Bellerive Apartment Update!
There was a lot of activity taking place at the Bellerive Apartments recently. Residents were able to return briefly, after a major fire blazed through the apartment complex leaving over 200 senior residents displaced from their homes. Residents have retrieved some of their personal belongings from their apartments. Remodeling and reconstruction of the property will soon begin at the high-rise. Bellerive residents or Caretakers with questions or concerns can call the HHA Management Company at Bellerive (713) 789-5000.

The following e-mail just appeared in my mailbox.

Joint Email to City of Houston Employees

City of Houston and HOPE Reach Tentative Agreement on Contract

We are pleased to announce that the City of Houston and the Houston Organization of Public Employees (HOPE) have reached a tentative agreement in contract negotiations. This agreement reflects our mutual commitment to delivering quality public services to all Houston residents while ensuring fair compensation for every city worker.

The proposed agreement runs for three years and takes effect after it has been ratified by HOPE members and approved by the Houston City Council. Highlights of the agreement include:

- Guaranteed raises for every year of the contract for municipal employees.

- Additional performance-based compensation based principally on Employee Performance Evaluations.

- A minimum wage of $10 an hour for every city worker by September 2009, with an immediate minimum of $9.50 an hour.

- A freeze on the percentage of health care premiums paid by employees.

The first step in making this historic agreement a reality begins with the important process of approval and ratification by city employees. From March 6 to March 20, HOPE will be holding informational meetings about the contract at worksites across the city. All municipal employees will be allowed 1 hour to attend these meetings to learn more about the contract. At the close of each meeting, voting will take place. Voting will also be held at the HOPE office. To view a complete schedule of sessions, click here

Sincerely,

Mayor Bill White
City of Houston

Norm Yen
President of HOPE

Ok, now down to the quibbling. (more…)

It seems that the city’s annual financial report will be a bit late this year, thanks to SAP. Four months late, to be precise. Emphasis added below.

Departmental delays caused by the city’s unexpectedly difficult transition to a new financial system will postpone the release of this year’s financial report until at least April 30, City Controller Annise Parker has announced.

The FY07 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) was due December 31. Departments enter data on an ongoing basis then produce annual reconciliations, which are then routed through the Controller’s Office for analysis and consolidation before going to Deloitte, the city’s audit firm.

“I am both personally frustrated and professionally concerned by the problems. While the city’s underlying financial situation is strong, our inability to make a smooth transition from the old legacy financial system to the new SAP system definitely has had an impact, particularly during a time of volatile financial markets,” the controller said.

The FY06 report was produced during the transition to the new SAP system. Many employees put in double duty during this trying time, resulting in delays in that CAFR as well.

The FY07 CAFR is the first produced entirely on the new system. The controller said departments were overly optimistic in projecting how long it would take to train employees in the system and to scrub the converted data.

I’m not even going to comment on “scrub the data” because even in the old system, there would have to be some scrubbing. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, Garbage In, Garbage Out is true. Of course, these days, I tend to say “Garbage In, Dynamo Out” but then, I’m biased against folks that “don’t want to be fools.”

And now for the scary part.

SAP PROMOTES HOUSTON

“Ironically, SAP has touted the city’s conversion as one of its smoothest. The SAP system has performed as intended, but not always as anticipated. It has been a steep learning curve, . which has escalated costs,” she said.SAP, the an (fixed that for you –ubu) industry standard, can be modified up-front for clients or clients can change processes to customize the software. The city’s transition team opted to change city processes. This involved about 2,000 employees who interact with the system. The controller noted that creating additional reports and data extraction has proven to be difficult and time-consuming.

Because SAP is such a PITA that it’s easier to retrain your workforce than customize the software. It amuses me to think of that as a caricature of corporate facism. “Your business vill operate per our model, or ve vill not zupport chu! You von’t like it eef ve do not zupport chu!”

“The biggest problem is converting data from the old system to SAP. This has resulted in significant delays as departments attempt to report accurate fixed assets. Data due last fall still has not been received,” she said.

Four months late, eh? And counting… Well, no, I’m still not a fan of SAP. I’m sure that Mayor White has no objection to foes’ inability to look at the record and deconstruct his paper shuffle after gutting Proposition 2. Where is that $90 million over cap for police protection, anyway?

Oh, silly me, he didn’t say $90 million in additional police spending, did he? Well, maybe Controller Parker will get it figured out by the end of June, when the 2008 fiscal year ends….

City Controller Annice Parker finally gets involved in the debate.

“My first concern is for the land acquisition. While there has been public speculation about the use of the land, the request for council action identifies no specific public purpose. That is backward public policy,” the controller stated. “The city is not in the land speculation business. Council should know for what purpose the land will be used.”

“TIRZ dollars are property taxes. This is a legitimate use of TIRZ monies, but to say there will be no public dollars, or tax dollars, used for this purchase is simply inaccurate,” she said.

“I am concerned about the use of public utility revenues to help make this deal possible. Our water and sewer customers should not be helping to subsidize a professional sports facility, no matter how much we want it,” the controller said.

Just so you know, your water and sewer rates will be going up 1.8% in April, whether or not this passes. And the Zoo Development Corporation will still get their service for free.

Edit: Hat tips to Off the Kuff and blogHouston.

If someone asked me to pick two international entities that I don’t trust in the least, at the top of the list would have to be the United Nations. I’d be hard pressed to find a good second choice that obvious, but I would probably settle for Google, which I have long called “the Chinese Opressors’ Search Portal.”

Well, now they’ve cinched that second place, by playing footsie with the first-place finisher.

Google “disappears” critic of it’s UN Partner.

Go. Read. Be disgusted that any so-called “American” company would engage in such chicanery. And understand why I trust no company on the internet.

2/20/08: And this pales beside the actions of the California Federal District Court which has ordered the internet registrar to de-list their domain and park it until further notice. Significant First Amendment problems with that, obviously. Idiot judge.

I haven’t written much about the Bozonicle lately (well, truth is, I haven’t written much at all), but I caught something in the former “City Hall Blog” over there today. You know, the one that’s now about politics in city and county, instead of, you know, news. Since Matt’s been reined in, clearly I need to get back to doing my agenda summaries.

This article is about the Bar poll, asking local lawyers to rate the various candidates. Every race was on the questionnaire, but the only ones mentioned were the DA’s and County Judge. I can let that slide; both are the biggest news out there, thanks to Chucky’s seppuku, and someone’s (we won’t name names) exquisitely timed departure from the County Judge office. But note some odd inclusions and omissions in the article. Emphasis and comments in [brackets] are all mine.

Siegler was rated well qualified by 475 lawyers, compared to 380 for defense lawyer Jim Leitner, 296 for former Houston police chief C.O. Bradford, 291 for former judge Pat Lykos and 18 for police Capt. Doug Perry. [So Siegler got more top ratings than anyone else.]

These tea leaves can be read a number of ways, and we’ll mostly leave the decoding to you political junkies out there [but don't worry, we'll tell you exactly what we want you to know]. Here’s what we know [are gonna tell ya]: Siegler has been a prosecutor for 21 years and therefore is known by a ton of lawyers. (In addition to the 475 who rated her well qualified, 284 said she was qualified to be DA and 525 said she was not). [And since that's more than said she was qualified, you can ignore the earlier number, mmmkay?]

Leitner is a veteran defense lawyer and former prosecutor. Bradford is the only Democrat in the race; the other four are running in the March 4 Republican primary. Lykos is a former judge who hardly ever did well in the bar polls back when. Perry has not practiced criminal law. [So you know who we want you to vote for, right?]

Bacarisse was rated well qualified to be county judge, the government executive position, by 696 lawyers; incumbent Ed Emmett by 427. They’re in the Republican primary [Which isn't important, right?]. Democratic candidate David Mincberg got 408 well qualifieds; opponent Ahmad Hassan, just 26. [That's Mincberg, M-I-N-C-B-E-R-G. Don't forget it come general election time, we'll be endorsing him again, after doing our best to make sure the Republican who got the most positive votes overall is knocked out of the primary in favor of our transit cheerleader.]

So what are the raw numbers? Take a look. Out of 2,068 responses:
(more…)

Well, the smell of filth and corruption downtown has finally reached Washington.

Two years ago the former head of Houston’s building department, Monique McGilbra, and Mayor Lee Brown’s former chief of staff Oliver Spellman were found guilty of bribery in Cleveland. Newspaper accounts at the time also claimed the government was prepared to prove McGilbra had also been bribed by a company called Keystone here in Houston. Surface was a partner in the company, but neither he nor anyone else at Keystone was charged with a crime.

In 2002 a Houston Chronicle editorial called the company the keystone of Harris County cronyism.

“I know for a fact the FBI certainly hasn’t talked to me, I wasn’t around when anything alleged to have occurred, occurred,” Emmett told us.

Commissioners El Franco Lee and Jerry Eversole led the effort to lease purchase county buildings from Keystone. Lee’s former company did business with Keystone, Jerry Eversole’s son shared office space with the company and while his company made millions from county contracts, Surface was reappointed chairman of the sports corporation by Commissioner Eversole.

Last fall we detailed Commissioner Eversole’s questionable work habits and raised questions whether he improperly used campaign funds for personal benefit. While examining his work calendars, we found evidence of his favorite golf foursome. One of the players was Michael Surface, another was Leroy Hermes who was one of the architects of Reliant Stadium. Hermes got contracts at Reliant while Surface was sports corporation chairman. We also know Hermes did engineering work on the Commissioner’s Eversole’s house. So far Eversole has refused to say how much, if anything he paid for it.

I bolded the above because of a related issue I am sure I wrote about here before (but can’t find): the parking garage at Public Works facility at 4200 Leeland. KBR had the contract for the garage design, as well as the Reliant roof. When the latter came through, they pulled all their “A-list” engineers, along with anyone competent to put a pencil to paper, and assigned them to the stadium. The only term that can describe the design produced by the remaining staff is “criminally incompetent.” I use that first word deliberately, mind you. There is no way the design should have passed muster when submitted for approval — yet it did. (Guess who was in charge of the “building department?” See the first paragraph quoted.) A few of the minor problems:

• During the construction, the engineers missed an underground vault adjacent to the building, right where the ramp had to be placed. It was apparently a basement room that had been sealed off fifteen years before, and contained some old furniture. After several weeks delay, a change order was made to remove the concrete cover and fill in the room. Once the roof was removed, the vault turned out to include a major supporting beam that extended from under the building. Rather than unbolt or use a cutting torch to sever it, a large digging device (the kind we often call a “steam shovel”) was used to smash it loose. Needless to say, it shook the whole building.
• The garage’s second level is supposed to be even with the office building’s second floor. It’s about eight feet lower. This made it impossible to have a level walkway directly to the 2nd floor as previously planned. (There’s just a floor to ceiling window where the door is supposed to be.)
• The lower level of the roof means that several drain pipes are too low and directly over a sidewalk, lowering clearance so much, a portion of the sidewalk had to be blocked off.
• The supports of the 2nd level are two rows of (rather small) I-beams, each of which supports a horizontal crosspiece; none of them are sheathed in concrete, and several are directly in parking spots, where they could be easily clipped or hit.
• Each pair of crosspieces is linked by a large central beam that extends to the crosspieces mentioned above. These beams are larger than the crosspieces and support the center of the garage — but themselves have no support. They’re completely dependent on the smaller crosspieces which are supported by the paired I-beams.
• Had the 2nd level been elevated to the required height, and the walkway placed where it was supposed to be, there would have been far less than the required 10′ clearance, and the ramp would have been prohibitively steep.
• The corner is also blind; a truck coming up the ramp will have no choice but to swing wide to avoid clipping the edge of the structure, and woe to anyone trying to exit the 2nd level at the same time.
• Technically, it’s not part of the garage, but at the rear of the lot there was supposed to be a 3rd gate and card reader, for use by utility trucks. Trucks which might be towing a trailer. However, due to the placement and design of the entrance, it was necessary to make a 90-degree left turn immediately after passing through the gate. The entrance lane is about 12 feet wide, and it is impossible to “go wide” due to a retaining wall, nor can you “cut close” due to a concrete post. I really doubt I could take that corner in my car. In an F150 longbed, even without a trailer? Laughable. The result was that the fence was retrofit with a sliding manual gate elsewhere. Unpowered, no security, and often left open.

The result of all this is that the city inspector responsible for the final approval refused to ok it for use. His assessment was that the building could hold itself up, but support no vehicles. Rumor has it he was shaking his head as he got out of his car, looking at it. I’ve seen the building myself, and frankly I’d be nervous walking under it — it looks flimsy even to the untrained eye. The I-beams are about ten inches across, and maybe a foot from the top to the bottom of the “I”. A former refinery worker of my acquaintance referred to it as “pipe racking” and suggested I park my car under it the next time a hurricane comes to Houston. (I pointed out that if I don’t work there, that would be suspicious; anyway, what makes him think the city would pay for it? They’re immune to liability.)

The entire revamp of 4200 and 4215 Leeland was supposed to cost about $5.8m, but ran closer to $7m by the time it was done. At least one million of that was the “carport.” For six years, it has been nothing more than an expensive carport. Every repair plan kept getting put off as the Legal Department kept trying to find someone to sue. KBR escaped responsibility as it sold that division, split into about three different entities, all of whom said “hey, it wasn’t us, we didn’t exist back then.” I don’t know if the name “Hermes” is connected with this little fiasco or not, but rumor (again) said it was some Greek guy doing the design — and “Hermes” ain’t a Spanish name. I hope the FBI is aware of this fiasco also and checks into that angle. It’s cost Public Works a great deal of money aside from the obvious waste; part of the reason for the garage was to consolidate two satellite facilities at Leeland. PW ended up continuing to lease a facility elsewhere for four more years before shrinking staff allowed it to jam the remaining people and vehicles into other facilities. Of course, now that the need for increased staff has become glaringly obvious (an issue I could write tons more on), there’s no place to put them.

Tonight we learn the city hall subpoenas involve Hermes Firm and design work it may have done on a fire training academy. The subpoena also asks about expense records for a trip McGilbra took to Los Angeles. Add to this the ongoing controversy swirling around the District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal and you get why the county judge was waiting for the next shoe to drop. Now it’s dropped.

“It’s like a spider with eight legs, shoes keep dropping here,” Emmett said.

Michael Surface has refused to talk with us for weeks as we’ve begun to spread our investigation to the sports corporation and the Reliant Stadium. And once again emails are in the mix. The sports corporation lawyer told us Surface deleted emails involving sports corporation business written on his Keystone company computer.

Ed Emmett wants to make a big deal about that, but while it might be suspicious, it’s not illegal. It’s his company computer and as long as he’s operating within company policy, big deal. Of course, if such emails were incriminating, we do have a crime here. Kinda hard to prove it without the e-mails, though….

Of course if any of those e-mails were to or from the Authority, then they should be on those computers also.

(Edited to fix a few typos. Edited for content at 15:26 cst.)

FTA tells Metro to rework its rail plans

An unexpected demand for additional justification for two planned Houston light rail lines raises doubts about Metro’s relationship with a federal agency it is counting on for funding, Metro President Frank Wilson said Tuesday.

A letter from Sherry Little, deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, withdraws that agency’s approval of preliminary engineering studies and other elements of rail lines planned for the North and Southeast corridors.

Well, well, well. Looks like the Feds aren’t buying Metro’s BS.

Little’s letter to Wilson said Metro may not acquire any additional property for the North or Southeast lines until a new environmental assessment has been completed and approved. Any acquisition begun prior to the letter, it says, may continue if the FTA’s regional office agrees in writing that halting it would cause a hardship to the owner or tenant.

Further down, I ran into this little “WTF” moment:

Christof Spieler, an engineer who writes a transportation blog for the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, an advocacy group that supports rail, said the letter might cause a delay but does not appear devastating to Metro’s plans.

How did that ever get past the editors? Don’t they know that the CTC is just a neutral party that wants whats best for Houston?

/sarcasm off