Steven den Beste backslides into political blogging once again, with a post at Hot Air. If he isn’t careful, he’ll be at it full time again. 
Pity I can’t register for comments there, as I wanted to follow up with this: “Is it worth noting that extreme cases of teleological belief would fit the technical definition of schizophrenia?”
As in, iceberg dead ahead!
Lemer/Farb/Roberts assessment of City of Houston Finances (22 October 2009)
Bob Lemer has become known as a bit of a “disaster monger”, and has been about as welcome as a global warming skeptic at a Greenpeace convention. Unfortunately, he’s also correct, and he’s not pulling his punches.
The City of Houston is financially broke and it appears that the mayor who takes office in January 2010 may have to captain the City through bankruptcy procedures.
Well if that ain’t telling it like it is.
Ok, here is my non-accountant read on it: Yes, if we honestly ‘fess up to what the (out of date and UNaudited) books say, we are flat broke. As in, we have a negative net value. That’s not the same thing as bankruptcy though, and while he confuses the point deliberately, I think he’s doing it in good faith. Bob and his co-signers, Aubrey M. Farb and Tom Roberts, are trying desperately to turn the Titanic before we hit the iceberg.
I recommend the full read above, but if Accountant Math makes your head hurt, you may want to skim at least the first half. If that’s too hard for you, I have highlights for the really attention-impaired, presented somewhat out of order, below the fold.
Since March, there have been rumblings inside the City of Houston’s PW&E department that a large shortfall was pending in the Combined Utility System’s funding. The public first learned about the city’s overall budget problems in Bill King’s oped, which we discussed here. The CUS, which is supposed to be independent of the city’s general fund is a separate issue altogether, though certain funding tricks used during the White era make their appearance once again. Specifically: back-loaded borrowing in which the city pays only a little up front, but then faces a balloon note down the road. According to Lee McGuire’s article for KHOU:
…nearly $1 billion in credit must be renegotiated early next year, and debt payments have spiked $50 million above earlier projections. All told, the system currently faces a $100 million cash shortfall – a significant problem for a department that took in $332 million in water bills last year.
“Re-negotiate” is CPA-speak for “re-finance” or “obtain debt relief, rather than default.” Simply put, the city’s rate-payers are about to face the music for years of living off borrowed money. How bad is it? The city has been making ordinary expenditures, such as yearly water meter purchases, from the capital funds instead of operating expenses. In household terms, they’ve borrowed money to pay for the groceries. And while this specific example represents only a tiny portion of the total, it’s one of the ways that total has been accumulated.
Today’s article was based on item #13 on today’s agenda, a proposal to hire consultants McKinsey & Co. to look for inefficiencies in the Public Works Department. This item was tagged and will return on next week’s agenda. Once again, the mayor is proposing to spend a large amount of funds for a questionable purpose. Unfortunately, KHOU’s article contains a few key errors, and some misleading statements. This may simply be the result of deadline pressure, or it may be that not all of the information provided to the press was…. shall we say, totally accurate.
Some people wonder why a city employee would blog anonymously (on the rare occasions when I still do).
This is why, and the snark didn’t even work for the county….
I haven’t got the time to blog this properly, but head over to Texas Watchdog this morning for a look at what almost certainly prompted Vacar’s sudden “retirement.”
This is outstanding investigative reporting, the likes of which has been abandoned by the Houston Chronicle, which now relies on bloggers to cover the news while it keeps us informed of, well see for yourself.
Of course considering that the Chronicle’s loss (in staff) has been TW’s gain lately, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
From The American Thinker:
There is a point in tournament poker where one player doesn’t have the chips to play out the next raise, but they have great cards, so they call “all in.” At that point, nobody can raise them and the hand gets played out — either to a game changing win or a total loss for the person who made the call. It appears Sarah Palin decided she and her family could no longer deal with the thousand cuts, so she is “all in.”
One of the best articles I’ve seen on the surprise story of the weekend; I recommend reading it in full.
Meanwhile, if I have any readers left out there on RSS, I suppose I owe you a bit of an explanation.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been working on a new project. Bloggers can’t save the world, the country, or even Houston. It’s going to take people working hard and making things happen. Tea parties are only a start, and there are some things that I just can’t do as “Ubu Roi.”
I hate letting the blog lie fallow, and I may be back here from time to time — the city is in bad shape right now, as anyone who reads blogHOUSTON should know, but our elected “leaders”, especially the Mayor, continue to dig the hole deeper. In another six years, at this pace, Houston is going to be a Left Coast basket case. We’re spending our savings down, and borrowing to pay the house note and groceries, while adding a new plasma-screen TV, and that’s just not sustainable. There will be a reckoning, and it’s going to be ugly.
Nonetheless, I’ve been called on to take a bigger role in my public ID, so this blog is going to have to remain a very small part of my activity in the future. I’ll write when I can, that’s all I can promise.
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?
Just on the odd chance that anyone has managed to run across my blog without seeing any of the majors today, you need to get your butt over to Michelle Malkin’s place.
Reading this blog has problably resulted in your being designated as an extremeist.
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 AMRecommend: (945 thumbs up) (18 thumbs down)
Yeowch!!!!!! I mean, damn.
Posting at Houblog:
HB 1388 passed the Senate today. That’s the GIVE act, aka “The Obama Youth Act of 2009.” It will:
“combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And it calls for creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”
But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This updated form of voluntary community service is also to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling.
(DC Examiner Editorial, emphasis added)
So in other words, it doesn’t matter whether your kid enrolls in it or not, they’re still going to get the indoctrination force-fed to them.
Republican senators voting AYE: 22. NAY: 19. That’s right, more than half the Senate’s GOP voted FOR this bill.
Controller Anise Parker attempts to quell fears over the city’s shaky finances, by talking about how it’s borrowing money from itself!
City investments and debt on solid ground
As anyone with any investments knows, this is not your ordinary financial market. The city has an investment portfolio but also uses debt financing to pay for public works projects and other infrastructure improvements. The ongoing turmoil on Wall Street and within the banking industry requires innovation and quick action on both sides of the ledger.“I want to assure Houstonians that we are exploring every possible option and taking utmost care with your tax dollars during these difficult times,” Houston City Controller Annise Parker said.
When financing public projects, the city commonly borrows using short-term instruments then watches the market for the best opportunity to convert to long-term fixed-rate financing. Last fall, when the credit markets all but dried up and several banks either failed or were struggling, Mayor White and the city controller announced they would pursue various financing alternatives to keep interest rates on city debt as low as possible.
The controller noted that financing through other governmental entities is one alternative that has been employed successfully. For example, she said the city has purchased the debt of (loaned money to) city governmental partners at Metro and Harris County. Likewise, Harris County and Metro have purchased city debt.
City invests in own debt
Parker said the city’s own investment portfolio holds about $229 million in city debt, made possible because the city maintains segregated funds. Interest rates in the municipal bond market have varied widely. By investing in its own debt, the controller said the city earns 1.5-2%. An earlier purchase of $30 million of Metro debt yielded about 4%, and investment in Harris County Flood Control debt returned 6.25-8%. In comparison, more traditional financing options are yielding less than 1%.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit makes the following observation:
THE RACE TO find alien earths. In science fiction stories, you often see references to “forerunner races” who settled the Galaxy before humans emerged. But what if we’re the forerunner race?
Oh great. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. Now I gotta worry not just whether we’re screwing up my country, but the entire galaxy.
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 ManagementThese 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.
A little birdie just forwarded me this letter from Bill King, ex-candidate for Houston Mayor. Emphasis added.
As most of you know, I have been considering a candidacy for mayor of
Houston for sometime. I have recently decided that I will not be a
candidate for mayor or any other office in 2009.There are several reasons for my decision, some personal and some
political. Most prominent among these, I believe that my candidacy
would likely result in an election that would emphasize partisan and
other divides. It is my belief that such an election would not be
healthy for the City or, frankly, particularly favorable to my
candidacy.The City is in for some very difficult times over the next several
years, especially as it relates its finances. The multiple challenges
of crime, crumbling infrastructure, crushing pension debts, falling oil
prices and the aftermath of Ike will all weigh heavily. This is hardly
a time that we can afford to be divided along partisan or other lines.As I have attempted to become informed on issues facing the City, I have
become increasing concerned, and in some respects, even alarmed at the
problems we are facing with regard to our municipal finances. I believe
we have made unsustainable commitments that will financially hobble
future generations and that it is imperative that we have a candid and
realistic discussion of these critical issues.Before Hurricane Rita while I was still the mayor of Kemah, I began
raising the alarm that we were not prepared to evacuate the region in
the event of a major storm. Because I held an elected office, many
discounted my warnings as political posturing. As a result, little was
done and 150 died in the Rita evacuation. I fear that if I begin a
discussion of the financial challenges facing our city as a candidate,
there will be similar reaction. Perhaps if no political agenda can be
attributed to my views, there will be a less skeptical reception.I want to express my profound appreciation to all of you that have
encouraged me to consider a candidacy. The mere fact that so many of my
fellow Houstonians have expressed their belief that I am capable of such
a leadership position has been a great honor.I hope that you will stay tuned. We have some important issues to
tackle.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is the critical time to be divided among partisan lines: the party of “Fixing It” vs. the party of “Continuing to Ignore It” The second is a disaster in the making.
Our elected officials have continued to ignore citizens at all levels and from all walks of life who are unhappy with the way the City of Houston is being mismanaged. On the Democratic side, we are looking at a solid slate of “go along and get along” pols, none of which will rock the boat to tackle serious issues; every one of them is hoping only to push the collapse back beyond their term. How do I know this?
Because if they saw a need to fix anything, they’d be out there in public making their point. Instead they’re feeding us baby food. Bland, mostly tasteless, and thoroughly uncontroversial, it goes down easy and turns into crap in the end.
The problem is there’s only so many candidates out there that are viable. I’m sure as hell not. I can’t do much but work in the background and act as a cheerleader. (Those of you who know me, please scrub that imaginary picture of me carrying pompoms and dressed in a short skirt right out of your brain. Now.) We can support, but we can’t lead. We need a standard bearer to rally behind, and yet another has chosen to leave the field. In an era when we need Pattons, we get another Milton M. Milquetoast. Merely quitting wasn’t bad enough; he had to spout nonsense about not dividing people, and avoiding being accused of partisanship.
Final word: If you’re going to be held hostage to what your opponents say about you, forget ever being an effective politician.