November 2009 V.P. Report

 

 

Eversole is in.

 

For those of you that missed the notice, Commissioner Jerry Eversole finally broke his long silence and formally announced his intention to run for re-election as commissioner of precinct 4.  There had been a great deal of speculation as to what Commissioner Eversole was going to do concerning the office.   The Commissioner himself had commented to the Houston Chronicle last summer that he felt that his recent problems with the Texas Ethics Commission and an FBI investigation would force him from office.   But faced with a growing number of challengers to his seat and increasing questions from nervous supporters, the commissioner ended the speculation and announced his intention to run.  Known challengers to the Commissioner were City Council Member Toni Lawrence, who had recently moved into the precinct.  Also looking at the seat were Larry Lindsay, son of retired Senator Jon Lindsay who had been gathering support for months as was Court Koenning, Chief of Staff for Senator Dan Patrick.  Within a week of making his announcement, all known opposition to Commissioner Eversole has backed away.  The last to pull back was Council Member Lawrence stating that she had said all along that she would not run if Jerry ran.  Court Koenning has pledged his full support and assistance to Eversole for his re-election.  As things stand now, the Commissioner will not have an opponent in the March Republican primary, and only time will tell if someone from the other side of the aisle will step up to run against him.  Commissioner Eversole has held the north Harris County seat since 1991 and is currently running for his sixth, four year term.  Commissioner Eversole has not had a serious challenger to his seat in over a decade.

 

Mayor’s Race Update.

 

I hate it when I buy the hype and start doubting basic truths and Peter Brown got me to bite.  Two weeks before the election I found myself listening to black radio stations trying to figure out if all the stories I had heard were true.  I listened mainly to KCOH and was shocked to hear the ads touting Brown’s accomplishments, the live radio programs featuring local preachers and the testimonials from people in the community that had been helped by Brown.  Other Council Members told me stories about how Brown had continuously campaigned in the black neighborhoods since 2003 and that he had pockets of support in the community.  If that was true then Gene Locke was dead in the water, and if Brown convinced the west-sider’s that he was one of them, then he could win the runoff.  Obviously that didn’t happen, and I was not the only one that had seen this possible scenario and got suckered in.  Most pollsters were placing Brown as the frontrunner and the discussion was who would be his opponent Locke or Parker.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls, it appears that both the black and the republican voting blocks ( which combined make up 60% of the voters in the city) did not materialize for Brown.  Roy Morales the only Republican in the race, who was not given much of a chance by anyone, was able to reclaim the conservative voters from Brown.  Unfortunately for him he still finished in fourth place approximately 20,000 votes behind the frontrunner Annise Parker.  It will be interesting to see where the African American vote fell in this race, what percentage went to Brown versus Locke and what was the overall turnout in that community.  We won’t be able know those numbers until the individual boxes are released, but in the meantime we can look at the voter turnout in the two primarily black council districts, B and D.  According to the Harris County unofficial report the voter turnout in those two areas was 13.88% for District B and 19.03% for District D.  The overall voter turnout for the city was 19.10%.  That tends to suggest that the black vote was not terribly energized in this election even with mildly contested races in the council districts themselves.  Compare that to the turnout in districts A and G, typically considered Republican seats, where there were hotly contested open council races.  In District A there was a 23.04% voter turnout and in District G there was a 25.28% voter turnout.  District G had 34,685 votes cast alone.  That helps to explain Roy Morales’ high numbers in a low voter turnout race.  Remember these are generalities, we won’t know the exact numbers until the final details are released.

 

Looking at the runoff, I will start by saying that you never know what will happen until election day has passed.  Annise Parker had a 5 ½ point lead over Gene Locke after the general election.  That is literally 10,000 votes that Locke is going to have to make up to win the runoff.  Annise has a very energized and active base but they seem limited to the inner loop.  She will need to turn them out again, in force if she wants to win.  For Gene Locke to win he has to find a way to get the African American voters active and interested in the race.  His strength lies with his base, but the question is will the black community rally around him like they did with Lee Brown or will they stay home. 

 

Disparity Study

 

The City of Houston, specifically their Legal Department has finally come down with a recommendation for a company to perform the upcoming disparity study.  City Attorney Arturo Michel announced earlier this month at the Council MWBE Committee meeting that he would recommend Nera Economic Consultants to city council as the provider.  HCA has consistently voiced concerns over the possible selection of Nera due to their policy of not weighing company capacity into their formula when determining if disparity exists in a market.  Nera also starts out with the presumption that a disparity already exists due to discrimination that minority owned firms face in the banking and bonding markets.  The City’s Legal Department in a memo from Augustus Campbell stated that they recognize HCA’s concerns and said that “Nera’s methodology would address our reservations, just not through classic capacity analysis.”  City Council will still have to vote on the selection and approve the contract with Nera, however before that can happen Legal still has to negotiate out the terms of the contract.  After that City Council gets to take a whack at it, which could take two weeks to pass if the item is tagged at the table.  All of this has to occur before the end of the year or else the City risks being in violation of the Kossman settlement agreement and possibly getting called back before Judge Hughes.  That is something nobody wants to see especially the City of Houston.

 

Pay or Play Program is Changing

 

Two years ago the City of Houston initiated it’s Pay or Play program to the distain of all local contractors.  Basically this program requires all companies that do business with the City to provide health benefits at all employee’s working on a City project.  That includes all vendors and professional service providers as well as contractors.  If all of your employees on a job site are insured then you are considered “playing”. Any employee that is not covered to the city’s base requirements automatically puts the company into the “paying” category and is required to pay to the City of Houston one dollar per man hour per person.  HCA negotiated a waiver in the contract that stated if the employee refused to accept the coverage and signed the waiver the company would not be held liable by the city and would be considered at “playing”.  The new proposal scheduled to go before City Council in the near future will eliminate that waiver and require that all workers on a city project be covered or else the company must pay the dollar per hour.  HCA is working with the administration to try and at least smooth out some of the administrative hurdles that contractors have faced in trying to comply with the ordinance.  Just for your information the program has raised $978,000 as of the end of October, 44% of that money came from contractors, we had a relatively low request for waivers compared to other departments, and 49% of all participants in the program “played” 100% of the time.  The money raised will go to help create a small business health care provider fund and to pay local clinics to accept indigents for service rather than letting them go to the emergency room.

 

HCA Ballots are in

 

The HCA ballots are in and counted, thank you to everyone that participated in the process and got your votes back in on time.  Thank you to all of the candidates who ran for office this year.  We appreciate all of your efforts and thank you for volunteering to make this the best organization that we can be.  Below is the list newly elected Board members who will be officially sworn into office at the Christmas party, congratulations to the victors and to those that didn’t make it we hope you will consider running again.

 

Incoming Secretary/Treasurer:

Brian Manning  Texas-Sterling Construction, LP

 

Incoming Contractor Board Members:

Robert Carter               Angel Brothers Enterprises, Ltd.

Leonard Cherry            Cherry Crushed Concrete

David Womack            Beyer Construction, LLP

 

Incoming Associate Board Member:

Harry Kirk                   ACT Pipe & Supply, Inc.

 

Golf Tournament outcome

 

I would like to personally thank everyone who came out and participated in the HCA Fall Golf Tournament at Wildcat.  I would especially like to thank all of our sponsors, raffle prize contributors and Sign & Supply for donating the signs.  Thank you also goes out to the members of the HCA Golf Committee and especially its chairman, Richard Greer for pulling the event together and to our volunteers, thank you all for making this a fantastic event.

 

 

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October 2009 Cover Story

 

State Senator Dan Patrick Speaks on the Legislative Session and the Gas Tax.

 

The Houston Contractors Association was pleased to welcome Texas State Senator, Dan Patrick as our guest speakers at this month’s luncheon.  Senator Patrick thanked the contractors for allowing him to come out and address the group today and said that he would discuss this past legislative session, the upcoming session and the governor’s race. 

 

Looking at the past legislative session, Senator Patrick stated that Texas came into this last session with about $6 billion in the reserve account. Going into this next session the Senator stated that they estimate the state will have about $9 billion in the rainy day fund.  The increase was due to some Federal Stimulus package money.  By the time that the Senate gets back up and running in 2011, Senator Patrick said that they are anticipating having to spend all of that money right away to cover an anticipated $9 billion shortfall.  The reason for the deficit is due to the economic conditions that have caused declining sales tax revenues, $4 billion that must be set aside for the 2006 property tax cut and increased Medicaid spending.    Senator Patrick said that Texas is in sound financial shape right now, but in 2011 it will be a tough session dealing with the finances.

 

According to the Senator, Texas has an opportunity to lead the nation in everything from medicine, education to infrastructure.  This is possible because of the 1500 people a day that are moving to Texas.  Senator Patrick stated that today there are 23 million people in Texas, estimates say that by 2040 there will be 50 million people calling Texas home.  When the economy turns in the next few years there will be tremendous growth in this state, and that is good for business.  The Senator said that what we need to do over the next several years is make sure that we have good elected officials who are serious about business and growing our economy.  Senator Patrick noted that with a state that is going to double in population over the next 30 years that brings with it great opportunity and great challenges.  Roads are going to be one of those challenges. 

 

To get a sense of the size of the Texas economy, according to the Senator, despite the economic downturn, Texas still has an economy that is larger than Russia, India or Mexico.  He also reminded the audience that if you think thirty years is a long way away, then you need to remember that thirty years ago he was working as a sportscaster for channel 11 and Earl Campbell was a running back for the Oilers.  That wasn’t that long ago.  Senator Patrick also pointed out that since the legislature meets every other year, that is only 15 sessions, and because they only vote on bills for two months in every session that is only 30 months.  This creates a real challenge for elected officials where the legislature is not a full-time body.  The State passed a budget during the last legislative session totaling $180 billion.  This budget was passed by 150 house members and 31 senators all of which are part time officials who make $600 a month.  According to Senator Patrick there are not enough people who understand the budget, there are not enough business people in the legislature, and there are too many attorneys.  Texas needs to find elected officials that have a vision, have a plan and put the next generation ahead of the next election.  The Senator said that if Texas can do this, then we will be a juggernaut that will lead this country while other states are going broke and losing population.

 

Senator Patrick stated that during the last session he went in with an agenda of about 20 major bills and 20 secondary bills.  Of that number fifteen were passed. One of his key bills that passed required that there be a backup power generator at every water district.  During hurricane Ike approximately 28% of the water districts were out of water.  Even the City of Houston was within 24 hours of being without water.  As the Senator put it, “We can do without air conditioning and lights but we cannot do without water.”  There was no backup generator at the Trinity River station and only by an emergency executive order from the Bush administration were we able to re-route power to the station and keep it operating.  Because of his bill all MUD districts are now required to have backup generators at their facilities.

 

Changing topics, Senator Patrick stated that one of the issues that we need to address is education.  The Senator is the Vice Chair of the Education and Higher Education Committee in Austin and according to him we need to work harder to prepare our workforce for the future.  According to Senator Patrick, approximately 30% of Texas students do not graduate from the ninth grade and when you look at the State’s largest school districts, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, that number increases to 70%.  Texas cannot survive as a state without addressing this issue.  The State has also made a move to go back to more career, or vocational training classes.  According to the Senator, not everyone needs a four year degree, and we need to prepare young people who are leaving high school for either education or a career.  Senator Patrick said that the State needs to find a way to reach out to young minority residents and teach them a skill if they don’t want to go to college.

 

Senator Patrick next moved on to the issue of transportation in Texas.  The Senator admitted that at another meeting recently, he was correctly overheard as saying that he was in favor of raising the gas tax.  “Being a Republican and being a conservative doesn’t mean that we should be against everything, we should be for the right things” said Patrick.  Looking at the State budget it becomes clear why there is so little money for roads, 83 cents of every dollar brought in by the State goes to education and healthcare.  According the Senator Patrick, 50 cents of every dollar goes to education and 33 cents goes to healthcare and that number is rising rapidly.  In 2003 Texas spent $35 billion for healthcare and this year the budget is $60 billion.  The Senator stated that voted against the special gas tax in this last session that increased taxes only in Harris County.  That bill died in session.  That bill would have put gas stations in Harris County at a disadvantage, especially those that are on the border next to gas stations in other counties.  The Senator stated that we have one of the busiest ports in the country, but we have trouble getting the goods out, to fix that we have to have roads for commerce and for commuting.  The best way to address that problem is to increase the gas tax state-wide by one to two cents and then index that to inflation. The indexing would equate out to about a one cent increase per year.  The Senator stated that the gas tax has not gone up or been adjusted for inflation since 1991.  Also remember that out of the 20 cents that gets allocated to road construction, the state takes five cents and give it to education and another three cents goes to the Department of Public Safety.  This gas tax increase will not solve all of the problems stated Patrick, but it begins to solve them. 

 

Senator Patrick addressed a question from the audience about who will be the next Governor of Texas stating that he is supporting Rick Perry but that he is not anti Kay and that if Kay wins in the primary he will support her in November.  Kay has to make a decision before the deadline stated Patrick, there are 50 to 70 officeholders in the pipeline who don’t know what to do and can’t do anything until she steps down.  As an example he said that if she steps down before the end of the year, then David Dewhurst will likely get the appointment to fill her position.  Greg Abbott becomes the next Lt. Governor that opens up his spot and for every spot that comes open, there are at least three to four people looking to fill that spot.  It creates a domino effect, but that can’t start until she steps down.  The Senator stated that she needs to make a decision so that people can plan their futures and begin setting up for a campaign or not.

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October 2009 V.P. Report

 

 

Mayor’s Race Update

 

With election day literally right around the corner, the only people that are willing to voice an opinion on who is going to win the mayor’s race are the candidates themselves.  Even the political talking-heads that make a living studying every socio-economic aspect of the voting public are not venturing a guess on this one, it’s just too unpredictable.  The reason why you ask?  Because the top three candidates in the race are all democrats that for the most part share similar positions on many of the issues, and there is no legitimate republican candidate to challenge them.  Sure Dan Morales is supposed to be the “Republican” in this race, but he hasn’t been able to raise any money, he has little if any name recognition, he is not a great public speaker, his issues are dated, and I’m not even sure if he has the support of the local Republican party.  He’s a nice enough guy and all, but he is out of his league in this race and everyone knows it.  Without a credible republican candidate to challenge the democrat contenders, there is no partisan polarization of the race, no us versus them mentality to rally the base around…it’s just “them”.  This leaves 30% of the voting public with no horse in the mayor’s race and everyone is wondering what will they do? (According to Richard Murray, Director of Surveying with the University of Houston Center for Public Policy, the largest voting blocs in the city are white Republicans and black Democrats and each make up about 30% of the total vote during a typical election.) So will the Republicans stay home and not vote, skip the mayor’s race and vote down ballot or will they vote for one of the Democrats?  Nobody knows, but every candidate is doing their part to reach out to the west side in the hopes of gathering up as many of those votes as they possibly can. 

 

According to the last study I saw the number of undecided, likely, voters was at about 45%.  That is a huge number of people to be undecided this late in the game.  Unfortunately the recession has had a profound negative impact on the everyday lives of people making them less interested in local politics and more focused on their businesses and the household budgets.  The recession has also greatly reduced the flow of political contributions into the campaign coffers and thereby reduced the candidates ability to get on T.V. and introduce themselves to the voters.  That is, all except Peter Brown who is largely self-funding his campaign, so far to the tune of about $2 million.  It will be interesting to see how much that T.V. coverage will get him at the polls come election night.  And while most people gripe about political campaign ads cluttering up their T.V. viewing time.  It is through these same ads that people learn about the candidates.  No ads equals no public interest.  There is also one more drag on the voters and that is what’s being referred to as Obama burnout.  The presidential campaign went on for such a long time and was so energized that now people are tired of politics and want to get back to their normal lives.  Add all that to the apathy being felt by white conservative voters and you get an election year that no one seems to care about. 

 

Again we come back to the question of what with the Republicans do come election day?  I think that it is safe to assume that there will not be one big winner of this block of votes.  Some will stay home, some will skip the mayor’s race and some will vote for the other candidates.  Peter Brown has the T.V. ads to reach the masses is they watch, Annise Parker is working the female connection and has made inroads through the Republican women’s groups and Gene Locke has the well healed political connections of Bob Lanier to guide him into the conservative business community.  It will be interesting to see how the numbers play out on election night and later as well to see which parts of town actually turned out.

 

Disparity Study Update

 

Nothing has happened since last month’s report.   Everyone is still waiting for City Attorney Arturo Michel to make an announcement on which company he is going to recommend to Council to receive the contract to do the study.  I suspect that announcement will be coming at the end of the month at the Council MWBE Committee meeting.  Until then we are all on hold awaiting a decision.

 

Management Conference

 

Finally I would like to thank everybody who attended this year’s management conference in Paradise Valley, Arizona.  Harris County Judge Ed Emmett was our keynote speaker at the event and gave a detailed presentation on the state of the County, road construction and mobility in the future and ways to increase funding to TxDOT.  The resort itself was very nice and very relaxing with a wonderful atmosphere that encouraged everyone to have a good time.  Special thanks goes out to our sponsor Rush Equipment for putting on the Texas v. Texas Tech Tailgate Party on Saturday night.  That was a great event enjoyed by all, some more than others.  Thanks again to everyone that went on this trip, and I hope to see you all in the Cayman’s next year.

 

 

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September 2009 V.P. Report

 Disparity Study Update

Little has changed since my last report on this issue. The City has narrowed its choices of study providers down to two companies, D. Wilson and Nera. At a recent stakeholders meeting, City Attorney Arturo Michel stated that he has been looking carefully at both bidders, but was leaning toward Nera. His prime issue, according to Michel is both companies’ responses to the question of how they would address the issue of the Rothe case. In short the Rothe case stated that company capacity must be taken into consideration when studying disparity. D. Wilson stated that they would comply with the law and include capacity in their calculations. Nera on the other hand stated that they disagreed with the Rothe ruling and claimed that capacity was covered through other aspects of their study. Mr. Michel further expounded on the issue stating that he agreed with Nera when they said that, in their opinion they felt that the defense incorrectly argued the capacity issue in the Rothe case. HCA has sent a letter to Mr. Michel and the mayor stating that we strongly disagree with Nera’s reasoning and reminded them that capacity was a key issue that we had with the original disparity study. It is HCA’s position that no study can be complete or accurate without thoroughly reviewing a company’s capacity to do the work they claim they can do. Mr. Michel has responded to our letter with a letter of his own stating that he understands our position, that in his opinion we disagree on what the law is, and provided a list of cases that contradict the finding of the Rothe case and support his position. It is expected that Mr. Michel will make his selection public at the next MWBE Council Committee meeting at the end of the month.

Pay or Play Round 2

Earlier this month Velma Laws, Director of the City’s Affirmative Action Committee and overseer of the pay or play program for the city held a town hall style meeting to review the program. The meeting was called on behalf of Elena Marks, Director of Health and Environmental Policy office of the mayor at the request of two concerned citizens who have been attending the MWBE committee meetings. These citizens have attended the last several meetings and made claims that contractors are forcing employees to sign the opt out waivers allowed in the pay or play program and are pushing for a removal of this option and mandatory compliance by all contractors. HCA had worked to have the opt out policy put into to program to protect contractors from being punished for employees who do not want accept the insurance offered by their employer. Did I happen to tell you that these two "concerned citizens" both work for the same insurance company and are offering a special policy that perfectly meets the city’s requirements. I need to stop here and thank everyone that showed up at the meeting on behalf of the contractors. HCA had put out the call for attendees and our members made up approximately two thirds of the room. The only advocates for increased regulation of the program were our two "concerned citizens" and their employer who, by the way helped start the pay or play program and openly admitted dismay that there wasn’t more participation in the program. In the end what Velma hosted was a smaller version of the national town hall meetings on healthcare and what she got was the same basic outcome. We got our point across, but I doubt that there were any minds changed on either side and the fate of the program still lies in the hands of the bureaucrats who run it. Remember this is an executive order from the mayor and was never voted on by city council. On the positive side we did find out where the money collected by the program is going. A representative of the Tri-County Healthcare Alliance informed the audience that they had been given over $600,000 to set up a nurses triage phone bank and a third party insurance provider system that will be rolled out in October. The phone bank will be used to intercept non-emergency callers who are requesting ambulance service and try to convince them that they don’t need an ambulance if it is not a serious or life threatening injury.

E-Verify Begins

In case you missed the article in the paper earlier this month, the feds have begun implementing the e-verify regulation on federally funded projects as of beginning of this month. For those that don’t know about the e-verify system, it is a web based program designed to check an employee’s documentation against government records to see if the employee is legally in the country. Any company receiving a federal project will have 90 days to verify any new hires and all workers assigned to work on that project. This system is designed to replace the standard procedure of reviewing I-9 forms and social security cards.  According to the article in the Houston Chronicle, it is not clear if the new regulation applies to all contractors working on a federal job, or if it only applies to the prime.  There are also some exceptions including contracts that are under 120 days or less than $100,000.  The article also mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security notified 652 companies across the country including 26 in Houston of plans to audit their immigration and employment paperwork, marking a major increase in worksite enforcement.  Contractors need to take note of this and realize that you could be audited next.

Commissioner Eversole’s Seat

 

Council Member Toni Lawrence has formed an exploratory committee to look into the possibility of running for the Harris County Precinct 4 position in the November 2010 election.  The current District A City Council Member is term limited after this year and is looking to possibly replace incumbent Commissioner Jerry Eversole.   Council Member Lawrence recently changed her residence to be within the precinct and has now begun making overtures toward the seat.  Council Member Lawrence was quoted in a September 10^th Houston Chronicle story as saying that while she believed that Eversole had worked diligently on Commissioner’s Court over the last twenty years, she expressed her views that it was time for a new Republican voice in Precinct 4.  Commissioner Eversole has been under investigation by the FBI, State and local officials alleging inappropriate use of campaign funds, however there has been no official charges filed against the Commissioner that I am aware of.  Commissioner Eversole has not yet stated if he is going to run for re-election, but rumor has it that he is considering it.  The rumor may be true considering the news coverage has died down, nothing has come out about the investigations and Eversole is still very popular in his precinct regardless of the ethics scandal.  Also keep in mind that Council Member Lawrence is not the only person interested in the Precinct 4 seat, Larry Lindsay son of ex Texas Senator and ex Harris County Judge, Jon Lindsay is interested in the position.  As is Court Koenning owner of Koenning Consulting a private consulting firm here in Houston and Chief of Staff for Texas Senator Dan Patrick.  Mr. Koenning also served as the Executive Director for Harris County Republican Party.  This is a race in its infancy and should be interesting to watch, however the question that needs to be answered before anything can get moving is will Jerry Eversole run?  Only time will answer that question.

 

HCA Day at Minute Maid Park

 

HCA completed its fourth annual HCA Day at Minute Maid Park where the Houston Astros played the Milwaukee Brewers, unfortunately losing in the end 12 to 5.  I want to thank all of the attendees that came out to the game.  HCA took up over three entire sections of Minute Maid Park with our cheering fans.  This was a great family oriented event with hot dogs, hamburgers and soft drinks provided.  I want to personally thank this year’s sponsors for contributing to this event and making it the success that it was.  I want to recognize our “Grand Slam” sponsor ACT Pipe and Supply for their generous contribution and also our “Home Run” sponsors Boyer Inc., and Slack & Co. Contracting, Inc.  Congratulations also go out to Alicia Jimerson with Jimerson Underground.   Alicia won the ACT raffle drawing during the game and was presented her prize, a $200 gift certificate to Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse, by ACT’s C.E.O. Harry Kirk.  I also want to thank Rob Harmel with Sign & Supply for donating all of the sponsor signs for this event.  This was a great outing with an unfortunate ending for the Astros I am sad to say, but a good night out with friends and family and I hope to see you all back again next year.

 

 

 

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September 2009 Cover Story

 

Mayor Bill White Speaks on Infrastructure at Joint HCA/ASCE meeting

 

Mayor Bill White was the guest speaker for this year’s joint meeting between HCA and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).  This meeting has historically been one of our best attended luncheons of the year and this year was no exception with 260 attendees filling the room to hear Mayor White talk about the Houston economy and infrastructure in the region.

 

Mayor White opened his remarks by commenting that the economy in Houston is going to get worse before it gets any better, and that statement was truer in January than it is today.  According to Mayor White we are closer to the perceived bottom.  The common mistake that people make in times like this is to underestimate the length of an economic downturn.  People are naturally optimistic stated White, but the fact of the matter is that this is a global economic recession and no law passed by any country will be able to repeal the human behavioral laws of fear and greed which cause economic cycles.  This is a classic case of a credit contraction and those usually take a while to work themselves out.  The good news is that this is not forever, this is only a cycle and there will be an uptick eventually.  Houston will come out of this more competitive than ever according to Mayor White.  He stated that the reason for this is because Houston has an affordable cost of living, a good business-oriented culture, and is a younger city with a cleaner, better government.  The Mayor stated that Houston’s leaders have taken the steps necessary to protect the city during hard times where some other cities have stuck their heads in the sand and are now suffering for it.  He gave the example of the current problems in California where businesses are migrating out of the state to other, more business friendly environments because the civic leaders did not recognize the financial problems that they had or the burdens they had placed upon their residents.

 

Mayor White moved the conversation to infrastructure and broke it down into short, medium and long runs.  In the short run the Mayor recognized the work done by Mr. Marcotte as Director of the Department of Public Works and the General Services Administration for the number of grant applications that they have submitted for stimulus funding.  Mayor White stated that when it comes to infrastructure the principal funding instruments are grants from the federal government that are allocated to groups such as the water board and TxDOT.  Some of those funds are then allocated to regional councils of government.  There are no direct allocations to municipalities.  Mayor White stated that if he is lucky enough to continue his political career in Washington D.C. one of his main priorities is to see that there are more direct allocations to the entities that are actually contracting for the work.  This creates more accountability and prevents bureaucrats from being able to siphon off funding before it reaches the contractors.  Mayor White went on to state that he had concerns with how the stimulus money was managed especially saying that while they were well intentioned, those in charge of the funds did not understand how infrastructure projects are funded.  The Mayor pointed to the requirement that stimulus projects be shovel ready but not have any funding allocated to them.  The Mayor questioned the logic of why anyone would design something with no intention of building it. He also called on representatives of both HCA and ASCE to help in Austin and in Washington D.C. to get Houston its fair share of infrastructure funding.  Mayor White stated that infrastructure funding is political, although it shouldn’t be, and the more voices we get calling for funding in Houston, the more projects that can be put out.  He also asked that we keep an eye on projects where funding has been allocated but the money hasn’t been spent yet.

 

The Mayor next addressed some issues within the City budget stating that the City had maintained a robust CIP program.  The overall CIP in the water/sewer program increased, in the general fund programs has mostly been flat.  He noted that Metro will be sharply up over last year.  Mayor White stated that there will be belt tightening over all parts of the budget.  Looking at the long run Mayor White stated that there are few things that you need to keep an eye on.  The first thing is the public policy agenda concerning infrastructure funding.  The mayor stated that for the first time the city has built into the budget a defined allocation for drainage projects.  This allocation increases the amount of funding for those projects from a fraction of a cent of the ad valorem taxes to about .57 cents.  The Mayor stated that when he got into office, getting water from the neighborhoods into the bayous was a major problem and severely underfunded.  The ad valorem tax is a tax that is collected every year and is based upon property evaluations and as contractors we need to work to protect that allocation in the future.  The next item to keep an eye on according to the Mayor is general mobility funding.  This funding is provided by Metro that goes to road projects in the area.  Mayor White said that in the future there will be a debate over how much of that money should be spent on general mobility versus transit.  This is a fair debate however experts in traffic engineering need to weigh in to make sure that the outcome is proper for the community. 

 

Mayor White also commented that there was another trend that we need to keep an eye on that he said may be a good thing but more likely will be a potential threat to the most cost effective use of infrastructure money.  That threat, according to the Mayor is the creation of tax increment zones that are not project specific and cover large areas.  There are many tirz’s around the city stated White, started by the prior administration and they have a wide variety of purposes.  The Mayor continued saying that what tends to happen is the tirz caps the amount of ad valorem tax that is available to the city from some of the fastest growing areas, and limits the funds available for our general fund purposes.  Areas such as the Central Business District or the Galleria area are good examples where the money that goes back to the city is capped at a level set ten years ago.  Mayor White stated that there could come a time when all of the growth could be within the zones.  He was quick to remind everyone that this is the only source of funding for the general fund.  On the good side the City has been leaning on the tirz’s to move forward and to get their money spent.  Mayor White said that there are some that have very ambitious capital improvement programs, however there are some tirz’s that have other purposes such as the removal of blight or building redevelopment and that money is not being fully utilized.   Mayor White stated that he is concerned about the possibility of a city where there are multiple tirz boards with substantial budgets that may or may not have the best interests of the city as a whole at heart.  He also mentioned the possibility that these boards could become less than transparent in their bidding process.

 

The Mayor closed by saying that Houston is doing good.  He recognized that these are tough times because of the downturn in private development market, however he noted that there is capacity in the Toll Road Authority and in Metro to do an expansion of the infrastructure.  He stated that it has been a pleasure working with the people of this group, and said that he wishes everyone could see the this city through his eyes.  He stated that he sees construction sites not as an obstruction, but as a real public improvement.  He has seen the benefits of construction throughout the city by making improvements to such things as improved traffic flow, storm water drainage or cutting the number of sewer line breaks.  If everyone could see the city the way I do, said White you would appreciate even more deeply what a wonderful city of opportunity Houston is.

 

 

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