Tagged for a week. Consideration of a $5-per-head fee on customers of strip clubs to pay for reducing the city’s backlog of untested rape kits has been delayed for a week. Council members Melissa Noriega and Al Hoang both tagged the item, a parliamentary maneuver that puts off an agenda item for one week, no [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Al Hoang’
All the budget amendments
Here’s a Google doc upload of all of the budget amendments from Council members to Mayor Parker. All members except CMs Bradford and Hoang submitted at least one amendment, with some (Brown, Sullivan, Green) submitting more than others. I’ve given the whole thing a cursory look, and while much of what is in here has [...]
Council is skeptical of Hobby International
Not so clear skies for expanding Hobby Airport into an international terminal. A consultant’s study that forecasts an economic boon for Houston if Hobby is made into an international airport came under fire from city council members Monday as “biased” and “custom-made just to satisfy the demand of Southwest” Airlines, which is asking the city [...]
More thoughts on the Council elections
One district at a time… – I confess that I did not see the District A result coming. Helena Brown did raise a decent amount of money since entering the race at the filing deadline, about $22K through the end of October, which makes me wonder how she might have fared if she had gotten [...]
Eight day reports, part 1
The eight day finance reports started getting posted on the city’s campaign finance page yesterday. I’m still working through putting them on my 2011 Election page, but here are a few highlights so far: – Next to Mayor Parker, the big spender in October was CM Stephen Costello, who made full use of his deep [...]
Chron overview of District F
Moving on from District B, here’s the Chron’s overview of District F. It’s really more of an overview of the incumbent Council Member Al Hoang, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s different from the rest of these stories. Councilman Al Hoang pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in donations meant for the [...]
30 day finance reports for City of Houston races
The 30 day campaign finance reports for City of Houston elections were due last week, and they are now mostly up on the city’s campaign finance report website, with a large number showing up today. Already I’m seeing questionable, curious, and interesting things in the reports. Some highlights so far: Helena Brown, the late-filing candidate [...]
Endorsement watch: René and Pennington
Today we learned that the Chron is apparently not endorsing in uncontested elections, as they skipped over CM Mike Sullivan in District E, and we got our first endorsement of a challenger over an incumbent. After a series of controversies involving incumbent Al Hoang divided his Vietnamese-American base, Hoang indicated he would not stand for [...]
Interview with CM Al Hoang
CM Al Hoang is serving his first term in District F. He was born in South Vietnam and emigrated to the US in 1975. An attorney by trade, Hoang is the first Vietnamese-American to serve on Council, and serves as the vice chair of the city’s International Business Initiatives committee. Since I had previously noted [...]
Some early fundraising numbers
Today is the day that campaign finance reports are due for candidates in this November’s city of Houston elections. Some early filer’s reports are already up on the city’s Campaign Finance webpage. I’ve uploaded copies of these reports to my 2011 Election page; January reports are already uploaded and linked there. I will add more [...]
Hoang’s turn before the OIG
We have another Council member under the looking glass. Councilman Al Hoang is the subject of a city Office of Inspector General investigation over allegations that he submitted fraudulent signatures to the city in a petition to change the name of a street. “I have determined that there is enough of a problem with the [...]
CM Hoang accused of forging names on petition signatures
This is just bizarre. In the heart of Asia Town in southwest Houston, some homeowners in the Turtlewood Square subdivision say they’ve been robbed. They were not robbed of their belongings, but rather their good names. “Definitely homeowners [are] scared, shocked, angry,” said Jenny Lu. Sue Tsai, another neighbor, agreed. “This is really underhanded,” she [...]
Council officially approves new redistricting map
Let the filings begin! The Houston City Council approved a new political map for the city on Wednesday that expands the council by two seats and gives Houston’s burgeoning Latino population what community leaders see as its best opportunity to capture a third seat in November elections. [...] The City Council’s approval of the new [...]
A very early look at 2011 fundraising
A couple of weeks ago I took an early look at the 2011 city elections, but there was a key ingredient missing in that analysis: Money. The fundraising season for city candidates, which has been closed since last January, will open again on February 1. Let’s take a look at where various cast members stand [...]
Mayor Parker’s first budget passes
The deed is done. We know the basic shape of the budget from earlier stories, so I just want to highlight a couple of things. First, an amendment to trim Council members’ budgets that ultimately was defeated: City Councilman Al Hoang and others backed an effort to apply the same 2 percent budget cuts required [...]
HPD suspends eight for “excessive force”
Uh oh. Eight Houston Police Department officers from the Westside command’s gang unit have been relieved of duty in an investigation into a videotaped incident of suspected excessive force used against a suspect, Houston police union officials confirmed tonight. The incident, which happened last month, was captured on video by a surveillance camera at a [...]
January City of Houston campaign finance reports
In addition to state and federal officeholders/candidates, January 15 was also the deadline for City of Houston folks to file their campaign finance reports as well. As there are no elections coming up any time soon, I will not be going into obsessive levels of detail about them, but here are some highlights: – Annise [...]
Hoang’s agenda
Tomorrow is the public swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Annise Parker. After she retakes her oath of office, she will then administer the oath to all new and returning City Council members. One of them is the newly elected Member from District F, Al Hoang, whose official City Council webpage says the following: While some of [...]
HCAD rules for Hoang in homestead dispute
On Christmas Eve, the Chron reported that Council Member-Elect Al Hoang and his wife had claimed homestead exemptions on two separate houses, one in Houston and one in Pearland. Now the Harris County Appraisal District has verified Hoang’s explanation about the exemptions, saying that it was properly carried over from the previous owner. Hoang had [...]
Chron raises questions about Al Hoang’s residency and campaign finance reports
The main question I have is why is this story just being published now, on Christmas Eve, and not before either of the elections? Houston City Councilman-elect Al Hoang and his wife claimed homestead exemptions on two separate homes, according to public records that also raise questions about whether Hoang meets the city’s residency requirements. [...]
Precinct analysis, District Council races
In addition to the five citywide runoffs, there were two runoffs in district Council races, in A and F. In each case, they were run in territory that, judging by the citywide results, were modestly (F) or very (A) friendly to Republicans, and in each case the Republican candidate won. But that’s about where the [...]
Eight days out finance reports, District Council candidates
To wrap up our tour of the finance reports for the city runoffs, here’s a look at the two District Council races. First, District A, in which Lane Lewis is up against Brenda Stardig: Candidate Raised Spent Loans Cash PAC $$ PAC % =============================================================== Lewis 42,439 33,765 0 19,401 8,250 19.4 Stardig 41,495 41,638 0 [...]
District F runoff overview
Here’s the Chron story on the District F runoff. The condensed version of Al Hoang’s vision for Sharps town’s shopping center echoes a Reagan-era foreign policy pronouncement: Tear down this mall. Mike Laster’s recent work on Sharpstown Mall is more analogous to Vietnam War-era peace talks. Mall owners can use someone to help them decide [...]
What the others are saying about Hotze’s endorsement
So here’s the Chron coverage of the Hotze endorsement. Of the many things I find unfathomable about this, here’s the item at the top of the list. Kris Banks, president of Houston’s GLBT Political Caucus, which has endorsed Parker, questioned why Locke did not distance himself from Hotze. “He came to us seeking our endorsements, [...]
The HCRP view of the candidates
Here, in PDF format, you will find a copy of the mailer that Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill sent out to his flock before the election. In it you will find three things of interest. One is all the ads several candidates reported spending $5000 on. Another is the official endorsement that Roy Morales [...]