Here they are throwing a hissy fit to express their deep sense of disappointment. Just shy of 6,000 bills were filed in the Texas Legislature prior to last week’s deadline. Nearly half of those came in the usual blizzard of filing activity 72 hours prior to the Friday, March 8, witching hour. Some of these [...]
Posts Tagged ‘HFD’
City pension funds make their case
This deserves more visibility than it’s gotten. Representatives of Houston’s three employee pension boards told a Houston City Council committee Monday that the sky is not falling and pleaded with council members to be patient in examining the city’s pension obligations. The presentations from the firefighters’ pension, the municipal employees’ pension and the police pension [...]
Interview with Todd Clark and Chris Gonzales of the firefighters’ pension fund
I have written numerous times about the ongoing battle between Mayor Parker and the Houston Firefighter’s Relief and Retirement Fund, which is to say the firefighters’ pension fund. After I noted a legal victory by the city in its attempt to get more information from the fund, I was contacted by a representative of the [...]
City wins access to firefighter pension information
From the Inbox, late Friday afternoon. Mayor Annise Parker today announced Judge William Burke of the 189th District Court of Harris County has mandated the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) Board to provide and disclose information requested by the independent actuary retained by the City of Houston. HFRRF has refused to provide data [...]
Council approves funding for sobering center
Good. City Council agreed Wednesday to spend $4.3 million to outfit a warehouse at Star of Hope Mission and $353,000 a year to operate it as a place to take drunks instead of jail. City officials expect the 84-bed facility to open later this year and justified the expense on the hope that it will [...]
Here comes the pension fight
Not looking forward to it. A day of reckoning has arrived in Houston, the city’s financial stewards say, to choose between pensions and pothole repairs. Days after voters in two California cities curbed public employee retirement benefits and voters in Wisconsin rejected an effort to recall a governor who required state workers to pay more [...]
City sues firefighter pension board
We knew this was coming. The city of Houston sued the firefighters pension board in state District Court on Wednesday in an effort to pry open the retirement system’s books for a look at supporting data behind the $61 million annual bill it sends to City Hall. “We need access to this very basic information [...]
If you can’t specify it, it’s not wasteful
After reading this op-ed by Todd Clark, the chair of the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (that is, their pension fund), I have decided to adopt two rules for all future discussion of the city’s budget. Let me speak briefly about the city’s Long Range Financial Management Task Force. This advisory committee could have [...]
It’s always easier to talk in the abstract
I have three things to say about this. The city of Houston has been papering over multimillion-dollar budget deficits for nine years by borrowing money, tapping its rainy day fund, selling buildings and just plain putting off bills to the future, according to city finance officials. [...] This year, Mayor Annise Parker has pledged not [...]
A bit of perspective on pensions
Mayor Parker and current members of Council will receive pensions from the city some day. They also will some day vote on what steps the city should take to deal with the pension system. Is that a problem? “Whenever you’re an elected official, there’s not an easy way around it,” agreed Josh McGee, vice president [...]
Interview with Fernando Herrera
For what I really do think will be my final interview with a candidate for municipal office, I bring you Fernando Herrera, who was the first declared opponent for Mayor Annise Parker. Herrera is a Deputy Chief with the Houston Fire Department, having graduated the Fire Academy in 1981. He is also a businessman, the [...]
HFD ratifies deal with city
It was a close vote, but the deal they reached in March was ratified. Union members passed the contract by a 1,560 to 1,391 vote. The deal saves 236 firefighters from layoffs in 2012, but concessions include a two-year pay freeze and a 1 percent raise in 2014. Also under the agreement, the firefighters who [...]
The Mayor and the firefighters
Despite the tone of this, I wouldn’t make too much of it. While looking for tens of millions of dollars through a combination of cuts, deferrals, savings and fee hikes, Mayor Annise Parker repeatedly has identified the Houston Fire Department as one of the largest of budget bogeymen. Whether describing an intransigent pension board, a [...]
The city’s 2012 budget
Cuts, deferred payments, and more cuts. Mayor Annise Parker, facing what she described as the toughest fiscal environment in more than 20 years, on Thursday proposed a $1.8 billion budget that calls for laying off 747 employees, closing pools and community centers and slashing other programs. The budget eliminates city-funded sports leagues, reduces library hours [...]
Firefighters avoid layoffs
The city and the firefighters’ union reach an agreement on the deadline for sending layoff notices to cut HFD’s budget by $17.7 million but not require any layoffs. The agreement’s components include program cuts and fees for services that are currently free such as plan checks for new construction. But the largest chunk of the [...]
More city layoffs
How high will it get? More than 600 city employees have received layoff notices this month as the city sheds payroll in a budget crisis. The count is mounting daily as city leaders orchestrate a department-by-department approach to telling their employees that they no longer will have jobs come July 1. Wednesday afternoon, back when [...]
The State of the City 2011
It’s getting a little better, but we’re still not close to being in good times. The city of Houston’s budget deficit for the coming fiscal year has been whittled to roughly $80 million from $130 million, Mayor Annise Parker said after her annual State of the City address on Friday. Parker, speaking at a Greater [...]
Do we have an opponent yet for the Mayor?
Probably not. Houston Fire Department Deputy Chief Fernando Herrera has filed papers appointing a treasurer for a mayoral campaign fund-raising committee. He was the Republican candidate for District 148 state representative in 2010. He lost to incumbent Jessica Farrar. However, Herrera said today he’s 95 percent sure he won’t run for mayor. “It’s a difficult [...]
Mayor seeks pension fund cuts
Given the size of the budget shortfall for next year and the amount that the city pays into the various pension funds, Mayor Parker’s proposal to pay less should not be a surprise to anyone. City Attorney David Feldman and Finance Director Kelly Dowe already have asked firefighter pension executives to accept $14 million less [...]
HFD news
Couple of big stories relating to the Houston Fire Department in the news this week. First, the EEOC makes a ruling: The Houston Fire Department’s failure to properly address discrimination complaints by a female firefighter and subsequent retaliation subjected her to a “hostile work environment” based on her gender, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has [...]
The pension problem
I don’t know enough about the particulars of the city’s pension problems to be able to sort out the competing claims made in this story. I do know that the current system is not sustainable, and that the fight to make changes in it will be long and nasty. I know some folks would like [...]
Some Prop 3 action
Campos observed last week that there hasn’t been any action on Prop 3, which is the red light camera referendum. That’s about to change. The Houston Professional Firefighters Association, a group that represents more than 4,000 firefighters, said it supports red-light cameras. President Jeff Caynon is urging Houstonians to vote for Proposition 3 on Election [...]
Still focusing on overtime
Mayor Annise Parker talks again about trying to control HPD and HFD overtime costs as a way of bridging the city’s budget shortfall. Mayor Annise Parker provided an early picture of how she intends to close a $140 million budget gap to City Council Wednesday, indicating she will steer the city away from layoffs and [...]
HPD and HFD overtime
As is the case with the Harris County Sheriff’s office, the Houston Police Department and Houston Fire Department spend a lot of money on overtime. A Houston Chronicle analysis shows that most of the money — $50 million — went to the Houston Police Department, long bedeviled by staffing shortages while trying to cover the [...]
Still looking for a fire chief
We’ve got a new police chief, but Mayor Parker is still looking for a new fire chief. Parker on Wednesday named Charles A McClelland Jr., a veteran Houston police administrator, the city’s new police chief. She concentrated that search on internal HPD candidates. But the mayor said she will broaden her search when looking for [...]
Ambulance costs
I guess I don’t really think much about ambulance services, but it’s a reasonably significant part of the city’s budget, and the city thinks it may need to charge more for it. The last time the city raised ambulance fees was in 2002. Currently, ambulance transport costs $415, plus $7.50 per mile, with an average [...]
Boriskie steps down
Add HFD Chief to the list of things Mayor Parker will need to address. With his department under siege by critics and a new mayor as his boss, Houston Fire Chief Phil Boriskie stepped down as the department’s top commander, saying he wanted to return to the force as a firefighter. “The time has come [...]
Toys for tots with valid ID
This is what you call bad holiday publicity. The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children. The point isn’t to punish the children but to ensure that their parents are either citizens, legal [...]
Houston Women Fire Fighters Calendar
Via Mike McGuff, the women of the Houston Fire Department have gotten in on the calendar-for-charity act, something their make colleagues have been doing for awhile. Here’s what it’s all about. Our mission is to represent the diversity, strength, and femininity of the mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives in our department while benefiting breast cancer [...]
Interview with Otis Jordan
Next up, we have an interview with Otis Jordan, who is running in District D. Jordan just retired as a captain in HFD after 30 years of service. Jordan is a graduate of Ross Sterling High School and TCU, and was an officer in the Army Reserve before joining the Fire Department. He is running [...]
More on the lineups
Here’s the Chron story about the final filings to be on the ballot for city elections. As noted before, not a whole lot of surprises, but there are a couple of things worth mentioning: Otis Jordan, president of the Houston Black Firefighters Association, who has been a frequent critic of the Houston Fire Department’s handling [...]
Interview with Council Member Jolanda Jones
I feel like Council Member Jolanda Jones needs no introduction. She’s got a fairly high profile these days, and if you follow Houston politics at all, you’ve probably got a familiarity with her and an opinion of her. Mine remains the same, in that while I don’t always agree with what she’s doing, I like [...]
Free childhood immunizations available
Via email from the Houston Fire Department: Get Your Child Ready For School With Free Immunizations from The Houston Fire Department and Blue Cross and Blue Shield It takes more than school supplies to get your child ready for the new school year. The Houston Fire Department and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Care Van [...]
Endorsement watch: We take it back
Here’s something you don’t see every election. The Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, which had previously endorsed City Council Member Jolanda Jones for re-election to her At Large #5 seat, has now rescinded that endorsement. You can read their letter to CM Jones here (PDF), which is signed by union President Jeff Caynon, who are [...]