When I saw the headline about a clash between Mayor Parker and an unnamed Council member, I was pretty sure I knew before I clicked the link which Council member it was. I was right.
CM Helena Brown
District A Councilwoman Brown tried to replace one of the mayor’s appointees to the Spring Branch Management District, accusing him of “negative communications” that she did not detail. The board is appointed by the mayor and only confirmed by council. The mayor ruled Brown’s request out of order.
[…]
Brown acknowledged that appointments of volunteers should not be hashed out in public and that she did so only because she could not get the delay she sought.
“I’ve been attempting to schedule a meeting with you for about two and a half weeks now,” Parker told Brown. “I’ve made multiple requests and I have resorted to communicating with you by email in order to discuss a range of items. You have consistently refused to meet with me, and had you had the opportunity to meet with me we may have been able to deal with this privately.”
Brown responded, “Mayor, I will not be bullied. You have made a request via one of your assistants for a meeting two weeks ago for which I specifically asked for specifics so I can decide whether the meeting is to be merited. And I don’t appreciate you announcing what is supposed to be our business before the whole city of Houston.” Brown said Parker mentioned “possible legal issues” in her request. “I’m a duly elected council member, and I will not be bullied,” she said.
“I certainly apologize if you feel in any way bullied by my request that you meet with me privately in my office,” Parker told Brown, before moving on to the vote that confirmed all of the mayor’s appointees. Brown alone voted against them.
The volunteer in question had provided space for a campaign headquarters for former CM Brenda Stardig, whom Brown defeated in November, so I can understand why she might be unhappy about this. I’m sure there’s a lot more to this story than what is reported here, but come on. For Brown to say that she wouldn’t meet with the Mayor to discuss the issue because the Mayor hadn’t specified enough specifics to assure Brown that the meeting merited her time is just plain insulting. What exactly did Brown think was going to happen? Doing stuff like that in the private sector would not win you any friends, either.
I had some sympathy for Brown in her dustup with CM Rodriguez. I have some sympathy for her here. But this is why stuff like this needs to be discussed in private. As CM Noriega pointed out, it’s just rude to the people who are volunteering their time to be talked about like this in a public forum. I also note that what these two kerfuffles have in common is that neither was about a matter of policy, or about how something might affect District A. They were both about Helena Brown and how she doesn’t like the way the city’s business is being done. Last I checked, CM Brown only represented one-eleventh of the city. If she wants things to be run differently, it’s on her to convince a majority of her colleagues on Council that she’s right and her way is better. Until then, we’re going to have more of these incidents.
My impression was that District Council Members are given the latitude to approve the Management District and TIRZ Board members for the entities in their respective Districts. This allows elected officials to wield some supervision over the “local” groups operating in their District, providing at least some level of accountability.
Here’s the consent agenda item-result from Feb.22:
2. REQUEST from Mayor for confirmation of the appointment or reappointment of the following individuals to the SPRING BRANCH MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, for terms to expire June 1, 2015
Position One – MR. C. DAVID SCHWAB, JR., reappointment
Position Two – MR. THOMAS G. SUMNER, appointment
Position Three – MS. CATHERINE M. BARCHFELD-ALEXANDER, reappointment
Position Four – MS. SHERRI OLDHAM, appointment
Position Five – MR. VICTOR ALVAREZ, reappointment
Position Six – MR. MAURICIO VALDES, reappointment
Position Seven – MR. DAN SILVESTRI, reappointment
– PASS
–end of snip–
I’m guessing other CMs were silent on this because they want to ability approve, block, or deny the nominees for the MDs and TIRZ entities in their own Districts.
I have no view on the Spring Branch MD or Mr. Alavarez, it’s just an interesting look at the inside baseball of City hall.
I will always stand proud that i worked on the helena brown campaign,I stood with the voters of district a and enjoyed the victory-i knew then as i do now that helena brown was the correct candidate for district a.This doesnt mean that she is to be limited to city property with in district a-it means that she is duty bound to represent alllllll city issues that could effect her voters in district a-a fact that brenda stardig ignored-and paid the price with the loss of her office.As for MAYOR annise Parker-For those that dont know-i was roaming the halls of the city years before she was elected city council-i questioned her many many times about city politics and good goverment in 1998-she always took time out for any questions i may have had-that doesnt mean that she has not dissapointed me a few times- example- the mayor should have steered clear of the district a race-secondly-if council member helena brown or any other council member asks for specifics from the mayor- Then god willing and the creek dont rise they should recieve further information,helena brown asked for specifics and she did not recieve-thats bad policy and its old school city of houston antics-it will stop.Charles Kuffner-as for the mayor-i have requested a few issues that need to be addressed-ONE -SIDEWALKS IN SUNNYSIDE-AND FURTHER RESTRICTIONS BE ADDED TO THE SMOKING ORDINANCE TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM SECOND HAND SMOKE-if the mayor shuns this in this second term-GOD WILLING AND THE CREEK DONT RISE,POLITICALLY SPEAKING,THERE WILL BE NO THIRD TERM IN OFFICE AS SHE WILL BE VOTED OUT.THIS IS FACT.
WRITE IT DOWN-RECORD IT-DO WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO DO WITH IT..
I SAID IT AND WROTE ,JOSHUA BEN BULLARD AKA BULLARD BEN JOSHUA
Joshua, I never get tired of reading your posts.
Paul
Some of this may have to do with Annise telling quite a few people after Brown was elected that she intended to “take her down”. You would never have found Bill White doing that. And if you watch the replay of the dustup, you would never have seen White behave like Annise did, including misusing Roberts Rules.