It seems that many of our public entities are facing challenges and questions on their behavior these days.
The Houston Community College System is dealing with questionable contracts issued by their board. The Houston Independent School District has Board members who are being questioned about their involvement in issuing contracts. The Port of Houston is dealing with a report on ways to improve their practices. The New Metro is still disentangling itself from past contracting mistakes made by the old Metro. Two Houston City Council Members have recently faced investigations on reported improprieties and a County Commissioner is still dealing with a federal indictment.
It seems that all of this activity would cause the public to become more engaged or enraged.
In November, we’re holding this thing called an Election. Members of Houston City Council, HISD Board of Trustees, and the Houston Community College System Board are up for election.
To be clear, I do not want to indicate that anyone under current investigation is guilty in any way. Our system guarantees that one is innocent until proven guilty.
Will the discussions occurring amidst all of these investigations encourage or increase voter turnout?
The good news is that the voters likely to cast their ballots or usually the more engaged voters who are able to separate fact from fiction and will cast their ballots accordingly.
But even with all of the aforementioned issues, apathy will still likely win the November elections.
This entry was originally posted at Nancy Sims' blog, Ponderings.
The weather is cooling off. The temps this Tuesday morning are comfortable for the first time in weeks. And yet, not a drop of rain is expected anytime in the forseeable future.
Wildfires are raging out of control in Texas while the land longs for a good, slow soak. Our Louisiana neighbors just received too many inches of rain while we watched longingly for even a mere sprinkle to blow our way. In face, we saw a mere sprinkle but it didn’t help much.
As I have reported previously, this drought and long, hot summer are taking their toll on our infrastructure. The water main breaks are the immediately obvious pain point. The City of Houston and Harris County budgets were tight this year. Our elected officials took necessary steps to avoid raising taxes while their income revenues dropped significantly. Most of us were relieved that the budgets were balanced, even though it was painful, without increasing our own obligations. I certainly was happy to not face a tax increase.
Now, we face financial obligations that will result from our complete lack of rain. The roads are buckling and other infrastructure is becoming unstable. We learned last week that millions of trees in Houston are dying. This one hurt me the most. I love our trees. My out of town clients often comment on the city’s green appearance and how it was most unexpected. I think they come looking for dirt roads and hitching posts.
Houston has beautiful parks and many tree-shaded neighborhoods. While neighbors can take steps to preserve the trees in their yard, it is impossible to water all the trees around the city. With water rationing mandates, trees in our parks and esplanades are suffering. A stroll around Memorial Park will reveal many dead branches and dying trees – those that are always evergreen but are now brown, literally dying from thirst.
Even if our local governments had all the money in the world, we still could not begin to replace the trees we are losing as a result of this drought. Trees for Houston is fighting back and fighting for the trees.
Click here to learn more about how you can help and listen to guidelines and suggestions for fighting for our trees.
Our trees not only give us shade from our blistering temperatures, they help with pollution control and beautification of our City. Let’s fight for them, too!
This entry was originally posted at Nancy Sims' blog, Ponderings.