Free Republic

Houston is at a turning point. With a boost from noted urbanist Joel Kotkin, our city has begun recasting its national reputation from "that ugly, sprawling, weird city without zoning" to the exemplar city for "Opportunity Urbanism," a compelling new paradigm for cities in the 21st century. This paradigm asserts that the fundamental (but recently forgotten) core mission of cities is to accelerate the upward social and economic mobility of its inhabitants. This may sound obvious to the average person, but in the wonkish world of urban policy and planning, the themes of the past decade have been environmentalism (smart...

Events of the past week reminded me of the wisdom of the late Bill Crane, one of my political science professors. Crane wrote a popular textbook on Texas politics. Needless to say, he understood political corruption, and divided it into two types. It wasn't Democrat and Republican. This was before Texas Republicans had enough power to be corrupt. Crane's distinction was between Catholic corruption and Protestant corruption. He wasn't talking theology, but sociology. His use of the term "Catholic" was shorthand for immigrant groups that arrived relatively recently: Irish, Italians, Mexicans, and so on. The "Protestants" were the moneyed and...

CLEVELAND -- Former Houston and Harris County official Oliver Spellman pleaded guilty today to bribery charges filed just last week, saying he accepted $2,000 to influence government contracts while serving as chief of staff to former Mayor Lee Brown. "I took money from an individual in return for favor in winning government contracts," Spellman told U.S. District Judge James Gwin of Cleveland. He said he took the bribe in July 2002. Although neither he nor the criminal information document filed last week named the person who paid the bribe, other court documents indicate it was well-connected Cleveland businessman Nate Gray....

Mayor Bill White spoke Wednesday about city integrity following the bribery indictment of a one-time aide to former Mayor Lee Brown. Oliver Spellman, who until last Friday also worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, has been charged with criminal conspiracy to obtain bribes as a public official. It stems from allegations he helped a consultant in Cleveland, Ohio win City of Houston contracts. Mayor White says all contracts handled by Spellman are under review, and corruption will not be tolerated. "I've said in public microphones for two years, public contracting should be clean and transparent, no...

Oliver Spellman, the Cleveland parks director under former Mayor Michael R. White, was charged Tuesday with accepting bribes from Beachwood consultant Nate Gray in exchange for political favors in Houston, where Spellman was the mayor's chief of staff. The charges, along with interviews and court documents, show that a sweeping public corruption investigation focusing on Gray has spread beyond the borders of Cuyahoga County to Texas and Louisiana. In Houston, Gray paid Spellman $2,000 and gave him a free hotel stay in Las Vegas and other gifts to land a contract for Gray's business, Etna Parking, to provide shuttle-bus service...

Ex-Brown aide faces Ohio bribery charge Oliver Spellman is accused of aiding a consultant trying to get city contracts ----- A chief of staff to former Mayor Lee Brown was charged Tuesday in Ohio with accepting bribes in exchange for helping a Cleveland consultant who was trying to win city of Houston contracts. The charge against Oliver Spellman, who more recently worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, is part of a continuing investigation that already has resulted in the bribery indictment of a Cleveland city councilman. Garcia said Spellman resigned suddenly Friday as her chief of...

After witnessing a weekend of self-congratulatory festivities marking the January 1st debut of Houston’s MetroRail transit system, the hometown newspaper’s editorial board could hardly contain its exuberance. “Viewed from any angle,” opined the Houston Chronicle, the kickoff celebrations were a sure “sign of good things to come.” To the board, itself a merciless campaigner for rail, the roughly 15,000 people in attendance suggested that a “large helping of crow” was in order for transit critics. Reports from Houston spread quickly causing the Arizona Republic’s editorial page to gloat “critics rail at light rail to no avail.” After all, what...

The city of Houston's main pension program has a billion-dollar funding shortfall because benefits have been boosted so high that many employees will earn more in retirement than they received while working, according to a report obtained by the Chronicle. A few will retire as millionaires. To properly reduce the shortfall, taxpayers would have to put nearly $100 million extra into the fund next year, according to an analysis prepared for the pension's board. Further, the city cannot reduce the benefits for any employee who already has worked five years, thanks to a Texas constitutional amendment passed by voters last...

The last major electoral contest of 2003 was one of the most disappointing for conservatives. Two years ago, in a race that inspired articles in such national publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post, conservative Republican Orlando Sanchez came within 11,000 votes out of more than 319,000 cast of becoming mayor of Houston, Texas. Had Sanchez overtaken incumbent Democrat Lee Brown that year, Houston would have become the largest city in the nation with a Latino mayor—and Sanchez would have been a national Republican star. On December 6, former City Councilman Sanchez was again running for mayor....

HOUSTON -- The people who run this city recently heard a familiar pitch from Microsoft: Sign up for a multiyear, $12 million software licensing plan or face an audit exposing the city's use of software it hadn't paid for. Microsoft warned that the city could be slapped with stiff fines for using any Microsoft software for which it could not produce receipts. Scores of other businesses and public agencies, facing a similar dilemma, have agreed to the new licensing deals -- a linchpin of Microsoft's growth strategy. Not Houston. The nation's fourth-largest city rebuffed the offer and has embraced an...

Rules of royal protocol bruised during queen's visit By SHELY HODGE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Thai hospitality and Texas grit suffered an uncomfortable collision Monday night when Queen Sirikit of Thailand, on her first visit to Houston, hosted a lavish black-tie dinner at the St. Regis Hotel. The Thai side was flawless -- the beloved queen gracious, the five-course dinner executed meticulously, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn eloquent in his greetings. On the heels of visits to New York and Washington, D.C., where the queen hosted equally grand evenings, the Thai entourage might have anticipated a sophisticated audience familiar with simple...

An Alief teacher is suing Mayor Lee Brown for injuries she says she suffered in a fender bender last month, when the city-owned car Brown was driving collided with hers. Patricia C. Fox filed suit Thursday, claiming unspecified injuries and damages from the Aug. 10 accident. Fox was driving westbound on Westheimer Road near the intersection of Potomac about 4:25 p.m. when Brown's Lincoln Town Car struck her car on the driver's side. Brown said he was trying to turn left across three lanes of traffic when the collision occurred. A Houston police investigation found Brown at fault in the...

More than 2,000 people voted illegally in the local November elections and the Houston mayoral runoff in December, including 712 people who cast ballots in city races and don't live in the city. That's according to an audit of poll records released today by Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector Paul Bettencourt, who is also the county's voter registrar. The audit, which has been given to District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal for investigation, also showed that 1,540 people who weren't eligible to vote were allowed to do so without filling out an affidavit challenging their status as registered voters. Voters whose names do...