Houston City Council Ignores Vote of the People

You'll recall back on November 6th the citizens of our great city voted to approve Proposition B for firefighter pay parity. It may not have been a perfect resolution to an existing problem, and the cost may have been problematic for our Houston elected officials to face .... but the measure was approved by a vote of the people - and that's that. And as such, our elected officials have a duty to respect and implement the result.  

Unfortunately, members of Houston City Council chose to ignore the electorate and decided instead to spend $500,000 to hire an outside law firm to get an opinion as to whether the Prop B vote was legal. (With that decision are also many questions about the law firm selection process and the law firm's relationship to the Mayor, but that's way too much shade to cover in this blog. Ted Oberg has a good piece on it here if you want to know more.)

Now, one could ask oneself, "why in the heck wouldn't they do that BEFORE the election? They've had the information for over a year..." and that would be a great question. 

The answer is a little more smarmy and may be a tad disturbing to know. Months ago, Mayor Turner shared with more than a few people that should Prop B pass, his plan was to tie it up in court until the firefighters gave in to his will. And he has done just that. 

Joining the Mayor in the decision to spend a whole lot of tax dollars on legal fees to delay implementation of pay parity:

Mayor Pro Temp Ellen Cohen
Vice Mayor Pro Temp Jerry Davis
CM At Large David Robinson
CM At Large Steve Le
CM Robert Gallegos
CM Mike Laster
CM Martha Castex-Tatum
CM Dave Martin

And now the Mayor has convinced the Houston Police Officers Union to continue to battle the firefighters by filing a lawsuit claiming the  Prop B measure is illegal. They were granted a 14 day restraining order to halt implementation. And so we wait. 

You know folks, there is something to be said for acting in good faith. We are in a sad state of affairs here in our fair city when our elected officials actively advocate against the will of the people and against strong public safety. The citizens see this move for what it is, just another maneuver to avoid dealing with the elephant in the room. Ignoring the elephants is never a good idea, even an elephant as ugly as this one. #tb