The Government we deserve.

The ugly realities surrounding the current City of Houston Government were on display in full force Wednesday as the pension rhetoric reached a new low.

(from Matt Stiles of the Chron)

After proposing a $3.8 billion city budget Wednesday, Mayor Bill White's administration today begins wrestling with one of its more contentious details: funding city employees' retirement program.

The mayor's chief administrative officer, Anthony Hall, and the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System's executive director, David Long, are to begin negotiating the size of the city's contribution to the retirement fund in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

(snip)

The tension over the pension issue was obvious during White's budget presentation to the council Wednesday. The pension system's unfunded liability grew after 2001, when benefits were enhanced under former Mayor Lee Brown, markets slumped and financing assumptions proved wrong.

White likened the situation to the collapse of Enron and criticized Long's stewardship. He has headed the pension system since 1993.

Council members weighed in, too. Councilwoman Carol Alvarado labeled Long a "fat cat," and others challenged him to speak before the council to answer concerns about his compensation.

Long, who has attended recent council pension meetings but has not been asked to speak, sought to stay above the fray. "I have never personally attacked him. I have never personally attacked a City Council member," he said. "Yet, I have been personally attacked."

This latest assault by Mayor White's attack dog Alvarado comes on the heels of Hizzoner accusing the Pension system of committing "criminal fraud", and other reports of Ms. Alvarado levelling different charges:

(from Miya Shay of ABC 13)

Mayor White accused Long of using scare tactics, and bending the truths to decribe an employee pension system. The Mayor also talked about how basically Long makes more money than just about every city employee... among other jabs. Council Member Carol Alvarado ventured as far as to say that she doens't understand why Long even has a job. Cheerful stuff, huh?

If you're anything like me, you have to question the hypocracy that surrounds Ms. Alvarado's questioning the integrity of any official, or her questioning whether they should still have "their job".

If you remember, Ms. Alvarado has had to address questions surrounding the validity of her College Degree and she also admitted to lax management of the Mayor Pro-Tem's office which led to a payroll scandal that is still in litigation. In light of this I think a more honest question would be to ask how Carol Alvarado still has HER job.

It should also be noted that Ms. Alvarado has previously expressed disagreements with the Employee Pension System so these attacks are not out of character for her and could indicate a desire on her part to replace Mr. Long as the head of the system. This would assume that she views her political career to be irreperably damaged. (A feeling held by some local political observers.)

I want to make it perfectly clear that I don't have any proof of Ms. Alvarado's intentions here, and I'm not saying that she's definately angling for the job but, in politics, when there is a consistent pattern of criticism there's typically a well-defined end-game solution in mind. This is all just my interperetation of the tea-leaves that we can see from the outside.

Could this be Mayor White's first shot across the bow of the good-ship Don Long?

There's certainly plenty of ammunition in the Municipal Employees Pension Fund to use to fuel a drive to replace Long with a Friend of Bill. Even more than White had during his usurping of Jordy Tollett from the Convention Bureau.

The problem that Long is going to have is that he worked with, and trusted the numbers of, former Mayor Lee P. Brown. To be fair, he wasn't alone in that assessment. (I tried to find the editorial from the Chron in support of that, but their torturously bad search engine isn't working (AGAIN) today). The costs for the Pension Board are high, Long's salary is high, and the angle that's going to be used is "fiscal responsibility" thus effectively transferring the debate from City employee retirement (where it should be) to a personal referendum on Mr. Long's tenure.

In a City where the Mayor has no credible opposition and a media who is, at times, nothing more than his personal press release factory....that could be all White needs.