Sure enough, on Wednesday, the story came out that Turner brow-beat the City Council into hiring a law-firm of his choosing to "study" the proposition in what is most-assuredly the first steps toward just ignoring the Proposition altogether, or filing a lawsuit depending on which path his lawyers tell him is the most likely to succeed.
In the Houston Chronicle story regarding the hiring of the law firm there were a couple of interesting nuggets.
Houston Council Hires Law Firm to Advise City on Prop B Legal questions. HoustonChronicle.com
First, and it needs to be said. This headline is wrong. Turner is hiring the law firm, City Council has just approved the hiring. (by a narrow 9-7 vote)
Then there's this:
Neil Thomas, a Norton Rose partner in that office, served as treasurer for the anti-Prop B PAC, Protect Houston, and the firm contributed $15,000 to the committee’s coffers.
Any way you look at it that is a helluva return on investment. For a measly fifteen grand Norton Rose has reaped a $500K pay day. Whoever thought up this deal at the law firm needs a raise. They, correctly, identified Mayor Turner's penchant for a) being politically vindictive and b) paying off his political patrons and acted appropriately. Good move by them.
Then, there's this:
The mayor initially planned to seek a contract with Norton Rose the morning after Election Day, but delayed the vote over concerns that hiring the firm would look like “a middle finger” to the voters, as District G Councilman Greg Travis put it.
So, instead of an immediate middle finger to 59% of Houston voters they waited three weeks to extend the digit, relying on their dim view of the electorate to assuage the anger.
In other words, they (and the Chron) think you to be fairly daft.
Of course, the only way to prove them wrong is to show up during the next Mayoral election and remind Turner that you're not that daft, and send him and the nine city council members packing when their number comes up. They are betting that people are both not paying much attention to this, and that they won't care when the time comes to head back to the ballot box.
Given Houston voter history this is not a bad political gamble. After all, they'll have the media on their side, so these issues can be white washed away, and most people are too busy in their daily lives. If they need a push in the right direction they can also rely on the unproductive class to give them a boost as well. There are plenty of people around with plenty of free time and access to the Internet after all.
Despite all of this it's not at all surprising that Turner is taking the confrontational path. Since coming back one of the key topics of this blog has been his pettiness toward political enemies, and his payback to his patrons. Of greater concern is that he is showing no willingness to engage with the Firefighters Union at all after the vote, signifying that, if he loses, he's willing to make drastic cuts to the department and place his political vindictiveness over the needs of Houstonians.
This leads to the uneasy realization that Houston potentially has a Mayor in City Hall that is more concerned with satisfying his need for revenge than ensuring the City is functioning properly.
If true, that's a problem. A BIG problem for a big city that's facing a host of challenges that could potentially be beyond the grasp of the current Mayor to address. The other option is that he doesn't care about his constituents at all.
Either incompetent or indifferent the focus of this Mayor is on "I" not "we". Which, oddly enough, puts him in the same intellectual wheelhouse and most of the Houston Chronicle opinion scribblers.
Or maybe he has a master plan that's going to shock everyone and which will resolve this mess to the satisfaction of all, thus saving the City budget and sparing the citizens the indignity of being taxed until their eyes bleed.
Yeah, that's a reach. A huge leap of faith that Houstononians are going to have to make. For now there's no other choice.
