Author Archives: Ubu Roi

About Ubu Roi

A City of Houston Public Works employee of over 15 years, through four mayoral administrations, I have a knack for annoying managers and supervisors, when I'm not busy being invaluable to them. An opinionated SOB that never learned not to share my opinion, I am unmarried and have no children, a fact which they'd thank me for if they could.

Congress Shall Pass No Law…

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But they might pass an administrative rule. As usual, the Demorats are up to no good. blogHOUSTON gives us a heads up from Rep. Culberson’s website:

Basically, the Democratic-controlled Committee on House Administration is drafting rules that would prohibit House members from posting content on any but “approved” websites. One can only imagine what kind of list the Dems would draw up.

According to the statement, the Democrats are looking at restricting Member content on websites outside the house.gov domain. Congressman Culberson is quickly becoming a “real time representative” by posting on Twitter.com, where he sends regular updates from the House floor and the halls of Congress, and on Qik.com, where he films and posts video updates on the Internet. This new technology allows him to bypass the mainstream media and shine sunlight into the darkest corners of Congress. If the Democrats strong-arm this rule, he would no longer be able to use these websites and our fundamental right to free speech will be taken away.”

Now bear in mind that this is the same Congress that gets to send mail for free (the “franking” privilege); meant for business but often abused during campaign season to send “informative updates” that are not “campaign materials” to everyone in the congressman’s district. Yet the Dems are trying to stifle taxpayer-free or low-cost alternatives used by its own members.

Why am I not surprised? It’s become clear since the 2004 campaign that the real name of the Democratic party is the “Socialist Worker’s Party.” Hail democracy, comrade!

Main Break

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And the breakdown of city infrastructure continues.

Please be advised that two 2-inch water lines at the intersection of Dallas and Bagby downtown were ruptured during the night. This affects the water and chilled water systems for City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Central Library and the Juila Ideson building facilities. Currently, we have no water or air conditioning at those facilities and repairs are expected to take most of the day.

These four buildings are being closed for today while repairs are made. Employees who work in these buildings are being temporarily re-assigned for the day to an alternate work site – their homes. Employees should be available to their supervisors throughout the day.

This does not affect all City employees. It applies ONLY to those employees working in these four buildings – City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Central Library and the Julia Ideson Building.

Bill White,
Mayor

A Scourge on Taxpayers

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Bill Steigerwald of Townhall takes a look a mass transit with Wendell Cox. It isn’t pretty.

When you talk about transit in the United States, you have to be talking about best prisoner awards. These systems are a scourge on taxpayers. There are some that do some wonderful things, but nobody does it all right.

I keep arguing in my own mind, who is more responsible for the abject failure of transit in the United States? And mind you — transit expenditures have gone up more than 300 percent adjusted for inflation since 1970 and ridership has gone up less than 20 percent. There is no other sector of the economy, including health care, where I can find escalation even close to that. Transit holds the record. It is a damned outrage how bad transit has been.

Wendell doesn’t pull his punches either.

…the first reason why there is no hope for transit is that it can not be designed to be competitive with the automobile, except for very specific locations — that really only being a downtown area. It has to be a good concentrated downtown area, and they don’t come much better in my view than Pittsburgh. The other reason why there is no hope for transit is that whatever you give them will be frittered away without any impact whatsoever.

Frittered? Why?

The whole point of transit is to maximize costs. The management-labor arrangements maximize costs and so do the vendor arrangements with respect to capital expenditures. … In Europe what they discovered about 15 years ago is that centralized funding creates all sorts of incentives for locals to waste money. So just about everywhere in Europe they have stopped their national transit programs and forced it down to the local level. They’ve said, “If you want to spend all that money on transit, you go right ahead.” In a sense, they de-nationalized funding and they de-nationalized responsibility.

Head over there and read the article to see whose transit system he likes the most, and which American system he says “sucks least.” It’s an interesting read; pity Houston didn’t get a mention. Although it was interesting to see what market share the “less sucky” transit agencies have….

Rearranging Roads For Everyone’s, uh, Ed’s Benefit

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There’s been some confusion over a request by Ed Wulfe to swap some land and a public road in the Galleria area for his Boulevard Place project. After looking at the maps and reading the proposed ordinance carefully, I wanted to post to set the record straight. This is not S. Post Oak BLVD that’s being handed over to Ed, it’s S. Post Oak LANE. I’ve always been annoyed at the confusion engendered by the developers who want to make money by giving everyone a “Post Oak” address, and this is part and land-parcel of the effect. Although, the actual deal is almost as bad as if it were Post Oak Blvd.

Post Oak Lane is about one block to the west, and dead ends into Ed Wulfe’s Boulevard Place development. It doesn’t go anywhere. Skylark is a half-block further west, and also dead ends. Ambassador Way runs east-west, about a half-block west from S. Post Oak Blvd, and either dead ends or meets McCue’s northern end (maps differ).

The net effect of the land swaps is to either extend Ambassador Way, and/or move it a bit southward, to meet up with an extended SPO Lane. The latter will be itself curved west into line with Skylark, and Skylark’s southern end will be chopped off and twisted to meet SPO Lane from the west. The combined streets will apparently connect to the northern end of McCue, thus relieving congestion on S. Post Oak Blvd, which is only one block east, and providing customers of Mr. Wulfe’s development a less-trafficed access from the rear. Note that spillover traffic coming from the north is currently forced over to Sage or Chimney Rock.

How long until the residents of Chevy Chase (which meets McCue from the west in this area) want their street blocked off is anyone’s guess. My money’s on “when the construction starts, unless they’re reading this.” FYI I’m not sure if the Centre at Post Oak is a Wulfe development, but if it is, this will allow him to assemble a mega-block approximately the size of the current Galleria.

What kept me digging through this until I understood it was the lengthy discussion of the past history of this project — apparently the deal had been through previous incarnations in 2004 and 2006. The 2004 deal involved Ed getting to cut the streets in question off, and having to construct barriers and. Then the deal was renegotiated in 2006:

…City Council authorized the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, four turnaround street easements, two 10-foot-wide utility easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for the conveyance to the City of right of way for the realignment and the construction of South Post Oak Lane and Skylark Lane to City standards at no cost to the City…

Now Ed’s back again, with yet another re-negotiation of the deal. The new ordinance reads:

…an ordinance authorizing the abandonment and sale of a portion of South Post Oak Lane, a portion of Skylark Lane, two 10-foot-wide utility easements, and a 10-foot-wide prescriptive water line easement in exchange for a consideration of $1,500.00 plus the conveyance to the city of right-of-way for South Post Oak Lane and Ambassador Way…

Notice what’s missing? Ed Wulfe no longer has to construct the streets to handle the additional traffic caused by his development!

.

Boy, talk about some rules for some folks (Ashby high-rise developers) and other rules for Ed Wulfe! Not only does he not have to spring for a traffic study (it’s not a multi-family high rise, after all), he doesn’t even have to build the streets — we get to do that for him at taxpayer expense!

But don’t worry… BLVD Place, a development the size of the Galleria, will be conveniently near a rail station, and that nice park we also got to pay for (screw the owners)!

Huh, a complete disregard for the effects on vehicle traffic, and land development coincidentally near the rail alignment. Y’know, has anyone ever actually seen Metro chairman (and also coincidentally, land developer) David S. Wolff and land developer Ed Wulfe in the same place at the same time? I’m just askin’…..


Ed Wulfe
David Wolff

Words on Wisdom, Four Years Ago

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Four years ago, I wrote a letter. It was meant to badger someone into doing something I thought was important. They refused, but I don’t apologize for it, even though I completely understand that person’s decision — and ironically, have made exactly the same one. Hypocritical? I don’ t know — is it hypocrisy when I admit to it?

Well, as I related over at Bridgebunnies, I have been going through some old files, and I found a copy of that letter. It’s been almost exactly four years since I sent it, and while it rambles a bit at first, I think it makes an interesting read, particularly in light of how events have played out in the meantime. Of course, I might be biased about that. Nevertheless, I present an excerpt comprising about 85% of the letter.

Reading it, you can probably guess to whom it was sent. I will not confirm or deny speculation, in order to spare the target further annoyance, and me further embarassment. Looking back at it, in the first half, I appear to be explaining the concept of “big” to an elephant. It made sense at the time…

Wisdom

. There is an egotistical thought common to every human being, that we, and we alone, have the Only True and Correct Opinion on SomeThing. And it seems the dumber a human is, the more likely they are to think there are more SomeThings that they have Correct Opinions on. In reality, it’s not true. There’s four things that have to come together to produce a Wise One, someone whose word and Opinion is, far more often than not, actually correct. ‘Wise One’ is awfully cheesy, but I don’t have a good term to substitute here. ‘Savant’ implies mere intelligence. ‘Authority’ implies lack of humility (granted, you’ve never been accused of that virtue, but your writing betrays that you lack the opposite vice also). So, ‘Wise Man of the Tribe.’

Intelligence: A Wise One has to be smart. S/he has to have the a bit more than rudimetary thinking and deduction ability.

Education: more than formal learning, it is honing, supplying with facts, and getting experience in the ways of the world. But don’t sell the formal learning short.

Wisdom: Common sense isn’t common. The Wise One knows when to draw the line and say “I don’t know.” Education, in the sense of experience above, can somewhat make up for this, but it takes one wise enough to be willing to learn the lesson. In the end, Wisdom trumps Education in our culture’s self-view, even if Education may earn more money.

Erudition: A true Wise One has the ability to *explain* him/herself, to make the complicated seem simple. Not just to look smart, act smart, and be smart, but to enrich those around him or her with their own talents.

All four of these are needed to produce a Wise One. Leave any out, and you get… well, something that may look like a wise one, but isn’t.

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An SUV For Me, But Not For Thee

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A story wherein a couple of pro-smart-growth types attempt to extract their feet from within their oral cavities after criticizing those eeeeeeeeevil right-wing neo-cons for driving gas-guzzling SUVs and driving up their household debt, instead of eating tofu and supporting driving up government debt and taxes. You know how it is with those bitter people: God, guns, and SUVs.

Enjoy the debate.

John McCain, via the Teddy Roosevelt

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P.J. O’Rourke tours the Big Stick, and thinks about the presidential race. Money grafs:

Some say John McCain’s character was formed in a North Vietnamese prison. I say those people should take a gander at what John chose to do–voluntarily. Being a carrier pilot requires aptitude, intelligence, skill, knowledge, discernment, and courage of a kind rarely found anywhere but in a poem of Homer’s or a half gallon of Dewar’s. I look from John McCain to what the opposition has to offer. There’s Ms. Smarty-Pantsuit, the Bosnia-Under-Sniper-Fire poster gal, former prominent Washington hostess, and now the JV senator from the state that brought you Eliot Spitzer and Bear Stearns. And there’s the happy-talk boy wonder, the plaster Balthazar in the Cook County political crèche, whose policy pronouncements sound like a walk through Greenwich Village in 1968: “Change, man? Got any spare change? Change?”

(snip)

A strange flight it is–from the hard and fast reality of a floating island to the fantasy world of American solid ground. In this never-never land a couple of tinhorn Second City shysters–who, put together, don’t have the life experience of the lowest ranking gob-with-a-swab cleaning a head on the Big Stick–presume to run for president of the United States. They’re not just running against the hero John McCain, they’re running against heroism itself and against almost everything about America that ought to be conserved.

Via.

An Olympic-Sized Headache

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Amazing how I can get started typing a short reply to something on Chizumatic, and end up with an article. Sigh. SDB wrote, about the decision to secretly re-route the Olympic Torch in order to derail the protests:

The point is that their decision, in the microscopic, defeats the entire purpose of the exercise in the macroscopic.

Well, yes, but the problem is that the macroscopic view is based on an idea that’s out of touch with the reality of the world — or, if you must be ungenerous, a lie. If you get right down to it, the whole thing is a facade. The Olympics are purportedly about the “ideal” of peace, friendship, and competition, and the torch is the symbol of the Games. (If anyone gets pedantic about the 5 circles logo, they will beaten to death with an Olympic flag)–ubu. But the Olympics aren’t about that at all; they’re really about national pride. The foundation and concept of the Olympics is that the national teams of various nation states compete. Sure, the events are scored individually, but overall, we look at a team’s success in terms of the total medals it brings home. More importantly, the teams were organized from the outset along national lines, and it was conceived as a way to bring nations together – in peace and friendship. (Though in the West we do tend to make it a matter of individuals; that’s our hero-worship and capitalistic ethics kicking in.)

There is a long history of nations using the Olympics as a showcase. *cough*1936,1980,1984*cough* (All of them, really.) In fact, thats why nations vie to host Olympic contests.

But now there’s a cost to national prestige to go with the benefits — if your nation is seen as a pariah for whatever reason (human rights, nuclear power, whaling, etc.), you risk embarrassment from protesters who no longer honor the pretty words about peace and friendship. These bold individuals bravely declare that the emperor has no clothes — as long as they can safely do so in countries that tolerate such practices, that is. I certainly see no surplus of individuals volunteering to serve as human shields in front of Tibetan monks. (Saddam must have had a better agent booking vacations for lefties on the Tiber.)

Still, it’s a black eye for Red China. What I predict will happen in a few years at most is that the whole “torch run” will be dropped in favor of “torch tours” where it will be brought to a location and shown off under tight security. The theory will be that they can control a fixed location better than a moving one. It won’t work of course, so the whole thing will be quietly dropped, and there will be no more run or tour. The USOC won’t get in the way of this, nor will most other western countries, simply because they’re as susceptible to it as anyone else; even more so where they are hosting and the torch is touring a country that can ensure large turnouts.

Imagine the shoe being on the other foot, and China actively seeking to embarrass a US-hosted Olympics with large demonstrations over Iraq. I’m sure a spontaneous incident could be arranged….

The real shame is that I don’t know whether to cheer or jeer this development. Should I cheer the failure of hypocrisy, or bemoan the failure of the ideal?

koffee kulture klub

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Spotted in the comments of a discussion of Starbucks (and the politics thereof):

I generally either shut out the “No one I know voted for Nixon” vibe or I eavesdrop and see how many inanities get spouted. I’ll never forget one time, at a Starbucks in Houston, I struck up a conversation with some locals and was told, point-blank, that I had no business being in the gay Starbucks when the straight one was only two blocks down.

Ah, the good ‘ol Big Tent philosophy. Funny how some people are all about inclusion…as long as it’s about you including them.

CBS’ Latest Sins

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Crossposted from my comment over at blogHOUSTON:

I’m furious with CBS news again. How this network is still in business after trying to throw a national election is something I can’t explain.

What’s got me glaring at CBS news this time is last week’s coverage of the “5th anniversery” of the Iraq war. It’s not a local subject per se, so I wasn’t in any hurry to blog it here; while the WOT is one of the motivations for starting this blog, I long ago quit opining on it, since there are people much more qualified and influential to handle that job.

But this time, I’ve got to kick in some commentary or blow up in anger. I figured someone else would cary the load, but I haven’t even seen any backlash on this, which makes me wonder… have we just come to accept left-wing ideology and attacks from the media, to the point that we don’t even blink an eye anymore? I’m really angry over their use of the children of deceased soldiers to attack the war, compounded by the commentator saying that children of military personnel shouldn’t play dress-up in their parent’s uniforms. Oh, the horror! The son or daughter of a doctor, a fireman, or a policeman, maybe… but a soldier?

“We’ve all seen children play dress-up in their parent’s clothing…but it should never be like this.” Cue picture of a father and daughter, both in military fatigues, standing in front of a mirror. (emphasis in original. I wish I could replicate the sound of horror and disgust in the newsman’s voice.)

How DARE they suggest that the children of military personnel shouldn’t be proud of their parents and seek to emulate them? The next time one of their precious reporters gets nabbed in Iraq by a bunch of crazies with guns, who’s going to come save their asses? The Boy Scouts?

Oh, wait, I forgot. Al-Queda-Not-in-Iraq-and-Never-Was-Unless-It’s-America’s-Fault doesn’t kidnap allies.

Then this morning, they had to start off an interview with the governor of Illinois (about his endorsement of Obama) with a completely unrelated attack on the war, and the 4,000th casualty.

No, I’m not questioning their patriotism — they don’t have any.

I wonder if anyone TIVO’d that clip and put it on YouTube? Probably been threatened and forced to take it down by now…

Houston Housing Authority

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Well, they’re at it again, the one department that continues to embarrass the city only somewhat less than the HPD Crime Lab. This time, the Houston Housing Authority is holding hostage all the remaining worldly possessions of several elderly immigrants, for the “best” of reasons, of course.

Back in November, the Bellerieve apartments, had a four-alarm fire, which destroyed several units and left 2o0 homeless. From the KHOU article, dated 11/27/07, the day of the fire:

More than a dozen Red Cross Caseworkers met Tuesday with elderly residents displaced by Monday’s four-alarm apartment fire… The Houston Housing Authority has placed the residents in hotels and is providing meals for them. About 150 rooms are occupied by these residents at the Hilton in southwest Houston.

Well here it is months later, and I have to ask if they are still in hotel rooms or if they’ve found other places to stay, because the apartments aren’t repaired yet. In fact, the building hasn’t even been cleared of the tenants’ possessions — unless it’s been by thieves. The KHOU report was somewhat light on details, like exactly how many residents are affected, but obviously repairs are nowhere near beginning, since HHA isn’t letting some or all of the tenants back in to retrieve their clothes and personal items four months after the blaze. Why?

Asbestos, it says.

Abatement of the units and cleaning of all the items has to be done before they can be returned to their owners. The HHA insists that since the items belong to the tenants, the tenants have to pay to have their stuff cleaned. “But wait,” you say, “why isn’t the landlord responsible? Or the landlord’s insurer? Aren’t they responsible for such costs?”

Ah, therein lies the rub. You see, the Houston Housing Authority is the landlord, and, as mentioned in today’s report, it blames the tenants for not having the money to get their goods back:

The money would pay for the asbestos cleanup, which is required to salvage their personal belongings left inside. Housing officials say that could cost up to $3,400 per unit.. “People would normally have renter’s insurance. The fact of the matter is the Housing Authority’s insurance does not cover tenant’s content,” said Horace Allison, the housing authority’s vice president.

As I said, the tenants are elderly, and some are immigrants. KHOU only found those to interview today, although from the November article it is clear that the residents were, ah, largely multi-cultural. Interestingly, the text of the article posted on the website cuts off just before what I found to be the most interesting part of the televised report.

Under Brown, the entire Housing Department appeared to be little more than “one director’s personal fiefdom” and the waste and mismanagement (if not outright fraud) were so bad, the Federal government is now demanding a refund of $15 million it says the department misused or wasted. A private owner would have the whole place cleaned up, repaired, and back in business by now, because time is money. But the City unelected HHA doesn’t care about a boarded-up eyesore, so we have four months passed while the personal effects of the tenants were still under lock and key. (We hope. Far more likely that they and 2/3 of the building’s wiring have long departed the premises.) Still something didn’t seem right; an element of the story had to be missing. This entire affair seemed beyond even HHA’s normal level of indifference to the very people it is supposed to be housing.

Then the televised report (but again, not the article) continued by saying that the HHA is “doing what it can” by meeting with the tenants next week; in fact, they are going to bring them together with some companies that do asbestos abatement and see if they can get the companies to give them a group discount.

I had maybe a fraction of a second to appreciate the generosity of the City of Houston HHA for going out of their way to persuade some private businesses to charge a little less to people that shouldn’t be paying at all. Then my finely tuned BS detector went off “Some companies? What companies, and how were they chosen? Given the Department’s checkered history of late, and the City’s obvious favoritism towards politically connected parties where property is concerned, a cynic like myself should be excused for wondering if drumming up customers for someone’s business is what this was all about from the get-go.

Perhaps the tenants should count themselves lucky the building doesn’t have lead paint, another thing the City something HCDD seems to trip over a lot. On the other hand, the building was built in 1975, so maybe that’s a forlorn hope, given the department’s city’s laxness regarding lead paint inspections.

UPDATE: After Kevin dropped me a line asking me to cross-post this at blogHOUSTON, I did so, and added some more questions that occurred to me, plus a couple of extra bits of snark. Then this afternoon, on of the blogHOUSTON readers (and the Chronicle itself, strangely enough) pointed out a glaring error in the article: I’d assumed that the HHA was a part of the City of Houston. It’s not –. although the Mayor does appoint the board…

From the Chron:

Both agencies provide housing to low- and moderate-income families, but they do this through different programs and services. Both receive most of their funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and both have experienced considerable conflict and controversy.

I suppose that at least the Chronicle appreciated the chance for a little payback, given the number of times bH have criticised them in the past. It certainly is apparent that they’re keeping a close eye on bH….

Oh, and check out the HHA’s front page today:

Bellerive Apartment Update!
There was a lot of activity taking place at the Bellerive Apartments recently. Residents were able to return briefly, after a major fire blazed through the apartment complex leaving over 200 senior residents displaced from their homes. Residents have retrieved some of their personal belongings from their apartments. Remodeling and reconstruction of the property will soon begin at the high-rise. Bellerive residents or Caretakers with questions or concerns can call the HHA Management Company at Bellerive (713) 789-5000.

TGIF?

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It’s Friday, the day that our local newsmakers traditionally try to bury stories by releasing them at 4:49 pm. What’s your guess for an important shocker to be buried today? (Sorry, appointment of the interim DA is off the table; that’s already happened.)

Tentative Contract Agreement

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The following e-mail just appeared in my mailbox.

Joint Email to City of Houston Employees

City of Houston and HOPE Reach Tentative Agreement on Contract

We are pleased to announce that the City of Houston and the Houston Organization of Public Employees (HOPE) have reached a tentative agreement in contract negotiations. This agreement reflects our mutual commitment to delivering quality public services to all Houston residents while ensuring fair compensation for every city worker.

The proposed agreement runs for three years and takes effect after it has been ratified by HOPE members and approved by the Houston City Council. Highlights of the agreement include:

– Guaranteed raises for every year of the contract for municipal employees.

– Additional performance-based compensation based principally on Employee Performance Evaluations.

– A minimum wage of $10 an hour for every city worker by September 2009, with an immediate minimum of $9.50 an hour.

– A freeze on the percentage of health care premiums paid by employees.

The first step in making this historic agreement a reality begins with the important process of approval and ratification by city employees. From March 6 to March 20, HOPE will be holding informational meetings about the contract at worksites across the city. All municipal employees will be allowed 1 hour to attend these meetings to learn more about the contract. At the close of each meeting, voting will take place. Voting will also be held at the HOPE office. To view a complete schedule of sessions, click here

Sincerely,

Mayor Bill White
City of Houston

Norm Yen
President of HOPE

Ok, now down to the quibbling. Continue reading →

SAP: Performing “As Intended, Not As Anticipated”

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It seems that the city’s annual financial report will be a bit late this year, thanks to SAP. Four months late, to be precise. Emphasis added below.

Departmental delays caused by the city’s unexpectedly difficult transition to a new financial system will postpone the release of this year’s financial report until at least April 30, City Controller Annise Parker has announced.

The FY07 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) was due December 31. Departments enter data on an ongoing basis then produce annual reconciliations, which are then routed through the Controller’s Office for analysis and consolidation before going to Deloitte, the city’s audit firm.

“I am both personally frustrated and professionally concerned by the problems. While the city’s underlying financial situation is strong, our inability to make a smooth transition from the old legacy financial system to the new SAP system definitely has had an impact, particularly during a time of volatile financial markets,” the controller said.

The FY06 report was produced during the transition to the new SAP system. Many employees put in double duty during this trying time, resulting in delays in that CAFR as well.

The FY07 CAFR is the first produced entirely on the new system. The controller said departments were overly optimistic in projecting how long it would take to train employees in the system and to scrub the converted data.

I’m not even going to comment on “scrub the data” because even in the old system, there would have to be some scrubbing. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, Garbage In, Garbage Out is true. Of course, these days, I tend to say “Garbage In, Dynamo Out” but then, I’m biased against folks that “don’t want to be fools.”

And now for the scary part.

SAP PROMOTES HOUSTON

“Ironically, SAP has touted the city’s conversion as one of its smoothest. The SAP system has performed as intended, but not always as anticipated. It has been a steep learning curve, . which has escalated costs,” she said.SAP, the an (fixed that for you –ubu) industry standard, can be modified up-front for clients or clients can change processes to customize the software. The city’s transition team opted to change city processes. This involved about 2,000 employees who interact with the system. The controller noted that creating additional reports and data extraction has proven to be difficult and time-consuming.

Because SAP is such a PITA that it’s easier to retrain your workforce than customize the software. It amuses me to think of that as a caricature of corporate facism. “Your business vill operate per our model, or ve vill not zupport chu! You von’t like it eef ve do not zupport chu!”

“The biggest problem is converting data from the old system to SAP. This has resulted in significant delays as departments attempt to report accurate fixed assets. Data due last fall still has not been received,” she said.

Four months late, eh? And counting… Well, no, I’m still not a fan of SAP. I’m sure that Mayor White has no objection to foes’ inability to look at the record and deconstruct his paper shuffle after gutting Proposition 2. Where is that $90 million over cap for police protection, anyway?

Oh, silly me, he didn’t say $90 million in additional police spending, did he? Well, maybe Controller Parker will get it figured out by the end of June, when the 2008 fiscal year ends….