Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Texas newspapers:

Austin American-Statesman. Jan. 27, 2018.

We applaud Austin City Council Member Ann Kitchen for recognizing a gap in serving people who are homeless in her South Austin district, then persuading her council colleagues to finance a social worker dedicated to helping people living on the streets.

But Kitchen’s other proposal that would remove homeless people from a neighborhood in her district using trespassing laws - however well-intentioned - is likely to result in criminalizing homelessness and poverty.

That runs counter to what the District 5 council member told us she wants to achieve: Safeguard the neighborhood and help improve the plight of homeless people. Findings by a city audit also dispute the effectiveness of the kind of initiative Kitchen is pushing.

There are more constructive solutions in proposals by Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Ora Houston that treat not only the symptoms of homelessness, but the causes as well.

For the moment, Kitchen’s proposal is delayed. The council was supposed to take it up on Feb. 1, but the city is awaiting more details. In its current form, Kitchen’s proposal needs a reboot, if not total overhaul.

The American-Statesman’s Philip Jankowski reported that Kitchen’s pilot program would give Austin police jurisdiction to enforce trespassing laws under an elevated portion of U.S. 290/Texas 71, where some homeless people are living.

It is near the Pack Saddle Pass neighborhood, and as Kitchen notes, close to a park and school. Neighbors have complained about seeing an increasing number of homeless people staying under the overpass - and in some cases having bad encounters.

Kitchen told us city staff is working with the Texas Department of Transportation to clear the way for her initiative that involves Austin officers policing state property outside the city’s jurisdiction.

“It’s not about writing tickets under the bridge to clear out the homeless,” Kitchen told us. “We’re not talking about going around rounding up people just because they are there.”

Police have described the program as a means to help connect the homeless with social services. Not everyone buys that - and it’s not supported by findings of a recent city audit.

“The Austin Police Department issues thousands of tickets a year to people who are sitting or lying down in public, or because they are asking for money,” Council Member Greg Casar told us. “Basically, people receive tickets because they are homeless. Many of these tickets turn into arrest warrants.”

He added: “We cannot and should not rely so heavily on the criminal justice system to address homelessness.”

Casar is right. His concerns are supported by a city audit released in November that found taking criminal action against the homeless had little to no effect in connecting them with services. In some cases, the audit found that police action might impede a homeless person from finding a job or a home.

The audit reviewed a few ordinances related to homelessness that target panhandling, camping and sitting or lying in unauthorized areas. It found that from fall 2013 to fall 2016, Austin police wrote about 18,000 citations under those laws.

The flaws in that approach are seen in outcomes: About 90 percent of those cited failed to appear in court, which led to arrest warrants in 72 percent of those cases, according to the audit, which cited data from the Downtown Austin Community Court.

While Kitchen’s proposal might remove homeless people from one area in her district, it doesn’t get to the root of problems that drive people to the streets or trap them in homelessness. At best, it is a temporary fix that is likely to kick the can down the road, moving homeless people from one location to another part of town.

That is why we continue to support Mayor Steve Adler’s Downtown Puzzle, which would establish dedicated funding to address homelessness - without increasing property or sales taxes. For the first few years, it would generate $5 million a year, but expand to $10 million annually after 2021.

The 10-year plan is based on two key measures. One is increasing the city’s hotel occupancy tax, paid by tourists or those who book hotel rooms, which would be used to finance an expansion of the Austin Convention Center and steer more money to the arts and music. The other key ingredient is establishing a Tourism Public Improvement District - in which hotels tax themselves voluntarily - to generate revenue for homelessness.

Local hoteliers have agreed to tax themselves because they believe expanding the convention center would boost their profits. Dedicating those dollars to homelessness would go a long way in building permanent housing and addressing other social, mental and physical problems homeless people face.

The proposal, unveiled last year, is expected to come back to the council in the fall after the University of Texas completes a study about expanding the convention center, Adler said.

Houston is offering another solid proposal that would not cost taxpayers: Use empty units, cottages, rooms and beds in state facilities, such as the state hospital and state school in Austin, to house people temporarily. From there, they would be connected to social services that might help break the cycle of homelessness. At the very least, they would be off the street.

Houston’s plan could work to reduce the homeless population in Kitchen’s district. If the state agreed, the initiative would be financed by credit the city has accumulated from the state.

Instead of ensnaring homeless people further in the criminal justice system, Kitchen and her colleagues should pivot to Adler’s and Houston’s plans.

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Beaumont Enterprise. Jan. 28, 2018.

Ed Touchet is trying to save the historic Caroline Gilbert Hinchee House in Beaumont, but the outlook is not promising. The grand old home has declined over the years, possibly past the point of no return. The effects of time, water and vandals are all too obvious. Ominously, the city has tagged the venerable building for demolition.

Clearly, it would be a shame if the Hinchee House disappeared, as have so many historic structures in Southeast Texas. Even though all of them can’t be saved, more of them should be. That will only happen if the people, organizations and businesses of this region want it to happen.

It can be done.

The Chambers House at 2240 Calder was built in the same year as the Hinchee House - 1906. Not only has it survived, it’s in pretty good shape.

Yet it had some advantages the Hinchee House didn’t. It wasn’t too run down, and it had a trust fund for donors to support its renovation.

Another point in this familiar dilemma is the name we have come to regard as almost a cuss word - Harvey. It was an equal opportunity destroyer, and you can bet that plenty of historical buildings were soaked by its waters along with countless modern ones. That impact will undoubtedly become more evident in future years, making a difficult challenge even harder.

It’s worth remembering the on-again, off-again plans to preserve the historic Pig Stand restaurant at Calder and MLK in Beaumont. The issue was discussed over the years, but rather aimlessly. The iconic building was eventually torn down, and a boxy convenience store is now being constructed over its memory.

Touchet, a realist as well as a romantic, acknowledges he doesn’t have the money or organizational support he needs for the Hinchee House - for now at least.

He doesn’t even plan to live in the building and wants it used as a community resource or museum to serve more people.

That may be an unconventional plan, but it’s not far-fetched. If Southeast Texas has a person or group that can join him in this quest, they should step forward. History will thank them.

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Victoria Advocate. Jan. 29, 2018.

Sunday, Jan. 28, marked the first anniversary of the senseless burning of the Victoria Islamic Center.

As tragic as this was, good has come from it. The fire has helped the Muslim community gain more public support from the Crossroads, which is still evident a year later.

Almost immediately after the fire occurred, support for the Muslim community began to pour in locally and from around the world.

That support has continued to grow in the past year as Muslims, Jews and Christians have come together to learn more about one another.

Instrumental in helping this happen is the Communities of Faith, which started in 2016 as a response to the shooting of police officers in Dallas. Made up of area religious leaders, the group meets to discuss members’ beliefs and faith while learning about other religions. As a result, Muslims have been invited to other churches to visit and meet more people in the town they call home.

Mosque leaders see this as the best positive response to come from the horrific act of the burning of their house of worship.

We know there are still people in this area who do not like or understand Muslims, often unfairly equating them to terrorists they read about in the news. We hope this movement of support and learning will help open their minds and hearts to their neighbors who are business owners, professionals, students and parents.

People who have opened their minds have learned the Islamic community is much like them - people who choose to worship in their faith and to lead faith-filled lives.

As the year has passed and the support for the Islamic community has gotten stronger, members of the Muslim community see themselves as more a part of the city than before the fire.

Recently, several hundred people attended the groundbreaking for the new Islamic center. It will take a while for the new building to be completed, but the growth in the community is making the wait worthwhile.

While huge steps have been taken toward a more unified faith community, more work is needed. Many, including Muslim leaders, believe it can be done. They believe the more progress we make now, the better the lives of their children and grandchildren will be in years to come.

That is the least a parent can hope and pray for.

As Victoria continues to be a caring community, we believe the support system continues to grow to become a model for other communities around the world to want to follow.

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Houston Chronicle. Jan. 29, 2018.

The Darian Ward reality show has finally come to an end. But like many other sagas that play out before our eyes, this tale bears some lessons.

Just in case you haven’t binge watched this spectacle, here’s the synopsis. The mayor’s press secretary was running a sideline business out of her City Hall office, exploiting her position to pitch Hollywood producers ideas for reality TV shows.

In the first episode, a reporter smelled a scandal and formally requested all of Ward’s emails regarding her moonlight work. Ward turned over only one relevant message, but her new supervisor apparently got suspicious. Investigators called onto the case discovered about 5,000 emails she failed to release as required by state law.

In the next surprising plot twist, Ward somehow defied the odds and managed to keep her job. Mayor Sylvester Turner suspended her for 10 days. Then came the newly released emails revealing that Ward spent years using taxpayer financed resources to promote her private interests. The press secretary abused her authority by having city employees use municipal television equipment to produce what were essentially pilots for TV shows she hoped to sell to television networks.

The star of these programs wasn’t Houston. This was The Darian Ward Show, produced at the expense of Houston taxpayers.

The cancellation notice came in late January. The mayor’s office issued a terse news release announcing that Turner had “accepted the immediate resignation” of Ward and that he had already named her temporary replacement.

That may not be the final episode in this story - the district attorney has indicated she may still appear as a guest star - but Ward’s resignation is the best outcome for a drama that needlessly dragged on too long. Still, there’s a moral to this saga, a lesson for the mayor about keeping supporting characters around long after they should have exited the stage.

It’s worth noting that Ward’s transgressions started under Turner’s predecessor. Former Mayor Annise Parker hired Ward as press secretary in 2014. But sometimes people who’ve worked around city government for many years have conflicts of interest that any mayor ignores at his peril.

Witness, for example, how Mark Kilkenny and L.S. “Pat” Brown Jr. both sat on the city planning commission even though both of them had firms involved in building subdivisions inside the flood pools of Barker Reservoir. And Steve Costello, who’s paid $160,000 a year as Houston’s flood czar, also owned an engineering firm involved in construction projects within flood pools.

The mayor would be well advised to remember the hard lessons of these last couple of weeks and review the cast of characters he’s keeping around City Hall. The Darian Ward show may be over, but nobody wants to see a sequel.

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The Dallas Morning News. Jan. 29, 2018.

Efforts to reform Dallas County’s maligned money bail system are at a critical juncture. It’s no longer a question of whether the county will enact reforms, but rather when and how.

The way the system works now, those who can’t pay cash bails are detained indefinitely while those who can come up with the money are set free until trial. Such flawed wealth-based systems too often keep poor defendants, especially minorities and women, locked up in jail for weeks or months.

For Dallas, the issue recently took on a new sense of urgency when four groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a federal class action lawsuit against Dallas County, the sheriff, judges and magistrates for violating the constitutional rights of people arrested for misdemeanors and felonies.

It’s a legal day of reckoning that county officials have dreaded for years.

We credit Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, District Attorney Faith Johnson and others who’ve begun looking for ways to fix the problem. But the centerpiece of their tentative plan - a risk-based assessment that will weigh a defendant’s flight risk and potential danger to the public - already is being greeted with concerns from civil rights groups who worry it may give too much discretion to judges and from critics who argue that cash bails work to keep the public safe.

But there are other factors to consider.

Dallas County lags behind much of the country in keeping nonviolent and poor defendants out of jail before trial. Many jurisdictions use a variety of tools, such as ankle monitors or text-message alerts, to make sure defendants show up for court hearings - and to cut down on the cost of jail operations. Others let poor defendants perform community service instead of being locked up for unpaid fines.

Also, Dallas County now has a federal lawsuit hanging over its head, which, as Harris County can attest, could force it to make immediate changes and cost millions to fight.

We strongly urge county officials and the groups behind the lawsuit to lay down their swords and work together on a comprehensive bail reform plan.

It’s past time for a Dallas County system that better balances public safety and the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of due process and equal protections of the law.