At City Hall

On the MLB Hall of Fame, did Craig Biggio have a higher career batting average against fellow inductee Pedro Martinez or against fellow inductee John Smoltz?

I guess you can say it is happening at City Hall these days. Yesterday the City found out a bench trial is out of the question for the HERO petition signatures court case. I guess you can call it a setback of sorts for City Legal. The jury trial is expected to begin next week so get ready for the posturing, dramatic antics, and all that other irrelevant stuff. Here are bits from today’s Chron:

A state district judge ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit surrounding the city’s embattled equal rights ordinance will go before a jury trial rather than a bench trial, a decision that conservative opponents of the law are hailing as a major victory.

Critics suing the city over its equal rights ordinance had been pushing for the case to go before a jury, a move Mayor Annise Parker’s administration said was not in compliance with state election law.

Judge Robert Schaffer issued a brief decision late Tuesday afternoon, one week before the trial is set to begin. Schaffer’s order denied the city’s request for a bench trial, a response to the plaintiffs’ earlier filing for a jury trial.

“It’s great news,” plaintiff Jared Woodfill said. “It’s great to see that this judge is not going to allow (the city) to keep the vote from the people.”

Meanwhile, Kuffer has a take on the former City of H-Town fundraising ordinance here:

It’s my understanding that there is a separate ordinance that regulates the transfer of funds from one account to another, and it is this ordinance, which was not addressed in the Gordon lawsuit, that is at issue here. That’s my understanding, and I’m not a lawyer, so if you know better please say so in the comments. Be that as it may, I do broadly agree that if the blackout period is illegal, then it makes no sense for Turner to be barred from transferring the money he raised in his State Rep account to a Mayoral account. He would have been raising Mayoral money last year if he could have been.

Here is the entire Kuffer take: http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=64899.

And if you still can’t get enough of your City Hall fix, you can drop by the City Council’s Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee meeting this evening at City Hall and learn why the City wants to head into the Executive Session arena without you and me. Bad idea if you ask me!

I am thinking not a whole lot of folks will show up – the weather thing.

The campaign fundraising and expense reports are due tomorrow. Folks are going to be interested in Mayoral campaign activity like how much money is in the campaign bank accounts of Council Members Stephen Costello and Oliver Pennington, State Rep. Sylvester Turner, and the Harris County Sheriff.

Of course, we still don’t know if Rep. Turner can spend it and the Sheriff said yesterday “if the people want me to serve them at a different level then I am open to hearing from them.” I hate to say this but “people” don’t really communicate with potential candidates like that these days. They have other things on their minds.

And on Day 1 of the 84th Texas Legislature, I got to thinking why in the heck would we want to let the folks that were Open Carry lobbying to openly carry – got it!

Craig Biggio went 13-for-43 against Pedro Martinez for a .302 average and 27-for-104 against John Smoltz for a .260 average of course.

Nothing from The Yard today.