Anna Eastman for Karla Cisneros and on Term Limits Again

In case you missed this yesterday:

Anna Eastman, HISD Trustee, District 1, endorsed Karla Cisneros for Houston City Council, District H.

“I’m supporting Karla because of her record of public service. As an HISD school board member, she was a champion for children. She led, and won the first fights for high ethical standards and transparency,” said Anna Eastman. “Karla knows how critical future generations are to Houston’s well being. She knows how to work a budget and make sound public policy having served as a trustee, and has seen our future leaders up close as a teacher. We need more women in local government, but more importantly, we need women like Karla,” added Eastman.

“I am honored to have the support of Anna Eastman, one of Houston’s strongest leaders and most passionate advocates for children, public education, and social justice,” said Karla Cisneros.

Anna Eastman joins the growing list of community leaders who are supporting Karla Cisneros.

Anna is strong. And so is Karla.

Evan Gattis leads the team with 7 triples. How many triples does the rest of the team have?

Commentary has said it before. I oppose term limits for H-Town City Council and so should you and everybody else. What might be proposed for the November election is destined to fail. We all know the Mayor is working to put together the campaign to save the HERO. Who is working to put together a campaign to change term limits. Here are these tweets from yesterday:

Doug Miller @DougMillerKHOU
KHOU-News 88.7 Poll suggests Mayor @AnniseParker term limits idea is extreme long shot. 50% favor no change, only 25% for 2 four year terms

Annise Parker ‏@AnniseParker 1h1 hour ago
Annise Parker retweeted Doug Miller
I agree, sadly, that shifting to 4 year terms may be doomed. I put it on the agenda at Council request.-A https://twitter.com/dougmillerkhou/status/628318462591508480 …

Why put something on the ballot that is going down in flames? That doesn’t make sense. Here is from today’s Chron:

Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said the equal rights ordinance could drive turnout in what is usually a low turnout election. But most of the political energy will be spent on the equal rights ordinance, Stein said, making it a bad time to push through an item such as changing term limits.

“I thought (Parker) was absolutely correct when she said this is probably not the time for term limits or revenue cap,” Stein said. “Term limits would need a strong campaign, and I don’t think there’s enough oxygen in the air to go around. It’s going to be all about HERO.”

And:

On term limits, there’s likely to be discussion about changing the effective date of the switch.

(H-Town City Council Member Dave) Martin said he strongly favors four-year terms, saying two-year terms are “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in government” because they work against long-term solutions to problems like the city’s pension obligations. Martin, however, is considering putting forward an amendment to make the change take effect immediately, pending discussion with his colleagues. He said he would not support the 2020 proposal, though supporters and political scientists say that is likely to go over much better with voters because no current council members stand to benefit.

“Why wait five years when the dynamics of the city change completely?” Martin said. “There are going to be people that are going to move here over the next couple years. When this thing is implemented in 2020, five years from now, they’re going to go, ‘What was this all about?'”

(CM C.O.) Bradford, (CM Michael) Kubosh and (CM Dwight) Boykins also oppose the term-limits proposal. Boykins said he would like the switch to go into effect in 2016 and would not support the 2020 proposal.

Councilman Ed Gonzalez said he supports the general principle of making the term limits longer but wants to review whether now is the ideal time for such a campaign. (CM Oliver) Pennington, too, was supportive of the idea but said he wanted to look more closely at when to make the switch.

This is kind of not well thought out. It ought to be interesting this afternoon at City Hall.

The rest of the ‘Stros have a total of 5 triples for a grand total of 12 for the team.

Last night’s game was downright ugly. And now our lead is at three.

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Reports for Duty

The campaign reports are due today up at the Texas Ethics Commission, the City Secretary, and the HISD and HCC Board Services offices. Go check them out and spin them any way you can. I wonder how difficult it will be to access the H-Town City reports since they don’t really have all their systems going. Stay tuned!

Karla Cisneros is now on Off the Kuff today. Check this:

We continue with candidates in District H, where incumbent Council Member Ed Gonzalez is term limited. Today’s interview is with another Heights neighbor of mine, Karla Cisneros. Cisneros is a longtime educator and education activist, having served six years on the HISD Board of Trustees, including a stint as Board President. She was a teacher at Travis Elementary School and helped develop its SPARK Park while there, subsequently serving as the Assistant Director of the SPARK Park School Program. She has since returned to teaching and is now at Harvard Elementary School.

Check Karla out here: http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=68327.

Yesterday MLB announced the Four Franchise Players for each team. Name the only team whose four players are no longer with us?

There were sparks last night at the mayoral candidate forum as punches were thrown and some landed.

One take I found interesting last night was support for lifting the revenue cap. Two candidates kind of supported and five opposed. Will this have any bearing with voters if the item is placed on the ballot?

Here is how Rebecca Elliott of the Chron described last night’s chingasos:

Let the sparring begin.

Houston’s mayoral candidates duked it out at Tuesday night’s unusually lively mayoral forum, in which candidates had the opportunity to both debate a series of broad-ranging topics and quiz each other.

The event’s different format highlighted the race’s emerging political fault lines, most of which revolve around the city’s looming budget deficit. Issues of the hour included if and when to lift the city’s revenue cap, whether to close the fiscal gap by issuing new debt, and what to do about the controversial streets and drainage initiative known as ReBuild Houston.

At night’s end, City Councilman Stephen Costello was the self-declared “piñata,” having fielded a host of questions about ReBuild Houston, which was his brainchild, and received four of the seven questions that candidates posed to each other.

Costello and former Kemah Mayor Bill King, both of whom bill themselves as moderate fiscal conservatives, are thought to be in a battle for Houston’s right-leaning voters — a well-represented demographic at the forum, which was hosted by the United Republicans of Harris County.

The first question of the forum addressed whether to amend the city’s revenue cap in light of Houston’s looming $126 million deficit. Of the seven candidates in attendance, only former City Councilman Chris Bell and state Rep. Sylvester Turner proposed changes, with Bell calling for the cap to be repealed and Turner suggesting the city make exceptions for either public safety or to pay down city debt.

The next question, on ReBuild, set up each of the candidates to criticize the execution of ReBuild Houston, if not pan it entirely. That left Costello alone singing the program’s praises.

Other questions posed by the moderator, KHOU’s Doug Miller, touched on the Houston Police Department’s best chiefs in recent history and use of devices called Stingrays to collect cell phone data, as well as the city’s pensions and permitting processes.

Miller also offered candidates an opportunity to list the top three items on their to-do lists, should they replace term-limited Mayor Annise Parker.

However, sparks didn’t really begin to fly until the second half of the event, when each candidate had the chance to ask one other candidate a question. 2013 mayoral runner-up Ben Hall and businessman Marty McVey asked Costello about ReBuild, while King pressed him on fiscal discipline and former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia lobbed him a softball on improving the city’s permitting process.

Meanwhile, Costello went head-to-head with King on how King would fund the pensions of legacy members through his proposed defined-contribution model.

Turner, too, questioned King’s proposal to fund infrastructure projects through bond elections, saying that approach would “bankrupt the city.”

Garcia was the only other hopeful to receive a candidate question.

Bell inquired about when Garcia initially found out that a mentally ill inmate was being held in squalid conditions in the Harris County Jail, under his watch.

Garcia did not directly answer whether his former chief deputy had indeed told him about the case a year before it became public last fall, saying instead, “when I found out about this issue, I took action.”

All I am going to say is I get tired of Pete Rose’s act.

The Four Franchise Players of the Yankees are Joe Dimaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth and of course they are no longer with us.

I am not going to argue with the four greatest living players – Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax, and Willie Mays but I wish Yogi Berra had gotten a mention.

I am not going to argue with the Four Franchise Players of the ‘Stros – Baggy, B-G-O, the Big Puma, and Nolan Ryan but you have to give an honorable mention to Joe Niekro, J.R. Richard, Mike Scott, Roy O. and Jose Cruuuuuuz!

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District H Kickoff

Name the ‘Stro player with the most fielding errors this season – this is an easy one?

The Karla Cisneros for City Council, District H Kickoff at Alamo Tamale was a great success.

The Sam Houston High School Mariachi band performed and entertained.

Noted residents and voters of District H attended.

CEWDEM was there.

Former H-Town City Council Member Melissa Noriega was there to show support. Jim Henley was there.

Former San Antonio City Council Member Mary Alice Cisneros was there in support.

Former HUD Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros introduced Karla.

Karla’s kickoff speech was on the mark.

Oh yeah, the tamales were great. Drop by there and you will be welcomed and greeted by a big Karla Cisneros sign.

The campaign is on!

Check out the Kuffer mention of District H here: http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=67125.

And now that the session is over, the focus is on the upcoming H-Town City, ISD, and HCC elections.

It looks like grand jury reform may happen. Pulitzer Prizes do matter. I wonder if Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Lisa Falkenberg will go up to Austin and watch the bill signing. She at least ought to get one of the pens used to sign the bill.

Who would have thought that on June 1, 2015, the ‘Stros would have a four game lead in the AL West.

Jonathan Villar of course leads the team with nine, I said nine, fielding miscues. And I am not even going to mention his bonehead base running gaffes.

Shortstop is the most important position. We need help there. Where is Carlos Correa?

B’More is here for four.

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Karla’s Kickoff!

Here is from her About page from http://www.karlacisneros.com:

Karla Cisneros is a proven leader who gets things done. She was appointed to the HISD Board of Education in 2000, was elected to a full 4-year term in 2001, and served as Board President in 2004. As Board President, Karla led the search effort that resulted in the selection of HISD’s first Latino school superintendent.

A 35-year resident of Houston, Karla Cisneros has dedicated her adult life to working to improve public schools and her community. As a classroom teacher at Northline and Harvard Elementary schools, Karla taught and helped usher children through their lives. In addition to being a classroom teacher, she has worked as a science teacher and as a reading interventionist. She also worked as a Title 1 Parent Involvement Specialist, where she nurtured parental and community involvement in 25 schools in HISD’s North Central District.

As a school activist in the Woodland Heights, she organized numerous community efforts to make improvements at Travis Elementary School. She has been active in the PTA, the Friends of Travis, the Woodland Heights Civic Association, Parents for Public Schools, the Greater Heights Education Project, the SPARK Board, and the board of Multi-Cultural Education through Counseling in the Arts – MECA.

While serving as Assistant Director of the city’s SPARK School Park Program, Karla worked with parents and community members to develop over 20 school parks throughout the city.

Karla and her husband, Tim, have three children, all of whom attended HISD schools.

Karla will be kicking off her campaign this Sunday at 1 pm, at Alamo Tamale on Berry Road.

Yesterday, the Harris County AFL-CIO announced their endorsements in a number of H-Town city races including City Council, District H. Just for the record, the Karla Cisneros campaign received the candidate questionnaire Monday of last week. The completed questionnaire was delivered to the Harris County AFL-CIO a couple of days later. Karla Cisneros was unable to screen/interview due scheduling conflicts in part related to her duties as a third grade classroom teacher. That’s the way it goes.

Rookie Lance McCullers, Jr. is our starting pitcher tonight at The Yard. His dad, Lance McCullers, played in the bigs from 1985-1992 for four different teams. Name at least one of those teams?

I am thinking that we’re going to be hearing a lot about the Clinton Foundation for the next few months or so. I don’t know about that.

We all know that Peter Gammons is a highly respected baseball journalist-columnist-commentator. He is also a rock music aficionado and plays the guitar. Here is what he tweeted yesterday:

Peter Gammons ‏@pgammo 16m16 minutes ago
Spirit – I Got A Line On You (1984) Original Video https://youtu.be/2aKNhvMd_5U via @YouTube

Wow! Spirit! Along with “I Got A Line On You,” there was “Mechanical World” and “Nature’s Way.” Some darn good tunes if you ask me. You gottta know Spirit!

Lance MuCullers played for the Padres, Yankees, Tigers, and Rangers of course.

I am thinking a lot more folks will make it out to The Yard this weekend now that the team is for real and school is out for most ISDs in the area. We got the White Sox for three.

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