No Consensus on Closed Meetings; Proposal Dead

Well, I’m happy about this.

What a mayor’s spokeswoman called a “lack of consensus” was manifest in a committee meeting last week during which several council members criticized the idea as bad policy and bad timing.

But…

Mayor Annise Parker‘s agenda for Wednesday’s council meeting seeks approval to put the two charter housekeeping amendments and the five bond measures on the November ballot. The closed-session proposal was not on the agenda.

Mayoral spokeswoman Janice Evans wrote in an email that Parker had no pre-conceived opinion on closed sessions.

“She is able to see all of the arguments both for and against. Given the lack of consensus on Council, she decided not to move forward,” Evans wrote.

Frankly, with five bond propositions and two housekeeping ones, along with METRO and HISD, I’m a bit worried about voter education on all of this stuff. And that’s on top of my worry over all of the candidates!

Anyway, here’s what will probably be placed on the November ballot for the City of Houston at Wednesday’s meeting:

• Proposition A: $144 million bond measure for public safety
• Proposition B: $166 million bond measure for parks
• Proposition C: $57 million bond measure for general government
• Proposition D: $28 million bond measure for libraries
• Proposition E: $15 million bond measure for affordable housing
• Proposition 1: Repeal outdated provisions from city charter, including those that give the city the power to set the price of bread and appoint Houston school board members
• Proposition 2: Strike from the city charter references to the Democratic primary in city elections, which no longer exists in officially non-partisan races for city offices