Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

Local politics and politicians can be pretty un-smart (to put it politely), but this takes the cake. Oh, brother.

<i>Colleague's 'emergency' irks council

Councilwoman won't fully explain why she missed key votes last week on a proposed tax cut and the city budget.
By MATT SCHWARTZ
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs missed several key votes on the city's budget last week because of a "personal emergency" she refuses to explain.

Several of Sekula-Gibbs' colleagues on council were angry, saying she had blown off voting on the $2.6 billion budget and a proposed tax cut to attend the removal of her college-age daughter's wisdom teeth.

Councilman Michael Berry went so far as to say that Sekula-Gibbs' absence cost Houston taxpayers a 1-cent property tax cut.

For her part, Sekula-Gibbs did not return repeated calls for comment last week, during which time she prepared for her wedding Saturday.

But the questions remained when she returned to council this week.

Sekula-Gibbs left last week's budget meeting at the lunch break, missing votes on the budget, the property tax cut and two dozen budget amendments, several of which failed on 7-7 ties.

Sekula-Gibbs said she left to attend her daughter's surgery, but she refused to specify the type of operation.

"The part of this that I think was irresponsible was not to let her fellow colleagues know that she wouldn't be there in the afternoon," said Councilman Bert Keller. "I assure you, we would have fought hard to get two or three more things done before lunch had we known."

When asked about her absence, Sekula-Gibbs said this week that her leaving early had no substantial impact on council votes, but she left open the question of whether she would have voted for Berry's proposed tax cut.

<b>"I would not know," she said. "I would have had to have been there and heard the whole discussion. Mr. Berry had not even brought that to my attention. There were over, I believe, over 80 amendments that appeared, some of which had no time for any kind of previous evaluation by myself. And that was one of them. He never contacted me about it.

"I think it's a great idea to always cut taxes, but he didn't have the votes anyway." </b>

Berry declined to comment on Sekula-Gibbs' remarks Tuesday, but said last week that the tax cut would have passed had Sekula-Gibbs been present. He also accused Councilman Gabriel Vasquez of changing his mind, saying Vasquez had told him he would support the cut if Berry had seven other votes.

The tax cut was rejected 8-6.

Berry's proposal was one of more than 100 budget amendments proposed by council members. Most -- including the tax cut -- were proposed two weeks before the vote.

<b>In fact, Sekula-Gibbs called the council "lazy" three weeks ago because members delayed taking up the budget amendments at a committee meeting.</b>

But when the council took up those same amendments last week, Sekula-Gibbs was present to vote on only half of them. And with one council member absent, many of those amendments died on tie votes.

Among the amendments rejected on tie votes were proposals to cut travel by city employees, reduce the number of take-home vehicles for city employees, and to fully staff small fire trucks.

Sekula-Gibbs said her budget priorities focused on health issues, including a proposal to restore hours cut from city clinics and a pilot program to transport nonemergency patients in something other than ambulances.

She was present to vote on both measures, which passed during the morning session.

But some of Sekula-Gibbs' colleagues criticized her later absence.

Councilwoman Ada Edwards said the budget meeting was the council's most important of the year.

"That day was what we're here for, to put the rubber to the road," she said. "All the talk is good, but when you get ready to walk the walk, if you don't show up, all your talk means nothing."

Sekula-Gibbs dismissed suggestions that her vote was critical to the outcome.

<b>"It looked pretty obvious to me that most of the business was conducted in pretty predictable fashion," she said. "I watched a lot of it on television. I didn't see any particular surprises."</b> </i>

Oh, man! "They didn't have the votes anyway"??? Yeah, because YOU weren't there. She calls them lazy and then said she WATCHED IT ON TV???

Oh, good grief. Just over half a year on city council, swept in by big $$ and the sympathy over the death of her husband, Sylvan Rodriguez (note: she just got remarried - he died not even two years ago), and already looking just stunning. Great job, councilwoman. Only the most important vote in your young career as a politician and you show up MIA. Tremendous.