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| Controller's Office to audit 911 center | |||||||||
| The City Controller's Office will audit the troubled 911 system in conjunction with an outside technical analysis to ensure that a comprehensive audit is performed. The office will contract with one of its outside accounting firms to begin auditing the Houston Emergency Center in February. The audit will complement the City Council-approved MITRE technical analysis already underway. "While MITRE analyzes technical issues, we'll audit other important areas, such as personnel, management, costs and processes," City Controller Annise Parker explained. "HEC has never lived up to its billing as a state-of-the-art emergency dispatch center." City Council recently approved spending $162,185 to hire MITRE, a nonprofit systems engineering company affiliated with MIT, to solve computer problems that have hampered 911 operations. | |||||||||
Financial report contains few red flags | |||||||||
Independent auditors raised two red flags in the latest Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), although the flags don't rise to the level of material weaknesses. | |||||||||
| What else can stop dangerous Houston drivers? | |||||||||
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As I slow for a fading yellow light, the Mustang beside me races through the intersection as the light turns red. The Lexus behind me speeds up as it darts around me. By the time the light turns green, my blood pressure has dropped slightly and my survival instinct forces me to glance to the left and right. I don’t know of any city that can afford to pay police officers to watch the most dangerous intersections often enough to prevent many of the 1,000+ deaths and 150,000 injuries caused by red light violations in this country. Despite this, drivers in about 107 other US cities are learning to stop at lights. Statistics show red light infractions have dropped about 40% at certain intersections. How could this happen? Costly sting operations? Public awareness campaigns? Although widely used in Europe since the 1970s, video cameras didn’t catch a US red light runner until New York installed them in 1993. Vendors normally provide and maintain the systems in exchange for a percent of ticket revenues or a flat fee. Video cameras at red lights have proven to be highly effective. Houston officials do not want you to get a ticket running a red light. Keep your $75. The city just want What alternative do critics suggest? I’m the last person to encourage Big Brother. But privacy issues in a public intersection? Cameras only photograph license plates in intersections with red lights. It would be a civil penalty ($75 vs. $215 for criminal) since Texas cities don’t have the right to use cameras at intersections to enforce criminal statutes. Some legislators are concerned that cameras will end up mostly in minority communities. That would be wrong and, frankly, counterproductive as the most dangerous intersections are near freeways and major shopping, such as Westheimer and the West Loop. (See the December 2004 Houston-Galveston Area Council safety program presentation at www.h-gac.com/hgac/departments/transportation/Safety/Safety.htm). This is not a new program. The kinks have been worked out in numerous other cities. Some video camera companies have established track records of issuing appropriate tickets. Unless the state legislature halts it, the program is expected to start this spring. | ||||||||
Safe Clear ordinance needs a tuneup | |||||||||
How many times have you been startled by a sea of flashing red lights on the freeway? As you get closer, you see a dozen wreckers on the shoulder. | |||||||||
This month's Money Matters, hosted by City Controller Annise Parker, spotlights the controversial Safe Clear towing program. | |||||||||
s people to stop running them. That’s why the city will post warning signs about cameras at covered intersections. 
repair and charge the $75.