Charles Blain - President, Urban Reform Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, so Lena just wants to be a freeman in Paris.
Five fifty two is our time here in Houston's point news.
I mean, it's not a boondoggle or anything, right, This
is this is this is this is about economics. This
is about going to Paris and and and convincing them
what a wonderful place Houston is in Harris County and
how you know how how what is it?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, how we're really into artificial intelligence and uh, and
we're a great place to do business. It's not about
taking a vacation or anything. Right, Charles Blaine joins this
President of Urban Reform. I can't believe she's actually going
to show up again today, Charles and ask us to
pay for her her paristrip again.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, exactly. And then well, first of all, thank you
for having me again. But it's exactly. And she's doing
this on the morning that all of the constables will
be meeting outside of Commissioner's Court to demand to pay raise.
And so I'm glad they're actually doing it today because
it provides real context for Harris County residents to see
where the county judges priorities are versus where the priorities.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Of the community are Yeah. I think the other contrast
is also very glaring. You have two Democrats, Lena hill
Dago and Mayor John Whipmeyer. And Mayor Whipmeyer has done
the responsible thing. He has figured out how to balance
the budget, he has eliminated waste, he has focused on
core responsibilities. And that is exactly what Lena Hildago, if

(01:23):
she had the ability, should be doing for Harris County.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well exactly. And if you think about all of the
programs and departments that were created just under her administration,
many of which you talked about on this show, from
elections administration to county administration, and her education save or
pre K education program, and the list go on, guaranteed
basic income. So when you look at all of these
programs in the amount that could be saved and that

(01:49):
was being saved before the creation of them, there is flexibility.
But unfortunately they're not going to pursue anything like the
city did, which was Arnst and Young study that showed efficiencies.
The county isn't really about efficiencies, They're just about adding
more programs.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Okay, well, what is the obvious downside though? If we
start seeing a mass exodus. We talked a little bit
about this yesterday. We start seeing a mass exodus of
Harris County Sheriff's Department employees. We know that they are
a little over five hundred of them who are specifically
patrol officers. We know that the City of Houston has
a shortage of well over one thousand, maybe close to
fifteen hundred road officers for the City of Houston. They

(02:25):
could absorb every single Harris County Sheriff's deputy that's in
that division. Then what does Harris County do?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, well, and that's the big question, because the biggest issue,
in my opinion, would be the understaffing of the county jail.
We've seen inate deaths in the county jail. We've seen
guards attack. We know that the jailers are in short
staff as well, and that is staffed by the Harris
County Sheriff's Office. And just two weeks ago, the Texas
Commission on Jail Standards ordered Harris County to bring back

(02:53):
the inmates that it was shipping out of the state
back to the state. And so the jail is a
big issue and they need to address that. We see
this departure as expected from the constables or specifically from
the sheriff's office. It could add more stress to the jail.
And I don't know if that anybody in this county
wants to see that.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, maybe I should give her more credit. Maybe she's
maybe she's been hearing all this for the last couple
of days, and she'll show up today and she'll she'll
next to the entire trip and realize that this is
just bad optics. She hasn't shown me that ability before.
But maybe maybe today will be the notable exception. What
do you think? I mean?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know, I hope. So maybe today's like the day
of the body snatchers and we get someone that looks
like Leonago but does not act like Lenaha Dug.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
If only that could come true. Thank you, sir, appreciated
Charles Blaine, President at Urban Reform. It's five fifty six