Maybe Whitmire can call his buddy, Greg Abbott, and tell him to give the City of Houston a couple of hundred million dollars so he can finish his term without leaving the city broke.
Contrary to John Whitmire, we do not have a balanced budget. His lies do not make it true any more than Trump claiming there is no inflation.
Hollins says the overtime problem has been around for a while. He points out that the latest report shows it is getting worse, and he has raised concerns about it before.
Hollins said the city is on track to exceed $55 million in overtime costs.
“We have to get this under control, plain and simple,” Hollins said.
The report showed Solid Waste employees average 21 hours of overtime every pay period, which is about $19,000 extra per year. HPD overtime is projected to exceed the budget by $13.2 million, according to the report. But Hollins said generally, that is the amount of overtime Solid Waste and HPD tend to have.
“We could also acknowledge that this kind of overtime is what we need for a city this large to operate,” Hollins said. “Then you have to budget for that. And again, figure out how to pay for it.”
Figure out how to pay for it. When Annise Parker left as mayor, she left a significant deficit for Sylvest Turner to address. He did, but like most people who have to make those decisions, he pissed off a lot of people who loved the status quo. Have no idea who the next mayor may be, but Whitmire needs to do better; after all, he claims he has been working toward the job his entire life.