Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A local news investigation in the making....

On the heels of the day care tragedy involving Jessica Tata comes the news that Houston City Council Member Sue Lovell is crafting an ordinance designed to force day cares to register with the city and submit to annual inspections.

While we here at HCA don't have any truck with the City overseeing day cares. (as a matter of fact, when it comes to the people who watch over the people who will be paying our retirement in the Ponzi-scheme of Social Security we're all for them being well taken care of) we have severe concerns about the City's ability to actually pull off these annual inspections.

How long will it be until Wayne Dolcefino or the Channel 11 Defenders team runs a sweeps week piece about the City falling down on it's responsibilities when it comes to performing annual inspections? How many stories will there be of "well off" day care centers not facing the same type of scrutiny that "poor" day care centers face?

In other words, this is a mess waiting to happen. That the Houston Way of government is designed to create messes seems to be beyond anyone's grasp. The only way to deal with something is through an ordinance, which then becomes part of a system that's too unwieldy to ever properly navigate.

1 comment:

Lee Ann said...

Yep, I recently burned two hours at the Codes office, just to get an occupancy permit. Cost $225, by the way, and I don't feel one whit safer at the office. On the day of the inspection, the Codes guy never showed. Took some persistence to convince the office that, in fact, it was not my fault he never came, and no, I refuse to pay a "reinspection fee."
So I'm with you. If the city wants to get into the daycare regulation business, my only thought is, good luck with that.

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