VOL 6 No. 24
Phone: 281-980-6745
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Fort Bend Salutes Military Recruits
Mrs. Viretta West, Principal of Hightower High School acceps the Colin Powell Award presented by Capt. Gene Clark, Executive Director of the OCS National organization and SSG Christopher Grice, the U.S. Army Recruiter from the Katy Recruiting Center On Tuesday, May 28, at seniors of Fort Bend County Constellation Field in Sugar who have chosen to enlist in Land, a recognition and thank- the military. Bonnie noted, you event, Our Community “It’s because they made their Salutes (OCS) Fort Bend, decision to serve our country was hosted for the young that we are free and able to men and women of Fort Bend make our own decision(s)”. As a result of Bonnie’s County who have decided to enter military service upon passion and desire, she engaged graduation of high school. The a group of professionals and event was conceived by Bonnie volunteers to work with her Worstell, a junior at Clements in initiating and establishing high school and a member a recognition event for these of NJROTC. Learning of brave young men and women. the negative reactions many One of the first on-board was people had toward her friends the Skeeters organization who who were enlisting in the generously provided the event military after high-school space and tickets for these new versus the accolades other recruits and their families. Bill Balleza, news anchor graduates received who chose to enter college, Bonnie, as with KPRC, Channel 2, served part of her Girl Scout Gold as the event emcee and led Award, took the opportunity to Tuesday afternoon’s program. establish this first-time event to As a former marine sniper honor and thank the graduating See MILITARY, Page 3
County judge kills social media snooping project By SESHADRI KUMAR In an extraordinary move, Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert last week nixed the purchase of a “Social Media Intelligence Gathering Software.” Hebert has terminated the acquisition of the software for emergency management purposes, originally presented on the May 7, 2013 Commissioners Court Agenda, according to a press release issued by the county judge’s office. Hebert’s decision came on the heels of the disclosure that the National Security Agency gathered cell phone data of all individuals under a secret program. Also, local Tea Party activists and Republican Party members, concerned about the far-reaching privacy issues raised by the software, were preparing to voice their protest. Hebert said, “While I believe this software is safe, given the current federal government disclosures of their waiver of personal privacy rights in digital communications and the lack of sufficient time to investigate the uncertainties regarding possible future modifications of this software, I have decided to pull this request from the June 11 agenda which effectively terminates Fort Bend County’s consideration of the matter due to established grant deadlines applicable to the purchase.” The purchase of the SwiftRiver-2011 software is
Task force on red light cameras proposed By SESHADRI KUMAR In response to the massive signature campaign on red light cameras, Sugar Land City Manager Allen Bogard has recommended the creation of an independent citizen task force to study the effectiveness of red light cameras. City Council is expected to take action on the appointment of the task force on June 18. Following a city administration report that the petition to prohibit the enforcement of Sugar Land’s red light cameras is invalid, City Council members said the receipt
of the petition represented a significant concern of Sugar Land residents, thus prompting the city manager’s recommendation. The seven- to 10-member task force will be provided approximately three months to conduct an independent review and develop recommendations for City Council’s consideration. The recommendation could include elimination, modification or continuation of the red light camera program. Bogard recommended that the task force conduct its meetings in accordance with
the Open Meetings Act and provide an opportunity for extensive public input. The petition was submitted in April. Sugar Land’s City Charter designates the city secretary as the official responsible for reviewing and validating petitions. A report based on the city secretary’s review of the material was presented to City Council on June 4. According to the report, the petition included the required number of signatures; however, the signatures were See RED LIGHT, Page 3
Missouri City City Council allows apartments By BARBARAFULENWIDER Memories that at the time were nightmares will never fade for those who watched their house values sink into oblivion in the mid-1980’s in Southwest Houston. With U-Hauls heading out of Houston at record numbers, the large apartment complexes all but emptied and negatively affected the area’s residential property values. Many who owed homes in southwest Houston moved to Sugar Land and Missouri City, so to this day when building apartments in any East Fort Bend town appear on a city council agenda it is still
strongly protested by some. I n M i s s o u r i C i t y, Councilman-at Large No. 1 and Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Wyatt leads the charge and at the June 3rd council meeting he did and District C Councilman Robin Elackatt joined him. Each voted no on a rezoning request that would allow 600 apartments to be built in Missouri City. The apartments would be on land that is south of Trammel Fresno Road, east of Fort Bend Parkway and west of Hightower High School. While the rezoning does conform to the 2009 Comprehensive Plan for Missouri City, it isn’t consistent
with the Future Land Use and Character map, which designates the 30 acres as a business park. Most of the land on the north side of Hwy. 6 and south of Trammel-Fresno Road has been used for commercial purposes. Council’s vote in favor was 5-2 to rezone on first reading. They will cast a final vote on second reading June 17 -- two days after the District A council member is elected. Councilman Danny Nguyen noted that while the city’s planning and zoning sent council a positive recommendation See APARTMENTS, Page 3
Hebert a regional project coordinated by the Houston Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) of which Fort Bend County is a member. The software uses ‘trend monitoring’ of alert words (key words) across multiple online channels; including social media, photo sharing sites, and traditional online news sources, to gather ‘real-time’ open source information in emergency situations. Fort Bend County was to purchase the software for the Houston region in order to enhance response capabilities in emergency situations utilizing the information gathered from these public sources. Due to the rapidly approaching deadline for the depletion of grant funding for this software, the time needed to research questions about the ability of the software to be used for malicious purpose is not available, the
press release added. The item was first placed on the commissioners court agenda in April for contract negotiations. Hebert pulled the item and delayed its consideration after Commissioner Andy Meyers said he had serious concerns about the project and had many unanswered questions. Jeff Braun, Fort Bend County’s Emergency Management C o o r d i n a t o r, p r o v i d e d a clarification the project. Again, the item was considered on May 7 to allow contract negotiations. Meyers voted against it. After contract negotiations, the Emergency Management Coordinator recommended purchase of the software at a cost of about $230,000. The item was to have been placed on the agenda of commissioners court for consideration on June 11. At this juncture, Hebert killed the project. The region was looking at procuring two different types of software to accomplish the above purpose; one is called SwiftRiver and the other is called Ushahidi. SwiftRiver gathers as many possible streams of data about a particular crisis event as possible (e.g. Boston Marathon bombing). Second, that stream of data is filtered through both machine based algorithms and humans to better understand the veracity and level of importance of any piece of information. Ushahidi offers many tools
for visualizing geospatial data. It offers a robust platform for mapping events. The SwiftRiver platform was being sought after by the region because increasingly publicly shared information from citizens gives the best overall picture in the first hours of a major incident, according to Braun. Braun gave an example for the use of the software. During 2011 winter weather incidents, OEM used social networking sites to gather information about where roads were icy or impassable; and where accidents were causing road closures. This information was found by searching Twitter and Facebook; often individuals are more likely to post this information on Facebook or Twitter instead of calling 9-1-1. In subsequent years, the OEM used social media to gather information about flooded intersections, malfunctioning traffic signals, wildfires, and even rumors of school shootings. This project would help the Houston region build a “state-ofthe-art” social media monitoring project which will hopefully set the standard for others in the field of emergency management and homeland security, Braun said. The software is not capable of scanning password protected accounts or reading any individual’s email accounts. Further, the software is not able to view private posts on social networking sites, Braun said.
Make a difference this summer Are you looking for something meaningful to do this summer and interested in making a difference in the lives of children? July 29 to August 2 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily, Child Advocates of Fort Bend is offering a week-long training class to train volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children. This is your last opportunity this year to complete the volunteer training class in a single week. Child Advocates of Fort Bend is a non-profit agency dedicated to providing a voice for abused and neglected children in Fort Bend County. With an army of volunteers, Child Advocates of Fort Bend currently serves more than 400 children each month through its Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Program and Children’s Advocacy Center. Fifteen volunteers were sworn in recently to help advocate for children. Volunteers must be over 21 years of age, complete an application and submit to background screening. For more information or an application, contact Volunteer Services at 281-344-5100 or cdavis@cafb.org.
Volunteers: Front row (L to R) are: Pert Mosley, Claudia Baltodano, Anu Ahluwalia and Cynthia Johnson. Middle row (L to R) are: Melissa Evans, Sudersan Jambulapati, Alison Haralson, and Sue Lockwood. Back row (L to R) are: Joyce Jemison, Shelli LeBret, Gale Meade, Joyce Kristiansson, Sharon Campbell, Andrea Cordover, and Maria Sinnott.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor
www.fbindependent.com 281-980-6745
Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.