Mar. 2 Newsmakers: Mayor Parker on HFD issues, same-sex marriage law

HOUSTON – Mayor Annise Parker has sued the Houston Firefighter Department Pension board. On this week's 'Houston Newsmakers' with Khambrel Marshall, she says there are no regrets and that she needed to take that action, not to be able to see personal information of the firefighters, but to be able to budget.

"We would like to know by number how much we're going to have to lay out each year for retirees," she said. "We can't do budgeting because we can't even get aggregate information."

Mayor Parker also weighed in on a number of other topics, including the controversial ride-sharing apps, LYFT and UBER, the Houston Fire Department's projected $10.5 million deficit and the challenge of keeping services on task while also holding the line on the budget.

"Eighty-six percent of what our fire and EMS does is on the EMS side and so we want to make sure that the ambulances run and the brownout, or the so called operational stand down, would be on the fire apparatus and not on the ambulance side," she said.

The mayor, who married her partner of more than 20 years in January, says legalized same sex marriage in Texas is inevitable.

"I think it is inevitable that we'll have same sex equal marriage in this country. There are too many states that have already fully embraced it," she said. "Too much of the U.S. population  is now both living in those states; too many couples have achieved marriage and with the federal recognition it is inevitable, it's just a matter of when."

Also this week on Houston Newsmakers EXTRA, an extra eight minutes of interview with the mayor here on Click2Houston.com. Just click on this link after the show airs Sunday.

Great conversation and information on this week's Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall. Watch it Sunday at 10 a.m., right after 'Meet the Press' with David Gregory.

More Information:
•Annise Parker, Houston Mayor,  713-837-0311,  HoustonTXgov/mayor