Nov 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 11

ing and got the right people in the right places to
help Barringer and Sessums. The business plan he
developed enabled HCCS to “make enough money
to pay for it,” Sessums said. The complex is part of
HCC’s Northeast College and entails a gun range,
classrooms, a driving track, and a six-story tower
for firefighter training – all of it with environmentally
sound furnishings such as the use of propane
instead of hay bales for the fire drills and the
recycling of rainwater for other fire training. The
gun range is environmentally sound with its special
lead abatement aspect. “We recycle the brass
on the gun range,” Sessums said. “It’s a pretty cool
setup.” Sessums is now director of the whole outfit,
which is known as the Public Safety Institute of
HCC-Northeast.
“Alan has always been a law enforcement supporter
from the get-go,” the director said. “I don’t
know why but from our standpoint I’m glad he
is.” “He provides total support. We met with him
several times when we were talking about how
fast he was putting his business plans together.
He’s got a great business plan with the right buzz
words and phrases to catch attention. “He really
helped us with the focus and direction to literally
take our dream to the next level.”
Helfman said that the original plan was sketched
out on a napkin at Houston’s restaurant where he,
Sessums and Barringer had one especially productive
meeting. The business vision has brought
to reality not just the police and fire academies in
Sessums’ bailiwick but also the Emergency Medical
Academy.
“Alan’s all about first responders. He has a passion
for that. Any time we would bring it up it was
an all-inclusive discussion. He’s all about training.
He’s TCOLE-certified and we’ve helped him keep up
his certificate.
“His political influence was probably one of the
key reasons that we ended up having Public Safety.
He played a very important part of that – not just
for us but law enforcement in general.”
Helfman has been TCOLE-certified since the mid-
1980s when he went through the law enforcement
school at the University of Houston – Downtown,
while sponsored by Harris County Constable Precinct
4.
“I’ve stayed a commissioned officer ever since,”
he said with pride. “I hold a TCOLE commission
presently at Harris County Precinct 7 as a reserve
captain.” “I have a uniform for Precinct 7. But I’ve
been commissioned by Precinct 5, Precinct 3 twice
and Precinct 7 twice. I’ve been around a little bit.”
His fundraising mindset permeates every day of
business at River Oaks. He has a massive scrap
book of the newspaper accounts of the fundraising
activities, which over the years has included more
than 50 for Texas Southern University. At one point,
Helfman learned that the school’s golf team had
no way of getting to out-of-town tournaments,
so he donated a $30,000 Chrysler Town & Country.
When pressed a little, he can recall a steady
list of contributions to churches, the University of
Houston and both public and private organizations
in need of funds. “We do a myriad of fundraisers
72 The BLUES