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Big changes are coming to Houston City Hall in the New Year, if Mayor-elect John Whitmire’s statements on the campaign trail are anything to go by.
Whitmire, a long-time Democratic state senator, won the election in a runoff landslide earlier this month after campaigning on a message of wholesale change in city government. Houston’s outgoing mayor, Sylvester Turner, was publicly critical of Whitmire’s campaign and endorsed his opponent in the race, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“If you like the status quo, then I'm not your candidate,” Whitmire said during a debate in late November.
After a nearly 30-percentage-point victory, Whitmire will be sworn in Jan. 1 with what he calls a clear mandate from voters. He said in a recent interview that residents would see changes at City Hall quickly.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Whitmire’s biggest mandate was more of a directive from voters to simply not be Jackson Lee, rather than tackle any one issue. Almost every mayoral campaign had platforms centered on public safety and city services, he added.
Considering the size of his victory and bipartisan coalition, however, Whitmire enters office with a level of trust across the city that most incoming mayors do not enjoy, Rottinghaus said.
“The margin means he's got bipartisan trust, and he's going to have to take that for a walk very soon,” Rottinghaus said. “A lot of the bigger problems are going to need everyone pushing in the right direction.”
Whitmire’s top priority once taking office is to begin addressing the city’s high rate of crime, he said.
Houston’s violent crime rate is lower than recent highs during the pandemic in 2020, but it remains above pre-pandemic levels.
Whitmire routinely criticized the city’s departments of permitting, housing and public works on the campaign trail.
While he declined to commit to changes in leadership at the departments, he promised to overhaul their operations sooner rather than later.
Turner’s longstanding feud with the Houston Professional Firefighters Association over the union’s contract negotiations with the city also should come to a swift end once Whitmire takes office. An ally of labor unions in the area, Whitmire has decried Turner’s refusal to enter into arbitration and said he would work out a deal with the union.
“What you saw on the campaign trail is what you’re going to get,” Whitmire said.
Nancy Sims, a University of Houston political analyst, said some of Whitmire’s promises may play out within his first days in office, while larger issues such as the city’s finances could take a long time to address. Replacing department heads, launching public safety initiatives and beginning negotiations with the firefighters should not take long to get underway.
“His immediate actions are going to be on crime and public works,” Sims said. “I think these other issues will fold out through the first year.”
Below are details on Whitmire’s main campaign promises, gleaned from his remarks in campaign forums, debates and questionnaires.
Crime and public safety
The cornerstone of Whitmire’s campaign from the day he announced he was running for mayor in November 2022 was public safety. Whitmire has committed to keeping Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner on the job but has said he expects law enforcement to quickly make a noticeable dent in Houston’s crime rate.
A key, controversial part of Whitmire’s plan on the campaign trail was to invite 200 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to patrol the city as a supplement to the Houston Police Department.
Whitmire said he already has been in contact with DPS leadership and Houstonians should expect that plan to roll out within the first week of the New Year.
The DPS troopers operating under the partnership will be supervised by Finner, Whitmire said. The mayor-elect said he also will keep a close eye on the program to reassure residents Houston can avoid controversies similar to the ones that troubled an identical partnership in Austin, he added.
“Houston is not Austin,” Whitmire said. “(DPS) will not be the front line of law enforcement, but they will be supporting HPD. They do traffic enforcement, it frees up HPD to get into the community.”
DPS was roundly criticized by Austin officials after the Travis County Attorney’s Office released statistics showing that nearly 90 percent of those arrested by troopers in Austin on misdemeanor charges were Black or Latino. Gov. Greg Abbott and Austin officials then clashed when an Austin man and his 10-year-old son accused a DPS trooper of pointing a gun at them during a traffic stop.
Whitmire said the events were “blown out of proportion” and said his administration would be able to handle the partnership.
The partnership with DPS is intended to quickly and affordably beef up the law enforcement presence in Houston while Whitmire pursues initiatives intended to strengthen HPD’s force.
Whitmire has promised to hire civilians to work HPD administrative jobs, freeing officers doing that work to move to street patrols. He has said he wants to improve community policing initiatives, provide more training on how to handle mental health crises and expand after-school activities for Houston’s youth.
The Houston firefighter’s union backed Whitmire’s campaign, and he has been a close ally with the union throughout its contract fight with Turner’s administration. His first day in office, the city will begin collective bargaining with the union, Whitmire said.
“I’m going to take care of the firefighters,” Whitmire said. “The city has ignored them, underpaid them, disrespected them for seven years.”
Budget
Houston faces a budget crisis by 2025 unless it finds a way to cut spending or increase revenue, according to Controller Chris Brown. Whitmire has pointed to plenty of policies he wants to pursue, but the toughest task he faces in his first year will be figuring out how to pay for them.
Whitmire has declined to provide many specifics about his plans to balance Houston’s budget, arguing Turner’s administration has not been transparent about the state of the city’s finances. On the campaign trail, he asked voters to give him a chance to take “a look under the hood” before producing a long-term funding plan.
Once that happens, he has promised to be more transparent with the budgeting process.
Whitmire will need to spend a lot of political capital during budget negotiations because “there’s going to be a lot of coal in stockings the next few budgets,” Rottinghaus said.
Whitmire has suggested consolidating some of the city’s 22 departments and combining services with the county on such things as parks, libraries and public health to save money.
Whitmire also has promised audits of city departments to identify potential waste, conflicts of interest and fraud that he hopes will make the departments more efficient and save money in the long run. Whitmire said those audits will begin on “Day One.”
He also has said the city will partner with tax increment reinvestment zones — districts that reinvest increases in tax revenue from development projects — to fund other city projects.
City services
Inconsistent garbage collection, faulty water infrastructure and other city services in need of improvement were a consistent theme on the campaign trail.
Whitmire’s aforementioned plan to audit all city departments will be the first step to improve services, he said.
Whitmire plans to order an accounting of city enterprise funds to locate inefficiencies. He also said his administration will review existing contracts to identify overlapping services, look at outsourced labor to see if it would be more cost-effective in-house, and move to a 100 percent paperless process for all city contracts to save money.
Candidates on the campaign trail floated a garbage fee as a way to create a dedicated funding source for waste collection. Whitmire has not committed to that idea.
Whitmire’s transition team is in the process of reviewing all of the department heads.
“It starts at the top,” Whitmire said. “We’re going to have a change with the mayor, and we’re going to have a change in leadership throughout City Hall.”
Whitmire has been particularly critical of the Department of Public Works and said he “wouldn’t rule it out” when asked if he plans to replace Director Carol Haddock.
Affordable Housing
Improving housing affordability is a top priority for Houstonians as Whitmire takes office, according to polling.
Evictions skyrocketed in the city after a COVID-era moratorium ended in 2020, and have remained high since. The city’s decision to end a $60 million affordable housing project funded by federal disaster recovery funds because it was going to miss the deadline for completion became a campaign issue that Whitmire frequently criticized, promising to improve the departments to prevent future projects from falling by the wayside.
Whitmire has alleged mismanagement, conflicts of interest and wasteful spending at the housing and permitting departments. He argues that is bogging down the building process for developers, increasing the cost of rent and home payments in the city.
His audits will define what action is taken to improve the departments, but he promised an overhaul of both on the campaign trail.
Whitmire said he would like to expand rental and foreclosure assistance to prevent the city’s eviction crisis from deepening.
Relations with the state
Houston’s relationship with the state government in Austin is icy, to say the least.
Turner routinely criticizes Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican controlled state Legislature over policies that many say target the state’s largest city and its largest source of Democratic votes.
City and Texas leaders have clashed on the recent state takeover of Houston Independent School District, the passage of the “Death Star” law and the passage of a law abolishing Harris County’s Elections Administrator position.
On the campaign trail, Whitmire routinely promised to improve relations between the city and the state, arguing the current vitriol is bad for Houston residents.
Whitmire frequently points to his experience as the longest-serving member in the Legislature as evidence of his bipartisan bonafides. He said he would “use my experience and contacts for all of Houston.”
Since his election, Whitmire has exchanged texts with Abbott and had a conversation with Abbott’s chief of staff, he said.
“They’re ready to sit down and see how they can assist Houston,” Whitmire said. “From Day One, there is going to be much better cooperation between the state and the city, and Houston will benefit.”
The mayor’s office has no power over HISD, its state-appointed board or Superintendent Mike Miles, but Whitmire has said he intends to work and communicate with Miles throughout his tenure at the district. Whitmire said he does not support the takeover, but argued the city needs to work with Miles to give students the best outcomes and return the school district under local control as soon as possible.
City Council
Whitmire enters office along with six new council members on the heels of voter approval of Proposition A, a charter amendment making it easier for three council members to add an item to the council agenda without approval from the mayor.
The amendment was supported by a coalition of conservative and progressive groups who hope it will allow for greater input from those outside the mainstream in City Hall.
The proposition already has shaken up the relationship between Turner and the current council after three members announced in November they would use it to place water bill reform on the agenda in response to complaints from residents about high water bills. Days later, Turner unveiled his own reforms.
Whitmire has promised a more collaborative relationship between his administration and City Council, saying Proposition A likely will not be needed during his administration.
“If it’s got merit and it’s representing their district, I don’t think it takes three of them to come up with an idea,” Whitmire said. “One of them can come to me with an idea that’s critical … and I’ll run with it.”
Whitmire suggested a council committee process similar to what he deals with in the Texas Senate, noting that one member has the power to introduce a bill but it still has to go through a process before making it to a vote on the Senate floor.
Council members also may want to avoid making evening plans on Wednesdays going forward.
Whitmire said he is exploring whether to move council meetings to evenings to make them more accessible for the public to attend or watch. City Council currently meets for public session at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday and conducts business from the agenda starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
“People don’t have the time or transportation to come on a Wednesday at mid-morning to City Hall,” Whitmire said.
Some meetings may not even be held in City Hall.
Whitmire said he is exploring the idea of rotating council meetings at multiservice centers in all council districts. He said he is unsure when that would start and how often they would be, but he wants them held “frequently enough that people feel like we’re listening to them.”
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