2008 Woodie Awards
Houton mayor uses private sector to help city
Associated Press
Issue date: 11/9/05 Section: State & Nation
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He convinced the Rotary Club to install dialysis machines at a city health clinic, and got construction companies to donate time and equipment to raze abandoned buildings frequented by crack cocaine users.
He hired multi-millionaire David Saperstein for $1 a year to be the city's first traffic czar, and asked corporate campaign contributors to increase by $20,000 the annual salary of city lobbyist Ann Travis, a former aide to Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
"For a leader not to utilize the private sector when the city has a wealth of talented, concerned citizens with the means and experience to help the city and will donate their services - especially when speed is an issue - wouldn't be prudent," said developer Dick Weekley, whom White has enlisted for many of the beautification projects.
While White gets high marks for efficiency, city officials and advocates for the poor have begun to question whether speed is the only factor in running a government.
"It's efficient the way he gets things done, but we have an obligation as elected officials to oversee what's happening," said City Councilman Gordon Quan. "We're kind of an afterthought sometimes."
The downtown park deal, Quan said, required $10 million of city money for the $58 million project. Quan said he and other council members wanted to know more about the park's design, who it was intended to serve - children or tourists _ where visitors would park and other issues before they approved it.
But, he said, the mayor pushed the vote through and told Quan and other questioning members he'd get them the answers they needed. Quan said he's still waiting.
"I guess I was spoiled by democracy" in the administration of Lee Brown, who as mayor for the six years before White was elected oversaw a traditional bureaucracy and worked more closely with council, Quan said.
Robert Muhammad, regional minister of the Nation of Islam, praised White's Katrina relief efforts, but he said the projects on which White enlists the private sector appear to benefit the businessmen he enlists - like developers paying for beautification projects.
"He has not addressed the systemic problems that have plagued this city for years," Muhammad said, noting that 25,000 Houston residents live in public housing. "Poor people are an afterthought."
White has promised to build hundreds of affordable houses in the city's poorest neighborhoods in his second term. The city already has bought 140 lots and has 1,400 more in foreclosure proceedings as part of the project.
And while White talks about a bloated bureaucracy that slows down his projects, the size of the city government has barely changed under his administration - down only 311 people in a workforce of almost 22,000 since he took office in January 2004.
And, no studies have been done on whether the use of the private sector has actually saved any city money.
He hired multi-millionaire David Saperstein for $1 a year to be the city's first traffic czar, and asked corporate campaign contributors to increase by $20,000 the annual salary of city lobbyist Ann Travis, a former aide to Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
"For a leader not to utilize the private sector when the city has a wealth of talented, concerned citizens with the means and experience to help the city and will donate their services - especially when speed is an issue - wouldn't be prudent," said developer Dick Weekley, whom White has enlisted for many of the beautification projects.
While White gets high marks for efficiency, city officials and advocates for the poor have begun to question whether speed is the only factor in running a government.
"It's efficient the way he gets things done, but we have an obligation as elected officials to oversee what's happening," said City Councilman Gordon Quan. "We're kind of an afterthought sometimes."
The downtown park deal, Quan said, required $10 million of city money for the $58 million project. Quan said he and other council members wanted to know more about the park's design, who it was intended to serve - children or tourists _ where visitors would park and other issues before they approved it.
But, he said, the mayor pushed the vote through and told Quan and other questioning members he'd get them the answers they needed. Quan said he's still waiting.
"I guess I was spoiled by democracy" in the administration of Lee Brown, who as mayor for the six years before White was elected oversaw a traditional bureaucracy and worked more closely with council, Quan said.
Robert Muhammad, regional minister of the Nation of Islam, praised White's Katrina relief efforts, but he said the projects on which White enlists the private sector appear to benefit the businessmen he enlists - like developers paying for beautification projects.
"He has not addressed the systemic problems that have plagued this city for years," Muhammad said, noting that 25,000 Houston residents live in public housing. "Poor people are an afterthought."
White has promised to build hundreds of affordable houses in the city's poorest neighborhoods in his second term. The city already has bought 140 lots and has 1,400 more in foreclosure proceedings as part of the project.
And while White talks about a bloated bureaucracy that slows down his projects, the size of the city government has barely changed under his administration - down only 311 people in a workforce of almost 22,000 since he took office in January 2004.
And, no studies have been done on whether the use of the private sector has actually saved any city money.
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