the mayor-elect speaks
Houston mayor-elect John Whitmire plans to make City Hall 'user-friendly'
John Whitmire stands with "grandmother of Juneteenth" Opal Lee.
As the city now knows, John Whitmire will be Houston's 63rd mayor. The 74-year-old won in a landslide over Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee late Saturday November 9.
Whitmire spoke with Tom Abrahams of ABC13, CultureMap's news partner, about getting to work. He inherits a city government with an uncertain financial future and admitted he is unsure of how much of a fiscal challenge the nation's fourth-largest city faces. Its fiscal year 2023 budget was $5.7 billion. Its current budget is roughly a billion more at $6.2 billion.
"I know for a fact we don't have a $400 million surplus," Whitmire said. "No reasonable person would call that a surplus, when you haven't paid your bills, you don't have a contract with the firefighters. You're paying them with one-time COVID funding. That's another issue where we need total transparency."
"What you'll notice immediately is the transparency of City Hall. I am going to share all of this with the public because I need the public to be informed, and build up the credibility of my administration, so when we need help from the public they will cooperate. Additional resources, bond issues, cutting out duplication. I'll need them to help be on my team so when we approach the county for some of their resources, we'll remind the county that Houston is in Harris County."
And what about the county? Whitmire made a career in Austin working across the aisle, but he faced potential challenges working within his own party, despite the non-partisan nature of the job. The incoming City Controller, Chris Hollins; Harris County County Judge Lina Hidalgo; and Harris County Commissioner, Rodney Ellis all endorsed Whitmire's mayoral opponent, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee — as did outgoing mayor Sylvester Turner, of whose administration Whitmire has been critical.
"I have no choice but to work with them," said Whitmire. "We all represent the same people. So I will be reaching out to work with them. Commissioner Briones called me this morning wanting to work together. I would hope that same attitude and atmosphere of cooperation will permeate itself from the county."
He'll need cooperation and buy-in if he wants to fulfill campaign promises of better streets, improved infrastructure, and less crime.
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Continue reading this story on our news partner ABC13.
