Names flood czar, calls for Rev Cap repeal and pension reform
Flooding, pensions, city finances and public safety were front and center as Mayor Sylvester Turner delivered his first State of the City before the Greater Houston Partnership.
In a major move designed to produce tangible results and instill confidence among residents, the mayor announced the selection of Stephen Costello to fill the new position of chief resilience officer, or flood czar.
Costello, a civil engineer who has worked on numerous drainage projects, will report directly to the mayor and will have the sole responsibility of developing and implementing strategies that will improve drainage and reduce the risk of flooding.
“The April 18 floods had a dramatic impact on our entire region,” Mayor Turner said. “Hundreds of people sought rescue in hastily opened shelters, hundreds more elected to stay in their flooded apartments and homes. Nearly 2,000 homes in Houston flooded and some flooded for the second, third or fourth times. Property owners throughout our area have become weary of flooding in the Bayou City, impatient with elected officials who offer explanations with no practical solutions, and some have and others are close to packing up and leaving our city unless we can convince them that we are going to do exponentially more than what they currently see.”
The mayor also announced that he will soon unveil a plan to put 175 more police officers on the street, called for repeal of the revenue cap self-imposed on the city by voters in 2004 and detailed his plan to address the city’s unfunded employee pension liabilities, a growing obligation that is stressing the city’s overall financial stability.
“There are certain realities that cannot be ignored: the increasing costs to the city simply cannot be sustained,” Turner said. “As we look to 2018, city services will be adversely affected, hundreds of employees will be laid off, and our credit rating will most likely be damaged. But this is a course we need not travel. My mom said, ‘Tomorrow will be better than today,’ and as mayor of this city, I still believe what she said.”
The mayor is already in productive discussions with the employee pension groups about reigning in costs in a way that is least burdensome to employees, reduces the city’s escalating costs and avoids unintended consequences. He has laid out three objectives for those discussions:
- Lower unfunded pension obligations now and in the future;
- Lower annual costs for the city now and in the future; and
- An agreement by the end of the year to present to the legislature for consideration in the 2017 session.
The mayor noted that the revenue cap, which was cited as one of the reasons for a downgrade of the city’s credit rating, puts Houston at an unfair advantage and hinders the city’s ability to meet the needs of its growing population. No other governmental entity in Texas is under similar constraints.
“The revenue cap works against creating one Houston with opportunity for all and the ability to address pressing needs like flooding, transportation and mobility, parks and added green space, affordable/workforce housing and homelessness,” Turner said.
“We are competing not just against Dallas, San Antonio and Austin; not just against New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, but against Vancouver, Berlin and Singapore. We are an international city speaking 142 languages, with 92 consulates and two international airports within our city boundaries.”
The mayor concluded his speech with a commitment to leading the nation in addressing homelessness and a personal appeal for Houston businesses to join his Hire Houston Youth summer jobs program. Information on the program is available at www.hirehoustonyouth.org
