Mayor Parker's 4 most impressive achievements

  Problem: the Legal Department for the City of Houston operated with a number of inefficiencies and made inadequate use of cost-saving technology. In addition, when outside attorneys were hired, the city was paying hourly rates in excess of $300 an hour. Mayor Parker's Solution: recruit an expert with strong management experience and a mastery of current technology to revamp the department. Result: The new City Attorney Dave Feldman has modernized the department, reduced staff, and negotiated substantially lower hourly fees to outside council, saving the city nearly $3 million in the cost of legal services.  Problem: the crime lab was under the direction of the Houston Police Department, but police are never trained in scientific technology needed to manage evidence that requires chemical or biochemical analysis. Further, evidence needed by defendants is in the custody and control of the government in charge of prosecuting them. Mayor Parker's solution: create an independent crime lab that will be able to hire scientifcally competent directors who will assure objective analysis of evidence and serve as a neutral custodian of the data and materials. Result: the crime lab has been created as a separate legal entity and a board appointed. The board has selected a director and the crime lab has negotiated a contract to solve the long-standing backlong of rape kits.  Problem: over 17,000 persons arrested for public intoxication were jailed for short periods, usually reslting in a criminal record, high costs to the city, and no treatment for those suffering from substance addictions. Mayor Parker's Solution: a sobering center separate from the police department where persons arrested who agreed to cooperate could be entrusted to the care of responsible caregivers and given time to sober up, and seek help when needed.Result: Sobering center with 84 beds opened recently. View the list ยป
  Problem: hundreds of streets in Houston were built with inadequate drainage, but the City Charter did not allow funds collected from water and sewer fees to be used to correct them, so all projects had to be allocated from the annual general fund, and there were rarely enough available to meet the need, so some planned repairs were delayed at least 10 years: Mayor Parker's solution: amend the charter to provide for a drainage fee based on the area of impervious surface cover of each property, and dedicate the collected fees to drainage projects:Result: the measure passed in a referendum in 2010 and repairs are under way in a “pay as you go” arrangement supported by the fees. The city is able to reduce borrowing, and recently requested the lowest bond issue in 30 years.

Policy & Issues newsletter

When Mayor Annise Parker was elected to her first term in 2009, she promised to continue sound fiscal management and to address the problem of homelessness, encourage sustainable development, and promote small business. While her predecessor, Bill White, was considered an expert manager and had to step down due to term limits, all the candidates promised to maintain his level of competence. Yet White left behind several problems that he inherited and that seemed intractable. Many residents experienced sever flooding issues. A special statute allowed Firefighter pension funds to increase without prior notice to the city, millions in accounts receivable went uncollected, and the Houston Crime lab was the subject of numerous reports of failed management. Mayor Parker has actually addressed each of those issues, and in some cases, eliminated them altogether.

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Mayor Parker has balanced each budget, and navigated the most difficult periods of the recession without laying off a single policeman or firefighter. The new crime lab has negotiated with two leading private labs to eliminate the backlog of 6600 rape kits in less than a year, and homelessness is in decline, due in part to thousands of federal vouchers to support a comprehensive support to help homeless persons become stable in new homes. Here are a few other examples.

901 Bagby Street, Houston, TX
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  •   Problem: hundreds of streets in Houston were built with inadequate drainage, but the City Charter did not allow funds collected from water and sewer fees to be used to correct them, so all projects had to be allocated from the annual general fund, and there were rarely enough available to meet the need, so some planned repairs were delayed at least 10 years: Mayor Parker's solution: amend the charter to provide for a drainage fee based on the area of impervious surface cover of each property, and dedicate the collected fees to drainage projects:Result: the measure passed in a referendum in 2010 and repairs are under way in a “pay as you go” arrangement supported by the fees. The city is able to reduce borrowing, and recently requested the lowest bond issue in 30 years.
  •   Problem: over 17,000 persons arrested for public intoxication were jailed for short periods, usually reslting in a criminal record, high costs to the city, and no treatment for those suffering from substance addictions. Mayor Parker's Solution: a sobering center separate from the police department where persons arrested who agreed to cooperate could be entrusted to the care of responsible caregivers and given time to sober up, and seek help when needed.Result: Sobering center with 84 beds opened recently. 
  •   Problem: the crime lab was under the direction of the Houston Police Department, but police are never trained in scientific technology needed to manage evidence that requires chemical or biochemical analysis. Further, evidence needed by defendants is in the custody and control of the government in charge of prosecuting them. Mayor Parker's solution: create an independent crime lab that will be able to hire scientifcally competent directors who will assure objective analysis of evidence and serve as a neutral custodian of the data and materials. Result: the crime lab has been created as a separate legal entity and a board appointed. The board has selected a director and the crime lab has negotiated a contract to solve the long-standing backlong of rape kits.
  •   Problem: the Legal Department for the City of Houston operated with a number of inefficiencies and made inadequate use of cost-saving technology. In addition, when outside attorneys were hired, the city was paying hourly rates in excess of $300 an hour. Mayor Parker's Solution: recruit an expert with strong management experience and a mastery of current technology to revamp the department. Result: The new City Attorney Dave Feldman has modernized the department, reduced staff, and negotiated substantially lower hourly fees to outside council, saving the city nearly $3 million in the cost of legal services.
View the list

, Houston Public Policy Examiner

A graduate of Harvard Law School (JD 1984) and Harvard College (BA pure math 1974), Marc Pembroke has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar since 1985 and an instructor with Concord Law School of Kaplan University since 2001. He became a Certified Maine Assessor in 2008 where he lived from 2000...

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