 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Elected mayor of the nation's fourth largest city with 63% of the vote, Mayor Bill White wasted no time in getting Houston moving. He has worked tirelessly to improve the economy and traffic, improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and make Houston's City Hall the most efficient and responsive in the nation.
After his first hundred days in office, the Houston Chronicle noted that he showed "unrestrained initiative in confronting the City's toughest problems." The newspaper remarked that his "attention to detail - political, emotional, practical - exemplifies the nuts-and-bolts management style he brought to City government."
In his first year in office, White helped attract two major employers to the City, and eased expansion of current business by streamlining the building permit process. White says a strong business environment is a key to Houston's being "America's great city of opportunity."
He also won the hearts of many Houstonians by bold actions to reduce traffic congestion, including retiming most of Houston's traffic lights, expediting street construction, and reforming towing practices to clear our freeways.
|
|
Bill White, Mayor of Houston
© Houston Airport System
| He used his business experience to put the City's financial house in order by streamlining city government, linking the pay of city employees to job performance, reducing the growth of City costs for pensions and health benefits, and creating the first dedicated fund for investments to reduce flooding. Independent bond rating agencies applauded this financial discipline by upgrading the City's bond ratings and official financial outlook.
White has improved neighborhoods by expanding library and swimming pool hours of operation, working to close after-hours bars, sponsoring new neighborhood health clinics, and acquiring land for a major new park. The violent crime rate dropped in 2004. Mayor White increased the priority of public safety in the City's budget.
Bill White works hard every day to make City government more responsive and efficient. He slowed the growth of property taxes and successfully supported a property tax rate cut and an increase in the senior exemption.
White has used his consensus-based leadership style to bring Houstonians from different backgrounds together to get things done. In his second year in office, Mayor White will continue to fight for more jobs and will begin the long process of building more affordable housing in some of Houston's most neglected neighborhoods and improving air quality.
Before serving as mayor, White built one of the region's most successful businesses. He served as Deputy Secretary of Energy of the United States, where he reformed contracting practices at a savings of billions to taxpayers, and promoted policies to reduce oil imports.
For decades, Mayor White and his wife Andrea have helped lead numerous charitable and civic organizations in Houston. The Whites and their children - three teenagers - attend St. Luke's United Methodist Church, where he taught Sunday School.
Mayor White is proud of Houston, a friendly city of opportunity, which welcomes newcomers who work hard and play by the rules. Though Houston has been the nation's fastest growing major city over the last 80 years, White thinks if Houstonians work together, our best days are yet to come.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
