2005 State of the City Speech

Andrea and I took a risk when citizens from all backgrounds helped us mount an uphill campaign to serve you as Mayor. But Houston is worth it.

We had bold plans to get our economy and traffic moving, make City Hall more responsive and efficient, and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. After a year of hard work, I can report to you that Houston is on the move.

Last year our economy headed up sharply, with over 20,000 new jobs, after two years in a row of declining employment. And in 2005, we aim to do even better.

In 2005 the business development plan for our region should be fully funded, following the recommendation of my task force on regional economic development. We need more targeted recruitment of likely corporate relocations, and better coordination of economic development activities within the region. And we will continue to remove barriers to expansion by existing businesses, by efforts such as our continuing reform of the City's building permit process.

Ultimately, economic development for the Houston region depends not on a slogan, but rather on our success in our work in reducing traffic congestion, improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and making our City Hall even more responsive and efficient.

We have made progress on taking bold but practical steps to reduce traffic congestion, which is a hidden tax on the time of all Houstonians. In just one year we improved the timing of most of our City's traffic lights, cutting commute times 10-20% along some corridors. We shall re-time an additional 23% of the signals this year. And we showed how to manage street construction to avoid unnecessary disruption of traffic and our businesses. One example was the use of alternative routes and better communication in the handling of the closing of Spur 527. We've shown how to expedite street construction with the work on Smith and Travis Streets, which will be completed this year in record time. Smith Street work will finish on April 23, on schedule.

And I told you last year at my first State of the City Address that we had to get the stalled and wrecked vehicles off of our freeways faster, to relieve congestion and improve safety. And at that time I said that it would be a fight. Boy, was that right! Now our SafeClear Program is unclogging our freeways and making them safer. Drivers already have begun noticing a difference. And we are able to provide additional services at affordable prices, in cooperation with the MAP Program and with more efficient and accountable towing industry. Sure, it's been a fight to bring some order out of chaos, and we will improve the program based on performance, but Houston's future is worth that fight. You know we just can't build ourselves out of gridlock, so we must manage traffic better.

In 2005 we need the help of all citizens, and especially today's sponsor, the GHP, for two additional actions to keep our traffic moving.

First, with help from METRO and the GHP we will convene a meeting of the region's major employers for a Summit on Flexible Work Schedules. We can never build our way out of traffic jams if too many of us are trying to get to the same place at the same time.

Second, I urge all citizens to support METRO's voter-approved plans, as well as the goal announced a year ago by Judge Eckels for a regional program to build commuter rail. We encourage our members of Congress to fight for our region's fair share of new start dollars for transit.

Last year we worked hard to make our City Hall the most responsive and efficient in the nation, and highlighted publicly first in my last State of the City Address our need for pension reform. Thanks to support from the voters, City Council, and so many responsible and dedicated City employees, we successfully completed the most ambitious pension reform of any major city, cutting pension liabilities by over a billion dollars while removing incentives for premature retirement.

We put City Hall on a business-like basis, by enacting a budget committed to fiscal discipline, with a cut in the property tax rate under the leadership of Council Member Ellis and an increase in the senior exemption. We made sure each of our City employees received a performance evaluation, and based linked municipal pay to performance. We cut the rate of growth in health benefit expenses, and will do so again this Spring, to reduce the overhead burden while offering competitive health care to employees.

And speaking of our employees, you know I've worked hard to serve you as Mayor. But my success, and the quality of service you get each day, depends on the work of thousands of City employees. They deserve your respect. And that means taking time to say thanks. You might begin to make an extra effort to the good people with tough jobs who pick up your garbage.

In 2005 we must improve the efficiency of the Municipal Court System. Too often both citizens and police officers must spend excessive hours just waiting around. We can and will do better.

And I will need your help and that of state officials in establishing sources of dedicated revenue to help us maintain our Fire and EMS services at the highest levels in the nation. We can't allow our firefighters to be lured away by other cities who pay much more or lose essential emergency paramedic personnel. They serve us well. Our national leading fire service is the largest in the world to be accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and that results in lower insurance costs. Our un-reimbursed EMS costs have been soaring because businesses have cut their own costs of health insurance. As a community we must build consensus to put emergency services on a sound, sustainable financial basis.

Public safety will come first in our City's budget, as it did last year. The day after last year's State of the City address we announced the appointment of a new police chief, Harold Hurtt. We need to support Chief Hurtt and our HPD, and I thank Don Sanders and Nolan Ryan for heading up efforts for a new Houston Police Endowment. Please support this effort.

In last year's State of the City Address I called on all Houstonians to reach out to people from different backgrounds. It's in all of our interest to lift up Houston as an example of opportunity and prosperity for all. We've made progress this last year. I applaud the commitments by 23 major corporations to double their procurement of minority professional services. And I am proud that the City of Houston has beaten its goals for contracting with minority and women-owned businesses last year.

This should be the year we put behind us the silly label "Fattest City." I'll tell you what: Look at the national weather map today; I guarantee there are more people running and bicycling today in Houston than in the entire Northeast of the United States. You can help our City and yourself by sending out word today, by email, for folks to sign up for two events raising money for Houston Parks: the Bayou City Fun Run on March 12th and our first Tour de Houston Bike Ride on March 19th.

Finally, and most significantly for my remarks here today, I will devote most of my energies this year to improving our neighborhoods.

You may be aware of the progress we made last year:

More libraries than ever open, now with longer hours.

More services are offered at neighborhood health clinics, with better coordination with the County and non-profits. Next week we will again be seeing patients at the Riverside Clinic for the first time in almost three years.

Better maintenance of our existing parks, more bike trails, and work by an energized Parks Board and private donors in setting aside open space for Houston's families in the future. That includes 13 acres right outside this Convention Center.

A zero tolerance policy for illegal dumping and the unlawful placement of heavy trash.

The creation of a Neighborhood Protection Corps, assisting civic clubs trying to maintain and protect our community.

Stronger support for arts and cultural organizations, which enrich us so greatly.

Most significantly, establishment of the first dedicated fund by the City for drainage improvements to reduce flooding.

Today I announce two important new initiatives to address needs we've swept under the rug for too long.

First, the City will sponsor a Clean Air Accountability Network. We will begin to place air quality monitors outside the plant gates of those firms most likely to be the source of our most dangerous emissions. We will put that data on our website, and ask federal and state regulators to do the same for all the emissions they monitor. Second, I am asking today for the leaders of our great healthcare institutions to contribute the talent of medical researchers to a Task Force to analyze and report to the public about the likely risks posed by air toxics recorded by this monitoring. Third, I am asking the City Attorney, along with those working with my colleagues at the County and other local governments in the region, to help us bring legal action if plants have no realistic plans to reduce emissions of air toxics to levels found acceptable by objective public health standards.

Clean air is a moral and ethical issue, because no one should have the right to make risky chemical alternation to air which they don't own and others must breathe. But cleaning our air is also important to our ability to attract new jobs, preserve the value of all our homes, and protect the respiratory health of the young people who we want to make Houston their home. We have made great progress on the State Implementation Plan to decrease ozone, but we cannot ignore air toxins. And we must create a level playing field for those responsible firms investing billions to reduce emissions, so an entire industry will not be tarnished by those who cut corners.

The second major initiative to improve our quality of life we call Project Houston Hope.

We will begin with six of our most blighted neighborhoods. These neighborhoods, and many of the heroic residents who stuck with them in years of decline, have seen many of their young families move out. In the neighborhoods we start with, half or more of the homes have been abandoned. Weeds grow taller than people. Abandoned properties serve as a magnet for crime and that begins the downward spiral.

We will enlist community organizations and the private sector to build affordable housing where crack houses now stand. We begin this effort next month by foreclosing on 1,500 properties where taxes have not been paid for an average of 19 years! We need partners to help us bring water and sewer services, road, drainage, and schools up to standard, and to repair occupied houses to allow the residents to live in the dignity befitting a great City.

Confronting these long-term challenges - traffic, flooding, urban blight, and pollution - requires hard choices and strong leadership. I am blessed to serve with local elected officials reflecting the full diversity of Houston, with many leaders among them who work to find common ground to help me get things done. I particularly appreciate the Controller and City Council members committed to work as a team. Please reach out to support those who you see building consensus, and taking action, because for them getting things done means taking some heat.

For, after all, if we don't make the hard choices now, then when? By now we've learned that delay makes choices harder for a growing city later on.

As we saw a year ago at the Super Bowl, or when private donors stepped up to help me with a new central park, or more recently with the ongoing tsunami relief efforts, and Chevron Texaco's donation of a 130-acre new park this morning, Houston's a friendly, generous city. We have so much to be proud of.

In my faith tradition we read in scripture that those who lead a righteous life are like "a city on the hill, which cannot be hidden." They serve as an example, a beacon of light for others to follow. I believe Houston can also be that type of city on a hill. No, I'm not proposing to literally raise the elevation of our City, though that's not a bad idea for flood control. But I and so many here do understand that Houston has begun moving to another level. And if we succeed we shall be a model for all other cities in this nation and this world.

Ask yourself if you have done everything you can to be part of the group of people who sacrifice their time, talents, and treasure to take this City up that hill. With strong leadership and public support, the year 2004 marked a turning point for us. Help me and other local elected officials make 2005 even better.