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Louie Welch, Fred Hofheinz, Kathy Whitmire and Bob Lanier led Houston through four decades. All but Whitmire remain plugged into city politics.

By Roger Smith

Louie Welch’s home phone rings, placing this interview on hold. The caller wants to tell Welch where to park at City Hall Annex for a downtown meeting.

“Yeah, I know the building pretty well,” said Houston’s mayor from 1964-1973. Grinning, Welch said, “I built the annex.”

Bob Lanier’s interview was also interrupted by a call. A Houston Chronicle reporter had questions about the proposed extension of the Main Street rail line.

“I’m trying to work for a compromise,” Lanier tells the reporter. “I think I’ve been pretty helpful in getting this Main Street rail line built. Metro’s chairman told me that.”

Fred Hofheinz, mayor from 1974-1977, practices law and is also active in Houston’s political community.

“It’s not uncommon for people I grew up with to remain in Houston, because Houston has done so well for them,” said Hofheinz from his law office. “This has been a very vibrant, growing city. There’s not a whole lot of economic reason to have left Houston in the last 25-30 years.”

The three former mayors still live where they can see daily what they planned, built and nurtured. The city’s current leaders often ask their advice.

Houston grew from a population of just under 1 million to more than 1.6 million between Welch’s 1964 swearing-in and Lanier’s farewell in January 1998. Lanier was elected in 1989.
Jim McConn, 1978-1981, who died in 1997, and Kathy Whitmire, 1982-1991, also served as mayors during that 34-year growth spurt.

Whitmire, who strove to reduce sign clutter, praises Houston for its progress in preserving and enhancing the scenic beauty she no longer sees daily.

“I’ve relocated to Hawaii, which I consider paradise on earth,” Whitmire said. “And by the way, Hawaii is one of four states to eliminate billboards to preserve its scenic environment.”

She commutes by jet to the University of Maryland’s Burns Leadership Academy, where she is a professor.

Hofheinz, 64, still commutes by car to Williams, Birnberg & Andersen on the Southwest Freeway. “My load is very slight these days, and it’s on purpose,” said Hofheinz whose father, Roy, was mayor in the 1950s. “I still come to the office. I will never retire, but I don’t work the way I worked when I was 40.”

Hofheinz and Welch, political adversaries in 1973, are friendly. “We went on a couple of international economic missions for the chamber (of commerce) together,” Welch said.

Both covet the “Sewer Mayor” title as their legacy for keeping water and sewage infrastructure ahead of Houston’s growth curve.

One of Welch’s fondest memories is a 1965 visit from a younger man who said he wanted to run for Congress in Welch’s district.
“‘Before I run, I want to know if you have any ambitions,’ the man said. ‘Because if you do, I can’t beat you,’” Welch quotes George H.W. Bush as saying. Welch stayed in the mayor’s office, and Bush was elected to Congress.

After leaving City Hall, Welch flourished in the consulting business and continues with a light workload.

Lanier’s fingerprints are on construction projects all over town. His Landar Company has more than 3,000 apartment units. He chairs the corporation that owns the hotel going up by the new downtown basketball arena, and he worked with developer Ed Wulfe to rebuild Gulfgate Mall.

He also sponsors conferences at Rice and the University of Houston to bring academia and elected officials together.

Lanier’s painful knee and multiple heart complications limit his routine. “Taking it all into account, and the fact that I’m 77, 78, God willing, in March – I really feel pretty good,” Lanier said. “I swim several times a week. If it weren’t for my knee, I’d play tennis and golf.”

Lanier calls his relationship with Welch excellent, although the two disagree on using tax money for sports arenas. Lanier talks proudly of plans for the Texans, Astros and Rockets’ new homes being approved “on my watch” with partial public funding.

“Every argument that’s used to say professional sports are great for a city and should be subsidized is as phony as a $3 bill,” said Welch, who also thinks Lanier should have annexed the corridor along F.M. 1960, where 600,000 people live.

But Welch smiles even while strongly criticizing the surviving members of the special club. All the ex-mayors also smile when they consider what the office has done for them.

“It’s an experience that has no price on it,” Hofheinz said. “It’s a wonderful honor and privilege.

“I don’t think it’s possible to be the mayor of Houston unless you are genuinely interested in everybody’s problems,” Hofheinz said.

“The successful mayors in Houston’s history are those who have reached out to every single element in the community and tried to be responsive and understand what it is they need from their government.”

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