2006 State of the City Speech (as written, not delivered)
Looking back, 2005 was an incredible year in our history, wasn't it? I mean, Houston, Texas, everybody here can feel fairly confident that there won't be many years like that. 40,000 plus jobs created in this region, set records for housing starts; the number of jobs created here was more than half the entire population 100 years ago; 150,000 new residents in this region, our reputation changed around the country, throughout the world; we dropped the label as the fattest city, got a soccer franchise and how about that World Series?
Just as our reputation improved throughout the nation, throughout the world, as people saw us as an island of competence in a sea of chaos in the September events, you know so our self-image has changed. Judge Eckels and I saw how people can perform if they work together. All of us witnessed what happened if you dissolve the boundaries between the private sector, non-profits, businesses, local government entities, to assign the best people the task to get them all to help they need, to root for people to succeed and to just get it done. And I might add, Eckels and I have gotten a lot of recognition jointly from different people and any recognition through that ought to be joint, because we worked as a team. But really when people are recognizing the Judge and I, they're really recognizing the people of this city and what people did: to open their hearts, to act efficiently, to put their faith in action and I want to thank you all for helping Houston so, so well. But we also learned something about ourselves, didn't we? We learned that we were capable of doing some things that people never would have imagined could have occurred if we didn't work together.
So, in 2006, let's use that spirit to confront some of our challenges: to fight crime, to reduce traffic congestion in our community, and do some things that are very innovative - revitalize some of our most neglected neighborhoods, become not only the center of the world's energy supply but a model for energy efficiency. I'm going to talk about each of those things.
First, public safety. A few blocks from here, three years ago, I announced my candidacy for Mayor. I said then and I meant that city government would be tested by public safety. That's our number one job, and we've dedicated the resources to ensure it with the most massive increases in the finances we support-- provided to EMS, fire, and police in the history of the city over the last two years. And we've done well. During the last two years, the crime rate per thousand has decreased compared to prior periods in the City's history, including the prior two years. But in a handful of the 24 police districts, I don't like the crime trends, and we're cracking down and we're throwing the resources at it that the citizens demand. I want to say that ...
We've done all this with the best equipped, and the best trained, and the best educated, and best led police forces in our country. And remember, we made a lot of progress in restoring the confidence in the police force in many of the neighborhoods in our city as we employed tasers and reduced some of the incidents that you used to see--occur in the police force when I came into office and reduced that risk. And we've done other things, and made tremendous strides with crime labs so that people are ensured their people are taking an independent look and that justice will be done through our system.
We also need to give our law enforcement the support of changed laws. Those apartment owners who do not take responsible actions to provide for the safety of residents and neighbors should not be disproportionately subsidized by those property owners that do. And we need to have some requirements on those apartment owners so those apartments do not become magnets for crime.
This year we will have a record number of people go through the police academy. More police on the streets - 160 officers equivalent just since the beginning of January through overtime, and we need to give them other laws that they need. Chief Hurtt and Public Safety Committee Chair Adrian Garcia will be examining in the next 60 days whether we should tighten the curfew laws on school nights, because too often we have police officers chasing young people in the middle of the night in the streets rather than being able to respond to your calls for service. We also need to - now this is a tough topic, because there are a lot of lobbyists on the other side - but we endanger public safety when we do not have better rules and regulations so that police officers are not spending so much time running after false alarms that go off time after time, consuming wasted time on police visits. And there are ways that other states approach this, and we need to do that so that the police officer is there when you need him, when there's a real emergency. Not just because someone does not maintain a system or does not have some backup to verify they are citizens in danger. We'll need your help in fighting that so that we can run the city in a business-like fashion, just as we got from the business community on Safe Clear and others.
We'll continue to fight the war on traffic congestion. People may not see this on every corner, but if we're growing like we're growing, if we don't keep this fight against traffic congestion we'll either have gridlock conditions or we'll go bankrupt spending dollars expanding freeways, destroying neighborhoods on each side. So traffic congestion is still in our sights.
We need more flexible working hours for many employees within our city. These programs are not only in the interest of individual firms, who find that they increase employee retention and productivity, but they're also in the public interest because they improve the quality of life and economic prospects of our region by reducing traffic congestion. It doesn't take much to succeed; there are leaders out there. There are jobs where punching a time clock at traditional hours may be mission critical, but for most it is not. Remember, the principal causes of traffic congestion are blocked lanes because of some accident or stalled vehicle, that's why we did Safe Clear. And too many people trying to get to the same place at the same time, that's why this is so critical. Twice I have convened meetings of CEOs of the largest employers in two of our largest commuting corridors, putting together a voluntary program, which would require action by the businesses. Not by mandate or ordinance, but if it is to succeed we need help from the major employers in this community.
Let me give you an example: By removing the commute of just 300 vehicles during a peak 15 minute time period, it could increase the speed the flow of traffic along our freeways such as IH 59 and IH 45 by 5 percent. That adds up to hours. Just by shifting 600 vehicles for every 15 minutes at peak is equivalent of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on building a new lane on a freeway. So if you are like me, businesspeople, who want to get the most bang for the buck, who don't want to spend tax money if you can avoid spending tax money on the lower-priority things, then I ask people to join the employers in this city who made a commitment to providing more flexible working hours for their employees.
I need your help. I'll give you three examples: We need more companies with programs like J. P. Morgan Chase, you may have read in the Chronicle, which supports flexible work programs for over a third of their employees. Chase's program has improved productivity, cut fixed overhead, and allowed Chase to remain open during the transit strike in New York and through other national disasters while other businesses were closed because people were used to working from home and telecommuting with flexible working hours.
S&B Infrastructure went through a transition from traditional working hours, and recently implemented a flexible work program in which over 98 percent of employees participate in a variety of compressed work-week schedule. The firm initiated the program to attract and retain key employees in a competitive market and increase their productivity. Because often we have family responsibilities, and who likes to be stuck in traffic if you can change your commuting time? It's worked. The employees like it. And all the people on that I-59 corridor, benefit from they fact that they have a thousand employees on this system.
BMC Software is another. They have found that a more flexible work environment has increased employee retention and productivity. BMC provides managers with a manual so they can tailor work schedules to the needs of each job.
The leaders of this effort, I want to thank you: Mike Ballases with J. P. Morgan Chase in the central business district, Chris Lloyd Jones with ABB Lummus in the Westchase area; and Christopher Parker with Worley Parsons at Greenway Plaza. They'll be regional leaders, but it will take a team to do this.
I am inviting every employer here to a summit I will be hosting on February 21 at the Wortham Theater for one hour between noon and one o'clock. Business leaders, CEOs, will review specific best practices and implementation plans for specific employers, so that other firms can commit to replicate these efforts. Houston cannot grow if we are in a traffic jam.
The long run economy of our region depends on the education of young people. In 2001, there were 70,000 ninth graders in the 24 Houston area school districts. In 2004, however, only 44,000 graduated. Some people have a vested interest in trying to minimize or apologize, and we're doing a lot better than other major urban areas, probably better than any in the country. In an economy, Americans can only preserve our standard of living and be the country of opportunity, if we sell brains then we better invest in the brains of our young people in this country.
I want you to join me and the businesses and leaders here, contact me and we will sign you up for a part of our program we call Expectation Graduation, multifaceted, to keep these kids in school. There's no silver bullet solution, but I'll tell you what it's not going to be by waving our hands and giving speeches. It's going to take what Andrea and I and a lot of people here - hundreds - did: we walked door to door at the beginning of the school year to bring drop-outs back into school. I asked the HISD 9 th graders to sign a commitment form to me that they would stay in school and already I have gotten almost five thousand responses. We're going to have a special event with the NBA Legends during the NBA All-Stars weekend and there'll be others just for whose who make the commitment to stay in school. This is an issue where we can be a national leader, and we can have so much pride if we are able to cut the dropout rate. If you're interested, then I'm asking you to tell me who you are. There will be abilities for individual companies or groups of people to adopt a school to be mentors to at-risk kids. And we're going to plug you in, working with the educators in this community. Jeff, I will be there shoulder-to-shoulder with you and Chip to raise the millions of dollars we need to market this city, go down the call list. But if we can't educate our young people, then 10 or 20 years from now then all that money will go down the drain. So I need help from the business community in every way, not just by giving speeches and telling some politician to pass a bill, it means getting out there and helping.
We continue to foreclose on thousands of homes in our most neglected neighborhoods. This year we will break ground on 100-200 new houses that are affordable, in our most neglected neighborhoods, on lots that have been abandoned, blighted, weeded, even former crack houses. We're going to make it so that a first-time buyer can get in that neighborhood, work with community organizations. This will be groundbreaking this year, as last year I told you we were going to foreclose on these properties. Over 500 of these properties that were simply abandoned, not paying taxes, magnets for crime in their neighborhood and now they're brought in so they can be recycled. We call that Project Houston Hope. It requires rebuilding the infrastructure of the neighborhoods: the drainage, the streets, often the water and sewer system, rebuilding the schools thanks to the work of their school districts and HCC - we're doing some things in the neighborhood schools so schools that have seen declining enrollment can see expanding enrollment, and it helps everyone here because when we can have affordable housing located closer to the major employment centers rather than 20 miles away, then that reduces the traffic congestion and the infrastructure expenses for all of us.
Finally, and this will be something new this year, we're going to take concrete steps and start this community down a new road. In trying to be the national leader in energy efficiency, just as we in energy supply.
In Houston right now there are people struggling to get by with these high utility bills. They have to make choices between the utility bills and basic necessities in their houses, and we have businesses that see an ever-rising cost in doing business. We have both worked with and on occasion fought utility providers that sought to increase in rates, but the reality is that with hydrocarbons and the scarcity of energy supply there's an increase in cost to providers. We have to address the issue in terms of in-use demand. So I'm excited to announce today that with Centerpoint we're going to take an entire neighborhood, a strong, in-tact residential community of Pleasantville in Southeast Houston. 1300 homes without some of the energy efficiencies will have their homes weatherized - those who want it - and we're going to do it by the summer. We expect it will decrease the energy bills and energy consumption by at least 10 percent. And then we're going to work with CenterPoint and the Public Utility Commission to ensure that we have incentives to make energy consumption investments as they do in energy supply investments. Because that makes the most sense for our community economically and that yields results where we have lower utility bills for our businesses and individuals. This is new ground for a city, but after Katrina we're ready to do some new things in this community and if we can get a lower cost-and finally, within 60 days we will announce a program to publicize in a clear, transparent feature, to all consumers on their choice of power, on what is reliable, and what they can do to buy power that has fewer emissions and improves the air quality. This again will be a first in the United States and major metropolitan areas but we have the expertise to do it and I'll ask you to root for us to succeed. We will do all these things in the beginning of the year and we will need your help. I won't go through everything, but let me say there's a lot more on that topic and this city is going to be different in several years if we implement the plan.
In my last two State of the City Addresses, we announced some annual goals. There's a temptation to go back and check off the list. They're on the website so you can go check them out, I'm proud to say, on behalf of City Council and city workers, you can see we've done what we've said we were going to do. We broke new ground on efforts to enforce pollution laws, pension reform and you've been a big part of the last two States of the City Addresses.
In my first State of the City Address I asked for the help of the GHP and members to help us create a diverse and competitive business community. To take some time to reach out to those from different backgrounds who are trying to create new entrepreneurs and new businesses in this city. Our future as a diverse city depends on it. I believe in opportunity. I believe in the free enterprise system. But we've got to build networks. Some of those networks are inherited in a city that's going as fast as Houston. But we can't inherit them, we have to create them and that takes real effort. I am proud of the initiative by our business community, for example the GHP and it's initiative that Deborah has led, to double the amount of professional services procurement by MWBE firms. I'm proud of the City of Houston, really a pioneer in the region in cutting edge in its procurement of all sorts of things, of meeting and beating our goals.
I want to remind people that we still have a lot to go. It's because of the spirit in our community, incidentally, the fact that we know we're in it together that we see diversity as a tremendous asset for this city. We were able to be an island of competence and compassion in a sea of chaos in the events following Katrina. We are so proud. When people with different viewpoints, talk about Katrina and ethnicity--I mean, when we saw disaster we just saw fellow Americans who needed assistance. And that is a spirit because of the culture you are creating here in Houston. We have a diverse group of people from all backgrounds who do a lot more together.
It's easy to get complacent, though, and I just want to remind people that we have a long way to go to create some of those networks and to nurture some of those businesses. There's a lot of challenge to organizations such as the GHP which, particularly after Chip's introduction, I'm a real big fan of. We need a strong umbrella business organization.
Let me tell you some of the things that are going on out there and then my conclusion. There's a group of first-generation entrepreneurs from Mexico, the Camara de Empresarios Latinos. This is the fastest-growing business group in the city. It's unbelievable. Some people who started businesses 10 years ago that employed three people now are up to two or three hundred. They created a network and if you've never been to one of their events, go to it, it's unbelievable. Within just the last three years I've seen an explosion and a network of people-we have a lot of entrepreneurs out there.
We have over 1,000 Pakistani Americans who own and manage convenience stores work together and now buy large volumes comparable any major retailer in this region. They're out there working hard, everyday. 30 percent plus of local hotel and motel rooms owned by minority business people, and there are groups that represent them. They were the most responsive in responding to a call for free hotel rooms in the early days of the Katrina evacuation, before any FEMA reimbursement was available. When people came here without money they expanded the hotels--we are proud of Nathelyne Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy had one of those firms that she started-it's an engineering firm that got its lift through affirmative action, MWBE, and she has since graduated from that program now is one of the best--a prime contractor for public entities in our region. Not because of some program today, although she got her start from a program, just based on the sheer quality of work that is done by Nathelyne Kennedy. We have so many successes -here's my point: that for those in the business community to participate in the GHP as I have all these years, as we work hard to do our capital development campaign, the very relevance of the GHP in 20 or 30 years will depend on our ability to go out and bring in the entrepreneurs and the growing businesses in our community to get involved in the business leadership of our community. And I want to thank you in advance for saying we will keep that goal in mind because we are building institutions here not just for the next year, but for the generation that will come after us. And I want to thank you in advance for all that work.
In a speech like this I feel bad because if you don't mention this or that - I have so many co-workers at City Hall that do an outstanding job where people give me introductions like Chip and I don't-thank goodness we have so many hard-working people at City Hall that make me look good. There's two groups in particular: one is the people in departments you man never hear of. You may never know we have one of the largest public water and sewer system in the country. I've never had someone come up to me and say boy, it's amazing what a good job they do in getting good water to my house and you know, every time I flush the commode it works (laughter). But there are people out there working hard and it is not easy to build a system this fast for a city growing this big over this big geographical area. And the same can be said for the people working in the Parks department, and libraries and the health planning of our community and all facets of the city government that are so important. The same is true for the people that pick up our garbage every morning. Same is true for the people who work and operate one of the world's fastest growing airports. If that airport shut down we'd hear about it pretty quick. And we take for granted that we have so many hardworking people out there. I want to thank our city employees and they've done a good job or even if they're just working for the city and give them the benefit of the doubt, say thank you for what they do because they work for you. And that will enhance their work performance and morale just to hear that.
And above all I want to thank ...
Above all, I want to thank the City Controller and the folks on City Council that work as a team to create a new atmosphere and culture in City Hall. An atmosphere of high ethics, of civility, that we don't showboat we try to solve problems. We have a good team of elected officials down at City Hall. My friend Ada Edwards said that if you take her salary and divide them by the number of hours that she's not sure it would comply with minimum wage laws, and that's the way City Council people work and they do a good job, one of those thankless jobs--Every one of them hears from a vocal minority in our community, particularly paid political consultants who want to see a good fight than a solution. There are some people like that out there. And they need the positive reinforcement from you, the citizens, that you like hardworking people. They don't all have to agree, they all have their independent views, but to work to get things done. Right now the citizens of so many places in this country are yearning for government where people talk with each other, not at each other. And Houston right now, among major urban areas and many other levels of government, is a model in this great United States of America. It's how we can work together to get things done.
The state of the City of Houston is good. Our city is moving. Thank you for letting me work for you, and God Bless Houston, Texas, and the United States.
