Where is kathy whitmire

In , she was appointed to a two-year term as Houston City Controller and was subsequently elected to a full two-year term that fall.

In , she was re-elected to another term in the same office. See More. The election drew national attention because it symbolized a major political realignment in what was then the fourth-largest city in the United States. Her appointment of the city's first African American police chief and the first Hispanic woman as presiding judge of the Municipal Court, her support of a failed job rights bill for homosexuals, among other acts, cemented her support among many minority groups.

Two city councilmen, Anthony Hall and Judson Robinson, allied themselves with the so-called "straight slate", which opposed gay rights and supported Welch.

The issue failed to affect Whitmire's support. She won the election, getting Lanier defeated Turner in the December runoff. She has never run for political office again. Page Transparency. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a Page. See actions taken by the people who manage and post content. See All. Related Pages. Southwest Surplus.

Inspired by her deceased husband and the women's movement, Whitmire in ran for Houston's second most powerful political office, controller, and won, becoming the first woman elected to citywide office. Aggressive and serious of purpose, as controller Whitmire became a leading critic of the sitting mayor for his inefficiency and lax administration.

At the same time she reformed the pension system, avoided tax hikes by innovative adjustments in the water department, and put the brakes on large salary increases for city employees.

Supported by an unlikely in Texas coalition of women's groups, African American leaders, Hispanics, some unions, and the gay political caucus, she drew ahead in a crowded field of candidates in a non-partisan election and went on to win the runoff election, defeating the local sheriff.

When Whitmire assumed office in January as Houston's first female mayor, the oil boom was cooling. As oil prices fell, so did city tax revenues. Vacancies in office space went up.

By Houston was in a recession, with a former labor shortage transformed into a 10 percent unemployment rate. Nevertheless, Whitmire fulfilled her campaign promises by repairing city streets, improving garbage collection, and stepping up the efficiency of city workers. Delivering on her promise to fight crime, she hired more than one thousand new police and put 50 percent more officers on the street by hiring lower-salaried civilian clerical workers to replace deskbound cops.

She helped defuse racial tensions by bringing in the city's first African American police chief, a highly regarded former Atlanta safety commissioner. Her prudent fiscal management retained for the city its prized triple-A bond rating. Whitmire's first term had a down side. She failed to win public support for a new transit system, worked poorly with the city council, and outraged the police when she increased their insurance payments while offering them only a modest pay increase.

The disgruntled police officers besieged city hall, shouting obscenities at the mayor. In addition, the city was a mess, littered with broken tree limbs and rubble from Hurricane Alicia. However, she was elected for another term. Re-elected in , , and Whitmire faced a number of tough challenges in her administrations. Cool, detached, and with the demeanor of a technocrat, she generally sought efficiency by paring away waste, pushing for higher productivity from city workers instead of relying on tax increases during serious drops in city revenue.

During a precipitous fall in oil prices which saw tax revenues sag even further, Whitmire adamantly refused to raise taxes and downsized the city workforce, including the sanitation department where she cut salaries by 3 percent and got higher production from the remaining force. She also fought for and wrung more efficiency in an earlier term, her second by moving highly paid firemen out of desk jobs and chauffeur duty to the fire-ready force.