Houston is not a city that makes life easy for its mayors, and John Whitmire’s first year in office was no exception.
Multiple natural disasters, a Houston Police Department scandal and a ballooning budget deficit challenged the former 50-year state legislator in 2024. Those decades of work in Austin were at the center of Whitmire’s mayoral campaign, where he argued it would allow him to use his experience and relationships with state leaders to solve Houston’s problems.
“Experience matters,” Whitmire said in a recent interview with the Houston Landing. “I used my experience in the legislature and seeing nearly everything you can imagine in 50 years of public service.”
Houston has a “strong mayor” form of government, a system that gives Whitmire unrivaled power to enact policy compared to most of the nation’s other big city mayors.
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Whitmire said the challenges of running the fourth-largest city in the U.S. dwarf those he faced in the legislature, where he was one of 150 members in the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 to 1983, then one of 31 state Senators from 1983 until his resignation at the end of 2023 to become mayor.
“The operations of the two levels of government are completely different,” Whitmire said. “It’s the spontaneous requirement to step up and not fail. It’s just the magnitude of what I do, and I feel the responsibility because I don’t want to fail.”
The longtime pol swept into the mayor’s office largely through the support of moderate Democrats and right-leaning Houstonians after campaigning on a message of bringing bipartisan, pragmatic leadership to City Hall with an overriding focus on public safety. The late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee ran to Whitmire’s left with the support of then-Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, and lost the December runoff election by a wide margin.
Whitmire and Turner frequently sparred during the campaign, and, since taking office, Whitmire at times has appeared set on undoing much of his predecessor’s legacy.
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Whether it was Turner’s transit initiatives, the budget or the city’s preparedness for natural disasters, Whitmire frequently blamed many of the problems he faced on the previous administration, as new mayors frequently do.
At a May news conference unveiling his first annual budget, Whitmire said “I inherited a mess.”
Still, Whitmire had his share of successes meeting campaign promises during his first year.
He overhauled the leadership of most of the city’s departments, negotiated an end to a rancorous eight-year contract dispute between the city and the Houston firefighters’ union, and unveiled a plan to address high water bills. He pointed to dealmaking abilities he developed as a legislator as key to many of those successes.
“I come up with solutions and ideas from living here, growing up here, being a public servant here for 50 years,” Whitmire said.
Public safety was at the forefront of much of that work, whether it was working to stretch the city’s already tight budget to fund police pay raises and cadet classes or taking criticism for a plan to fund police work with the METRO budget.
Confidence and criticism
Whitmire said his proudest achievement has been “restoring the people’s confidence in city government.”
He also faced criticism throughout the year after butting heads with protesters, community advocates and Hidalgo, with whom he still has not had an official meeting.
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This year will bring its own set of challenges, including a growing budget deficit made worse by the firefighter deal he negotiated. Solving the budget issues will require Whitmire to use his political skills to gather public support for cuts to city services, an increase in taxes or a combination of both.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said it is clear Whitmire’s legislative experience is influencing his governing style. Working as a Democrat in a Senate chamber dominated by Republicans and led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick required Whitmire to be pragmatic, and he found success with that approach. Before he resigned his seat, Whitmire was the only Democratic chair of a Senate committee, the committee on criminal justice.
Those skills, however, do not translate directly to the work of mayor, Rottinghaus said.
“Legislators are known for doing their casework,” Whitmire said. “They’re presented with a problem … and they can fix that one problem. Bigger picture strategic planning isn’t something legislators often do.”
Turner, who transitioned from the state House to the mayor’s office in 2016, said he leaned most on his experience leading his private law firm rather than his legislative experience. The legislature is about solving specific problems, sometimes across multiple legislative sessions. The mayor’s office requires more planning and execution of a long-term vision for the city, Turner added.
“You have to provide that vision, that direction, that leadership to get buy-in across the city because you need everyone pulling in the same direction,” said Turner, who ran for and won Jackson Lee’s seat in Congress.
Whitmire has tried to bring elements from the legislature to City Hall, such as adding a committee to vet council-driven ordinance proposals. The council, however, largely has bypassed the committee.
A series of natural disasters over the first half of the year tested Whitmire’s abilities as a manager rather than a legislator.
Whitmire noted the 24/7 nature of the job when compared to his legislative work. He’s had to get used to fielding calls at all hours of the day for emergencies ranging from broken water mains to the deaths of first responders.
The mayor positioned himself as the leader of local emergency response to a deep freeze in January, flooding in Kingwood and the derecho in May, and Hurricane Beryl in early July. He hosted regular news conferences throughout each incident, once memorably arguing with Hidalgo at a joint presser in May.
His frosty relationship with Hidalgo has been the subject of several news stories, including one regarding a since-deleted Facebook comment last summer in which the mayor said the county judge’s fiance “looks like a nerd.” In December, Whitmire suggested Hidalgo would not run for reelection, a comment she called “completely untrue.”
Whitmire has a closer relationship with three other members of Harris County Commissioners Court, partnering with their offices on public events and announcements. That friendly association does not extend to Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a close ally of Hidalgo and Turner.
Year 2 challenges
The sparring between Hidalgo and Whitmire is born out of ideological differences and differing constituencies. Whitmire was elected by a coalition of moderate voters while promising to work with state Republicans, while Hidalgo enjoys rock-solid support from the county’s progressives and is in frequent conflict with state Republicans, said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.
“(Whitmire) sees her presence as county judge as an obstacle to many of the things he wants to do in the city,” Jones said.
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Whitmire acknowledged that he has generated controversy from off-the-cuff comments, but said he prefers to be transparent about what he’s thinking, even if it gets him in trouble from time to time.
“I should have kept my mouth shut, but that’s not necessarily who I am,” he said.
Whitmire’s use of the bully pulpit, a mainstay of life as a Texas lawmaker, was at the center of another key accomplishment from his first year, the negotiation of a labor contract with Houston’s firefighter union.
The contract dispute began under Turner’s administration and continued for eight years, spawning an acrimonious relationship between the firefighters’ union and the former mayor. Whitmire ran on a promise to bring an end to the dispute, and he announced a $1.5 billion contract and backpay settlement with the union after just four months in office.
That deal faced pushback from Controller Chris Hollins and a handful of council members, who argued the city was overpaying and the deal would blow a hole in the city budget.
Over the course of several weeks, Whitmire hosted multiple news conferences where he criticized Hollins’ position and leaned on City Council to approve the deal.
Despite the initial resistance, the contract and settlement was approved unanimously by City Council.
This year will put the dealmaking abilities Whitmire honed in the state capitol to practice.
The mayor has promised to announce a revenue-generating plan to cover the budget shortfall, but details so far remain limited.
He also said his relationships in Austin will allow the city to receive assistance from the state government to address the funding issues. The Texas Legislature opens its 140-day session Tuesday. He met with Patrick last month, a departure from years of icy relations between the city and the state under Turner.
Rottinghaus said the political implications of state Republicans giving money to a big Democratic city will make life difficult for Whitmire, regardless of his connections in Austin. But the newly opened lines of communication between Austin and Houston put the city in a better spot than it was under Turner, he added.
“It’s hard to know, in terms of dollars and cents, what it means for the city, but definitely improved communication is a step in the right direction,” Rottinghaus said.
Whitmire also has floated the ideas of a garbage fee and creating exceptions for the local cap on property taxes as additional ways to generate revenue, but no further details have been provided. The mayor has said he is awaiting the results of audits that could help decide where to cut spending and increase revenue.
Whitmire said his work during his first year has positioned him to be able to tackle the budget and any other issues that may arise in 2025.
“We’ve got some real serious problems and challenges, but that gets back to the confidence level,” Whitmire said. “People trust that I’m going to do the right thing.”
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