Progressives fret over Turner’s agenda focus
Chief of staff’s departure worries allies advocating for social justice
The resignation of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s top deputy — a social justice advocate and one of the mayor’s few confidants in a sea of senior staff appointed by the previous mayor — is fueling worry among aides and allies about the administration’s commitment to the progressive policy goals on which he campaigned.
Turner for months has downplayed his unusual decision to entrust much of the implementation and communication of his policies to his predecessor’s staff, urging focus on bigticket accomplishments, such as bringing a pension reform deal to the state legislature, soothing tempers on City Council and closing last year’s $160 million budget gap.
However, Chief of Staff Alison Brock’s departure just 15 months into Turner’s term has stoked renewed angst among supporters who think Turner has not championed the progressive platform for which they worked to get him elected.
“We’re a little concerned, because she was that voice at the table, so we were confident our concerns were being heard,” said Tarsha Jackson of the Texas Organizing Project. “Now, we’re just hopeful the mayor gets someone that shares his vision, the vision that he had when he ran for office. We don’t have an ally in the mayor’s office right now.”
Jackson, who met and befriended Brock in 2004 when she was Turner’s legislative aide, said TOP’s attempts to reform city economic development policies have stalled, despite Brock’s support.
Labor leader Linda Morales said the same of her efforts to push an ordinance asking city contractors to provide better wages, community engagement and job training.
“Labor wants to be a partner with the mayor,” she said. “We want him to speak to his staff and get on the program with us because it’s his agenda we’re trying to push.”
‘Maybe too cautious’
Turner distinguished himself as a candidate on such issues, calling for a higher minimum wage and pushing the city to require recipients of tax incentives to pay higher salaries. He also decried Houston’s economic inequality, stressing the need to “build a city for the middle class.”
Despite maintaining similar rhetoric in office, the mayor has hesitated to bring forward sweeping progressive policy proposals. His much-hyped “Complete Communities” plan aimed at revitalizing Houston’s under-served neighborhoods, for example, still awaits implementation. As for employee benefits, the city passed an ordinance last year suggesting companies seeking tax breaks offer additional benefits but did not require them to do so.
“The mayor is being cautious, in my opinion maybe too cautious. He’s got issues he wants to pass at the state Legislature, so he’s trying to make his way through the land mines without having folks hurt his possibility of passing pension reform,” said Morales, of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. “I understand that totally, but there’s other things I know, as a collective, progressives want to move.”
The mayor bristled at any perception of sluggish progress.
“Compare my track record with any previous mayor, and if they did as much. Name me one mayor in the last 20 years that has brought forth a pension reform package to this point. … Name me one mayor that has attended more events than I have,” Turner told reporters. “Even though I came in on a very close vote, I have governed in a very uniform, universal fashion.”
Texas Southern University political scientist Jay Aiyer largely agreed.
“Other than (former Mayor Bob) Lanier, he’s probably the most successful first-term mayor I’ve seen,” said Aiyer, who served as former mayor Lee Brown’s chief of staff.
Turner also listed a series of appointments, from police chief to city attorney and director of government relations.
Turner has tapped several new department directors and created such positions as chief resilience officer and education czar, though public education does not fall under the city’s purview.
Parker holdovers
Yet, roughly two-thirds of those who regularly attend senior staff meetings were appointed by former Mayor Annise Parker, including the communications staff, chief operating officer, chief development officer, chief financial officer and council liaison.
Parker, like Turner, advocated for her share of progressive causes, including enhancing green space, combating homelessness and introducing an equal rights ordinance. Her policy agenda differed widely from Turner’s, however, particularly when it came to economic development.
Whereas Parker approached development with an eye toward catalyzing growth, Turner chiefly is concerned with economic justice.
“I am committed to making sure that we do not have two cities in one — of haves and have-nots,” the mayor said in his inauguration speech, and regularly repeats.
On the campaign trail, Turner often criticized a Parker program that sought to lure residential housing downtown by subsidizing up to $15,000 per apartment without requiring developers to set aside any affordable units.
She also expanded 15 of the city’s 26 economic development zones and approved 27 tax reimbursement deals known as 380 agreements, many with giants such as Schlumberger, Halliburton and UPS.
These efforts were spearheaded by Chief Development Officer Andy Icken, who some council members referred to openly as the “mini-mayor” for the sway he held over policy.
Turner has kept Icken in the same role, even tasking him with shepherding his Complete Communities initiative.
“It’s the same Andy. I don’t see anything different in that office. I don’t see a vision out of that office,” Morales said. “Staff is instrumental in moving stuff. (The mayor) cannot have his hand on everything. His staff has to prepare him, has to brief him, and has to be a mover of policy.”
Icken did not respond to a request for comment.
“If you didn’t view the Parker administration as particularly successful and all you’re left with is people from the Parker administration … I think it certainly would be of some concern,” Aiyer said. Development aside, Frances Valdez, state director of the immigration group United We Dream and a member of Turner’s criminal justice transition committee, questioned the mayor’s reluctance to weigh in on the national immigration debate.
“I had hoped that the mayor would have developed or implemented actual policies, especially to protect the immigrant community, and it seems like all he’s willing to do is make broad statements, which doesn’t actually provide protection,” Valdez said. “Saying Houston is a welcoming city doesn’t actually provide protection.”
Staff needs ‘same vision’
Some advocates said they view Chief Policy Officer Janice Evans, also the mayor’s communications director, as an impediment to a more aggressive stance on such issues. Evans oversees the mayoral staffers who focus on immigration issues, but advocates say she has shown little interest in engaging with their concerns.
Evans, who did not return a call for comment about the advocates’ concerns, earlier this week said who fills senior staff roles matters less than what the mayor directs those employees to do, arguing each mayor’s vision is implemented by default with each daily decision.
Jackson was skeptical of that view.
“Ensuring that he has people around him that have the same compassion and the same vision he does, nothing will fall through the cracks,” she said. “He can’t be in four or five places at one time, and that’s what I see him doing.”
rebecca.elliott@chron.com twitter.com/rfelliott mike.morris@chron.com twitter.com/mmorris011