Turner, Hidalgo drop GHP luncheons over chamber’s silence on voting bills
Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo no longer plan to hold their annual state of the city and county addresses with the Greater Houston Partnership because of the chamber group’s silence on bills in the Texas Legislature that the pair say will add unacceptable obstacles to voting.
The move, which the pair announced at a Wednesday news conference, was a rare public rebuke of the region’s largest chamber of commerce, which typically has enjoyed a close relationship with Houston-area politicians. Hidalgo’s comments amounted to an accusation of cowardice, echoing comments a prominent Black member of the partnership board made a day earlier.
“We can’t in good conscience stand at the dais of the partnership when their will to represent their members and their community so easily crumbles in a time of need,” Hidalgo
said. “We do not feel comfortable letting them after seeing them shrink from the civil rights fight of our time.”
Hidalgo said she will announce a new venue for her annual address at a later date. Turner said he instead would have Houston First Corp., the city’s convention arm, host his state of the city speech.
“I think it’s important this year for me to find that venue that better reflects the diversity of our city and the values we hold so dear,” Turner said.
A group of GHP board members said the partnership’s leaders stifled their attempts to get the group to speak out against parts of Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6.
Hidalgo and Turner had been urging business leaders to oppose the bills, which would limit polling hours, ban drive-thru voting, loosen restrictions on poll watchers and streamline voter roll purges.
Harris County’s elections administrator said a key provision of the Senate voting bill will result in the shifting of polling sites away from inner Houston, which has higher concentrations of Black and Latino voters, to outlying areas populated with higher numbers of white voters.
The Greater Houston Partnership, founded in 1840, boasts more than 1,000 members — including numerous Fortune 500 companies — and is one of the most influential business groups in the state. The partnership’s executive committee and board of directors are formed by a who’s-who of Houston business leaders, including Heidi Cruz, a managing director at Goldman Sachs and the wife of Sen. Ted Cruz; Scott McClelland, president of H-E-B; and Tilman Fertitta, owner of Landry's Inc. and the Rockets.
Turner in particular has established close ties with the GHP and Houston’s business community, winning the support of the partnership and other business leaders on his plan to overhaul the city’s pension systems in 2017.
The GHP and its president, Bob Harvey, also have put their weight behind Turner’s signature programs, such as his youth summer jobs program and his neighborhood revitalization program, both of which rely on help from the private sector.
The partnership regularly lobbies the Legislature and uses committees to help craft policy positions. It has waded into controversial topics in the past, such as the 2017 effort by business groups to prevent passage of the so-called bathroom bill. The GHP also publicly supported the Houston anti-discrimination ordinance that was defeated by voters in 2015 and warned of adverse affects for business after the measure failed.
The partnership issued a statement saying it regretted Hidalgo and Turner had canceled the annual luncheons, which its members “greatly enjoy.” The statement said there is no consensus among members on the voting bills, which prevents the group from taking a stance on the legislation.
Board members told the Houston Chronicle, however, that GHP leadership had declined to hold a special meeting at which a consensus could be reached.
Hidalgo also questioned the partnership’s commitment to fighting racial injustice the group made after the killing of former Houston resident George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last summer, given its inaction on the voting bills.
“The blunt truth is, you cannot stand for that and at the same time stay silent on voter suppression,” Hidalgo said. “The right to vote is at the core of all of those rights.”
Houston mayors and Harris County judges traditionally have delivered their annual state of the city and county addresses at luncheons hosted by the GHP in a downtown ballroom. The events offer an opportunity for political and business leaders to rub shoulders and lay out an agenda for public-private cooperation in the coming year. Companies typically pay thousands of dollars to sponsor the event and secure a table.
The GHP has hosted Turner’s state of the city address during each of his first five years in office. The mayor typically has used the speeches to announce new policies, including in 2018 when he floated the idea of adjusting the city’s property tax revenue cap to fund more police, or last year when he announced a plan aimed at drawing private investment to city parks.
Many GHP board members have ties to Turner dating back to his time in the Legislature, and many receive contracts from the city, have donated numerous times to the mayor’s campaign, or both. The partnership also has sponsored numerous overseas trade missions taken by Turner and his top aides.
Hidalgo has delivered two annual speeches with the GHP since taking office in 2019.
Former Mayor Annise Parker said GHP leadership was not immediately on board with the 2015 anti-discrimination ordinance, but the group ultimately took a stance following “a number of conversations.”
“It wasn’t that they were aggressively opposed,” Parker said. “But they had to be convinced that it was an important issue and that there was a business impact.”
Parker said she stopped attending events organized by some groups that came out against the anti-discrimination ordinance and likely would have delivered her state of the city speech elsewhere if the GHP had opposed the measure.
“Had the partnership come out on the wrong side of the HERO (Houston Equal Rights) ordinance, I don’t think I could have held an event that they were sponsoring,” Parker said.
The voting rights dispute is not the first split between the GHP and local leaders. Former County Judge Ed Emmett canceled his partnership-hosted state of the county luncheon in 2017 after the partnership supported property tax cap legislation he thought was harmful to the county. He gave the address at the countyowned NRG Park in November of that year.
Turner and Hidalgo praised the work of the partnership and said the city and county have each paid their annual dues to the group. Harris County’s annual contribution is $30,000, while the city’s is $80,000.