Legal Commentary

Mayor White's management

By Tom Kirkendall

Help me out here. I'm really trying to understand the basis of the perception among a large number of Houstonians that Mayor Bill White is an effective manager.

For example, this earlier post summarized Mayor White's dubious decision-making in regard to having the city buy expensive and not particularly well-located downtown land for the new Houston Dynamo soccer stadium. Not only did the city already own nearby property that is a better location for the stadium, Mayor White pushed through the land acquisition despite not having a binding commitment from the soccer club owners on the amount of their contribution to the cost of the stadium's construction.

Given the foregoing, who except Mayor White was surprised last week when Major League Soccer (which is really just a minor soccer league) sent a letter to the Dynamo owners that was (again, surprise!) passed along to Mayor White that threatens to relocate the Dynamo if a satisfactory stadium deal isn't reached? For good measure, MLS and Dynamo officials informed the city that the estimated price of the stadium has increased from $90 million to $105 million and that some MLS cities have contributed as much as 90% of the cost of similar stadiums.

So, what was Mayor White's reaction? Tell these minor leaguers to take a hike to Corpus Christi or Beaumont? Apologize to the citizens for having the city lay out $15-20 million for property that it doesn't need? Promise that he won't get taken to the cleaners again in negotiations with minor league sports club owners? No, Mayor White did his best tough guy imitation:

"I've gotten a little bit of a reputation, probably deserved, that I don't respond well to threats," he said. "I smiled."

If Mayor White is smiling, then imagine what the MLS and Dynamo officials are doing after the way in which those minor leaguers have had their way with Mayor Bill in these negotiations?

The only good news about all this is that the $50-75 million that the city will probably end up dropping over this soccer stadium boondoggle represents only about a couple of months of losses of this much larger boondoggle, which -- you guessed it -- Mayor White strongly supports. And those aren't the only questionable management decisions that the Mayor has made during his tenure (for example, see here, here, here and here).

How much longer can Houston afford Bill White?

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).