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A question was proposed to us at the city at the last council meeting, “What is the City of Houston’s mission statement?”
I could not spout it off the top of my head, and still now I have struggled with finding the answer. I worked on a revamp of our mission statement in 2018 when I sat on the council but finding it has become quite a hunt for me. This, then, of course, got me to think, why is it not easier to find, why is it not forefront on our city website and on our literature for the City of Houston?
I was however able to find the two standards that the City of Houston is dedicated to in our personnel handbook, 1.)To provide our citizens with the best quality services at the best possible prices and 2.) To provide employees with wages and benefits comparable to others doing similar work within the industry and within the region.
The updating of the city’s commitment, standard and mission statements needs to reflect the time that we are in now and be easily accessible to all who ask for it and a guiding beacon that we need to follow in every decision that is made.
“Is it what is best for the largest quantity of people, is this beneficial to the residents of Houston, are we prioritizing the money that you all have entrusted us with to the best possible use for the City?”
This last month in the city has been another busy month. The City of Houston airport project, which will be fixing issues that we have had with the airport lights, started on July 24. We will be shutting down the City of Houston Airport while it is being updated and fixed.
The city’s overlay program will be starting soon and with the money that is collected through the road tax, the citizens passed, we were able to add two more streets and repave the cemetery roads to use the full amount. We are excited for the joining of Officer Cathryn Davis to our City of Houston Police force who will be the new school resource officer at the Houston School District.
We are thrilled to progress on our fiber project by contracting out to a splicing contractor who will help speed up the hookups on the south side of town and get residents and businesses who have signed up finally up and running. We are also gearing up to get the “Community Planning and Development” position finalized and advertised which we are hoping helps bridge a gap that we are currently missing in the city.
Several of our committee meetings have taken place where they have been working on updating our purchasing policy, travel policy, credit card usage policy, updating our ordinance on electrical hookups for subdivisions or large developments, updating outdated wording in our water hookups and joining in the IDA community meetings, where many items are brainstormed and focused on a giant effort of many different organizations and entities to help bring in or update things in the City of Houston.
While there are still many areas the city is diligently working on and catching up on, the one thing I continue to see is how much people want to see progress and teamwork. We are working hard to focus on our long-range planning and really pushing toward “Houston, The Good Life” and showcasing the amazing places and people that we have here in Houston and how lucky we are to have the infrastructure, industry, school, business, parks and outdoor recreation that is present in Houston.
VIKI NARANCICH,
MAYOR,
CITY OF HOUSTON