THE ANNISE PARKER ADMINISTRATION started making headway today on another of many problems they inherited from former Mayor Bill White.
Jim Noteware, the person Mayor Parker appointed to reshape the city’s troubled Houston and Community Development Department, announced a significant downsizing at the organization:
The Houston Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) today announced a restructuring that will restore financial integrity, improve performance and facilitate expansion of the mission to include a new focus on community development.
“This is a top to bottom reorganization reflecting our commitment to improved operations and changing the overall culture and public perception of HCD,” said HCD Director Jim Noteware. “It involves everything from greater focus on communication and transparency to improved staff training and enhanced monitoring of compliance with federal and state guidelines. This department has had difficulties for years. Mayor Parker’s charge was to fix it. This plan will do just that.”
The restructuring includes a reduction in force of 29 positions. “This step is necessary to reduce spending that has exceeded our allowance for administration of the grants that we manage,” said Mr. Noteware. “We have to live within our means.”
Frankly, this city department probably is still larger than it should be, but we commend Mayor Parker and her staff on the downsizing. We’re not quite sure why they saved it for a Friday, though. We would have tried to get this “good government” story on all the news broadcasts at the start of the week.
