In 1982, Houston residents elected the city’s first female mayor, Kathryn Jean Whitmire. She was the city’s 57th mayor, and served for 10 years (1982-1992), at a time when the oil boom in the city began to decline. Whitmire was able to overcome the oil crisis. She was cold, distant and acted like a technocrat, seeking efficiency by cutting wasteful budget spending and insisting on higher productivity for urban workers rather than raising taxes. As a result, she was frequently the target of criticism. Find out more information on the mayor’s life and professional path, as well as her key achievements in the office, at houston-yes.com.
Education
Kathryn was born on August 15, 1946, in Houston to a family of electrician Carl Niederhofer and his wife Ida. After graduating from San Jacinto High School, she went on to the University of Houston, where in 1968 she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting with honors. In 1970, she received a Master of Accountancy degree. In the same year, 1970, she officially married her fellow student James M. Whitmire.
“Ice lady”
In 1970, Kathryn got a position in the Houston office of the accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. While working to qualify as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), she and her husband James established an accounting firm. At the same time, she lectured at the Department of Business Management at the University of Houston.
James ran for Houston City Council twice but failed to win both times. When her husband was diagnosed with diabetes, Kathryn left her job (she was an audit manager at Coopers and Lybrand at the time) to care for him. Whitmire passed away in 1977 following a fatal illness.
Interestingly, the woman never used this tragic story to gain sympathy for her own political goals. Kathryn has even been dubbed the “ice lady” for her ability to remain cool and composed in public.
City Controller
In 1977, inspired by the women’s movement, the widow campaigned for the city controller, Houston’s second most powerful governmental position. As the chief financial officer of the city, the city controller is responsible for guaranteeing appropriate accounting and asset utilization. Whitmire was the first woman to be elected to a municipal position in Houston.
Kathryn had a reputation for being stern and demanding as the leading critic of the then-mayor due to his inefficiency and sloppy management. During her tenure as city controller, the woman reformed the pension system and avoided tax increases thanks to innovations in water management. She also criticized the mayor’s street opinion poll, calling it a pointless waste of 1.3 million dollars from the city budget. The politician was also opposed to the idea of raising the salaries of city officials.
Mayor of Houston
With the promise to effectively manage the city as a corporate organization, Whitmire entered the mayoral campaign in 1981. Her candidature was supported by a coalition of various local women’s organizations, leaders of African-Americans and Latinos, some trade unions and LGBT communities. Kathryn took the lead in the nonpartisan election and defeated the local sheriff in the second round. In January 1982, Whitmire officially took over as mayor and became Houston’s first female mayor.
In addition to the drop in oil prices, there was a fall in city tax income and an increase in the number of vacancies in office premises. By 1983, Houston was in a period of decline. If there was a labor shortage in the city previously, following the downturn in the oil boom, the unemployment rate rose to 10%. Even under such challenging circumstances, Whitmire kept her electoral pledges. The mayor, in particular, renovated city streets, improved garbage collection and increased the efficiency of city employees.
To address crime, she hired over 1,000 extra police officers and doubled the number of officers on the street, using civil workers rather than police personnel. Whitmire was able to alleviate racial tensions by appointing the first African-American police chief.
Despite her many accomplishments, voters had an unfavorable opinion of Whitmire’s first term. Kathryn was unable to get public support for a new transportation system, failed to establish contact with the city council and caused outrage among the police by increasing insurance costs. Furthermore, Houston was in chaos during her tenure owing to fallen tree branches and debris from structures caused by Hurricane Alicia.
Anyway, Whitmire was elected again and again. In the years that followed, the mayor encountered a number of serious challenges in her administration. She worked tirelessly to improve urban workers’ productivity and eliminate waste. At the same time, the lady did not want to burden the city’s citizens, therefore she did not raise taxes despite a significant loss in income.
Whitmire flatly refused to raise taxes in the face of a dramatic drop in oil prices in 1986, which resulted in even lower tax revenues. Instead, the politician lowered the city’s labor force and government servants’ payment by 3%.
During her second term, Kathryn put forward legislation outlawing workplace discrimination against homosexuals. This sparked outrage in then-conservative Houston, prompting a statewide referendum in 1985, in which 82% of Texans voted against the decree. In 1989-1990, during her last term as mayor, Whitmire chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Post-political career
After losing the election in 1991, Kathryn worked as the Director of the Rice Institute for Policy Analysis and as the CEO of Junior Achievement, a nonprofit youth organization that provides free business and economics training to young people.
Following that, the former politician began teaching at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she served as director of the Rice Institute for Policy Analysis and conducted public relations seminars. In 1996, Whitmire was elected president of the American Public Transportation Association. This organization represents all forms of public transportation in North America, including buses, light trams, commuter rail, subways, etc. Later, the lady departed Harvard to teach public policy, management and political science at the University of Maryland.
In 2001, the woman relocated to Hawaii, where she became a real estate investor. In 2002, she married for the second time. In 2005, she became a volunteer president for the Outdoor Circle, an organization dedicated to preserving Hawaii’s beauty by eradicating late blight.
In 2009, Kathryn’s longtime friend, Annise Parker, ran for mayor of Houston. Whitmire traveled to Houston to show her support and to arrange a fundraiser. Parker won the election, becoming the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city and the city’s second female mayor.