The Job Hunt..

With Mayor Bill White's tenure at City Hall winding down, more and more staffers are finding other places to land.  Though White's long time right hand man, Michael Moore, has not said publically where he will land, other senior staffers are finding new employment.

White's Director of Communications, Frank Michel, will be heading to the Texas Heart Institute, where he will head up the public relations division.  His last day is the end of the week.  With 160 doctors in the institute, I'm sure Michel will be busy.  Meanwhile, Press Secretary Pat Trahan will be making the transition to the Houston Fire Department.  Let's hope Trahan will help the department move away from the Friday late afternoon news releases.  That's what happened last Friday with the suspected Heights arsonist arrest.  The news release was sent out so late in the day that it even caught some Senior Command Staff at the fire department off guard.

City Attorney Arturo Michel, who came from the private sector, is expected to head back into the corporate world.  So far, Ann Travis, the Mayor's Director of Government Affairs, has not said where she will go.  Travis is the former District Director for then Majority Leader Tom DeLay.  She's got lots of connections on all sides of the aisle, so she should be landing somewhere fairly high profile.

A number of career civil servants in City Hall are expected to stay put, that includes the Director of Special Events Susan Christian, who manages to keep track of all those parade routes year after year.

It brings to question who will be populating the new Mayor's inner circle, whenever the new Mayor is elected.  Janice Evans, who has been Controller Annise Parker's right hand woman for quite a while, is expected to remain with Parker should she win the election.  As for Locke, since he is not a current elected official, he doesn't have a chief of staff that would obviously move with him to City Hall should he win.

Make no mistake about it, there are plenty of people who are angling for jobs, and a few who want to return to a city job.  For example, I ran into Jordy Tollet (the former head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau) a few months ago.  He made it very clear to me that he would love to return to City Hall, and have been chatting with the mayoral candidates to see if that can be accomplished.  Similarly, almost-candidate Bill King is widely rumored to be eyeing the job as head of the Board at METRO.  King has never denied the rumor the few times I've asked him about it.

So there you have it, the musical chairs have started at City Hall, we'll just have to see where all the pieces fall.

Comments

[Houstonian]

Maybe the HFD press release was sent out because it was late breaking news? LIke that never happens! Get a grip of reality! I mean HFD could have waited till MOnday to send it out then Media would be even more ticked off.

[pixiegirl]

First, Patrick is too good to go to HFD, but perhaps he can straighten their press office out. Good luck!

Frank Michel is a keeper. Good for the Texas Heart Inst. for grabbing him.

Something tells me that Michael Moore and Ann Travis stay with Bill White campaign team.

Janice Evans is top-notch. If Parker wins, she'll have a great spot!

Oh, and if Parker wins, King will be banished from the kingdom for sure. The closest he'll get to METRO, is riding the bus!