Ironically, a couple of days after Chief Clarence C.O. Bradford visited Malonson Company Inc. and charmed all of the employees who took photos with him, an article broke in Houston’s only daily newspaper that Mayor Lee P. Brown had offered him a better job. It seems that Don Hollingsworth, the current senior executive assistant to the mayor and director of Public Safety is retiring and Brown allegedly is gung ho about filling the position with his very capable police chief.
Incidentally, as excited as our younger employees were to meet their police chief, up close and personal for the first time, Bradford is definitely no stranger to Malonson Company, Inc. He was an ardent supporter of Acres Home Citizens Chamber of Commerce long before he became chief. In fact, Bradford, a Louisiana native, is good people, therefore he gravitates toward good people like Beulah Shepard and the kind of good neighbors whose families mostly migrated from rural areas to settle in the predominately northwest Houston community.

With that said, let’s look into why term limits is the worse thing that ever happened to Black Houstonians. As the public safety director plot thickens, the mainstream media kept reminding us that it made no difference whether Bradford accepted Brown’s offer or not, since it would only be a short term problem (for those who have a problem with having too many Black faces in high places), because term limits will change the complexion of city government profoundly in less than two years. Ideally, Houston’s strong mayor constitution affords incoming chief executives the right to bring their own gang with them.

Consequently, even if Bradford took the civilian post of public safety director, the next mayor could tell him “Hasta la Vista Baby,” before he broke in his new chair. So what’s up with the rumor that materialized in the July 3-9, 2002 Houston Forward Times-- that asked the question, “Is Chief Bradford being groomed for mayor?” That question must be answered with the question, “By whom?” We Must Understand, the rich and powerful people who groomed Mayor Lee P. Brown to become Houston’s first minority chief executive are as mad as hell at him. The media is still taking unkind pot shots at Brown (see Publisher’s Analysis for related article), even as his days dwindle down to a precious few.

Therefore, we’re curious why a political astute person with a sober mind, would ask such a dumb question? If the so-called “City Hall source,” is hinting that Bradford is being surreptitiously recruited to negate the obvious candidacy of Rep. Sylvester Turner, he or she is not only insulting Houston’s Black community, but is also playing the dozens with Bradford. Bradford wasn’t raised like that. In fact, he just might get angry enough to use that word (the vindictive police captain wanted him charged with perjury for allegedly using in the distant past), to infer that he could be used as a political pawn to sell his people out.

Come on Black Houston, you can think better than that. Can’t you see where the city’s political movers and shakers are going with that? Hasn’t it occurred to you that Brown has taken the city in a direction that Houston’s movers and shakers had no intentions of going? Brown, in essence, was anointed by Bob Lanier’s people and was expected to stay on course. His quest for light rail alone, was enough to make him Lanier’s public enemy number one. Even so, Brown is on the way out, so what difference does it make who he hires? It might surprise you, but Black Houston has some backrooms where African-Americans political plotters meet too.

So what? That’s a good question and I’m glad you asked. However, I don’t want to give away too many trade secrets, but there is a rumor in the ‘hood that those buttons proclaiming that it’s “Turner Time ” definitely aren’t fashion statements. Meanwhile, it should be obvious that Turner’s second bid for city hall isn’t being taken lightly by Houston’s political conservative element. And it’s certainly no secret that Turner endorsed many of Brown’s programs and considers Chief Bradford a valuable asset to all of Houston.

We Must Understand, term limits negated Black Houston’s political power base. It wasn’t so much that term limits eliminated our veteran City Councilmembers, but made it impossible for our councilmembers to become veterans. Councilmembers who would have made Brown the strongest mayor in the nation, instead of dividing and confusing the Black community that could have been better served if old pros like Councilman Ernest McGowen would have been allowed to pass the baton, rather than have District B split into warring factions. Then again, if Lanier hadn’t been eliminated by term limits, Brown very well may still be waiting in the wings to succeed him.
Consequently, we can only speculate about what could have been without term limits… limiting our councilmember’s effectiveness. On the other hand, before we got side tracked it was our intent to present the strongest argument against term limits. In researching our article, we accessed the City of Houston’s web site to learn just what a director of public safety does. It suddenly struck us how complex our city is. Other than having 14 (nine district and five at-large) Councilmembers, we have about 20 specific city departments that have departments within departments.

In the past, we have taken a shortcut and called our City Councilmember’s office for information. Carol Galloway readily admits that her staff was almost as clueless as citizens about some departments during her first term. She doesn’t stutter when she says that her predecessor left her absolutely nothing to ease her transition to the City Council. Now she can boast about a very efficient staff that knows its way around city hall. Nevertheless, if she serves a third term, that very efficient staff will be term limited with her and it will be back to square one for citizens in District B.
Surely, political and civic logic dictate that well-informed, veteran public servants that have established congenial, ongoing relationships with bureaucrats working in the city’s multitude of divisions, rather than starting over every six years would much better serve citizens. Complacency aside, efficiency engendered by consistency is the strongest argument that citizens should have against term limits.