The engineers think so. The Mayor, not so much.
Mayor John Whitmire
Mayor John Whitmire received a written rebuke from a national engineering group over plans to change city ordinance to no longer require an engineer to head Houston Public Works, according to a letter obtained by the Chronicle.
In a Nov. 7 letter, the American Society of Civil Engineers, which calls itself the “nation’s oldest engineering society,” expressed concerns about the potential change being heard at this week’s city council meeting, writing that the administration should maintain its engineering requirement for the director position should that role “continue to oversee the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of engineered public infrastructure systems that directly affect public health, safety and welfare.”
ASCE president Feniosky Peña-Mora, referencing the organization’s policy, wrote the organization encouraged “the selection and appointment of licensed professional engineers to government agency positions” that lead policy and practice surrounding public infrastructure.
The engineering organization felt it was important to highlight that keeping the public works director’s engineer requirement “ensures public safety is upheld,” an ASCE spokesperson wrote in an email Tuesday morning.
[…]
Houston City Council will hear the potential change at their Wednesday meeting.
The change, if passed Wednesday, wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the position’s current engineer requirement but expand the purview of who could take on the role. Newport previously said the ordinance would allow someone who was either an engineer or had experience leading a large organization to be the department’s leader.
Current city ordinance requires the Houston Public Works head to be a professional engineer registered in Texas. The administration has yet to provide a copy of the proposal to the Chronicle, nor has it posted publicly on this week’s council agenda.
The potential ordinance change would allow the administration to appoint Randy Macchi – the department’s chief operating officer, who has been leading the department alongside city engineer Richard Smith since April – to take on the role of director. Macchi’s appointment is also on Wednesday’s council agenda.
This earlier Chron story has some more details. I was with the ASCE up until that last paragraph above. If Randy Macchi has that kind of experience in this department, it’s hard for me to say he’s not qualified to lead it even if he isn’t an engineer. I get the ACSE’s objections and I think that they’re basically right, but perhaps they’re being too rigid in this case. I’m open to persuasion from the engineers out there, but I’m inclined to think the Mayor gets to pick their person, within reason. If it blows up in the Mayor’s face down the line, they’ll have to own that. What do you think?
In-house training to circumvent the ordinance, what else is new? He probably wants someone there to do his bidding, right, boss? Imagine Lina doing that; the Chronicle would be all over her.
Bad idea. Expertise and relevant experience/ education ought to be non-negotiable here. I wouldn’t go to a civil engineer for legal advice. Likewise I don’t want a lawyer as head of public works.