Scott Boates
This week I will run interviews with some candidates who are challenging Council incumbents, some of whom entered their races more recently in the cycle. I will finish the Council races with At Large #5 next week, then the Mayor and Controller, and finally on to the HISD and HCC races. Today’s interview is with Scott Boates, who is running in At Large #1. Boates is an attorney who served as a Municipal Judge for six years before stepping down this year. Here’s our conversation:
You can find a list of all interviews for this cycle, plus other related information, on my 2011 Elections page.
While I support another candidate, I was impressed at the recent Heights/West End forum that Mr. Boates had the gumption to indicate that superneighborhoods, while important to city decisions, should not have complete control over decisions in their areas, and that decisions should be made with the whole city in mind.
I’ve known Scott for 20 years and as both a personal friend and our family’s attorney, he has always been top-notch in every respect. The residents of Houston would do well to elect someone with common sense, something that’s sadly not so common any more. Scott has solid ideas for mainstreaming many aspects of city government, and instead of proposing more bureaucracy as the cure for what ails Houstonians, he’s actually championing less of it. He’s smart enough to understand that in tough economic times, people don’t want more fees, taxes, or a handful of special interests getting fat on the public dime. Scott’s not a radical, he’s not an idealist, and he’s not an opportunist. He’s solid, smart, genuine, and determined. ‘Bout time someone like this made a run for public office.