2023
READERS’ CHOICE
Brandani’s Restaurant & Wine Bar - Page 6
281.690.4200 WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 13, 2023
Former Sugar Land city manager Allen Bogard files Precinct 3 commissioner By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Editor’s note: Look for a round-up of filings in Fort Bend County races in the March primary at FortBendStar.com and next week’s edition. The increasingly crowded field in next year’s race for Fort Bend Precinct 3 Commissioner this week gained a prominent name - Allen Bogard, who served as Sugar Land city manager for nearly two decades. Late last week, Bogard announced that he was filing for the March 5 Democratic Party primary for the seat, which has been held for nearly 30 years by Republican Andy Meyers. Bogard joins at least two other people running in the Democratic primary - Taral Patel, formerly chief of staff to County Judge KP George, and educator Kiran Rao. Meyers, who months ago announced his intention to run again for the seat he’s held since the early 1990s, is being challenged in the Republican primary by Sugar Land businessman Mike Khan. The competition for the race reflects the changes in the precinct’s boundaries after a highly contentious 2021 redistricting vote following the 2020 Census, pushed through by a new Democratic majority on Commissioners Court. Meyers is one of two Republicans left on the court, which had been held by the GOP for decades. The redistricting shifted the boundaries of Precinct 3, which had been centered in the Katy area, toward the Sugar Land, Stafford, Missouri City and Meadows Place area. In an interview with the Fort Bend Star, Bogard, who served as Sugar Land city manager from 2001 to 2020, said his decades of experience in the area of the new boundaries, dealing with infrastructure and other challenges, make him the most qualified candidate for the post. Bogard served as assistant manager before the Sugar Land city council tapped him for the top job upon the departure of previous City Manager David Neeley. Before that, he had held various positions in municipal government in the Texas cities of Dallas, Plano, Keller and Winsboro. Bogard, who was born in Los Angeles, said he grew up in a “transitory family” that moved between that city and Fort Smith, Ark. His father died when he was 7 and his mother later remarried. He describes his family has economically challenged.
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 48 • No. 63 • $1.00
FBISD board gives Whitbeck send-off after tumultuous week By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
While there was little new clarity about how the sudden departure of Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Christie Whitbeck came about, the district’s board on Monday did give her the “proper send-off” that was promised at the end of last week’s surprisingly ugly meeting where they accepted what had been presented as a voluntary retirement after just two years and two months at the helm. And even though Monday’s meeting ended with almost uniformly positive and often emotional statements from board members about
Whitbeck’s commitment and contributions to the district during her tenure, there were still signs of the ill feelings that the situation has engendered. On December 4, five board members, a majority, voted to accept the voluntary retirement agreement, with one member voting against and one abstaining. Five members later voted to appoint Beth Martinez, then the deputy superintendent, as the acting superintendent, with two members abstaining. Officially, Whitbeck will remain an employee of the district with the title “superintendent emeritus” to help the board during the transition to
a permanent superintendent, and receive $491,000 in severance, equivalent to a year’s pay. Martinez will receive approximately $100,000 in her new role. And while the agreement was designed to put a positive face on Whitbeck’s surprise departure, especially after the board had earlier this year extended her contract to December 2026 and given her a 2 percent raise, it didn’t take long for comments by board members to reveal a very different story underneath. First, Position 6 member Kristin Davison Malone rhetorically questioned why the move was being made so suddenly, then offered a reason.
With district staffers and board members surrounding them, Dr. Shirley Rose-Giliam, vice-president of the Fort Bend ISD board, presents outgoing Superintendent Christie Whitbeck with a gift at the end of Monday’s meeting. Photo by Ken Fountain
She said it came down to “personality conflicts” between Whitbeck and board president Judy Dae, board secretary and Position 7 member David Hamilton, and “perhaps one other” whom she didn’t name.
Malone said Dae gave Whitbeck an “ultimatum” of either resigning voluntarily or being terminated by a board major-
SEE WHITBECK PAGE 4
“Hanukkah”
See Page 6 - for more photos from the Chanukah menorah lighting event
The menorah at Sugar Land Town Square is seen with one “candle” lit (plus the center candle used to light the others). Photo by Ken Fountain
GHP: Region to see slower, more sustainable job growth in 2023 By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Former Sugar Land City Manager Allen Bogard has filed for the Democratic nomination for Fort Bend Precinct 3 Commissioner. Photo by Ken Fountain
SEE BOGARD PAGE 3
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Patrick Jankowski, chief economist for the Greater Houston Partnership, told attendees of an event last week that the region will add nearly 60,000 jobs in 2023. Photo by Ken Fountain
The greater Houston region will see continued job growth in 2024, but at a slower pace than the past couple of years, while the region and the nation as a whole will likely avoid a recession, the Greater Houston Partnership’s chief economist told a group of business and government leaders last week. Patrick Jankowski was the featured speaker at the partnership’s annual “Houston Region Economic Outlook” event, held December 7 in a filled-to-capacity ballroom at the Royal Sonesta hotel in the Uptown area. The partnership serves as the region’s main chamber of commerce. Jankowski, who has been with the partnership since
the 1970s, told the audience made up of business and governmental leaders that the region that he projects the region will add 57,600 jobs in 2024, which he said was a more sustainable growth rate than the huge pace the region has seen since the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic began. As of October, the region has added nearly 200,000 more jobs than it did since before the pandemic, he said. That growth has been a reaction to the huge job losses that occurred, both in the region and across the nation, in the wake of the economic shutdown that occurred in 2020 as a response to the pandemic, Jankowski said. Once
SEE SUSTAINABLE PAGE 3