Houston voters will determine future for their city

Along with voting who will be seated on the Houston City Council, residents of that community will also decide whether Houston should become a first-class city.

Given some of the accusations that have been made lately, some might think that sounds like a punch line. It isn’t.

Voters may decide that just means more government, more bureaucracy and probably more expense. Those are good enough reasons for not becoming a first-class city.

The one thing, though, voters might like by becoming a first-class city is how the mayor is chosen. Right now, the city council picks one of its own to run the show. Mayor Roger Purcell has been the target of some jabs lately, and frankly, he’s deserving of some of them.

He keeps his title because the majority of the council apparently thinks he’s doing a good job.

Under first-class status the mayor would be elected by the residents as is done in Palmer and Wasilla. Instead of four or five people on the council selecting the mayor, the town could decide.

Granted, Houston’s council was elected by the people, so it has the look of a representative government. The glitch, though, is that the voters may have elected the council for one reason. Maybe they like a stand on taxes for instance, but didn’t weigh the council member’s vision about who should be mayor.

That’s a discussion voters should be having with the candidates before they go to the polls in two weeks. So far, only one council candidate has said he would vote to give the mayor’s job to someone else. The rest of the candidates won’t say.

So Houston voters should ask them.

If you like the way Purcell runs the city, then you should vote for candidates who back him.

If you don’t like how Purcell does his job, then you should find out who would oust him and vote accordingly.

In either case, Houston needs to work harder to get respect. The city’s reputation in the Valley isn’t sparkling. There’s no reason Houston, smack on the Parks Highway, couldn’t be more attractive to year-round businesses. Sitting halfway between Anchorage and Denali should be a natural stop for tour buses and travelers on their own during the summer. Selling fireworks isn’t getting it done.

If Houstonians want a better town, they need only look at the two first-class cities in the borough. Palmer and Wasilla can provide starkly different lessons to learn from.