- Sue Lovell: A Houston Story
- Keep Houston Moving
- Don't Mess With Houston
- Finding Common Ground
- Economic Development
- Walking the Talk
- Carrying on the Tradition
Economic Development:
It’s All About Jobs
“If there is any city in America where you want to be living during this economic downturn, it’s Houston,” Lovell says with pride.
As a leader on Houston’s City Council, Sue is putting her past business experience to work for Houston to create jobs and stimulate economic development.
From 1994-1999, Lovell worked in the office of the Texas Comptroller in the Local Government Assistance Division. She helped local community public and private sectors develop their economic potential in Harris, Galveston and Brazoria Counties. Sue also worked on the HISD Performance Review that identified millions of dollars in savings for Houston schools.
In 1999, The Mills Corporation, one of America’s leading retail developers, hired Lovell to plan and implement a pilot jobs training and welfare-to-work program that became known as MATCH. Because of its success, the MATCH program became a model used nationally by The Mills Corporation.
As part of this effort, Lovell was a leader in bringing together Houston Community College, the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the Texas Workforce Commission, Houston Works and Career Recovery Resources Inc. (a United Way agency), and The Mills Corporation. She found $2 million in grant funding, leveraging The Mills Corporation’s investment by 500%. This was the first time the Economic Development Agency, a division of the Department of Commerce, funded the construction of a childcare facility. The MATCH Program was honored by Rice University and the University of Houston with the Houston Metropolitan Award for regional planning.
Today, Sue represents the City of Houston on the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) – a 13-county regional association of local governments that serves as the instrument of local government cooperation, promoting the region’s orderly development and the safety and welfare of its citizens. She also serves on the HGAC’s Transportation Policy Council, which provides policy guidance and overall coordination of the transportation planning activities within the region.
Elected by her colleagues on the City Council to represent Houston on the HGAC, Sue is working to secure stimulus funding for the City of Houston which will help create summer jobs for youth, provide money for infrastructure projects and create more good jobs for Houstonians.
