Well, it’s a good thing BlogHouston is on the job, becasue I’ve been a little busy with the cheesecake the last couple of nights. A guy’s gotta have his priorities, you know. Anyhoo, the city’s finally gotten with the program and released the names of all the appointees. There were a few small surprises in there, things that I predicted differently or missed..

The nine voting members, all serving without compensation, include:

Michelle L. Colvard, study director for the Center for Research on Women with Disabilities (CROWD) at Baylor College of Medicine
Marcus L. Davis, president and CEO of The Breakfast Klub, Inc.
M. Marvin Katz, a renowned Houston real estate, probate and estate planning attorney
Evalyn L. Krudy, a former member of the Texas Medical Center Transportation Taskforce
Joe R. Martin, president of Martin Productions, Inc.
Mary Jo (Jody) McFadden, interim chief financial officer for Universal Ensco, Inc
Charles D. Reedstrom, A Certified Administrator of Public Parking (CAPP)
Gerard Torres, manager in Government Affairs for Reliant Energy
One member to be named at a later date

Now for the Non-Voting members:

The six non-voting include:

Bob Eury, Executive Director, Houston Downtown Management District
Marlene Gafrick, Director of the Planning and Development Department for the City of Houston
Mike Marcotte, Director of Public Works and Engineering Department for the City of Houston
Dawn Ulrich, Director Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department for the City of Houston
Barron Wallace, Partner, Vinson & Elkins, Harris County Commissioner’s Court Representative
Frank Wilson, President & CEO, METRO

Fuller biographies are available here.

Some thoughts after reading this list and reading the bios: The big surprise to me is that Bob Eury is among the non-voting members. He’s probably one of the most influential people out there, if you judge by the number of fingers he’s got in big-shot pies. Though if you look at how the board is stacked, I think he’s the 800 lb. gorilla in the corner.

I missed that Michelle Colvard was affiliated with the Baylor College of Medicine, but that she has that type of connection isn’t a surprise. I doubted she was a random handicapped person. Her bio says she’s also on the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.

Marcus Davis doesn’t appear to be affiliated with PVAMU; it’s TSU instead. Or at least that’s the one in his bio. He’s listed as owner of several businesses that can neither spell, nor capitalize properly.

We’ve got Gerald Torres’ title now, and I take back the crack about token Hispanic. “Manager in Government Affairs” for Reliant. Gosh, you wonder how a former state representative got that job.

Jody McFadden, the interim chief financial officer for Universal Ensco, Inc. Hm. Wonder how she got that job?

Krudy’s been involved in traffic and such for longer than I suspected. I officially promote her from “busybody” to “well-connected busybody.”

Reedstrom’s job description/title just kills me: “strategic revenue systems manager.” In a company that is part of the parking industry. Well, we know what the strategic revenue system is — it’ s our pocketbooks if we own a vehicle.

Katz: no surprises here.

Joe R. Martin; well now I know who to blame for my early internet experiences sucking ass. Does anyone else here remember being auto-disconnected when they decided your time online was up? “Dammit, I was downloading a 50k file!” I have pictures on this site bigger than that now. Ain’t broadband wunnerful?

As for the rest, only Wallace was a surpise. None of the five appointed by other governments had bio’s included, but it seems odd that the county selected a lawyer from an influential (sorry, Ms. Watkins) law firm to represent it, rather than one of its own people, like Metro and the City of Houston.

Finally, we’ll have to wait and see who the fifteenth member is.