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For Extreme Team-Building, Mayor Takes Staff Skydiving

Houston Mayor Annise Parker and her executive team bonded at 14,000 feet.

skydiving-mayor
Daniel Angulo
Trivia games. Scavenger hunts. Cooking challenges. These are all great team-building experiences. That is, of course, unless you are Houston Mayor Annise Parker and her executive team: They bonded at 14,000 feet. Call it extreme team building, but just days after kicking off the new year, Parker, her staff, city council aides and others went skydiving. From the sound of it, it wasn’t planned in advance. According to a statement from Parker’s office, her executive team had been planning to jump for some time. But the mayor had only intended to go along for moral support -- deciding to take the plunge at the last minute. Jumping in tandem with an instructor, Parker free-fell about 8,000 feet at 120 mph. It’s likely her last jump too. As she told a local TV station, “Next time, paintball. I can do paintball really well.”

Elizabeth Daigneau is GOVERNING's managing editor.
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