In an effort to help voters get to know City Council and mayoral candidates, The Garland Texan sent a list of questions to each one. Answers received from Deborah Morris, candidate for the District 2 City Council place, are below:
- How long have you lived in Garland? In District 2?
I’ve lived in Garland for 33 years and in District 2 for nine.
- Please list your experience/background/knowledge that you feel makes you the right choice for your district’s council seat?
I’ve spent almost my entire career, both paid and volunteer, working face to face with people. As a professional writer*, I interviewed people in-depth so I could accurately tell their stories in articles, books or on television; as a Red Cross Disaster Team Leader, I worked closely with a team to assess people’s urgent needs so I could authorize appropriate emergency resources; as a neighborhood association president I stood up for a group of people who felt they had no voice. I’ve also managed real estate investments, negotiated a wide variety of contracts and demonstrated my ability to absorb and correctly interpret large volumes of information.
The job of a City Council member involves many of these same skills: listening, working with a team, assessing needs, understanding basic business procedures, advocating for constituents and the ability (and discipline) to study the Council materials in order to be prepared to discuss the issues.
Re: my community service background, I served multiple terms as president of our neighborhood association when we lived in northeast Garland and served on the Building & Fire Codes Board. I was a local Disaster Team Leader with the American Red Cross and a Certified First Responder and was named Volunteer of the Year by the Dallas Red Cross. I served on the First Aid Team of the Christian Motorcyclists Association and provided free reading and writing motivational programs at Dallas Can! Academy. I served as the Junior High/Senior High Youth Leader at Springcreek Community Church in Garland for some years. I’ve served meals at the Center of Hope Women’s and Children’s Shelter in downtown Dallas. There’s more, but one way or another, I’ve been active in church and in the community for over 30 years.
*See https://deborahmorristx.com/about for more detailed bio.
- What do you feel are some of Garland’s most valuable assets?
Our single most valuable asset is our people, who are richly diverse in race, culture, thinking, income, social status, age and everything else. My family moved here in 1985 from Smithfield, North Carolina, a picturesque little town where we confronted the most blatant racism we’d ever seen. It was shocking and less than a year after moving there we saw signs that despite all our efforts, our eldest daughter, 9, was starting to pick up an attitude. We fled, found new jobs in the Dallas area and chose Garland deliberately as a place where we could raise our children to know and respect people who didn’t look like them. We have never once regretted that choice.
Our parks system is a city treasure. Garland is visibly greener than most of our sister cities, with our 63 parks, miles of greenbelts and forested preserves, hiking/biking trails, the lake, public golf course and more. Our children are outside playing baseball, soccer, football, tennis, etc., throughout the year instead of watching TV. With a new Master Parks Plan underway, we can expect even more outdoor recreation opportunities in the future.
The GISD’s Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center is a groundbreaking concept that is reimagining what a public school education can deliver. It offers high school students the opportunity to take advanced-level Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses, receive dual-credit (high school/college), gain industry experience and earn the certifications and licenses needed to start a paying career immediately upon graduation. It positions our students for real-world job success whether in the trades or through continuing education. Given that Garland is home to more than 300 manufacturers, making us one of the largest manufacturing cities in the state, this is an excellent pairing of needs and resources.
One of our assets as a city that rarely gets positive recognition is GP&L. Few citizens think about the electricity that invisibly powers their homes or businesses until an outage hits (or their bill comes), but consistent services are part of what allows us to live more peacefully. While some of our sister cities have been left without power for days or weeks after even minor storm events, GP&L’s response is swift and efficient, 365 days a year. I experienced this one Christmas Day a few years back when we lost power and then watched in amazement as a GP&L crew worked in a winter storm to restore our power in record time. Last year, four crews of GP&L linemen were even dispatched to Florida to help restore power to New Smyrna Beach residents after Hurricane Irma struck. They’re that good!
Our “Code Cares” program is another mostly invisible feature that benefits many Garland residents. It is typical of Garland’s heart as a city: many city employees in Code Compliance volunteer their time on weekends to mow, trim trees, paint, repair fences and more. Other aid organizations, churches and citizen volunteers also help Garland’s elderly, disabled and disadvantaged to address code compliance issues. That’s who we are. We help each other.
The Garland Police Department and Garland Fire Department are recognized throughout the Metroplex for their excellence, and they daily demonstrate the same motif of caring for citizens. GPD Chief Bates says it well: “It’s about building relationships in the community, whether it’s with neighborhoods, the homeless, school students or families of gang members.” He sees police work as a triad of law enforcement, counseling and relationships. Our firefighters share the same passion for our community and its people.
A recent study of more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities to determine which are happiest ranked Garland #30. The ranking was based on “28 key indicators of happiness ranging from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.”
We are truly blessed.
- What do you feel are District 2’s best assets/features?
Our historic downtown is a diamond rapidly emerging from the rough and gaining increasing attention from neighboring cities. It is a unique “neighborhood” of its own, with its own life, rhythm and cast of characters. There is an air of excitement as new restaurants and shops move in and events like the Urban Flea join the growing list of downtown events.
The Granville Arts Center continues to dazzle over 150,000 patrons each year with symphonies, musicals, art exhibits and more. Many residents who live in the downtown area, either in the historic neighborhoods or in the downtown apartments, can walk to dinner and then enjoy a performance, while residents throughout the city also find the central location convenient. My husband and I frequently walk to the symphony.
Central Park, D2’s oldest, largest and most-visited city park, is heading for a bright new future with the $6 million Granger facelift and expansion and plans for an ADA-accessible playground along with Garland’s first dog park and skate park. A plan spearheaded by District 8 Councilman Robert J. Smith to site the dog park on the east end of the park, utilizing the armory site for parking while siting the skate park near Granger where city staff will be nearby during the skate park’s operating hours–preserving intact all Little League fields–seems to have gained support.
District 2 has one of the largest populations of help organizations in the city, including Good Samaritan, Hope Clinic, Salvation Army, Hope’s Door, Friendship House, etc., plus plentiful churches of all varieties with community outreach programs. The Carver Senior Center and Senior Activity Center serve our seniors, a large population in D2.
When all is said and done, though, the best feature of D2 is the people who live here. We tend not to be the richest or most powerful in the city, but we are more likely to know our neighbors, loan each other tools and share joys and sorrows. It’s a family district. It’s home.
- What are a few things in District 2 that you feel need to be improved/changed?
Without going into great detail (I’ve done so on my website here), the No. 1 complaint I’ve heard is about the poor condition of our streets and sidewalks. I believe we have a solid plan in place for streets which will make D2 and the rest of the city a much more beautiful and drivable place in 5 or 10 years.
Sidewalks are a more difficult issue since the costs are currently shared 50/50 between the city and homeowners, something many D2 homeowners resist. I have been exploring alternate solutions ranging from foam-jacking to copying the Street Department’s approach to some streets by using an asphalt overlay (which can be attractively patterned) to extend the damaged street’s useful life. Other cities like Springfield, Massachusetts, have used asphalt to repair broken sidewalks as a safety and cost-reduction method. Sometimes “better soon” is preferable to “best much later.” This might be one of those issues.
Central Park needs to be cleaned up, both of trash (including, sadly, condoms and other disturbing discards) and of criminal activity. My husband walks around the park most mornings before dawn and has found groups of high schoolers at picnic tables rolling & bagging weed (clearly to sell at school) as well as illicit activities going on in parked cars. We have a significant homeless presence in the trees which Officer Wendy Sheriff has been addressing. Many D2 citizens have voiced their request for an increased police presence at the park and/or security cameras.
The animal shelter desperately needs to be replaced. Again, I have written about this in detail here.
There are many other problems in D2: code compliance issues, low voter engagement, increased gang activity, future park and thoroughfare plans, the fallout from the hospital closing and more. There are recent concerns about a cancer cluster nearby in D8 and water quality issues throughout the region. None of these issues are insignificant.
- How will you go about changing them?
First, I’m working hard to get a solid understanding of each issue. I’ve requested and received briefings from the city on multiple issues (like the potential future Hwy 78 rerouting, the cancer clusters and water quality issues) and I’ve sat down with various department heads to learn more about streets, the animal shelter, code compliance, the GPD approach to the homeless and gangs, etc. I’ve also done a lot of independent research.
If I am elected, I hope to be able to assist the Council in problem-solving through a combination of research, thinking outside the box, and teamwork.
- Why do you want to be the District 2 Council Member?
Although this is not a role I had ever considered, I am passionate about this district and I share the widespread frustration with the way things have been done recently. I believe we can do better than this.
The city of Garland’s organizational chart looks like this:
Many Garland citizens are unaware that they, not the City Council, are supposed to be running this city. They think their authority as citizens begins and ends at the ballot box. But if our city government is operating correctly, our representatives will all be consistently (and willingly!) listening to their constituents so as to carry out their collective will.
Is it more work to solicit input from citizens instead of acting autonomously? Does it take more time to communicate the issues to citizens so they can reach reasoned conclusions? Does it mean that there might be times when your opinion as an elected official clashes with the collective will of your constituents?
Yes, yes, and yes. In that last scenario, I firmly believe it is the responsibility of an elected representative to represent their constituents rather than their own personal viewpoint.
I want District 2 to have that kind of representation. If elected, that will be my goal.