The citizens of Garland will elect a new mayor May 5. The winner of this election will serve for one year to complete the term of Mayor Douglas Athas who tendered his resignation in October 2017.
Candidates for the office are Lori Barnett Dodson, Louis Moore and Leala Green. The same list of questions was sent to each candidate. Dodson’s and Moore’s responses are below. Green did not respond.
Candidate Lori Barnett Dodson
How long have you lived in Garland?
I am a lifelong resident of Garland. I attended Beaver Elementary, Jackson Middle School and graduated from North Garland High School.
Please list your experience/background/knowledge that you feel makes you the right choice for mayor?
Work and education history includes a BBA – Accounting from Amber University (aka Amberton). I hold a CPA license and have worked in the real estate investment and development industry for over 30 years. City history includes serving five years (2006-2011) on Plan Commission and most recently six years (2011-2017) on city Council both as representative for District 6 (West Garland).
Volunteer work includes Senior Source Money Management Program since 2004. In addition, I am a current member of the Garland Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association and volunteered for the Garland Police Department CID division. In addition, I am a current member of the FBI Citizens Academy.
The city has had its share of problems and negative publicity recently. What do feel can be done to improve the situation? Much of the negative publicity has come from the failure to effectively communicate and a lack of respect for the democratic process. There were several breakdowns in communication and research into what happened should be investigated to make sure we do not repeat the mistake.
Garland has so many positives that should be celebrated and promoted. In my last year on Council we hired an image consultant to help improve the outsider’s view of Garland. This program is underway and will continue. My recent background and knowledge of the programs make me the only candidate qualified to immediately move the city forward
My strong leadership approach is that of teamwork, Council members will be given the necessary encouragement, tools, and support to represent their districts.
What are some of the city’s assets that you feel can be built upon?
While I was on Council we implemented several steps of a Downtown Catalyst Plan. Catalyst plans are area specific, focused, long-range plans to guide development. Several items remain for the downtown vision to be completed. However, we have reached a point, in the plan, where forward momentum has been achieved and organic growth is occurring. With this momentum carrying the downtown catalyst area, Council will be asked to review, discuss, weigh and decide the next Catalyst Plan to be implemented. Garland has several “front doors” to the city that need a focused redevelopment such as the Southern entrance (IH30 Catalyst) the southeast entrances (Hypermart), or the entrances into West Garland (Forest Jupiter Station). I have over 30 years in the real estate investment and real estate development industry plus my prior Council experience makes me the only candidate able to quickly move the vision of growth forward.
Like many communities Garland faces declining infrastructure. The last year I served on Counsel I negotiated and wrote a Resolution to address Garland’s infrastructure needs. The plan includes a reduction to reliance on debt funding by calling for “One-Time” funds, in excess of $1.0 million, be used for streets. It sets a minimum spending limit of $20 million per year and directs the Streets Department to efficiently and effectively implement the program. Finally, it sets a goal of reaching a near perfect Paving Condition Index (measure of failure) of 90 PCI.
What are the main things in the city that you feel need to be improved/changed? How will you go about changing them?
For city assets I feel it is time we address the animal shelter needs. The current shelter is aged and not adequate. We must work, with our wide base of interested citizens, to put in place a plan to get a new shelter built to serve the citizens of Garland.
A big concern for Garland residences is the closing of the Baylor Scott and White hospital. The private, for profit, hospital was unable to sustain a $20-$30 million annual loss. This is due in part to Garland’s demographics of greater than 40 percent being at or below poverty level. In addition, the face of medical care has shifted from an extended stay model to a day surgery type model which resulted in the Metroplex suffering excess capacity of hospital beds. I have been working with the Fire Department to study options available to address the hospital closure. Many Garland residents are close to emergency rooms in surrounding communities. However, some of Garland’s residents will potential have to travel further to obtain medical help. Through my working relationship with the Garland Fire Department we will implement a plan to provide the same efficient service to all Garland residences.
Garland has so many positives that need to be promoted. In my last year on Council we hired an image consultant to help improve the outsider’s view of Garland. This program is underway and will continue. My recent background and knowledge of the programs make me the only candidate qualified to immediately move the city forward.
What can be done to encourage more of the population to take an interest in the city?
The city currently utilizes social media (Facebook, Twitter, Nextdoor Neighbor) and printed media (City Press), plus Neighborhood Vitality offers many meet and greets, educational classes related to improving neighborhoods, etc. However, we must continue to look for new and improved ways to reach our neighbors.
Why do you want to be Garland’s mayor?
I believe I am the only candidate with the experience, knowledge and respectful working relationships to step in and continue the forward movement of Garland.
Candidate Louis Moore
How long have you lived in Garland?
I have lived in Garland for nearly 18 years. My wife of 49 years is a Garland native. I first became part of Garland in 1968 when we were courting. Kay’s parents were active in the political, social, and business life of the city—and wonderful role models of citizen involvement. When we returned to Garland in August 2000 to care for Kay’s aging mother and two of her other elderly relatives, Kay and I both had a deep desire to make a significant contribution to Garland through community service and involvement.
Please list your experience/background/knowledge that you feel makes you the right choice for mayor.
Since moving to Garland in 2000 I have immersed myself in the life of the city. To run in this election for Mayor of Garland, I stepped down after 10 years on the city’s Plan Commission. I am a former vice president and a current board member of the Garland Downtown Business Association and am an early founding board member of Garland’s Hope Clinic. I am a former board member and chair of the Garland Salvation Army, a founding board member and president of Friends of Garland’s Historic Magic 11th Street and have been involved in various capacities in many other organizations in Garland. In 2017 I graduated from the Garland Citizens Fire Academy. During that same year my wife, Kay Wheeler Moore, and I received the prestigious “Who’s Who in Garland Neighborhoods” award, administered by the city of Garland’s Office of Neighborhood Vitality. Friends and relatives often refer to us as “Mr. and Mrs. Garland” because of our love and work on behalf of the city. A citizen and elder in the Chickasaw Nation, in 2016 and 2017 I was selected as a “Diversity Scholar” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation based in Washington, D.C. I am involved with the organization’s effort to see that the “complete story of America” is told through national and local recognitions and citations. As an indication of our commitment to make Garland a place where ALL CITIZENS COUNT, Kay and I are members of Garland’s NAACP and GAFHA Hispanic-heritage group.
Prior to moving to Garland, I had a successful career as a reporter, editor and columnist for the Houston Chronicle, at that time the largest newspaper in Texas. During that time, I served as a trustee on the Houston Chronicle Credit Union and a member of that board’s Credit Committee. I also was a board member and officer for several professional media organizations. Later, I managed media operations for the world’s largest mission-sending organization, the International Mission Board based in Richmond, Virginia. The office I managed included 96 talented writers, editors, graphic designers, artists, videographers and film producers—with just about every imaginable media talent. Our task was to help the IMB raise its annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which at the time was approaching $100 million a year. This required major national and international travel, taking me to five continents and some 45 different countries. After I took early retirement in 2000, I was elected an IMB trustee and served on various committees including the administrative committee charged with overseeing the agency’s $400-million endowment and $300-million annual budget.
After moving to Garland in 2000, Kay and I purchased Hannibal Books, a Christian book-publishing company with worldwide distribution, and have invested heavily in Garland real estate.
Just about everything I have done in my career prepared me for the opportunity to be mayor of Garland.
The city has had its share of problems and negative publicity recently. What do you feel can be done to improve the situation?
Rather than deny or hide from our problems, we need to face them head-on and find solutions. I am an optimist who believes solutions to every problem are out there waiting for us to discover them. Garland faces no issues that can’t be resolved.
In recent years our city’s only full-service hospital closed its doors, our current mayor resigned during the height of a conflict with our city council, one of our city council members was recalled by three times as many voters as elected her to office, our citizens became increasingly frustrated with the slow progress of our street repairs, our parks system continued to deteriorate and a myriad other issues began to drag down our city.
As soon as I am sworn in as mayor of Garland, I will engage the board and top leadership of Baylor Scott & White in a needed conversation about the pain that wealthy corporation created for our community when it opted to close our city’s only hospital and what the leadership of that influential entity sees as its possible options for the huge facility that now remains mostly vacant and unused near the center of our city. As a former trustee and committee chair of another large and wealthy Baptist Board similar in size and wealth to Baylor Scott and White, I know how to sit down eyeball-to-eyeball with that huge corporation’s top leaders and hear their plans for the future for smaller, specialized facilities and hear how their plans will help or hinder our city further as well as other nearby cities where they are mulling plans to close other hospitals. Because of my extensive experience with the trustee board of the International Mission Board as well as other national and international boards of trustees on which I have served, I believe I am uniquely qualified to lead this discussion with Baylor Scott & White leaders. I will appoint a citizens task force to work with me to lead city council to help our city overcome this great loss to our community.
I also will continue to work for political reform of our city—widening the tent of citizen involvement to include ALL of our citizens and not just the tiny handful of mostly white citizens who for decades have held the reins of power in our city tightly in their grip. Garland, the second-largest city in Dallas County, has a population of nearly 240,000 people who reflect the wide cultural and ethnic diversity of the DFW Metroplex. Like too many Metroplex cities, municipal elections in Garland are decided by a handful of voters who represent only 2 to 4 percent of the potential voters. Even in this election all of the four city council seats up for election are uncontested—a not untypical pattern of citizen apathy in Garland. Immediately after being sworn into office, I will appoint a citizens’ task force to study and bring forth recommendations for ways to expand voter interest and participation and bring into the seats of power ALL of our citizens, especially our burgeoning Hispanic population (now 39 percent of our population) which remains unfairly on the outskirts of citizen involvement and respect. As Garland’s first Native American mayor, I will be uniquely positioned to lead this forward-facing movement.
To further involve ALL citizens, I immediately will appoint up to nine additional public citizen task forces to study and make recommendations on the key issues that hold our city back from being the truly great city Garland has been and truly can be again.
These citizen task forces will be empowered to focus on such issues as 1) what can be done to speed up the process to rebuild/restore our miserable streets, particularly the residential ones in older neighborhoods; 2) how to resolve the Eastern Hills Country Club redevelopment stalemate; 3) our long-delayed new animal shelter; 4) the slow citywide economic development, especially in our central and southern sectors; 5) our city’s lack of a comprehensive plan for our growing homeless population; and 6) find a feasible and safe solution to the slow-grinding efforts to adequately fund our firefighters and police retirement accounts, among other issues.
What are some of the city’s assets that you feel can be built upon?
Garland has a rich history of citizen involvement in the life of the community. By far, Garland’s citizens are its greatest asset. We may not be a wealthy city, but we are a city of people who care deeply for their community. As Kay and I daily block-walk our city and meet citizens, we are constantly amazed at the depth of their awareness of issues that drag our city down and the need to find solutions. We are a manufacturing community with a strong work ethic. We have a history of being a moral, compassionate and talented city. As mayor, I will work to mobilize our citizens to help find solutions to every problem we face. Inside my wedding ring 49 years ago, my wife, Kay, wrote, these words: “What we are together is more than what we were apart!” What is true for us and our marriage is also true for the whole Garland community. We have great untapped strength in our multicultural, diverse community embracing peoples from just about every country on the globe.
What are the main things in the city that you feel need to be improved/changed? How will you go about changing them?
As an inner-ring suburban city facing “build out.” Garland confronts a multitude of challenges in both residential and commercial development and redevelopment. This is not a case of “either/or” but of “both/and.” We must develop and redevelop our commercial as well as our residential areas. Our city is doing a good job—but not as fabulous a job as some of our neighbors—of developing its northern sector along President George Bush Freeway. We are struggling in the central and southern sectors of the city. We lack the internal financial resources necessary to compete with nearby neighbors such as Plano, Richardson, Frisco, Rowlett and Rockwall.
Consequently, we must look beyond our city limits to mobilize the assistance we need. We can do this in a variety of ways: 1) aggressively step up our efforts to find federal and state monies available to our community; 2) launch a strong initiative to find and secure private grant monies available to our city; 3) encourage our city and school employees and city leaders to live in our city and fully invest in our community—not draw salaries and produce incomes here that are invested elsewhere; 4) explore tax incentives and other means to encourage our businesses and citizens to rebuild their older properties in need of redevelopment; 5) look beyond our country’s borders for more international investment, including actively recruiting investment from Mexico and Central and South America to underwrite our less-affluent, large Latino population.
What can be done to encourage more of the population to take an interest in the city?
Apathy is an unfortunate and troubling attitude in many American cities today. Garland is not immune to this trend. Immediately after being elected as mayor, I will form a mayoral task force to look into the root causes of apathy in our community and to explore ways to ignite citizen faith and hope in our community. I do not have all the answers for this issue, but I believe our citizens working together can find solutions. We need to be sure that we do not accidentally overlook any group of citizens. We must engage all citizens equally and set goals to greatly increase citizen involvement in and respect for our city.
Why do you want to be Garland’s mayor?
Garland is at a crucial moment in its history. We can tackle our problems, find solutions to them and move forward with confidence and hope for the future, or we can wallow in the political turmoil of recent years and go backward to a more isolated, regressive time period. I am running for mayor because I want our city to move forward with confidence and hope for the future.
I listen carefully to those around me. I look for common themes in what people say. I seek solutions rather than conflict. I am a problem solver and a consensus builder. I am a trained communicator who understands complicated issues and can explain them clearly to the average citizen. I am a proven, trained, and skilled leader with significant experience in management and executive leadership. Garland faces enormous challenges that require someone of my skill set and temperament to lead our city at this crucial point in our history.
Instead of going backward or marching in place to the status quo, I want the opportunity to lead our city forward beyond the impasse of recent years of political conflict and into a brighter future for ALL of our citizens. During my work career, I managed multi-million dollar budgets and large and challenging staffs. As a trustee for the International Mission Board, I worked with complex budgets of nearly $300 million that are comparable to the city’s budgets. I understand all the various functions of the city of Garland and am ready to go to work for the citizens as soon as I take the oath of office as mayor. My goal is to make order out of the current political chaos and stalemate and to work with City Council to make Garland all that it should and can be.