This Fort Worth mayoral candidate will fight efforts to defund police, officers say
The Fort Worth Police Officer’s Association, an organization that often contributes to local campaigns and has been criticized for having undue influence over the City Council, has endorsed Mattie Parker for mayor.
Manny Ramirez, the association’s president, lauded Parker’s leadership during her time as chief of staff for the mayor and council from 2015-2020. Ramirez also celebrated Parker as an ally of the department.
“She stood shoulder to shoulder with us to battle back attempts to defund the police in Fort Worth, Texas,” Ramirez said at a media briefing. “Mattie is a competent capable and effective executive. And I trust that she’s the best person to bring Fort Worth together, and keep our city safe.”
Parker, founding CEO of education nonprofits Fort Worth Cradle to Career and the Tarrant To and Through Partnership, said she and Ramirez often had “hard conversations” as the city worked through the pension crisis which resulted in a compromise between employees and city budget staff. She said she understood the sacrifice officers and their families make and would champion them at City Hall.
“I will be the mayor that will stand firmly against any effort to defund the police department,” Parker said. “The city of Fort Worth has remained prosperous because of not in spite of our police officers.”
The Fort Worth election is May 1 and includes 10 mayoral candidates. Mayor Betsy Price, who has also endorsed Parker, will not seek a sixth term.
Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis last summer, protesters marched in Fort Worth demanding police reform and racial justice. The 2020 protests mirrored calls from residents in late 2019 after Atatiana Jefferson was killed in her home by a Fort Worth police officer called to do a welfare check. In both instances, protesters called on the City Council to improve police training.
Many were also critical of the council’s slow pace to adopt police oversight recommendations from the Race and Culture Task Force. That body was convened to address inequity in policing and other Fort Worth city services following the viral arrest of Jacqueline Craig in 2016.
Protesters said the council’s lack of action was related to campaign contributions from the Police Officer’s Association, a charge Price and other members have denied.
Asked what police reforms Parker would support in the wake of last year’s civil unrest, she applauded the police department’s actions during rallies, which included protesters being tear gassed on the West Seventh bridge and then Police Chief Ed Kraus kneeling with protesters the following night.
Parker said she supported changes Kraus made to the Crime Control Prevention District budget, a special $81.4 million sales tax-funded pot that boosts the police department’s resources beyond the more than $267 million it receives from the general fund. Last year voters renewed the tax for a decade. Less than 56,000 voters cast a ballot in the election.
The City Council later approved a budget the shifted more money to efforts like after school programs and created a 10-person Community Service Program that relies on trained civilians to respond to non-emergency calls.
“We need to infuse additional resources within the police budget to ensure they have the right protection and support,” she said. “I mean, let’s be honest, police officers are asked to be all things to all people all the time.”
Parker has a long list of endorsements from some of Fort Worth’s prominent citizens including Marianne Auld, Ramona and Lee Bass, Sid Bass, Mike Berry, Dee Kelly Jr., Matt Rose, Victor Vandergriff and Kyle Whitaker.
Others endorsing Parker include Republican state Reps. Phil King and Craig Goldman as well as Democrat Pete Geren, a former congressman, outgoing councilman Dennis Shingleton and former council members Danny Scarth, Bill Meadows and Zim Zimmerman.
Her opponents include Tarrant County Democratic Chairwoman Deborah Peoples, who also has a growing list of endorsements. Among them are Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks, Texas Board of Education member Aicha Davis and The Collective PAC, a national political action committee focused on electing Black candidates to local offices.
Councilman Brian Byrd has been endorsed by Republican U.S. Rep. Kay Granger.
