Here’s how the Fort Worth council runoff will bring changes outside the mayor’s office
While the race to replace Mayor Betsy Price has drawn the most civic interest in recent memory, that election is not the only way Fort Worth voters can influence the city’s future — four council seats remain up for grabs.
At the top of the ticket, Mattie Parker, a nonprofit executive and former Price chief of staff, faces Deborah Peoples, a retired AT&T vice president and outgoing Tarrant County Democratic Party chair.
Some voters will have another choice on the ballot.
In District 6 Jungus Jordan, the longest serving council member at 16 years, faces Jared Williams, an educator and political newcomer. District 8 incumbent Kelly Allen Gray faces Chris Nettles, who ran for the seat in 2019. Both District 7 and District 9 will have a new face at the dais. Leonard Firestone and Zeb Pent, two conservative voices, are running to replace retiring council member Dennis Shingleton in District 7. Voters in District 9 will be replacing Ann Zadeh, the council’s most progressive voice, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor. There, Elizabeth Beck, a lawyer who ran for the Texas House, is up against Fernando Peralta, a sergeant in the Texas National Guard and president of the Rosemont neighborhood.
Early voting begins Monday and runs through June 1, except Memorial Day. The election is June 5.
While the council races have gotten less attention than the race for mayor, the four elections represent the best opportunity for voters to influence the future of the city in recent years, said Wesley Kirk, founder of Vote Fort Worth, a volunteer organization that started in 2020 to spur more interest in local elections. Vote Fort Worth is technically nonpartisan but the group has recommended candidates.
Voters, particularly in districts with incumbent candidates, can shift the balance of power in Fort Worth, the largest Texas city with a conservative majority council, Kirk said.
“We live in a city with about a million people, only half of them are registered to vote, and of that percentage less than 10 turn up to vote,” Kirk said, speaking of Fort Worth’s traditionally low voter turnout. “So we’re letting a teeny tiny fraction of people decide the entire fate of the city with ramifications for years to come.”
Whether the runoff will have more or less interest than the general election is anyone’s guess.
Some people might be surprised, but turnout will be even greater than the record number during the May 1 election, according to Craig Murphy, a political consultant whose Murphy Nasica Political Consulting is working with the Fort Worth Police Officers Association and several campaigns including those for Parker, Jordan and Gray.
While the crowded fields for mayor and several council seats may have spurred more voters than in past years during the general election, Murphy said he believes a larger number of voters were turned off by the sheer number of candidates to pick from. Now, he said, the choice should be easy for most voters.
“People think ‘Oh, with all the other candidates gone there will be fewer voters,’” he said. “That’s not the way it works. Actually, when there’s a clear, easy choice, people come out. And when it’s difficult, too many choices, people freeze up and stay home.”
Brent Boyea, a UTA associate professor in political science who studies elections, wasn’t so sure about the huge turnout. Looking at past runoffs in Fort Worth, he noted that typically there’s a drop of a few points in the number of voters who show up to the polls a second time.
That could be a good thing for incumbents or candidates with name recognition, but with how tight the general election results were, it reinforces the notion that every vote counts. In District 6 fewer than 1,000 votes separated Jordan from Williams and in District 8 Nettles beat Gray by 119 votes. Pent came in first over Firestone by 537 votes in District 7. Beck had the biggest lead with more than 2,100 votes over Peralta in District 9.
While candidates in the district runoffs may be looking to spur voters on specific issues, Boyea said a lot of the turnout will be driven by the citywide mayor’s race.
“I think that a lot of it, with the numbers of people voting, in the general election as well as probably the runoff, is really influenced by the chance to decide who’s really leading the city,” he said.
Incumbent faces challenger in District 6
In the southwest District 6, Jungus Jordan, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, faces a runoff for the first time since he was elected in 2005. Jared Williams, who has a doctorate in environmental science and science education from the University of North Texas, said residents feel like City Hall has ignored them, but Jordan said he has been successful in engaging neighborhoods and promoting public safety.
Asked if being locked in a runoff for the first time in eight terms was a sign District 6 voters wanted a change in leadership or style, Jordan said the pandemic had interrupted his ability to communicate with residents well. He touted his “Java with Jungus” monthly town halls that he said typically had upwards of 300 attendees and his frequent attendance at neighborhood meetings.
Jordan, 72, said he also has experience building partnerships both within the city and regionally. He’s a member of the Regional Transportation Council and championed the Chisholm Trail Parkway toll road. He also helped bring a Tarleton State Campus to the district.
With new members coming to council, Jordan argued his long tenure would provide consistency.
“I have the experience and the expertise to get the solutions to the issues,” Jordan said. “When folks have a pothole or an issue, we can get the solution quickly because we know how.”
The Fort Worth Police Officers Association has backed Jordan including with an endorsement mailer that listed opponents who were not on the ballot. Jordan has said the biggest issue in District 6 is public safety and has approached it largely through support of the police department.
But Williams, 31, said that’s an example of the disconnect between residents and leadership. He said public safety means different things to different communities. Beyond policing, it involves safer streets, sidewalks and parks.
He pointed to a recent plans for a poker room on South Hulen. City staff had recommended a zoning change for the poker room, which passed the zoning commission unanimously before Jordan defeated the concept at City Council. Williams said the concept never should have reached the full council. Instead the city should have engaged residents near the site sooner, which he said didn’t happen.
“What I’m hearing on the campaign trail, quite consistently, is just a calling for representation for the community,” Williams said. “I think that it expresses itself in different ways over the past year. I’ve heard multiple times that people feel like they live in ‘throwaway neighborhoods,’ or that they feel like the neighborhood has been left behind by city government.”
District 8 east side race
In District 8, Chris Nettles, a pastor, said residents are frustrated with a lack of attention from City Hall and need a strong advocate. Kelly Allen Gray, first elected in 2012, disagreed, arguing much has been accomplished in the east side district.
For Nettles, 33, the issue lies with a lack of economic development in the form job creators and grocery stores. District 8 residents have to travel too far for fresh food or high paying jobs, he said, noting that for residents without a car that may mean an extra long bus ride.
The district also has multiple neighborhoods in the 76104 ZIP code, an area found to have the lowest life expectancy in Texas. The Star-Telegram explored life in the area and found a lack of access to grocery stores, health care and employment.
Nettles said he wants to explore the city budget to find funding to support community gardens in the area and create a hub in the area of Berry Street and Riverside Drive that would act as a community center. Along with general resources, he said the center should have a clinic or doctors offices and a pharmacy.
He said he felt strongly residents in the district were ready for change. In 2019 Gray bested him by about 500 votes, he noted, but this year he beat her by 119 with two other opponents who had about 250 votes each.
“That really shows us there’s more of a majority that want to see a different person sitting in that seat because there’s been a real lack of representation,” Nettles said.
Gray, 52, said she didn’t believe residents of District 8 in general were looking for a change in leadership. Communication between City Hall and neighborhoods, as well as among residents needed to improve, she said, but other points of her tenure have been successful.
She touted two policy initiatives the council has approved since 2018: restrictions on payday and auto title lenders and restrictions on dollar stores. With the dollar store ordinance, new businesses must be more than a mile from an existing store and 10% of the store’s floor space must be devoted to fresh produce. Similarly, lenders are limited to where new stores can open and they must include clear information about the high interest loans and credit counseling.
Gray also said she’s been a “great voice” for affordable housing and against gentrification. She pointed to several mixed income projects in District 8, including Vineyard on Lancaster, a Union Gospel Mission project that includes supportive housing and market rate housing, and Columbia Renaissance Square, a multi-family complex south of the Renaissance Square shopping center.
The Carter Industrial Park on the south edge of the district has been a job creator, Gray said, and will likely continue to see growth.
She rejected the notion that District 8 has been stagnant.
“The idea that nothing has happened in the district is absolutely the most ludicrous statement that I have ever heard,” Gray said. “I don’t show up to run every two years, I’m here every single day.”
New council member in District 7
Michael Crain was sworn in last week as the first new council member in four years, replacing Brian Byrd. Residents in two other Fort Worth districts will have new representation, but it’s unclear how much change the fresh faces will bring.
In sprawling District 7 Leonard Firestone and Zeb Pent, who live a few blocks from each other in the Monticello neighborhood of central Fort Worth, are vying to represent a district that stretches north into Denton County. Both have said their experience as business owners will help them represent the growing area with a focus on lower tax rates and improving congestion.
Pent, 41, did not return a call for comment. Firestone said that even though he has the endorsement of Price, Shingleton and every living former District 7 council member, he would bring a new perspective to city leadership.
Pent has been in the public sphere for several years as the spokesman for the conservative Stand For Fort Worth political action committee, an organization in opposition to LGBTQ-friendly policies. In the past he’s spoken against the inclusion of information about sexual orientation and transgender in Fort Worth school district sexual education. In 2019 Pent defended a member of the city’s Human Relations Committee who posted racist and other inflammatory images on Facebook saying his removal was a violation of free speech.
So far Pent has largely focused on traditional city issues in forums. In a forum with the Camp Bowie District and Texas A&M Law School earlier this month, he said the city needed to boost small businesses rather than rely on incentives for major companies. To boost tourism, he argued for doubling down on the city’s cowboy culture.
“We have to shift tax dollars away from Fortune 500 companies and aim our focus at small business and entrepreneurial interest,” Pent said during the forum.
Firestone, 55, told the Star-Telegram he had learned a lot about engaging local businesses and connecting them to resources while serving on Fort Worth Now, a task force Price established to combat an economic downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the co-founder of Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company he said he has experience navigating the city’s permit process and sees areas for improvement.
The city needs to get a grip on infrastructure, particularly in the northern suburbs, and rising property taxes, he said. He has also served on the board of Visit Fort Worth and said the city needs to focus on increasing tourism to boost sales tax revenue.
“It’s really about experience and I think, now more than ever as we come out of COVID, it’s going to be critical — that real hands-on experience working with the city and for the city,” Firestone said. “Those are the things that are applicable immediately.”
Progressives in District 9
In District 9, Elizabeth Beck, 38, appears to be the candidate most similar to outgoing council member Ann Zadeh since both are progressives with city planning experience, but Beck said voters can expect a change in leadership style. Fernando Peralta, 28, said it’s time for a younger, more diverse voice on the council.
Beck struggled at first to answer what voters should expect different from Zadeh. Later she said she believed city leadership in the past has blamed policies and established processes when neighborhoods felt like their concerns were not addressed properly. Sometimes those processes are broken and need to be fixed, she said.
She said her background as a city planner and lawyer would serve her well as council member, arguing she has experience to look at the city holistically and craft policies that blend neighborhood needs and citywide issues.
“I think the city needs a vision,” Beck said. “I think that we have not had one for many years and I hope to be that voice on council that makes sure that we are thinking about who we want to be as a city and how we get there.”
While he doesn’t have the city planner-focused experience, Peralta said he does understand District 9’s diverse neighborhoods, many of which he said are home to residents who feel alienated from local government. He noted his experience working with City Hall as the president of Las Familias de Rosemont, one of the larger mostly Hispanic neighborhoods in south Fort Worth. It’s being targeted with about $3 million in city investment in sidewalks and other improvements.
Peralta said many people in the district feel uncertain about the city and he will work to educate residents while being a voice for neighborhoods.
“I think bringing that different perspective, that diverse experience that I have, is a difference in leadership than what we’ve had in the past,” he said.
