Chad West

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Attorney Chad West last week announced his candidacy for the Dallas City Council seat currently held by Scott Griggs, becoming the first new LGBT candidate to begin a campaign for the next Dallas council election.

Griggs, who is reaching the end of his fourth and — thanks to term limits — final term, has thrown his support behind West. Griggs himself is expected to run for mayor.

West has lived in Oak Cliff for more than a decade. He and his partner have two children.

“I love the neighborhood,” West said. “My family is here. My home is here. And my business is here.”

He served on the city plan commission and is concerned about development in the area. While development can’t and shouldn’t be stopped, he said, it can be done in a smart and sensitive way.

West also said he’s concerned with police and fire pay. “I want to bring them up to competitive levels with surrounding cities,” he said.

And he is concerned with supporting education in his Oak Cliff district. “Half of the schools in our neighborhood don’t have after-school programs,” he said, suggesting enhancing those programs with help from area libraries and other city support services.
Council: Adam Medrano

Adam Medrano

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano kicked off his campaign for his fourth and final term as councilman for District 2 at a fundraiser in Deep Ellum in October. He said he’s overseen bond elections and, for his fourth term, he’d like to see some of the work actually get underway — including the project on Cedar Springs Road.

“And I want to continue my work on getting a shelter for LGBT homeless youth open,” he added.

Medrano chairs the Mayor’s LGBT Task Force and has guided task force-recommended-revisions to a number of ordinances through the council. Among those have been wording making it clear sexual orientation and gender identity are both covered in the city’s nondiscrimination ordinances.

The city has also extended full healthcare benefits to its transgender employees at the urging of Medrano and the task force.

 

Omar Narvaez

Council: Omar Narvaez
Omar Narvaez won his first term after an election upset, beating incumbent Monica Alonzo for her West Dallas seat. Although he hasn’t made a formal announcement, he has told supporters at fundraising events that he’ll be running for re-election.

“I’ll make a more giant deal about it in the new year,” he said.

In his first term, Narvaez successfully managed a gas explosion crisis in his district. Amazon’s new distribution center and Nokia’s North American headquarters will bring 2,000 new jobs to District 6.

If West is elected and Narvaez and Medrano re-elected, Dallas will have three openly-gay city council members for the first time since the 1990s.

Mayoral candidates
While city council members are elected every two years for up to four terms, the city’s mayor is elected every four years and is limited to two terms. Mayor Mike Rawlings will complete his second term in June.

Among those considering a run are current council members Griggs and Jennifer Staubach Gates. Griggs is expected to announce his candidacy early in the new year.

Former councilwoman Angela Hunt, who served for eight years and is best known for her opposition to the proposed toll road through the Trinity River bottoms — a plan that’s finally been abandoned. Hunt’s name regularly surfaces as a probably mayoral candidate.

Working on city boards is a good introduction into city politics, and Regina Montoya, who chairs the Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty and is former vice-chair of the DFW Airport Board, has announced she is running.

Dallas often looks outside the council to the business community for its mayors. Rawlings, for example, was CEO of Pizza Hut. So far, the only names emerging from the business community are those of Design District developer Mike Ablon, and Peter Brodsky, who is redeveloping Red Bird Mall.

Bobby Abtahi hasn’t made an announcement, but his name has been suggested as a possible mayoral candidate. He ran for the council in 2013 against District 14 Councilman Philip Kingston and currenly serves as Dallas Park Board president.

All of the contenders are LGBT allies — all except one name that was suggested over the summer by D Magazine. Sen. Don Huffines, they hinted, might be interested. But after his humiliating defeat for re-election, the city probably won’t have to face that little bundle of homophobia.

The one-month filing period for the May municipal elections begins on Jan. 16.