Republican candidate for county judge says incumbent shows off rather than governing
ON THE TRAIL AGAIN | During his tenure on the Dallas City Council, Ron Natinsky was an LGBT ally. He is now the Republican candidate for Dallas County Judge.
Dallas Voice: You served on the Dallas City Council. Now you’re running as a Republican for county judge. There are big differences between city and county governments. Ron Natinsky: I came from the private sector, so it was an interesting merging of private and public cultures. When you look at government, whether city or county, it’s nothing more than a business. The only difference at end of the day is the outcome. In the private sector, it’s about making returns for your investors. In the public sector, it’s about providing services for those you represent. When I was on council, the city of Dallas had a $2 billion budget and 13,000 employees. The city council functioned as the business’s board of directors so to speak.
What were your priorities on city council? I focused on economic development. I worked on expanding the tax base. Growing a tax base requires effort, and we did not market the city well. We just thought, ‘We’re so great everyone will come here.’ But when corporations want to relocate, they don’t sit back and wait. They want to be courted, and not just with tax incentives either. You need to promote and enhance the quality of life. I helped move Comerica bank here from Detroit. That’s where I’m from. It was a coup. We really need to help small business owners grow. They’re the core of a community. I also emphasized making government more efficient. On council we saved millions when we reduced trash pick up from two days to one. We were able to steer that money instead toward basic city amenities, like parks and roads instead.
The county is more than just Dallas. Dallas County is 900 square miles of 26 cities and 2.5 million people. It’s the heart of North Texas. If we were a state, we would be bigger than 15 states. You travel the county and see the differences — not just ethnic, age and class, but almost like neighborhoods. Cedar Hill has one personality; Garland has another. None are better or worse than others.
Collin County works together. We ought to focus like them on bringing businesses to Dallas County. After Plano landed Toyota, real estate developers told me people weren’t just looking to live in Plano. They’re not worried in which city a business lands as long as it lands in Collin County. They may not want a Plano identity but instead a Frisco identity or maybe Uptown Dallas.
Do you think incumbent Clay Jenkins has failed in coordinating county efforts? If he has [been successful in coordinating county efforts], I don’t see it. Maybe he’s doing it behind a cloak.
But what motivated you to run? For a long time people didn’t pay attention to county government because it ran well. Over the last eight years it has declined, but in the last four years it has further declined. It’s bothersome to open the paper and see on almost a weekly basis a new investigation about Parkland or the sheriff’s office or the district attorney. It has taken a moral toll, but paying these fines and court costs also drains [financial] resources.
So do you think Judge Jenkins has focused more on Dallas and his political ambitions? Take his announcement this summer the county would host 2,000 undocumented children who sought refuge in the States. I absolutely think it was politically motivated and just a theatrical episode. To go to the state’s Democratic convention and announce that, without talking to the other four commissioners, or really anybody, is irresponsible. It seemed like he had an ulterior motive. But it got him $500,000 worth of media time. Have you seen the movie Wag the Dog, where the dictator creates a war to distract the public? Remember then suddenly, poof it’s gone.
He strategically chose certain areas where backlash would’ve been less likely? I talked to the residents in Grand Prairie and across the county who would’ve been impacted. They asked, ‘Are we a dumping ground? Do we not have a voice? Do you not care about our neighborhoods?’ But it would’ve been like atomic bomb had he chosen elsewhere in the county. I don’t think it was a coincidence he announced [this] as election season was ramping up. Irrespective of my wanting to win, that’s not something I would’ve done.
The backlash received backlash, too. Critics said those opposed to the plan to house the children were not compassionate. I am compassionate for them. But we also have kids in Dallas County who need good foster homes first. Why put the Central American kids ahead of them? It was not a plan but a shoot-from-the-hip stunt.
You’ve been equally critical of his response to his handling of the Ebola outbreak. Why? I criticized it from a couple of perspectives. What set me off was at the press conference he announced the next day about [Thomas Duncan, who died from Ebola-related causes]. When asked by reporter if he was going to have town hall meetings with citizens about the outbreak, what was his answer? ‘I don’t do town hall meetings with citizens. They are just for crazies.’
I thought, this guy is an elected official. His employers are Dallas County citizens! I’ve been in public office and know you don’t have town hall meetings to have guys pat you on back and tell you how wonderful you are. You have town halls to say what you know and what you don’t. Don’t create a panic. Give some level of confidence. I thought it was disrespectful of citizens.
So Jenkins is just a showman? Take when he went into Duncan’s family’s apartment without the proper clothing. He drove them in his personal car to their new house. He was endangering the health of Dallas County citizens needlessly. If it was moment of bravado — ‘I’ll show people I’m not afraid’ — that’s negligent in another way. Public health is not something to be used as a publicity stunt, to say ‘Look how brave I am, I walked into this apartment.’ If there wasn’t any harm then why did they gut it? They burned personal possessions. You don’t have to burn a photo of grandma and me. Just clean off photo of grandma and me. Just theatrics.
But that’s campaign season. But it shouldn’t be. I didn’t allow campaigns to get in the way of my council work. Some people serve just to have names on a masthead. That’s not me. I am just compassionate about serving the public.
Dallas Voice conducted this interview with Ron Natinsky before video surfaced of him at a Republican event last year at which he suggested that the Dallas County GOP did not want to field a Republican challenger to Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, because she is in a staunchly Democratic district and a challenger would encourage her supporters to come to the polls, when otherwise they would just be spending their food stamps on Election Day. Dallas Voice contacted Natinsky to get comments from him on that video, and he responded, “It was a comment that was unfortunately taken out of context and it was not meant to offend.”
Ron Natinsky: RonNatinsky.com
Clay Jenkins: JenkinsForDallasCounty.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 31, 2014.