Fort Worth City Council Candidates Differ Little On Issues
April 16,2014
Reposted from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
BY CATY HIRST
chirst@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — Five candidates running for Fort Worth City Council mostly agreed on the major issues facing the city at a District 9 candidate forum Wednesday night.
“We are going to keep digging until you guys are ready to fight about something,” said Gary Cumbie, co-moderator of the event.
With less than two weeks until early voting starts, the forum, hosted by Downtown Fort Worth Inc., the Fort Worth Downtown Neighborhood Alliance and the YWCA, lasted for nearly an hour and a half and attracted about 200 people to the YWCA building downtown.
Margot Garza, 43, Greg Hughes, 57, Ed Lasater, 44, Bernie Scheffler, 35, and Ann Zadeh, 47, all answered a variety of audience-driven questions, from transportation needs and water supply in Fort Worth to the cultural diversity of the district.
“You might get tired of hearing us agree with each other a lot,” said Hughes.
All of the candidates said they support the 2014 bond package and all except Scheffler said they plan to vote for the Crime Control and Prevention District. Scheffler said the half-cent tax has been important to Fort Worth, but he is not sure yet if he will vote for its renewal. He suggested the tax money could be spent on transportation infrastructure, which the city also needs.
In regard to how they would handle the diversity of the district, which is 58 percent Hispanic, Scheffler said he would want a Spanish translator for his office; Zadeh said the entire district, not just Hispanics, needs to be engaged more; Lasater wants to help by reaching out and using translation services; and Hughes said he would promote Hispanic leadership on city boards.
“Because you know you participate a lot more if you see someone who looks like yourself already in a leadership role,” said Hughes, prompting laughs from the crowd.
In response, Garza, sitting next to Hughes, teased, “That was a freebie from Greg, wasn’t it?”
“What I would like to do is be the bridge of that community within the city and those residents,” Garza said of the Latino community.
Juan Rangel III, 28, another Hispanic candidate who has filed to run, did not attend Wednesday’s forum, did not file a campaign finance report by the April 10 deadline and has not returned calls from the Star-Telegram seeking comment since he filed for election.
All five candidates at the forum said they want to increase public transportation, support water conservation, improve education and encourage redevelopment in District 9 with input from the neighborhoods.
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