Fort Worth City Council candidates talk transit, economic development at forum

April 3,2015

Candidates vying to win a seat on the Fort Worth City Council addressed topics from public transportation to how cities can be involved in public education at a forum Thursday night.

The forum, hosted by the city’s young professional group, SteerFW, at Four Day Weekend downtown, was aimed at getting young professionals — a demographic that typically has a low voter turnout — to the polls.

Both candidates from only one of the five contested races for City Council showed up, however, with District 4 Councilman Danny Scarth and his opponent Cary Moon in attendance.

Scarth, executive director of Hope Media, touted the importance of the city’s role in bringing jobs to the area by creating a business-friendly environment and getting developers through the city permitting processes as fast as possible. He also said the city needs to work on transit issues, like getting a rail option up to the job center in the Alliance-area after TEX Rail makes it from downtown to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Moon, president and chief executive officer of Moon Financial and a partner with Castle Development Group, said the city needs to address inefficiencies in the budget to bring more services — like parks and road improvements — to Fort Worth. He also said Fort Worth is behind in transportation needs, and said having an effective transit system is important to compete with other cities in bringing development to Fort Worth.

SteerFW sponsored the trendy forum — a meet-and-greet period included free adult beverages, food and hip music — as a way to get younger people involved in politics and voting in local elections, said Matt Dufrene, chair of the SteerFW executive committee. Thursday’s nearly two-hour question-and-answer style forum was a first for the organization, Dufrene said.

Dufrene said 190 people registered for the event, and the organization took questions from the community via email and Twitter.

“You can’t let those of us with a lot of gray, even if it is well-colored, make decision that impact your life over the next 25 years. We have to hear from you,” Mayor Betsy Price told the crowd.

Sparse showing

Both Councilman Sal Espino, a local attorney, and his opponent for District 2, retired firefighter Steve Thornton, missed the forum.

Bob Willoughby, challenging Councilwoman Gyna Bivens for the District 5 seat, was at the forum. Bivens, executive director of North Texas Leaders and Executives Advocating Diversity, was absent.

Willoughby often deferred to other candidates’ answers, saying he “came down here more to hear what they had to say than what I had to say.”

Willoughby said he still had more to learn, though he did urge for more transit connectivity on the east side of Fort Worth, and said he would like to see Fort Worth open a sorting center for recycling where the homeless could work.

Andy Gallagher, running for the District 7 seat against Councilman Dennis Shingleton, was not at the event. Gallagher has refused requests for interviews from the Star-Telegram via phone, email and in-person. He is a motor vehicle dealer and mortgage loan officer, according to his campaign application.

Shingleton, a retired colonel from the Army and also a retired senior associate dean at the University of Texas Health Science Center’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, said his priorities for a new term include focusing on streets, access to transit, health and fitness and water.

Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray, former executive director of the Riverside Rebuilding Corp., was at the forum, but her opponent for the District 8 seat, Sharon Mason-Ford, a teacher for adult special needs students, was not present.

Gray said she wants to continue her work on improving the homelessness area in her district, attracting economic development and creating single-housing infill projects.

Caty Hirst, 817-390-7984

Twitter: @catyhirst