Dallas City Council Election: See May 1 Candidates

DALLAS — Here's the second part of our series offering brief profiles of the candidates for Dallas City Council.

As the city's primary legislative body, the council is tasked with making or amending city laws, approving and adopting a budget for the city, levying taxes and ordinances and policies.

A candidate can win election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. Failing that, the candidates finishing first and second face off in a runoff election on June 5.

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DISTRICT 8

Tennell Atkins is the District 8 incumbent. After representing the district from 2007 to 2015, voters returned him to the city council in a 2017 runoff election. From 2013 to 2015, he also served as mayor pro tempore. His mission includes boosting economic development, supporting the fire and police departments, participating in the revitalization of RedBird Mall, removing "Shingle Mountain," and improving both the streets and parks, as well as Singing Hills Recreation Center.

Subrina Lynn Brenham is a small business owner who has also made "Shingle Mountain" a priority, as well as public safety and health issues in the community, including mental health. If elected, she vows to target job opportunities, affordable housing, education and environmental issues.

Lakolya London touts her record of helping our seniors and children across the city. She also ran for the District 6 city council seat in 2015. London is advocating for a greater daytime police presence and access to food, as well as jobs. She also believes RedBird Mall will be a substantial asset to the district, and that it will attract business as well as shoppers.

Davante "Shawt" Peters doesn't believe he's a one-size-fits-all candidate. He's running against the status quo on a platform of palpable and lasting change. Every problem the district faces has one root cause, in his opinion: a lack of leadership. He believes the current council member has "sold us out" to private and corporate interests.

DISTRICT 9

Paula Blackmon is the incumbent council member, and has served since June of 2019. While in office, she's devoted her energies to lowering taxes, neighborhood and public safety and improving roads and transportation in the district. She's also advocated for such long-delayed transportation projects as the Gus Thomasson & Ferguson intersection.

John Botefuhr favors market-rate pay increases for police officers in order to compete with other area police departments and to attract and retain quality law enforcement. By contrast, he points out, the current council member helped to cut overtime budgets for the police by 25 percent. He'll also push for safer neighborhoods and to stop underfunding street repairs.

Judy Kumar is a longtime activist who's volunteered for numerous food, shelter and nature programs, including So Others May Eat, Meals on Wheels, Second Harvest Heartland, Clean up Anacostia and several urban clean up programs. For 3½ years, she volunteered weekly to tutor preschoolers at the family homeless shelter People Serving People. Kumar seeks to promote and protect small businesses, and foster greater collaboration between the education and business communities.

DISTRICT 10

Adam McGough is the current Council member representing District 10, an office he's held since 2015. He serves as the Chair of Transportation and Infrastructure, the lead delegate for the Regional Transportation Council and the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition. He believes his district's biggest concern remains public safety and calls the crime rate of the area "unacceptable."

Sirrano Baldeo believes that "corruption" on the council has created "a budgetary crisis, a continued spike in crime and unnecessary spending." He believes in adopting new and creative business practices to save taxpayers money and to provide the best possible public service to the public. He also intends to focus on crime to reverse the loss of tax revenues, and the flight of both businesses and residents.

DISTRICT 11

Candy Evans is a returning candidate for the District 11 seat, although she was defeated in the 2017 general election. She is also the founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, a real estate news site. She says she'll focus special attention on the development of Midtown, which, in her words is "the urban mixed-use project replacing Valley View Mall, a 40-year-old zombie shopping center."

Jaynie Schultz intends to address panhandling and homelessness if elected. As a former member of the City Planning Commission, she also has an interest and experience in zoning issues. She also seeks to grow the tax base without raising taxes and to lower crime in the area.

Barry Wernick is running to prioritize public safety and ensure that police and fire departments have the necessary resources to carry out their work. He also envisions repairing Dallas' existing infrastructure, cutting wasteful spending while fighting rising property taxes and take action against homelessness and panhandling by "getting people off the streets and back on their feet."

Hosanna Yemiru entered the race "to ensure that every Dallasite has access to the resources that make our city strong: fully funded city services, strong and holistic public safety, upgraded and sustainable infrastructure, and resilient neighborhoods." Her priorities include public health, homelessness, sustainability, community budgeting and property taxes and affordability.

DISTRICT 12

Cara Mendelsohn currently holds the District 12 seat on the council. If reelected, she intends to continue on the same trajectory that led to her last election— supporting first responders, fighting higher taxes, improving infrastructure and upgrading parks. Mendelsohn also advocates stronger oversight and governance by reducing inefficiency.

Elva Curl was a full-time staffer in U.S. Senator John Cornyn's Dallas office, serving as his deputy Regional Director during the 108th and 109th congressional sessions. If elected, she says she'll address infrastructure, public safety and foster an atmosphere of cooperation. As her website states, she'll bring "professionalism and civility to City Hall."

DISTRICT 13

Da'On Boulanger‐Chatman is a native Dallasite and teacher. He touts his experience working with diverse communities at differing socioeconomic levels in different age groups. His agenda includes affordable housing for every Dallasite, criminal justice reform, community safety and "continuing effective programs that provide support and transparency to the public."

Leland Burk is a business owner who vows to bring "a taxpayer’s perspective to City Hall" and promises to root out waste and seek ways to optimize each dollar spent. As a strong police ally and former volunteer leader for Safer Dallas Better Dallas, he'll focus on public safety and smart economic growth.

Gay Donnell Willis is president & CEO of the Turtle Creek Conservancy, an organization she's spearheaded to help conserve historic Dallas green spaces. She wants, after the pandemic and February's Deep Freeze, to see the city better prepared for emergencies. Willis is also a proponent of neighborhood participation in smart growth plans and intends to work on "livability" issues, including the arts, libraries, parks and recreation.

Ryan Moore favors tax-based redevelopment strategies, "efficiently and intelligently carrying out street and sidewalk improvement projects," development of the local workforce and what his site calls "transformational leadership." According to the site, his view is to take a fresh approach and try to reappraise the district's shortcomings from a new perspective. His agenda would also include addressing homelessness, budget and tax reform, and crime.

Mac Smith believes in plain speaking. His campaign materials lay out his concerns: "Our taxes are a third higher than Houston and San Antonio. Our murder rates have doubled in the last six years. The homeless problem grows every year." He too promises to bring a fresh mind "and skeptical eyes" to issues facing the city. If elected, he'll target taxes, crime, the city budget and working to resolve Dallas' problems with poverty.

DISTRICT 14

David Blewett is the incumbent, and has served District 14 since 2019. He currently serves on a number of committees including those dealing with public safety and COVID recovery. He's Vice-Chairman of the council's Economic Development committee, and his main areas of interest include property tax reduction, infrastructure and quality of life issues. Blewett also helped enact the Conservation District for the M-Streets to better preserve historic homes in the area.

Paul Ridley served on the Dallas Plan Commission for eight years representing District 14. While there, he also chaired the Thoroughfare Committee. In addition, Ridley represented the district on the Landmark Commission for four years, helping to preserve Dallas’ historic neighborhoods in the process. His campaign site declares that, if elected, he'll push to provide police the necessary resources to control crime while holding officers accountable, promote transportation options and work to mitigate climate change, including solving the city's issues with air and water quality.

Elizabeth Viney is a lawyer and longtime advocate for justice. She is jumping into the race "for one reason and one reason only—to make Dallas safer and more prosperous." As a member of the council, her site says she'd "defend, not defund" the police, work to lower taxes and conserve neighborhoods.

Read more: Thumbnail profiles of the City Council Candidates in Districts 1-7

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