Denton voters: Where your City Council candidates stand on issues before election day

Before you get out to vote in your council district, here’s a look at each of the City Council candidates and where they claim they stand on issues facing the city.

District 1Council member Vicki Byrd is seeking reelection in District 1. A retired teacher and former campus police officer, Byrd says her job is to seek help for the older urban neighborhoods that often get left behind when city leaders focus on growth.

In an April 14 candidate profile with the Denton Record-Chronicle, Byrd said she is the best candidate due to her previous experience on the City Council. She said that gives her an understanding of the “inner workings of how a city grows, working through controversial decisions, celebrating successes and correcting conditions that negatively affect constituents.”

Byrd’s challenger Birdia Johnson served a six-month term on the City Council, then lost the seat to Byrd in the May 2021 election. Johnson was elected in the pandemic-delayed November 2020 election to fill the unexpired term left by Gerard Hudspeth, the former District 1 council member, before his successful campaign for mayor.

Now Johnson is back seeking to represent District 1 voters.

In an April 14 candidate profile with the Record-Chronicle, Johnson said infrastructure and homelessness were the two biggest issues her district faces. If elected to the council on Saturday, she intends to address those issues by continuing to serve on committees and holding more public hearings.

Johnson’s service to the community is the reason she says she is the better choice for District 1. Johnson has served on the boards of the Denton Housing Authority, the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center and Hope Kitchen. She’s also a member of the Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association and the American Legion Hall Senior Center.

“My commitment before and after council has not changed and I will remain a leader and helper of the people,” Johnson said.

District 3Assistant District Attorney Jesse Davis is seeking reelection to his third and final term on the Denton City Council while also facing a recall election. He won 65% of the vote in 2019 for his first term against two other candidates and ran unopposed in the 2021 election.

Then Davis’ district boundaries changed in late 2021 as part of a new redistricting map, in spite of his best efforts to prevent it, and he lost a significant amount of supporters for a May election historically plagued by low voter turnout.

Earlier this year, about 250 District 3 voters organized and signed a petition to recall Davis from office for not supporting two issues they overwhelmingly supported: the abortion rights resolution, passed by the council a year ago, and Proposition B, which would decriminalize misdemeanor marijuana offenses and was passed by 83% of his district voters in early November.

Davis has offered several reasons why he’s the best candidate for the job. In a May 2 candidate essay, published by the Record-Chronicle, he mentioned that he received the endorsement of the Denton police and fire departments by focusing on running the city well instead of worrying about negative headlines.

Though he serves as a precinct chair of the Denton County Republican Party, Davis reassured voters that he doesn’t focus on a political party or special interests as a council member but instead works for everyone in District 3.

In a recent campaign mailer, Davis, a Denton native, said his opponent supports city-sanctioned homeless encampments, but told the Record-Chronicle he has “been working for years to get a tiny home village in Denton.”

In an April 14 candidate profile, Davis wrote that District 3’s two most pressing issues are public safety and safe, quality streets. If elected, he plans to put more police officers in the area and help steer the council toward local issues instead of “national agendas” and “wedge issue politics” like the abortion rights resolution and the decriminalization ordinance.

“I will continue to be your voice and champion for: first responders; safe, quality roads; empowered neighborhoods; financial responsibility and strong community,” Davis said.

Davis has two challengers: Paul Meltzer, a former council member, and Stephen Dillenberg, a former teacher.

Dillenberg wrote in his April 14 candidate profile that the city should step into the legal arena to move forward with issues. For example, he argued that the city could sue the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for malfeasance.

“I think the city needs to begin filing suits against federal, state and regional bodies on behalf of our people, both public and private, where injuries have been sustained,” Dillenberg wrote.

Dillenberg missed a few candidate forums to share why he was the best candidate and his plans for the city if elected. In the April 14 profile, though, he wrote that he was the better candidate for District 3 because he is the only one who he alleged hasn’t claimed they don’t have to answer for criminal or malicious actions they willfully engaged in.

He also promised to uphold his oath and “seek to abolish tolerance of public servants, even implying they ‘can do whatever they want.’”

This time last year, Meltzer stepped away from his council seat to challenge Hudspeth in the race for mayor. He thought he was done after he lost the race. Then some District 3 voters approached him about challenging Davis because, Meltzer said, they needed someone who represented their values.

Meltzer highlighted these values in a May 1 candidate essay published by the Record-Chronicle. He said he believed the council needed to reach out to police chiefs from other Texas cities with similar marijuana policies — Elgin, Harker Heights and San Marcos, to name a few — and find out how they did it, then receive clear guidance from the Denton community and enshrine Proposition B in a council-initiated ordinance that supports the early November voter-approved one.

He claimed to support filling vacant buildings downtown as a way to take pressure off the residential property tax rate, which keeps increasing each tax season. He also wants to take another look at the tiny house proposals from five nonprofits seeking to address the growing unsheltered population and take action on affordable housing and preservation of Denton’s greener spaces in a time when he said they’re quickly disappearing.

Meltzer echoed those concerns in an April 14 candidate profile, pointing out one of the major issues affecting District 3 was preserving “the unique character and quality of our long-standing neighborhoods while addressing the demand for housing.”

“That means preserving green space and tree canopy where we can and encouraging types of housing through zoning that can better fit in existing neighborhoods, not four-story apartment buildings right next to single-family homes,” Meltzer wrote.

District 4Three candidates are vying for the District 4 spot, left vacant after recalled council member Alison Maguire in November.

Joe Holland, a former justice of the peace, is seeking election because he said the council has gotten distracted by what Davis called “national agendas and wedge political issues” these past three years. A Denton native, Holland also wants to steer the council back to local issues that impact residents.

In an April 14 candidate profile, Holland said he plans to focus on public safety, streets, utilities and parks and wants to expand economic development resources to bring jobs into the community. He claimed it’s Denton’s best tool to keep property tax rate low, despite the millions in property tax incentives that these businesses often receive.

The longtime business owner of a bicycle shop, Holland argued that streets and roads are the biggest concern for residents. Several are under construction in Denton.

“I’m receptive to exploring additional use of financial incentives and other opportunities to speed up completion of projects,” Holland wrote.

District 4 challenger Stephanie Neuharth said her knowledge and experience as an account manager and a residential loan officer would play an important role in the decisions that she said would “align with District 4.” In an April 14 candidate profile, Neuharth said she would be coming to the council role “with the energy and time it will take to manage the city’s needs during this time of fast-paced growth.”

Similar to Holland, Neuharth said infrastructure is the biggest issue facing the city and argued that city staff’s history of starting projects over and over isn’t cost-efficient and is inconvenient since the repairs sometimes take years.

“We also need to address the growing property taxes in a way that supports the needs of the city, but does not burden the taxpayers in this inflationary market we did not partake in,” Neuharth wrote.

Similar to Neuharth, Donald Thornton said his experience in finance and conflict resolution are just some of the skills he would bring to council. Those skills seemed to play out in a $6,503 credit card debt lawsuit that a justice of the peace dismissed as a nonsuit in late April.

Thornton denied the allegations that he owed the debt in late March, despite JPMorgan Chase & Co. attaching receipts of the debt to a Dec. 1 original petition.

In his April 14 candidate profile, Thornton wrote that, like Holland, he doesn’t like the direction that the City Council has been going over the years and echoed something Meltzer said in his May 1 candidate essay, that the city needs to do something about the vacant business locations downtown.

Thornton called it “a potential gold mine” in his profile and a way to offset the rising property taxes.

As for homelessness, Thornton said the city needs to take a “zero tolerance” approach to unsheltered people who refuse city services. He stressed the importance of working with the Denton Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team and faith-based initiatives to address the growing need.

If elected, Thornton said he also plans to take care of the firefighters in the upcoming contract negotiations with the city and focus on infrastructure improvements.