At the city council candidates forum Thursday night, we heard about more than just the planned Oak Cliff Walmart.

If you live in council District 3, pay attention to this race. These candidates — incumbent David Neumann and his opponent Scott Griggs — couldn’t be more at odds.

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Take their opinions on gas drilling.

Griggs wants a moratorium on gas drilling. The city sold a mineral lease to XTO Energy for the natural gas trapped under Hensley Field, which is in District 3. The council was set to decide last month whether to give XTO a permit to drill there. But Neumann asked council to delay the vote until October so that he could assign a “task force” to investigate whether gas drilling would be a good idea for the health and safety of the district’s residents.

But since then, he hasn’t assigned this task force, so District 14 councilman Angela Hunt of East Dallas appointed one Thursday.

City council wants to “make sure science and politics match up,” Neumann said. “No one wants to incur any sort of risk.”

So Neumann is not taking a stand on gas drilling, except to say we need more information. Griggs wants a total ban.

We’ll have more on these candidates Monday.