Joe Tave and Zarin Gracey sit for a candidate forum hosted by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Emma Ruby.
Candidates for the District 3 city council seat Joe Tave and Zarin Gracey spoke at a candidate forum Monday afternoon ahead of the June 10 runoff election.
Tave and Gracey emerged as the runoff candidates after receiving 25.76% and 46.22%  of the vote during the May 7 election, respectively. The District 3 ballot was a five-person race.
In Monday’s forum hosted by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, Gracey and Tave identified code compliance, sanitation, parks, quality of life and roads as some of the most significant issues for District 3 residents.
Here is where both candidates stood on some of those issues and others.
Code compliance
Both Gracey and Tave agreed that code compliance is a chief concern in their district.
Tave said he often walks around his neighborhood and notices code violations, which he said are often overlooked by city officials even after they are called in. Tave said he wants to see the city be more proactive about cleaning up code violations.
“I want code to look for the violations,” Tave said. “Something is currently amiss and it is a leadership problem.”
Tave also said employees in the code compliance office need to be “people oriented,” and he will work to ensure the department is friendly and welcoming.
Gracey said if elected, he will work to create a database that will track the number of calls code compliance receives from D3 and the response times for those calls. He also said he would follow up on individual violations, to ensure residents were satisfied and the violations had been handled.
Economic DevelopmentÂ
Gracey has worked in a number of city offices that specialize in economic development, including serving as executive manager of Business Inclusion Development and director of the Office of Business Diversity.
He presented a two-phase approach to business development in District 3, with phase one focusing on giving the district’s shopping centers a facelift which he called “low hanging fruit.”
In phase two of Gracey’s plan, he said he would identify new businesses that could be brought into the district and create jobs that turn into careers in addition to hourly jobs.
“District 3 is open for business,” Gracey said.
Tave’s approach to economic development is more conservative, with Tave saying he would want to ensure new businesses would create jobs before inviting them into the district.
He referenced being disappointed by past developments in District 3 that promised to bring jobs to the district, only to fill the jobs with internal candidates.
“I want something in writing before I commit one red cent of your tax money,” Tave said.
Public Safety
When asked about their approach to public safety, Tave said that, if elected, he would bring community leaders together to better asses how to combat crime and violence in the district.
Tave said he believes that family dynamics need to be addressed in order to better understand public safety threats.
“There are things going on in our families that we refuse to face up to,” Tave said.
Gracey referenced endorsements from police and fire associations as evidence of his commitment to working with public safety officials.
In addition to wanting to deepen relationships between police officers and District 3 residents, Gracey said he is passionate about recruiting and would like to increase staffing for the departments.
Gracey also discussed the importance of understanding the police and fire budgets “at the operational level,” to deepen understanding of taxpayer spending and the needs of the departments.
Tave voiced distrust of endorsement-heavy campaigns, saying that politicians in Dallas often do what is “politically expedient.”
“Endorsements are made, not earned,” Tave said.
Housing
Gracey and Tave both expressed frustration at the amount of low-income housing in District 3, with the former saying there is “way to many” and the later saying the city needs to “spread it out.”
Gracey discussed the importance of neighborhood self-determination when it comes to aesthetic design, and said District 3 residents need to be able to stand up to large developers whose housing may not align with the neighborhood feel.
“D3 has the land and ability to meet all our housing needs, but we need to be more strategic on how we approach that,” Gracey said.
Tave said he feels the city has historically “dumped” low-income and affordable housing on District 3, and would no longer allow that if elected.
He also referenced his opposition to plans for a homeless facility near Kiest Park and Brashear Elementary.
Tave said he felt community members were blindsided by the plans, which have faced city-wide critique.
“They dropped the ball,” Gracey said about city official’s handling of the project.
