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It may be barely past the holidays, but it’s time to turn our eyes on the upcoming election season.
Starting this week, candidates for the Farmers Branch City Council can file their applications for a place on the May ballot.
While candidate packets have been available since December, there is still time for interested Farmers Branch residents to complete an application, have at least 25 supporters sign a petition, get everything notarized and submitted to the Farmers Branch City Secretary’s office by the Feb. 14 deadline.
The city council positions open for election are District 1, currently served by Omar Roman, who said he plans to run for re-election, and District 4, currently served by Richard Jackson, who will not seek re-election.
Elizabeth Villafranca, owner of Cuquita’s Restaurants, announced her intentions to run for City Council District 4 on Facebook in December.
No one else has publicly announced their intentions to run for either seat.
The process to run for office is simple. Deciding to run for office and campaigning are more difficult and time consuming. Winning the election and serving on city council is the difficult task, say multiple past and present city councilmembers.
While the time commitment can be as little as 10-15 hours per week, the job can be full time if a councilmember or mayor allows it.
“I wish I would have had better optics on the amount of time it would take me away from the rest of my life – my job, my family, the things I like to do,” Jackson said. “If you do this job right, you are at as many functions as possible…. You try to be everywhere. It takes a while to figure out that you just can’t be everywhere. At that point, life has already changed dramatically.”
Farmers Branch isn’t a small city, with a small budget and few issues, said former City Councilmember David Merritt, who served from 2021-2024. He said he thought 10-15 hours is a good base, but councilmembers can spend endless hours attending and representing the city at meetings for other organizations and looking into the background material of every issue.
“It definitely takes more time than you think it will unless you’ve been super-duper enlightened by people who have done it,” said former City Councilmember Martin Baird, who resigned in November to move with his family to Flower Mound.
Baird said campaigning was time consuming and a bit more challenging than he expected because of the amount of time and walking it takes to knock on residents’ doors and to attend events. He also campaigned on several very hot days, which was a physical challenge.
“People running should know it sounds easy to go door to door knocking, but you have to have thick skin because most people won’t answer,” he said. “Every once in a while, you’ll get someone who will ask you really hard questions and want to argue.”
He also recommended having a support team to help deliver and pick up signs, and said that while he doesn’t have any data, he thinks yard signs make a difference in a campaign.
“Having a support team is very important. It would be really hard to do it on your own, I think,” he said.
Campaigning was a highlight for Jackson.
“Campaigning was probably one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life, just meeting people and hearing from people,” he said.
Jackson, who will serve until the new city councilmember for District 4 is sworn in to office in May, said that though the job of city councilmember is difficult, he would still encourage people to sign up to contribute to the city in some way, whether on council or on a board or commission.
“Whatever it is, everyone has an interest of some type. There is always a place for someone to pitch in or to plug in, as churches often say,” he said.
The City of Farmers Branch has started encouraging people to apply for boards and commissions though appointments won’t be decided until after the newest city council is installed in May.
Jackson suggested that people interested in joining the council or a board or commission watch several meetings to get a feel for the personalities and decide if it is a good fit for them.
“Every board meeting comes together as a story. You need to know the characters and the issues they’re dealing with,” he said.
Merritt, who served on the Planning and Zoning Commission for 16 years, said he gained a lot of value being on the commission, but doesn’t think it’s a prerequisite of running for city council.
“You want that individual who signs up for running to have some sense of how the community works. You don’t necessarily have to be on a board or commission but you need to be involved,” he said. “Someone from the corporate world or the business world … they have skillsets they can bring to the table that don’t necessarily have to be viewed on a board or a commission.”
Different aspects of the role rewarded and challenged the councilmembers, though all said helping individual residents through city processes and with difficulties they faced was the most rewarding aspect of the position.
“It’s fascinating when you are an elected official and you nicely ask the city manager if he can look into something, things move a little bit faster,” Baird said.
Merritt said it was personally rewarding when he could help residents believe that things could work out for the best.
He found the reality of not being able to make everyone happy all the time the most difficult challenge of being a city councilmember. He said he always tried to explain why he made the decisions he did and repeated himself as often as necessary so everyone knew why he made the decisions he did.
“You are going to have winners and losers. You try to make sure it’s a win-win, but that’s not always possible,” he said. ‘You want to listen to that concern, but that doesn’t outweigh the benefit to a larger group, and that’s tough. That’s not easy. You’ve got to have a backbone and you have to be able to stand up for yourself and for your thoughts.”
Jackson warned that politics, even at the local level can be ugly. He said he hates politics, isn’t a politician, “and frankly, I’m not very good at it.”
He said even people on boards and commissions should be cautious about trusting other people and their motives.
“I wish I knew is how much ugly the role would expose me to. It bothers me. It bothers me that people fake being your friends. I’ve been called pretty much every name in the book by people who don’t know me and people I don’t know that … People have taken things that I’ve said and twisted it and flat out lied about it.”
As for the future, Jackson plans to focus on his job, continue to pay attention to what is happening in the city and play with his grandchildren.
“I’m still a resident. I still have a vested interest in my city. Where I feel like my voice will matter, I’ll show up. I’m going to play with my grandkids and spend more time with my kids.”
