Here’s your opportunity to learn more about Letty Harrison, one of the candidates running for mayor of the city of Lavon.
For more information about Harrison and other local candidates this election cycle, visit The Dallas Express Election Module.
DX: What should voters know about you and your platform that would convince them to vote for you?
What voters should know about my platform and me that would convince them to vote for me is that my rallying cries are mostly born of conversations with neighbors and other stakeholders. Their concerns resonate with me.
Our office of mayor is an unpaid duty. I have lived here 12 years, five … under the current administration, an amicable co-existence until a large sign announcing a car wash was erected next to the grand entrance to the 17-year-old subdivision in which I live, the city’s first planned housing development. The adverse location and rural water cost of an approved car wash and challenges of new dense housing propelled me into this race, in case no one else entered.
Someone needed to take charge to hold our city leaders accountable for marginalizing us. This is my “forever home,” so “I cannot sit idly by,” to quote the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Little did I know when I entered the race that the approved car wash is of great concern to many others.
Upon entering this race, I was advised the car wash — and as many as wanted to apply — is permitted use of the planned development as created. No disclosures were made to me as a prospective homebuyer, and while the permitted use may have been feasible in theory nearly 20 years ago, the permitted use, in fact, is adverse to aesthetics, safety, property values, rural water infrastructure costs, and possibly the package sewer treatment plant facility capacity. An approved liquor store is another concern voiced to me, and resoundingly, new dense housing is a concern to many, as well.
As a community, advocacy for some is advocacy for others, even if unknowingly. Stakeholders have worthy ideas and solutions, and our voices should be honored, not disregarded, as now.
I am taking charge because service to mankind has defined me lifelong through my innate connectedness to others and keen ability to relate. Thus, the time, expense, and willingness to commit two years to the Herculean task of addressing the current administration’s adverse decisions are selfless.
DX: If elected, what are your top three priorities?
If elected, my top three priorities are to address social behaviors that impact our quality of life, to empower the people who live here, and to improve the structural integrity and drainage of our city-controlled roadways and sidewalks.
I urge residents to shed the apathy and demand change — representation that values our input and that we can be proud of, within and beyond our city’s borders.
DX: What is the most critical issue facing the elected office you are seeking that you will fix?
Finally, the most critical issue facing the elected office I seek, which I will fix, is providing and attracting servant leadership.
