Why Doug Athas?

Prior to being elected to the City Council, as a leader of the grassroots initiative Let Us Vote!, I and many others challenged the 2006 council in court to successfully restore the 2006 and future elections, preserving our City Charter and Texas laws. Our right to vote was returned to Garland citizens.

What He's Accomplished

As a Garland Plan Commissioner for eight years, I continually sought to have not only quality development but smart development that enhances our community while providing the tax base that helps deliver a higher standard of city services, protection, and infrastructure.

Throughout my service on the commission, I attended seminars and conferences to increase my understanding of the issues. I have traveled extensively across the nation, and have seen the ideas and examples of what does and does not work to revitalize a city.

Beyond that, I have worked with other citizens to help Garland reach its potential, as with the Plan Implementation Committees. It is ideas and recommendations from such committees that much of what is now seen as good development has flowed. The North Area PIC was the origin of the SH-190 Development Standards, as well as the formulation of requirements for apartment construction that have been adopted citywide.

In addition, I was instrumental in forming the First Street Business Association and the Downtown Business Association. This is providing businesses a way to better coordinate their efforts and improve these valuable districts. I pushed for a professional town planner to help with Downtown and for use of state-approved redevelopment financing tools. We are just beginning to see the results of these efforts in the Downtown and First Street areas, but I’m excited by the potential.

These accomplishments are due to the selfless contributions by many, many citizen volunteers and dedicated city staff. But the success we see today can quickly fade if we don’t turn our attention and skills now to neighborhoods all across the city. In too many areas our housing stock and quality of retail is declining. With diligent and aggressive efforts by the city council, the city staff, and, most importantly, the residents, we can make Garland a national example of successful planning, reinvestment, and redevelopment.

We can do that by recreating the sense of community a neighborhood holds, by recognizing and delivering the tools neighborhoods need to rebuild themselves, and by learning from our successes and our failures. Such efforts will require a tremendous amount of labor, dedication, and goodwill. The cost of ignoring our decline is one we truly cannot afford.

This effort for our neighborhoods has been my goal since I first began to understand the impact that forward-thinking city government would have on my family, my friends, neighbors, and community. I saw enough successes in other parts of the nation to give me encouragement that we could also successfully challenge many of the trends that pointed to a city in decline.

We are not a wealthy community in a fiscal sense but we are rich in people that love the city, are willing to work hard for its betterment, and have stayed with the city over generations and phases.

I chose to get involved with my homeowners association and, as civic interest chairman, our committee began watching and reacting to city government. After accepted an appointment to the Plan Commission and the District 1 Representative, I quickly grew to enjoy contributing to the process and offering small improvements. Our association made me a representative to the Garland Homeowners Coalition and I was elected vice president of GHC. Shortly after, I was elected to the board of directors of Texas Neighborhoods Together, the statewide educational and lobbying group for homeowner and neighborhood associations; I now serve as president of TNT.

I am proud of these accomplishments, but...

• I cannot ignore the lessons I learned or the projects I have started.
• I cannot ignore those that would have robbed us of our most democratic right.
• I cannot ignore that their purpose was personal gain and self-interest.
• I cannot ignore that I see a path forward, and that complacency is not an option.

We must recognize we are the tenth largest city in Texas. We must become a professional city, professionally managed. We must do this so the city council can return to its role as defined in the Charter: to set policy and the future direction of the city.

I ask for your confidence.

I ask for your support and assistance.

I ask you to see the potential that we have when
we work together to help all of Garland.

Demonstrated Experience

Community Experience:

• Let Us Vote!, Spokesman and Leader
• American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Publicity Chair
• PTA, Austin Academy

Professional Experience:

• Telecommunication Consulting Company
• Director of Site Development, PrimeCo, now Verizon
• Senior Manager, Telecommunications Division, Fluor Daniel
• Site Acquisition Consultant, AT&T Wireless