Incumbent faces heated challenge in Arlington District 5 council race

By SUSAN SCHROCK - Fort Worth Star Telegram - Wed, Apr. 29, 2009
ARLINGTON — Council member Lana Wolff said revitalization and eradicating neighborhood blight are the top issues in her east central Arlington district, which includes downtown.

Opponent Terry Meza agrees that urban renewal is a key concern, but she said demolition isn’t always the answer. She wants the city to build new parks, better streets and sidewalks to encourage District 5 reinvestment.

Wolff’s and Meza’s disagreement about how to pump new life into the oldest part of the city is only one example of how the two candidates are sparring in one of the most heated Arlington municipal races on the May 9 ballot.

"I feel like we have the opportunity to continue to grow a great city," Wolff said at a recent candidate forum. "I love the fact that we are about to open the Dallas Cowboys stadium. But if no one wants to live here or raise their family here, it doesn’t do anybody any good."

Meza said after having Wolff serve the district since 2003, it is time for a new approach.

"There are creative things we can do to help stop the decline in east Arlington," Meza said at a recent forum. "If you are not better off than you were six years ago, it’s time for a change."

Airline pilot Michael Driscoll is also on the ballot for the District 5 seat but could not be reached for an interview. Early voting for the elections continues until May 5.

Experience

Meza said her advantages over Wolff are her formal education, which includes a law degree from Texas Wesleyan University, and her years of professional experience in areas of economic and work-force development, neighborhood revitalization and historic preservation in Fort Worth.

Her experience includes attracting a farmer’s market to an abandoned, dilapidated carwash and setting up a program where low-income families could borrow mowers and other lawn equipment to maintain their properties.

Meza said she would also bring more diversity to the council, which has one Hispanic member. She said her experience in Fort Worth can easily translate to east Arlington, which is facing similar socioeconomic and aging-infrastructure issues.

"I believe we can have redevelopment without sacrificing historical preservation and neighborhood stabilization," said Meza, who added that she was disappointed in the council’s recent decision to tear down the historic Purvis House on Cooper Street to make way for redevelopment.

Wolff, a longtime community volunteer who grew up in Arlington, said it doesn’t take a college degree to be a leader.

"I have two years of college and 35 years of community service," said Wolff, who added that she was the vice president of economic development for the Chamber of Commerce and helped create a tax increment reinvestment zone to provide incentives for redevelopment downtown.

Wolff said her accomplishments include encouraging the First Baptist Church to swap land with the city so that a new park could be built across from City Hall.

While on the council, Wolff also supported significant federal grant money and bond-funded investments in downtown and in east central Arlington neighborhoods. She added that 89.5 percent of residential street rebuilding money was spent in District 5 in the past five years.

She also said the city needs to continue aggressively working to identify and remove dilapidated properties that become a blight. Wolff said 22 houses and commercial buildings have been demolished through the Dangerous and Substandard Structure program since she has been in office.

Endorsement trouble

Wolff’s re-election bid has been plagued by ex-council member Dick Malec, who has widely publicized details about her husband, Jimmy Wolff’s, legal and financial problems, which include pending felony fraud charges in Oklahoma and an unresolved multimillion dollar lawsuit.

Wolff has maintained that she has nothing to do with her husband’s financial dealings and that Malec’s ill will comes from her not choosing him as a political consultant.

Wolff did acknowledge this week that at least two people have told her they were surprised their names appeared on an endorsement mailer without their permission. One of those was longtime attorney James Cribbs, who lives in west Arlington.

"I did not authorize or consent to the use of my name in the political endorsement piece that was sent out by Lana Wolff," Cribbs told the Star-Telegram on Monday. "I’m not eligible to vote in District 5, but if I were eligible to vote I would cast my ballot for Terry Meza."

Wolff said she has apologized to Cribbs, whom she characterized as a past supporter, and to a woman who donated money to her campaign but did not want her name used in a mailer.

"I take full responsibility, and I apologize," Wolff said.

Wolff’s political consultant Craig Murphy said Wolff has become a "punching bag" during the campaign and that Meza deserves scrutiny for illegally running her law practice from her former home on Kimberly Drive.

Meza said her furniture and equipment are being stored at the Kimberly address but she has not been actively working as a private attorney since 2005. Until last month, Meza said, she worked for the federal Office of Disaster Assistance preparing loan closing documents for disaster loans on homes and businesses affected by hurricanes.

Meza said she plans to re-establish her private practice at an undetermined location after the May 9 election.
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