Harry LaRosiliere: Hard at work on the dream

His is an American dream-type story, a story of what those huddled masses can do once they make their way through the doors on Ellis Island.

Much like the story of Plano, Harry LaRosiliere’s story has been focused on hard work, education and community service that helped both the city and LaRosiliere grow from humble beginnings to positions of great respect.

The current Place 5 Plano city councilman came to the United States from Haiti with his family in 1965 when he was 3 years old. Like most immigrant families, the LaRosilieres came to work and provide a better future for their children under the bright lights of New York City.

Plano just reached a population near 10,000 in 1965. The city was completely unaware of the population explosion it would face in the coming decades as suburbs surrounding Dallas would begin to flourish.

Back in Harlem, Harry’s parents knew the only chance he and his sister would have for a prosperous life was in the classroom. Fearing that the public school education of the inner city would not be sufficient, his parents found a way to send the siblings to a private school.

“Coming from Haiti, we knew the U.S. was full of opportunities — as long as we got our education,” Harry said. “My mother worked 26 years cleaning offices, and my father worked two jobs to pay for our education. That really defined my childhood and who I would grow up to be.”

Even with his education sorted out, the streets of Harlem were not to be taken lightly. Harry said the perception of Harlem is a bit skewed; these were not the gang-riddled streets seen on the big screen, but trouble was always there.

There were days Harry would hear stories of friends who got in trouble with the law and were sent to prison, or the days where an acquaintance of the family might be shot.

Or the day Harry’s close friend went to the top of a building with a rifle and shot a police officer for no apparent reason.

“Here is a guy who used to come to my house and we would play in the park,” he said. “And here I am the next day seeing him in the newspaper accused of this crime. I never saw him again. He would spend the rest of his life in and out of jail.”

This was life in Harlem: working-class families getting by and trying to provide the best education they could for their children before crime seduced them away.

“Growing up, that is what we knew; we knew that periodic violence was part of life,” Harry said. “But it wasn’t like we were dodging bullets. You had some people that would eventually fall to the wrong side of the tracks. They would get involved with drugs, get strung out and slowly fade away. The characters would change, but the play remained the same.”

It was at the hand of Harry’s mother that family structure was provided. That discipline ensured he and his sister never succumbed to the influence of the negative forces surrounding them. Her guiding hand was why the two would be the first college graduates in the LaRosiliere family.

In 1985, Plano hit 100,000 residents as technology companies started moving into the area.

Back in New York City, a college graduate now, Harry was about to start his own business. He saw the effect politicians with the right voice in the right place have on those around them. He began to see the importance that volunteer citizens have within the community. The budding entrepreneur decided to start using his free time giving back to the community. And there was no better way to give back, he thought, than by helping support the very thing that got him on his path in life: education.

Harry decided to tutor at George Washington High School in Spanish Harlem. This was a chance to give back to students in the inner-city schools who just needed one break to make it out. Harry said when he asked for the assignment through a volunteer program, they were surprised at his initial choice for a school to tutor.

“The lady said, ‘Do you realize where this is? Are you sure you want to do this?’” Harry said. “I said, ‘Yeah, it’s in my neighborhood.’ She was a little embarrassed after I told her that.”

Still in the inner city, Harry would tutor those students who just needed one more math credit to graduate. This gave him his first taste of public service.

In 1994, he moved with his girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, Tracy, to Plano.

The city’s population had reached 167,000, as families began flocking to the suburb so their children could be a part of the exemplary education system that was the envy of many across the state.

Harry had a plan: three years in Plano and then back to New York to be near his family. Definitely by 2000, he would be hopping on a plane back to the Big Apple.

And then somewhere along the way, between Harry becoming a financial planner, working on nonprofit boards and seeing the ample opportunities for municipal work in Plano, he grew roots. Sixteen years later, “New York was home and Plano is home,” he said.

“It was a more gradual thing; I immediately became active in the community when we got here,” Harry said. “The longer I was here, the more I became entwined in the fabric of Plano life. The moment that hit home for me was when my wife and I were trying to decide where to eat dinner, and I had suggested three places in the city. She looked at me and said, “Why don’t you try getting out of Plano sometime?’ And that is when I realized that I am here for good. I joke if I ever leave Plano city boundaries, I will need an oxygen mask.”

In Plano, Harry found the security and prosperity his family had wanted for him when they made their way to the states three decades back. It was the quality of life that kept him here.

“Harlem is a much different atmosphere and different condition than here,” Harry said. “You have safety, the amenities, the nice streets, activities, and the education system is excellent. All of those aspects were what we looked for in a place to live.”

So Harry and Tracy were home. The couple soon started their own family with the arrival of Brianna and then Maya, who are now 13 and 11, respectively. Like his parents before him, Harry wanted to be that example in his children’s lives of what can happen for someone who works hard and gives back. He sat on the boards of different nonprofits, such as CASA, and even went through Leadership Plano. The 3-year-old Brianna was at his side as he conducted various meetings with different boards and commissions he worked on. All of this was working to a goal: a seat on the city council.

“I always saw city council as a goal,” Harry said. “When I was in New York I knew that serving on a council at a city level was important.”

For Harry, the city council is really the last level of government before politics begin to play too much of a role in decisions made.

“I feel if you go on to a higher level it is a lot more political and you lose sight of what municipal life is about,” he said.

And so in 2005 Harry took his message to the Plano people and ran for Place 5 on the council. His opponent was Warner Richeson, a longtime resident of Plano. The city itself had exploded to more than 250,000 residents with growing numbers and diversity, as several different ethnic groups from around the globe called Plano home.

Harry would beat Richeson, 5,032-4,956. With 76 votes separating them, Harry earned the nickname “Landslide” LaRosiliere. But no matter the margin of victory, he knew voters had put their trust in him, and he was not about to let them down.

So he went to work for the voters and brought his diverse background to the council and did the only thing he knows how to do: work hard.

“My business background has served me well,” Harry said. “[The council] may be a public entity but it’s a business as well, and our product is customer service. We provide safety, parks, recreation and environmental services; we have business units and revenue from taxes and we have to spend it appropriately.”

Along his five-year career on the council he would have ups and downs, but something he is most proud of on the council is the decision to create the economic development fund. While he said it was the entire council that worked on the idea and molded it into what it became, he feels he helped lead the discussion on it. The fund would raise taxes 2 cents so Plano could remain competitive with surrounding cities.

“We did not have the money to invest in the recruitment process,” Harry said. “But when I brought to the council an idea to raise property taxes to support economic development, it was somewhat brash. No. 1, just saying ‘Let’s raise taxes’ was bad enough, and No. 2, would it be enough? But I felt like we had a value proposition here in Plano and did not need to give lots of money to businesses to get them here. It was just enough to keep us in the game.”

The fund has been effective and has brought or retained almost 3,900 jobs to Plano.

“I was one of eight who chose to do it; it was not all me that got it passed,” he said. “But bringing it to the table to have the open discussion and having it work is something I am proud of.”

The mix of property tax revenue between business and resident is 50-50 in Plano. The mixture is the envy of many cities across the state, because it allows for one of the lowest tax rates in the area as the taxes businesses pay support much of what the city needs to do for its residents.

Yet beyond the needs of the citizens, whom Harry holds in the highest regard, he is looking to meet the needs of the two most important residents in his life: his children.

“Serving on the city council has been one of the most satisfying activities,” Harry said. “My two daughters see that the time I spend away from them is because I am giving back. They see it as a natural activity and will emulate it in their lives.”

Both daughters find ways to give in their own way and volunteer when they can, even going so far as giving part of their allowances for charitable needs. Harry said when Katrina occurred they wanted to know how they could help.

“They know their responsibility in a community, and that is something they will have for the rest of their life,” Harry said. “And it is not out of us pointing at them and saying, ‘You will do this.’ It was because community service has always been a part of their lives, as it will always be a part of my life.”

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