Times up: Place 4 candidates prepare for final countdown

Election Day can cause some nervousness among candidates. But for Coppell City Council Place 4 candidates Gary Roden and Davin Bernstein, it's just another day at the races.

Roden, Coppell resident and active community member since 1995, decided to run for Place 4 after co-chairing the 2030 Strategic Planning Committee. The committee developed a 20-year strategic plan for the city.

"I want to assure the proper implementation of this strategic plan and help maintain this very unique city," he said.

Coppell faces a new challenge with several residents becoming empty nesters, dated infrastructure and residential properly tax, Roden said.

"For many years, parents moved their families to Coppell for the school system and then left when their children graduated from high school," he said. "In recent years, more people are making the decision to make Coppell their lifelong home. We need to encourage the development of housing stock for empty nesters as well as housing that will accommodate young people who want to return to Coppell to start their families."

The city will need to replace and renovate much of its infrastructure, Roden said, as well as find new ways to reduce expenses and encourag additional commercial and retail development in order to continue to shift the tax burden away from residents.

"The city has developed an inventory of required street repairs and the city council needs to prioritize the use of funds to assure that those repairs stay on schedule," he said. "As I have done for the past 14 years, I will continue to be an active participant in attracting new businesses to the city. Finally, I will be a proponent of reducing the tax rate once the costs associated with the Northlake Development have been retired."

Roden said the city must remain vigilant in monitoring the development around North Lake and do what is within its ability to influence the development.

"I am not a proponent of Coppell trying to join DART or of DART coming to Coppell, but there is a likelihood that a DART station may be located in the North Lake development on city of Dallas property, and we should work to make this a positive development for Coppell," he said.

If elected, Roden said he would bring his experience as a part owner of an architecture, engineering and construction business to the council.

"I am familiar with the issues that are critical in the development and construction of new facilities in the city," he said. "I have been the national chairman of an industry association representing over 23,000 member companies. In that capacity, I dealt with the press, an executive committee located across the country and a board of directors that exceeded 200 members. That experience taught me a great deal about planning, budgeting, and creating consensus among diverse opinions. Finally, I have been an active volunteer in the city for 14 years. At a time when we will have a new mayor and three new council members, I feel that this experience will assist me in quickly becoming an effective new member of the city council."

To Davin Bernstein, serving on the Coppell City Council would allow him to assist the city achieve its full potential. This Coppell resident moved to Coppell after leaving the military in 1994.

"Throughout my life, when I have seen a need, I have stepped forward to contribute to the solution and not sit on the sidelines," he said. "Coppell is a wonderful blend of a small community with a great quality of life, diverse housing and great diversity of people, and that is our strength. After participating in Leadership Coppell last year -- when the mayor specially asked us to step forward and volunteer for council -- I resolved that when the opportunity arose, I would take it. I believe in the electoral process as a way for citizens to hear and chose among different views for our future, so I decided to talk to residents, hear their voice about what they are looking for, and champion the views that will make a difference in our community."

In 2009 the Coppell City Council adopted the Coppell 2030 Plan as a vision plan for the city. But, Bernstein said, there has been very little resident participation -- a problem he hopes to remedy.

"The document, clocking in at over 100 pages, has not been broken down into information citizens can easily comprehend," he said. "More needs to be done now to include citizens in the plans being developed for our future."

Coppell has development opportunities that are not being leveraged aggressively, Bernstein said.

"I have heard loud and clear that our residents hate leaving our city to spend their money," he said. "When city officials say we don't have the opportunities that our neighboring communities have to develop retail, I say 'not so.' We have miles of frontage on a major freeway, we have major arteries immediately adjacent to those freeways -- including a new one after Freeport Parkway is extended to 121 -- and we have the opportunity to promote development that is adjacent to major area malls. I can't explain why we haven't developed this resource over the past 10 years, but I can promote a future that will develop remaining lands in a way that benefits Coppell's citizens."

Bernstein said he is an advocate for more transparency in the council and, if elected, he would bring a unique repertoire to the council.

"My work in technology developing new products, where you have to listen to what people want in order to deliver a product they can use, brings a unique skill set that no one on council or seeking office is bringing," he said. "In addition, my involvement in this community, in church, scouting and youth programs means I will be representing citizens who are very involved in Coppell, but not the typical folks involved in city politics."

This election, there will be two ballots -- one ballot for Place 2, 4, 6, mayor and the Place 7 Special Election. A separate ballot is available for Place 3 Special Election. Place 3 was called after the cutoff date, thus it has its own ballot. Voters will need to stand in two lines in order to vote for all places.

Coppell residents will be able to cast their vote from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 12 at Coppell Town Center, 255 Parkway Blvd.

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