Meet John

Greetings! It has been my honor to serve our community for the past four years as a member of your City Council. I am running for Mayor and ask for your vote in the upcoming election on May 6th.

My West U story begins with my grandparents, Marvin and Josephine Allen, who purchased a small, one-story red brick house on Plumb Street in 1941. Following my grandfather’s untimely passing in 1955, my grandmother worked to provide for herself and my mother, Georganna, allowing them to remain in West U. That Plumb Street house is the one that my father went to when courting my mother, where I spent countless happy hours as child and which became my home in 2003. Though the original house is now gone, that property, and the community that surrounds it, have been home to me and my family for the past 80 years and will always be an essential part of who I am.

The examples of my grandmother, my mother, my wife Susan, and other members of my family are what led me into public service, first as an attorney, then through volunteerism with organizations such as Leadership Houston, the Rotary Club of West U, the DePelchin Children’s Center, the Souper Bowl of Caring, the Good Neighbor Team, the West U Garden Club and as a member of your City Council. Those examples, and the dedication to justice that they inspired, led me to one of my proudest moments of the past four years, spearheading the successful effort to designate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an official city holiday, recognizing both the seminal achievements of Dr. King and the many contributions of the people of color who serve the City of West U.

My family history has also given me an understanding of the impact that the growth of our City has had on residents, both old and new. While our City has many citizens who are in the upper echelon of income earners, we have just as many who live on fixed incomes, are single parents, are small business owners, have expensive health issues, or are paying off student loans. And, as with the rest of the country, we have residents who have lost employment or found their incomes curtailed in the past year and may wonder what the future holds for them. Though high property values fund the excellent services and amenities that our City provides, the arrival of the annual tax bill forces a good number of our residents to wonder just how much longer they will be able to continue to live here. As such, the funds taken from our taxpayers are not a “bucket of money” to be used at will to fund special interests, but rather a sacred public trust, of which the City’s elected officials must ever be watchful guardians.

As I seek election to become your next Mayor of West U, I have five pillars for our work moving forward and encourage you to learn more about each:

1. Restore and enhance transparency of our City’s operations
2. Restore and enhance accountability and respect for residents, using data-driven decision-making
3. Protect residents’ investment in their home and families by improving flood mitigation, resident security and safety, preserving and enhancing existing amenities, including the residential character of our community
4. Provide City Staff with the support they need to continue delivering best in class service to residents
5. Restore and enhance our shared sense of community, by celebrating our residents, expanding opportunities for engagement, providing learning opportunities and supporting our parks and youth sports

To put our City on the best path, I ask that you support me in the May 6th election to become Mayor of West U.  Together, we can continue to make West U a great place to live for all of our residents and a community to be proud of.