Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Charity Allman Lewisville City Council candidates Patrick Booth, LeRoy Vaughan and Lathan Watts answer BHC students' questions.

Lewisville City Council candidates visited Brookhaven College to discuss building community involvement, improving mass transit and keeping taxes low.

Leroy Vaughn, Lathan Watts and Patrick Booth attended service learning's third installment of the Brown Bag "Lunch-N-Learn" dialogue April 18.

Booth said this is his first attempt to run for city council, but has run for mayor twice. He said he was 18 years old the first time he ran.

"The reason that I've run in the past and the reason I'm running now is because I will not have someone else tell me how our community is going to be run," he said.

"I want to have an active part and dialogue in that, and I want to make sure that everyone else does too. Communication with community members is the most important thing."

Booth said the best way to increase community participation is through a Community Involvement Board. He said he proposed the idea in 2004.

"This is an active interaction with the community," Booth said. "It would have a representative speak with a person-to-person contact, and that is so important to get people engaged with organizations in any city."

Camile White, a representative of Texas Campus Compact Americorps Volunteers in Service to America, said the students benefit from these dialogues because instead of seeing a name on a piece of paper they get to ask questions and hear the answers.

"We may not see the whole benefit until further down the line, but it's invaluable to get this type of first-hand contact with politicians," White said. "I just wish more government classes would attend, although many of them have."

White said it's good for students to not just see what is going on in their city but also the surrounding areas.

"Students can get a better respect for politics and their surrounding cities by attending these dialogues," she said.

On March 21, candidates for the Farmers Branch City Council visited Brookhaven and among other things spoke about Ordinance 2903. If passed it would require all persons renting apartments to show proof of citizenship or immigration certification according to the Web site www.ci.farmers-branch.tx.us.

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