Transcript
Bronin X: Dallas en Fuego, thank you for joining me on the Real Texas Radio podcast today. We've got a lot to discuss. We've got recall efforts. We've got Save City Hall. We've got a bond.
Bronin X: we We may be heading into a May election in 2027. So first off, why don't you tell us about this gay Donnell Willis? recall effort.
@DallasEnFuego: Sure. Well, thank you for having me on, Bronin. Big fan of your show. You do a great job covering everything in Dallas. and even So it's in Dallas County.
Bronin X: Thank you.
@DallasEnFuego: it's It's a lot of fun and you've got a great sense of humor too. The recall, you know, you covered it really well in your last show, but... I want to take this opportunity to give people a perspective from. what the people are saying, because I'm very I'm tied. i I'm tied in with the coalition of people in District 13 who are the ones who.
@DallasEnFuego: basically joined forces with me after i put up the recall website and said this is something that we got to do and finally they realized yeah we don't really have a choice because of the way that gay voted on the betty jane lane zoning case that's the patio homes that you referenced in the last episode and it became clear to them because they weren't going she wasn't going to listen to what they...
@DallasEnFuego: wanted for that development, they finally said, okay, well, if she's not going to meet with us, she's not going to listen to us, then we really have no choice because this has become a pattern of behavior. Every development, every kind of every contentious zoning case, she sides with the developers. And it's actually worse than that. She actually maligns the opposition. She says, ah well, you know, she wouldn't meet with them because she didn't feel safe. These are ah septuagenarians, octogenarians, 70 and 80 year old people. She doesn't feel safe. And then she would say that there are some bad actors. This is a direct quote from the horseshoe where she referred to certain people as bad actors or saying mean things. And basically what she means is if you disagree with me, then you're mean and therefore I shouldn't have to listen to you. But this has really been her pattern of behavior. And um finally, the people in District 13 got mad enough, which as if you've been following me for any length of time on X at Dallas and Fuego.
@DallasEnFuego: then you know that my mind. And modus operandi is that first you have to get mad. And District 13 is white hot right now. and And these people have gotten together and put a pool of a lot of money. And they're saying, OK, well, we're going to do a recall. we We don't want to have another term of this person. And we definitely don't want her to be mayor, which she has aspirations towards. So that's ah that's where we are. And and this is this is the Preston Royal zoning case. This is the one that's really hot right now at Preston and Royal.
@DallasEnFuego: and you know this is this this development if you've seen the rendering of it is Very out of character for this neighborhood. It's a it's a very commercial intersection with, you know, stores and offices on every corner. And then on this corner that got demolished by a tornado, they want to put up, you know, a 19 and 18 story towers surrounded by, you know, retail and mixed income housing and.
@DallasEnFuego: You know, we there't there hasn't been and a tower, there hasn't been a building over five stories in that neighborhood since the beginning of Texas. So it would be a big, big change for the neighborhood. I think their concerns are very valid and they don't want it. And the developer has no interest in in capitulating. So in bringing down the height from, you know, 220 to 210 stories that are 210 feet, that's not really ah a compromise in my opinion. But this is the game they play. They start out big. They did this with Pepper Square. They start out, oh, we want to build a... 15 -story tower with 2 ,000 apartments. And they're saying, oh, okay, well, we'll bring it down to... 12 stories and we'll make it, you know, 1600 apartments. And, uh, you know, that they do that intentionally so that they can make it look like they're compromising when in fact, it's actually just so out of character, nobody wants it. And your council member who ran gay Willis ran on neighborhoods first.
@DallasEnFuego: right And this has been and this is this was very successful for Bill Roth. I mean, he replaced Janie Schultz as the neighborhood's first guy. And as you said in your last episode, he's voted with the neighbors on all these other contentious zoning cases. so People know him for this.
@DallasEnFuego: Well, if gay were really serious and politically adept, she would have stuck to her guns and said, well, I represent the people. But she doesn't because she's collected over seventy eight thousand dollars in donations from. developers and real estate interests since she's been in office.
@DallasEnFuego: So her allegiance is with the developers.
Bronin X: But that's a point. That's a point that I made on my show on Monday. was In March of 2025, all of these D -13 residents, they watched Gay Willis support the Pepper Square redevelopment. And then less than two months later, they went out and reelected her in a landslide.
Bronin X: so her I think her pattern has been... Very clear. And even on property taxes, she's... She has... ah split with the city manager and try to get the property tax rate up higher, which would disproportionately harm D13 residents, especially if you're in Preston Hollow.
Bronin X: I know that the Halloween decorations and Christmas lights. neighbors probably on both sides. But on these developments and and tax abatements. She's she's always pro -developer.
Bronin X: you know, I'm just curious why the neighbors... They supported her in May 2025 after seeing all this.
@DallasEnFuego: Well, your guess is as good as mine. I think that part of the reason is that one of her biggest supporters from the very beginning was Jennifer Staubach Gates, who was a big you know ah Republican.
@DallasEnFuego: supporter and I think that because because d13 is more right -leaning that you know with her endorsement they they had this confidence that maybe that she was a good candidate but the truth is that she's kind of been the same the entire time she's been in office and she's been a dumpster fire of a candidate and i guess i'd say this is why i say first you've got to get mad you've got to get pay attention to what's happening in your city and then you have to be furious enough to see what you're seeing to actually be activated to do something about it and It's look, this is maybe not in a a popular opinion, but. My followers and the people who live in Dallas and who listen to my political commentary, they got to understand this is on you.
@DallasEnFuego: Right? You voted for these people or you didn't show up to vote at all.
Bronin X: Exactly.
@DallasEnFuego: Right. So like.
Bronin X: Which means you voted for them. You voted for status quo.
@DallasEnFuego: Right. that Exactly.
Bronin X: If you didn't show up.
@DallasEnFuego: not Not voting is voting. So. you you put these people into office and now you have to pay the price for it. So get mad. Get involved and, you know, let's put people in office who are intelligent and who represent you and who care about what you think, not what developers and other third parties think.
Bronin X: So on on that note, I'm wondering if you know or if you're at liberty to say. This recall effort for Gay Janelle Willis, it launched the the signature gathering about 10 days ago at this point.
Bronin X: The group is aiming for 11 ,000 signatures. Do you have any idea how many signatures they've collected at this point?
@DallasEnFuego: I do, but I'm not at at liberty not at liberty to say. I will say this, though, that we got off to a very good start.
Bronin X: I'm glad to hear that because I've definitely read... all the cynicism and and obviously many candidates, including Eric Johnson, the current mayor, Laura Miller, other city councilors, even in in more recent years.
Bronin X: these recall efforts have launched and sputtered and and haven't gone anywhere. But I do have a feeling that. D13 is different because of the the level of engagement in this community.
@DallasEnFuego: Well, it's it's different for a couple of reasons. The first one is this D13. D13 has the highest voter turnout of any district in the city, right? Number one. Number two. district 13 is the wealthiest district in the city they put they contribute the most dollar amount in property taxes to the city's coffers of any other other district in the city. So there's a lot of people who have money who are willing to support an effort like this.
@DallasEnFuego: And um number three. the timing. So... Early voting just started. So if you are interested in recalling Gay gay Willis, go to recallgaywillis .com slash petition dot php and If you click on the petition link, you will see that the current places where you can sign the petition are all... polling places.
@DallasEnFuego: So we have we have tables set up at four polling places in District 13 that are, you know, at the appropriate distance from the polling place. You can't electioneer. We all know that. But you can sign your petition there. So there's a lot of traffic coming in to these polling places in the district that has the highest voter turnout. So we're collecting a lot of signatures right now.
Bronin X: I'm really glad to hear that. i I have seen the website and I know that they're using a lot of your videos and content. I'm sure the group appreciates all that you have done on that one. And anything else that you wanted to say, oh, this is actually a point I wanted to raise. So the the Preston Royal, what, two or three towers, a hotel, residential.
Bronin X: So that zoning case, which is... typical for controversial zoning cases. It's already been delayed about a month. Do you think that... This effort is already paying off, the recall effort that they have helped. push this.
Bronin X: further a month. Off the calendar.
@DallasEnFuego: Well, whenever you're fighting a zoning case like this, typically delaying the case as much as possible is to your benefit, right? Because you can you know you can get lawsuits going, you can collect signatures, you can do all sorts of things. The reason for this delay.
@DallasEnFuego: and and And this isn't even public yet. But the reason for this delay is that Gay is actually working with the developer to expand the amount of land that he can own at that same lot to build even more.
Bronin X: Wow.
@DallasEnFuego: So and she's masking this as, oh, well, we're looking into the traffic. We really care about the traffic, which is hilarious because the all the residents have been saying. Our number one concern is the height.
@DallasEnFuego: the height and the density of this development. which if it were smaller, would lower the amount of traffic. Right. So, oh, we're going to put in this traffic mitigation. We're going to put a new stoplights and turn lanes or whatever. like That's that's.
@DallasEnFuego: that's like, oh, squirrel, look over here, look over here, traffic. When in fact, everyone's been saying, no, we want to talk about the hype. It's too tall. So she's working behind the scenes to actually help Leland Burke.
@DallasEnFuego: the developer. and it's it's It's very underhanded, but it is buying and ah buying us another month. Right. Because if she if this had if this had gone to. council on what was it november or october 11th or 12th or something 14th maybe um it very likely would have passed.
@DallasEnFuego: It would have passed. And. I suppose that could have had two effects. It could have... uh dampened the signature collection effort right because people are like oh it's hopeless it's over now But...
@DallasEnFuego: It also might have made people even more mad, which would have activated them to go out and sign the petition. So I'm not sure.
@DallasEnFuego: But um yeah, like you said, we do need, we're going for 11 ,000 signatures. We really only need about 9 ,500, but you have to collect more just to account for errors. And recallgaywillis .com is where you can do it, is where you can ah check to see if you're in District 13. And you can also see where the signature collection places are. And it's very important that you realize that you have to sign in person with, you know, with a pen. You can't do it online. So that that thing on the website is really just to check to see if you're in District 13.
Bronin X: So, and like you said, I assume all of these polling places, they're in District 13. So hopefully voters all for the next. for the rest of the early voting period and election day, we'll have a chance.
@DallasEnFuego: Yeah, that's right. you know And i for all your listeners who live in Dallas, and um for those that don't, Dallas is in a very interesting place politically right now because we have two recalls going, one against Gay Willis, another against Chad West.
@DallasEnFuego: There's a Save City Hall campaign, right, because there's a bunch of people who want to try and, in in the city government, they want to get out of City Hall and knock down this building, regardless of what you think of it.
Bronin X: including Gaye Willis.
@DallasEnFuego: including Gay Willis, right? And then there's also this. bust the bond campaign to try and, you know, to try and get convince people not to vote for Prop A, which is a $629 million dollars credit card for the city that they're going to waste on something, most likely to move the city out of City Hall.
@DallasEnFuego: um and So this all this political activity, all of this dissension speaks to the the state of politics in our city right now. People aren't happy. and And we're not talking about just a small minority, vocal minority. We're talking about 89 % opposition. to Preston Royal.
@DallasEnFuego: Right. um Over 80 percent of people polled in the city of Dallas. We're in favor of keeping the city hall building, keeping that the seat of government. So the overwhelming majority of people.
@DallasEnFuego: are against these things that our city is pushing. and that does not that does not bode well for our city what that shows is is that Your vote doesn't really matter.
@DallasEnFuego: Or at least it doesn't matter right now as far as the people that you've elected.
Bronin X: Right. And also it's looking like. strong mayor, whatever that means. I think that's still shaping what that could mean, but we could be voting on that next year in May on and a strong mayor system.
@DallasEnFuego: Yeah. Well, I mean, i don't I don't know if you've talked about it on your show. I've i've read the proposition for so for strong mayor. I think that it's a good step in the right direction. I don't think that it's enough.
@DallasEnFuego: But I do agree that giving the mayor more power to hire and fire the city manager, city attorney, chief of police, these are good things. And, you know, once we get a mayor that actually has the onion bag to do something like that, I think that it could be very useful and good for the city.
Bronin X: I agree. I agree. Anything else on the Gaye Donnell Willis effort? Actually, why don't you give us the website again? for that.
@DallasEnFuego: Sure. RecallGayWillis .com. RecallGayWillis .com. I'm posting about it quite a lot on my social media at Dallas En Fuego. e n F -U -E -G -O on Facebook, Instagram and X.
@DallasEnFuego: And check the website for updated signature locations and updates on our updates page for media and any other news related to the recall. It's being updated regularly.
Bronin X: Awesome. And I know you're much more involved with this campaign than with the Chad West recall effort. I'm going to be honest, I'm not as hopeful for that. And although I definitely appreciate seeing all those recall Chad West signs.
Bronin X: He's got one year left. He's not going to be running again. You just need somebody to fill for six months. I mean, make you know. I don't see them as organized
@DallasEnFuego: Well, look, i I agree with you. It doesn't seem like it has as much momentum, but I'll tell you this. That if he has other political aspirations. being a council member who People tried to recall. Even that doesn't look good.
@DallasEnFuego: So it's it is a stain on your political record that he's going to have to reckon with.
Bronin X: Right.
Bronin X: staying an Interesting ah word choice there, considering the the some of the nicknames I won't i won't mention.
@DallasEnFuego: but
Bronin X: um All right, Dallas and Fuego, anything else you wanted to cover?
@DallasEnFuego: No, I really appreciate you having me on keep doing great work
Bronin X: Thank you so much. And we'll be in touch, I'm sure. Good luck.
@DallasEnFuego: Alright, take care.
Bronin X: Bye.
@DallasEnFuego: Right.
