Photo of District 1 Council member Chad West courtesy of Ashley Long. Photo of District 13 Council member Gay Donnell Willis courtesy of Gay Donnell Willis. Illustration by Jynnette Neal.
Residents are moving forward with efforts to recall two Dallas City Council members.
District 1 Council member Chad West and District 13 Council member Gay Donnell Willis have been under recent scrutiny by constituents, with recall efforts specifically highlighting zoning as a key reason to bring recall elections to the May 2027 ballot.
West Kessler Neighborhood Association President Joseph Beckham said that the rezoning of the North Boulevard Terrace housing project was the tipping point, calling it an “upzone on steroids.” He also noted West’s handling of issues like City Hall and the Jefferson and Houston viaducts as motivators for a recall.
Even as a previous voter for West, Beckham said there’s a lot at stake not only within District 1, but in the city.
“I mean we have always said we understand the city’s need to increase their tax base. We understand the need for development and housing. We fully understand that, and we support development,” Beckham said. “But what we want is sort of a balanced approach where the city can expand its tax base, the entrepreneurs can make money in real estate and development, but at the same time, neighborhoods are protected from overreach.”
Beckham said the letter of intent to recall West could go to the city secretary’s office as early as this Friday.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that Chad is bad,” he said. “He’s bad for District 1. He’s bad for the City of Dallas.”
West said in a statement to the Advocate that he looks forward to completing his service in 2027.
“I’m proud of my record leading on neighborhood preservation, safer streets, fewer vacant lots, and support for small businesses,” he wrote.
Catherine Garrison, a resident of the Dells District in Oak Cliff, told the Advocate in June that she supports a recall of West because he is “more developer focused.”
“(A recall) would enable us to get someone else in there, and Chad couldn’t finish out his term and do more damage to District 1 and to the city than he’s already done,” Garrison said. “Just you know, just put a stop to it, and put there other people that would love to run and let them go for it.”
She said that Willis “is also a disappointment.”
D13 Together, a coalition of residents and neighborhood leaders from Preston Hollow and North Dallas, are launching a formal petition to recall Willis. The coalition said Willis sided with developers over residents in opposition on three zoning disputes including Preston Road/Royal Lane, Walnut Hill Lane/Betty Jane Lane and Melshire Park.
Doug Hazelbaker, a member of D13 Together, said that a letter that was sent to Willis on Aug. 9 requesting a 120 day delay of the three zoning cases spurred the decision to request a recall. Hazelbaker said that denial of that request gave them “no choice” but to move forward with a recall effort “right away.” Even prior to the August letter, Hazelbaker said that the organization brought an alternative plan to Willis for Preston and Royal with lowered heights.
“We were hoping that would have been an opportunity for her to broker a meeting with the developer, set up a meeting, open some dialogue, but that never occurred,” he said. “So back in May, we knew the communication with her was not going well.”
D13 Together plans to submit an official letter of intent to bring the recall vote for Willis “within the next 10 days, probably next week,” Hazelbaker said.
“People just want representation, and if you’re not getting represented, we’ll have to find somebody to represent,” he said. “And we’ve told her on Preston and Royal, we want to support this development. We would like to find a means to support this. And again, you would think that would be an invitation to broker a meeting or have some dialogue, but it’s just not there.”
In a statement to the Advocate, Willis said that she will continue to do the work she has always done and “focus on practical solutions.”
“It’s a tough job with long hours, but I want everyone to know that I’m always available to listen and understand your viewpoint,” Willis wrote.
In July, KERA reported that the deadline to put a recall on this year’s ballot had passed.
Both recall initiatives for Willis and West received support from True Grit Texas PAC, which is listed on the yard signs for both efforts. True Grit Texas is a Dallas-based political action committee that seeks to restore “honesty, transparency and accountability to our state and municipal governments,” according to the PAC’s website.
True Grit Texas is not behind the petitions or the websites for Recall Gay Willis and Recall Chad West. True Grit Texas is listed at the bottom of the Recall Gay Willis website as having paid for political advertising.
Another political action committee, Dallas Civic Accountability PAC (DCAP), is listed at the bottom of the Recall Chad West website for having paid for political advertising and was specifically organized to support that effort. Beckham said that Kevin Rachel, DCAP treasurer, is the only officer and that others involved are working or volunteering with the PAC.
“There’s a lot of folks that people are talking about recall, or they’re not real happy about their council members, and so we created this PAC that is basically what we call a ‘recall readiness PAC,’” Beckham said. “And we are hyperfocused, laser-beam focused, on recalling Chad West because that’s honestly what spawned the birth of this movement and this effort, but we’re a PAC so we can become involved in issues and movements and efforts and candidates and time moves forward, but right now our main focus of DCAP is recall Chad West.”
Beckham said he expects resistance to the recall effort as well.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Chad West and his supporters are going to try to mount a very robust opposition to the cause for recall, and they’re going to use every trick in the book, and they’re going to try to say we’re a white right-wing MAGA-affiliated organization,” Beckham said. “We’re not. They’re going to try to say, you know, we’re anti this or pro that. We’re not. You know what we are? We’re anti Chad West.”
Raymond Cantrell is a volunteer with DCAP and the Recall Chad West effort. He said he specifically got involved because of the outcome of the viaducts. The Jefferson Viaduct currently leads to Hotel Street and will be rerouted with a lower height of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in the planned renovation.
“I think what really has caused this to gather in a perfect storm so quickly is that the bridges thing with The Clyde explosion really woke people up. That he’s just checked out of what the needs of the district are. That the bridge was such an egregious sacrifice of the needs of these people,” Cantrell said.
To have the recalls make it to the ballot, signatures have to be collected from 15% of eligible voters in each district during the last municipal election within 60 days from the submission of intent to the city secretary’s office.
For District 1, the required number of signatures is about 7,000. For District 13, that includes over 9,500 voters.
If the total number of eligible voters sign and the petitions are filed, the city secretary will then examine each petition to verify the signatures. The city council can allow for extra help in the case of multiple petitions to recall council members, plus additional days could be added to complete the examinations.
If the city secretary finds one or both recall petitions in order, the petition moves to the council. The city council can then call a recall election on the next available election date within 60 days after the certification, unless the next available election date is the general election, in which case the election will be held on that date.
