Members in the News
New hospital, public education atop Citizens Council agenda
Monday, December 3, 2007
By Chad Eric Watt, Dallas Business Journal
A replacement for Parkland Hospital's nearly 60-year-old building and a continuing push to improve Dallas public schools are the two top items for the Dallas Citizens Council, its incoming chairman said at the group's Monday lunch meeting.
John Field Scovell, the citizens council's 2008 chairman, says the business group is in a good spot to leverage its political clout, with a CEO mayor and a businessman heading the Dallas Independent School District.
"We're changing back to the good old days," said Scovell, president and CEO of Woodbine Development Corp.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, the former CEO of Turner Construction Co., and school board President Jack Lowe, chairman of TDIndustries Ltd., both addressed the lunch meeting as well.
Leppert stressed investment in the city of Dallas, unity and improving public schools.
The 70-year-old Dallas Citizens Council, originally founded as a committee of boss-men who could act quickly, also looked back on its role in Dallas history.
The group has commissioned Dallas historian Darwin Payne to pen an authoritative history of the group. Payne's book is due out next spring, 2007 council Chairman Tom Dunning said.
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