Carroll wins runoff election for council Place 3

The+Coppell+City+Council+Place+3+runoff+election+ended+June+5.+Don+Carroll+won+the+runoff+with+55.03%25+and+1%2C789+votes.

Akhila Gunturu

The Coppell City Council Place 3 runoff election ended June 5. Don Carroll won the runoff with 55.03% and 1,789 votes.

Akhila Gunturu, Executive News Editor

Don Carroll was elected to Place 3 on the Coppell City Council on June 5 following a runoff against Davin Bernstein. Carroll won with 55.03% and 1,789 votes, and Bernstein received 44.97% and 1,462 votes. 

“I’m very excited about the opportunity to serve,” Carroll said. “I know there’s a lot to learn. Going forward, I’m excited to get started on that and really using my experience to help.” 

As Carroll begins his term, his main priorities include financial stability and maintaining basic city services, such as maintaining roads and the water system. 

“City staff and councils of the past have spent a long time making sure that the financial stability of the city was very strong,” Carroll said. “Along with that, I would say it’s just making sure that we continue to have premier basic city services in Coppell. I would contend that those are premier services around the Metroplex that we have here in Coppell now, and so making sure that we continue to have great basic city services [is] the primary focus.” 

Throughout the campaign, Carroll was able to witness and experience the diversity in Coppell. 

“We live in a community that continues to become more and more diverse,” Carroll said. “There are a lot of different thoughts, concerns and needs in different situations. In the general election, there were 11 [candidates]. There were a lot of diverse thoughts between all 11. Being able to listen [and being] thoughtful about whatever decisions need to be made will be a new and exciting challenge.”

The general election on May 1 shifted to a runoff election on June 5 because no candidate won the majority vote. Bernstein received 36.85% , Carroll received 34.18% of the votes and Megan Shoemaker received 28.97%. 

“I still continue to believe that issues matter,” Bernstein said. “That was what I based my campaign on; providing real issues for people to understand, whether it had to do with developing the future of the city, through the 2040 plan, or increasing tax relief to citizens. Enough citizens came out to indicate that those things do matter. I think it’s important to remember that as the city plans for the future.” 

For Bernstein, the most valuable part of the campaign process was meeting citizens at City Hall. 

“Meeting citizens whose lives will be impacted by the decisions for city council and hearing what they had to say, knowing that they felt that the issues that I brought forward were relevant and they supported them, makes me feel that I’m very much in the right direction,” Bernstein said.

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