The West Starts in Ft. Worth with Mayor Mattie Parker

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Mattie Parker: We’re lucky because we can learn from other large cities that grew rapidly, maybe in the 80s, 90s, 2000. And the mistakes that they made. Maybe not. Preparing for growth.

It’s really about an under listening understanding before you make decisions. I think rash decisions, especially in good government, good public policy, are usually backfire on you. But at the same time, you also have to use instinct and make a decision and move on.

I always tell people your government is very close to you. All it takes is you to pick up the phone, send a text or send an email, and you’re going to get an answer to that question.

So funny. Right now, especially in 2024, the conspiracy theory government’s out to get me. They’re doing this. We don’t have that much energy.

99% of the people that are in government are there because they want to be. They recruited all the time to go do important work, in the private sector. And they stay because they love what they’re doing.

David Martin: Welcome to the Good Government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin. On this episode, we’re meeting Mattie Parker. She’s the mayor of Fort Worth, Texas. But proving all politics is local. She’s a friend of neighboring Wise County juror J.D. Clark, who we spoke to on a previous episode. In fact, her husband and J.D. are both musicians, and they played together.

So a little musical harmony going on in and around Fort Worth, Texas. As you’ll hear, Fort Worth embraces and promotes its Texas roots. The city still has Texas Longhorns steers herding through town twice a day on the way to the Fort Worth Livestock Exchange. It’s part of the fabric of this city that Mayor Parker has to make sure is maintained for a city on target to eclipse, Chicago is one of the nation’s largest metro areas.

It’s an issue at the forefront of their city planning, but they want to maintain their Cowtown image and their other nickname, Funky Town. So that’s a lot of planning. Since we’re talking about Texas, we talked a little bit about immigration. There’s a lot to Fort Worth. And Mattie Parker discusses leadership and of course, how to get good Tex-Mex food.

So listen to my conversation with Mayor Mattie Parker. And that’s coming up right after this.

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After you get done with this episode hear more good government stories with our friends at how to Really Run a City. Former mayors Kazeem Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen. Dot org slash podcasts.

Welcome to the Good Government show I have with me today, Matty Parker, who is the mayor of Fort Worth, Texas. Welcome to the show.

Mattie Parker: Hi, David. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

David Martin: Thank you for being here. The reason why I wanted to talk with you is because we’ve already talked with one of your sort of colleagues, JD Clark, county commissioner in neighboring Wise County.

Mattie Parker: Yes, he’s a Stark County judge in Wise County. You’ve been friends with JD for a long time, as I shared with you. He’s also a musician and play some music with my husband occasionally.

David Martin: Yes, he is, so.

Mattie Parker: He’s a good man. So.

David Martin: Yeah. You’ve heard him before?

Mattie Parker: I have, he’s excellent.

David Martin: And tell us.

Mattie Parker: Yeah, he’s very talented. Farrell. Like he’s not one of those that plays guitar and says he does. He’s actually a lot of fun. I think he needs to quit his day job and maybe go on tour, but I don’t think his wife agrees.

David Martin: No no no. Yes.

Mattie Parker: Two little girl he does are precious. Yes, absolutely.

David Martin: So I think his I think he said his performing days are behind him. So, you know, in talking with him, I know you know a little bit about what’s happening in Fort Worth, but my first question is, Dallas Fort Worth. Tell me what the biggest difference is between the two cities.

Mattie Parker: Oh, there’s too many to list. We’re incredibly distinct American cities. I would say Fort Worth is more your quintessential Texas city. Yeah. really leaned into our Western heritage, but also really successful and focused on what progress looks like into the future. But I’m not a mayor that’s going to trash on Dallas. I like Dallas is a lot of fun.

There’s a lot of unique qualities about it. Right? Yeah. and I don’t.

David Martin: I wasn’t looking.

Mattie Parker: For. Course not. But. Well, you know, we complement each other. I always say North Texas is stronger together. Over 8 million people in the region. and I think a little competition is actually healthy for us right now is an interesting time in the city of Fort Worth, because for a long time we were kind of where the stepbrother, like in the background of Dallas, no one really knew who we were.

And while we still sometimes have a name ID issue, people don’t really understand that Dallas and Fort Worth are two distinct cities. Fort worth, by the way, is over a million people. Okay, at this point? I think now that’s changing the, the the notoriety in a positive way of who City of Fort Worth is we want to be and is all happening right now and at a, at a really important time.

David Martin: And, I understand again, in Wise County, your neighboring county, that growth and development is one of the major issues that they’re, that they’re dealing with. Is it the same for your city?

Mattie Parker: Absolutely. We’re the fastest growing city, large city in the entire country. In the entire country. Yes. And then being part of North Texas, which will soon be the third largest metro region, passing Chicago by 2030. Let that sink in for a second. Wow. Dallas. The region. Yeah, exactly. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is a huge hub of success and economic development for our community.

second busiest airport in the entire world. So what do you do with that?

David Martin: Right. How do you.

Mattie Parker: You can’t put your head in the sand and ignore the fact that you’re growing. I think we’re doing it better than any other large city in the country. How so? It’s partnership. Right? It’s working alongside from, say, infrastructure, for instance. No project is likely going to get done if the city four does it alone. So working with Tarrant County partners, Wise County, Parker County, then you turn to Tex Dot, or you look at our North Texas Council of Governments, which is our MPO.

You draw down federal funds. All those things really are needed to keep the billions of dollars of infrastructure on the ground that you need.

David Martin: How do you manage, the development from being unchecked or not positive development?

Mattie Parker: It’s sound city policies and planning. So actually, right now we’re going through a comprehensive planning process in 2024 to really look at what the city wants to be in the next ten, 20, 50 years into the future. you and I talked before we got on the air about the good natured initiative, because with growth also comes a responsibility to hold on to what’s beautiful in the city.

And we lose about 50 acres per week to development in the city of Fort Worth. And so we have the risk of really paving over all of our beautiful prairie space across north, across North Texas. And this effort really just.

David Martin: Wanted to move Texas.

Mattie Parker: Exactly. Yeah. I mean.

David Martin: And I understand again, from from my other conversations. Yeah, it was a cowboy town. And that’s what draws people to it. And it still.

Mattie Parker: Is. You know, people people move to a community. They stay in a place because a quality of life, it’s really simple. and I think, a beautiful outdoor space. It’s well invested in and access for all zip codes is incredibly important. So that’s part of it. and lastly, we’re lucky because we can learn from other large cities that grew rapidly, maybe in the 80s, 90s, 2000, and the mistakes that they made, maybe not preparing for growth.

You know, traffic congestion is usually the top concern because you have to think about higher education, education opportunities in K through 12, what it looks like to have the workforce of the future, and then how does a city government really meet the needs of a growing population? Pick up your trash on time. Have excellent public safety and response times from your police and fire departments.

All those things really complement what you need to do to focus on good growth.

David Martin: Are there other cities in Texas that you looked at as an example, good or bad?

Mattie Parker: Well, I think Austin is a good example and a bad example, a good example in that they grew really.

David Martin: Rapidly with weird to.

Mattie Parker: Well, we were already kind of odd, right? In a good way to call it Funky Town is one of our nicknames. Cowtown, by the way. no. I think Austin’s a good example because they’ve been incredibly successful economically. They’ve had a huge surge of new jobs initially in the tech tech arena, but they’ve also really grappled with tough issues around gentrification and traffic congestion and affordable housing.

Right. And so what can a city like Fort Worth learn from a community that we’re about ten years behind in terms of growth patterns? And we have been able to sort of put into place and practices around those issues that we think really will, we’ll be better off long term than than what Austin has had to kind of come back from.

Now.

David Martin: You mentioned this before. Your, your, your resume a little bit. you were chief of staff for the prior mayor. Yeah. And before that, what were you doing?

Mattie Parker: So I got.

David Martin: You into all this?

Mattie Parker: Yeah. Good question. I started my career in Austin, when I was a junior at UT. Ended up interning for the speaker of the House at the time. Speaker Craddick, who was the first Republican House speaker since reconstruction. So there was a lot of change happening in Austin at the time. then went on to work for a state representative.

Now, state Senator Phil King worked for Congressman Granger, who’s now appropriations chairwoman. I went to law school and practiced law and worked for Mayor Price. And making this quick, as you can tell. but I left, Mayor Price’s ministry was a.

David Martin: Lot of stuff.

Mattie Parker: Going on. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I was having babies, all the things. Right. getting married. And so I, But I was most recently, before becoming mayor, I founded a nonprofit called the Tarrant two and three Partnership in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. They’re very proud of. And it’s still up and running, focused on post-secondary pathways for all students in Fort Worth.

And that’s college career military, really transforming the way we think about how to interact with young people and get them prepared for today’s workforce.

David Martin: And what are what are the good government projects you’re working on now? What good government are you bringing to the people of Fort Worth?

Mattie Parker: Well, I think number one is reminder in the city of Fort Worth, we’re we’re city manager form of government, which I’m a big proponent of. I think, while sometimes there’s a lot of briefly.

David Martin: Just explain to the folks. Yeah.

Mattie Parker: So strong mayor, city manager, essentially city manager form of government is I’m an elected body. I consider myself the chairman of the board. Okay. And I had other board members in my council members. We have a CEO and our city manager and his entire executive team, the responsible for the day to day operations of a city. And your role, real responsibility is is vision setting and casting implementation on behalf of the city.

You’re closer to the people understanding where the where the shifts need to happen. When it comes to good government. I think Fort Worth is already been on the trajectory of one of the best managed cities in the entire country.

David Martin: If I do say so myself.

Mattie Parker: Well, of course, but it’s it is basic, right? I mentioned this before. Let’s take, for instance, the sexy topic of trash pickup. We have one of the largest partnerships with waste management in the country, meaning we have a public private partnership. They manage all of our waste collection and the city of Fort Worth. And in turn, we get a private sector approach of innovation and new technologies and a very excellent workforce.

It’s not as expensive to maintain as it would be if we had those employees in-house. And some cities are looking at that same model, and Fort Worth is just on the forefront of that. That’s just one example.

David Martin: And that’s important because people don’t care whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican.

Mattie Parker: They want their trash picked up. They want their potholes filled. Yeah. And then the but the biggest issue, David, is public safety and the way cities have grappled with,

David Martin: Over at the Conference of Mayors. And you just spoke on policing. Yeah. What was your what was the thrust of what you were talking about?

Mattie Parker: Well, number one, you can’t have a thriving community if you don’t have a foundation set on good public safety and law enforcement. And a lot of cities across this country, especially post 2020, have really grappled with what it looks like to support their departments well, but also be pro community at the same time. I’ve talked about that a lot pro police, pro community, and we have one of the best departments in the country, will be fully staffed by 2026 of an outstanding police chief who joined me here today for this particular panel.

and this may sound like a lot of platitudes and words, but if you get into the data and understand where the city is today, our violent crime trending downward, our homicide rate down by 14%, the number of officers you need and really reactions and community that’s incredibly positive and supportive of your department. That’s an enviable position to be in.

When you compare us to other large cities in the country.

David Martin: Immigration is a national issue. I’m sure in Texas it’s even more more of a local national issue. Yeah. What challenges are you facing there?

Mattie Parker: Well, fortunately for Fort Worth, we’re not seeing, migrants moved into our community right now. We have seen that in the past during different waves. Look, as a Texan, you hear about this more acutely and have for years before it really started making national headlines. I’m a part of the big City Mayors coalition in the community, and just two weeks ago we had a call that included, Congressman Cisneros and some of our border mayors talking about immigration.

And while I know there’s so much political fervor around this and whether bussing should be happening at the at the end of the day, our policies are not working. Our immigration system is broken, and it is up to Congress and whoever is in the white House to solve it. And I think Republicans and Democrats alike are really frustrated at this point.

And there are Texas border cities that are at full capacity and have been for years and cannot handle safely the number of people that are in their communities that need services, especially those that are seeking asylum. And so long term United States, we’re never going to be a superior country long term if we can’t grapple with what sound immigration policy looks like, then I don’t have the answers.

But I do know I.

David Martin: Don’t think and sadly, I don’t think anybody’s said, well.

Mattie Parker: Here’s the problem. You have to take the partizanship out of it, which is easier said than done. No one’s willing to do that. They’ve got to put down there, are there, and really focus on a solution. And that’s what’s so frustrating to listen to about this topic, because if you talk to mayors, we talk to constituents in my city or any, any city for that matter.

there are there are good ideas out there that we can compromise on, but we’ve failed to do so.

David Martin: Is there anything that you’ve done in your city that’s made a difference?

Mattie Parker: well.

David Martin: I run and they said it wasn’t a big problem.

Mattie Parker: Yeah. We haven’t, we haven’t seen, I’ll say this. We have some of the best NGOs and nonprofits in the country when it comes to caring for those that are refugees or seeking asylum. we’re an incredibly diverse community. We’re soon to be a majority minority. And when you look at our school district, about 65% of our school now are now minorities, mostly in Hispanic population, which is incredibly powerful for the future generation of Texas.

and how do you lean into that? is important and make it a positive attribute. But at the same time, there’s so much fervor around immigration issues that it is causing a lot of concern, especially in immigrant communities.

David Martin: Getting back a little bit to to growth and development. What are the things that you looking for or your leadership is, is looking to do to make sure that the growth that happens in Fort Worth is positive growth and sustainable growth.

Mattie Parker: So it’s it’s hard at times, right? For the most part, though, our neighborhood leaders get it right. Occasionally you get a NIMBYism issue that you really have to override or make sure your neighborhood understands. This is not the kind of project you should be, you know, be against. But for the most part, listening to neighbors is first and foremost allowing your council members to really lead on these issues.

I don’t take a position on a particular development or zoning case until I’ve heard from my council member, because often times they’ve answered tens, dozens, hundreds of emails, public meetings to understand where their constituents really want to be. Right. but then lastly, is seeing where the economic focus should be for the city of Fort Worth, who have industry clusters we’re focused on in the city.

We know what kind of, new corporate partners, business expansion efforts we should be really leaning into, and it doesn’t really fit into that category. Should we be doing it because is is it a long lasting opportunity for the city of Fort Worth?

David Martin: And there’s still a large stockyard, business, is there not?

Mattie Parker: Oh, absolutely. So you may talk about the Fort Worth Stockyards, which is, a historic stockyards in, in Fort Worth. It’s pretty transformative. You’ve not been there in a while. It’s worth going to. It’s an awesome entertainment district. First community, home to the Fort Worth Heard, which is the only twice daily cattle drive in the entire world. If you like to go watch it 11 a.m. or 4 p.m., our Texas Longhorns come down Exchange Avenue.

but jokes aside, the city is is changing rapidly in the right direction. And, but it’s honestly.

David Martin: How do you balance that with maintaining, you know. Yeah, I live in New York City. I can’t imagine Longhorns going down the street of a major city. But yeah, they do. Twice a day in your town.

Mattie Parker: They do twice a day.

David Martin: And that’s got to be an attractive thing to people who are coming to your area or live there and want to maintain that. Well, to do that, well.

Mattie Parker: You you mentioned growth. If you change the fabric of who we are as a community. Yeah. If you lost that heritage and history and who is Fort Worth in the first place. Right. And so while some people may not understand it till they see it, it is incredibly special for Fort Worth. And that’s just one example. we also have a beautiful cultural district, world class museums from from the Kimball to the modern to Damon Carter, and the National Cowgirl Museum is also in the cultural district, home to Dickies Arena, which was just named number one, venue in the world.

Cowgirls. Yeah, well, that’s across the street from Dickies. Exactly. So there’s a lot happening here, but I.

David Martin: I really ask this of people in Texas how many cowboy hats you have.

Mattie Parker: Oh, I have two really nice ones. Okay. Yes. Yeah.

David Martin: I’ll work with at,

Mattie Parker: No, no, you wear them both. It’s rodeo season. So, David, on Friday, tomorrow night, I’ll be dressed in sequins in a cowboy hat.

David Martin: I’m sorry. I’m gonna miss you.

Mattie Parker: We’re gonna miss it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

David Martin: All right, well, all of that is just a preamble to what we’re really here to talk about, which is our good government questionnaire. Okay, we’re going to get to the heart of your philosophy of government. Okay.

Mattie Parker: Ready? I’m ready.

David Martin: All right. You were on city council. You were a chief of staff. Now you’re the mayor from those positions defined good government.

Mattie Parker: So I was never on city council. Just remember. Okay. That’s okay. Okay. You’re good. so for chief of staff, my perspective as good government is.

David Martin: Putting it all together.

Mattie Parker: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so it’s really about an under listening understanding before you make decisions. I think rash decisions, especially in good government good public policy are usually backfire on you. But at the same time you also have to use instinct to make a decision and move on those that you really get stuck. or look back on a decision and think they maybe should have changed their mind.

And my mind is really the wrong thing to think about good government.

David Martin: So your definition of good government is stopping, waiting, listening and then making a decision.

Mattie Parker: Well, is this hard? Yeah. It’s like it’s like it’s like a functioning school. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think yeah. It’s people focus knowing your community and having a certain level of intuition that only came from listening to your constituents.

David Martin: How do you judge your success or lack thereof? What do you use as your personal yardstick for whether you’re doing a good job?

Mattie Parker: Well, I think number one is what kind of feedback you’re getting from community members. Are they generally happy to be in your city? Are you making the right policy decisions and getting the right reactions from them? Also put a lot of stock in my relationships. My council members are sometimes difficult because you a lot of personalities have ten council members.

And then I make the 11th vote on council. Okay, so what that looks like is a really important to me as well. And then how my city management team is working together, mind you, where city management form government, I rely on them to be the experts in their departments, in their fields and bringing us policy decisions to make.

If we had a huge amount of conflict and a continuation of not getting along. And I think in the end you’re really in my mind making the wrong decisions and maybe not successful at that point.

David Martin: what’s the interaction like between, you know, Wise County, your neighboring county and Tara County where you are? How do they all work together?

Mattie Parker: Well, historically, our entire region has worked together very well. you know, our county, our county commissioners court or county judges all really close. Our mayors all work together. We have a Tarrant County Mayors council, and I see no reason that would change in the future. But I think it takes constant communication and a willingness to see past partizanship to make decisions together that are best for North Texas.

David Martin: So how does the people of of Fort Worth know if they’re getting good government? and how how should they hold you accountable?

Mattie Parker: Well, they vote every two years in our elections. So that’s a pretty easy way to hold people accountable. Same thing for our city council members. and I think.

David Martin: Is two years. Is that a short term?

Mattie Parker: It’s a pretty short term. Short. Yeah. I mean, think about members of Congress. You’re running constantly as part of our city charter. We probably should change it, but it is what it is right now. Okay.

David Martin: Are you trying to change it?

Mattie Parker: we might in the future. We they’ve tried before and was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, but I still think with the right communication and constituents, they’d be willing to. I always a question again, I forgot.

David Martin: But how do people hold you accountable?

Mattie Parker: And how do I get voting. Yeah. And then it’s back to it’s back to basics. So things you should be taken care of as a city if you’re not doing well, people are going to notice pretty quickly. If you’re not repairing roads, you’re not building out infrastructure that’s needed. If you’re if your parks are unclean, if there’s litter everywhere, if your police don’t respond, all those things have an immediate reaction from the public.

And I think that’s how they hold us accountable.

David Martin: Are you how much are you out in the public constant.

Mattie Parker: Yeah, yeah, there’s lots of activity, that’s for sure.

David Martin: Do you go to the grocery store? I do the shop.

Mattie Parker: I do go to the shoe store. Although I do love a curbside pickup that has really, really helpful. Yeah. no, you’re as mayor, you are closest to the people, which I think is really special about the job. And we get to run Nonpartizan in Fort Worth, which is really helpful.

David Martin: How long does it take you if you go to the grocery store, do people stop you the whole time?

Mattie Parker: Every time. It depends on the day. But yeah, sometimes it’s a little tough to get to the store, especially if I got my seven year old into it. And so I’m trying to bat off whatever candy Houston park that’s different.

David Martin: But I mean, do people stop you on the street the time?

Mattie Parker: Yes. Most definitely.

David Martin: Are you well known as everyone?

Mattie Parker: No, I think so. It’s it’s a weird feeling. Yeah. You especially now, now that I’ve been mayor for over two years, people are starting to recognize my face a little bit differently.

David Martin: If people feel like they’re not getting the government that they want, or the good government that they think they deserve, what should they do?

Mattie Parker: I think contact our office. And it’s very that it’s very simple. I mean, it does. It takes a phone call or an email to say, this is something I’m concerned about. Can you fix it? We have great constituent services in the mayor’s office. Our city manager’s office is very responsive. Your council members all do the same thing. I always tell people your government is very close to you.

All it takes is you to pick up the phone, send a text or send an email, and you’re going to get an answer to that question.

David Martin: And you’re good about answering very much. So it takes care of all that.

Mattie Parker: Absolutely. Yes. my favorite is to call someone that sent a snarky email, and inevitably it changes their attitude. Right? Like I didn’t think you’d see that, like, well, I, I saw it. Tell me what’s going on.

David Martin: That’s the problem.

Mattie Parker: Yes, exactly.

David Martin: Are you are you accessible? Do you feel like you’re accessible?

Mattie Parker: very accessible. I mean, the phone that you’re holding is the key to everything, right? Yeah. It’s a blessing and a curse. I don’t have to be in the office to be, accountable to people. But you’re also always, always on call, so to speak. And I never get to turn mayor off. Right. If I’m at my kid’s baseball game at Little League field, I’m still the mayor at the same time and creating the right kind of balance.

as human beings, sometimes we forget about that, and we expect our politicians are elected leaders to be perfect all the time and be on the job. And for me, I’m a mom first. And so I kind of have to create the best balance possible.

David Martin: Is it hard to put on a t shirt and shorts and just walk out of the house?

Mattie Parker: Oh, I don’t care anymore. No, I don’t care, but I am. I’m good about a baseball cap.

David Martin: All right. as an elected official, what would you. You’ve been in government for a long time, both as a staffer and as an elected official. What would you like people to know about government and about how government works?

Mattie Parker: There are phenomenal people that are public servants. 99% of the people that are in government are there because they want to be. They recruited all the time to go do important work, in the private sector. And they stay because they love what they’re doing. number two, it’s so funny right now, especially in 2024, the conspiracy theory government’s out to get me.

They’re doing this. We don’t have that much energy. I always joke that you’ve never seen Parks and Recreation and Veep. We’re kind of a combination of the two. and we’re we’re trying to make decisions that we think are good for today and also good for the future. And lastly, your government is as good as you are. I mean, come to us with solutions or problems that you see and we can work together.

And I think in Fort Worth we’ve always had a really collaborative spirit which has made us long term, very successful.

David Martin: Who’s your political hero?

Mattie Parker: Ooh. Madeleine Albright really? Yeah. I think it takes a special person to have been in diplomacy, especially as a woman, during her time period. with her background and navigating all that she has.

David Martin: So growing up, did you want to be mayor? Did you want to be president? Did you want to be president?

Mattie Parker: No, not at all. I was present your class. No, I, I was grew up in a really small town down a dirt road. my people have heard me say this before. I had a party line till I was 13, and I, I felt like the higher education for me going to University of Texas at Austin was fairly transformative.

to get to see different opportunity. I never thought I’d run for office, so I did not see this for myself. I loved being a staffer and being behind the scenes.

David Martin: What made you decide to run?

Mattie Parker: partizanship. I saw it in 2021. It was post January 6th. People running were really seem bent on a Partizan line for the community, and I just don’t think that makes good government, and I don’t think it makes a good mayor.

David Martin: so I have never been to Fort Worth. I’m coming to Fort Worth, we’re going to go out.

Mattie Parker: We’re going to go to the herd.

David Martin: We’re going to go out. We’re going to go out, have dinner. We’re okay.

Mattie Parker: We’re ready.

David Martin: What are we eating? Where are we going? What’s your favorite?

Mattie Parker: You’ve never been Ft. Worth. I think we’re going to go to Joe Teas and have a margarita and have really good Mexican food. How’s that sound?

David Martin: What do we eat? What? Mexican food?

Mattie Parker: Oh, it’s really simple. You get two choices at dinner. It’s fajitas. Chicken or beef or, enchilada plate. I’d go enchilada plate.

David Martin: what do you what do you cook at home? What’s your what’s your.

Mattie Parker: Oh, pasta usually is pretty popular in my house. Hamburgers for the boys. It depends. If I get too creative, they won’t eat it.

David Martin: I know you talked about the good natured program. Yeah. Give me another example of some good government happening right now in Fort Worth.

Mattie Parker: I think our partnership, both on the Titanic Gardens and Dickies Arena, those are public private partnerships that wouldn’t have been possible without the right, focus from the city of Fort Worth to make that happen, but at the same time, also need a private sector partner with a beautiful historic, botanic gardens that was an under repair, before we took over a partnership with Brit, our botanic research institute of Texas.

And because of that, you’re seeing huge dividends can return. I already mentioned Dickies Arena, which is a world class arena that our four section rodeo is going on right now for three weeks. and events venue that’s really enviable for the country. And we’ve been able to host important things like the NCAA gymnastics championships in that arena. And it would have been possible without a public private partnership.

David Martin: Mattie Parker, mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, thank you very much.

Mattie Parker: Thank you, David. Appreciate you.

David Martin: Thanks for coming.

Mattie Parker: On, David. It’s good.

David Martin: Okay. Great.

Where do you get your news from? Where do you get your state and local government news from? Because that’s getting harder and harder. And it’s essential to stay updated with your community. And it’s becoming increasingly important to know what’s going on in other cities and states, because they’re likely facing challenges that you’re grappling with, too, or you’re going to face eventually.

That’s why we’d like to welcome our new partner, route 50, to the show. Route 50 is a leading online publication covering state and local governments across the country. They’ve written about states protecting themselves against the rise in cyber attacks, counties using AI to better support citizens services, local responses to crumbling infrastructure and extreme weather, and much, much more.

There’s a lot there. It’s a one stop shop for issues affecting state and local governments and their residents. That’s you. That’s all of us. Do yourself a favor and go to route 50.com to see the topics and solutions they cover, and learn what other people in government are doing. They also deliver a daily newsletter called route 50 today.

I see it in my inbox every morning. I check it out and you should too. Thanks again. Route 50. We’re excited to have you on board and being a partner here at the Good Government Show.

What is it the county government does? That’s the question county commissioners get asked the most. And the simple answer is everything on the Good Government show. We’re so lucky to have talked with so many county commissioners and other county officials that have shown us how effective county government is. County government dates back to get this 1634, making it one of the oldest forms of government in the United States.

Think about it. Roads. Highways. Hospitals. Schools. Recycling. Law enforcement. Water. Sewers, and most of the county. Those services are maintained by the county that’s county government. The National Association of Counties represents all 3069 counties across the USA. Naco helps county government work better together through things like sharing best practices. When county government works well, well, that’s just good government.

So I learned a few things. First, two cowboy hats and sorry Mr. Day in sequence. Oh, and ask later just two pairs of boots. She didn’t say if any of those were secret. Fort Worth mayor Parker said government should be people focused. It’s important, she said, to take a moment, listen and make decisions based on what your personal research tells you.

With that philosophy, good government can only follow. So that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Make sure you’re sheriffs and like us on all your favorite social media platforms, and please review us and let others know that The Good Government Show is a podcast to listen to. Be sure to join us next time right here, right where you’re listening to us now.

I’m Dave Martin. This is the good government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe then share and like us and reviews. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling the stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.