MEET SCOTT

In his first term on the Dallas City Council, Scott was voted as the 2012 Best Politician by D Magazine and the Dallas Observer. “Scott has proven himself as a voice of reason,” according to D Magazine.

On the Dallas City Council, Scott is the vice-chairman of the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee. He is a member of the Economic Development and Housing Committee and the Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee.

He served as chairman of the Housing Committee from 2015 to 2017, when he led the city’s development of a new, comprehensive housing policy. He also spearheaded the crafting of an ordinance ensuring better regulation and higher standards for boarding homes, earning him the 2012 Carmen Miller Michael Mental Health Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Scott has also fought against gas drilling within city limits; led the push for the first buffered bike lanes and a fully realized bike lane system in the city; and he led the effort to kill the tollroad that North Texas Tollway Authority’s own study showed would cost taxpayers billions of dollars and actually make traffic worse in the City of Dallas.

Rather than push for a toll road in a park, Scott has focused his efforts on realizing the Trinity River Project’s amenities by bringing “life between the levees” with a Trinity Trails System and recreational elements. Scott has also intensely examined the Dallas Floodway System to ensure mandated improvements to the city’s levee system are successful in protecting lives and billions of dollars in property values.

Before joining the City Council, Scott was the two-term president of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group from 2007 to 2010, where he created a Tax Increment Finance District, implemented crime and code compliance programs and advocated for more New Urbanism-based transportation planning and zoning. He has also served on the executive committees of his neighborhood association in Stevens Park Estates, the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce and the Oak Cliff Transit Authority. An early advocate of complete streets and bringing the modern streetcar to Oak Cliff, Scott was part of the TIGER I team and $23 million grant for the streetcar.

Scott grew up in Dallas, attended Texas A&M University and graduated with a degree in chemistry before attending law school at the University of Texas. After obtaining his law degree, Scott returned to Dallas to practice intellectual property law.

Scott is a second-generation intellectual property attorney and partner at Griggs Bergen LLP. Scott specializes in patent and trademark preparation and prosecution before the United States Patent & Trademark Office. He provides counsel on evaluating and protecting intellectual property assets and developing portfolio management strategies to help companies – from startups to multinationals – protect core technologies and enhance overall intellectual property positions.

In 2002, he married his college sweetheart, Mariana, and moved to Oak Cliff.

Scott and Mariana enjoy gardening, and Scott is an avid chess player. They have three children: Catalina, Francisco and Guillermo

Service:

  • Dallas City Council, (2011 – Present)
  • Vice Chair, Government Performance & Financial Management Committee (2017 – Present)
  • Member, Economic Development & Housing Committee (2017 – Present)
  • Member, Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee (2015 – Present)
  • Dallas Police & Fire Pension System, Member, Board of Trustees (2012 – 2017)
  • Chair, Housing Committee (2015 – 2017)
  • Member, Budget, Finance & Audit Committee (2011 – 2017) Member, Ad Hoc Legislative Committee (2015 – 2017)
  • Chair, Ad Hoc Judicial Nominations Committee (2013 – 2015)
  • Member, Education Taskforce (2013 – 2015)
  • Vice Chair, Housing Committee (2011 – 2015)
  • Member, Economic Development Committee (2013 – 2015)
  • Member, Public Safety Committee (2013 – 2015)
  • Member, Quality of Life & Environment Committee (2013 – 2015)
  • Member, Trinity River Corridor Project Committee (2011 – 2013)
  • President, Fort Worth Avenue Development Group (2007 – 2011)
  • Board of Directors & Executive Committee, Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce (Board 2008 – Present, Executive Committee 2008 – 2011)
  • Board of Directors & Executive Committee, Oak Cliff Transit Authority (2008 – 2011)
  • Board of Directors, North Texas Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (2009 – 2011)
  • Advisory Member, Board of Directors, The Kessler School (2010 – 2011)
  • City of Dallas Appointee, Reinvestment Zone 15 – FWA TIF District (2007 – 2010)
  • City of Dallas Appointee, FWA TIF District Design Review Committee (2007 – 2010)
  • Vice President, Fort Worth Avenue Development Group (2006)
  • Member/Alternate Member, City of Dallas Board of Adjustment (2005 – 2007)
  • Managing Member, Citizens for Responsible Beverage Sales LLC (2005 – 2008)
  • President, Stevens Park Estates Neighborhood Association (2005)

Accomplishments:

  • Increasing pay for our First Responders in the FY2018-2019 Budget, including increasing starting pay from $48,000 to $60,000
  • Increasing wages for workers at Love Field, temporary workers at the City of Dallas, sanitation workers, third-party contractors and others
  • Killing the Trinity Tollroad boondoggle
  • Successfully championing a competitive bid process for Fair Park
  • Settling the decades old Police & Fire Pay Referendum litigation
  • Saving the Dallas Police & Fire Pension
  • Drafting and implementation of the first City of Dallas Comprehensive Housing Policy
  • Successfully championing the selection of an outside City Manger
  • Successfully championing the selection of an outside City Attorney
  • Successfully championing the selection of new administration at the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System
  • Oak Cliff Gateway Rezoning
  • Jefferson Corridor Rezoning and Completion of Jefferson Corridor Streetscape Plan
  • Facilitating sale of Dallas County Schools facility at Davis and Zang to encourage redevelopment on the streetcar line
  • Encouraging historic preservation of the Kessler Theater, Kiest Park Pergola, Cannon’s Village, and Winnetka Heights 12th Street Church, Zang Historic Church
  • Implementation of the first Group Home Ordinance in the City of Dallas
  • Stakeholder-driven Redevelopment Plan and initial redevelopment of the Parks at Wynnewood & Wynnewood Shopping Center
  • Completed phases I & II solution at the Parks at Wynnewood to remove the 40-year low income deed restriction cycle
  • Reduction of term of deed restrictions, as part of the City’s legislative agenda, to end low income deed restriction cycle
  • DHA-City of Dallas partnership to redevelop the Lakewest Shopping Center and Singleton/Hampton intersection
  • Historic landmark status and protection for Sharrock Settlement and Cabin, the oldest structure in north Texas still located on its original site
  • Bringing a grocery store to Mountain Creek/The Woo
  • Obtaining approximately $80M in funding to the Oak Cliff-downtown Dallas streetcar line
  • Preventing gas drilling in Dallas parks
  • Completing the first tennis court to soccer field conversion at Lake Cliff
  • Partnering with the community to build a disc golf course at Founder’s Park
  • Building the first Complete Street (Mary Cliff) in Dallas, the first physically separated bicycle lane (Jefferson Viaduct) in Dallas, building and/or planning more than 12 miles of trail at Kiest Park, Elmwood the Coombs Creek Trail, and the Trinity Skyline Trail
  • Developing plans for complete streets at Sylvan Avenue and Beckley Avenue
  • Reducing crime by closing Passions Sports Bar
  • Passage of the Fort Worth Avenue Tax Increment Finance District
  • Initiated and pushed update to City’s equality regulations