Daniel Clanton – Delivery Leader at NTT Data
How long have you lived in Denton?
I’ve been around Denton for over 47 years. First living in Lake Dallas, Double Oak, and that’s when I started going to Denton schools. And then I’ve lived for the last 25 years in Denton with my wife and my two kids.
In quick, rapid-fire answers, what are the three things you love the most about Denton?
I love that we’ve got 140,000 people in this town, we still get to know our neighbors. That we shut down the Square and that we get to walk around. In …. probably the last 20 years we’ve walked in the July 4th parade.
My son was part of not the first, but close to the first, Denton Dead Festivals and we actually built our own coffin for the coffin races there. So getting out with our neighbors and doing all that.
The fact that I do get out and talk to my neighbors. I know I have other people who live in other towns and they say they don’t talk to their neighbors at all. But that’s part of just Denton’s charms that we get out and we talk to our neighbors around here.
And of course, last thing is our location. If I want to go to Fort Worth, or I want to go to Dallas, or if I want to go to Oklahoma, I can go to any of those pretty quick. I actually had people when I was working in Plano ask me, why don’t you just move to Plano? And I said no because I like living in Denton. And I don’t want to end up living in Plano and then getting a job in Fort Worth.
Why are you running for a position on Denton’s City Council?
Unlike a lot of people who actually get into politics, I was not political for many years. I started seeing things that were going on in the City Council and city, and started getting involved. As you probably know, this is my third time to actually run — I’ve actually run twice for District 2. So this will be my third time, but it’s citywide.
And it’s just that now the last couple of years, our City council has lost its focus. It’s not really focusing on what I consider the needs of the citizens. And to me, it’s not listening to the citizens, so I want to get in and bring the voices back to Denton.
Denton has been experiencing a lot of growth over the past few years. How can it continue to expand while still keeping its local Downtown Square charm and small-town feel?
Denton is going to grow. … We have Hunter and Coal Ranches coming in and we’re going to have quite a few people that are going to come in.
But one of the things that I’d like to keep is the Square – we mentioned that Denton Square feel. But anything that we do in that center area of the town that is going to overshadow and I mean literally — if we were to tear down any buildings and build new buildings that we’re extending above the cityscape right now, that would just take away from that because it’d be just looming in the background.
But in the future, keep what made people want to come here. There’s that charm — again, shutting down the Square for the Arts and Autos, the Jazz Festival. We’ve got things that bring people in here and we can’t lose that. … Some people want to expand on certain things and it’s kind of like when you take a hobby, and everyone goes, oh, you’re really great at it. And then you’ve tried to turn it into a job and then it actually turns into a job. We don’t want to lose that charm by trying to expand too much.
What are your views on expanding public transit in Denton?
As we grow, and we will, our public transit is going to need to expand and change with the city. However, whatever form that comes in, I could not tell you.
There are a lot of road construction projects going on in Denton, with more scheduled to begin soon. What are your thoughts on these road construction projects and the frustrations they may cause Dentonites?
That is the number one frustration when I talk to people here in Denton is the road construction. A few years ago, they had a lot of money set aside and they said we need to get this done and used, so that’s when they started. You’ve gone from roads that were messed up to roads that are torn up.
And it is a frustration for a lot of people and myself included. People who are trying to get to work, people who want to get somewhere and then there’s a road closure. It is something we’re going to have to get through, we’ve got to push through. We need to hold these companies accountable for their time frames. Right now Hickory (Creek Road) … I know it was supposed to be done in November, and then the last it was supposed to be done last month. Now we’re in March and I believe it is still not finished.
We really need to hold them accountable and to their contracts, and get this done so we can get through this pain. Part of it is if there is construction going on and there’s an ambulance. My neighbor down the street had a heart attack and if there was construction going on there, that would have slowed the ambulance getting to him and he may not be here. But since they were able to get to him on time, they were able to revive him and he’s here around us today.
We’ve got to get through it, but not just after that — we need to make sure that we maintain the roads after we are done fixing them so we don’t get to this position again.
What do you think about the skyrocketing housing prices in Denton and if elected, what do you intend to do to help keep people from being priced out of their homes?
This is another thing that’s been coming up lately — prices of houses are going up. Now, as far as the prices, I don’t really control that — that’s more of the market. What we can do is we can continue to do what the City Council has been doing as far as city taxes, keeping those low and lowering them as much as we can. If it is a new home buyer, make sure that they know about the homestead exemptions and that they can take advantage of any and all of those to reduce that burden on them.
We just need to make sure that we’re taking care of the people who are here as far as the housing prices. Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic wand to reduce pricing because, like I said, that is part of the market that’s raising this.
What are some of the charities and nonprofits you support in Denton?
I am part of the Denton Breakfast Kiwanis Club and part of that is the Key Clubs, so we support the Key Clubs that are at the three high schools here. That is it at Ryan, Geyer, and Denton High. In those, we support the clubs themselves, but we also support the graduating seniors with scholarships. That’s part of what we do in helping out there.
… The other ones that I work closely with (are) Giving hope and Grace Like Rain … Another one is Refuge for Women (North Texas). … Twice a year I get out with Keep Denton Beautiful and do the stream cleans and the Great American Cleanup.
And the last one on my list here is the C7 (Human Trafficking Coalition), which is a coalition of seven groups in town that work to fight, educate, and help people get out of human trafficking.
Please tell us about an obstacle you faced during your life you feel helped prepare you for a position on Denton City Council.
It’s a hard question because I can’t say that there is one obstacle that I can point to in my life that’s prepared me for something like this. I would say it was overall my entire life – the way I was raised, my parents gave me a good work ethic, and to give back.
There were the obstacles of my father passing away just before I graduated high school. There were opportunities given to me by individuals. Along the way, I’ve worked with some great people and that can be challenging at times. in my life.
And then, right now one of the greatest obstacles and opportunities is I work at NTT Data. And in that company, I work with people who are all over the world, different cultures. And we share, we come together, sometimes we argue, but we all end up coming together for the common good and what we need to do.
And that’s why I say it’s an opportunity and obstacle at the same time. That makes us need to work together and we do. And so, it’s not any one thing that I can point to.
What are your hopes for the future of Denton — where do you see Denton going?
As I mentioned, Denton is going to grow. I do want it to keep that Square feel.
What I would like to see is more people being able to buy into the American dream to buy a house. And I want to see Denton become more of a live, work, (and) play. … I live here in Denton, I love Denton. My office is in Plano, so I drive to Plano. I would rather have my company be here — I can work here, I can live here.
And then we need to create some kind of a venue that we can not take away from UNT and the fact that we have the stadium there, but to have something that’s Denton and we can have concerts or we can have conventions, or we can have basketball games, here in town. So really that live, work, (and) play where people can aren’t going to other cities to enjoy those things, but to actually be here.
And that’s what I see as the future of Denton is becoming that kind of town where people want to move here, they work here, and they go to concerts and they go to different venues here in the city. And when somebody says hey, I want you to go to Fort Worth, they’re like why do I want to go to Fort Worth? I can do that, in Denton right here.