Bedford’s City Council Race – Place 2
March 26, 2024
The direction of Bedford as a city and community will be decided in about a month as voters go to the polls to elect members to the City Council. Election Day is May 4th with early voting running from April 22nd to April 30th, according to the City’s website. Along with voting for mayor, is the election for Council seat Place 2.
With Ruth Culver vacating the seat, three candidates are running to fill the position. Culver has temporarily filled the Place 2 seat since Dan Cogan was appointed by the Council to replace Mike Boyter as mayor, according to City of Bedford records. Nichelle D. Dawkins is running unopposed for re-election for Place 1.
Among the three candidates running for Place 2, Joy Donovan Brandon’s agenda is “to keep Bedford’s progress moving forward” by supporting the fire and police departments, improving streets and parks and by “attracting new business.” Jeron Liverman, with two political races behind him, is seeking to “enhance the quality of life in Bedford” and create “an attractive, secure and inclusive community.” A newcomer to Bedford, Tycom Wright said he “loves it here” and, if elected, would focus on “infrastructure, security and beautification” to “make Bedford the talk of HEB.”
JOY DONOVAN BRANDON
“I want to keep Bedford’s progress moving forward,” Joy Donovan Brandon stated in an email correspondence about her run for City Council, Place 2. “I want to help choose the next city manager. I want to help plan the use of the [Campus West] property the City Council so wisely invested in on 157.”
She also hopes that plans for the proposed Bedford Commons development can be “solidly in place,” she said. “I love the concept, but I’ve been hearing about it for 10 years and it’s time to put the ideas into concrete. I am excited about the potential Bedford has, especially given its great people and unique location in the Metroplex.”
Donovan Brandon explained she was encouraged to run by several people and “enthusiastically agreed to step up my involvement.” That “involvement,” she further detailed, includes “supporting our fine fire and police departments, improving streets, attracting new business and managing budgets.” But, she added, our “wonderful community” also “involves improving our parks” along with supporting our “award-winning public library and developing Bedford’s new annual Eats and Beats festival that “showcases what Bedford has to offer to a broader community.”
An 11-year Bedford resident and having lived in Tarrant County for more than 30 years, Donovan Brandon grew up attending the public school system in Tulsa. She graduated as a “Boomer Sooner” from the University of Oklahoma with a journalism degree. Together, with her husband, Dan, they raised three daughters and now have five grandchildren, “two of whom,” she said, “attend Bedford Heights Elementary.”
Aside from being proud of her role as a “stay-at-home-mom,” her “most important job,” she said, was as a reporter, feature writer and columnist for the Star-Telegram. She said, “I’ve always kept up with current events, civic matters and city concerns.” She “went into journalism,” she said, “to make the world a better place.”
When her “career ended” at the newspaper, Donovan Brandon said she continued “championing causes” by working in the field of public relations for non-profit organizations, such as United Way of Tarrant County, the 2010 U.S. Census and for the American Cancer Society as “director of communications/media relations for half of Texas and all of Oklahoma and Hawaii.” Today, she said she is “self-employed in a communications/PR business called Joy Avenue PR” with clients that include the University of Texas at Dallas.
In her “effort to give back” through civic participation, Donovan Brandon said she has served on Bedford’s Community Affairs Commission, Cultural Arts Advisory Board and other city activities. In addition, her community involvement, she said, includes Friends of the HEB Harris Hospital, president of the National Charity League, Booster club president, Sunday school president, vice president of the University of Oklahoma Parents Club and serving on the Board of the University of Oklahoma Club of Fort Worth.
More about Joy Donovan Brandon’s on her campaign website is available here… https://bit.ly/3PvgtvS
JERON LIVERMAN
If Jeron Liverman were to win the Place 2 council seat, he said, he would work “to enhance the quality of life in Bedford for all residents by creating an attractive, secure and inclusive community.” He would, he added, “proactively work together and in a transparent manner for the future, foster economic growth, encourage citizen involvement and preserve our city for the future.”
Liverman said he believes he “has a deep understanding of issues that matter to the citizens of Bedford.” He concluded by saying that as a council member, he would view himself as a “steward of the public trust” with the objective to not over tax our citizens, “not overburden our businesses,” to “focus on business retention and expansion and maintain and strengthen our city services.”
Originally from Dallas County and raised in Tarrant Count, according to his campaign website, Liverman has lived in Bedford for 17 years and has worked for 32 years as a self-employed Realtor. According to his Linkedin page, he is a 1992 graduate of Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Government. In 2020, he ran unsuccessfully for Texas’ 24th Congressional District, according to Ballotpedia. Liverman ran again in an unsuccessful bid a couple of years ago, in 2022, for Bedford City Council, according City of Bedford records.
As a Realtor, he said, “I am committed to making a positive impact in our community.” Plus, being self-employed his “entire adult life,” he said, helps him “bring a unique, independent perspective to the Council.”
To read more about Jeron Liverman, please view his campaign website here… https://bit.ly/3TOqJBW
TYCOM WRIGHT
A three-year resident of Bedford, but involved with the community, Tycom Wright, on his campaign website, states he and his wife, Bri, “love it here and look forward to making an impact for our community.”
If elected, Wright said on his website, his emphasis would be on infrastructure, security and beautification with the goal to “make Bedford the talk of HEB.” By partnering with the state and “neighboring communities,” he said, he wants to “invest in our local infrastructure,” such as the Cheek-Sparger corridor and along Harwood Road in the vicinity of Highway 121.
Wright said, “We must also invest and strengthen our relationship with the City Police and Fire Department.” Specifically, he advocates for “a new fire station, upgrades to the police department and exploring options to station resource officers “in all of our schools.”
Based on his experience as vice chair of the Beautification Advisory Board, Wright said he wants to see further investments in trash collection, upgrades the city’s parks and gateways, as well as the creation of a community garden.
According to the website and his LinkedIn page, Wright graduated Texas Wesleyan University as a legal assistant and paralegal. In late 2017, he worked for several months as a contract administrator for Prism Hotels and Resorts and then briefly with Dallas County’s 134th District Court. Today, the website said, he runs his own mediation consulting business for mentoring “troubled youth.”
For more detail, Tycom Wright’s campaign website can be reached here… https://bit.ly/3ICzLvo
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Community journalism for Bedford based on the premise that an informed community is an empowered community.
