Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope looked at ease Monday afternoon as he sat at the end of a large conference table overlooking downtown from his corner office on the 11th floor of Citizens Tower.
It was just ahead of one of several meetings with incoming mayor Tray Payne, and the 59-year-old had on the same buttoned-up red, white and blue patterned shirt he wore the night he was first elected mayor in 2016.
“I didn’t realize it when I put it on, but it’s kind of appropriate – coming full circle,” Pope said.
It was his last full day serving in a role he’d held for six years – making him one of the city’s longest serving mayors. And before his meeting with the mayor-elect, Pope was taking some time to reflect on his tenure and to look ahead at his future.
Although his office was nearly cleared out by Monday afternoon – the day before the new mayor and council were sworn in – there was plenty of evidence in sight of the progress he and city leaders helped oversee since 2016.
That includes the office itself, in a Citizens Tower that Pope and city leaders helped carry across the finish line, transforming what had been a delipidated high rise into a new city hall.
It was one of many projects and initiatives he and the City Council oversaw during his six-year tenure.
He acknowledged he had a few regrets from his time in office – most notably a failed $174.5-million street bond initiative last fall – but said he believed the good overwhelmingly outweighed the bad during what he called a period of progress in Lubbock. He credited his fellow leaders on the City Council and city staff for much of that success.
“This is a team sport. Although the mayor has a lot to do with setting the direction and the overall agenda, the mayor’s got one vote and you’ve got to find a way to do things together,” he said. “I promised in 2015 when I announced that we would be civil – that we would not be the story, the council fighting, not getting along and having little … that doesn’t mean we didn’t disagree. But we did it without being disagreeable. The story was never the council. It was the community, the things we were trying to get done and I’m just thankful to have served with the group I’ve served with. They do it for the right reasons.”
Passing the torch
Pope opted against running for re-election during this month’s municipal election after serving six years in office. His three terms makes him one of Lubbock’s longest-serving mayors, with only a few others also serving three terms.
He expanded on that decision-making process during Monday’s visit.
“I think, personally, I think the time has come,” he said. “I think there’s wisdom in knowing when to get in the game and when to get out. I think, from my perspective, and my wife as we look at this, we’ve served and now we get to go back and be private citizens.”
Pope said he’d had several productive visits with Tray Payne ahead of last Tuesday’s swearing in ceremony after Payne, an attorney and former assistant Lubbock County district attorney, emerged victorious with more than 68 percent of the vote in a five-person race in the May 7 municipal election.
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“I think Tray is very capable,” Pope said. “You think about his training as an accountant and then he went back to law school. I think he’s got a lot of pedigree that will help. I think spending a decade at the District Attorney’s office will help – you see the way public entities and institutions operate. That will help, because coming into a public entity from the private sector is a bit of a shock the first time. We budget differently. There are processes that need to be in place because we’re spending the people’s money, but it does not move at the same speed the private sector does.”
Setting the direction
Along with inheriting the previous City Council’s decision to commit to the Citizens Tower city hall project, Pope came into office in 2016 tasked with working with a new council to hire a city manager. They did that within six months, bringing former Amarillo City Manager Jarrett Atkinson in for the job he still holds.
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“Our job as a council is to define the strategic direction, provide oversight, approve the budget, appoint the boards and commissions and, maybe mostly importantly hire the city manager, city secretary and city attorney, and our job is to stay out of the way – hire good people,” Pope said. “As along as that direction’s in place, we have that oversight role.”
Pope said he’s also pleased with the work the council did to improve public safety, including approving police pay raises last year and committing to new facilities.
In 2017, the council approved a public safety initiative. To date, he said, that’s led to building three new police sub-stations, with a new downtown police headquarters in the works, largely with the intent of supporting community policing efforts led by former Police Chief Greg Stevens and current Chief Floyd Mitchell.
Pope said another critical element in setting the city’s direction was bringing citizens and council members together to work on a parks master plan and the first updated comprehensive plan in decades – Plan Lubbock 2040 – which was finalized in 2018.
“I’m thankful for the 37 citizens who worked on that – there was a lot of hard work there, a lot of negotiating,” he said. “Those include things like the work we’ve done on our neighborhoods, hiring a neighborhood planner, looking at impact fees and more.”
Pope said he’s also proud of the city’s role in strengthening its health department – which at one point had been eyed for reductions but now has a Public Health Director in Katherine Wells and her staff who Pope credits for helping guide the city through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biggest regret
During Monday’s visit, Pope was quick to point out a shortcoming from his time in office – the $174.5 million streets bond package that Lubbock voters rejected, with 54.35 percent voting against it last November.
“It’s probably my biggest regret and I hope that’s something that the new City Council will take on,” he said.
Despite being slated to improve or expand numerous roads throughout the city, Pope and council members acknowledge that lingering questions about a $40 million portion of the package earmarked for a Broadway road overhaul, as well as some public frustration with city leaders, played a role.
That November bond election came just six months after voters opted to approve the Sanctuary City for the Unborn anti-abortion ordinance that went to a public vote after the council voted to reject the ordinance on its own.
Lubbock voters say yes to Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance to limit abortion
“I think there was also a shadow cast over the bond election from that (Sanctuary City) election last May,” Pope.
In hindsight, Pope said, appointing a citizens advisory group to study and make recommendations for a streets bond package may have been a better choice as opposed to having council members take the lead in vetting the bond package projects.
“It gives you a ready made group to advocate for the bond,” he said.
Making progress
Still, Pope said he believes he’s leaving office with Lubbock being in a better place than when he started.
“Even with the impact of the pandemic over a six-year period, we created over 6,000 net new jobs in Lubbock. That’s a significant impact of our work force and that’s before you look at any Leprino jobs or anything like that,” he said, referring to last fall’s announcement of a planned $870-million Leprino Foods mozzarella factory in east Lubbock, expected to bring in 600-plus jobs by 2025.
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“I don’t know if it’s unfinished business, but we worked hard at building a sense of fiscal discipline into the way we spend money, the way we budget and from what I heard during the campaign, it appears that the people who were running agree with that,” he said. “We’ve tried very hard to pay cash and only issue debt where it was appropriate and I think it’s paid off. We were able to reduce taxes (the property tax rate) two years in a row and my guess is there will be an opportunity to do that this coming year.”
Circling back on Citizens Tower, Pope said he’s pleased with one effect it’s having – the former City Hall building on 13th Street is now being transformed into a South Plains College downtown campus.
“Lubbock’s the largest, still, and will be until the fall, the largest city in the state that doesn’t have an academic campus of a community college downtown, and I’m thankful for South Plains College and the CH Foundation and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance for making that deal,” he said. “I think that’s catalytic to downtown, but it’s life changing to people in Lubbock who might not be able to get to Levelland or, more importantly, working all day long and it’s a chance for them at night to improve their position in life.”
Mayor’s Fitness Council
Of the many decisions and developments from his time in office, perhaps few show more of Pope’s personal touch than the creation of the Mayor’s Fitness Council and its signature Mayor’s Marathon. The event debuted in 2018 with a marathon, half-marathon, 5K race and celebration and is a qualifying event for the Boston Marathon.
The Fitness Council, which oversees the marathon, is composed of citizens from a variety of health and related backgrounds aimed at promoting a variety of healthy living initiatives.
While Pope said he didn’t know what the event’s future would be, he said he’s optimistic that the funding mechanisms and community support are strong enough to keep it going.
He noted that, compared to the Lubbock triathlon event that brings in mostly out-of-area participants, the Mayor’s Marathon events have largely local participation.
“And I think one of the cool things about the Marathon – about 90 percent of the participants are from here in the Lubbock area,” he said. A running enthusiast, Pope participated in the half-marathon at least once.
He may even run in another one.
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A future in Lubbock
Needless to say, not being mayor gives Pope some extra bandwidth.
He won’t be having to shuffle between ribbon cuttings, meet-and-greets, Coffee with the Mayor events and the assortment of work sessions and meetings throughout the year, along with balancing his life as a husband and dad.
He said he’s planning to put that extra time to good use, starting with a vacation to France with his wife and friends, touring vineyards and, perhaps, catching some of the French Open.
Then, he’ll come back and pursue what he called a business venture in Lubbock, which he said he’d be able to elaborate on as it takes shape in the near future.
“I have no desire to retire,” Pope said. “My wife doesn’t want me at home, I can promise you that.”
Pope, who founded Benchmark Business Solutions in 1994, was serving as the chief development officer of Covenant Health System and as president of the Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees when he was elected mayor in 2016.
When he announced late last year he wouldn’t run for a fourth term, Pope acknowledged he wouldn’t rule out running for public office again, and elaborated on that briefly Monday.
“My number may be called again some day, there may be another opportunity for me to do something else,” he said. “If that’s the case, I’ll think long and hard about it. But right now I’m turning the page, maybe having a little less public life.”
Wrapping up his time in office, Pope teared up describing his appreciation for the support he’s received along the way. That’s included a number of “thank you” letters he’s gotten and messages of encouragement he’s been hearing lately.
“I get stopped every day, and right now, multiple times a day, by people I don’t know, who just want to say thank you,” Pope said. “And, you know – we live in a great town. I can’t imagine any place better than Lubbock, Texas.
“It’s been a blast,” he added, “but, it’s time to move along.”
