Candidate Name: Adam Medrano

Council District: 2

Please complete questionnaire below. You must send a completed electronic copy to Political@StonewallDemocratsOfDallas.org or
mail a completed copy to P.O. Box 192305 Dallas, TX 75219 by Monday, March 6 th, 2017.

1. Your background and the LGBTQ community

Please share any experience that illustrates your understanding and interest of the
needs of LGBTQ Dallas residents.
I am proud to chair the City of Dallas LGBT Task Force. Through this work, I am
committed to making sure our community is welcoming and safe for all Dallas
residents, especially our LGBTQ residents.

After the series of attacks on LGBTQ+ residents in Oak Lawn in 2015, I worked to
ensure Dallas police increased their patrols and undercover officers in the
neighborhood. I am glad to be a supporter of the Stonewall Democrats. I am a
proud community sponsor of Texas Latino Gay Pride.

Here is some of my prior work as the Task Force Chair:

The City hired a diversity officer in May 2014
Modified Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
o Revised the Citys Family Medical Leave Ordinance in May 2014
Modified the definition of FMLA to include designated care recipient
o Revisions to the Administrative Directive 3-72
Revisions to reflect the inclusion of care of a Designated Care Recipient: to the list of
eligible reasons to utilize FML.
o Allows LGBT members who have partners, with whom they reside, to care for their
partner designed care recipient if that individual has a serious health condition and
meets all the requirements of the Act.
Transgender Health Benefits
o Humans Resources Updated the Summary Plan Description (SPD) to Pay for
Transgender Services:
Psychotherapy for gender identity issues
Added Hormone Replacement of the desired gender
Laboratory testing to monitor the safety of the continuous hormone therapy.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Municipal Equality Index (MEI) Score
o The HRC municipal index rates municipalities of varying sizes drawn from every state
in the nation. In 2013, on a 100-point scale, the City of Dallas scored 81 points. On the
 most index the City of Dallas maxed out at 100 points. This is great evidence of our
progress.
Proposition 4 Charter Amendment Nondiscrimination protections for LGBT city
employees
o The City of Dallas voters supported adding both sexual orientation and gender
identity and expression to the City Charter amendment prohibiting discrimination
against City employees based on Gender identity and sexual orientation.
Civil and Police and Fire employees Pension Benefits were expanded to cover same sex
partners.

Stonewall Democrats of Dallas seek to inform members of the LGBTQ and Democratic
Party community of candidate's political background. Our organizations by-laws
require us only to consider candidates with Democratic Primary voter history or, in the
case of someone having some history of voting in Republican Primaries, affirms their
party affiliation via an oath of allegiance to the Democratic Party. Do you qualify or
would you be prepared to sign an oath of allegiance form from the Dallas County
Democratic Party?
I am a progressive Democrat. I have never voted in a Republican Primary.
I would be glad to take an oath affirming my allegiance to the Dallas County
Democratic Party.

2. Creating an inclusive community

Cities compete for residents, taxpayers, conventions and new businesses/economic

development. As a member of the Dallas City Council, how would you ensure that
Dallas can compete effectively with other cities in the area of LGBTQ inclusion?
We cannot pass up on any opportunity to promote our LGBTQ-friendly attractions.
As a council member, I will continue to make sure that our inclusive policies are
known to convention planners, potential businesses, and new visitors. Dallas must
demonstrate that our high quality of life is accessible to all residents regardless of
sexual orientation or gender identity. We need to highlight our top score on the
HRCs Municipal Equality Index as evidence.

Would you recruit and consider qualified LGBTQ constituents for your commission and
board appointments?
Yes, absolutely. Diversity leads to better public policy. I currently have LGBTQ
constituents serving as my appointees to boards and commissions.

Will you support a Dallas City Council's resolution for a statewide ban on LGBTQ
employment discrimination?
Yes, I strongly support a statewide ban. All Texans deserve equality and fairness
on the job. Nobody should be fired as a result of who they love or how they
identify. This must be a priority in our legislative lobbying agenda.

3. The City of Dallas as a LGBTQ inclusive employer

 The private sector has seen a large increase in policies and benefits for LGBTQ
employees, how should the City of Dallas remain competitive to attract and retain top
LGBTQ talent?
Yes, we should point to protections in our Charter and in the Nondiscrimination
Ordinance as significant attractions in our favor. I have been a solid advocate for
the recent expansion of same sex marriage benefits in both the Civilian and Police
and Fire Pensions.

Do you support comprehensive transgender inclusive health benefits and as a council

member work with the City Manager to implement such benefits?
Yes, this has been a long process, but I am confident that in the coming year we
should see concrete results on this front. As you know, I have been a strong
advocate for the expansion of transgender health benefits that included therapy
and medical assistance for gender identity issues; added hormone replacement
therapy of the desired gender; laboratory testing to monitor the safety of the
continuous hormone therapy.
I will continue to advocate until we have full inclusion of benefits up to and
including gender-affirming surgical reconstruction.

4. Current Events

The Governor and many state legislators continue to push legislation to curtail
the current scope of governance for home rule cities like Dallas. This could remove
local control over matters such as drilling within city limits, LGBT protections, etc. Do
you favor or oppose this, and what do you plan to do in response?
I am a strong supporter of local control. House Bill 40 from the 2015 Legislative
Session was not only a threat to our environment when it overturned certain
fracking regulations, but was a threat to our democracy by working against the
direct will of the people up in Denton. I am concerned about conservative efforts
to overturn nondiscrimination ordinances, like the ones passed in Dallas, Austin,
Fort Worth, and in other communities. The recent strong-arming by the Governor
against Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandezs sanctuary policies down in
Austin is a threat to our immigrant-welcoming efforts here in Dallas.

The Legislature needs to start trusting the people and their local governments
again.

What are your thoughts on the current campaign finance rules for Dallas elections
which set donation amount limits on people newly seeking office but essentially place
no donation amount limits on incumbents via unrestricted officeholder accounts which
may be used for campaign purposes?

We need to reign in these unrestricted officeholder accounts, which are not in our
citys charter. We must also curtail the power of super PACs in our local elections.
Our campaign finance ordinances must be updated. I have actively worked on
Council to close related loopholes
How do you plan to address the Police and Fire Pension crisis? How would you support
a tax increase to address the ongoing funding deficits for the Police and Fire Pension
System's benefits?

Our city has a fiscal and moral obligation to make sure we take care of our police
and fire, and I want to make sure we are never put in this bind again. It is
fundamentally wrong to ask these brave men and women to protect us if we are
not going to have their back at the end of the day.

I believe Council Member Griggs has put forth a strong resolution that holds the
most merit. We can reclaim of one penny of sales tax revenue from DART and
appropriate it into the Pension System and secure the salaries in our police and fire
departments. Is this a painful proposal? Certainly, but it is better public policy than
the leading alternatives.

We need to work with the current members of the Board to change the pension
governance and seek an end to the bloodletting caused by lawsuits.

I do not have confidence any claw-back proposals that would hurt the families of
our cops and firefighters. I believe these unsustainable efforts would not
adequately cover the deficits, open us up to lawsuits, and contribute to a decrease
in morale in our public safety forces.

We are in a painful situation, but I believe we can accomplish all this without
raising taxes on our citizens.

What is your position regarding current state legislation to regulate public facility
access and keep transgender Texans from using restrooms that align with their
gender identity? Will you defend the existing non-discrimination city ordinance for
LGBTQ individuals, including public accommodations?

Yes, of course! I am strongly opposed to Senate Bill 6, the draconian Bathroom

Bill that is currently being considered in Austin. I am committed to defending
our existing ordinance.

Homelessness affects marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ community, at a

disproportional rate. Given the increasing problem of homelessness in Dallas and
efforts to minimize it, what would your approach be to address this crisis? Do you
support a Housing First initiative for Dallas?

I support the formation of a local housing board that consists of community

leaders (a citizen-led housing commission of sorts) without conflicts of interests,
especially financial, in order to increase transparency and accountability. Housing
First is an interesting tool is worthy of scrutiny and consideration.

Landlords should not have the right to discriminate against LGBTQ Texans and I
will advocate for legislation in Austin to address this.
What are your Ideas to address income inequality in the City of Dallas? Do you
support implementing living wage rules for city employees, city contracts, and
subcontractor workers? How will you support the use of city subsidies or tax
abatements for housing development that substantially benefit the growing number
of working poor and struggling middle class residents in the City of Dallas?
Yes, I support our current living wage rules and I voted for them!

I continue to fight for a citywide ordinance that increases the living wage across-
the-board, but we are blocked by the Texas Legislature. This must continue to be
part of our legislative agenda in Austin.

What do you think the role of local law enforcement should be in the enforcing of
federal immigration law?
Local cooperation is counterproductive and immoral.

Our resources are limited and should not be wasted. Dollars are precious and
must be spent on policing serious crimes, not splitting families apart.

More importantly, this sort of engagement with ICE decreases public safety and
hinders community policing. An undocumented domestic abuse victim is less
likely to call it in to 911 out of fear of deportation. This places the welfare of
families at high risk. The erosion of trust is simply too high.

What are your thoughts about the Dallas County Commissioners' recent resolution
declaring Dallas County a Welcoming County, particularly as it pertains to the City
of Dallas? Do you support this resolution?
I strongly support the resolution. Dallas would be wise to follow suit, and thus I
introduced a resolution that would make us a Welcoming City. It is critical that
our community leaders affirm their support for immigrant families.

Do you support ensuring that all residents of the City of Dallas have access to city
services, regardless of immigration status? Why, or why not?
Yes, of course I do. The City of Dallas should not be in the business of
discriminating. We should be taking care of all of our residents.

Last fiscal year, the Dallas City Council approved an ongoing $15 million dollar bailout
for ATTPAC with little support for small arts organizations in return. Critics argue that
the real need is for support in local neighborhoods outside the Arts District that are
cultural deserts. What are your thoughts on revising or canceling the annual $1.5
million bailout and use those funds to support small to mid-size arts groups in
underserved neighborhoods as well as the downtown area?
The bailout was poorly conceived. I joined other members in asking for additional
financial materials to provide insight on the rationale behind such a deal and we
were denied them. The lack of transparency in this process was disheartening.

I do not want any cultural deserts in our city. We do need support for
neighborhood arts programs, and I will fight for them.
I, ADAM MEDRANO, am seeking an endorsement from the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas for
the 2017 Dallas City Council elections.

Signed__Adam Medrano_________________________________
Date____3/6/2017______________________