Monday, April 28, 2008

Irving Mayoral Candidate Roland Jeter wants to improve quality of life in neighborhoods and city

By Minnie Payne

Irving Mayoral Candidate Roland Jeter

IRVING — Roland Jeter, 54-year-old attorney and Irving mayoral candidate, said that because he feels that the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), adopted by Irving in June 2007, is a program designed by Immigration for small towns, he supports putting 287(g) on the Council agenda for discussion.

“CAP was designed for small towns that have one or two undocumented immigrants going through the system each month,” he said. “The 287(g) program was designed for large cities that have an overwhelming undocumented immigrant problem.”

He explains that under the 287(g) program, an Irving Police Officer would have access to identification technology known as IDENT which not only gives availability to fingerprints, but also photos. Under CAP, immigration officers come into the jail to process and identify whether or not the subject is an illegal alien.

The 287(g) Program offers training to local law enforcement officers on how to identify whether a person is illegal and how to use the IDENT technology. In doing this, the police don’t have to wait for an immigration officer to come in, which is much faster and dependable. The cost of the program is the amount that a police officer would earn during the five week training period. Long-term benefits are improved security and public safety since criminal illegal aliens are transferred to federal custody, rather than being released to state supervision or back into the community.

“Farmers Branch applied for the 287(g) program in November 2006 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government,” Jeter said. “In March 2008, they received word that they had been accepted into the 287(g) program and their officers are now being trained.

“They wanted the best program available to address the issues of their city, and I want that for Irving.”

Jeter, a lifelong resident of Irving, served on Irving City Council from 1995 through 1999 and during that time, was elected by the Mayors and Councilpersons of Dallas County as president of Region 13, Texas Municipal League of Cities. While on City Council, he also served as chairman of the Council Legislative and Technology Committees and as a member of the City Comprehensive Plan Committee. As chairman of the Council Youth Committee, he joined Sue Richardson in forming the Irving Youth Action Committee in bringing General Collin Powell’s “America’s Promise to Youth” to Irving.

“I attended the Irving public schools, graduating from Irving High School in 1971, where I was a two-year football letterman and a member of the National Honor Society, as well as the student council,” he said. “I earned a bachelor’s of Business Administration Degree from Baylor University in 1975, where I was a member of Phi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

“In 1978, I earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law, where I was a member of the Student Senate and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity.”

He said that law school was difficult and that the professors failed about one-third of the freshman class first semester.

About 40 percent of the freshman class wound up graduating in 1978, Jeter said, but it was all worth it because ever since he was five years old he wanted to be a trial lawyer and for the last 30 years he has been living his dream.

Jeter said that in July 2006 D Magazine ranked all the suburbs in the metroplex on quality-of-life issues and out of 62 suburbs, Irving ranked 59.

“The way to solve the issue is to bring in the 287(g) program, bring in strict code enforcement and have a mayor who is committed to those two programs,” he said. “I believe that Irving will begin to turn around its decline and its crime rate will go even lower.”

He said that he is running for mayor of Irving because he feels it‘s important that we have a leadership change in the mayor’s office.

Because he is in business for himself and because family members assist him in his law practice, Jeter said that he can break away from his work and pretty much set his own schedule in order to take care of mayoral duties.

“I’ve been very active in the Boy Scouts for the last nine years and one of my strong points is having good people working under me whom I can trust and delegate tasks to,” he said. “Also, the way the City of Irving is set up, it was never intended for the mayor to micromanage.”

Jeter’s Aunt, Carolyn Cooper, a retired Irving school teacher, said that he has always been interested in politics and when he was a little boy said that he wanted to be governor or president when he grew up.

“Roland has always been very outgoing and fiercely competitive,” she said. “He always made good grades and was honored by the Irving School District in 1992 as being an outstanding graduate of the Irving School System.”

Jeter has been married 23 years to his wife, Vicki, and has a daughter, Brittany, a son, Madison, and one granddaughter.

Related stories

• Overview of Irving mayoral and city council candidate contributions (May 7, 2008)
• Some wackjob leaves injured Chihuahua and threatening note on doorstep of Irving Mayor Herbert Gears on Saturday (April 28, 2008)

See more stories in:

• Citizen Profiles
• Politics and Government > City Government > Irving
• Pegasus News Exclusive

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