Effort to name Duncanville park after community leader thwarted

by Brian Allen of Best Southwest Citizen

A petition bearing almost 140 signatures was unable to sway the Duncanville City Council into renaming Lakeside Park after one of the city’s most influential figures.

Longtime business and community leader Earl Mizell died in 2006, and a group of friends and family including his widow, Yvonne, have led efforts to honor him. Councilwoman Johnette Jameson mentioned Yvonne Mizell hoped the council could decide the matter in a more low-key fashion than its usual infamously heated debate.

While the ensuing discussion was very civil by those standards, it was in many ways more uncomfortable than the typical Duncanville council theatrics.

The Parks and Recreation Board voted unanimously to take no action on the renaming proposal in May 2008, and by a 5-2 majority of the council was unwilling to overrule that decision at Tuesday’s meeting.

Before the discussion, City Manager Kent Cagle explained some of the guidelines used to name parks after people. They included donating park land (60 percent or better of the total park acreage)and not having an existing public facility named after them (unless it is near the park in question). Mizell did donate 1.6 acres but later sold 19.76 acres to the city and that was an issue for the parks board. The board also considers if the park is named after an existing geographic characteristic, as is the case with Lakeside Park.

Parks Superintendent Shane Gravens, a longtime member of the Duncanville Noon Lions Club along with Earl Mizell, got called to the hot seat explaining the parks board’s thinking from the May meeting.

“We felt as though, although he did donate a little bit of the park land there, at some point Mr. Mizell sold the property or was the acting person in regard to selling the land,” Gravens said. “Someone made $150,000 or he was given $150,000.” Gravens said Mizell had a street named after him. Also, Gravens said there were concerns about changing the name of Lakeside Park because of its geographic significance.

Councilman Grady Smithey noted Mizell’s achievements in the community but said it’s important for the council to uphold the decisions of city boards unless there’s a compelling reason to do otherwise.

“I believe when we get people to serve on boards and commissions and we set out rules for them to do that, that before we overturn any decisions they make we ought to have a reason to do that,” he said. “In this case, I just don’t think we have that.”

Jameson suggested the board may have taken no action because it wanted the council to have the final say on a potentially thorny issue. And she thinks the petition showing strong community support provides sufficient reason to overturn the board’s decision.

“One hundred thirty-eight people signed a petition,” Jameson said. “And it is not uncommon for boards to send decisions to us to overturn or to make a definitive decision on. Sometimes they don’t want the onus to be on them, they want it on us. This would certainly not be the first time I’ve seen it. And you can’t negate 138 names in support of it.”

In many cases city structures bear names that they’ve had for 50-60 years or better and no one thinks about that name got there. The naming of structures is an important and as this debate showed, often controversial subject for city officials to deal with. Tuesday night’s meeting showed how these difficult decisions unfold in real time.

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