Supporters came to Watauga City Hall the night Scott Prescher introduced his chicken ordinance. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Scott Prescher is the first out person elected to a suburban DFW city council, and the town is cheering for him

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Scott Prescher is the first out person elected to a suburban city council in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And he didn’t just squeak in; he won in a landslide. In fact, in a four-way race in November, he received more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid runoff.

Since then, Prescher’s fellow city council members have shown disdain for the research he does on issues and annoyance at the questions he asks. But his constituents love him.

Attendance at city council meetings went from three or four people before he was elected to an average of 100 so far this year. About 25 people showed up to one meeting just because they heard a reporter was coming to do a story about Prescher; 150 people total attended the meeting that night.

Of course, not everyone was there because of the publicity. Most were there because they were interested in the issue Prescher was bringing before the council that night — chickens.

Less than two years ago, Prescher and his husband, Cody, moved to Watauga, a small city in northeast Tarrant County, wedged in between North Richland Hills and Haltom City. Last summer, developers proposed a zoning change that would allow apartments to be built inside the city limits of the four-and-a-half-square-mile town.

Apartments that bring heavy traffic isn’t why the Preschers moved to Watauga.

“Watauga is a real estate hotspot,” Cody explained. “Schools, crime, property trends. Scott drew a map and the zones kept overlapping in Watauga.”

So when talk turned to apartment complexes, neighbors met to discuss how to keep them out of their city. Prescher said he doesn’t know how he became the leader of the opposition to apartments. After all, when he showed up to the first meeting, he was the only one in the room who didn’t know anyone else there.

“He had all the ideas,” one person at Watauga City Hall explained. Another added, “He’s a natural leader.” “We love Scott,” one after another said as everyone crowded around to praise him.

“They’re like family,” Prescher said about his neighbors. And by that, he’s not just being a politician hoping to garner votes. He meant regularly-going-to-their-houses-for-dinner family.

Jan Duncan Weir, who said she met Prescher during the apartment fight, loves him because he took the time to drive to Dallas for a premier of a film she was in. “Scott is a go-getter,” she said. “Up front. Dedicated. He prides himself on being ethical.”

While Prescher said he has no political dreams beyond city council, Weir said, “I have aspirations for him — much higher aspirations.”
One neighbor said she’d lived in Watauga for 28 years, and when Prescher ran she voted in a local election for the first time.

Prescher said he never thought he’d get into politics. As a child, however, his idea of fun on the weekend was watching Meet the Press, and his favorite reading material was the weekly political polls in Newsweek.

Mersedez Berry block walked for Prescher during his campaign. “You can’t beat his passion,” she said.

And you can’t beat the passion of his supporters. Like Berry’s mom, Lovey Downey, for example. “Scott woke up the beast in this city,” Downey said.

The beast that night was chickens. Watauga has zoning against residents raising chickens. Prescher heard from residents that wanted to be allowed to keep them.

So he did what he always does — he did his research. He read ordinances from cities around the area. He called an agricultural extension agent from Texas A&M, who helped Farmers Branch work out their comprehensive chicken ordinance. He spoke to veterinarians. He talked to people in other cities that keep chickens.

Then he wrote his new ordinance. Some of the provisions included a requirement to keep at least three and no more than six, because chickens are social animals and may become aggressive if they live alone. They require a certain minimum amount of space, and they must be properly housed and need to be protected from other wild animals getting into their coops.

Prescher’s proposed chicken ordinance would require a fee and a training class on taking care of the birds that he arranged to be taught by a woman from Watauga with a degree in zoology. And she’d teach others to teach the class so it would cost the city nothing.

So Prescher and his chicken supporters packed City Hall the night of the vote. Debate ensued. Other council members repeatedly asked questions he had already answered.

At one point, Prescher said to them, “I don’t know how to communicate with you people. Do I need to use props?”

Apparently he did need to use something because the ordinance failed and his supporters were furious.

In a tweet, one Watauga resident wrote, “So we got this new city council member in our little town, and he’s trolling the city when they impose stupid rules, and fighting for the right to raise backyard chickens. I really don’t want to like politicians but this guy is making it hard.”

Another fight was over a boarding house a megachurch in town wanted to build. Opponents of the zoning change to allow the boarding house said it skirted ordinances about leasing property and would add unwanted traffic in the neighborhood.

This fight was different than the apartment fight. Prescher was on the council now, and he made sure the item was posted on the agenda with plenty of notice. He said that didn’t help him make friends with supporters of the church on the council. And it may have contributed to the demise of his chicken ordinance.

And, in the upcoming election, to the end of their own political careers.

So how does Prescher live a very out life in a very small town?

“They are OK that I’m gay, because I’m authentic about our life,” he speculated.

Prescher makes no bones about being gay.

“Cody and I hold hands in the neighborhood,” he said.

But he really does care. He explained that when he was 16, growing up in the town of Clifton, northwest of Waco, he almost killed himself. He typed up a will and a goodbye letter.

“It makes me cry to even type about it now,” he said in a text message explaining the incident.

He placed a bag over his head with a rubber band around his neck, because he did not want the bag to fall off. At the last minute he changed his mind and pulled the bag off before passing out.

“It was two years before I ever told anyone I did that — and the first person I told was my mom when I came out to her when I was 18,” he said.

Since then, he feels responsible for preventing other LGBT teens from feeling they needed to end their lives.

“As a gay person, you have a huge responsibility to be yourself all the time,” he said. “You never know when you’re going to have a 14-year-old see you, and that saves his life.”

Prescher is responsible for some procedural changes at council meetings as well. Citizen input used to be at the beginning of a meeting, then voting on the issues they addressed came at the end of the meeting — usually after most people had left. Now residents may speak on an issue just prior to any votes on that issue.

For these and other similar offenses, the council will be discussing Prescher’s ethical violations at its April 8 council meeting. Prescher said he’s looking forward to attacking their lies with actual evidence.

He invited anyone who’d like to enjoy the show to join him at City Hall that night. “Sit in the back with Cody,” he said. “He is bringing the popcorn for the show.”

And he’s looking forward to election day in May, where he’s supporting a slate of candidates that includes none of the incumbents.