Fort Bend County Commissioner Dexter L. McCoy now stands on the intersection of the county’s previous and future.
Because the youngest commissioner, now in his late 30s, serving considered one of Texas’ most various counties since January 2023, McCoy brings with him a politics that’s formed by lived expertise.
Raised in rural Louisiana by his grandparents, McCoy grew up in abject poverty. His mom gave start to him at 15 and his father spent a lot of his life incarcerated. When his household moved to Fort Bend, the distinction was stark.
For the primary time, he skilled a group wealthy in sources and variety. That shift drives his political mission right this moment: To make sure no household in Fort Bend lives as his did in Louisiana.
“I went from a resource-deficient surroundings to a resource-wealthy surroundings,” McCoy instructed the Defender. “There are nonetheless folks in Fort Bend County who stay the best way that I lived in Louisiana. We’ve gotta do extra to serve them…be sure that we’re opening up doorways of alternative for each baby.”
Strategy to governance
Earlier than turning into commissioner, McCoy served as chief of employees to Fort Bend County Decide KP George, the place he first grasped the county’s sweeping obligations, from flood management to emergency providers.
“What I realized in that function is the vital nature of the county’s enterprise,” McCoy stated. “We’re the individuals who hold flood waters out of individuals’s properties, be sure that our emergency medical providers are appropriately funded and that we have now ambulances that may reply.”
The expertise sharpened his understanding of how disparities in native authorities funding perpetuate inequality. Roads riddled with potholes in his personal Mission Bend neighborhood, whereas different areas thrived, confirmed him that management on the county degree may imply the distinction between neglect and responsive service.
Insurance policies rooted in entry
Since his election in 2022, McCoy has superior initiatives that mirror his values. He championed paid parental go away for county staff, impressed by his personal time at residence after the start of his two younger daughters. He additionally launched “Match Fort Bend” in partnership with Match Houston, a program selling well being and wellness amongst residents, notably seniors.
One other signature venture is the African American Heritage Monument, which he sees as a long-lasting funding in illustration and historical past. And for younger folks, McCoy has prioritized increasing paid internships, emphasizing that unpaid alternatives typically exclude those that can not afford to work at no cost.
Balancing development and affordability
Fort Bend’s fast inhabitants development, projected to surpass a million residents by subsequent yr, poses challenges of affordability, infrastructure and fairness. McCoy factors to the county’s imbalance between residential improvement and business funding, which locations a disproportionate tax burden on owners.
“We’ve been making an attempt to be sure that we work with our improvement group…that they’re additionally constructing new properties, investing in business actual property, bringing jobs right here,” he stated.
“We’re the individuals who hold flood waters out of individuals’s properties, be sure that our emergency medical providers are appropriately funded and that we have now ambulances that may reply.”
– Fort Bend County Commissioner Dexter McCoy
McCoy’s imaginative and prescient consists of expanded transportation: Devoted bus fast transit lanes alongside toll roads, transit-oriented developments in business hubs and leveraging the county’s three main rail connectors to draw trade.
“It’s been actually vital,” he stated. “Now we have Port Freeport simply south of us. Now we have three main rail connectors proper right here in my precinct and we are able to put issues on rail and ship them throughout North and Central America. These are alternatives that our development will assist us drive.”
Navigating redistricting battles
McCoy’s tenure comes at a politically charged time. Commissioners Court docket has develop into a microcosm of Texas’ broader polarization, with debates over spending and redistricting fueling division.
Whereas McCoy strives to construct consensus, partnering with Republican colleagues on infrastructure, parks and a countywide 311 system, he acknowledges the bounds of diplomacy.
“Now we have some recalcitrant members, for whom no quantity of cause is gonna work,” he defined. “They’re hell bent on exacting revenge. The county choose is making an attempt to save lots of himself from being despatched to jail. And so he’s gonna do no matter he can to place himself for a pardon from the governor. It’s onerous to cause with that.”
He argues that the redistricting battle in Fort Bend is a part of a broader effort to dilute the political energy of communities of colour.
“We stay in among the many most various communities within the nation and our management is beginning to mirror that range,” McCoy stated. “Lots of people who don’t like that and are literally offended with that as a result of it’s a risk to their energy. Persons are making an attempt to show again the palms of time and redistrict, change the foundations of the sport.”
Legacy
Describing his management type as collaborative and rooted in humility, McCoy says he embraces what he doesn’t know, asking questions and in search of mentors. His time within the Barack Obama administration influenced him deeply, as did steerage from the late Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
“I would like my legacy to be that there have been individuals who didn’t have entry to the instruments that they wanted to find out their very own degree of success and so they acquired it,” he stated.
In the end, McCoy’s imaginative and prescient facilities on entry. He needs his legacy to be measured in lives reworked by alternative: Younger individuals who noticed public service as a path due to him, juveniles who gained vocational abilities as a substitute of cycles of incarceration and households who discovered sources they didn’t know existed.
