Would an Earlier Swap of Barrios for Burdette Have Made Any Difference?

Source: ChatGPT, City of Richardson

Beginning September 28, 2026, Daniel Burdette will represent Richardson's Place 3 on the City Council, replacing Dan Barrios. Will that make a difference in city policy? Who's to say? As a test, I looked at votes in the 2025-2027 term (so far) to see what might have been different had Burdette been in that seat for the full term. That is, had Barrios resigned in 2025, perhaps getting replaced by Burdette as early as May 2025, what would be different in city policy today?

I looked for Council votes in which Barrios's vote was determinative: winning votes in which Barrios was one of four Ayes, or losing votes with only three Aye votes, in which Barrios voted Nay. There were five such votes.

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Passed with Four Aye Votes, Including Barrios

Date	Result	Ayes	Nays	Motion
January 5, 2026	4-3	Omar, Justice, Barrios, Shamsul	Hutchenrider, Dorian, Corcoran	ZF 25-21 Special Development Plan to allow sign deviations for a law office on Central Expy
June 9, 2025	4-3	Justice, Barrios, Corcoran, Shamsul	Omar, Hutchenrider, Dorian	5. ZF 25-08 La Salsa Verde Taqueria on West Spring Valley
June 15, 2026	4-2	Omar, Hutchenrider, Dorian, Barrios	Corcoran, Shamsul	19. ZF 26-10 - CITY-INITIATED AMENDMENTS TO Definitions for home-based businesses
May 19, 2026	4-3	Hutchenrider, Dorian, Barrios, Shamsul	Omar, Justice, Corcoran	3. Deliberate the Election of the Mayor Pro Tem in Executive Session

Failed with Three Aye Votes, Barrios Voting Nay

Date	Result	Ayes	Nays	Motion
August 17, 2026	3-4	Omar, Dorian, Shamsul	Hutchenrider, Justice, Barrios, Corcoran	7. Select Darrell Day for an interview for appointment to fill the vacancy for City Council Place 3.

The first three votes involved zoning-related matters. Based on his interview answers, my best guess is that Burdette would have voted the same way on those matters as Barrios did. The fourth vote was in favor of using executive session to select the Mayor Pro Tem. Nothing Burdette said led me to believe he would be a champion of transparency with respect to the use of executive sessions. So I suspect he would have voted like Barrios did on this. Finally, Barrios voted against interviewing Darrell Day to fill his Place 3 vacancy. But in this alternate timeline, there would have been no vacancy, so speculation about how Burdette would have voted on interviewing an applicant is moot. In short, I wouldn't have been surprised if a hypothetical Council Member Burdette had voted exactly like actual Council Member Barrios did on these first four votes.

On all other votes, whether it was 5-2, 6-1, or 7-0, Barrios's vote did not decide the outcome and neither would have a Burdette vote.

Maybe more important, I find only one of these five votes to carry much significance. That was ZF 25-08 / La Salsa Verde, requesting a zoning change in the West Spring Valley corridor. But Barrios voted to grant that. I suspect Burdette would have as well.

Even if all these votes were consequential, it's still only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of votes taken this term. Of the total, there were only 30 contested votes, and only five contested votes in which Barrios's vote was decisive. I didn't do the exercise, but I suspect swapping any other single council member would likewise have had a relatively small direct impact on the outcomes of votes taken so far.

So what am I saying? That elections don't matter? I am most decidedly not saying that. What I'm saying is that in a timeline in which Daniel Burdette had occupied Barrios's seat for the whole term, the outcome would have been little different from the actual timeline with Barrios. I don't think I would have guessed that. Also, of course, this measures only the direct effect of substituting one council member's vote for another; it cannot capture how a different council member might have influenced negotiations, amendments, agenda-setting, or the votes of other members.

My bigger point is that changing one or two council members at a time is a slow way of achieving change. In 2025, there were only two contested seats on Richardson's City Council. Only one changed hands. I prematurely declared it a change election. Perhaps that was because there were only two contested seats in the 2025 election. We already know that two of the Council members elected in 2025—Dan Barrios and Joe Corcoran—have said they will not be returning to the Council after the 2027 election. In that election, there will likely be six, maybe even seven, contested seats. Choose wisely. Even if you vote for incumbents, make them earn your vote. That's how we get a real change election.

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Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

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"Barrios exits.
Burdette waits in the wings now.
Will anything change?"
—h/t ChatGPT