Source: h/t ChatGPT.
On November 2, 2026, the Richardson City Council reviewed and discussed a request to submit a resolution to DART to name the Silver Line US75 arches in honor of Gary Slagel. The vote to do this was 6-1, with only Mayor Amir Omar opposed. His explanation for his "No" vote is after the break.
Here are Mayor Omar's remarks:
I'll comment here. I'm not in favor of the resolution. And I'll tell you why.
I'll start with: I believe this is absolutely the right conversation to be having. Mayor Slagel's—gosh, record is just massive. And I think, to me, what we have in our arsenal of things that we can utilize—it's not on the agenda tonight, but a Key to the City, which we said was the highest honor that we could give to somebody. It's something that's under our control. It's the sort of thing that I would suggest is the way for us to move forward with something like this.
As I've spent a little bit of time talking to the folks at DART and some of the other member cities, my concern would be that we're putting all of these other entities in a really awkward position, because as a city, we are now saying that we think some other entity should name their things the way we want them to be named. And I just am not comfortable with that, from an approach perspective. I just think it's the wrong approach.
I think Mayor Slagel is absolutely worthy of the highest honor. We've said that the highest honor would be something like a Key to the City— as a matter of fact, not something like—the Key to the City. And that would be something that, in a future agenda item, I'd be happy to stick on there and go from there.
The only other thing that I would submit, and again, has nothing to do with the worthiness of Mayor Slagel, is the fact that even in our own language, we talk specifically about not having, not doing these kinds of honors when someone is currently in office. Now, I know that it specifically says elected office, and we could parse words and say, "Oh, it's not an elected office," but he is serving currently in that role. And so it just feels incorrect to do it until the service is over, and to really consult more deeply with DART on whether or not they're likely to even say yes.
That's the reason why I would be not in favor of moving forward with it. But we do have the predominant number of the council members that have said yes, which I'm very comfortable with.
Source: City of Richardson.
I agree with Mayor Omar. I admire his ability to see ways this could potentially backfire on Richardson. I am glad that he had the courage to voice his opposition.
In my own words, the Silver Line US75 arches are owned by DART, not the City of Richardson. This honor should have been initiated by DART. If DART now names them for Richardson's Gary Slagel, Richardson will never know if DART thought it was a deserving honor. Maybe the DART board members feel like they are being put in an uncomfortable position of either going along or saying no and embarrassing a fellow DART board member and a DART member city. Worse, it risks looking like payback for Richardson's support for DART in this year's DART withdrawal elections. All around, it just looks bad. This could have and should have been done in a less amateurish way.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
"A worthy man's name
Should rise from a willing vote,
Not a city's push."
—h/t ChatGPT
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