44 MAY 2014
COmmunity Part-Time HP Resident Leads Paris Full-Time By Dan Koller
People Newspapers
C O u r t e sy O F r O B B i e G u N N / i N Pa r i s t e X a s . C O M
arjumand “a.J.” hashmi won a 4-3 vote for Paris mayor among his City Council colleagues in 2011, when he was first elected. in 2012 and 2013, no one else was nominated for the position.
H E d r E w Fa r M O r E vO T E r S T O P O L LS each member of the Paris City Council has been through one contested election. here are tallies of the votes they and their opponents received in their respective districts. District
Council Member
For
Against
District 1 District 2
aaron Jenkins Billie sue Lancaster
36 35
27 17
District 3 District 4
John Wright richard Grossnickle
61 63
34 40 and 17
District 5 District 6
Matt Frierson Cleonne holmes Drake
82 209
24 128
District 7
arjumand hashmi
416
289
If his name seems familiar, perhaps that’s because he’s made headlines for hosting his friend and patient Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president, at his homes in Highland Park and Paris. It’s their relationship that led to the mayor
denying rumors about his plans for developing land around Paris’ Lake Crook. “The president of Pakistan is buying the lake or coming to live in Paris, Texas: WRONG,” Hashmi said as he narrated a PowerPoint presentation at that
March meeting. “There is some sort of a secret plan being hidden by the council: WRONG.” As you might expect, Hashmi is one of the few natives of Pakistan — if not the only one — among Paris’ 25,000 residents. So he gets attention at Walmart, where people stop to ask if he’s the mayor they’ve heard so much about. But Hashmi, who goes by “A.J.” there, likes to joke about his unique status. “It’s very unusual to have a Pakistani-born, Muslim, smalltown mayor who’s a Republican,” he said. “Most of them end up as Democrats.” The council’s chambers were packed for that late March meeting, with the mayor’s Lake Crook presentation being the main attraction; half of the crowd left after he was finished discussing it. But another hot-button topic on the agenda that evening was an ordinance
OICE RUNN E CH
RU
P 2011
PEOPLE’S
When the Highland Park Town Council met on the fourth Monday in March, Mayor Joel Williams had to take care of some routine business: calling a pair of public hearings, receiving a couple of financial reports, and congratulating the town’s librarian on winning an award. He did not have to deny that one of his initiatives was a conspiracy designed to benefit the president of Pakistan. But on the same night, about 100 miles to the northeast, one of Williams’ neighbors did that very thing. Arjumand Hashmi, who owns a house just three blocks from the Williams home, also owns property in Paris, Texas, where he has served as mayor for three years. Although Hashmi also works full-time as a cardiologist at Paris Regional Medical Center, his wife and sons reside in Highland Park. Hashmi accepted a job offer from the Paris hospital in 2005, months before he left his previous position in Tampa, Fla. So his wife, Rizma, and the boys came to Texas before he did, to avoid moving halfway across the country in the middle of a school year. Seeking the best education Texas had to offer, they rented a house in Highland Park. By the time Dr. Hashmi was ready to move to Paris, his family was entrenched. “They loved it,” Rizma said of her boys’ life in Highland Park. “They said, ‘We are not moving.’ ” So, the Hashmis came to an arrangement. Arjumand lives and works in Paris during the week, but sees his family in Highland Park on weekends.
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that banned smoking in hotels, restaurants, and other public places. One man drew laughs from the council and the crowd when he spoke against the ban. “I’m not saying I’m smart for smoking,” he said to Hashmi before realizing whom he was addressing. “Oh, I’m sorry — you’re my doctor.” Hashmi practiced cardiology in Paris for five years before he decided to run for office. He felt there was a disconnect between the council and its constituents, with the elected officials too entangled in personal agendas to address important issues. “I was in an ideal position as a complete foreigner,” he said. “I didn’t grow up in Paris. I didn’t go to school in Paris. And I wasn’t related to anyone in Paris. So my views were based entirely on merits rather than relationships.” Ralph Taylor, the pastor of Bethel Temple Church, was eating breakfast at McKee’s, a diner with an ashtray on every table, the morning after the smoking ban was approved. The lifelong Paris resident has never met Hashmi, but he’s read enough about to him know the mayor is “on top of every issue.” “He seems to be civic-minded,” Taylor said. “He’s open; you can talk to him. He takes into consideration what you say, and if what you say is not better than what he thought, he stays with his own opinion.” Hashmi did not become mayor by a popular vote. Paris is one of the few Texas cities that chooses its mayor by a consensus of the council, rather than a poll of the people. But he was put into office by far more voters than any of his colleagues (see chart), and no one opposed him when he was up for re-election a year ago. “The beauty of me getting elected is, however you complain about prejudice, the bottom line is that the average American doesn’t think of it that way,” Hashmi said in an interview at his Highland Park home, where photos of him with Musharraf, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama hang not far from pictures of his sons playing football for the Scots. “My election is the perfect example of how broad-minded American people are.” Email dan.koller@ peoplenewspapers.com