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Of the five seats on the Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors, members Leah King, James Hill and Mary Kelleher have years of experience under their belt. All three grappled with the fallout of a leadership scandal that spilled into the public eye in 2021, spurring outcry over payouts and nepotism. But board members have been successful in prioritizing transparency and living up to institutional standards, said King, the board’s chair. Now, as Kelleher and Hill depart in May, the board will have welcomed four new faces over the past two years. King is seeking reelection for a number of reasons, including to support new board members as they come in.King and the three other candidates running for three open seats — Johnathan Killebrew, Skylar O’Neal and Andrew Brinker — all share a common goal. If elected May 3, all promise transparency in everything the board does. With experience in real estate, scientific research, nonprofit leadership and government committees, the four candidates are confident they can fill the shoes of the longtime board members.Cars drive on the White Settlement Road bridge, one of the Panther Island bridges, in May 2023. The Henderson Street bridge is shown in the background. (Rodger Mallison | Fort Worth Report)Candidates want transparency in Panther Island oversight Killebrew, a building inspection executive, said he is all too familiar with construction and how the process is accompanied by delays more often than not. Regardless, he intends to demand officials and construction crews push the $1.16 billion Central City / Panther Island flood control project forward. When completed, the flood control portion of the project would create a 1.5 mile, man-made bypass channel rerouting the Trinity River, creating the appearance of an island between downtown Fort Worth and the Northside neighborhood. With more than $400 million of federal funds in hand, the water district is tasked with handling local elements of the flood control project and working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while city leaders are spearheading the economic development efforts along the riverfront property.The push on the project comes out of a need to continue applying transparency to every aspect of the water district, said Killebrew. He pointed to the water district’s transparency award from state officials for open government and compliance.How much have candidates raised in campaign funds?

Skylar O’Neal is leading the board candidates in campaign donations so far. 

Campaign finance reports show O’Neal’s raised $41,650 from several donors, including a $10,000 donation from political action committee Coalition for the Fort and a $1,000 donation from Congressman Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth.

Leah King raised $35,115 in campaign funds, with $4,000 of those funds coming from the Kelly Hart & Hallman and Good Government political action committees. 

Johnathan Killebrew raised $24,813 in campaign donations, mostly coming from individual donors. O’Neal, King and Killebrew each received a $250 donation from former Mayor Mike Moncrief. 

Andrew Brinker told the Report he is not accepting donations as a means to maintain transparency throughout the election process.“That’s pretty amazing. That just shows you how transparent the board is,” said Killebrew. “And so we’re gonna continue that.” In December, the water district hired real estate advisory firm U3 Advisors to oversee the selling of the agency’s land on Panther Island. O’Neal, a real estate investor, sees this as a “huge step in transparency.”“I think they’re already taking those steps and they’re already doing a good job and so it’s really just the continuation of that, ensuring that’s how we operate,” said O’ Neal. Brinker, a biology professor at Tarrant County College, said his dedication to transparency is rooted in his campaign. He decided to not accept campaign donations so as to eliminate any question of his integrity. “I think that as long as people hear about me, I think people just, naturally, will vote for a water expert for the water board,” said Brinker. “We’re gonna work together.”King, who also serves as president of the JPS Foundation, celebrates the board’s achievements during her two terms in office. Maintaining open communication is something she will continue to prioritize. Board president Leah King participates in a candidate forum for Tarrant Regional Water District board at Texas Wesleyan University April 17, 2025. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)“At the end of the day, we’re all taxpayers ourselves and we want to be sure that the information that we expect to be able to have access to is also the information the public has access to,” said King.Continued oversight of Panther Island / Central City developmentNot only are the candidates looking to keep the Central City flood control project moving along, but they propose additional ideas. Killebrew and Brinker would like to see more recreational opportunities come out of the project. Brinker hopes to see that environmental impact is taken into consideration throughout the development and planning of the project. “We don’t want to build this beautiful area without taking that into consideration,” said Brinker. “There’s a big opportunity to do something with education when we go through this whole process of building the flood control project.”Andrew Brinker, candidate for Tarrant Regional Water District board, speaks at a candidate forum at Texas Wesleyan University April 17, 2025. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)The costs funneling into the project is where the water district can display its ethical practices the most, Killebrew suggests.“The carrying costs on those projects are insane and that’s taxpayer money. … We have to be responsible tenants of that money,” said Killebrew. Attesting to the work done by the water district, King said the flood control project is still on track to meet its anticipated completion date in 2032.“I understand that it’s a lengthy project, but if you look at the size and the scope of the magnitude of the projects that the district embarks upon, many of them are 30-plus years to get from start to completion,” said King. “This is a massive undertaking when you’re talking about rerouting our river.”Should he earn a seat with the board, Killebrew said it’s not the water district’s place to be involved with economic development in Panther Island, but to provide the means to mitigate flooding and encourage water conservation as growth continues throughout Fort Worth. Pushing the flood control project further into its timeline would help make room for other projects the district has in the works, O’Neal said.“The engineering and planning for the flood control portion of the project is well designed — it’s the execution of the project that’s an issue,” said O’Neal.While Central City struggled for decades to obtain enough federal funding to construct the channel, including during the first Trump administration, O’Neal is not concerned about the money flowing into the project. O’Neal is confident in the board’s ability to work with state and federal officials to secure funding, along with private investment. Candidates say they will do their part to address state water crisisO’Neal recognizes several regions in Texas are struggling to secure adequate water supplies in the years to come. That can be credited to poor planning and existing policies, said O’Neal, but she doesn’t consider this a problem at the water district. Skylar O’Neal, candidate for Tarrant Regional Water District board, participates in a candidate forum at Texas Wesleyan University April 17, 2025. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)If elected to the board, O’Neal believes she will bring strengths from her business background and her involvement in natural resources with TCU’s Ralph Lowe Energy Institute to the water district. Those strengths could assist in projects involving flood mitigation, reservoirs and recreational planning, she said. “I hope my kids get to move back here, and actively live in a city that is successful and thriving just like we’re experiencing right now,” said O’ Neal. “We won’t be able to do that unless we have the necessary resources.”King looks forward to seeing some of those projects advance should she be reelected. Among those projects include a water district partnership with Dallas officials on an integrated pipeline to tap into Lake Palestine to meet growing demands. The project would supply an additional 350 million gallons of water per day in the metroplex. “We have some very large projects that are still in the middle of completion,” said King. “I want to continue to be part of the team that helps to push that closer to the finish line.”Johnathan Killebrew, candidate for Tarrant Regional Water District board, speaks at a candidate forum at Texas Wesleyan University April 17, 2025. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)From his time working with developers and the water utility, Killebrew knows all too well the importance of providing the necessary resources, including water, in order to meet growing demands. That’s exactly what pushed him to run for the board of directors. He proposes adopting a program or ordinance that calls for developers to comply with water conservation. “When we build a building correctly, we’re not saving money that year. We’re not saving water that year. We’re saving water for the lifespan of that building, which is a huge difference in 20, 30 years,” said Killebrew. Inspiring him to run for the board, Brinker praised the district for its mission to ensure adequate water supply, pointing to the future Marty Leonard wetlands, and keep flooding at bay. Rather than building additional reservoirs, the water district can reroute its focus on conservation with help from his knowledge on water quality, Brinker said. He emphasized the need to take care of the region’s water supply as the agency not only supplies water to Fort Worth but to surrounding cities and parts of Texas, including the Houston area. Brinker, named the 2020 Environmental Educator of the Year by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, is also passionate about teaching the public about the research conducted by the water district. “You can do all this cool research and find out all this cool stuff, but if it’s not accessible to the public, what good is it? So I feel kind of the same way with everything I know about the (Trinity River),” said Brinker. “I wanted to do this so that I can help share, to the general public and to the people making decisions, all the stuff that I’ve learned.”Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.Kelly Hart is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.