Ronell Smith has been surrounded by books his whole life. When he was a young boy living in Mississippi, he loved reading about biology and zoology from his family’s bookshelf, while in college he was absorbed in the works of physicist Richard Feynman. He’s still surrounded by books years later, whether it’s at his home office or in the Southlake City Council Chambers.
It’s just as well because Ronell feels like he’s always learning, even more so after being elected as Place 4 City Councilmember. That desire helped Ronell become an accomplished entrepreneur, writer and digital strategist over his career, and helped him gain an understanding of what it means to build a brand from the ground up. It’s a perspective Southlake will need as the city continues to reopen and rebuild its economy and small businesses.
“I have always appreciated the energy that Ronell brings to the table,” Mayor Laura Hill says. “I’m counting on his enthusiasm and appreciation for all things Southlake as the council works towards the city’s recovery from COVID-19.”
RECONCILING WITH MISSISSIPPI
Ronell was born in Poplarville, Mississippi. With his father working as a mechanic and his mother taking care of himself and his older brother and sister, Ronell says he was instilled with the importance of hard work at a young age.
“I was raised in a very supportive household that prioritized education, hard work and being good to people,” Ronell expresses. “One thing my dad always preached was to never expect somebody to give something to you. You have to earn it. And once you get your foot in the door, it was your job to keep that door open.”
Those lessons stuck with Ronell through life, even after his father passed away from lung cancer in 2006. Living in a household with no cable or satellite, Ronell would often bury his head in a book, immersing himself in pages filled with plants, animals and insects.
“Every night, my school books would stay in my backpack, and I would pick up a magazine or an encyclopedia, and I would read, read, read, read and read,” Ronell says. “I was obsessive about learning. Words on a page meant something to me.”
Living in the last black household next to an all-white neighborhood, Ronell knew what it felt like to be different and alienated from the people around him. Though he was never physically threatened, Ronell says he always felt uncomfortable at school and in nearby communities. He and his friends heard racial slurs all the time in the hallways, buses and cafeterias, and he remembers how small that made him feel.
“It was not a very welcoming place,” Ronell recalls. “It wasn’t like the Klan was out marching, but you heard the N-word going to school and all throughout the day. I wanted a place of my own. I wanted somewhere where I could be the person I knew I could be, and I knew that was never going to be actualized in Mississippi.”
When Ronell graduated from high school, he joined his sister at Georgia State University, after being impressed by their research programs, with a desire to pursue neurology or animal science. But his sister wasn’t the only woman waiting for Ronell at school. His future wife Rachel, who was also a Mississippi native, had also enrolled.
“She was the first girl to ever impress me,” Ronell expresses. “She knew more about accounting and finance and the newest Apple computer than anyone else. She wasn’t materialistic. She was really, really focused.”
And even though he and his family return to Mississippi regularly to visit Rachel’s family, he still feels a “visceral” reaction upon each visit. He says one day he’ll have to have to “reconcile” with Mississippi.
“I realized it was easy to hate or dislike people,” Ronell states. “But I wanted to find power through that. I wanted to learn how to block that out, to not even have any animus to the people who were saying those things. It hardened me in a way that I feel like it benefited me.”
FROM GEORGIA TO TEXAS
After graduating from Georgia State University, Ronell did post-graduate research in cognitive psychology at Georgia Tech before he went to work as a business writer for the “Athens Daily News” in 2001. Ronell wrote in-depth features, news articles and columns about Athens’ automotive industry, and he would occasionally write book reviews for the paper’s art and entertainment section.
“It was a really cool experience, especially for a shy Mississippi kid like me,” Ronell states. “It really helped me get out of my comfort zone, being afraid to accost others and be willing to draw things out of people. You don’t realize the power of that.” After working in media for several years, including a six-year stint as head of “ESPN Magazine,” Ronell would later move to Texas and start his own digital brand strategy business in 2011. While he and his wife were living temporarily in Colleyville in 2012, they were looking for someplace to settle down with their two daughters. Ronell says they considered over 100 houses, but none of them felt like home.
“Every time we consulted with our realtor, we asked her ‘Where was the next Southlake?’” Ronell recalls. “She’d show us places in Fairview, McKinney, West Plano. They had really strong schools and nice houses, but none of them compared to Southlake.”
After researching school systems and houses across the Metroplex, it was ultimately the people who tipped the scales in their family’s decision to make Southlake their nesting place. Whereas his hometown was indifferent and dismissive towards him, Ronell found Southlake warm and welcoming. He knew he wanted his girls to grow up in a city as accepting as Southlake.
“We did not move here just for the schools,” Ronell says. “I knew Southlake had people that I wanted to be around and that I wanted my kids to be around. Southlake is truly unlike anywhere else.”
He also became enamored by the story of Bob Jones — a man who, like Ronell, grew up under repressive circumstances only to rise above them and find his home in Southlake. Ronell even enjoyed researching and portraying Bob Jones in the Southlake Historical Society’s Ghosts of Southlake Past tour last year.
“You had a black man that lived in this area and was one of the wealthiest around during a time where they were hanging people for being union sympathizers,” Ronell expresses. “One of the most famous people to come from this prosperous city was a black man fresh out of slavery, who grew to be incredibly successful in this area. This guy was able to thrive right here.”
Ronell has been searching for a community to belong to for quite some time. It appears he has found one in Southlake.
RUNNING FOR CITY COUNCIL
It didn’t take long for Ronell to contribute to the community once he and his family moved to Southlake. He served on the zoning board of adjustment from 2015-2019, was a citizen on patrol for Southlake DPS and was appointed to the CISD District Diversity Committee. He also made it a point to be at as many Dragon football games and events as possible.
In December 2018, a friend approached Ronell to run for Carroll ISD’s school board, which he swiftly rejected. But after he was approached yet again to consider running for one of the city council’s open seats, Ronell turned to God for his answer.
“I always say that I want to be Gideon for God. That whatever it is I ultimately do, I want it to be something I wouldn't have chosen, but something that God would have called me to do anyway,” Ronell says. “I asked him if this wasn’t something he wanted me to do, show me a sign — and he never did.”
The next year, he announced his run for Place 4 City Council. He personally knew former Place 5 Councilmember John Huffman, who he helped him make connections on the council and answered any questions he had during the campaign.
"With Ronell, it's always about the art of the possible and what he could do to make things better,” John says. “I appreciate that quality because making the Southlake community the best it can be is what we are all aiming for."
Many felt that Ronell was going to lose since his opponent had long-standing roots in the community. Yet by the end of election night, Ronell won by 2,143 ballots, or 58.19% of the vote. On May 23, he found himself being sworn into the Southlake City Council.
“It’s tough to even acknowledge that I’m a politician now,” he chuckles.
WHAT LEADERSHIP LOOKS LIKE
Ronell knew even before campaigning that the upcoming term would call for immediate action on important and highly visible projects. Within months of his swearing in, he and the rest of the council had to vote on the city’s FY2020 budget and 3.7 cent tax reduction. Soon thereafter, he would be part of the vote on a 270 apartment complex proposed by the developers of Southlake Town Square. Ronell remembers residents filling in both the main council chambers and the overflow rooms to speak against the project. The council unanimously voted to deny the application.
“It was a trial by fire so to speak,” Ronell chuckles. “This was the type of thing that causes people to lose elections.”
And yet, the greatest challenges were ahead of Ronell. When COVID-19 came to Texas in March, Mayor Hill and the city council issued an emergency declaration that limited social gatherings and closed the doors to businesses and restaurants. As a business owner himself, Ronell knew how much the pandemic affected residents and business owners alike in the area. After a year with the city council, Ronell says it was one of the few times he felt powerless.
“As a public servant, you don’t like seeing your city the way you’re seeing it,” Ronell expresses. “I wake up every morning, check my phone and there’s always a message saying ‘When are you guys going to open up the city? Look at this data, what do you think about this?’ It’s a lot to manage.”
Ronell enjoys interacting with the people he serves — conversing directly with residents the same way he did as a journalist. While keeping his social distances Ronell misses bumping into people at Central Market or around town. It was through those happy accidents where he got to know his neighbors and learned about the biggest issues pressing residents of the city.
But through reopening and transitioning into a new normal, Ronell has confidence Southlake will persevere the best way it knows how — together.
“I tell people that other cities fight one another. But in Southlake, we have something to fight for,” Ronell expresses. “So we may disagree — even vehemently so — but we keep fighting to move the community forward.”
Ronell believes Southlake has something worth standing and fighting for: each other. As the city continues toward whatever the future holds, he urges residents to look out for and support one another.
Even with their differences, everyone is united under one identity in Southlake. This level of acceptance and community is not lost on him as he works tirelessly to maintain it.