‘It was his everything’
Longtime Stafford mayor loved his community and was known as ‘an advocate for the people’
Leonard Scarcella would never forget the date — Sept. 4, 1969 — when, at age 29, he took office as the city of Stafford’s mayor.
Scarcella held the post for 50 years — becoming one of the state’s longest tenured mayors — until, on Sunday, he passed at the age of 79.
Under his watch, Stafford went through explosive growth and change — and Scarcella’s name became synonymous with the hometown he dedicated decades to serving.
“That was his family; that was the mayor’s whole life,” said Bonny Krahn, who served alongside Scarcella for 42 years as Stafford’s police chief. “It was his everything.”
Scarcella, who never married and had no children, lived across the street from City Hall. A city news release said he died “after a brief illness” — it was not COVID-19.
As Scarcella grew up, Stafford was a small community, home to many of Italian heritage and surrounded by fields. It felt far then from Houston’s downtown, 20 miles to the northeast.
Scarcella attended Texas A&M and got a law degree at the University of Houston. His mom, a schoolteacher, helped on congressional campaigns — and he caught the political bug.
When he became the city’s third-ever mayor, Stafford only had a handful of employees, Scarcella recalled in a 2015 interview.
“I just felt like Stafford had a lot of potential,” he said then. “They used to call me the kid. Now I’m 75 and I must be the old man.”
A lawyer by trade, Scarcella didn’t shy away from a fight. He pushed to create the Stafford Municipal School District — the only municipal school district in the state. He advocated to eliminate the city’s property tax.
He supported efforts to expand the MetroRail system from Houston along the U.S. 90A corridor — which he and former Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen joked they might one day ride in their wheelchairs.
He rarely missed a monthly meeting for the Gulf Coast Rail District, which looks at commuter and freight rail issues, said executive director Katherine Parker.
She recalled the thorough mayor always arriving with his binder of notes and a first-hand understanding of how bad the traffic had gotten.
Scarcella saw the city through formative years of development — and his commitment never wavered, Fort Bend County Commissioner Grady Prestage said.
“He just was a fixture,” Prestage said. “You wouldn’t find a more knowledgeable person about the affairs of the city.”
Residents knew Scarcella throughout Stafford, a city now swallowed in Houston’s sprawl. Towering red structures along the Southwest Freeway mark its boundary.
People knew Scarcella especially at Pappadeaux’s, one of his favorite places to eat.
Friends and colleagues found
Scarcella a great debater and orator, an intellectual man who kept things close to his chest but who also had his quirks.
For the parade every July 4, Owen recalled, Scarcella wore the same red, white and blue checkered pants. His convertible’s license plate was SMSD1 — a nod to the school district of which he was so proud.
He always sent Christmas cards with his expected giant signature.
“Leonard was one of a kind,” Owen said. “There will never be another Leonard Scarcella. He loved his work. He loved the city, and he was an advocate for the people.”
As Scarcella won election after election — most recently campaigning with a bullhorn from the back of that convertible — he joined the ranks of mayors with storied tenures.
Most notably, in the city of Richmond not far to the west, Hilmar Moore served as mayor for 63 years.
The Texas Municipal League, in a statement Sunday, called Scarcella “a legend for serving his citizens and advocating for local control.”
Congressman Al Green on Twitter mourned him as “a timeless leader.”
Congressman Pete Olson in a statement called him “inspirational.”
As the headline of a city press release summed up the loss: “STAFFORD LOSES AN ICON.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.