About Chris Watts
For more than 14 years, Chris has applied his business experience, knowledge of law, and negotiation skills to better his community through service to citizens on the Denton City Council as both mayor and a district representative. Chris is a graduate of Denton High School, the University of North Texas, and Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
Early years
Born in Arkansas, Chris has called Denton home almost continuously since age 1. The third of four brothers, he was reared mostly by his mother. Chris attended Newton Rayzor Elementary and Strickland Junior High School and was graduated from Denton High School in 1979.
Chris’ family experienced significant economic challenges during his childhood. At one point the family lived in a station wagon at a nearby lake. To help the family with living expenses and pay for college expenses, Chris worked at the Sonic Drive-In throughout high school and college, with a short stint working at McDonald’s. His mother’s perseverance and the benevolence of community members taught Watts never to stop working for good. He credits his drive and success to these early lessons.
In 1983, Chris was graduated cum laude from then-North Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in computer science and minor in business economics. He then worked for seven years as a computer programmer and analyst at Computer Language Research in Carrollton. During this time, Chris began investing in real estate.
Career changes and challenges
In 1989, Chris left computer programming to make real estate his full-time occupation. He established a real estate investment company and began building, buying and rehabilitating single- and multifamily properties.
In 1992, Chris completed a Master of Education degree in counseling and student services at the University of North Texas.
In 1997, Chris enrolled in Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, now Texas A&M University School of Law. Chris had long wanted to attend law school, but was unable to do so upon graduation in 1983 due to economic constraints. Completing law school allowed him to achieve an important personal goal while expanding his skill s
During his second year of law school, Chris was chosen for the school’s American Bar Association (ABA) student negotiation team; his team qualified for the ABA national competition. After graduation in 2000, Chris continued to coach negotiation teams as a volunteer.
Under his guidance, student negotiating teams advanced to the national competition seven times and won two national championships.
Representing children for CASA
In 1998, Chris began serving as a volunteer for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Denton County. In this capacity, he advocated for children from broken homes and made recommendations to the court about custody and other crucial matters. He soon was appointed to the CASA Board of Directors, where he served for seven years, including one term as president.
Providing Community Services via Serve Denton
Chris has served on the Board of Directors for Serve Denton for five years, including as President of the Board in 2025. Serve Denton is a nonprofit service center that offers services and below-market rental rates to other nonprofit organizations. These cost savings enable the organizations to allocate additional financial resources to serve our community.
Attorney
In 2000, at the age of 40, Chris completed his law degree, passed the bar exam, and was licensed by the State of Texas. Chris hung out his own shingle, specializing in real estate law, including consumer law and property tax issues, while continuing to manage his real estate portfolio. Today, however, he manages his portfolio almost exclusively.
District 4 representative, Denton City Council
Believing he could provide the leadership needed to resolve property maintenance issues that surfaced in 2006, Chris filed to run for the Denton City Council District 4 seat in 2007. He was re-elected in 2009 and 2011.
While a district Council member, Chris chaired two Council committees, the Committee on Property Maintenance and the Audit Finance Committee. In addition, he served on the Council Hotel Occupancy Tax Committee, Mobility Committee and Committee on the Environment. He also served as a Council representative on the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Advisory Committee, a division of the Denton Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor, Denton City Council
In 2014, Chris filed to run for mayor and was elected with 61% of the vote. He ran unopposed in 2016 and received 71% of the vote in 2018. Chris concluded his last term as mayor in December 2020. (Because of the pandemic, elections were pushed from May to November 2020, with a runoff for the mayor’s seat in December.)
Place 6 At-Large representative, Denton City Council
Chris served as the Place 6 representative from 2022-2024. He understood our affordable housing policies were not meeting the needs of our most vulnerable citizens experiencing housing insecurity. Chris proposed and got approved the creation of a Public Facility Corporation (PFC) to give the citizens of Denton a voice in affordable housing development projects to better meet the needs of those experiencing housing insecurity.
Texas Municipal Power Agency
During Chris’ tenure on Council, Denton, Bryan, Garland and Greenville, member cities of the Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA), collectively owned a coal-powered production facility in Grimes County, together with electric transmission assets.
In 2009, the Denton City Council appointed Chris to represent the City on the TMPA board. Chris quickly assumed leadership roles, first as Secretary, then as Vice-President. He was elected board President in 2012 and 2013, then continued to represent Denton on the TMPA board until 2021.
After Chris was elected board president, TMPA began considering closing its production facility. TMPA sold its production facility in 2021 and, today, continues to divest itself of assets beyond transmission system assets. To date, Denton has received proceeds from the sale of the TMPA plant and land.
Denton County Transportation Authority
As mayor, Chris advocated for prudent use of sales tax dollars to improve the efficiency and convenience of public transportation in Denton. The result was new state legislation that reconfigured the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) board to enable the agency to respond better to changing community needs. The board was reduced from 14 voting members to 5, with additional non-voting members. Chris was appointed to represent Denton on the board in 2019 and was named board chair in 2020.
In 2020, Chris led DCTA in adding GoZone, an innovative on-demand service, to public transportation options in Denton. Today, DCTA is moving more people than ever before. GoZone has provided the necessary data to allow DCTA to maximize its current bus routes and deploy GoZone to areas of our city that have not been served by public transportation.
Public, community service and recognitions
- 2020 Dr. Bettye Myers Humanitarian Award, United Way of Denton County
- U.S. Conference of Mayors, Energy Committee for Public Power, Vice Chair
- Denton County Homeless Leadership Team, Inaugural Chair
- Texas Homeless Network Outstanding Community Service Award
- Denton Community Health Clinic, Community Health Champion Award
- Health Services of North Texas, board member
- United Way Bank On Denton, committee member
- Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Denton County, Board Member of the Year
- Denton Kiwanis Club
- Serve Denton, board member, President of the Board (2025)
