ER Nurse and Executive Naushad Kermally Seeks Sugar Land City Council Position in a Runoff
BY POOJA SALHOTRA
SUGAR LAND: Since settling in Sugar Land 23 years ago, Naushad Kermally has done everything he could to learn about the community, from graduating from the Sugar Land 101 program, to serving on the city’s Ethics Review Board. All the while, he’s been working a full-time as the Executive Vice President of a mobile technology company and raising three kids. Now, he hopes to serve the city as councilman for District 2.
“I’ve done a lot of things to help set myself up for today,” Kermally said. “I love to serve. This is a non-paid position, there’s no glory in it. But I want to be able to be the ear for the citizen and then be the mouth for them in City Hall.”
Kermally began his career as a Trauma and Critical Care nurse at Ben Taub Hospital, and he transitioned to Sugar Land’s Methodist Hospital in 1997. Kermally maintains his nurse license today even though he now works in the technology sector.
Kermally first announced his candidacy for City Council in February, and he faced off against candidates Nabila Mansoor and David Gomet for the position earlier this month. Kermally led the polls, taking 39.16% of the 4,173 ballots cast. Mansoor came in close behind with 34.22% of the votes. Because no candidate received a majority of votes, Kermally and Mansoor face-off again in a runoff, with early voting starting next week and election day happening on Saturday, June 8.
Typically, runoff elections draw fewer voters than the first round of elections. With this in mind, Kermally and Mansoor will need to focus on getting voters out the second time around.
Kermally said he was pleased with turnout in the first round — about 22 percent of the district came out to vote — and he and his campaign team are spending the days leading up to the runoff by continuing to knock on doors and form new relationships.
“I have a great team of friends and volunteers who are out and about all day,” he said. “My wife and kids help too. It’s non-stop.” During his campaign, Kermally has emphasized public safety as a primary focus, committing to help ensure that crime rates continue to decrease in the city.
“We have a beautiful city,” he said. “When I go door to door and I listen to people, they just want to make sure we have a safe community. Year over year we have less crime happening, so we are doing well. I want to make sure the citizens continue to feel safe.”
Kermally’s campaign itself dealt with some criminal activity, when, for several days in a row, more than 50 yard signs installed in the Telfair neighborhood were mysteriously stolen. Kermally said the stealing finally ended after he posted about the issue on social media, and media outlets reached out to him in order to run a story.
“We’ve had lots of little challenges, but we’ve moved on from there,” he said.