Some of you have recently received an unsolicited email from the small group of angry long-time city insiders who lost their decade-plus political hold on our city this past spring. As a reminder, the May city council slate election was the largest by far in the history of Colleyville with an overwhelming margin of victory – 62% to 38% – in every single race. It was a clear message from you that our long-term incumbent politicians had over-reached, become insulated and deaf to its citizens, and were in the back pocket of the real estate development community. This is precisely what happens when too few people hold too much political power for too long in a small town. And you resoundingly said, “enough”.

The long-time insiders have been grumbling ever since, and are now desperately fishing for red herrings simply to try and score political points. They are failing wildly, and of course none of their selfish efforts have a thing to do with what’s right and good for Colleyville and our residents. It’s strictly about their personal loss of power, influence and control over city hall. The very thing you went to the polls in droves to see an end to.

So now the new council is delivering on campaign promises to end the cronyism once and for all with a collection of transparency and ethics reforms that YOU will vote on to help restore permanent integrity to city hall. These reforms include term limits for city council similar to those in Southlake and other neighboring communities, and financial transparency/conflict of interest disclosures for elected officials and senior city staff. We also want the right for your elected officials – not staff bureaucrats – to approve critical community hires like Police Chief, Fire Chief, finance director and other senior staff roles.

All of these reforms are explicitly designed to put Colleyville government back in the hands of Colleyville residents and taxpayers. They represent a philosophical shift from a government-centric Colleyville to a resident/taxpayer-centric one. They will permanently end the closed system of government that so many of you worked so hard to open this past spring. They will prevent corruption, financial conflicts of interests, and allow voters to clearly understand who is representing them, why and if their actions or votes on critical policy decisions benefit them personally.

The only people that will be opposed to these reforms are people who fear a permanent loss of power and influence, or whom potentially stand to lose financially in a Colleyville where the sunlight of transparency shines 24 hours a day. For certain, the last remaining long-time insider holdouts are going to kick and scream like petulant children right up to Election Day in November, and employ their standard tactics of lying and trying to confuse you. You caught up to their games this spring, and I’m confident that thinking people will see it through again. Let’s finish the job we all started this November and fully restore integrity to our local government once and for all.
Vote YES to all five government reform charter amendments this November and in early voting. YES Colleyville!