There is a saying that has unfortunately become a wise admonition over the years as our society more and more comes to consider multinational corporations as "people":  BUYER BEWARE.  Don't count on folks to tell the whole truth because they don't always do that any more.

 

I would like to make a similar admonition to the voters in my community of Garland.

 

1.  First of all this year we will be having a special election to finish the term of Mayor Athas who has resigned.  We have three to choose from.  I'm hoping to soon get yard signs from all three and put in my yard.  No, I won't tell you who I'm voting for--that's none of your business.  I want to encourage more voters in my community to get out and vote for the candidate of their choice. I want them to know that we are voting for a mayor.  The more people who vote, the better off we all are.  I believe that because I believe in our system and it can only work if we vote and exercise our rights.

 

 

2. Second of all we have a most peculiar situation in second district city council race. There will be two names on the ballot for 2nd district council representative.  One is a person on the ballot who withdrew his name from the race too late for it to be removed.  Thus his name will be there and people can check it.  If he gets more votes than the woman candidate on the ballot, he wins, in spite of the fact that he has done no campaigning and he had not been thoroughly vetted by the people through the campaign process.   If this happens, he can either serve as council member or he can refuse in which case the current city council member for second district can serve another year--in spite of the fact that this May is the end of her six year term limit.

 

3.  All of our other City Council members running for re-election are running unopposed which is unfortunate in terms of the health of our systems.  (As far as I'm concerned the Candidate for 2nd district definitely has an opponent--albeit it somewhat of a shadow.)

4.  The fourth thing about our upcoming election that I find disturbing is that our current City Council is proposing no less than 36 changes to our City Charter and I would bet that only a handful of citizens are even aware of this. Also this is where my " voter be aware" campaign comes in:  All Garland voters should make an effort to find out what these changes are BEFORE you step into that voting booth.  The City Charter is a guiding document for our city.  It can be compared to the bylaws of an organization.  Please pass this information on to friends you may have in Garland, Texas.  Thank you.  Informed voters are good for all of us, good for our city and good for our country.

Members of the Garland City Council are proposing no less than 36 changes to our City Charter.