Elected officials care about two things: advancing their vision for the Town and getting reelected —and not necessarily in that order. We have a lot of mistaken ideas about our elected leaders in this Town as well as those who would like to be elected. It’s time we come to understand that they aren’t ignorant as to what the majority of residents in our Town want and we must realize that everything they do is, in fact, intentional.
When you vote for a member of Town Council or The Mayor, you are voting for that person’s political agenda and their beliefs as to how our Town should be run. You are not voting for the individual you may know, admire and respect from your place of worship, your volunteer organization, your kid’s school or activities or your social circles. Therefore most of these elected officials are not going to listen to your concerns about a project or development when the time comes if what you want does not align with their own vision for our Town. They aren’t going to vote against their own beliefs.
Only a tremendous effort on the part of a large group of residents to organize, set up informational meetings, create Facebook groups, email elected officials with their concerns, circulate petitions, block walk to educate neighbors, pay for and distribute flyers and yard signs and march to Town Hall en masse will change this fundamental fact, because only then will our elected officials start to think that their decisions, their votes, may hurt their chances of getting reelected.
When we finally understand this, our course of action becomes clear. The only way to get a different result from our Town Councilmembers and to put an end to the enormous amount of time, effort and expense that the residents of Flower Mound have to go through every time a new major development or project comes forward that is going to have a negative impact on our quality of life, safety and home values, is to elect different people. People who have the same vision and belief system that we have for the Town of Flower Mound. We will never convince elected officials to change their beliefs. We must change the elected officials. It’s the only way. Let’s stop wasting so much time and effort trying to persuade people like our current Councilmember who referred to us publically as the vocal minority.
Next time we march, let’s march our butts to the polls and hold our elected officials accountable. That’s the only place where you can truly affect change.
Early Voting begins Apr 23rd and ends on May 1st.
ELECTION DAY is Saturday, May 5th
Kris Thompson
(25 year resident and admin of the StopMorriss6 and Grow Slow Flo Mo Facebook groups)
Flower Mound, TX
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