April 11, 2021
Commissioner’s Court: Last week was the third meeting within a month in which Commissioner Cheryl Williams didn’t attend. If she’s too ill, her employers (aka we the people) need to know. Commissioners make a very good salary for what I can only assume is minimal work (given current commissioner performance), so the least they can do is show up. Any other job would put her on a Performance Improvement Plan. All we can do is vote her out, so please support the campaign of Scott Coleman who’s running against her in 2022.
Seven patriotic citizens showed up to demand justice for Martin Scott III who was killed in the Collin County Detention Facility in March. They insisted upon the arrests of the eight officers involved, the release of the video pertaining to his death, the resignation of Sheriff Skinner, and the discontinuation of spit hoods and the restraint procedures used on Mr. Scott. They also called for an increase in funding for mental health services, a lower cap on police budgets, and ending the practice of allowing the medical examiner to notify the family of a death via text (can you imagine the horror of that?).
One patriot insisted they follow the lead of Dallas and Plano Police Departments in no longer arresting anyone for having under 5 oz of marijuana. While this is a good start, legalizing marijuana statewide would be better. More than 40 bills have been filed this legislative session to reform marijuana laws — from medical use to decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of the drug for recreational use. This is exciting news! Please contact state leaders and let them know you support these bills.
One of the Guardians of Democracy pointed out that few people in Collin County can attend a 1:30 meeting on a Monday. Another noted that none of the commissioners were wearing masks; her berating of them was beautiful to behold. An eighth patriotic citizen castigated the commissioners for their poor performance. In addition to their lackluster vaccine roll-out, he mentioned that unemployment within the last two weeks is higher than it’s been since June 2020. Later in the meeting, both Fletcher and Hale tried to clap back at these comments. More people need to show up and highlight commissioner failings because it’s clearly getting under their skin. We can give them praise when it’s due as well but that won’t be often if at all.
McKinney City Council: Based on the comments and lack of council members’ masks (only Angela Richardson-Woods and Scott Elliot wore theirs), it’s clear they believe the Covid-19 threat is over. Both Rick Franklin and Frederick Frazier commented on being back to normal. That’s just stupid. With a 7-day average of 88 new cases in Collin County and only 31% of Texans having at least 1 dose of the vaccine, it’s painfully obvious we aren’t even close to being out of the woods with this disease. But most of the council members never fail to let an opportunity to be terrible pass them by.
Sadly, the two best council members – Elliot and Richardson-Woods – will be gone after the May election. They spent their comment time actually talking about community issues. Elliot asked people to attend the Empty Bowls fundraiser to help alleviate hunger and pleaded with us to be good neighbors. Richardson-Woods discussed racial injustices and mentioned educators and students still struggling with academics and STAAR test technology issues.
Contrast them with Frazier talking about people with “screwed up wires in the head somewhere” and lambasting the use of Facebook as “where cowards go to play.” Since Frazier himself is on Facebook quite a bit this seems hypocritical but I guess it’s different when he’s doing it. Or take Rainey Rogers (please!) who spent most of his time introducing the son of some guy. I’m unclear why this was important but perhaps it was his attempt to strengthen the good ole boy network. Rogers claimed this guy was doing stuff, “more than I can say about a lot of our candidates who are out there.” This was an exceedingly foolish statement as Rogers will have to work with the candidates who get elected. I sincerely hope they don’t let him forget it either.
It got worse though. When Elliot mentioned the guy’s getting married, the good ol’ boys guffawed about how he probably wouldn’t be able to come to meetings anymore or suggested he’d come more often. Charming. Taken in combination with Frazier’s thanking the “fire guys” for their work with the vaccine distribution and the message to women is clear: you’re not important.