Plano City Council Recap - May 27, 2025
Posted by ShelbyHWilliams@reddit | plano | View on Reddit | 9 comments
Plano City Council Recap - May 27, 2025
The big items at this meeting were the city's purchase of Davis Elementary and Forman Elementary from Plano Independent School District.
* Appointment of Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem
* Comprehensive Monthly Financial Report
* Code Adoption Process
* General Government and Technology Compensation
* Night Construction on Roads
* Certificate of Appreciation for Sam Johnson
* Sewage Rates for New Homeowners
* Tire Correction
* Purchase of Davis and Forman Elementary Schools
Texan-Redditor@reddit
DART killer.
ShelbyHWilliams@reddit (OP)
Correction: I tried to reform DART from a 40+ year old failing model to one that other cities actually want to join.
dukejcdc@reddit
"This necessary service isn't doing very well, we should gut it" is a horrendous strategy. Plano citizens board DART ~1.6 million times in a year(and more each year since the pandemic), and that's not even looking at folks arriving in Plano from elsewhere. Practically the whole East side of town is being configured around the DART rail stations and yet you think we aren't getting our fair share out of it?
Our investment isn't just the expectation for DART to spend that much within our city, it's access for folks elsewhere in the network to get here. And the fact that bus routes are constantly having to move/cancel because of all of our road construction, they probably can't navigate through half the major roads at any one point. Thinking every dollar we spend needs to be a dollar spent back directly from DART is a basic and poor understanding of how that investment works.
BusPilledTrainMaxx0r@reddit
The bill you supported would have made DART a significantly worse system that no one would have wanted to join either.
Funding model needs to change and adapt, yes, but a 25% gut to the budget would have made the service unusable and unable to expand.
Throughout the entire process Plano representatives like you were uneducated about ridership trends and the actual use of the system. One of Plano's board members was an Uber Lobbyist, and his replacement cried foul over an empty bus that wasn't even in service to PBS. He should know which routes run through his city and the fact that sometimes busses need to, ya know, get to their service point from a shop/depot to actually begin to provide service.
I hope the new city leadership will work with the COG and DART to provide a funding model that maintains service levels and provides an on ramp to new cities. Plano's looming budget crisis should not be the rest of the region's problem.
In the meantime, read Human Transit or something and get educated before you try to come for our public services again.
Texan-Redditor@reddit
Except it wasn't failing. DARTs funding model prevented a funding crisis like that of SEPTA, as well as MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority). the reason cities didn't want to join us not because of an "outdated" funding model (that is not outdated), it's because the legislature caps cities at a 2% sales tax rate, and DART currently adds up to half of that. Saying that zero cities joined dart is also incorrect. Buckingham voted to join DART (and it later got absorbed into Richardson).
You didn't try to reform, you tried to kill the agency. Not only that, you're forcing cities that want to pay into DART to cut their contributions if they don't want to. That's not "Small Government Conservative" to me.
Poor_Bid7619@reddit
You aren't on the city council anymore. Why are you doing this?
ShelbyHWilliams@reddit (OP)
Because 1) it's still important to me to allow the public to be easily informed on city council matters, 2) I'm still extremely knowledgeable about council matters, 3) numerous people have told me they watch and appreciate my recaps, and 4) I promised to. Anyone is free to watch or not watch.
sienrfsh@reddit
MAGAT
AmbassadorOfSphinx@reddit
Go lick billionaire boot, Shelby.