Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Flower Mound Cares Petition Drive denied motion to put petition initiative on May 8th ballot

Last night at the Flower Mound Town Council Meeting, Ginger Simonson, co-founder of the Flower Mound Cares Petition Drive asked the Town Council to make a motion to put the petition initiative on the May 8th ballot. The initiative calls for a 180 day moratorium for any acceptance and processing of a SUP (special use permit) for Centralized Collection Facilities, pipelines, gas gathering and compression stations. Ms. Simonson stated by putting it on the May 8th ballot, the town would save the cost of special election. The petition has passed the 5% signature threshold required in the Town Charter to submit for a vote of the people. The Flower Mound Cares petition has over 50% of the signatures needed to call for a special election.

FMCPD offered to turn the petition into the town this morning so they could verify the signatures. The town charter states that the town secretary has "up" to 10 days to complete verification of signatures.


Click here to watch the Public Participation portion of the video from the Town Council Meeting, it starts at 9:20 into the video.

During the
Coordination of Calendars section Mayor Smith, Council Members Wallace and Levenick were not in favor of the special meeting to discuss the petition because they knew nothing about it. Which simply is not true. During public participation at a previous meeting, members of the Flower Mound Cares Petition Drive spoke about the petition.

Click here to see the minutes from that meeting.

They mentioned the petition would put a burden on the Secretary and staff to verify the signatures on the petition in 4 days to meet the 72 hours needed for posting the meeting to the public.

Mayor Smith said she would not show up if they called a special meeting for the petition initiative. Stating that "they" (assuming she means the town council) are being played by political games. Calling it a "slippery eel". Stating the "they"will not be held hostage every time the residents have a petition drive and cannot get the signatures they feel are necessary. Mayor Smith went on to say if she had more information and knew more about the petition, she would be in favor of a special election.

Mayor Smith made a comment that Council Member Hayden knew quite a bit about this petition. Anyone would have to be living under a rock or not drive the main thoroughfares of Flower Mound not to know a petition is out there. According to Whosplayin, Mayor Smith was aware of the petition and did discuss it with LISD. Read a paragraph from a conservation between Carol Dyer and Whosplayin.

We did reach LISD Board President Carol Kyer (of Flower Mound) this afternoon, and she elaborated on the contact with Mayor Smith. Kyer says she sees Smith all the time at various community and Chamber of Commerce events in Flower Mound. Kyer said that Smith had mentioned the petition drive to her and had inquired about it, but that it was not a matter of Smith pressuring for the district to disallow the group.

There will be more signing events this coming weekend. Keep watching for information on where and when.

SIGN THE PETITION, STAND UP AND LET THE PEOPLE OF FLOWER MOUND (NOT THE GAS DRILLING COMPANIES) DECIDE HOW GAS DRILLING WILL BE DONE IN OUR TOWN!

See the below post about "The Recipe for Successful Drilling".

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Levenick wanted everybody to know that she was fiscally responsible at last night's meeting regarding the petition drive. Wonder if she and Smith reimbursed the town for expenses incurred during the Hineygate investigation.

Probably not or they would have whipped us with self gratifying accolades.

TXsharon said...

Wow!

Anonymous said...

Ironically, this motion was requested at a meeting to grant the permission for a land swap to be put on the May 8th ballot. This land swap didn't have a petition with signatures on it either.
Just some greasy palms you can be sure of that.

Anonymous said...

Levenick will soon be history, just like Webb. Don't waste your energy.

Anonymous said...

You people seem to forget that the Shiloh Area has 3000 plus leases, they are a force to be reckoned with. I think groups like that are called "the silent MAJORITY"

Anonymous said...

By "silent", do you mean the ones calling us "commie socialist leftest liberal enviro-wackjobs"?
Of which I might add, none are. Or are you saying that the 1,500 that voted for "your" candidates last year are ALL from the Shiloh area and half didn't vote? Or let me guess, the other 67,000 that DIDN'T vote at all are also yours too, right?

Anonymous said...

Mayor Smith's son attended a petition drive signing event in Wellinton to shout insults and heckle petition signers and volunteers. Sooo...if Mom knew nothing about the FM Cares petition, that is one highly informed & passionate teen. I'll bet he reads the local paper every morning before school.

Mayor Smith was also seen waving to volunteers as she passed a FMCares signing location this weekend. Those volunteers were waving signs about the petition. She must have missed that.

Anonymous said...

Just how every well-behaved Christian young man should act.
:-/

Will Evans said...

Double Oak needs to get a petition going asap. Can some one help us out? I would like to review FM's petition. Thanks

Will
info@doubleoaksayno.com