Tag Archives: Princeton City Council

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Why not probe turnover at City Hall?

Carolyn David-Graves might, indeed, be onto something worthwhile in calling for an investigation into the embarrassing turnover at the top of the city’s municipal chain of command.

David-Graves serves on the Princeton City Council and she made the call for a probe at a recent council meeting. As a spectator to what has been going on at City Hall, I was left with one question to which I cannot find answer: Who is going to conduct such a probe, one that is thorough and gets to the truth behind the turnover?

I now shall review what we know.

City Manager Mike Mashburn resigned at the beginning of the year after spending less than two years on the job. Then the interim manager walked off the job suddenly. The fire chief resigned at about the same time. Then the city let its legal counsel go, citing a need to change law firms to represent the city’s interests. The public works director quit. Before he decided to quit, the city manager had fired several key personnel.

David-Graves must believe there is reason to investigate. Given that I am just a taxpaying resident who doesn’t know more than enough to make me dangerous, I am inclined to think she might have reason to seek some answers.

Back to the question: Who would conduct such a probe? The city attorney’s office couldn’t possibly do it. The office likely wouldn’t dare expose any wrongdoing among council members, if there’s any wrongdoing to expose. Princeton doesn’t appear to have an extensive legal community that has built enough distance between a legal team and the city. What about the Texas attorney general’s office? That’s a thought, yes? The current AG is running for another office, so he would be distracted, but he does have a staff of legal eagles capable of handling it.

The single issue that any investigative team would need to identify would be a common denominator. All those resignations must be related somehow to someone or a set of concerns that one could identify.

David-Graves reeled off the list of resignations, which also include three chief financial officers, two deputy city managers and the assistant city manager. “That’s a lot of turnover,” she said. Yeah, no kiddin’. The city might do well to look deeply into what’s wrong at City Hall.

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Data centers deserve close look

Well … the swirling controversy over data centers has entered my North Texas city of Princeton, where the city council is laying the groundwork to begin a series of regulatory measures to ensure the protection of the commnity.

It was a matter of time before we got caught up in the debate that has swallowed up a lot of cities’ attention.

Data centers are those projects that manufacture chips and other electronic power devices. I have read about how they demand lots of energy to produce and lots — and even more — water. I’m still unclear about the need for water, but I do know that this region of Texas is beginning to discuss openly the need to protect its source of fresh water to accommodate the population explosion that is still underway.

I live in a city that continues to grow in giant leaps. Princeton is now home to more than 40,000 people. That number is going to keep growing for the foreseeable future. Princeton’s council met this week in a marathon session; it took no action on any data center proposal, but it did agree to begin applying new rules to welcoming these projects here.

According to the Princeton Herald, the city decided to “move forward with non-zoning amendments and debated how quickly the city could begin the public hearing process.”

The centers have created concerns about noise pollution, visual impact, construction traffic, utlity demands and limited job creation.

The idea of looking strategically ahead seems to be new to Princeton, which didn’t seem to think too much about community impact when it allowed residential and apartment construction to run ahead of the city’s ability to provide service to the new residents. The city imposed a months-long moratorium on new residential development with the hope of allowing infrastructure to catch up.

I am glad to see the city looking ahead to study the impact of data centers. What I’ve read is that the produce a mixed-up of positive and negative impacts. Let’s keep our eyes and ears wide open as we move ahead.

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‘Excited and engaged’ voters? Really?

Jaisen Rutledge wants to serve on the Princeton City Council and he seems to think that a sweet-talk campaign is his ticket to City Hall.

Rutledge, a longtime Princeton resident, joined Jan Goria in a candidate forum on May 30, hosted by the League of Women Voters.

I was struck by something Rutledge said about the nature of the constituency he hopes to represent when the runoff election takes place on Saturday. Moderator Aaron Rodriguez of the LWV asked the candidates for their views on how they would describe Princeton to a newbie looking to move here.

Rutledge said this: “Princeton is a fast-growing city that still has a small-town charm to it,” he said. “I believe … it has done a really good job of retaining a lot of its culture and I think … there’s a lot of extremely excited and engaged residents that live here.”

Wow! That’s pretty darn nice of the candidate for Place 4 on the council to say. But wait a second. Let’s take a little deeper dive into one aspect of residents’ engagement in municipal policy. Rutledge and Goria finished No. 1 and 2 in the May 2 race to succeed former Councilman Ryan Gerfers, who resigned because of health concerns. The race was for all Princeton voters. The city has nearly 19,000 registered voters living here.

How many of them turned out May 2? 476, that’s how many! That figure amounts to 2.52%.

When I see numbers like that — I only can surmise that a relatively small number of votes is aware of the chaos that lurks at City Hall. We’re on a third city manager in less than four years; our fire chief is gone; we have a new city attorney; the public works director has vamoosed; the city is trying to find a permanent replacement for the manager who walked off his job in less than two years; the police chief is now doing double duty as acting city manager and as Princeton’s top cop.

All that being said, Princeton is not populated by an “excited and engaged” group of residents. I consider many of my fellow Princeton residents to be victims of that double curse of apathy and ignorance about what’s going on at City Hall.

The place is a mess.

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Here’s why open search is vital

I want to restate my desire for the Princeton City Council to conduct an open, transparent and accountable search for a new city manager.

Now I also intend to tell you why I think it is vital.

Mike Mashburn resigned as city manager after serving a little less than two years. He was out of his element running a city in the midst of a growth explosion such as Princeton. Now he’s gone and will pursue his future elsewhere. I wish him good luck.

Now the council is embarking on a search for a new chief administrator. Why is it vital for the council to do it the right way this time? It is because the city manager is going to make a healthy six-figure salary running a city on the move. As manager he or she will be answerable to more than 40,000 residents. They will call on him or her to ensure the city can solve all manner of issues.

Potholes in the street? Spotty lighting on some of the city’s darker streets? Ensuring the garbage gets picked up? Riding herd on the police department if a spike in crime occurs? Ensuring firefighters respond quickly to emergencies? Helping resolve violations of city ordinances?

The council makes precisely one hiring decision. It is the city manager. The manager then hires department heads who run the various publicly funded departments to take care of the issues I have just lined out … understanding that I have left other issues off my list.

Mashburn got the council’s nod on the very night council members met him for the first time. Brianna Chacon was mayor in January 2024. She interviewed Mashburn and decided all by herself that he was the one for the job. She introduced the designated manager to the council, which in my view then foolishly voted to hire him on the spot.

No one on the council seemingly thought that Mashburn was being foisted on the city. They could not possibly have asked any sort of difficult questions while meeting initially with him that night in executive session.

The next city manager must endure a thorough vetting by the council, by relevant department heads and most importantly by the public this individual will serve. We all need a voice in making this critical decision. The concept of good government requires it.

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Let’s get this one right

Well, kids … the Mike Mashburn era at Princeton City Hall has come to an end with the resignation of the city manager after being on the job for just shy of two years.

The search now is on for the next chief municipal administrator. I am going to use this blog to insist loudly and clearly that the City Council must conduct the search in the open and avoid the underhanded appearance associated with Mashburn’s hiring. The council makes one hiring decision. It is the man or woman who will implement council policy. They had better get this next one right.

Mashburn came to Princeton from Farmers Branch, where he served as an assistant manager; his field of expertise is in parks and recreation, and I presume he carried out his duties well in Farmers Branch. However, he seemed to lack any general municipal administrative experience.

I happened to be present at the City Council meeting when the council met Mashburn for the first time, went into executive session and then returned to open session to hire him. The vote was unanimous. Frankly, it was an astonishing turn of events. Then-Mayor Brianna Chacon had met with Mashburn privately before presenting him to the council. She contended it was all done with full transparency. My view? No … it wasn’t.

Here’s an idea for the council to consider as it starts to collect data on prospective city manager candidates. Why not follow the lead of other cities and pare the list down to, oh, three or four finalists? Then the council can invite the finalists to Princeton to meet the public and also to visit at length with each of them to assess their respective strengths and/or look for possible weaknesses.

Fort Worth did something like that when it chose its current police chief. It settled on former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, but only after showing the public all of the finalists.

The Princeton city manager is going to make something in excess of a quarter-million bucks. He or she will inherit a job in a city that is in the midst of a growth explosion. We all have a stake in the quality of the person chosen for this job. It shouldn’t fall on one person to make that call all alone.

City officials moved into our new municipal center a while back pledging to conduct business in the open and in full public view. Let’s ensure the next city manager gets chosen in a manner that keeps that promise.

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Complex defies logic

Suppose someone had placed a loaded pistol to my noggin, cocked the hammer and told me to predict the future of a long-abandoned 360-unit partially built apartment complex in Princeton, Texas.

I would have said, under duress, that it would be knocked down, the rubble scraped up and the site turned iinto a park.

Silly me. The City Council instead decided to give the developer some grace and told him to finish the job.

So, the Princeton Luxury Apartment complex is being built again on U.S. Highway 380 just east of the Wal-Mart store.

Let me be clear. I still question the wisdom of granting the permit years ago to proceed with this complex, given the growth occurring in Princeton and the incredible strain on traffic that this complex is going to bring to an already-stressed traffic thoroughfare. I heard about the pending project immediately after my wife and I moved to Princeton. My first reaction was muted, but then I grew to wonder: What was the City Council thinking?

The contractor and the developer got into a snit about three years ago. The contractor walked off the job, leaving it about 30%-ish complete. It sat there vacant, only turning into more of an eyesore with each passing season of inclement weather.

Then, something of a miracle happened. The developer was able to find a contractor to finish the task. Three buildings, though, were knocked down because they were beyond redemption.

The site, though, is humming once again with construction through the winter wind chills.

I’ve noted already that a city’s progress occasionally brings some pain along the way. Princeton is one such city that is a work in progress. Its populaton far exceeds the 17,027 Census figure on the signs entering Princeton. City Council has enacted a building ban on residential developments at least until this summer.

The apartment complex in question is going to open about the time work begins to widen U.S. 380, turning the highway into the last place on Earth you want to be during morning and evening rush hours.

Princeton’s progress is proceeding. I only hope now that the apartment complex, once it’s finished, will add another jewel to the growing city’s crown.

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Princeton does the inevitable

Princeton’s City Council had no choice but to do what it did Monday night by extending the building moratorium it had placed on new single-family dwelling and apartment construction.

It voted to extend its four-month building ban another six months.

So, let’s see. That means it will be 10 months before the city could start issuing building permits on those types of dwellings. This is just me, but my gut tells me another extension could be in the deck of cards that council members would want to play.

Princeton’s population continues to explode, But ,.. wait! The city needs more police officers, more firefighters, more medical emergency personnel, better streets, more electric utilities, more natural gas lines.

Moreover, the city needs much more commercial development, which isn’t part of the public financing obligation associated with infrastructure development. That commercial development is on the verge of become a reality.

A Princeton resident told CBS News Texas Channel 11 last night that folks here have to go to places such as McKinney and Allen for entertainment or to just purchase needed goods and commodities.

Princeton has developed an ocean of single-family rooftops. That’s fine, but the strain on new residents’ tax obligation is more than many of the newbies would care to absorb.

The city has some catching-up to do and I’m not sure six months extra time is enough.

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Progress comes with price

Progress, I am learning in real time, almost always comes with a price.

That price is particularly evident in fast-growing communities such as the one where I have lived for the past nearly six years.

Princeton is a city on the move. The city council recently enacted a building moratorium on new home construction. It’s a four-month ban that likely will need to be extended. The council’s decision was based on lack of infrastructure to accommodate the thousands of new residents who have moved here since the 2020 Census.

Get this: The 2020 Census pegged Princeton’s population at 17,027. This year, the population is estimated to be more than 28,000 residents. It continues to skyrocket.

The needs greater water capacity, more emergency services personnel — such as police officers and firefighters. Princeton won’t get all that done in four months.

In addition, Collin County recently closed County Road 398 just south of my house all the way to FM 546. CR 398 has been serving as an alternate route to take motorists off of U.S. Highway 380, the main drag that runs through a number of Collin County cities. My GPS system does guide me a bit farther south to CR 447, which then loops around to pick up FM 546. CR 398 needs lots of work, as it is full of dips and crevices for the mile between Beauchamp Boulevard and FM 546.

Oh, one more thing. The Texas Department of Transportation has finalized the findings of the environmental impact study it has conducted that precedes a major highway development project designed to bypass traffic around Princeton and other cities along U.S. 380. I might not live long enough to see that project finished, but it’s going to be huge.

Yes, we are paying the progress of being such a desirable place for folks to live, to work and to raise families. I welcome them.

But the price we’re all paying is going to become a major pain in the rear … until it gets finished.

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Monstrosity on its way down!

All the yammering around Princeton regarding that 300-unit apartment complex that has gone to serious seed must have been heard by those who needed to hear it.

I just noticed crews at work taking down several of the buildings. And this is in advance of a public meeting set for this evening at Princeton Municipal Complex to discuss the future of the site.

It looks to me as if its future might have been decided. The demolition underway involves the razing of three structures deemed damaged beyond repair. There’s too much mold and water damage to the buildings to save them. So … they’re coming down!

The City Council is meeting as the city’s Housing Standards Authority. It will discuss the various — and numerous — code violations that render the site unworkable.

I am one of many Princeton residents who is delighted to see the work commence to rid the city of this monumental eyesore created when the contractor walked off the job after getting into a snit with the developer.

We’ll just have to stand by while the work continues and see what in the name of civic improvement occurs with the site on US 380.

Keep pounding away, fellas.

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Meeting set once again

I had reported on this blog my intention to comment on a special Princeton City Council meeting called to discuss the fate of that construction eyesore next to Wal Mart on US Highway 380.

Then the council postponed the meeting. It will meet this Thursday at 5 p.m. acting as the Princeton Housing Standards Authority. Now, they tell me, there will be a hearing to decide the fate of the abandoned, partially built, rotting luxury apartment complex that appears to be going nowhere in a hurry.

The general contractor got into a beef with the developer and walked off the job in the spring of 2023. My guess is that it’s about 40% finished. Will it cross the finish line? My gut along with my ol’ trick knee tell me “no.”

I intend to be present for this rescheduled hearing on Thursday. I don’t yet know whether the council make a decision that night. I asked Mayor Brianna Chacon whether there will be a decision; I haven’t received an answer.

I want to see some leadership on this matter rise to the occasion.

Let’s get rid of that eyesore.