Republicans “want to make it a crime to bring Grandma some water while she’s waiting in a line that they’re making longer” Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock 

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Collin College: The College continues to draw bad press, with several scathing articles about college leadership’s controversial decision to fire three professors over their utilization of the First Amendment and the right to organize. One of the articles led to a faculty member from New Jersey writing to Collin Judge Chris Hill, a man never afraid to broadcast his hypocrisy and ignorance. Instead of staying out of the situation (and not abusing his power), he took the Jeff Leach route and gave the terminations his full-throated support. I’m sure this had nothing to do with five members of the Board of Trustees, including Chair Bob Collins (who served as treasurer for Hill) being donors. They even helpfully listed their Collin College affiliation on his campaign page. Collin College faculty and students deserve better than these clowns.

Commissioner’s Court: Susan Fletcher summarized a meeting of the Conference of Urban Counties (CUC). There are some major legislative items we need to be watching. SB1is a general appropriations bill. The two biggest losers in this bill are Public Safety and Criminal Justice with a 1% decrease in allocation and Regulatory Functions with a 31.5% decrease (what a shock). Meanwhile, the big winner is Business and Economic Development, with a funding increase of 14.8%. The CUC was particularly upset about the criminal justice decrease since they already deal with a lot of unfunded mandates (e.g., holding state prisoners, mental health, healthcare when holding people over 200 days, extra security). They’re also worried because the grants coming from the governor’s office that usually fund Veterans Court, Drug Court, and Crimes Against Children will be half of what they usually are. It seems odd that a governor from the party of law and order doesn’t appear that interested in funding criminal justice programs.

There are other items of concern as well. HB2, a supplemental appropriations bill, is going to change significantly as the result of Winter Storm Uri. Preliminary estimates are that storm damages will be in the neighborhood of what Hurricane Harvey cost. Redistricting is also happening although it will be held up significantly due to delays in the census. This will affect the entire electoral timeline and could delay the primary next year as far as into July. A major bill we need to watch is HB3, the Texas Pandemic Response Act. It gives the governor broad-ranging authority in a pandemic, including the right to suspend certain laws, preempt local orders, and give the governor control over local employees. Interestingly, the bill is getting pushback from both the far left (ACLU) and the far-right (Texas Public Policy Foundation), so perhaps it won’t get very far. Given Greg Abbott’s penchant for statewide control, it sounds like a nightmare!

We also need to be watching for what’s known as Amendment Danger. The Legislature usually passes around 700 bills per session but, due to the pandemic and Uri, they’re looking at passing only 200 this year. As such, everyone’s trying to attach their legislative agendas (via amendments) to whatever bill they can. Tracking those will be difficult. Amendments are supposed to be germane to the bill being passed but, as you might guess, that often isn’t the case.

McKinney City Council: At the last meeting, there was an annual performance report from the Community Development Block Grant where they discussed how HUD money was being used for Housing Rehabilitation. However, residents we’ve spoken with have seen NONE of these programs. Despite being given over $1 million in HUD funding, residents were just told that grounds maintenance at their public housing should be done by the residents themselves because there’s no money for that otherwise. Administrative fees are a cushy $152,000+ and are supposed to cover these issues but they aren’t. Anyone know a good investigative journalist?

Plano City Council: With the recent water problems caused by Winter Storm Uri as well as our annual “chlorine burn,” water’s been on everyone’s mind. Council members heard a presentation on safe water. The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) does hundreds of tests daily that are compliant with the EPA and Texas Commission of Environmental Quality. Since Republicans don’t tend to be big on regulatory oversight or care much about the environment, this doesn’t inspire confidence. I attended a presentation in 2018 by Erin Brockovich on the safety our water. Let’s just say that the lady sitting next to me and I kept looking at each other in horror, especially regarding the chloramine that the NTMWD uses as a disinfectant for our water. Chloramine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or 4 parts per million (ppm) are considered safe in drinking water but the NTMWD website doesn’t state how much chloramine is in our water.

The Council also debated issues relating to leave for a firefighter who has been on worker’s comp for a while. Worker’s Comp in Texas is a huge mess with purposeful delays in getting people the help they need to heal. This is a system we definitely need to address because it’s miserable and ineffective. Plus, how horrible to have your leave and health benefits determined by elected officials. The continuing analysis of Uri was discussed. Many people were left to freeze since there weren’t government solutions available. Since Oncor couldn’t guarantee power and Plano has no back up power generators, the city couldn’t operate warming stations without significant risk. Consequently, all Plano warming stations were run by religious institutions like Grace Church and the Islamic Association of Collin County. This seems deeply problematic. We shouldn’t have to rely on religious organizations for services, especially since some of them (looking at you, Prestonwood Baptist) couldn’t be bothered to demonstrate a true helping spirit.

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The deadline for Running Blue is Saturday, April 10 at 5 p.m. (Texas Time!)

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The Frisco Democratic Club is excited to host candidates for Frisco City Council and Frisco ISD for an online forum livestreamed to the Club's Facebook Page.

Got questions for our candidates? Submit them here.

The Texas Legislature is currently in its 87th session. Have you wondered how you can effect real change during this brief time? Learn how to use and lift the power of your voice to lobby and advocate for a cause that you care about!

Our service project will be the Douglass Visions Committee, Inc. a non-profit community development organization that started in 1990 to assist and enhance the Douglass Community of Plano.

Join us before the meeting for a mixer from 6:45-7 p.m. so members can speak with candidates on the May 1 ballot.

For those who feel comfortable, Living Liberally and MADC are meeting OUTSIDE on the patio at Wing Bucket for a social get-together on March 19 from 6-8 p.m.. We will wear masks (when not eating/drinking) and social distance. Complimentary appetizers will be served, and a cash bar is available.

Wing Bucket is located at 3510 W University Drive in McKinney.

Please RSVP so that we can order enough food!

Join WOW Dems and co-hosts Denton Together and Black Women's PAC for a two-part virtual screening of "And She Could Be Next"

Register for each event at Mobilize in order to receive Zoom links for each time slot.

The CCDP physical office is closed until further notice for safety. Our office staff are, however, working for you from home and available by telephone at 972-578-1483 or contact us on the web at collindemocrats.org