I will have to miss tonight’s Grapevine City Council meeting for a meeting held only quarterly, just as you might miss a council meeting for your child’s soccer game, working late at the office or just taking care of your family.

It’s a shame that the City Council won’t video record its open meetings like all our neighboring councils do. We are told the audio recordings should suffice. I think I can recognize each council member by their voice. Can you? How does that suffice? Audio recordings are a 20th Century solution that don’t stand up to 21st Century transparency responsibilities. 

Making video recordings of public meetings isn’t expensive or cumbersome for any neighboring city and it wouldn’t be for Grapevine. Let’s keep working together for the accountable Grapevine we deserve. 

My yard signs can be reused or recycled — but they certainly don’t belong in a landfill. I’ll have volunteers picking up signs, but if you can drop them off, please do so:

North Grapevine: 1570 Dublin Circle
South Grapevine: 1801 Rolling Ridge 

Well, the results are in, and we came up a little short. But I’m so proud of all we were able to accomplish in such a short period of time.

When I began this race a little more than two months ago, people said to me, ‘Why are you taking on a 15-year incumbent?’ More than a few even asked (with a straight face) if I was crazy.

The truth is conventional wisdom says challenging an incumbent is something that is just not done. Not in Fort Worth and certainly not in Grapevine.

But I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, and I got into this race because I believed in my bones that we could do better on important issue after important issue. And you know what?: That’s what I heard from so many of you, too.

My opponents threw everything they could at at me and I’m still standing. I stuck to the issues and never campaigned on personalities. And the issues mattered — my numbers show it.

We didn’t win, but we did change the face of Grapevine city politics by achieving the highest total ever received by a challenger in a Grapevine city race in recent memory. In doing so, we made clear that our city’s priorities must change.

I’m not going anywhere and I hope you don’t either. Stay involved, and we will change Grapevine. 

Thank you again to all those who have poured their hearts and souls into my campaign. I am honored and humbled by your support. There are many parts of a campaign that are not fun (filling out reports, getting the occasional heckle). But one of the real joys has been getting to know so many people better and the chance to make so many new friends. Thank you again.

Keep in touch with me here: info@kathleenforcouncil.com

Come vote!

It’s Election Day and I’d be honored to have your vote.

Voting is ONLY at the Community Activities Center, 1175 Municipal Way, from 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Please join us this evening for our elections return party at Lazy Bones, 120 E. Worth Street. We’ll be there after polls close. 

I began my campaign almost two months ago with a simple premise:  That our city government needed to be a better steward of our hard-earned tax dollars and that we needed a strong voice for families and neighborhoods on the Grapevine city council.

As the campaign draws to a close, my promise to you is that:

I’ll fight to make sure we spend taxpayer’s money wisely.

•  I’ll fight to end the insidious practice of paying council members $62,000 a year in expense reimbursements without requiring that they document how they spend the money. Council members in Colleyville, Southlake, and every other city in our region only get reimbursed for actual expenses, and it’s high time Grapevine joined their ranks. With 21st century technology, this couldn’t be easier. Until this becomes the law, I’ll turn down the city’s reimbursement checks and voluntarily post all my reimbursable expenses (with supporting receipts) on my website.
• I’ll spearhead a much-needed review of council member benefits. Council members shouldn’t be getting more generous taxpayer subsidized benefits than the police and fire fighters who keep our families safe.
• Neighborhoods will be my priority. I’m tired of watching children walk to school along open drainage ditches and having library hours cut. In an era of tight budgets, we need to put our children and our neighborhoods first.
• I’ll work to strengthen the city’s partnership with GCISD- something especially important in an age of school funding cuts.

I’ll work to make Grapevine government more transparent and open to the citizens who pay for it.  All of them.

• I’ll introduce a resolution each week until it passes to record Grapevine city council meetings and make them available online. All of our neighboring cities do this. It’s time that we made what happens at city hall accessible to more than those whose schedules let them be at city hall on a Tuesday night.
•  I’ll work to make all city policies and key documents available online. You shouldn’t have to file an open records request like you do today to get basic information about how the city operates and how your tax dollars are being spent.
• I’ll appoint a broad-based citizens advisory council to advise me on appointments to city boards and commissions. In filling these posts, it’s important that we draw on the wisdom of leaders from the faith community, PTA moms, and a broad range of civic and community leaders. 
• I’ll push for term limits for council members. George Washington and the Founders of our country wisely recognized that even the best leaders shouldn’t serve forever because there is an arrogance that comes with prolonged power. In a town with as much talent as Grapevine, it’s important that we make sure we get the benefit of fresh blood and fresh ideas from time to time.

I’ll remember I work for you. 

• I’ll voluntarily document every penny I get from the city and put it online.
• I’ll hold weekly ‘Coffees with Kathleen’ on Main Street with set times where you’ll know you can find me to talk about a concern or just to say hello.
• I’ll post my official schedule online and make sure it’s easily available through city hall. You shouldn’t have to guess where I’ll be. 
• I’ll answer every email and return every phone call. The days of waiting around for your council member to return a call or answer an email will be over.

Last evening, my husband, Jeremy, spoke to a voter who a short while ago had received a call from the Roy Stewart campaign urging her to vote against me because I am a mom and wouldn’t have the time. Really? This from a man who claims he’s too busy to itemize expenses to show how he’s spending OUR money?

First, on behalf of moms everywhere, I think it’s pretty irrefutable that if anyone can take on a high stress situation, it’s a mom. Here’s a lesson for Roy Stewart: we can tame a toddler, we can take on the Grapevine City Council. And we’ll do it with the passion of someone who is tired of watching our children walk to school along open drainage ditches because the city council claims that doesn’t have the money to build sidewalks (despite council members giving themselves some of the most generous taxpayer subsidized health benefits in the region and awarding themselves nearly $62,000 a year in so-called ‘expense reimbursements’ for which no receipt is required).

For Mr. Stewart’s supporters to say that a mom doesn’t have the stamina and energy to serve on the city council is as wrong as it would be for me to campaign against him on the basis that he is 80 and apparently too stressed to account for how he’s spending taxpayer money.

Mr. Stewart’s position also is insulting to my mother, who was told by her university adviser to forget her doctorate and stay home with her children. My mother ignored that terrible advice and is a veterinarian locally and a member of Christian Veterinary Mission, which sends veterinarians around the world to aid villagers and beginning veterinary colleges. 

It’s time for Mr. Stewart and his supporters to talk straight with Grapevine voters about the real issues that voters are concerned about- like why we trail all our neighbor cities on things like requiring receipts for reimbursements and why we give our council members more generous health benefits than the police and firefighters who keep our families safe (something none of our neighbor cities do).

Unfortunately, it’s become increasingly apparent Mr. Stewart has no good answer to those issues and so he chooses to make this campaign about side issues and personal attacks. Grapevine voters deserve better, and, fortunately, this year they have a clear choice.

Election Day is this Saturday, May 14, and will be available only at the Grapevine Community Activities Center on Municipal Way, next to the library (this is unlike primary and general elections where voting is at many locations across the city). Voting is from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. 

This afternoon, it came to my attention that Grapevine Councilman Mike Lease is sending around a text message stating a man, who I met for the first time at a candidate forum and who recently contributed $25 to my campaign, is a registered sex offender because of a crime he committed 24 years ago. In light of this information, of which I was not aware, I am returning his donation.

Needless to say, Councilman Lease, who is a supporter of my opponent, Mr. Stewart, did not attempt to discuss this matter with me beforehand but chose instead make a political issue of it to impugn my character. Given that my campaign has raised over $11,000 from citizens across Grapevine, his statements about the small donation are misleading and disingenuous. This is deeply disappointing behavior by one of our elected officials, but unfortunately typical of the style of Mr. Stewart’s supporters, who have chosen throughout to focus on personal attacks rather than address the issues. Whether running illegal campaign websites or loudly and abusively disrupting efforts to talk to voters at the polls, it seems that Mr. Stewart’s supporters are determined to prevent a discussion of the issues through any means necessary.

Rather than talk about a $25 campaign contribution, Councilman Lease and Mr. Stewart’s supporters should be talking about the $62,000 in mystery ‘expense reimbursements’ that council members receive each year from the city. It is probably not hard to see why they are reluctant to do so.

Grapevine voters deserve better.

Tonight, Owen ran to the door to greet me and asked emphatically who won the election. I told him it wasn’t over and put my feet up. He told his Dad he wanted Mommy to win. Things like that make 12 hours on your feet worth it!

But no campaign runs without volunteers. I want to thank my many volunteers, including longtime Grapevine residents and friends and even one of my old college friends who was a bridesmaid at our wedding. Special thanks go to my tireless husband, Jeremy, who has worked the polls along side me, greeting voters and patiently putting up with interruptions, arguments and the occasional verbal abuse from an opponent’s supporter (something he probably never expected but endured with the patience of a saint). This has been a family affair from the start, and we’ll be bringing Owen to “vote” with us on Election Day, this Saturday. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. at the Community Activities Center on Municipal Way.