The next great Mayor's race

Waiting to see who all wants in on the Mayor's race in Flower Mound this year. So far Mayor Smith is in, and the Town's former economic development director Jim Lang, who resigned/was dismissed from his paid staff position when he made his political intentions known. I've heard former newspaper publisher Mike Fickling has picked up a candidate's packet (a preliminary step to filing) from the Town Secretary, but that doesn't mean he's in -- yet at least. Perhaps there are others who I haven't heard of yet.

I think this race will be interesting, because I think economic development will be a big issue this year. I've met Mr. Lang only once. Last year he and the Town set up a citizen's Economic Development Advisory Group, and I was asked to join. We met one time, I recall, last May. We were supposed to meet quarterly, but haven't convened since -- disappointing to me since I thought we provided him and his team (and the council) some useful ideas. Another disappointment for me was the difficulty in getting Mr. Lang or his staff associate (Kathy?) to return e-mails or phone messages about the committee when I had questions. They invited me to participate, so I was always curious why they always took so long to reply.

There's no question we're doing well with economic development on the Town's northern border. All the developments at 2499 and 407 seem quite strong, and there's more to come there. I'm still bewildered why Lakeside and Silveron haven't taken off, and I wonder if we're doing all the right things to attract great corporate businesses here. But as long as the fabulous hotel gets built on the lake, we should be OK in the long run.

Mr. Lang says he decided to run for Mayor after he found out he was not going to be a finalist for the Town Manager position. So I do question his motive a bit, but not knowing any different, I'll give him the nod that he's running because he cares about the Town.

All that said, I'm quite content with our mayor Jody Smith. More than that, I'm a big fan. Whereas the mayor's chair had been the seat of controversy the previous 6 years, she's brought a much-needed calm and civility to it the past 2 years. I think she represents the Town very well. She's very professional, very polished, very friendly, very bright. She has worked to gain a strong grasp of the issues that affect our Town. She seems to be well-liked by her peers in politics. In fact, I've never heard anyone say a negative word about her personally. I've gotten to know Jody a little bit over the past 2 years, and I enjoy her company. I don't do endorsements much on this page, but my support is 100% behind Mayor Jody Smith.

Filing ends in a couple of weeks. More to come.