Meet the Candidates – Plano City Council May 2023
Meet the Candidates: Plano City Council Edition
The Plano City Council plays a vital role in shaping the future of our community. With several City Council seats up for election, it’s important to learn about the candidates and their vision for Plano. Here’s a closer look at the candidates running for Plano City Council:
Place 1: Incumbent Maria Tu
Maria Tu is a Plano native and current City Council member seeking re-election.
Her priorities include:
Enhance public safety and reduce crime
Protect the quality of life of our neighborhoods
Reduce traffic congestion
Keep taxes low
Improve Plano water quality
Click here to visit Maria’s website.
Place 3: Rick Horne and Colleen Aguilar-Epstein
Rick Horne is a longtime Plano resident and business owner.
His priorities include:
Low Taxes
Improve Road Infrastructure
Keep Public Safety High
Click here to visit Rick’s website.
Colleen Aguilar-Epstein is a long-time Plano resident and has served on multiple boards and committees.
Her priorities include:
Keep residents safe by supporting our dedicated first responders.
Ensure safe water and air quality by overseeing independent testing.
Get Plano moving with timely street repairs and traffic solutions.
Reduce the tax burden with better budgeting, while maintaining excellent city services.
Encourage growth of both small and large business through fair incentives.
Preserve and increase green space and parks throughout the city.
Protect the rights of property owners through smart planning and zoning that considers infrastructure capacity, traffic studies, set backs, screening, and noise regulations.
Increase citizen’s input and involvement through transparency and accountability practices.
Click here to visit Colleen’s website.
Place 5: Brett Cooper and Shelby Williams
Brett Cooper is a adolescent medicine physician, medical educator, and community advocate.
His priorities include:
Housing
Ensuring that we have housing options to accommodate the workforce of Plano. This includes people from retail workers to company executives. Those who work in Plano should have the ability to live in Plano if they want to.
Infrastructure
Working within the city and with regional partners to expand options for non-automobile transit. This could include bike lanes, public transit or other options.
Development
Prioritizing smart development that balances the community feel of Plano with a city that also has an eye to the future. This allows our city to remain attractive and competitive for residents and businesses that want to relocate here.
Inclusion
Ensuring that Plano remains a city that is diverse and welcoming to people of all creeds, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations/gender identities. This diversity is a strength, and we should be leveraging it, not weaponizing it.
Short Term Rentals
Prioritize the safety and community feel of our neighborhoods by zoning STRs out of single family neighborhoods. Supports a registration and permitting process for STRs that reduces legal liability to the city
Click here to visit Brett’s website.
Shelby Williams is a vice president at a marketing agency.
His priorities include:
Short-term Rentals
Public Safety
Protecting Our Kids
Public Transit
Transparency & Accountability
Population Density & Urbanization
Property Taxes
Water Quality
Click here to visit Shelby’s website.
Place 7: Incumbent Julie Holmer
Julie Holmer is a longtime Plano resident and current City Council member seeking re-election.
Her priorities include:
Keep Plano Strong
To Keep Plano Strong we have to keep Plano’s culture thriving. We need to continue to be a professionally managed city that invests in our arts, our education, and into making Plano an inclusive city for all. We need to make sure that we continue to invest in Plano’s infrastructure, which includes maintaining our roads, parks, trails, and facilities.
Transportation
Plano will continue to grow and age and we need to make sure that our transportation keeps up. To ensure Plano’s longevity we need to ensure that people settle near our transportation hubs. We should expand our public transportation, whether that means improving our DART access or including people movers to the college and business hubs. Plano is a wonderful city and we must strategically think of how people move in, out, and around.
Pro Business
One of my top priorities is making sure that the Collin Creek Mall redevelopment project continues to move along smoothly and that we, as a city, are not placing any unnecessary obstacles in the way of making that project come to fruition in a timely manner. I am firmly pro-business and I see the Collin Creek Mall development as a huge opportunity to bring jobs and opportunities into Plano. This project will also help to revitalize our downtown Plano Arts District as well as the east side of Plano.
Stay Safe Be Smart
I will commit to keep us safe and to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to protect our citizens and maintain a high standard of healthy living.
Smart Development
We have very little land left to develop here in Plano. We need to make sure that all developments are strategic and shaped by input from all members of our community. Any additional multifamily housing needs to be incorporated into mixed used development to allow walkability and reduce traffic impact.
Click here to visit Julie’s website.
As Plano residents, it’s important to stay informed about the candidates and their priorities. Consider attending candidate forums, researching their backgrounds and voting records, and reading up on their platforms. You can find more information about the candidates on the city’s website, local news outlets, and community organizations.
We encourage you to make your voice heard and participate in this important election. The future of our community is in our hands, so let’s make an informed decision and vote! Election Day is Saturday, May 6, 2023, early voting is now open April 24-May 2 (hours: 8am-5pm April 24-29 and 7am-7pm May 1-2).
Click here to complete your sample ballot!