McKinney Mayor’s Race Heads to Runoff as Airport Concerns Loom Overhead
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No mayoral election has highlighted the tensions surrounding growth in North Texas more than that of McKinney, and since a majority of the city’s voters couldn’t get behind one of the four candidates on the ballot, the race is heading to a runoff.
Looming over Saturday’s election was the planned expansion of McKinney National Airport, which has animated many residents. Some of them claim officials are running roughshod over voters who said no to airport-related bonds twice in 10 years. If McKinney has a political flashpoint akin to Pepper Square in Dallas, it’s the airport — but this project would serve 200,000 in its first year and by year 5, serve 1 million passengers.
Adding a commercial passenger terminal to McKinney National Airport has been seen by officials as a potential driver of future tax revenue and economic growth for the city. Despite voters shooting down property tax bonds to support the project, officials have been moving forward anyway, committing sales tax revenue to support the venture.
On Tuesday evening, McKinney City Council will meet to appropriate some $45 million in total from sales tax revenue bond proceeds associated with the McKinney Economic Development Corporation Fund and the McKinney Community Development Corporation Fund. Council members will also consider other actions (rezoning, authorizing construction contracts, etc) related to the project.
McKinney voters will be returning to the polls next month, and they’ll have to choose between Bill Cox and Scott Sanford for mayor.
Cox previously served on McKinney City Council. He’s currently principal at the commercial real estate firm Carey Cox. He also chairs the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission, one of the bodies that signed off on the airport’s expansion.
His detractors have characterized him as the handpicked successor of Mayor George Fuller, who is termed out since voters declined to amend the city charter to allow for three four-year terms on city council instead of two. Talk of an “establishment” and relationships with developers pepper the McKinney Citizen to Citizen Facebook group page.
Fuller endorsed Cox, as did more than several current and former city council members.
Sanford’s endorsements seem to only include one current council member and one former. His backers among the officialdom are mostly from county government and the state house. Sanford himself, the current executive pastor of stewardship and operations at Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, used to represent the 70th District in the Texas House (Ken Paxton’s old seat), serving five terms.
The Dallas Morning News endorsed Sanford last month. The editorial board made the point of saying that “McKinney’s current government is out of step with the residents it serves.”
Cox came out on top of the May 3 election, earning 46.8%, or 8,953 votes. Sanford came in not far behind, clocking 40.8%, or 7,810 votes, according to the unofficial results maintained by Collin County. While the runoff might end up being about base turnout, there’s plenty of votes out there from the vanquished candidates, Matt “Doc” Rostami and Taylor Willingham, that’ll be on the table. Like Sanford, both of them were critical of how officials have handled the airport expansion.
Sanford has argued for a pause on the project until after the election, saying that a new mayor and council members should give the endeavor a fresh look.
For his part, Cox has suggested he can’t comment on the merits of the project without having been part of the financial discussions and negotiations the current city council has been privy to. He has also suggested that voters’ rejection of bonds to pay for it doesn’t mean residents are against using taxpayer money in principle.
Speaking in support of the airport expansion, Mayor Fuller previously told CandysDirt.com that most of the criticism stems from “a few dozen active social media opponents” and that “overwhelming sentiment” in the community has actually been “extremely positive.”
Looking at Saturday night’s election results, it’s hard to say how voters will respond to this mayoral run-off on June 7, especially when airport discussions are live and active. If we see any lawsuits, then it’ll definitely give off Pepper Square vibes.
