\n A city-stamped affidavit filed August 11 begins a recall effort against McKinney Mayor Bill Cox and three City Council members. <\/p>\n
McKinney recall organizers are pushing back after former Mayor George Fuller said<\/a> the community \u201cdeserves to know\u201d who is willing to damage the city through the recall effort and warned that petition signers\u2019 names and addresses would become publicly available.<\/p>\n Days before Fuller posted his warning, City Manager Paul Grimes said he was \u201cdisgusted\u201d by people who \u201ctried to use their own faith to attack or belittle another\u201d during the August 4 mosque meeting. He also praised city employees for managing \u201csometimes mob-like behavior,\u201d according<\/a> to an internal email The Dallas Express previously obtained.<\/p>\n The McKinney Recall Committee<\/a> responded that public access to a government record is \u201cnot a license for political intimidation.\u201d It also disputed Fuller\u2019s portrayal of the campaign as an effort to punish officials for approving the mosque site plan.<\/p>\n Fuller now serves on the McKinney Community Development Corp. board<\/a>. The petition drive targets Mayor Bill Cox, At Large 1 Council Member Ernest Lynch, District 3 Council Member Ger\u00e9 Feltus and District 1 Council Member Justin Beller.<\/p>\n Recall organizers say campaign extends beyond mosque vote<\/p>\n John Aselton, the petitioners\u2019 committee notice designee, previously told<\/a> The Dallas Express that the recall concerns a broader record, not one City Council decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThis recall campaign is about restoring accountability and public trust in McKinney\u2019s city government,\u201d Aselton said. \u201cResidents have repeatedly raised concerns about spending, transparency, growth, infrastructure, and whether City Hall is listening to the people it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, this is not about one person or one issue,\u201d Aselton added. \u201cIt is about giving McKinney voters the lawful opportunity to decide whether their elected officials still have their confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinney National Airport has become one local flashpoint over spending and infrastructure. In May 2023, 58.69% of voters rejected<\/a> a $200 million bond for a larger commercial terminal, but officials later advanced a smaller 46,000-square-foot terminal with alternative funding.<\/p>\n McKinney also agreed<\/a> to pause a Travis County bond-validation case while a Collin County lawsuit challenging $30 million in airport-related MCDC bonds proceeds. Officials maintain voters rejected only the financing mechanism, while opponents say the new project disregarded the election\u2019s result.<\/p>\n Official records support Fuller\u2019s description of the council\u2019s legal role in the mosque vote, but the recall filing does not identify that vote as the campaign\u2019s reason.<\/p>\n Fuller tells signers to answer for \u2018consequences\u2019<\/p>\n Fuller wrote that residents have the right to sign a recall petition and campaign against elected officials, but he characterized signing as a political act that should carry public accountability.<\/p>\n He said filing the completed petitions would make signers\u2019 names and addresses available for lawful disclosure and that their signatures \u201cwill not exist in some private vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cExercise your rights. Sign the petition if you believe in it,\u201d Fuller wrote. \u201cBut own it.\u201d<\/p>\n Fuller then linked that disclosure to the effects he said the campaign could have on McKinney.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you put your name behind an effort to remove elected officials for following the law, be prepared to stand publicly behind your decision and be accountable for the consequences it has for this community,\u201d Fuller wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd this community deserves to know who is willing to damage McKinney in pursuit of this effort,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Fuller\u2019s post identified the five voters serving on the petitioners\u2019 committee but did not publish their home addresses.<\/p>\n Warning draws divided response<\/p>\n Multiple commenters said his references to signers\u2019 addresses and \u201cconsequences\u201d sounded threatening or intimidating, while others questioned whether the message amounted to a warning about doxxing. One commenter wrote, \u201cI\u2019ll be signing it just so everyone knows.\u201d<\/p>\n Other commenters defended Fuller, arguing that the council could not deny a compliant site plan on religious grounds and thanking him for speaking against religious bigotry.<\/p>\n Fuller argued that organizers targeted the four officials for performing a legally required duty during the council\u2019s August 4 approval of the McKinney Islamic Association\u2019s site plan.<\/p>\n He also said opposition surrounding the project had included misinformation and anti-Muslim rhetoric that could harm the city\u2019s reputation with businesses and prospective employers.<\/p>\n The committee rejected his characterization in a statement provided to The Dallas Express.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a profound difference between lawful public access to a government record and invoking residents\u2019 home addresses while warning them to \u2018own\u2019 their decision and face \u2018the consequences,\u2019\u201d the committee said. \u201cA public record is not a license for political intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n Disclosure is possible, but publication is not automatic<\/p>\n Texas election law requires a petition signer to provide a signature, printed name and residence address, along with either a date of birth or voter registration number, according<\/a> to the Texas secretary of state.<\/p>\n Fuller is therefore correct that petition information may become publicly accessible after filing. However, the Public Information Act does not itself require the city to automatically publish every petition online.<\/p>\n Texas law separately protects<\/a> residence addresses in voter-registration records for certain voters, including some government personnel and victims of specified crimes.<\/p>\n The committee said it would comply with public-records law and safeguard the petition papers while they remain in its custody.<\/p>\n Mosque vote was ministerial, but recall cites broader record<\/p>\n The McKinney Islamic Association requested<\/a> a zoning change in 2024 that would have allowed one building of approximately 37,000 square feet, exceeding the property\u2019s 15,000-square-foot limit on individual buildings.<\/p>\n After the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended denial, the association withdrew the request and returned with a three-building campus totaling 32,573 square feet.<\/p>\n City staff found the revised site plan<\/a> compliant with the property\u2019s existing zoning and said it required no rezoning, variance or design exception.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder Texas law, the governing body responsible for approving site plans has the ministerial function of approving those plans that comply with the zoning and development requirements of the city,\u201d staff wrote in the Planning and Zoning Commission agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n The recall affidavit, however, states one ground: \u201cA loss of public confidence in the ability of the officers named herein to faithfully represent the citizens of the City of McKinney.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee said the filing concerns the council\u2019s broader record and \u201cis not a religious grievance.\u201d<\/p>\n Fuller wrote that an initial affidavit was filed by \u201csome\u201d people who did not live in McKinney. The committee disputed that account, saying the city raised a voter-registration question about one affiant.<\/p>\n The committee said it replaced that person with another registered McKinney voter, resubmitted the affidavit and received the official petition papers from the city secretary.<\/p>\n McKinney Recall said it must collect 5,805 valid signatures from registered McKinney voters by September 26.<\/p>\n Former Dallas mayors issued similar warnings<\/p>\n McKinney Recall has no stated connection to Dallas HERO<\/a>, but both citizen-led petition efforts drew warnings from former mayors that they could damage their cities.<\/p>\n Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk compared<\/a> the Dallas HERO proposals to \u201crolling a hand grenade into City Hall and destroying it,\u201d while former Mayor Mike Rawlings called<\/a> them \u201cvery, very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n