Picture credit of Business Journals
Over the past few weeks there has been much discussion about the upcoming bond election. The citizens of Forney have been asking a lot of questions about what has been presented to them, especially since the results of their vote could garner an 83% tax rate increase. Citizens have asked what will be included in certain structures being proposed, where buildings will be located, where the proposed bridge through downtown would be located, and much more. The problem is those questions have been met with uncertainty, open-ended answers, or avoided all-together by those pushing the bond.
In order to promote the bond, Forney Mayor Amanda Lewis formed a PAC called Vote Yes Forney. When she formed the PAC she appointed her neighbor Mitch Owen as Treasurer of the PAC. Mitch Owen is the Director of Project Management at a commercial real estate investment and consulting firm in Dallas. Earlier this week the PAC created a Facebook page named Vote Yes Forney. Once word started getting out about the page many citizens, mainly those who had ever questioned any aspect of the bond, started noticing they had been blocked from the page before even realizing it existed. Then citizens started pointing their questions toward the PAC Facebook page and those citizens noticed instead of having their questions answered, they were also being blocked from the page. The admins of the page eventually turned off commenting on any of their posts and as of Friday night had shut down the page altogether.
In the meantime, a citizen started researching the validity of the PAC and who may be funding the effort. What was found is quite surprising. As you will see in the following document, a financial report was filed 30 days before the election. The report shows three donors. The first donor is a developer listed as Forney Partners, Ltd who donated $10,000. This particular developer currently owns approximately 94 acres at the corner of 460 and 80 in Forney. The address of the owner, as listed on Kaufman CAD, is for a company named Standridge Companies, a real estate investment company in Carrolton. They have shown interest in building apartments on this tract of land but are still in the planning process for this development.
The second donor will be a familiar one for many of you. Intex Electrical Contractors donated $1,000. The owner of Intex Electrical is Texas State Representative Keith Bell who will also be on the ballot during the same election as the bond. Keith Bell previously served as Chairman of the Forney ISD Schoolboard and is the namesake on the Forney ISD Opportunity Central (The OC) building under construction across from Jackson Middle School. You may have also noticed Intex Electrical is doing work for a development on 548 behind the AMC theater. Prior to Amanda Lewis being elected, a proposed development at that site was denied a change in zoning. During her campaign Amanda Lewis often touted halting development until a new comprehensive plan was approved. However, this development, and many others have been approved since her election, with a new comprehensive plan still in progress.
Lastly, the third donor is not only the most surprising, but also the largest donor of the PAC. Megatel Homes LLC donated a whopping $20,000 to the PAC. Megatel Homes is also the developer behind the controversial Bellagio Lagoon development next to Forney High School. Amanda Lewis and her fellow running mates Sarah Salgado and Jason Roberson have regularly bashed the Bellagio development and Amanda Lewis even stated in an email to the owner of Megatel Homes how much of a perceived burden they would be to Forney. Additionally, the Forney City Council has refused to recognize that the Bellagio Development Agreement provided for free acreage to build a new fire station on. Instead, they have presented a bond with no location planned, leaving the cost associated with a location unknown. The story behind this particular donor gets more interesting however.
The original Bellagio development was to span approximately 347 acres and include 1,100 homesites, 600 apartments, and amenities including a 2 acre lagoon, restaurant, and amenity center. However, quietly Megatel has purchased an additional 571.3 acres in Forney. Some of those parcels of land also include development agreements with the City of Forney that would require annexation into the city if that land was to be developed. Megatel’s plan is to build additional homes and/or apartments on those parcels of land and provide the homebuyers access to the amenities in the original development instead of building additional amenity centers in the new developments. If Megatel decides to build homes and apartments using the same density of the original development that could include up to 1,800 homesites and/or 900-1,000 additional apartments.
So what does this mean? Those who have donated to and run this PAC stand to make millions of dollars if it is approved, while the citizens of Forney will be granted an 83% tax increase and lose thousands of additional dollars during a time of record inflation, record property value increases, and a pending recession. Sources have told me that there was a text sent by Councilwoman Sarah Salgado to the personal cell phones of fellow Council members that included a list of developers to contact for additional donations. Acquiring information from the personal cell phones of elected officials is nearly impossible however and my Public Records Request for that text came up empty. We will monitor future financial reports for the PAC to see if any additional donations are received.