By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

In order to be an elected official, perhaps you have to have no shame and be willing to say whatever you have to about your proposals in order to win election. If this is the case, then it’s clear to see why Ginger Nelson is Amarillo’s mayor.

During the 2019 Amarillo municipal election, Mayor Ginger Nelson spoke about her proposal to extend the terms of the Amarillo City Council at a forum held by the Potter-Randall Democratic Club. I sat in the meeting and listened as Nelson trotted out her proposal and I later reported on it so Amarillo voters would have the information they needed for the May election. When Amarillo voters found out about the proposal, Nelson claimed the proposal was taken out of context in a Facebook message which was shared via a screenshot, and subsequently dropped her proposal throughout the rest of the campaign.

Fast forward to 2020 and Nelson is now pushing the proposal publicly, participating in an interview with KVII-TV about this and another proposition this week.

This turn events has left me scratching my head and wondering, does Ginger Nelson have any shame whatsoever?

Mayor Nelson pitched this proposal in 2019, then walked it back. Now, she’s pushing the proposal again, only this time, she’s not on the ballot. I personally hate the idea of passing a charter amendment to extend the terms of the Amarillo City Council, which could be retroactive. However, if Nelson wanted the proposal — and it appears she does — she should have just been honest with voters when she first brought it out in 2019. Instead, she magically made the item disappear when voters expressed their disapproval when she was running for re-election, and is now pushing the item again.

As I said earlier, you apparently cannot win an election if you won’t throw your shame out the window and flip-flop to pander to voters, your campaign donors, and the PACs which buy your election.

The flip-flopping and lack of accountability at City Hall is extremely troubling. We cannot even depend on the City Council to give us a straight answer on where they actually stand on the issues when they are running for office, but we expect them to be honest with us about the propositions they are putting on the November ballot? Why?

Voters are facing a minefield of unanswered questions for the November propositions election. When does the term extension go into place? Without any binding language, what prevents the term extensions from being applied retroactively? How will the changes to terms be delegated across the City Council? When will the staggered terms actually go into place if the current terms are extended?

Like I said, there are just too many questions.

So, when voters head to the polls this November, they should remember the flip-flopping that preceded this election. Then, in May, voters need to hold this City Council accountable for its lack of accountability and it’s bend-in-the-wind efforts to avoid being pinned down on any issues.

Let’s defeat these propositions in November and look forward with to May, knowing the Amarillo deserves much better than the “representation” we have at City Hall today.