In 2020, I joined a group of grassroots activists to help found Save Amarillo PAC in an attempt to defeat the Proposition A civic center plan. That plan was horribly wasteful and poorly thought out. It would have required a massive tax hike that would have hit even harder considering the economic situation many had found themselves in at the time. We put our time, energy, and money into defeating Proposition A at the ballot box in November of 2020. We won.
However, despite every criticism of Prop A plan remaining just as true today as it was then, Amarillo City Council has decided to resurrect the plan. The main difference this time is that they aren’t even giving the public a chance to vote on it.
Ginger Nelson, Freda Powell, Eddy Sauer, and Howard Smith should feel ashamed. Even if you supported Proposition A two years ago, I fail to see how anyone could see this move as anything other than the most blatant subversion of our democracy.
Unfortunately, looking for our elected officials to show shame isn’t something I would bet on. In that same election two years ago, another local proposition was defeated by voters. Proposition B would have doubled the term lengths for Amarillo’s Mayor and City Council. Ginger Nelson had voiced support for such a proposal during her 2019 bid for reelection. She then walked back support for the proposal after seeing backlash, essentially trying to claim she had never expressed support for the proposal in the first place. Then, in 2020, it was on the ballot. Nelson didn’t show any shame then, and I don’t expect her to show any now.
Thankfully, Alex Fairly has filed a lawsuit trying to halt the project. I hope this lawsuit will be successful in preventing the City of Amarillo from subverting the will of the voters. I’m also thankful to Cole Stanley, the only member of Amarillo City Council to vote against the “new” civic center plan.
