BTW, they eventually fired us because we continued to say, “We don’t do politics, we do legal advice.”
Even in a city as large as Plano, the corruption runs pretty deep.
The mayor wants to urbanize the city. He’s encouraged the homeless to move in, wants to destroy residential areas with high density development, male access to ladies rest rooms (pandering to Toyota on that one), etc. In short, he wants a city that reminds him of Brooklyn. His cronies on the city council of course, go along with him. That, in itself, isn’t inappropriate.
Where ‘they’ showed their hand was when the citizens petitioned to overturn the new land use/zoning plan. The city staff and city attorney conspired with the mayor and his backers to make sure that the Constitutional right to petition for redress was suppressed. After 4 years of litigation and court defeats, and a few of the cronies being voted off the city council, the plan was finally withdrawn, but much of the damage had been done - out of town developers had a big chunk of high density constructed.
On the other hand, when the cabal started a petition to remove one of the mayor’s opponents from the city council, the city staff and city attorney pushed it forward at full speed. They were again blocked in their efforts until the councilman in question termed out.