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Home rule approved, Gray becomes City Manager, Lewis, Ready, and Nabors elected to council, Apple and Christopher elected to school board
By Matthew Price
The people have spoken and Celina is now a home rule city. Jason Gray has been approved as Celina’s city manager, and the voters have elected to council Place 4 candidate Jim Lewis, Place 3 candidate Jeanie Ready, and Place 2 candidate Wayne Nabors. School board candidates Bobby Apple and Choc Christopher were reelected to the Celina ISD school board.
A special council meeting was held on May 15 in which each of the new councilmembers was sworn in. Celina’s newly adopted home rule charter designates Celina as a city manager council form of government, thus necessitating the approval of Gray as Celina’s first city manager ever.
“I think we could have looked the world over and we couldn’t have found a better man than Jason Gray,” said former City Councilman Wendell O’Neal.
Once the new oaths of office were taken, the audience applauded the new councilpersons and the new members took their seats on the Council. The mayor and each councilperson spoke in favor of electing Councilman Jim Lewis, once again, as mayor pro tem of Celina.
“The job that Jim Lewis has performed as mayor pro tem has been way beyond the call of duty,” said Howard.
Councilman Dewey Isham made the nomination of Lewis, and unanimous approval by the new Council confirmed Lewis as mayor pro tem.
Election Day
Lewis, current Mayor Pro Tem of Celina, accumulated 283 votes, 62.33 percent of votes cast for Place 4. Richard Hose trailed with 153 votes, 33.7 percent of Place 4 votes, and write-in candidate Gale Minor received 18 votes, 3.96 percent.
“I feel like if you really work hard and try to do the right thing, even though sometimes people don’t agree with what you do, it turns out successful in the long run,” said Lewis. “People appreciate somebody that is honest and straight forward. I think the new people are going to work really hard and this has been the best council race in years.”
Hose expressed congratulations to the winning candidates and gratitude to everybody that supported him.
Ready is a new addition to the Celina City Council. She won 57.39 percent of total votes with 264 votes in her favor. Shuppert received 42.61 percent of the total vote count with a total of 196 votes.
“I’m very happy with the results and I’m looking forward to meeting new challenges and working hard,” said Ready. She said she feels like the added perspective a woman will bring to the City Council will be good for Celina and that having the home rule charter passed is the most important thing that came out of the election.
Nabors is also a new addition to the Celina City Council. It was a very close race between him and O’Neal, but Nabors received 53.54 percent of total votes with 257 cast in his favor. O’Neal received 46.46 percent of Place 2 votes, receiving 223 votes.
“I feel great,” said Nabors. “I’m happy to be a part of it and I won’t disappoint the people of Celina.”
“I ran the best I could and I don’t regret a day of it,” said O’Neal. “I’ve learned a lot since I got here, and I wouldn’t trade it.”
Mayor Corbett Howard commented on the poll results, saying, “I’m very excited about the city charter getting passed, and I’m very excited about each of the new representatives of Celina. This council is setting itself for the future.”
In the Celina school board elections, Bobby Apple defeated candidate Wayne Hall receiving 346 votes to Hall’s 161 votes. School board candidate Choc Christopher, who ran unopposed, was elected with 424 votes cast in his favor.
Election Day results were not received in Celina until roughly 10:00 that night. Roughly 480 people voted in Celina’s election, “One of the lowest voter turnouts in four years,” said Mayor Howard. He speculated that there were no “lightning rods,” saying he felt that more voters would have participated had there been greater controversy over the election.
Summary of local results (Collin County)
Celina
Celina home rule charter n 77.83 percent approval, 358 votes for, 102 against
Council Place 4 n Jim Lewis, 62.33 percent, 283 votes
Richard Hose, 33.7 percent, 153 votes
Write-in votes, 3.96 percent, 18 votes
Council Place 3 n Jeanie Ready, 57.39 percent, 264 votes
Scott Shuppert, 42.61 percent, 196 votes
Council Place 2 n Wayne Nabors, 53.54 percent, 257 votes
Wendell O’Neal, 46.46 percent, 223 votes
Celina school board
Trustee, Place 1 n Bobby Apple, 68.31 percent, 347 votes
Wayne Hall, 31.69 percent, 161 votes
Trustee, Place 2 n Choc Christopher, 100 percent, 425 votes
Prosper
Mayor (recount pending) n Charles Niswanger, 50.32 percent, 316 votes
Lisa Dritshler, 49.68 percent, 312 votes
Council, Place 1 n Dave Turley, 100 percent, 429 votes
Council, Place 2 n Kenneth Dugger, 47.36 percent, 269 votes
Joe Anselmo, 37.68 percent, 214 votes
Ronni Gallup, 14.69 percent, 85 votes
Weston
Mayor n Ed Town, 54.17 percent, 91 votes
Milton White, 45.83 percent, 77 votes
Alderman/City Council n Both Trek Wallace and Scott Morrissey elected
Morrissey, 30.23 percent, 94 votes
Wallace, 24.44 percent, 76 votes
Jerry Randall (not elected), 23.47 percent, 73 votes
Kevin Deal (not elected), 21.86 percent, 68 votes
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