From KERA News:
The city of Princeton is grappling with booming growth. That’s led to tension over how it should be managed. And that’s playing out in the city’s mayoral runoff race.
The election went to a runoff after Brianna Chacón, the current mayor of Princeton, received 41% of the vote in her recent bid for reelection, less than the required 51% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. She faces Eugene Escobar Jr., who received around 27% of the vote in the Nov. 5 election. Early voting continues until Dec. 10, with polls closing at 5 p.m. Election day is Dec. 14.
The candidate who is elected will be at the helm of a rapidly growing city in desperate need of a boost to infrastructure and services that are straining from demand. And the fight for that leadership role also has brought some controversies to light.
Princeton, which is about ten miles east of McKinney, is the third-fastest-growing city in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The population in 2010 was 6,807. In June 2023, Princeton’s population was 28,027. Current estimates put the population at over 37,000 residents, according to the city.
Other cities near Princeton are also experiencing growing pains. Princeton is in Collin County — one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation according to the census. The county’s population is about 1.2 million as of July 2023, compared to 782,341 residents in 2010.
The county’s growth has strained resources. Local fire departments struggle to keep up with the demand for emergency services in unincorporated county areas. The county jail and animal shelter also feel the strain — voters approved funds for expanding the jail and animal shelter in a bond election last year.
Housing availability and affordability is a problem throughout the county. Plano ISD identified 1,365 students who lacked stable housing the past school year, up from 1,001 the previous year.
Several programs throughout the county assist people experiencing homelessness, including City House, which is geared toward youth. But the county has no emergency homeless shelter available for the general population.
Shanette Eaden, the housing and community services manager for the city of Plano, said in a previous interview with KERA that the lack of affordable housing has impacted people of all income levels.
“If you’re taking the cheaper housing that might be built for someone in that lower range, the higher range is already taking it, and it’s a trickle effect,” Eaden said. “What that means is we need housing that is affordable to various income ranges.”
The population growth is all too apparent on Collin County roads. A bond that passed last year included $380 million for road improvements. Highway 380, which passes through Princeton, is under expansion. The project will turn the current four-lane state highway into an eight-to-ten lane freeway. The Texas Department of Transportation said the expansion should cost about $979.2 million, but the department hasn’t secured the funds yet.
Duane Kelly, who has lived in Princeton for almost five years, said the city’s current infrastructure isn’t designed to handle the number of people moving in. He said the new highway needs to be built.
“I think they need to get to it and quit waiting around,” he said.
Growing Pains
Chacón told the Texas Standard in September that the growth in Princeton was causing a strain — so the city decided to issue a moratorium on new residential housing developments.
“I think most of our Collin County cities are feeling that same exact strain,” she said. “No one was prepared for the mass growth that we had.”
KERA reached out to Chacón multiple times via email, text and phone call to set up an interview. Chacón agreed to an interview but didn’t respond to KERA on the day the interview was scheduled.
Princeton issued the temporary moratorium in September, citing stress on infrastructure and city services. The moratorium is supposed to last for 120 days, but Chacón told the Texas Standard she expects the city will file an extension.
Chacón said the goal of the moratorium is to give city officials the time to ensure the prepped to handle the growth.
“We do need to take a pause, take a breather to make sure that we do have the infrastructure in place, that we do have the public safety services in place — that way we can better serve all of our residents,” she said.
Terrance Johnson, who was recently elected to the Princeton city council in November, said Princeton is struggling to handle the needs of the growing population.
“We are overly populated, but we don’t have the infrastructure to support that,” Johnson said.
He said the city currently only has one grocery store, a Walmart on West Princeton Dr. According to a post on the city’s Facebook page from March, Aldi and Market Street are expected to open locations in Princeton in 2026.
The moratorium only applies to residential developments, not commercial projects.
Public Safety
Escobar was one of four candidates that filed to run against Chacón in the city’s mayoral election. He said the city isn’t managing the population growth responsibly.
“I felt like that the city was more focused on growing and more focused on bringing in developers and bringing homes into rooftops, that they didn’t really understand what that comes with,” he said.
Escobar said his main concern is public safety. According to the city’s ordinance for the moratorium, Princeton needs to hire at least 33 more police officers to meet demand for services and prevent staff burnout.
Mark Moyle, who was the Princeton police chief from Feb. 2019 to Nov. 2022, said he sounded the alarm about understaffing and burnout in the city’s police department numerous times. But he alleged in a lawsuit he filed against Chacón, the city and former city manager Derek Borg, that Moyle’s requests to hire more officers were ignored and went unaddressed.
Moyle is seeking compensation for lost pay and punitive damages in federal court. He’s also requesting an order that requires the defendants to take affirmative steps to prevent future violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Attorneys for the defendants have denied Moyle’s claims.
Chacón’s attorneys wrote in a response to Moyle’s amended complaint that, as a government official, she is entitled to a qualified immunity defense and that she acted without malice or intent to deprive Moyle of his rights.
“Her actions were lawful and proper and within and pursuant to the scope of her discretionary authority,” the response said.
The attorneys for Princeton, who are also representing Chacón, say Moyle’s claims against the city are barred by governmental immunity. They filed a motion in September to stay the case so the judge can rule on the issue of immunity. No ruling was issued before this article was published.
Moyle, a 32-year veteran law enforcement officer, alleges in his suit that he was forced out as police chief after city leadership ignored his requests to hire more staff and increase pay for police department employees. Derek Borg, who resigned as city manager in October 2023, is accused of wrongfully terminating Moyle, denying him due process and pushing back against the former chief’s attempts to reform the department.
The suit also alleges that Chacón was aware of Borg’s behavior and told Moyle to bypass the city manager and communicate directly with her. Moyle sent Chacón a letter in Sept. 2022 outlining the department’s staffing problems. He said the understaffing hurt recruitment and retention and put officers at risk.
“They are often responding to calls for service without back up or delayed back up,” Moyle wrote. “We have a responsibility to ensure that our department is adequately staffed so that our police officers and our citizens are safe and protected.”
The former police chief also alleges in his suit that Borg opened a disciplinary investigation into Moyle two months after he sent Chacón the letter. He said the city manager offered him $9,000 to resign with a clean record. The city later fired and dishonorably discharged Moyle in December. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement later corrected the designation and gave Moyle an honorable discharge.
John Bosco, Moyle’s attorney, said the former chief didn’t receive due process. He said the required misconduct investigation for firing law enforcement wasn’t conducted and decision to fire Moyle was made in an executive session meeting of the city council that was closed to the public.
According to Texas law, governing bodies aren’t supposed to take votes or any other final action on matters of public interest in executive session. The law also requires governing bodies to share a public notice of upcoming open meetings and keep a certified agenda or record closed meetings. The lawsuit claims the city violated all of these laws. It also states that the city violated the protocol outlined in Texas law for complaints against police officers that lead to disciplinary action.
Bosco said what happened to Moyle is a pattern.
“Anybody who stands up when things are not done properly, they are forced out one way or the other,” he said.
Bosco said that Chacón blames Borg for the misconduct allegations outlined in the lawsuit. Borg resigned from his position as city manager in Oct. 2023, citing a disagreement over the city budget. He received $63,761.43 in his separation agreement according to a report from the Princeton Herald.
Bosco said the misconduct and lack of transparency that happened while Borg was city manager has continued in his absence.
“Derek’s been gone for a while now, and these same things are happening,” he said.
Rising Tensions
Political tensions had emerged in Princeton long before the mayoral runoff election.
David Kleiber, a sitting council member who was running for reelection this year, joked about shooting liberals in a Facebook comment — and it may have cost him his seat on the Princeton city council.
Terrance Johnson, Kleiber’s opponent, received about 54% of the votes. Kleiber, who had held the seat since 2015, got about 46% of the vote.
Kleiber stepped down shortly before the election but remained on the ballot. KERA reached out to him for comment via phone and email but didn’t hear back. He posted an apology for his remarks in a public Facebook group, The Original Princeton TX Cares.
“I realize that the content of the post was inappropriate, poorly considered, and did not reflect the values and respect that I hold for our community,” Kleiber wrote.
Kleiber wasn’t the only sitting city council member who was ousted in the November election. Marlo Obera lost his seat to Christina Todd, who received about 52% of the vote.
At first, Escobar said the political tensions in Princeton weren’t present in the mayoral race. He said things were friendly between him and Chacón during the general election.
“After the runoff is when things completely changed, and I see the nastiness come out,” Escobar said.
Much of that played out over Facebook, including posts in the Original Princeton Texas Cares page. But there was also an incident in person at a Future Farmers of America event Lovelady High School. Escobar claimed Chacón’s husband approached him about what he said about the mayor online.
“I felt like that he was kind of making a threat for me to stop talking about his wife online, but she’s the mayor, right?” he said.
Escobar said the mayor intervened and later apologized for what happened.
Chacón shared her account on her Facebook page. She said she didn’t separate Escobar and her husband but interjected when the conversation turned to campaign and city issues. Chacón said her conversation with Escobar became heated after her husband had left to check on their children.
“His gestures became animated,” she said. “From a distance, my husband saw the hand-waving while Eugene kept saying, ‘The plan is coming!’ and wanted to make sure it wasn’t aggressive or confrontational.”
Moving forward
Chacón said in a Facebook live video after the incident at the FFA event that the Princeton community should move forward.
“The right thing to do is to recognize that we don’t need continued division,” she said. “And this is a time where our city, unfortunately, is very polarized.”
Before he ran, Johnson, who identifies as an independent, said it was impossible for candidates that weren’t conservative to win an election in Princeton. But as the population grows, moderates, independents and even Democrats are calling Princeton home.
Johnson said the population growth is bringing change — something he wants to focus on during his city council term.
“I want to be that beacon and show that there are people here with particular skill sets that can help grow this community, that we are not the Princeton of old, and that we are progressing towards a future,” Johnson said.
Escobar has similar ideas. He said he wants to make Princeton a bedroom community, instead of a stopover town. Escobar said he plans to create programs to engage citizens in local government and their community.
“We can change the city around,” he said. “We can create healthy growth.”
In another Facebook live post, Chacón pointed to the change the Princeton city council has already implemented, including improvements at the local library and a planned swimming pool at the community center for the local high school to use.
She said the projects were part of the city council’s strategic plan to manage growth.
“We can tell you all day long the things that we want to do, or the things that we plan to do, without you actually seeing them in action,” Chacón said.
In her interview with the Texas Standard, the mayor acknowledged that Princeton is undergoing a transformation.
“I do think that things have changed for forever,” she said. “We’ll never be that little small town again. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something better moving forward.”
