City of Forney to consider major changes to ethics ordinance

FORNEY, Texas — A former Forney city council member says it’s time for the fast-growing Kaufman County city to strengthen its ethics laws and become more transparent.

Jason Roberson, who recently resigned from city council to run for Forney Mayor, says just look at the traffic on Highway 80 now.

It’s representative, he says, of the thousands and thousands of new residents who’ve moved to Forney.

“We’ve been a small town city for so long. Now we are big. And it’s time for us to start acting like we’re big,” Roberson said on Inside Texas Politics.

Roberson says it’s time to take a microscope to business dealings in the community, particularly new development, which might need tighter regulation as a small community transforms into a larger city.

“Because the developers, a lot of times, they can come in and they have a chance of, I guess, operating behind the backs of council members. It’s so much easier for them to operate like that,” he told us. “And then they leave, and they go to the next city. And we’re left with the traffic. So, that’s part of the problem.”

But it’s not just new development.

Among other changes, the ethics reform package would also institute term limits for the Mayor and council members, make it easier to recall elected officials, require lobbyists to register and disclose which city officials they meet with, and an annual comprehensive audit of city spending.

The ordinance is expected to be discussed soon.

While no vote has been scheduled yet, Roberson thinks it is likely to pass when it does come up.

“We have a chance to try to demand more of people who are trying to get our attention and it’s time we start implementing some of these new regulations,” he said.