Voters in Frisco appear to have selected two new city council members.
Place 2
Burt Thakur defeated the incumbent, Tammy Meinershagen, with about 55% of the vote according to unofficial election night results.
Meinershagen faced controversy after local blog The Frisco Chronicles shared audio recordings of her on YouTube where she made several disparaging remarks about current city council members and the Frisco community. The audio in the videos has been edited to only include Meinershagen’s voice and some background music.
The Dallas Morning News editorial board wrote that Meinershagen hinted that former Frisco City Council Place 4 candidate Sangita Datta recorded a private conversation without Meinershagen’s knowledge. Datta denied the accusation in an interview with WFAA-TV.
In the recording, Meinershagen said Frisco’s South Asian community needed to integrate more with the rest of the city. Frisco is 27% Asian according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Thakur was born in India according to his website. He gave an emotional speech at a Frisco city council meeting last month about his experience moving to the United States as a child. Thakur said his mother changed his first name to Albert because he was bullied for his name as a child.
“Normalizing casual intolerance has no place in our country,” he said.
Thakur asked the crowd at the city council meeting to treat each other with kindness.
“I ask you tonight, ladies and gentlemen, to give everyone a little bit of grace, to give a little everyone a bit of healing,” he said.
Place 4
Jared Elad appears to have 53% of the vote according to unofficial election night results. Elad defeated former Frisco school board trustee Gopal Ponangi in the Frisco City Council Place 4 runoff election.
Elad's wife, Stephanie Elad, was recently reelected for another term on the Frisco ISD school board.
At the Frisco Chamber of Commerce runoff candidate forum, Elad said he would prioritize development of Frisco’s East Side.
“Frisco is a tale of two cities,” he said. “All the development, all the shiny new stuff is on the west side. There's virtually nothing on the east side. I wanna change that.”
Elad also said he would cut wasteful spending and prioritize public safety as a council member.
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