Township candidate endorsements from a Past Woodlands Township Board Director

Between 1997 and 2012 I had the privilege of serving with many outstanding leaders of our community who led our success. I thus learned a lot about who can best serve us. I'm sending this to residents who I believe love The Woodlands and our continued progress as the best community to live, work, learn and play in.

Early voting has started for a very important election of Woodlands Township Directors. The following candidates have proven by their service that they share our love of The Woodlands and will provide positive and transparent leadership for our future. They are dedicated to keeping our taxes lower than most cities in Texas and at the same time keeping us as one of the safest communities in our state and nation. Please vote and encourage others who share our love for The Woodlands to vote! The three I am proud to recommend and support follow:

Bruce Tough, Position 7, current chairman of The Township board and leader on many other prior and present boards
Dr. Ann Snyder, Position 6, community servant for many years on many boards
Amos McDonald, Position 5, a proven servant on many boards

I have two major concerns. First our non-presidential year elections typically have very low voter turnout - sometimes only about ten percent of all registered voters. This leads to my second concern, The Texas Patriot PAC and Montgomery County Tea Parties, self appointed groups and individuals, intend to take over control of our community with candidates with minimal proven experience or knowledge on how to lead our community towards continued success. Primary leaders, and the PACs business address, for each of these tea parties are not in The Woodlands Township. The Texas Patriots PAC claims their office is in The Woodlands. This fundamental dishonesty and misrepresentation seems to prevail in other aspects, such as misleading or false information they use on the road bond issue. Their meetings and vetting process for candidates generally focus on subjects that are not a direct part of what our Township Board responsibilities include. They seem to always focus on trying to find and exaggerate negative community factors rather than working towards positive actions. They seem fiscally irresponsible as indicated by their recently being fined $3500 under the Federal Election Campaign Law.

Their recommended candidate and incumbent for position 5 daily commutes to work downtown in Houston and thus does not even regularly attend all Township Board meetings. He shelters his family in the gated community of Carlton Woods. I hope you join me in wanting Directors who know The Woodlands is more than just a bedroom community.

All of the Tea Party candidates seem focused only on issues that are not directly part of the Township Board’s responsibilities. The incumbent Tea Party director retiring from Position 6 claims "It takes Mother Nature hundreds of years to grow a tree” - a true statement, but not relative to the young trees in The Woodlands. I remember when The Grogan’s-Cochran Lumber Company was here - before our developer and his team began reforestation. And I remember when the area that is now Creekside Park was pasture land and a large nursery. And our developer planted most of the trees that now exist in Creekside Park. Yet all three candidates the Tea Parties recommend focus on the few construction activities by our developer and believe that our Township Board should control remaining development of land owned by The Woodlands Operating Company. I choose to view their finished work - the part we all love. I know that every project they develop has landscape architects and professional who have planned to complete the project in keeping with standards they set for this wonderful community. The young trees recently cut down in preparation for completing the Creekside Park Village Center will be replaced with more appropriately planted and selected trees. Watch and see - we will like the result!

Why let outsiders and malcontents determine our future?

Sincerely,

Claude Hunter, Past Township Board Director

Election and candidate info can be found at www.VACTX.org

Websites for above candidates are:

Bruce Tough - www.BruceTough.com
Dr. Ann Snyder - www.annksnyder.com
Amos McDonald - www.amosmcdonald.com