McKinney City Council member La’Shadion Shemwell addressed the recent recall efforts against him at a Dec. 16 town hall meeting.
The meeting was announced in a Dec. 10 city news release as a District 1 town hall meeting, where attendees would receive updates on various city projects and initiatives happening in Shemwell’s council district. The release stated that the entire community was invited to attend. Roughly 50 people showed up.
Shemwell started the meeting by highlighting various projects happening on the eastern side of McKinney, including a renovation of the Old Settler’s Recreation Center, where the town hall was held.
But the conversation soon shifted to Shemwell's background and the injustices he said he witnessed growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles that pushed him to be a civil rights activist and eventually a McKinney City Council member.
“I came to do what people elected me to do ... to be the voice for the voiceless,” Shemwell said.
Some attendees tried to keep the topic on city initiatives, but the conversation during the meeting kept returning to Shemwell’s controversial past, which includes a criminal history.
Shemwell said a lot of people were opposed to him running for public office. Prior to being elected to council, Shemwell said he was told “if you win, we will recall you.”
A petition seeking an election to recall Shemwell began circulating on Nov. 20, according to city officials. The petition needs 2,127 valid signatures by Jan. 4 to trigger the recall election process.
The petition states among the reasons for the recall is that Shemwell has not upheld his oath to office, has violated the city charter and has disregarded the city’s ethics code. The petition also states that he has made inflammatory statements about the city and been arrested on multiple occasions while serving as a council member.
The council will discuss the ethics complaint during a Dec. 17 City Council meeting, according to the agenda.
Shemwell had been at the forefront of several controversial discussions during recent City Council meetings, most notably those on Oct. 15 and Nov. 5, where racial inequality and police brutality were the focus during public comments.
During the Oct. 15 meeting, Shemwell asked the city to proclaim a "black state of emergency" and a travel advisory in Texas, but his request was denied.
“I didn’t write the proclamation by myself,” Shemwell said during the town hall. “These were sentiments of the community.”
Several supporters of Shemwell who attended the meeting recounted personal experiences of what they said was racial discrimination and profiling by police in McKinney and elsewhere.
“I am not saying that all police are wrong,” Shemwell said. “I am not against police. I am against police brutality. Police make mistakes in this city. And if every time I mention police, you think it is an attack, that is an issue.”
