Ed Acklin, who said he is "90% retired" and does some commercial real estate, is running for Plano City Council Place 4, which is currently held by Lissa Smith. City Council elections for places 2, 4, 6 and 8 will be held May 6. Candidates cannot file for office until Jan. 18. Before the election, find out why Acklin says he is running for City Council, Place 4. Ed Acklin announced he will be running for Plano City Council, Place 4 in May.[/caption] Why are you qualified for this position? I am a native of North Dallas and an 18-year resident of Plano running for City Council Place 4. I have been a member of Prestonwood Baptist Church for 17  years. I have years of experience as a small businessman and commercial property owner. I hold an engineering degree from Southern Methodist University. I have the maturity and technical background to solve a wide variety of complex issues. I have found that life skills learned through years of experience count even more than formal education. I have held numerous leadership roles in both business and charitable organizations. Why are you running for City Council? I share the growing concern of Plano citizens that the current City Council is taking the city away from its core values. We have seen the voice of over 12,000 Plano citizens go unheard on two separate critical issues. The council chooses to spend our tax dollars to fight Plano citizens in court rather that submit the issue to the ballot box. There is a glaring lack of transparency in the records that the council publishes in its agendas and voting records. I am deeply concerned that the drive to build as many high-density housing units as quickly as possible will overload the infrastructure to the point that it will never recover. The Collin County Commissioner’s Court has commissioned engineering studies over numerous years that predict that Plano will suffer severe gridlock-type traffic congestion, even before building thousands of high-density apartment complexes. Our Plano schools are already overcrowded without the new high-density communities. What are your platforms? I am a political and fiscal conservative. If elected, I want to:

• Revise the schedule for reviewing the city budget so that the Council has more opportunity to study the budget in greater depth,
• Make wholesale changes to the procedure for recording the actions of the council so that citizens can easily understand the issues before the council and know how each council member has voted,
• Lengthen the time period for the citizens to collect petition signatures to 180 days instead of the current 30 days,
• Amend the city charter so that only citizens living in Places 1-4 can vote to elect council members for their respective districts, [and]
• Reign in the rush to build high-density housing units.

For more information, visit www.edacklincampaign.com.