April 21, 2017 Colleyville, Texas
It appears the Colleyville Chamber of Commerce became aware the planned Colleyville Candidate’s Forum this past Wednesday evening was an “orchestrated” event, allegedly by Colleyville resident Karl Meeks, apparently an avid supporter of Council Candidate Place 3, Jon Bullock. The “objectivity” of the forum was questioned by some citizens to the Chamber. Thereafter, the Colleyville Chamber withdrew it’s sponsorship from the forum. The Chamber released the following statement to its members during the day of Wednesday.
The following was released by Erin Pedersen, Acting President
The Colleyville Area Chamber of Commerce’s mission is to promote the economic, civic and cultural well-being of the Colleyville Area. Our goal is to serve as a resource for Chamber members and our local community. It is for this reason we believed sponsoring the non-partisan Candidate Forum hosted by the League of Women Voters would provide our Colleyville residents with an opportunity to have all participating candidates answer questions that are vital to the success of our businesses and residents.
Unfortunately, we have learned that there are some in our community who believe that the Colleyville Area Chamber of Commerce decided to sponsor this forum as a way to show support for specific candidates. The Colleyville Area Chamber of Commerce has always been, and will continue to remain, politically unbiased and will never advocate for one candidate over another.
In order to communicate this message clearly and prevent any further misunderstanding within our local community, we have withdrawn our participation in tonight’s Candidate Forum.
We exist to fully support our members, businesses, the City of Colleyville and the community at large and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We thank you for your understanding and we look forward to continuing to serve our community alongside all of our elected officials within the City of Colleyville and surrounding areas.
