December 9th Council Meeting: Why Your Voice Must Be Heard

On December 9th, 2025, the Lacy Lakeview City Council showed exactly why citizen engagement cannot be optional. It cannot be polite. And it cannot wait for permission.

In a two-minute span, the council voted 6–1 to approve a memorandum of understanding with InfraKey, a nonbinding agreement that sets the stage for annexing 520 acres and providing water infrastructure for a $10 billion data center. They cast the vote before allowing a single resident to speak.

More than 60 opponents packed the council chambers and overflowed into the hallway. They came prepared to be heard. The council made sure they would not be heard when it mattered.

“Are y’all listening?” someone called out after the vote.
“We’d like to speak… We came to speak!”

They would eventually get their turn. Twelve speakers against the deal, one in favor. But by then, the decision was already made.

When Democracy Becomes Theater

This was not an oversight. It was a choice.

The council knew exactly what they were doing when they structured the agenda this way. Vote first. Listen later. Turn public comment into a venting session instead of a meaningful part of governance.

What makes it worse is the land itself. Lacy Lakeview plans to annex territory that is not even contiguous to its city limits. The land sits in unincorporated McLennan County and within Waco’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. People live there. People who will never vote in Lacy Lakeview elections, never benefit from Lacy Lakeview’s tax windfall, and never receive Lacy Lakeview city services.

Those residents, our neighbors in Ross, in Elm Mott, and across the unincorporated county, will get the noise pollution. They will get the air pollution from a 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired power plant. They will get the traffic and the industrial blight. Lacy Lakeview gets an estimated $50 million per year in tax revenue.

Mayor Charles Wilson said it plainly. “It would be the most irresponsible thing we could do” to walk away from this deal.

The message was clear. No amount of community opposition, environmental concern, or regional impact will change their minds. The money is too good.

“You sold us out!” a woman shouted from the audience.

“You sold Ross and Elm Mott out,” another voice followed.

“Nobody’s been sold out,” Wilson responded.

Why Public Outcry Is Necessary

That crowd of more than 60 people in the room and hallway still accomplished something critical, even though the vote went against them.

Waco City Manager Bradley Ford and Assistant City Manager Ryan Holt attended the meeting. Ford later told The Waco Bridge that Waco officials only learned the project details and annexation plans “in recent weeks through coverage by The Waco Bridge.”

Let that sink in. This project could require up to 16 million gallons of water per day from Waco’s supply. The land is currently in Waco’s ETJ. And Waco officials found out by reading the news.

“I think any time you have a project of this scale that affects all the regional partners, affects the county, affects multiple communities like we heard tonight, you would hope that we’d be at the table much earlier,” Ford said.
“That didn’t happen… (and) that’s highly unusual.”

Public pressure forced this into the open. Without that turnout, without the media coverage, without citizens demanding answers, this deal would have moved forward quietly.

The fight is not over because people showed up.

Why Written Comments Matter

Here is the practical reality. A room built for 53 people cannot hold more than 100 concerned citizens. A typical city council meeting cannot accommodate dozens of three-minute public comments. And as December 9th showed us, councils can structure agendas in ways that render public comment meaningless.

This is why written public comments matter.

They enter the official record before votes happen.
Submit comments in advance and they become part of the record that council members must acknowledge before taking action.

They create documentation.
When this fight escalates to county commissioners, state representatives, or legal challenges, those written comments become evidence. Evidence of opposition. Evidence of specific concerns. Evidence of officials choosing to ignore them.

They reach everyone who matters.
One written testimony can go to city council, county commissioners, state legislators, and federal representatives at the same time. A single comment can have exponential reach.

They level the playing field.
InfraKey’s spokesperson arrived with numbers ready. Water usage projections. Buildout timelines. Economic impact estimates. Residents were left asking for more time to research. Written comments let you bring the research, the data, and the legal citations. You show up with facts, not just passion.

Why Preparation Is Key

Passion matters. But passion without precision gets dismissed.

Several speakers on December 9th asked the council to slow down. They pleaded for more time. They raised concerns about water and air quality. All of it valid. All of it important. But when InfraKey counters with exact figures and city officials lean on economic projections, vague concerns lose weight.

This is why our template library exists. The research has been done. The legal frameworks identified. The environmental impacts outlined. The water supply constraints documented. The procedural violations clearly stated.

When you submit a public comment citing Texas Local Government Code §43.052 on annexation requirements, or referencing Texas Water Code provisions on regional planning, or documenting EPA air quality standards that may be violated, it becomes much harder to ignore.

When you walk into a meeting with printed testimony, citations, and data, you are no longer just another concerned resident. You are someone who did the homework.

Sara Mynarcik: The Response This Situation Demands

While the council carried out its carefully staged performance of voting first and listening later, Sara Mynarcik refused to play along.

She interrupted Mayor Wilson’s closing remarks about the inevitability of change and the nature of economic growth. Lacy Lakeview police escorted her from the meeting.

The optics speak for themselves. A citizen removed for objecting too loudly to her community being sold out, after the council voted before hearing anyone speak.

Sara did exactly what the moment required. Not disruption for attention. Not incivility for its own sake. But direct and uncompromising opposition to a broken process.

When a city council votes before hearing from the people it plans to steamroll, when it is determined to annex non-contiguous land to capture $10 billion in revenue without obligation to those affected, when it makes clear that no amount of testimony will change its mind, polite comments alone are not enough.

Sara’s removal should radicalize anyone who believes in democratic governance. Not toward violence. Not toward chaos. But toward the understanding that this fight demands everything we can bring.

The Path Forward

The December 9th meeting revealed several hard truths.

Regional partners are now aware and concerned.
Waco officials calling this process “highly unusual” is leverage. Use it. Copy them on communications. Document every bypass of regional coordination.

The process is flawed and documented.
The council voted before public comment. That fact now exists in the official record. Every shortcut becomes evidence as this escalates.

Lacy Lakeview has already decided.
Mayor Wilson made that clear. The real audience now is everyone else with power to intervene.

County commissioners who can challenge the annexation.
State representatives who can investigate ETJ manipulation.
Federal officials who can scrutinize environmental and infrastructure impacts.
Media outlets that can expose the backroom dealings.
Waco officials who control the water supply.

Every one of them needs to hear from you. In writing. With documentation. With specific asks.

What You Can Do

1. Submit written testimony to Lacy Lakeview City Council before the next meeting. Use our templates if you need a starting point.

2. Contact county commissioners about annexation of non-contiguous land in unincorporated territory. County-specific templates are available.

3. Write to your state representatives about misuse of HB 2965 to bypass regional planning.

4. Document everything. Attend meetings when possible. Submit written comments whether you attend or not. Keep copies and share them.

5. Spread the word. The pressure that brought Waco officials into that December 9th meeting only works if people know what is happening.

This fight is not over. It is only beginning.

And when future generations ask what we did while our community was being sold, while our rural home was industrialized without consent, while our voices were sidelined by procedure, we will point to people like Sara Mynarcik who refused to stay silent.

We will show them the written record. The documentation. The meeting notes. The ignored testimony.

We will prove that we fought for this place with facts, persistence, and the full measure of civic engagement democracy demands.

Your voice matters. Make sure it is heard.

Visit our Resource Library for template letters, public information request forms, and testimony guides. Join our email list to stay informed about upcoming meetings and action opportunities.