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Southlake political signs raise racial, free speech controversy
By Jasmin Brown, jbrown@acnpapers.com
Last Saturday, signs criticizing Southlake City Council Place 1 candidate Shahid Shafi were placed at various intersections around town and have ignited racial and free speech controversy.
One of the signs criticizes Shafi's stance against natural gas drilling in Southlake, saying specifically that drilling could generate up to $50 million in revenue for Carroll ISD. Another sign criticizes Shafi for accepting sizable out-of-town donations and lists 13 out-of-town donors who contributed $750 or more to Shafi's campaign --- this sign has become a subject of racial controversy, as all names listed are Middle Eastern in origin.
The signs were paid for by former Southlake City Councilman Greg Standerfer. Standerfer is listed as a supporter of Martin Schelling, the other candidate vying for Place 1, on Schelling's campaign website www.martinforcitycouncil.com. Standerfer said he is not affiliated with Schelling's campaign. Standerfer said a total of 19 signs were put out with eight each referring to loss of school district and city revenues that would have been generated by gas drilling and three in regards to out-of-town donors to Shafi's campaign.
"Regardless of whether donors will admit it or not campaign donations are made to secure influence or access to a political figure, and regardless of whether office holders will admit it or not, they remember large donors when they appear before them" Standerfer said. "I am concerned that out-of-town donors would have given so much to support a local-volunteer position."
According to Shafi's campaign finance reports, 61 of the 114 contributions to his campaign are listed as having been made by donors outside of Southlake. Schelling's campaign finance reports list seven of his 46 contributors as living outside of Southlake.
In a written statement, Shafi, a physician, called the signs "negative and personal attacks."
"The donors being attacked on these signs are our family, friends and fellow doctors, including my brother," Shafi said. "Some of them live out of town. These people are rooting for us for they see this campaign as yet another opportunity to give back to the city and the country that has given us so much."
Schelling said the appearance of the signs on Saturday caught him completely by surprise.
"I was probably as surprised as Shahid was," Schelling said. "I didn't know anything about them."
Schelling said that while he realizes the signs are an expression of the right to free speech, he personally finds them distasteful.
"That's not my style," Schelling said.
Free speech
A few residents spoke during the public forum at the Southlake City Council meeting Tuesday night to voice their disapproval of the signs listing out-of-town Shafi donors, saying that they are racially discriminatory as they omit names of other prominent donors without Middle Eastern sounding names.
Mayor John Terrell also addressed rumors that a present city council member had prior knowledge of the signs before they were put up by asking each council member present (Mayor Pro Tem Laura Hill was absent) whether he or she had knowledge of the signs before they went up. Each council member said they did not have any prior knowledge of the matter.
Terrell said that although the council frowns upon the signs, they are powerless to regulate their content.
"We do not condone negative signs as a city, but we do not have the ability to regulate the content of those signs under freedom of speech," Terrell said.
City attorney Allen Taylor said political speech is the most highly protected speech and that city officials' hands are tied in regards to regulating its content.
"If it relates to an election and it is political speech, it is considered ultimately privileged," Taylor said. "We are absolutely forbidden to regulate content of political speech. There could be a sign posted in a campaign supporting Adolf Hitler and the Aryan nation and it is absolutely protected."
Gas drilling
Natural gas drilling remains a controversial subject in Southlake as XTO Energy Inc. recently announced plans to abandon the city's only approved drilling site at the Milner Ranch, which was under a temporary restraining order after the group Southlake Taxpayers Against Neighborhood Drilling (S.T.A.N.D.) filed a lawsuit against the city challenging the approval of the site.
Shafi voted against recommending approval for the Milner site last November when he was a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and has been clear on his stance that he does not think urban drilling is in the best interest of Southlake or its residents.
Standerfer said he does not own any mineral rights and that his primary reason for supporting gas drilling is the benefit it would provide to Carroll ISD and the city if they were allowed to develop their mineral rights.
"I simply want to get both sides of the story out," Standerfer said.
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