City council candidate holds meet and greet

By BRITTAN FHOLER 

Cove Leader-Press 

Copperas Cove City Council Place 7 candidate Theresa Deans held a meet and greet at Grill Daddy Saturday afternoon, where she was able to connect with potential voters and supporters in a casual setting. 

The meet and greet was held from noon to 2 p.m. and saw several people make their way into the back room to enjoy some food and learn about one of the candidates for Copperas Cove city council. 

Deans spoke individually with people as they came in. One couple stopped in for less than 10 minutes to briefly get to know Deans’ stance on issues such as the old, rundown buildings in town, FATHOM, and the Business 190 median project. 

Deans has spoken up during the citizens’ forum at Copperas Cove City Council meetings against FATHOM and the Business 190 median project several times before. 

Deans shared with several of the people at the meet and greet that she and her husband were both retired homeowners and that she had no financial motivation to vote a certain way on issues. 

“It’s my personal opinion, in my observations, that I feel that sometimes when issues are being voted on the city council, that the decisions made at some point will benefit the business owners on the city council,” Deans later said. “If it doesn’t benefit the citizen, then it should not be voted on just to benefit in some way the business owners down the road.”

Deans asked each person at the meet and greet two questions: what they love about Copperas Cove and what bugs them about Copperas Cove.

“I want to be known as the little city with the big heart,” Deans said. “I think we do have a big heart here, we just don’t show it very well.”

Deans is running against Jack Smith for Place 7 on the Copperas Cove City Council, to fill the unexpired term left behind when Charlie Youngs resigned last month. A special election will be held the same day as the general election on November 5. 

Deans said she chose to run for Place 7 because it felt right. 

“It just felt right,” Deans said. “At that moment, I said, you know this is my chance to really speak up.”

Deans touched on a previous council meeting, where citizens spoke during a public hearing against an issue and council members voted the opposite of what the citizens wanted. 

“I understand majority wins the vote. I got that, and if I’m elected and I vote nay on an issue, the reason for that will be because I don’t feel in my heart that this is the right thing to do for the citizens themselves, and it may be an unpopular vote and I may lose that battle,  but at least I will have spoken up for everybody else,” Deans said. “Because sometimes I feel there’s no one to speak for the rest of us. That bothers me. I want to speak for everybody. I want to fight for our city.”

Deans said she decided to hold the meet and greet for a chance to get to know her fellow residents. 

“I’ve talked to a lot of people online, and a lot of people have heard me speak at city council and I get, you know, Facebook contacts, but nobody really knows my face and I don’t know their face,” Deans said. “I want to put some faces and names together, so I know who I’m talking about.” 

Deans said she hopes to hold another meet and greet sometime in October, with a day and time and location to be announced at a later date. 

Deans will be participating in the upcoming Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum on October 2, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at 508 S. 2nd Street.