Michael Byrum-Bratsen

05/02/2021

Thank you to everyone who showed up to vote. Local elections have such an impact on our daily lives, and I am humbled that you have trusted me to be your mayor for another two years. I am committed to continuing to work hard for all of Iowa Colony over the next two years. More growth and change will come to our city, and I will ensure that we are ready.

Congratulations to the new Councilmembers Elect. I look forward to working with them to keep Iowa Colony a strong and thriving city.

04/30/2021

Big thanks to all the people who have said publicly and privately that they have already voted for me. Your votes are truly appreciated. Tomorrow is Election Day and polls are open from 7-7. You can vote at any vote center in the county, the closest one will be City Hall.

I’m looking forward to serving you all for another two years as your Mayor of this amazing city.

04/28/2021

An update of HB 545. Last month Chief of Police Aaron Bell and I went to Austin to testify before the Land and Resource Management Committee on the importance of this bill. We explained how 288 runs inside and outside of the city multiple times and how this has caused and still causes problems with emergency dispatching and response as well as myriad other issues. We also explained how allowing us to annex the remaining portions of the highway that are in the ETJ into the city limits will fix these problems almost immediately. Today this bill was unanimously voted out of committee with a favorable recommendation. Next step is to convince the full house and senate. Thanks again to Ed Thompson for drafting and championing this bill.

04/22/2021

Exciting news! After months of discussions with TxDOT, they have just approved us for traffic signals on Meridiana Pkwy at 288 on both sides of the overpass. Installation is expected to begin in 6 months. These will be temporary cable based with the permanent masts installed after completion of the second span of Meridiana Parkway. This is a needed and overdue project and will bring even more safety to Iowa Colony drivers and pedestrians.

04/22/2021

Just voted. Remember that early voting is going on now with Election Day on May 1. Let’s keep our growth going, our citizens safe, and our city financially secure.

04/20/2021

Last night we received and accepted our 2020 financial audit. The city received an “unmodified” opinion, the highest level of confidence from an auditor. In addition, for the first time the city completed all recommendations from the previous year relating to internal financial controls, cash handling, and systems of redundancy and received no recommendations for change. This is a big deal, Iowa Colony is now operating at the highest financial level. Big thanks to our finance department and other staff! The audits are available to the public at the following link.

In an effort to increase financial transparency and keep the residents informed about how tax dollars are being spent, the City of Iowa Colony Finance Department, in accordance with the Texas Comptroller's Office, the following information is presented.

04/18/2021

These past two years have seen a great change in Iowa Colony, and I want to point out some of those changes that have been made. Below is a list of some of my accomplishments that are in addition to the creation of the city’s first comprehensive master plan and the passage of our charter establishing home rule.

Not only were we able to plan for the future and make needed improvements now, services are expanding while staying in budget and reducing the property tax rate. In addition to a new homestead exemption, the average homeowner saw the equivalent of a 7 cent tax rate decrease.

Police Department:
* Brought the police department up to 24 hours per day, and ensured increased standards of hired officers.
* All officers now carry less-than-lethal alternatives.
* Officers will soon begin carrying and receive state training for administration of Narcan for opioid overdoses and epinephrin for severe allergic reactions.
* Trained in bleeding control and CPR with AED use and AEDs are carried on all units
* Funded a third party review of racial profiling policies as well as annual third party audits of the department’s performance in regard to racial profiling. These reports are available on the website.
* Started a communications center for dispatching our officers to calls instead of relying on the county sheriff’s office

Website:
* Built a new website from the ground up that provides greater transparency through easy access to city information, event calendars, departmental forms, and allows the city to get information out to the public such as meetings and notices.

Administration:
* Created new services to provide for the growing demand on the city. Finance, Animal Control, Code Compliance, Fire Marshal, Public Works, and Dispatch are all providing for the new needs of our city and will continue to grow as new services begin or are brought local from the county.

Financial Reform
* Implementation of a city homestead exemption
* Creation of dedicated operating reserves
* Creation of a capital improvement fund for large scale future projects

03/29/2021

With about 2 months to hurricane season remember to sign up for alerts with the following:

Urgent city alerts
https://www.iowacolonytx.gov/subscribe

Emergency alerts
https://www.iowacolonytx.gov/police-department/pages/emergency-notification-system

03/22/2021

As part of my public safety platform, Chief of Police Aaron Bell and I will be testifying before the House Land and Resource Management Committee in favor of HB 545 on Tuesday morning. This bill fixes a problem that arose when the previous legislature effectively eliminated the ability of cities to annex new land. Specifically, this bill will allow Iowa Colony to annex the remainder of SH 288 and SH 6 within our ETJ into the city limits for the sole purpose of improving emergency response and safety within our city. No private land is included in this bill, only state owned rights-of-way.

Over the years, we have seen a huge disparity in incident response times for the areas within and without the city limit along the two highways (check out city maps to see how broken up the city limit is where 288 is concerned).

Firstly, the sheriffs office has a hard time determining who’s jurisdiction the incident is within. Secondly, if the incident is within the city limit, they receive Iowa Colony services with response times of around 5 minutes or less. Areas within County jurisdiction have seen response times up to 45 minutes, especially at night.

This is an important bill for our city and I will be aggressively representing Iowa Colony’s needs to the state legislature. I will be posting a transcript of our testimony afterward.

03/21/2021

Yesterday I had the privilege of vaccinating people at a mass vaccination site. Seeing thousands and thousands of people eager and excited to do their part to protect themselves and others brought a renewed sense of hope about an end to this pandemic. Between first and second doses we vaccinated 6,000 people! Make sure to get vaccinated too when it is your turn.

03/10/2021

As many of you know, Governor Abbot’s new executive order goes into effect today that eliminates COVID-19 restrictions within Texas. There is no scientific backing for this decision and it goes against all CDC guidance.

I want to make a personal plea that you continue to wear your mask and social distance. As of today, Texas is only 8.58% vaccinated. That is an unacceptable rate to be going back to business as usual. It is simply still too soon. If you are unvaccinated, you can still contract and spread the virus.

We are so close to the end of this. Let’s not mess up the progress we are making. Be safe and stay healthy.

03/06/2021

Signs are in! Please message me to get one to show your support.