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POWER PLAY UNFOLDING IN COLLEYVILLE

Colleyville power broker Raman Chandler appears to be pulling the strings of Colleyville's City Council.

The council is poised for a 5-0 vote Aug. 18 to approve a settlement of two lawsuits involving Chandler. Chandler had sued Colleyville to keep the city from taking a portion of a private park in one of his subdivisions, Caldwell's Creek, and turning it into a public hiking and biking trail. The city countersued Chandler to force him to give up part of the parkland, which he had promised to donate when Caldwell's Creek was approved in 1993.

After that, Chandler supported three new council candidates - all of whom won - in the May election.

The new council immediately set out to settle the parkland issue, and the proposed settlement is way too favorable for Chandler, long a major player behind the scenes in Colleyville.

Thankfully, Mayor Richard Newton is waving a red flag about the sweetheart deal. He threatens to veto the proposed settlement.

He would be wise to do so.

The Colleyville council members will plead their case to the public, saying that it is foolish to waste precious taxpayers dollars on costly litigation.

Usually they would be right. But sometimes principle is greater than price.

In this case, the sweetheart settlement would appear to make it difficult for Colleyville to ask developers to donate parkland or to pay fees so the city can preserve precious open space.

What's more important for a rapidly developing city than to ensure that future generations may enjoy open space?

With a veto, Newton would isolate himself politically from the five council members. But this is a heroic position worth taking.

The feud between Chandler and Newton is ironic because Chandler originally encouraged Newton to run for City Council in 1989, both said.

Chandler invited Newton to attend a political committee meeting, both said. Chandler then encouraged other members of the committee to support the newcomer, Chandler said.

Chandler, the former owner of the Colleyville newspaper, has built about 500 houses in Colleyville during his career as a developer. He helped lead the city's fight for a half-cent sales tax in 1996 and was a member of a now-disbanded group that called itself the Colleyville Country Club. The group of business leaders had informal monthly meetings to discuss city matters.

"If you notice how Raman works, he's always in there working hard, but he never emerges as a public leader. He hasn't chosen to do that," Newton said.

Chandler's quiet role can no longer be ignored.

In an interview this week, Chandler described how he met with Caldwell's Creek homeowners this year and told them that they had the power to change the city's position about the parkland behind their subdivision.

His comment to the homeowners, he recalled, was, "In cities, it's a lot easier to get things changed with votes than with lawyers and judges."

"If that's power brokering," he said in the interview, "then I guess I'm guilty."

The mayor said, "Are we going to let a developer who has problems with Colleyville swing the weight to get a new council and then swing the vote and do what he wants? That's pork-barrel politics, and it doesn't do any good for the average Joe."

If the settlement is approved, Chandler would not have to pay $7,133 in parkland dedication fees for Caldwell's Creek, and he would be reimbursed $4,652 in fees already paid.

"I can't come up with a rationale for that," Newton said.

The settlement also waives $13,335 in parkland fees that apply to an adjacent Chandler development called the Villas at Caldwell's Creek. But the Villas at Caldwell's Creek is not part of the lawsuits. An added sweet in this sweetheart deal.

Chandler said he believed that the city unfairly wanted to charge him parkland dedication fees and also force him to donate land. He said he wanted to prove in court that this was unconstitutional, but his legal fees would cost $100,000.

It's apparent that this council is taking care of a power broker and friend under the guise of saving legal fees. But what price can be placed on the council's reputation for integrity and independence? Would another developer get the same kind of preferential treatment?

Council members must reconsider their thinking on the proposed settlement. Failing that, Richard Newton must use his veto power. He is correct in his goals to do the most that can be done to build up Colleyville's parks system.

The council might override his veto, but the public would get to determine whether the council bases its decisions on personal relationships or on what is best for the city.

Dave Lieber's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. (817) 685-3830 dlieber@star-telegram.com

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