The contest for the Place 3 seat on the Allen City Council matches a one-term incumbent against a former member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. In a close call, we tip to Dave Cornette, the incumbent.
Cornette, 54, is not someone we could have recommended three years ago. He was part of a slate of candidates known as “the three D’s” — Cornette, Dave Shafer and Daren Meis — who got voted into office in 2021 pledging to push for a no-new-revenue tax rate. That rate generates about the same amount of tax revenue from properties that were also taxed the previous year. The bloc’s doctrinaire position generated tension at City Hall, where officials had to trim expenses on things like street repairs to buy down the tax rate.
Cornette, an Army veteran, ran with the backing of the ultraconservative group We the People Allen and drew attention during his first campaign for a 2011 Facebook post in which he shared a joke about killing Muslims shouting “anti-American slogans.” He told us he regretted the post and that since his first election, he had visited mosques in Plano and Allen and attended the funeral of a local Muslim family to pay his respects.
He said his thinking on city policy has evolved. The last city budget was passed with a tax rate higher than the no-new-revenue rate, and Cornette said the NNR won’t be feasible every year. He highlighted council approval of a 5% homestead exemption and spoke enthusiastically about his work in a regional mobility group, efforts to revitalize downtown Allen and city investments in parks and trails.
Cornette told us he had wondered three years ago “why we were wasting money on this stuff” but had come around because of community support for parks. Even his main opponent, Ken Cook, credited Cornette for moving away from the We the People Allen banner.
Cook, 53, impressed us with his résumé and knowledge of city policy. A registered cardiovascular invasive specialist, Cook served three years on Allen’s Planning and Zoning Commission and has participated in multiple civic leadership groups. He strongly opposes the NNR and said the city is making appropriate investments in parks and infrastructure.
Under Allen term limits, council members can run for two consecutive three-year terms. We take Cornette at his word that he has grown in the job and recommend that voters send him back for one more term. If Cornette prevails, we urge Cook to run again in three years.
Also running is Saad Hamid, an IT professional.
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