McKinney February 2022

PEOPLE Patrick J. Cloutier McKinney City Council member, Place 2 Patrick J. Cloutier won a special election for McKinney City Council Place 2, an at-large seat, on Jan. 15. Cloutier has taken the spot previously held by Frederick Fraizer, who announced his candidacy for Texas House of Representatives District 61 in October. Cloutier is the co-founder of Legacy Planning Group, a nancial advisory rm located in downtown McKinney. He has also served on the McKinney Economic Development Corp. board and the zoning board of adjustments. BY BROOKLYNN COOPER

“I’D LOVE TO SEE MORE PEOPLE BECOME ENGAGED ONA CIVIC LEVEL.” PATRICK J. CLOUTIER, MCKINNEY CITY COUNCIL MEMBER

Patrick J. Cloutier is the newest McKinney City Council member. (Brooklynn Cooper/ Community Impact Newspaper)

WHATAREYOULOOKING FORWARDTOMOSTDURING YOURTIMEONCOUNCIL? I look forward to addressing the issues that are here inMcKinney. There’s a few issues that I bring with me to the council that I’d like to gain resolution on. One of them is that we don’t have a grocery store that’s south of [US] 380, east of Hwy. 5, west of Airport Road and north of Eldorado [Parkway]. To the extent we have poverty, which we do, a lot of that poverty is in that quadrant. And to the extent we have people that don’t have a car to get to a grocery store, chances are excellent they live in that quadrant. There’s a big group of us that have long wanted to bring a grocer there. I want to have a combination of the city and the [McKinney Community Develop- ment Corp.] commission a scientic study to nd out what kind of demand is there for a grocery store there. The other thing that I want to do is I want there to be more aordable housing here inMcKinney. Aordable housing is a slippery word because it doesn’t dene the number. But let me roughly dene it as when I moved to

WHATDOYOUTHINKARETHE BIGGESTCHALLENGESFACING MCKINNEYOVERTHENEXT COUPLEOFYEARS? One of them is that we have an overall housing shortage. There’s 9,200 homes in Stonebridge Ranch. Maybe four or ve dierent days over the past two weeks, there’s been zero for sale. I never thought I would live to see that inMcKinney. In 2001, we had this tech bubble burst, and Nortel was a big employer. Lots of Canadian neighbors lived at Nortel, and all of a sudden they’re all gone, and you’ve got a house for sale on every corner. We were used to that. We aren’t used to this. But if we have a housing problem, we also have a labor problem. We’re doing a great job in Texas and in Collin County and inMcKinney of attracting businesses, but housing people is a dierent challenge. Another opportunity that I’ve been involved in o council and now I’ll be involved on council is the redevelopment of east McKinney. We have a once-in-a-multigen- eration opportunity to do some redevelopment there. That’s an

important challenge for McKinney to get that right. I really look forward to working with all the stakeholders there to get this done correctly. WHATWOULDYOULIKETOSEE FROMTHERESIDENTSTHAT YOUREPRESENT? I have immense respect for what everybody’s gone through with COVID[-19]. I’m so fortunate that I didn’t have young children during this time, but what I want is a couple things. I want them to be engaged as much as their bandwidth will allow it. For those that do have the bandwidth to engage and be part of the solution, I rmly believe that God gave all of us unique abilities that we can use to bless others. And as we’ve gone from a town—when I moved here of 35,000—up to 206,000 now, I’d love to see more people become engaged on a civic level. I don’t knowwhat that means for every individual, but I know that the more people we have with unique abilities that step up to help ... the better the city is going to be.

McKinney, we were a family of ve. My wife didn’t work outside the home. I made a decent income but nothing great, and I want those people to be able to get a foothold here inMcKin- ney. To the extent we have property owners, they are more invested than renters. Renters can be invested but as a group, just not as much. The federal government has a program in the 75069 ZIP code that if you’re a rst-time buyer, there’s a program that many can qualify for that is 0% down and no PMI. PMI in the mortgage world is private mortgage insurance. That can run a few hundred dollars a month as part of your house payment, but that doesn’t happen in this federal deal. So I’d like to see townhomes or condos built in the [75]069 so that we can turn people who are renters into property owners. As a nancial adviser, I know that the genesis of wealth in this country for most of us is homeownership, and that’s harder inMcKinney right now. And it’s going to be harder forever than it was when I came here, but I’d like to help bridge that gap a little bit.

NOTE: ANSWERS MAY HAVE BEEN EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY. TO READ THE FULL Q&A, VISIT COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM.

MCKINNEY EDITION • FEBRUARY 2022