Councilmember Lindsay Buhler
I’ve only had few interactions with Lindsay Buhler.
Lindsay was not on the council when Jeff lied, or when the council voted to amend the by-laws per Jeff’s request to transfer authority over the SEDC under the City Manager.
Lindsay has no first-hand knowledge of those events, and she had no culpability in them, but she is culpable for continuing the coverup that started under Mike Felix's reign as Mayor.
Lindsay and I ran against each other for Place 5 on the council in 2022. We both ran very civil campaigns focused on ourselves and I had no animosity toward her. After she won I congratulated her in a Facebook message and told her I had high hopes and best wishes for her.
As I said in my blog entry about running for council, I did go into the race with some concern that she would be susceptible to trusting the side of the council which I did not feel was trustworthy, simply because those were the councilmembers she knew best prior to running.
My first interaction with Lindsay as a councilmember was when I sent emails to all of the councilmembers on April 24th of 2024, almost two years after she had been elected.
You can read all of my emails with Lindsay here.
In that first email, I stated:
“There is an objective truth about what happened and you should want to find it. Otherwise you are allowing yourself to be kept in the dark where you can be manipulated by lies.”
I had also stated "Think back on why you began serving the city. Was it to solve problems, or was it to ignore problems? Was it to serve the citizens of Sachse, or was it to serve Jeff Bickerstaff?"
I was hoping to open the councilmember’s eyes to the fact that they had been kept in the dark, and prod them to investigate what had happened.
As a brief aside, I’d like to point out that in my communications with the council I have repeatedly asked them to find the truth for themselves. I didn’t need them to believe what I was telling them, because I knew the evidence of the lies and misconduct exists and leads to an inescapable conclusion that Jeff had lied and that the council had been manipulated. I just needed them to open their eyes and talk honestly about what had happened.
Lindsay did not reply to that email.
The next day I sent another email, with a copy of my complaint against Jeff attached, and I offered to resubmit the complaint officially if she needed me to.
Lindsay replied later that day.
In that reply she stated "I do remember the situation as a resident and attended the meeting in which you formally addressed this with the previous council after being removed from the EDC Board of Directors." Her statement is slightly incorrect as I had filed the complaint before I was removed from the Board of Directors.
She went on, "It is my sincere belief that this complaint has been addressed by the previous City Council and legal representation."
She was incorrect in this assertion as well to a much larger degree. In the days prior to these emails I had received confirmation from the City Secretary that the City Council had never taken up my complaint, per the response the Secretary had sent from the City Attorney. You can read those emails here and here.
The city's "legal representation" had only determined that the council had no "legal obligation" to address the complaint, but the city's Home Rule Charter (like a Constitution for the city) grants the City Council the authority to investigate the conduct of its officers. They had the authority to investigate the complaint I had filed, but they had no legal obligation to do so.
Lindsay went on in her email, "I agree whole heartedly that integrity, honesty and community service is the foundation of why we volunteer for our city."
She continued:
"I know this is deeply personal for you and I hope you can find resolution. We have 30,000+ people that call Sachse home and I have a fiduciary duty to spend tax dollars wisely for the greater good. This issue has been talked about for 3 years and I hope we can all find a place to move forward together for our community. "
She hoped I could "find resolution" but she wasn't going to help resolve it. I don't know what her "fiduciary duty" has to do with my complaint, as it wouldn't have cost the city any money to put it on a meeting agenda to address it. I suspect Lindsay couldn't think of an actual good reason for not investigating it so she just through an excuse out. While she was right that this issue had been talked about for three years the council had not spent one second discussing what Jeff had done. I alone had been talking about this issue. Lindsay's message about "moving forward" is a recurring theme in messages from council members. It's clear to me that what they mean is they want to "move forward without holding Jeff accountable for his lies". No looking backward to investigate the lies Jeff had told. Only moving forward with no accountability.
I replied to Lindsay's email, and I attached the correspondence from the City Attorney and City Secretary showing that the council had not addressed my complaint.
I implored her to investigate the complaint:
"Ignoring the complaint is not nearly the same as addressing the complaint. Nobody brought it forward for discussion. They've ignored it. Because they know the truth is damning to Jeff Bickerstaff.
You will hear multiple reasons from people on the inside why you should not investigate this matter, but they are all just to cover up the fact that they don't want his lies exposed in public. I have nothing to hide. He does.
Investigate and find the truth, or let it be covered up. Those are your choices."
She did not reply to that email.
I sent her a follow-up later that day, clarifying that I didn't find any fault in her for not knowing that my complaint had not been addressed. She had trusted what she had been told. I ended that email by imploring her to make the right decision at that point, "Now you have been asked to advocate for an investigation. Now you have a choice to make as a public official."
She did not reply to that email.
I gave her time to process the situation. Seven months later I emailed her again, on December 11th of 2024.
I asked her to explain how she had come to believe my complaint had been addressed by the council, and asked her if she had taken any steps to investigate or address the complaint.
I also advised her, "Ignoring it is not a resolution, and anybody who is advocating for this issue to be ignored is doing so to protect Jeff Bickerstaff and others from being held accountable for their misconduct."
Lindsay replied later that day, but she made no attempt to answer the question. She refused to address my complaint, saying "My response to you remains the same as in our previous correspondence. My focus will continue to be on current city business and progress." No looking backward to investigate the lies Jeff had told. Only moving forward with no accountability.
I replied back to Lindsay, critical of her refusal to answer my questions about how she had been misled about the status of my complaint, "Is that not a huge red flag for you that something is being covered up? And your refusal to answer a simple question is just one more instance of a councilmember covering up the misconduct."
I went on, "If the answer was simple you'd have given it. You know you were misled, and you are just letting it be swept under the rug."
I implored her to address the lies, "Please rethink your position. You need to serve with integrity, and you need to demand integrity of others."
She did not reply to that email.
I sent her a follow-up just a few minutes later, with a screenshot of my Facebook comment thread with Councilmember Matt Prestenberg who had also been misled about the status of my complaint, to show her that she wasn't the only person being manipulated into believing my complaint had been addressed. You can read that comment thread with Matt here.
She did not reply to that email.
On January 3rd of 2025 I sent her a brief email offering to meet with her to go over the evidence of Jeff's misconduct.
She did not reply to that email.
No looking backward to investigate the lies Jeff had told. Only moving forward with no accountability.
On February 13th I sent Lindsay (and the rest of the council and some city staff) an email pointing out the lies and leading them to the recordings which showed I was correct about what had happened. I advised them “If we all act with integrity to find the truth, share that truth openly with the citizens, and hold people accountable for any misconduct they've committed in their official positions, then we can put this matter behind us.“
She did not reply to that email.
In Lindsay's write-up in the Sachse News' "Voter's Guide", Lindsay said "My life is guided by integrity, faith, service, and humility." Is Lindsay displaying integrity when she refuses to explain how she was misled into believing my complaint had been addressed, or by refusing to investigate the lies and misconduct that I reported in that complaint? Is she serving the community, or is she serving Jeff Bickerstaff by protecting him from scrutiny and accountability?
If you think it is okay for councilmembers to ignore the lies and misconduct in the city’s government, then keep voting for incumbents like Lindsay Buhler who have stonewalled this investigation for years.