Venus City Councilmember Place 5
MIDLOTHIAN – Every city councilmember on any city council normally has a profession outside of community service.
In the case of newly elected Venus City Council member Drew Wilson, his day job is working as a Midlothian Police Officer.
Wilson was elected to the Venus City Council last month to the seat of Place 5.
He has been with the Midlothian Police Department since January of 2020. Prior to joining the Midlothian PD, Wilson worked for the city of Hutchins as a police officer. He began his career in law enforcement in Hutchins in October of 2008.
He moved to Venus with his family when they decided to build a house there in 2017.
“However, my family came to Venus in in the mid 1880’s two brothers Thomas Wilson and James Wilson along with their mother and sister,” Wilson said of his connection with the city where he now sits on the dais.
It was at that time that his family left Tyrone, Illinois searching for a man who had shot and killed their brother George, Wilson explained.
“They eventually bought a farm in the area of 157 and 875, some of the land is still owned by my family today,” he added.
From Venus the family moved over to Midlothian where Wilson grew up in the Mountain Peak area of Midlothian. He attended Midlothian High School.
Looking To Make a Positive Impact
After having sat on the Venus Planning and Zoning Commission as Chairman for almost two years, he decided it was time to run for a city council seat.
“I ran for city council to make a positive change, I felt the citizen’s and employees of the city were not getting the best representation and that multiple city council members had held positions for several years, with minimal improvements,” Wilson said. “I started to voice my opinions and quickly gained support from current and former council members who encouraged me to run. It is easy to tell someone how to do a job, I wanted to do the job.”
Wilson believes, working in law enforcement, will lend itself to his being a good fit in his new position .
“I bring years of experience of being a city employee and understand what things look like from that level,” he explained. “As a police officer I can better explain items in relation to city ordinance, state law, the reasons why the police and fire departments do certain things or need specific equipment and training.”
Addressing Challenges In Venus
In Wilson’s opinion, one of his biggest challenges sitting on the city council will be the Fire Department and budgeting.
That won’t deter him though.
“I would like to see a home rule charter with a council manager government, term limits, more city and community-based events, a full time Fire Department, impact fee for incoming builders for a blue bonnet seeding fund, rebranding of the city, and to stop the good ole boy way of doing business, park improvement, along with infrastructure improvements,” Wilson said.
With the City of Venus currently seeing the same growth spurt other cities in the metroplex have been experiencing Wilson concluded he is ready to dig in. He is eager to help facilitate the necessary changes the city needs at this time.
“Currently the major problem is infrastructure, the city is almost maxed out of water supply and sewage, it is something we are collectively working on resolving and improving and is something completely new to me.”
