Candidate Name: Mike Olivarez
Anna City Council: Place 3
Contact Information:
- E-mail: MikeServesAnna@gmail.com
- Campaign Cell Number: (945) 527-0748
Interviewer: G. Brown
Date: February 23, 2026
Time: 7:45 – 9:00am
Location: Country Charm Coffee
Why do you want to become a City Council Member?
Mr. Olivarez desires to continue his long history in servant leadership by becoming an Anna City Council Member. Mike shared his priority of and commitment to putting the people of Anna first.
Mr. Olivarez has a great affinity for the community that is the City of Anna and a commitment to work with residents from a grass roots approach to identify, pursue, and obtain goals of the community members. Mike shared his awareness that residents of Anna have the following concerns and is committed to not only address these matters as a City Council Member, but to work with other governmental entities as appropriate to access resources and obtain solutions.
- Traffic infrastructure
- Quality of water supplied to the public
- Excessive approval and building of apartments
Mr. Olivarez believes that his extensive history of community service and leadership has prepared him to successfully serve our Anna Neighbors as a City Council Member. As evidence, he offered his history of servant leadership across many organizations some of which include the following:
- Member Anna’s Board of Adjustment (2023-2024)
- Certified Foster Parent
- Commander of the Anna American Legion Post #194 (6-years)
- North Point HOA Board Member (4-years)
- Anna Chamber of Commerce Ambassador
- Attended and participated in:
- Anna Neighbor Academy
- Anna Leadership Class
- Anna ISD:
- Ambassador Class
- Substitute Teacher
- Safety and Security Committee Member
- Rosamond-Shirley Elementary PTA Member
- Susan E. Rattan Elementary PTA Board Member
As a Resident and Candidate for City Council:
What is one thing in Anna for which you are particularly appreciative or proud and will work diligently to maintain or further develop as a City Council Member?
Mr. Olivarez shared his deep appreciation for Anna’s ability to grow while still preserving the qualities that make it special. He noted that over the past decade of rapid development Anna has maintained its “hometown feeling,” strong sense of community, and connected-ness among residents that has long defined the city. Mike further emphasized that keeping that spirit alive has been an important part of the city’s progress.
Mike shared that he will be proactive and work diligently, as a City Council Member, to foster the continuation of this strong sense of community and small/hometown feeling as an integral part of Anna’s future. Mike is highly motivated to stay accessible to, engaged with, and know the vision residents have for Anna. Further, he shared the high value he places on collaborating with neighborhood groups and homeowner associations to plan more intentionally, support community activities, and better infuse energy and resources into our community.
As a City Council Member:
What one thing currently going well in Anna (other than prior answer), will you work diligently to continue?
Candidate Olivarez is particularly proud of how the City of Anna has met the needs of city staff. He elaborated by identifying the provision of quality facilities such as:
- The Anna Municipal Building
- Fire Station #1
- Fire Station #2
Mike also shared that as a City Council Member, he will work diligently to:
- Meet the needs of city staff
- Plan for future city facilities
- Dedicate a Veterans’ park or a section of an existing city park
As a City Council Member:
What is one thing currently not going well in Anna, that you will work diligently to improve?
How will that look or change for you to consider it resolved and a positive for the Anna Community?
As outlined earlier, Mr. Olivarez identified the following matters as not meeting the needs of Anna residents and following the expressed concerns of residents, prioritizes them as issues he will work diligently to improve:
- Quality of water supplied to the public
- Traffic infrastructure
- Excessive approval and building of apartments
Further, Mr. Olivarez shared that he believes the City of Anna needs to be more proactive and better plan the allocation of city resources. In doing so he sees the need for the City Council to be more connected and increase communication with individuals in the community through multiple avenues some of which may include:
- Homeowners’ associations
- Neighborhood groups
- Organized community social organizations and activities
What Leadership Skills or Attributes do you have that will fill a need and improve the functioning of the City Council?
Mr. Olivarez is confident that his leadership skills, gained and demonstrated across multiple volunteer organizations, will facilitate the City Council in functioning more effectively. He, as an example, describes self as able to identify distractors from the matter at hand during team discussions and assertively speak up to bring the team and dialogue back in alignment with the agenda topic in an effective manner.
As a City Council Member, he will also seek out and listen to the ideas, thoughts, and perspectives of our Anna Neighbors. Following this, he will share the information with the other City Council Members, problem-solve, and focus on working collaboratively in considering the appropriate action to be taken. Mike also shared that he has become skilled at organizing, prioritizing, delegating, and monitoring progress and such skills will also support the Council in functioning well for Anna residents.
Tell me of a time that you worked on a dysfunctional Board/Commission/Committee as a Member of such and facilitated a change for that Board/Commission/Committee to:
- Work together collaboratively and respectfully
- Follow laws, policies, and procedures
- Serve its mission well
Mr. Olivarez has had the experience of working as a member of a *dysfunctional leadership team. He described a difficult situation during a committee meeting in which the team became ineffective in processing the agenda item as a team. He was crucial in recognizing the dysfunction causing the problem, drawing the team back together in identifying what was needed to get in alignment with the agenda item topic, and work collaboratively to problem solve.
Mr. Olivarez noted the following skills of his as crucial in facilitating a leadership team to be effective and serve its mission well:
- Facilitating focused discussion of the topic at hand
- Recognizing and assertively addressing unrelated problems and/or conversational distractions
- Facilitating collaboration in identifying solutions which will bring the dialogue back to an effective and efficient process and ultimately serve the mission of the committee.
Tell me about your familiarity with and/or implementation of:
1) The Home Rule Charter
2) Resolutions & Policies of Anna (i.e., Resolution # 2010-11-05)
Candidate Olivarez is aware of the Home Rule Charter and is currently reviewing and studying the Charter to become well informed as to how it distributes the roles and responsibilities of different entities within the City of Anna. Similarly, he is aware that the City of Anna has active Policies and Resolutions of which he is reviewing and studying in order to be and informed and productive City Council Member.
*Note: For the residents and voters in the City of Anna, Texas, and other interested readers, the following sections of the Home Rule Charter are provided below (The full document is available on the website for the City of Anna):
Preamble
Form of Government
PREAMBLE
We the citizens of Anna, Texas in order to establish a home-rule municipal government, provide for the future progress of our City, obtain more fully the benefits of local self-government, and provide for the public welfare, adopt this Charter in accordance with the Constitution and statutes of the State of Texas; we further declare the residents of the City of Anna, in Collin County, Texas living within its legally established boundaries, to be a political subdivision of the State of Texas, incorporated forever under the name and style of the “City of Anna” with such powers, rights, privileges, authorities, duties, and immunities, as are provided in this Charter.
ARTICLE 1. FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND BOUNDARIES
1.01. Form of Government
The municipal government provided by this Charter is the “Council-Manager Government”. Under its provisions, and subject only to the limitations imposed by the State Constitution, the statutes of this State, and by this Charter, all powers of the City are vested in an elective council, referred to as the “City Council.” The City Council may enact local legislation, adopt budgets, determine policies, and appoint the City Manager, who is responsible to the City Council for the execution of the laws and the administration of the City government. All City powers must be exercised in accordance with this Charter, or if the manner is not prescribed in this Charter, then in accordance with City ordinances and state and federal law.