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The City of Farmers Branch released three additional ethics complaints, with City Attorney David Berman's comments and responses from Mayor Terry Lynne, that were filed in April. All three complaints were rejected by the City Council.
The complaints, dated April 2, April 16 and April 17, were reviewed by the city attorney and presented to council, which declined to open formal investigations in each case.
The Branch Herald is publishing the full complaints, legal memos and responses alongside this story.
The April 2 complaint, filed by resident Vanessa Smith, focuses on campaign-related statements and the mayor’s response to a resident questionnaire. It alleges Lynne misrepresented his role in police recruitment and declined to answer questions, instead directing the resident to prior Branch Herald coverage. The Branch Herald previously published the complaint, but did not receive the attorney letter and the mayor’s response at the time so is including all three documents with this story.
A second complaint, filed April 16, also by Vanessa Smith, focuses on a June 2025 incident at City Hall in which Lynne allegedly entered the deputy city manager’s office, slammed the door and pressured staff for information.
The complaint characterizes the behavior as intimidating and part of a broader pattern involving women and people of color.
Supporting materials include internal email exchanges describing the incident as “unprofessional, intimidating and hostile.”
In his memo, Berman wrote that the allegation, if taken as described, could meet the threshold for a potential violation of the city’s non-interference rule, which requires elected officials to work through the city manager rather than directly directing staff.
However, he also noted the complaint lacked context and did not establish key elements of other claims, including discrimination.
Lynne, in a written response, called the complaint “fundamentally flawed,” arguing it relied on hearsay and that the complainant was not present during the incident. Lynne also noted in his response that Smith "has been disgruntled and dissatisfied with the City of Farmers Branch and Terry Lynne" for several years. He also questioned the timing of the complaints in the midst of the mayoral campaign.
The council declined to move forward with an investigation and rejected the complaint.
Councilmember Tina Bennett-Burton on April 23 explained her reasoning by saying council reviewed the matter on April 7 and took action. The council issued a public reprimand of Lynne on that date following an executive session with no public comment. Read the Branch Herald story here.
A third complaint, filed April 17 by resident John Butler, alleges Lynne made false statements about the authority of a city trailer task force, including whether it could direct a public survey.
In each case, City Attorney David Berman concluded the complaints either did not allege a violation of the city’s ethics code or did not meet the threshold to move forward.
His reviews found:
The April 16 complaint did allege conduct that could fall under the city’s non-interference rule but lacked context and supporting detail to justify further action, according to the memo.
In written responses, Lynne denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated, based on hearsay or rooted in misunderstandings of the mayor’s role and city processes.
The April filings were raised during the current election cycle, following a previous public reprimand issued by the council.
The council’s decisions did not determine whether the alleged conduct occurred, only that the complaints did not warrant further investigation under the city’s ethics ordinance.
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