City Council Seeks to Appoint New Council Member

06-28-2012

Denise Bell
Post Managing Editor

The Forney City Council is currently accepting applications for the Place 2 Council position in the wake of former Council Member, Brian Haughey’s resignation at the June 12th Council meeting, and qualified citizens might want to review the current state of Council positions and then consider their own ability to serve.

City of Forney Mayor, Darren Rozell, Mayor Pro-tem, James Hatley (Place 4) and Council Member, Andy Parker (Place 6), will each come up for re-election in May of 2013, alongside whomever is appointed to complete the remainder of the Place 2 position.

The City Charter states, “The Council shall be composed of Mayor and six Council members, elected by a place system at large, each of whom unless sooner removed under the provisions of this Charter, shall serve for a term of two years and until his successor has been elected and duly qualified. The odd-numbered City Council positions shall be elected in even- numbered years. The even-numbered positions of the City Council and the office of the Mayor shall be elected in odd-numbered years.”

City of Forney Mayor, Darren Rozell, has been on the Council since May 2006. He was a Council Member in the Place 5 position under former Mayor, Darrell Grooms, and vacated the Place 5 position to seek the Mayor’s chair when Grooms declined to run for re-election, and he has now served two terms as Forney’s Mayor.

Mayor Pro-tem, James Hatley, has served on the Council since May 2001 when he was appointed to serve out the remainder of a resigning council member term, and has now served four terms on the Council, running unopposed in each re-election.

And Council Member, Andy Parker, has also served on the Council since 2001. He has successfully campaigned against more than one candidate, in more than one election, and should he seek re-election this will be his sixth term on the Council.

In May 2012 the City held elections for Council Places 1, 3 and 5. Council Member, David Holler, declined to seek re-election to the Place 1 position, and after running unopposed for the position, Darrell Hobbs, became the Place 1 Council Member.

Retaining the Place 3 Council chair, Robbie Powers, again ran unopposed and was re-elected to her fourth term on the Council.

And in a politically heated race that resulted in the City’s first ever run-off election, Council Member, Mary Penn, recently retained the Place 5 council seat to begin her second term on the Council.

The Council conducted an Executive Session at the June 12th meeting after which they approved to immediately begin accepting applications in accordance with City of Forney Charter, 3.05 Forfeitures and Vacancies.

The Mayor and the City Council are specifically governed by the City Charter and the procedures for Council member appointment are very clear regarding any Council member that resigns because he is no longer eligible to serve.

The Forney City Charter states, “Any member of the Council who ceases to possess the required qualifications for office or who is convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude or is convicted of violating Chapter 171 of the Local Government Code concerning conflict of interest, shall forfeit his office. Every forfeiture shall be declared and enforced by a majority of the council. Within thirty days, vacancies in the Council, or the Mayor, shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining Council members, for the unexpired term only and provided the successor shall possess all qualifications for the position.”

Qualifications to serve on the City Council are also very specific within Charter Section 3.02 and state:

“Each member of the City Council shall be a resident citizen of the City of Forney, shall be a qualified voter of the State of Texas, shall have been such resident citizen of the City of Forney for a period of not less than twelve months immediately preceding election day, and shall not, after notice of any delinquency, be in arrears for payment of taxes of other liabilities due the City; provided however, that any person with the above qualifications except as to residence, who shall have been a resident for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding his election, of any of the territory not formerly within the corporate limits of said City, but which is annexed under the provisions of Section 1.04 of this Charter, shall be eligible for said office.”

Currently on the City’s website interested citizens will easily locate the “Application to Serve on the City of Forney City Council”, and should take note that no where in the City Charter are the applicants for City Council required to reveal their employment, nor are they required to give a reason why they would like to serve on the Council.

And most certainly, the Forney City Charter does not require Council applicants to have previously served on any City board or commission, and any implication that applicants need to have previous board or commission experience is absolutely not supported by the Forney City Charter.

It should also be duly noted that the members of the City Council are financially compensated by the taxpayers of Forney. The compensation salaries and reimbursements for the Forney City Council totaled $78,800 in 2011, and are estimated to cost $54,023 in 2012, according to the Fiscal Budget of the City of Forney.

The deadline to submit an application is Friday, June 29, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. and applications, and the Forney City Charter, may be located at www.cityofforney.org