Howardwick government shuts down

Donley County Commissioners will meet at noon this Friday to consider ordering an election in Howardwick after government functions there ground to a halt last week.

The county’s special meeting is the result of a petition presented to Judge John Howard Tuesday morning bearing the signatures of 47 registered voters from Howardwick asking for a special election in the wake of resignations from two aldermen.

Mayor Greta Byars said the resignations last week of Aldermen Eric Riddle and Mac Miller have stopped the city from conducting business.

“The resignations show how much they thought of their city,” Byars told the Enterprise. “They didn’t care if they stopped the city.”

The Howardwick City Council was scheduled to hold its regular meeting last Tuesday, February 13, but earlier that afternoon Riddle and Miller submitted letters of resignation. The council already had one vacancy from former alderman Shelly Williamson’s resignation in December. With only two aldermen remaining in office, Robert Brewster and Doc Holladay, the city lacks a quorum to hold a legal meeting.

Compounding the city’s problems, City Secretary Tammy Jordan also resigned last Thursday, leaving Mayor Byars as the only person available to sign checks, and two signatures are required.

“I can’t pay any bills,” Byars said, noting that the water, power, and trash service for City Hall, the fire department, and the city’s maintenance department may soon be turned off.

The administration padlocked City Hall starting Wednesday, but Byars did open the office through Friday to allow for people to sign up for this May’s election. However, the city council had until last week to formally order the May election and failed to do so before it lost its quorum.

Byars says she has been in touch with the Texas Municipal League, Senator Kel Seliger’s office, the Texas Secretary of State, the city’s attorney, and the district court to determine what the city must do next.

“My biggest care right now is some way to get the city operating to pay bills,” Byars said.

Despite Riddle’s and Miller’s letters of resignation and only having two aldermen present, Mayor Byars proceeded with last Tuesday’s schedule meeting. The lack of a quorum was noted by the Enterprise, but the mayor led the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, allowed a report to be presented on the annual audit, and discussed city business before Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn arrived and stopped the meeting.

Afterwards, several citizens made comments about dissolving the city and “going back to the county.” Byars said this week that there are citizens who have talked about that but said it has never been her suggestion or idea.

Riddle did not give a reason for resigning in his letter last week, but Miller wrote that he was leaving “due to differences of opinion on the running and management of the city.”

Jordan wrote that she resigned as city secretary because of a hostile work environment and “being constantly belittled and frequently accused of being a liar and a thief” and said Byars had been “hateful and nasty…since the moment she was sworn in.”

Byars said Tuesday that she has spent the better part of three months going through city records looking over the way things have been done in the past while her opponents have tried to make her life difficult.

Judge Howard said Tuesday that the resignations of Riddle and Miller become effective eight days after they were received, regardless of whether the city council could accept them.

However, Howard also said that under state law, an official continues to serve in office until their successor is in place and that the district judge could order those men to attend a meeting so that government could function pending an election.