Merkel City Manager terminated following special city council meeting

KTXS 12 ABC
by Karina Hollingsworth
Tue, April 18th 2023, 9:47 AM CST

MERKEL, Texas — Residents of Merkel showed up to Heritage Hall in big numbers seeking change and searching for answers.

Merkel City Council meetings are normally held on the second Monday of each month. This special meeting held on the third Monday of this month was called to order to discuss the City Manager Steven McKay being accused of sexual harassment and creating a toxic work environment.

Multiple residents addressed city council with their concerns. One concerned citizen was Amanda Kleiner who wanted to know who was responsible for the background checks.

“We have lots of women in this community and my concerns are everybody has to go through the city in some way or form,” Kleiner said. “My concerns are for the ones who are too afraid to speak up, the ones that don’t feel like they are going to be listened to.”

After city council heard everyone’s concerns about McKay, they requested everyone to leave the room so they could have a closed discussion about the fate of the City Manager’s employment.

The city council members deliberated for over two hours. The fed-up residents of Merkel anxiously waited outside the city hall doors to hear the verdict.

Future mayor candidate Deana Conklin was one of the concerned residents waiting outside to hear the results.

“I’m going to stay until it comes in because this is our community,” Conklin said. ”This is the place that we all love and call home, it’s important to us. Everybody here has a stake in it. We’re dedicated and we’re going to be out here as long as it takes. We will go get something to eat, get cokes and sleeping bags if that’s how long it takes.”

Ultimately, the city council members terminated McKay’s employment.

“I’m not talking to you, just go on,” McKay exclaimed.

After discussing the fate of McKay’s job in a closed session for more than 2 hours city council members voted to terminate the City Manager. Scott Strange believes the decision was the right one.

“I wouldn’t want my family working around nothing like that, in that environment,” Strange said. “I mean no one should have to work in that environment.

We reached out to the mayor and city attorney of Merkel, TX and we have yet to hear back from them.

McKay immediately left City Hall after to hearing the fate of his employment and chose not to comment.