No settlement: dispute between Mineral Wells, former mayor fails to meet Sept. 1 deadline

Weatherford Democrat
By Glenn Evans gevans@weatherforddemocrat.com
September 4, 2023

FORT WORTH — A nearly 4-year-old lawsuit between Mineral Wells and a former mayor missed its third deadline to reach a settlement on Friday.

Instead, the city told Federal Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth to put the dispute with former mayor Christopher Perricone back on schedule for trial.

The city also asked the judge, in its Aug. 25 motion, to simply dismiss the case.

Four days later, on Tuesday, Perricone’s attorney asked O’Connor to let him withdraw as Perricone’s counsel.

“Beshara and Plaintiff have a difference of opinion regarding the strategy going forward for this civil action, which is irreconcilable,” the lawyer wrote. “Therefore, Beshara can no longer represent Plaintiff adequately or in accordance with Plaintiff’s authorization.”

Beshara filed a similar motion on Thursday, again describing the impasse to settlement that led to the previous delays in the suit Perricone filed in October 2019.

That logjam centers on a disagreement over what each side agreed to during an April 10 settlement conference.

According to the city and Perricone, the former mayor said he’d drop the case if the city either paid $2,500, or for $1 if the city council formally rescinded a reprimand the 2019 council gave the then-mayor.

The sides depart, however, in exactly what happened next.

The city adamantly holds that it chose the $2,500 route which kept the censure in place. Perricone, through a Beshara motion in late spring, recalled the agreement as including a city council vote in open session to reject the $1/reprimand-retraction option.

Nothing evidently changed since the latest deadline extension on June 30. The city’s Aug. 25 filing lays it out:

“Plaintiff’s refusal to respond regarding the latest draft of the settlement agreement, even though it includes virtually every revision requested by Plaintiff, leads Defendant to conclude that there was apparently no meeting of the minds between Plaintiff and Defendant as to the settlement of this case at the April 10, 2023, settlement conference,” the city told the court.

“Defendant therefore respectfully asks,” it continues, “that the court reset this case on its trial docket.”

It concludes by asking the judge to take up motions previously on hold pending the settlement. Those were motions to dismiss the case or rule in the city’s favor now.

The 2019 reprimand was the result of an investigator’s conclusion Perricone overstepped his authority by dealing directly with city staff below the city manager level.

The probe by Arlington attorney James Jeffrey Jr. also cleared Perricone of one complaint and found 10 others were not backed up by his investigation.

Both Perricone, who was mayor in 2018 and 2019, and city representatives were invited via email to comment for this story.