Mineral Wells clerk declares petition drive to oust mayor pro tem 'sufficient'

Weatherford Democrat
By Glenn Evans, gevans@weatherforddemocrat.com
December 31, 2023

MINERAL WELLS — City Clerk Sharon McFadden will deliver a petition to council members on Tuesday on which she verified sufficient names to recall Mayor Pro Tem Doyle Light.

“Details will be in the council packet for Jan. 2, which will be posted to our website (Friday),” McFadden wrote in an email on Thursday.

Petition organizer Josh Holm welcomed the clerk’s news last week. He said the petition movements in the city bring a growing discontent with recent council actions to the elected officials’ attention.

“We got 491 (signatures), and certified we had 460,” he said, noting the petition needed 399 registered voters in Light’s Ward 4 to meet the city charter’s 25 percent recall benchmark. “Sometimes, without complaints there’s no corrections.”

Light said when the petition drive began he would withhold comment until it was validated and he’d reviewed it.

McFadden’s verification on Tuesday will require the council to place Light on the May 4 ballot. His term is set to expire in May 2025.

He would be the second council member facing recall that Saturday. Ward 1 Councilman Jerrel Tomlin was targeted in a petition drive during the fall.

Holm said he was recruited to lead Light’s petition because he is a Ward 4 resident. The people who asked the community advocate to take the lead largely are members of a Facebook group led by Terri Glidewell, who spearheaded the drive on Tomlin.

Holm did not know if that grass roots group was planning to target another council member next.

“As a (ward) resident, mine was Ward 4 — this is my target,” he said. “Everything else would be put on that other group that I’m in but not a part of.”

He was also complimentary of McFadden and her staff who ushered the drive through its steps.

“The city worked with me in the whole process,” he said. “It’s exciting to see the numbers coming in.”

He also indicated volunteers who scattered across Ward 4, basically the southwest part of town, reported others share his discontent.

“(Residents) were appalled at some of the mistrust that’s happening with some of the city undertakings,” he said. “People are scared that they are going to be deprived of their property.”

Those undertakings include, but are not limited to, a month-old water rate hike that will tally 148 percent in the coming five years.

The council took that action, guided by water and sewer rate consulting engineers, to back a $277.9 million loan it is seeking to build Turkey Peak Reservoir, replace a 60-year-old water treatment plant that’s under a state violation notice, and other infrastructure.

The 2022 hiring of a new trash company, and what Holm described as a lack of initiative to find other ways to bring in revenue, also represent decisions he said were made unilaterally.

“So these people, these elected officials — what are they doing to bring in revenue to the city?” he asked.

Holm acknowledged, though, that few if any residents spoke during public hearings held on this year’s spending plan, including the tax and utility rates in the then-proposed budget.

“That will be something I need to be more involved in, is where is the money going?” he said.

Holm also addressed criticism that signature gatherers were imported, not Mineral Wells residents. That was the case early on, he said.

“And then you started seeing more and more people from Mineral Wells, and walking with them and talking with them,” Holm said. “Really, there’s an army there. It’s not just one voice. It’s many voices coming together for one cause.”