Serving the People By Not Showing Up?

Meeting Canceled As Council Members Stay Home 

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – In an unprecedented and surprising move, three of the five Crockett city council members did not come to the meeting scheduled for Monday, June 17, causing there to be a lack of quorum and for the meeting to be canceled. The meeting was officially called off after running 20 minutes past its 6 p.m. start time, causing chaos to erupt in the packed chamber. 

The meeting had been set to receive the findings from outside attorneys tasked with presenting their findings and recommendations regarding the forensic audit of Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation. (CEIDC) Crockett City Hall was again full, with few empty chairs and a stack of public comment request forms, among those from Investigator Wayne Dolcefino, who was in Crockett for the day. 

As the crowd waited, Councilmen Dennis Ivey and Mike Marsh waited patiently on the dais, until Crockett City Administrator John Angerstein had brief words in each gentleman’s ear, as the public began to suspect the meeting would be anything but ordinary. At that time, it was unclear if the missing council members were at city hall, but The Messenger later learned city officials were trying to contact the missing council members (NaTrenia Hicks, Darrell Jones and Elbert “Wayne” Johnson) by phone to understand the situation and if they were only running late, or would be attending at all. 

At one point, Ivey and Marsh, too, left the hall, only to return as Marsh informed the crowd, “O.K. guys, there will not be a meeting tonight. I have just filed a public complaint with our police chief on the other three council members, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Marsh informed the crowd the missing council members were not in the building. 

While there is no law against missing a council meeting, if several members colluded or conspired to miss the meeting, that would be a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act, which states elected officials cannot get together and speak about official matters, without the public notified and present. If their phone records were subpoenaed and collusion could be proven, the missing council members could face charges. 

Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher appeared next, visibly angry, and apologized, saying she could not control such things and they would not have a quorum to open the meeting. 

It is unclear if the council members decided to boycott the meeting because of the presence of Dolcefino, the results from the CEIDC internal affairs report, or for some other, unknown reason. There were speculations one of the members was out of the state and perhaps requested the other two council members to not come to the meeting, so the group would not lose a vote. 

The Messenger reached out to Jones to ask if they had any comments about the meeting. As of press time, no response was received. Johnson told The Messenger he had been sick, with no knowledge that the other members would not attend the meeting. He went on to say he did not have “a side” in these issues, except to take the side of the people. 

There is a chance some comedy of errors occurred, leaving all three council members unable to attend, although the odds of 60% of our small-town city council members being elsewhere seem astronomical. 

The council members not only missed the opportunity to review the internal review report on CEIDC, they also missed a vote to repair part of our city’s wastewater treatment plant, cleaning up the area near the Crockett Convention Center in preparation of the annual fireworks display, voting to exempt Treehouse Academy from municipal taxes and hearing a presentation from Mary Allen – all non-CEIDC related business left unattended. 

As no public word has been received from two of the prodigal council members, there is no notion if this was a one-time affair, or if the city will be left without a working city council, unable to represent the people of the city. 

After the meeting ended and the residents filed outside, more drama ensued, with arguing between opposing groups, leading to one resident allegedly striking another resident, receiving a ticket for a Class C Assault for their trouble. 

Most residents left feeling embarrassed, as the entire episode was filmed by Dolcefino’s cameras. Several wondered out loud why one would run for an office to represent the people, only to not do their duty and at least attend the meetings. 

There has been no word when or if the meeting will be rescheduled, after the chaos at the city council meeting that never happened. 

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]