The Granbury City Council is set to hear five recall petitions targeting the mayor and four council members Monday night, following months of legal disputes over whether the petitions should move forward — delays city officials say have made it impossible to hold a recall election until next year.
The recall effort targets Mayor Jim Jarratt, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Wadley and council members Greg Corrigan, Gary "Skip" Overdier and Zeb Ullom. It grew out of opposition to the proposed Project Patriot data center and power-generation campus at Knox Ranch.
Organizers have raised concerns about transparency, public input and potential environmental effects. City officials have said no formal development proposal has been submitted for evaluation at the site.
The city says the earliest a recall election could be held is May, although no specific election date has been set.
The legal fight initially focused on forcing the city to move forward with the recall process.
After the city agreed to present the petitions to the council, the dispute shifted toward when a recall election could be held, with petition organizers arguing that a November election should still be possible.
The city initially rejected the recall petitions in July, but later told the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth the petitions would be presented to the council.
A Sept. 21 opinion from the appeals court declined to order the city to take the action the recall organizers had requested, saying that request was no longer an issue the court needed to resolve.
The timing of a potential election remains a major point of disagreement. The city says it cannot facilitate a November recall election because the petitions were verified too late to meet the deadline under the city charter. The ordinary deadline to order a Nov. 3 election was Aug. 17.
Under the city charter, officials targeted by a recall can resign, allow the recall process to proceed or challenge the allegations in state district court. If an official does not resign, the charter says the council must order a recall election for the earliest date permitted by state law unless a court intervenes.
The special council meeting begins at 6 p.m. Monday at Granbury City Hall.
Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Emmanuel at erivas@kera.org. KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members.
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