City Council - Regular Meeting

Yep.

We just been informed there's a silver BMW in the parking lot, and the trunk is open. So That's Oh, okay.

I would like to call the special city council meeting to order. Let the record show that all council members are present. Council member Solomon is outside. Council member Cobb is absent. Can I get a motion and a second to approve the agenda? Council member Everest.

Mayor, I move to approve the agenda as presented.

Mayor Pro Tem. Madam Mayor, I second. All in favor, yes. All opposed, no. Motion carries four to zero with council member Solomon closed in his garage his trunk. Madam secretary.

The next item on the agenda is DS 26,008, discuss and conduct interviews for council member at large applicants.

Thank you. Let the record show that councilman Solomon is back. Madam city attorney, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and council. So this first item tonight is to discuss and conduct interviews for the council member at large applicants. So the background in on this is on 01/20/2026, city council accepted council member Segarra's resignation, creating a vacancy. The charter provides for the council to appoint a person to fill the vacancy unless more than one vacancy develops at one time. I'll go through that in bit more detail, but just some quick answers at the top. Can you appoint someone tonight? Yes. Must you appoint someone tonight? No.

So that that will be up to you, and you'll have the opportunity to do that later tonight. So as of today, there is currently only one vacancy. Council member Segarra's at large position. To determine when a vacancy occurs for a public official and when a public official holds over, you have to look at the charter in in conjunction with Texas state law, with the Texas constitution and the Texas election code. The election code states that regardless of when a resignation, whether a resignation says it's effective immediately or at some later date, the vacancy that occurs occurs on a particular date, and that date is the earlier of when counsel accepts the resignation or eight days after it's filed.

So we know that there are more vacancies coming, but as of right now, there's only one vacancy present. So if you decline to appoint someone tonight, then we know another vacancy will develop and there'll be two there there'll be more than one at one time. And at that point, that would necess necessitate a special election to fill those vacancies. But right now, there's only one, and you do have the option to fill that to appoint to fill that vacancy. Additionally, I do wanna add that if counsel cannot or does not fill the vacancy, holdover provisions do apply.

This is Texas state constitution, and it states that officials shall continue to serve until their successor is qualified, and that's either through election or appointment. And so after after you go and conduct your interviews today, you'll come back into open session, receive citizen comments, and you'll have the ability to discuss further and to appoint a council member to the unexpired term to council member Cigar's unexpired term. And I'm here for any questions now, during the interviews, or after the interviews.

Thank you so much for that update. Counsel, do you have any questions? Alright. We will have our citizen comments. Miss Sherry Palala? Boca okay.

Mayor, we have we have on the agenda to conduct the interviews first and then citizen comments before taking any action. But yeah. It's up.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. We will now go into closed session. Meeting law, VTCA government code 551OO one.

The mayor now calls a closed meeting of the city council on the February 2026 02:04PM under the following authority, section five five one point zero seven four, Personnel Matters. The city council will interview and discuss applicants for the vacant council member at large position. Agenda item DS-twenty six-eight. I'm good? All right.

We're now going to closed session. It is 02:58, and I am calling our meeting back to order. Counsel, we have had a discussion. We have had an interview with nine applicants. Where are we at right now?

The options are to appoint or the options the other option is to have a special election. What is your pleasure? Mayor. Sorry, ma'am.

Citizen comments.

Oh, god. I went on past that. First, I called Melissa Brown. You have three minutes. Citizen comments. So y'all have time, counsel, to think about it. And when we come back, we need a motion. It's freezing.

Mayor, I'm having some technical difficulties. Just a moment, please.

Madam city attorney I think we're ready. Are you ready? Yes, ma'am. Alright. Apologies. No problem. Anyone

who votes to make an appointment tonight is proving themselves to be a hypocrite. Everyone up here, for one reason or another, has either supported or opposed Prop A legislation in the city of Killeen and the lawsuit that goes along with it. Very polite to walk out while people are talking. For those of you who have supported it, even though it goes against the state law, you've said it's because you respect the will of the voters. Well, the will of the voters spoke in 2022 when we passed the charter amendment that said any council member or any member of the council, mayor included, who resigns because they plan to run for the next election, which is the one coming up in May and the reason why three people have resigned so far, your resignation becomes effective the day that you submit it, which is the day that you filed for another office.

You have essentially told the public, I am not interested in the office I have anymore. Now I wanna run for this other office. The day that you submit it, it becomes official per our charter, per the voters. For those of you who have opposed it because the law says this or that, well, guess what? There is nothing in the law that says you must stay on for eight days.

There is nothing in the law that says you must continue on. There is nothing in the law that says the council must accept a resignation. The mayor got sworn in the first time without the council accepting her resignation or knowing that she was getting sworn in. You can't cherry pick the laws that you choose to support. You either follow the laws or you don't.

Our city law is pretty clear. The one that was passed by the will of the voters that is in compliance with the state law, that says it becomes effective the day that you submit it. We have a council member up here who was not present when the interviews started. Is that fair to anybody who interviewed when that council member wasn't there? This is a rush process.

Five minutes to decide who is going to lead the city even on an interim basis. Five minutes. Most people can't decide what they wanna put in their coffee in five minutes, but we're gonna decide who is responsible for making decisions for the city in that amount of time. Mister Solomon told the newspaper that it's his understanding whoever it is that resigns has the choice whether they hold over or whether they leave, and I will give Councilman Segarra the utmost respect because he had the moral integrity to resign and walk away, which is what these other two council members should have done and should do. But that appointment should not be made because we have more than one vacancy right now.

Michael Fornino, good afternoon. You have three minutes.

Give some thought to what I was gonna say tonight and the will of the voters. Regardless of where we're at with special election or if you decide to violate the city charter, I don't I don't claim any clairvoyance on how you're going to decide. But I take specific issue with there's a certain candidate for this position that the will of the voters has already been subject to. This applicant has already dropped out of one race and was recalled from his district. I mean, that's not a clear refer reflection of the voters.

And, again, I'm not claiming clairvoyance. If that applicant is chosen by you, that will be the clearest demonstration that you don't give a damn about this the people. I mean, the way we're hearing from the council and from the media and all that, your interpretation of what is clearly codified law and ordinance, if you choose otherwise, what are you really saying to us? You're just gonna string it along and almost replace half the council without any of the voters having a say? I I hear all the Simpson here all the time.

Oh, well, that's you're you're criticizing the council, and it's against democracy. Democracy. Democracy. Well, where's the democracy in not allowing the voters to have a say in who leads them, especially for that significant portion of the council? So I I would ask you, I would caution you to to consider the will of the people previously, because that at that point, you're going to be representing that district, having already recalled that person.

Again, I don't know if you've chosen this person or not, but be cautioned. If you do, there's going to be backlash. And you wanna take democracy out of it? Well, there's a ballot initiative that could be on the November ballot, and you might find some of yourselves on it. And that would be just, and you would have no say in it. So I strongly caution, represent the people, represent the will of the voters. I mean, if that person is selected, that says right here that everything that has been said negative about this council, both in and out of this chamber, will ring true. Use some integrity, read the broom, and respect the voters.

Thank you. Ms. Sherry Volpachirli if I mispronounce your name, I apologize. Good afternoon, ma'am. You have three minutes.

Madam mayor, city council, you guys are given a choice tonight to do the right thing or to do the wrong thing. The right thing is to allow the people to decide who sits on this council. The wrong thing is to put someone in that chair after speaking to them for five minutes. Those are your choices. So, take heed that the citizens of this city have had enough. We've had enough. We're tired. We're tired of paying taxes. We're tired of listening to staff recommends this and staff recommends that. What does the city council recommend?

Make your minds up about what you're gonna do and do the right thing. You're not doing the right thing by putting a butt in that chair tonight. That's the wrong thing, and that's gonna reflect on you all for the rest of your lives. What you decide tonight will reflect on you forever, and I know you. Madam mayor, you're leaving.

You told me that. You told us all that at Citizen Academy. You're not coming back. And is this what you want one of your last things to be, to have this board put someone in that chair that hasn't been chosen by the people, you need to let the people decide. Thank you.

Thank you. Our citizen comments are over, and I thank everyone that participated in our citizen comment. I just want to make some corrections. First of all, when I became mayor, I was mayor pro tem, and according to the charter, I don't have to go through resigning. I just move up.

I want to correct that. Second of all, whether I stay on the council or not, the bottom line is two things. The council has the right to make a decision to appoint according to the state, and they also have the right, if they want to do a holdover because February 1, I think Mr. Dave Miller, if you go back to Sunday's paper, Colleen Daly Harrow, who's an excellent writer, I think he broke it down extremely well to explain it to anyone that would like to understand why this decision was made, why the state has the authority to make that decision, and why the council also have the authority to appoint or not to appoint. I think he did an excellent job in breaking that down.

I go back to this. I said it once, I said it twice. It's the state law. The council get beat up a lot about things that state put into place, but I very seldom hear anyone get in a state or get in their vehicle to go up to state and tell the state that they're doing an extremely terrible job. But we're beat up on because the state gives that option. This counts as not breaking the law. People throw that at us a lot. Our city attorney is extremely, extremely knowledgeable of the state law. Every time I go in her office to discuss anything, she's constantly reading up, constantly giving us update. So I wanna go on the record for the ones that are new.

We're not breaking the law. The state said this could happen, and you all vote in the state. So I'm assuming if you're gonna recall us for doing what the state has given us permission to do, I don't know the state recall process, but maybe you want to read up on it. I truly appreciate every applicant that took out of their time to come in, to want to make a difference within this city. It's only three months. It's very hard to learn a lot in three months. It's hard. Staff to go through the process with computers, laptops, and all of that. But yet and still, you came and want to give it a shot. I commend you.

Council, what is your decision? You have a choice to appoint, and you also have the choice to allow this to go before the people for a special election. Councilmember Solomon.

Thank you, madam mayor. I move that we would move this forward to regular election.

Is that a regular or special? And I Ma'am?

If I if I could, you don't have to call or order or say special election at this point. At this point, it's just do you want to appoint someone or not appoint someone at this time?

I'm appointing another

But I move that we would not appoint anyone.

Is there a second? I second. I Okay. Councilwoman I mean, councilman Kendrick second. All in favor, yes. All opposed, no. The motion carries five to one with council member Alvarez being in opposition. Are there any more discussion? If not, can I get a motion to adjourn? Count mayor pro tem. Madam mayor, move to adjourn. Council member Solomon. Second. All in favor? All in favor?

You can see it say yes. I hear it. I. Okay. Meeting adjourned. We're gonna take ten minutes before we go into our counseling.