Coolidge council gets back to work

Coolidge City Council resumed routine business at its Wednesday, April10, meeting — a sharp contrast to last month’s showdown between the mayor and several council members.

No mention was made of the council voting last month by 3 to 2 with one member abstaining to seize Mayor Tonia Bruckner’s City Hall keys after a council member showed a video of her and a companion rummaging through the city secretary’s office after hours.

In action items on the April agenda, the council:

• Tabled two items related to a resident’s moving a mobile home into the city after she texted the mayor that she was pregnant and having contractions.

• Agreed to revise a bid proposal for a lease of 103 acres the city owns near the sewer plant after no bids were received. The council will consider a longer lease period in hope of making it more attractive.

• Tabled the city secretary’s request for a new computer until more information can be obtained about its capacity and if it is suitable.

• Tabled an item related to a city lot located in front of an RV park that the park owner and one other person are interested in purchasing, until more information about its value and the purchasers’ plans are known.

Update on mayor situation

The keys were picked up from Bruckner at her residence March 14 by council member Jesse Ashmore, who was accompanied by law enforcement, the mayor confirmed. “It was a little funny and surprising,” the mayor said. “I’m not a violent person.”

Bruckner and her lawyer, Daniel Burkeen, maintained that as the city’s highest elected official she has the right to enter City Hall whenever she wants, but she agreed to hand over the keys after the vote.

It apparently was unclear to city staff if Bruckner would manage this month’s council meeting.

“I have no idea,” City Secretary Gay Pranger said when asked if Bruckner would lead the meeting. “I haven’t heard from her since last month’s meeting.”

Bruckner complained that City Hall staff has been uncooperative with her since her election two years ago, but the two staff members, Pranger and Court Clerk Kimberly Finley, disputed her assertion.

This month, more than usual but not as many people as in March showed up at the Coolidge Civic Center for the council meeting. The mayor, the council members and city staff conducted business cordially throughout the April meeting, unlike the March meeting where Bruckner supporters defended her and criticized council members and city staff. A scuffle also broke out after the meeting between the mayor’s husband and another candidate in the May 4 election, according to Bruckner.

During the public comments section of the meeting one citizen asked if all three candidates for mayor in the May 4 election live in Coolidge. That was an apparent reference to Bruckner’s excuse for being in City Hall after hours. She said that she was looking for a ballot application for one of the mayoral candidates, reportedly a former Mexia resident, who she suspected of not having met the residency requirements for candidacy.

“As far as I know they do now,” Bruckner said in response to the question. Richard Green, one of the candidates who was in the audience with his wife, spoke up saying he was a resident of Coolidge and gave his address on Bell Street.

The mayor and her supporters claim Green does not meet the eligibility requirements pertaining to length of residency and of being a registered voter in the city. The Mexia News has been unsuccessful in contacting Green for comment, but a copy of his ballot application reportedly obtained by an open records request and provided to The Mexia News by a resident indicates he has lived in Texas and the voting district of the office he is seeking for 66 years. Bruckner also claimed Green had been registered to vote in Mexia, previously.

Bruckner said the city secretary should be determining the eligibility of candidates, but Pranger said that it is not her responsibility to verify candidates’ information. Limestone County Elections Administrator Jennifer Southard disputed Pranger’s assertion that it is her role, other than to review candidates’ voter registrations if she is asked.

A similar situation occurred in the 2022 election of a council member, and the Coolidge council voted to waive the residency requirement and allow him to serve.