Godley’s council accepted the mayor’s resignation. An open meetings violation reversed it
Godley City Council met Tuesday evening to accept the resignation of longtime mayor Acy McGehee.
After the unanimous vote among the four members present, McGehee shook a fellow council member’s hand before walking off the dais and handing the meeting over to mayor pro tem Michael Papenfuss.
But it turns out McGehee’s resignation did not count.
Texas’ open meetings act requires governmental bodies to post the time, date, and location on all its agendas ahead of meetings. And Godley’s agenda for the evening was missing the location of the meeting.
Due to the error, the meeting ended abruptly, and no actions from the meeting counted — including the acceptance of McGehee’s resignation.
“At this point no decisions acted upon during this meeting will be enacted or enforced, and each item will be revisited at a future meeting that is PROPERLY posted,” Papenfuss wrote in a Facebook post later that evening.
When asked why he was resigning, McGehee told the Star-Telegram Thursday morning that the controversy surrounding former council member Jennifer Thompson’s arrest ahead of a Feb. 7 meeting was a “big deal” and that a Facebook website residents use to talk about town happenings was filled with lies and half truths.
He said it became clear to him that the council will do what it wants because it has the votes to do so.
McGehee isn’t sure when he can officially resign, and he claimed city hall was never closed for as long as people say it was. He also said he never ordered Thompson’s arrest.
Papenfuss did not immediately return a phone call and text for comment Thursday morning.
Resignations in Godley
McGehee’s now upcoming resignation marks another chapter in a long line of controversies in city hall.
Mass resignations forced the city hall’s shutdown earlier this year. Since October, the city secretary, city manager, police chief and city attorney have all resigned. The court clerk retired.
Documents obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that were given to Godley council members by former police chief Jason Jordan ahead of a meeting Nov. 1 showed he was given a choice to resign or face an investigation after two complaints were filed against him by other officers.
“Council, I believe that this was a process that was put in motion months prior to any complaint being filed,” Jordan wrote in the documents.
And before the council was set to meet for the first time since the city’s shutdown on Feb. 7, now-former council member Thompson was arrested outside city hall as she made her way to the meeting.
Thompson faced charges of tampering with government records, but those charges have since been dropped.
At the time, she told the Star-Telegram she had revised an unpublished agenda ahead of a special-called meeting Dec. 27.
Thompson later filed a temporary restraining order against McGehee in hopes of limiting his power and nullifying votes taken at the Feb. 7 meeting. She also asked to be placed on the ballot ahead of the May municipal elections.
That never happened.
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 11:14 AM.
