Haslet City Council censures mayor, says he’s taking action without approval
The Haslet City Council censured the mayor for his behavior for the second time Monday. Mayor Gary Hulsey had nothing to say about the public rebuke.
Hulsey was censured Monday on four counts with evidence to back up the claims:
- Appointing himself as Haslet’s voting representative to North Central Texas Council of Government without council authorization.
- Corresponding on behalf of the city without prior authorization, requiring the council to subsequently rescind the correspondence.
- Conducting communications without including the city administrator despite being told to do so by the council.
- Failing to include or recognize the city administrator after being directed to do so by the council.
The city administrator role was created in February because the City Council was continually dissatisfied with Hulsey’s execution of his duties as mayor. Hulsey contended that it was an illegal move despite the fact that many other Texas cities have city administrators.
Five weeks later, Hulsey called 911 on the city administrator over a dispute about who is in charge of the council agendas. Hulsey has not relented in his refusal to accept that the city administrator has taken up some of his duties.
After the censure on Monday, Hulsey again tried to exclude the city administrator from council business when the governing body went into executive session.
Council member Jasmin Wise, who presented the censure, said she doubts it will make any difference in the mayor’s behavior, but at least the repetitive conduct will be documented.
When he was first censured in January for not following city ordinances, he dubbed it “a badge of honor.”
This time around, Hulsey told the City Council he would reserve his comments for a written reply to the resolution. In the past, Hulsey has repeatedly brought agenda items back to the council for reconsideration, so Wise asked the city administrator to go ahead and put the reconsideration on the next meeting agenda.
Hulsey said Wise couldn’t do that because she hadn’t seen a reconsideration yet.
“I could surprise you,” the mayor said. “I could sign this.”
Hulsey did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Star-Telegram.