Breaking News: Jones named to Seven Points Council

By ART LAWLER

SEVEN POINTS � The Economic Development Corporation president Cheryl Jones was appointed to the Seven Points City Council amidst accusations of mental and moral inadequacy Tuesday night.

Mayor Gerald Taylor questioned a woman�s sanity, and the woman questioned the mayor�s integrity.

Nonetheless, when it came to a vote, the three council members present, including Michael Lowe, Hank Laywell and Bubba Powell, voted unanimously to seat Jones, who then literally took her seat at the council table after being sworn in by city secretary, Debbie Moseley.

The fifth member of the council, Tommy Taylor, was ill and not in attendance.

Verbal insults were exchanged between mayoral candidate Wanda Nichols and her upcoming opponent, the incumbent Gerald Taylor.

The seat had been vacant for 18 months, or since the city de-annexed the part of the municipality where Councilman Yankee Smith resided.

Smith protested that he was a resident when the voters elected him, and therefore �grandfathered� to the position.

In appointing Jones to the council, Smith believes they got rid of the council person the city elected, and replaced him with Jones, who was not elected by the people.

This was one of several of Nichols� complaints voiced Wednesday night.

Taylor didn�t address the issue directly, but asked, �You want cheese with your whine, Wanda?� He then tossed out a package of cheese that landed on the floor.

The dialogue intensified.

Nichols neither picked up, nor consumed the cheese. Later, one of the petitioners to the council put it back on the council table without comment.

Both Nichols and former firefighter Michael Forbes, asked the panel why they were just now filling the seat vacated 18 months ago.

Smith, contacted earlier in the week, said he was going to wait and see what action the council took before deciding what to do next. Nevertheless, he said, he still believed he was a member of the council.

This may, or may not, clear up the question about residency requirements, but here�s what the lawyers say in lawyer language about �the effect of boundary change on residence requirements for city office� in the Texas Election Code:

�In determining whether a person has complied with a residence requirement under Section 141.001, or 141.003 for a city office, residence in an area while the area was not part of the city is considered as residence within the city if the area is part of the city on the date that is the basis for determining the applicable period of residence.�

Taylor said the city�s attorney, Blake Armstrong of Tyler, had instructed council at the time that they were within their rights to remove Smith from his seat.

Taylor said after the meeting that Smith vacated the seat because he hadn�t filled it in 18 months, and also because his residency was outside the city limits.

Smith said the law grandfather�s him into his elected seat.

Michael Tatum, a former firefighter who finished second to Smith in the last election, said his only objection to council filling the seat was that council should have named him as a replacement for the seat to fulfill the will of the people who voted.

When that reasoning went unanswered, Tatum walked out of the meeting.

At one point Taylor slammed his gavel to restore order. When that didn�t work, he slammed it again, much harder. Even then, the crowd only partially quieted, and Nichols continued to accused Taylor of appointing his �drinking friends� to city positions.

Taylor then remarked in a sarcastic tone as the council went into executive session, �Oh yeah, I just drink, drink, drink.�

When Nichols persisted in making accusations, Taylor told her to �shut up,� and added, �You haven�t got a lick of sense.�

He asked her if she�d been looking into the city�s computer, and Nichols told him she learned about the shortage � which she said �reappeared� later in the day � came from �a very reliable source.�

Nichols, at one point in the dispute, said, �Oh well, they�re all going to prison anyway.�

Nichols referred to Taylor and Municipal Judge Monica Corker as being arrested for �abuse of official capacity� by the Henderson County District Attorney�s office, and the on-going city hall investigation by the FBI, Henderson County Sheriff�s Department and the Texas Rangers.

It was Councilman Hank Laywell who had made the recommendation to Taylor that Jones be appointed, and he defended that recommendation at Wednesday�s meeting, pointing out that she had done a good job on EDC, was very intelligent and made independent decisions.

Taylor said earlier in the week that his understanding was that Laywell would resign from EDC if Jones was named to the council. Her selection at the moment means three of the council�s five members are also on the EDC board.

Taylor admitted in a telephone interview that having a majority of its members on both boards could conceivably lead to the council becoming a rubber-stamp for anything EDC wanted to do.

However, if Laywell resigned his position at EDC, there would be no such conflict, he said.

Taylor, on the other hand, despite being charged with a felony crime, announced to the crowd that he would seek another term as the town�s mayor.

�A lot of people still want me to run,� he said in making the announcement.

A stormy race would appear to be in the making with Seven Points Volunteer Fire Chief Joe Dobbs and Nichols taking on Taylor for the mayor�s position, while Taylor deals with the additional burden of facing a felony charge.