Picture Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast/Google/Metropolis of Godley
Welcome to wild and wacky Godley, Texas, which derives its title not from the Almighty, however from a lumber service provider who donated eight acres for its future web site in 1886.
Since then, Godley has grown right into a municipality about 2,000 that was outwardly very like many others till late final yr, when the resignation of the police chief was adopted by the departure en masse of the town administrator, the town lawyer and the town secretary. Metropolis Corridor itself shut down and stays closed on account of a staffing scarcity.
“It’s like Parks and Rec, however for actual, and fewer humorous,” resident Warren Norred wrote on Fb.
The previous police chief, Jason Jordan, triggered the opposite departures with what has turn into identified in Godley as ”the blue folder.” The folder—a duplicate of which Jordan left for every of the 5 metropolis council members—contained complaints filed in opposition to him by two officers. One, who's Black, charged Jordan with demonstrating “racial animus.” The opposite officer alleged that Jordan had physique shamed him throughout a Metropolis Council assembly by suggesting he's obese.
As has been reported by the Fort Value Star-Telegram and confirmed to the Each day Beast by a resident who has a duplicate, the folder additionally consists of Jordan’s written denials of the allegations. He says that the mayor and the town lawyer gave him a selection: resign or face a full investigation. He says that he stop to keep away from a protracted authorized struggle.
However Jordan was not completed. He additionally stuffed the folder with diary entries and texts and different papers that, within the view of Metropolis Council member Jennifer Thompson, doc a municipality in administrative and monetary disarray.
Former police chief Jason Jordan
Metropolis of Godley
Thompson runs a pizzeria and he or she studied the papers with the attention of a small enterprise proprietor. She was shocked to see the city had no formal stock of its belongings. Bills have been rounded off. And the budgets appeared haphazard at greatest.
“A number of crimson flags,” Thompson instructed The Each day Beast.
Thompson started asking a number of questions, and so they have been adopted by a number of resignations. The police chief had been instantly changed by a sergeant with the division, however the different vacancies might solely be stuffed with the approval of a majority of the Metropolis Council. Thompson and two others on the five-member physique have been able to reject the alternatives of the longtime mayor, Acy McGehee. And because the mayor can solely vote to interrupt a tie, that meant Thompson’s crew can be a 3-2 majority when it got here to voting on the replacements.
On the identical time, Thompson submitted a listing of greater than a dozen main gadgets to be introduced earlier than the council: an asset stock, finances strains, worker qualifications, employees salaries, bills, items acquired by metropolis officers. And she or he had the votes to go them.
However two council members aligned with McGehee proved their loyalty by becoming a member of him in merely not exhibiting up conferences on Dec. 27 and Jan. 13, depriving the panel of a quorum underneath state legislation.
The following assembly was scheduled for Jan. 17 and it appeared the mayor might need to lastly face Thompson and the opposing majority. However when the day approached, it turned out McGehee had did not publish the agenda 72 hours prematurely, as required by state legislation.
One other assembly was set for Feb. 7, and this time the agenda was posted forward of the deadline. Among the many gadgets: the appointment of a legislation agency that the mayor favored to function the brand new metropolis lawyer.
When Thompson became her common parking spot on Feb. 7 to attend the assembly, a police automotive was standing with the motor operating.
“I acquired there half-hour early,” she later instructed the Each day Beast. “So I can get all my geese in a row.”
The police automotive pulled up behind her. Two officers, a male and a male, stepped out. The male officer strode up her driver’s facet window.
“We've a warrant in your arrest, we want you to vacate your automobile,” the male officer mentioned by Thompson’s account.
“What am I being arrested for?” Thompson requested.
The male officer repeated the command. Thompson repeated the query. The feminine officer joined the change, saying, “After I handcuff you and get you within the automotive, I’ll present you the warrant.”
Thompson remembers that the handcuffs have been very tight as she sat at the back of the police automotive. The male officer gave her the Miranda rights.
“What's the warrant for?” Thompson requested once more.
The feminine officer then gave Thompson only a glimpse of a bit of paper.
“There’s the warrant,” the officer mentioned.
The officer pulled it away earlier than Thompson was capable of learn the fees. Thompson did catch the title of the officer who had sworn to the allegations. It was Jeremy Arbuthnot, the cop who had reported being physique shamed by Chief Jordan.
Thompson had filed a proper criticism of her personal in opposition to Arbuthnot with the town lawyer on Dec. 22 for “attempting to sway my votes” in addition to for “threats made to a metropolis council member.” She alleged that Arbuthnot had threatened to sue her and the town if she even considered bringing Jordan again.
Thompson nonetheless didn't know what she was being charged with when she was led into the Johnson County Jail and joined 5 different ladies in a holding space.
“They have been fairly scary,” she recalled. “They have been all tatted up. I’m like, ‘Oh crap, I’m about to get my butt kicked.’”
A jailer referred to as out her title and directed her into what was referred to as Stall One.
“I want you to strip down,” the jailer mentioned. “The whole lot comes off.”
Thompson complied, eradicating even her favourite earrings, silver hoops which weren't returned to her.
“Now I want you to squat, pull your butt cheeks aside and cough thrice,” the jailer mentioned.
“Is that this vital?” Thompson requested.
“You heard what I mentioned,” the jailer instructed her.
Godley’s major avenue
Metropolis of Godley
Thompson was doing as ordered proper across the time the Metropolis Council was contemplating the agenda merchandise “to approve the mayor’s hiring of [an] interim metropolis lawyer.” Thompson’s chair within the chamber stood empty because the matter got here to a vote.
“All in favor?” McGehee requested.
The council members allied with McGehee have been sitting on both facet of him. The one on his proper raised her hand. However the mayor needed to give the one on his left a nudge.
“Oh,” she mentioned.
She raised her hand to sign her approval.
“All opposed?” McGehee requested.
The 2 members of Thompson’s crew raised their palms, however she herself was absent. The tie enabled the mayor to vote.
“Properly, this casts the tie breaking for it,” the mayor mentioned. ”So the movement carries.”
The mayor received that and each different vote he wished. And Thompson took one other hit as one of many mayor’s minions learn aloud a Jan. 13 letter. It was to the town from an lawyer representing Police Officer Solomon Omotoya, who had filed the racial discrimination go well with in opposition to the now-departed police chief.
After alleging cases of Jordan’s “racist animus” in direction of Omotoya, the letter recounted a subsequent encounter between the officer and Thompson. The letter described her as “berating” Omotoya for having filed the criticism in opposition to Jordan and for ”colluding” with different cops in opposition to the chief. It famous that Thompson had filed a criticism in opposition to Omotoya for threatening her and making an attempt to sway her vote—the identical allegations she had made in opposition to Arbuthnot.
“Subsequent merchandise,” McGehee now mentioned.
In one other Godley second, Omotoya himself then stepped up with a potential new police officer whose hiring was subsequent on the agenda. Omotoya instructed the council that he had carried out an in depth background investigation of the candidate, who he famous is “triple licensed” as a cop, firefighter and EMT.
“I do transfer that we advocate that we rent this gentleman as a result of he can be a fantastic match to our division,” Omotoya mentioned.
When it got here to a vote, McGhee once more nudged the girl on his left to vote in favor. However one in every of Thompson’s crew was additionally a sure and there was no tie for the mayor to beak.
Thompson remained in custody. She was arraigned on Wednesday morning and discovered she was charged with tampering with authorities information. She acknowledged that she revised a draft of an agenda when she noticed that a few of her gadgets had not been included. However she insisted to The Each day Beast that the secretary was conscious of the change when she turned it in. She mentioned it had not but been formally posted and was nonetheless only a draft.
A mugshot of her in a striped jail uniform went on Fb when she was nonetheless in custody and triggered an outpouring of help.
“I’m jail well-known,” she instructed The Each day Beast.
At one level in Tuesday's listening to, a lady named Kayla Lain referred to as out to McGehee that he ought to organize to have the fees in opposition to Thompson dropped. The mayor insisted that he had nothing to do with it. He mentioned the case has been introduced by the Jefferson County Legal professional.
However on Friday, the county lawyer’s mentioned that the fees had been initiated by the police, who then introduced it earlier than a choose, who then signed the arrest warrant. The county lawyer’s workplace will solely get entangled within the days forward, when it decides whether or not to proceed with the case.
A Godley political activist named Scott Jorgenson recommended that whoever acquired the case going gave Thompson a giant enhance in her battle with the mayor and his allies.
“Didn’t they ever hear of a martyr?” Jorgensen requested.
Then anyone posted a court docket file exhibiting that Thompson had pleaded responsible 19 years in the past to 2 felony counts of fraudulent use of an id doc. Courtroom papers present she was sentenced to 2 years in jail and 5 years probation. However it's not clear if she really served time or whether or not the case was adjudicated so she wouldn't have a felony file, which might preclude her from holding public workplace in Texas.
Thompson instructed the Each day Beast that she has been suggested by her lawyer to not touch upon the particulars of the case.
“It was taken care of and reported to the suitable authorities,” she mentioned. “It’s very stressing as a result of that’s not who I'm. It was 20 years in the past.”
She introduced on Fb that she won't be posting for some time.
“I've paid for my previous and I hate that individuals are utilizing it in opposition to me,” she mentioned.
Jorgenson characterised the battle between McGhee and Thompson as a battle between an previous guard “monarchy” and youthful individuals searching for a altering metropolis the place ranch land is giving option to housing developments.
Thompson says she is so battered that she could resolve to not run when she is up for re-election. McGehee didn't reply to a Each day Beast request for remark, however he instructed the Star-Telegram after Tuesday's assembly that he hopes to have Metropolis Corridor reopened inside the subsequent few days.
The following council assembly is ready for Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. Nonetheless it goes, Goldey is certain to proceed being wild and wacky.