May 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes
May 19, 2025
The Hamlin City Council met for a regular meeting on May 19, 2025, at 7:00 P.M. Those present were Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis, Councilman Ronald Crouch, Councilwoman Shelby Teague, and Mayor Tucker Teague; City Manager Brian Weaver, City Secretary Tonya Harughty, Water Clerk Doris Gonzalez, Police Chief Jay Strong, Dalton Aiken, Ben Gonzalez, Cathy Gabriel, Ralph Gabriel, Aubrey Gabriel, Richard McCoy, Peggy Covington Davis, Brooke Houghton, Caleb Gabriel.
Call meeting to order by Mayor Tucker Teague at 7:00 P.M. Prayer and pledge was led by Mayor Tucker Teague.
Roll call: Councilwoman Shelby Teague, Councilman Ronald Crouch, Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis, and Mayor Tucker Teague.
Councilman Kenneth Williams and Councilman Rodney Dunham were absent.
Open Forum-Person who sign in between 6:30 P.M. and 7:00 P.M. will be allowed not more than five minutes each to speak to the Council.
*General comments from visitors who have signed up to address the Council.
Richard McCoy addressed the Council. He stated he has three things he would like to talk about. One being water. Way back when, when Mexico City was founded, there were two brothers that were wandering through the countryside when they came across this huge lake. They saw an eagle with a rattlesnake in his mouth, and they said even the animals come here this is where we need to put our town. Mexico City in 2009 has gotten so big that the population in Mexico City has started drinking the lake dry. By 2014, the lake that Mexico City was founded on, was completely dry. They opened the borders and let everybody cross so everybody that is looking for water spread it out in Mexico City. And Austin has experienced the same thing. Basically, Lake Travis is a river now and surrounding communities are upset because they have lake-front property but there’s no lake but they’re still being charged taxes for lake-front property even though there’s no water. All the communities ended up drinking all the water. Essentially, what started out as 20,000 people in 1960 increased at a rate of 2.5 children per generation. Up to the year 2025, there’s now 600,000 people and if you include the people that moved to the city there’s now 1,000,000 people in Austin that are all drinking from the same water source. Needless to say, it will be a matter of time before Austin goes through the same thing as Mexico City and everybody starts spreading out looking for water. There is a severe drought coming our way. Eventually all the water will be drunken up. You need to make preparations to ensure that we still have water. Everything from catching rainwater to water recycle. Water recycling is taking sewer water and treating it so that you can drink from it. I don’t know any more details other than that, but before it becomes too late it might be a good idea to look into it. The other issue I want to talk about is a website. A website is a critical tool for cities and businesses, individuals. Basically, a website gets information out to all people. Keeps everybody informed. Keeps them in the loop. Everybody is happy go lucky. To have such a website you have to have somebody maintain it so you might want to get a website developer. There was a city-wide garage sale. This is the third year I missed out on it. I never got the word on it. If there was a website it would make it easier on me and all the other people in this town. You can have the city events. You have to do things the city wants. For example, pickleball. Pickleball is a sport that’s sweeping the nation. If we put in a pickleball court in Hamlin and nobody wants to play pickleball we just waste our money. Instead, it would be a whole lot easier to get everybody’s input, give them a list of options to choose from. Let everybody make their choice then have the city council respond to whatever the city wants. The more people that go to it they get what they want. If nobody goes to it then you just waste everybody’s time, money, and resources. The best way to get the city to grow is to put up a website. In addition to that is the image of the city. The third item I’d like to talk about is in order to turn around the image of the city we have to first turn it into an artistic town or what not. Essentially, artistic people don’t have a lot of money and that goes hand in hand with the way Hamlin is right now. However, because of their artistic ability and spreading the sculptures they put around starts to transform the city into what rich people will move into. Otherwise, the city will continue to go down into a ghetto scenario. Part of restoring the image of the town is what the police chief gives to the newspaper. When someone gets arrested you give the information to the newspaper. If we could have some kind of positive statistic in there. Like a safety report. It’s been 570 days since somebody’s been stabbed. Sounds pretty good. It’s been over two years since somebody’s been stabbed, but what statistics sound good needs to be put in the newspaper that way everybody that picks up the newspaper says, hey, that’s pretty good. I like that. They have a low crime rate there. Those are the three things I wanted to talk about to help the city. Thank you.
Visitors with appointments: No one with an appointment
ACTION ITEMS
Take appropriate action on the minutes from the previous Regular Meeting on April 21, 2025.
Councilwoman Shelby Teague made a motion to accept the minutes as written from the Regular Meeting on April 21, 2025, seconded by Councilman Ronald Crouch. All in favor. Motion carries.
Canvass of the Special Election Resolution No. 25-002
RESOLUTION NO. 25-002
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HAMLIN, TEXAS, CANVASSING THE RETURNS AND DECLARING THE RESULTS OF THE SPECIAL ELECTION HELD ON MAY 3, 2025.
SPECIAL ELECTION
Hamlin, Texas
May 3, 2025
CANVASS OF RETURNS AND DECLARATION OF
RESULTS OF ELECTIONS
BE IT REMEMBERED THAT on this the 19th day of May 2025, at a meeting of the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, a quorum being present, the meeting was called to order and the following business was transacted.
Upon motion it was unanimously ordered that the City Council consider the official returns of a Special Election held in the City on May 3, 2025.
WHEREUPON said official returns were opened, examined, canvassed and the results declared as follows:
CANVASS OF RETURNS AND DECLARATION OF RESULTS
WHEREAS, heretofore, the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, called a Special Election to be held in the City on May 3, 2025, to consider for the purpose of electing a Councilmember At Large to fill the unexpired term created by the vacancy of Phyllis Lewis.
WHEREAS, immediately after said election the Presiding Judge and other officials holding said election made their returns of the results thereof to the City Council as follows, and said returns being made according to law, and duly authenticated, and it being shown that written notice of said election was posted for the time and in the manner provided by law, and all other proceedings pertaining to said election having been shown to have been done and performed at and within the manner provided by law, and all papers pertaining thereto having been returned and filed with the City Council and no protest or objection being made to or regarding any matter pertaining to said election.
WHEREAS, on May 19, 2025, the Mayor and City Council duly canvassed the vote of said election, which showed there were 130 electors voting at said election who cast votes as follows:
That the following number of votes was cast for the following named candidate for the office of Councilmember, At-Large, to wit:
NUMBER OF VOTES
Jacob Cox 58
Caleb Gabriel 65
It appearing that Caleb Gabriel, having received the most at-large votes for the seat of Councilmember At Large, is hereby declared to be elected to the office of Councilmember At Large, to serve a the one-year unexpired term after qualifying, which resulted from the vacancy of Phyllis Lewis.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this canvass and declaration of results of said election be entered in the Minutes of the City Council and the Recitals of this Resolution are fully incorporated herein as if fully recited.
This Resolution, declaring the results of the general election, shall become effective immediately after its passage and the City Secretary is hereby directed to send a certified copy of this resolution, along with a map of the municipality clearly showing its boundaries, to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts by certified or registered mail in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Texas Tax Code.
DULY PASSED by the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, on this the 19th day of May 2025.
APPROVED:
Tucker Teague, Mayor
ATTEST:
______________________________
Tonya Harughty, City Secretary
Councilwoman Shelby Teague made a motion to adopt Resolution No. 25-002. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the special election held on May 3, 2025, seconded by Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis. All in favor. Motion carries.
Canvass of General Election Resolution 25-003
RESOLUTION NO. 25-003
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HAMLIN, TEXAS, CANVASSING THE RETURNS AND DECLARING THE RESULTS OF THE GENERAL ELECTION FOR THE OFFICES OF THREE COUNCILMEMBERS AT LARGE, AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
GENERAL ELECTION
Hamlin, Texas
May 3, 2025
CANVASS OF RETURNS AND DECLARATION OF
RESULTS OF ELECTIONS
BE IT REMEMBERED THAT on this the 19th day of May 2025, at a meeting of the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, a quorum being present, the meeting was called to order and the following business was transacted.
Upon motion it was unanimously ordered that the City Council consider the official returns of a General Election held in the City on May 3, 2025, for the election of three Councilmembers for two-year terms.
At that time, all votes were canvassed with the governing body noting in the resolution that a petition for recount had been submitted for the election of three Councilmembers At-large, City of Hamlin. In accordance with the Texas Election Code, Chapter 213, et seq. the governing body continued to canvass the election results. The recount has been completed and the election results are contained herein.
WHEREUPON said official returns were opened, examined, canvassed and the results declared as follows:
CANVASS OF RETURNS AND DECLARATION OF RESULTS
WHEREAS, heretofore, the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, called a General Election to be held in the City on May 3, 2025, to elect three Councilmembers At-Large for two-year terms; and
WHEREAS, immediately after said election the Presiding Judge and other officials holding said election made their returns of the results thereof to the City Council as follows, and said returns being made according to law, and duly authenticated, and it being shown that written notice of said election was posted for the time and in the manner provided by law, and all other proceedings pertaining to said election having been shown to have been done and performed at and within the manner provided by law, and all papers pertaining thereto having been returned and filed with the City Council and no protest or objection being made to or regarding any matter pertaining to said election.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, after examining said returns and opening and canvassing the votes of said election, that the results of said election are as follows:
That the following number of votes was cast for the following named candidate for the office of Councilmember, to wit:
Number of votes
Ronald Crouch 76
Phyllis Lewis 59
Brooke Houghton 49
It appearing that Ronald Crouch, Phyllis Lewis, and Brooke Houghton, having received the most votes, respectively, for the council seats available, are hereby declared to be elected to the offices of Councilmember, to serve a two-year term after qualifying.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this canvass and declaration of results of said election be entered in the Minutes of the City Council and the Recitals of this Resolution are fully incorporated herein as if fully recited.
This Resolution, declaring the results of the General election, shall become effective immediately after its passage and the City Secretary is hereby directed to send a certified copy of this resolution, along with a map of the municipality clearly showing its boundaries, to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts by certified or registered mail in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Texas Tax Code.
DULY PASSED by the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, on this the 19th day of May 2025.
APPROVED:
Tucker Teague, Mayor
ATTEST:
______________________________
Tonya Harughty, City Secretary
Councilwoman Shelby Teague made a motion to adopt Resolution No. 25-003. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Hamlin, Texas, canvassing the return and declaring the results of the general election for the offices of three councilmembers at large, and providing an effective date, seconded by Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis. All in favor. Motion carries.
Recognition of the Outgoing Councilmembers.
· Rodney Dunham
· Kenneth Williams
Mayor Tucker Teague stated he thought both Rodney and Kenneth did a really good job. I know that Kenneth had cancer when they had to put their name in the hats to run for the election. I would like to make it known that the first thing when Kenneth got the news that he beat his cancer and wondered if it was too late to run because he wanted to serve his community. That just shows the type of man that Kenneth was. He sure taught me a lot as a young mayor. I really appreciate him. Rodney was always a great city councilman to deal with. I would love to have him if he didn’t have to take another job. So, we thank them for their service and we look forward to the new council.
Administer the Oath of Office to Councilmembers Elected – Brooke Houghton, Phyllis Lewis, Ronald Crouch, and Caleb Grabriel.
City Secretary Tonya Harughty administered the Oath of Office to Councilmembers Brooke Houghton, Phyllis Lewis, Ronald Crouch, and Caleb Gabriel.
Certificate of Election and Statement of Officer were presented to Councilmembers Brooke Houghton, Phyllis Lewis, Ronald Crouch, and Caleb Gabriel.
Consider and take any necessary action on the updated Employee Policy Handbook.
Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis made a motion to accept the updated Employee Policy Handbook, seconded by Councilwoman Shelby Teague. All in favor. Motion carries.
Discuss and consider authorizing the City Administrator to begin the procurement process for professional services related to a Resilient Communities Program grant.
Dalton Aiken with Public Management, Inc. spoke to the council regarding grants available to the City of Hamlin.
VI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS
City Administrator – Brian Weaver - Just a couple of things in the weekly reports. Avenue F is continuing to move forward. If you’ve driven by you will see one of the curves is not looking very professional. They are going to cut that curb out and put it in. Their cement was too hot when they got here and they poured it but it settled before they could shape it. Moving forward, I had some great discussions with Vero. Still working with AEP to put the lines up then we can move forward. There’s one that is going to be underground because of how far it is. As far as anybody getting broadband in their houses, we’re looking at August. We have one submission to being good with TCEQ on everything we are behind on. We have everything ready to submit. If everything goes well tomorrow we will be back in good graces with TCEQ.
Chief of Police – Jay Strong – As I’m sure y’all know, we made history for Hamlin with the Amber Alert. All I can say is Thank God that the right people were in the right place. I can’t tell you how blessed we are to have the officers we have. I’m talking 41 hours without sleep, wading in a river that is up to your waist not knowing what is underneath you. The citizens. The response by the FBI and DEA. I was lucky enough to talk to the Director of the FBI. We had every resource. We had every Ranger. We had aircraft in the air. I have worked three Amber Alerts and this is the first one I’ve been on the front end and I tell you, the officers we have at the Hamlin Police Department, the statement they made is I’m not going home until she’s home. We might be small but we pack a lot of punch and people are willing to come work for us. We are truly blessed. This little girl came home. I don’t like to make history this way, but we did it and we did it together as a team. We had a team of the states, the DEA, and FEDS. That little girl’s life has a price and we almost paid that price. Thank God we had the people in place that we did. We were getting phone calls from all over the world. You have some dang good people here. I love them and I love how committed they are. The FBI praised them. The Rangers praised them. We had two very good citizens that found the little girl. We are lucky. We are a lucky city. We are making so many strides. I want to say thank you for putting us there. If you want to see a great ball club come see our Pied Pipers play. They are an incredible group of young men that are bringing the best to Hamlin.
City Secretary – Tonya Harughty – Stated the election went great. We had a total of 130 voters and a total of 426 votes. I think the voters did a good job. Welcome new members. If there is anything y’all need, please feel free to contact me.
MDD Director – not present.
Fire Chief – not present.
Municipal Court Judge – not present.
Public Works – not present.
Council members – Councilwoman Shelby Teage - I watch a lot of true crime documentaries all the time. One of the things you always see is that small cities are not prepared to handle Amber Alerts or missing people. Things in that regard. I think we are so lucky to have the people we had in place in that situation. If it had been anyone else, I really don’t know how it would have ended. I am thankful that Jay was here to lead things and the officers we’ve hired and all the connections he has. I really do think if you have any doubts about the police chief or the police officers…The two guys that are connected to that girl worked for us, and one thing they said is he’s always at our house. Our kids know him. They know they are protected and that means a lot to me.
Councilman Ronald Crouch – I would like to reiterate what Shelby said. The support that Jay draws, we never had it. We were pretty much on our own. I hate to think what would have happened in this situation eight, nine months ago. You draw the support of the Rangers, the Game Warden, Sheriff’s Department, Highway Patrol. That’s something that can be said for you because you have that support and they have confidence in you that they want to be here to be a part of this. Thank you for that.
Mayor – Tucker Teague – The website has been launched for about sixty days. It looks awesome. I know a lot of work and money was invested in it. We have a data center possibly coming to town. Big things are coming down the pipe that we can capitalize on. Brian and I are planning a trip to meet with Childress to see how they did theirs. Hopefully we can draw some money for the city.
VI. ADJOURN
Councilwoman Shelby Teague made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:20 P.M., seconded by Councilwoman Phyllis Lewis. All in favor. Motion carries.
ATTEST: __________________________ _________________________
City Secretary Tonya Harughty Mayor Tucker Teague