Pilot Point settles with Kelley Burgess
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By Basil Gist
Staff Writer
Before the petition to recall Pilot Point council member Elizabeth Jones would have gone before a district judge, the city of Pilot Point and the primary petitioner Kelley Burgess settled out of court.
Independent verification from Denton County Elections Administrator Frank Phillips, who found the petition defective, was enough to spur a settlement from both sides.
“Before we hired a firm that said we could use [the Denton County elections administrator], or that we should send it to him, it was our understanding at the time that we needed to send it to the courts so that we could get an opinion on making sure it was a valid petition,” City Manager Britt Lusk said.
Though Burgess opted not to be interviewed on two occasions, first on recommendation from her legal counsel and subsequently by texting “No comment,” she spoke about the process in a video posted to Facebook on Sunday.
“Without getting into too much detail, the primary reason is that tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on this issue,” Burgess said. “The money that the city has spent by hiring outside council is probably over $10,000 or more. We’ll find out more about that later, and I know that I’m in my 10 grand at least.”
Though Burgess’ final costs were not public record at press time, the language of the settlement capped the city’s coverage at $14,000.
The city’s total legal fees were also unavailable by press time, though their resolution with Taylor, Olson, Adkins, Sralla & Elam, LLP cited fees at $400 per hour.
“I was going to have my fees paid because my civil rights were violated,” Burgess said.
Lusk gave a different reason for why council chose to pay for Burgess’ counsel.
“The whole reason that it went to court was the legitimacy of the petition itself,” Lusk said. “Since she felt the need to hire an attorney, the city council felt like it was their responsibility since they didn’t want any citizen to incur costs for submitting a petition.”
The elections official did not address the two reasons for the petition as the reasons for its defectiveness, but rather observed that it was notarized before signatures were gathered and that it did not state the reasons for removal on each signature page.
Regarding the petition itself, some who signed have since apologized to Jones personally or otherwise stated they wished they hadn’t.
“The biggest reason I signed it is because I didn’t know enough to know better,” resident Tina Stawski said. “I knew that she was always at odds with Elisa, for that matter the whole council was, and that aggravated me, so I offered to sign.”
Stawski said if she’d known how close Jones was to the end of her term, or known that a potential special election could cost $30-40,000, that information would have swayed her opinion.
Stawski further opted to have individual conversations with any of the council members who would speak with her, Jones included.
“I wanted information and figured out the best place to go was the source,” Stawski said, using council member Brian Heitzman as an example. “Instead of listening to Idle Chatter about what Brian [Heitzman] thought, I wanted to get to know Brian.”
Her conversation with Jones shifted her perspective.
“If I had the ability, and it would have made a difference, I would have taken my name off,” Stawski said. “I definitely believe she did not deserve to be forcibly removed early. If I’m being honest, I would need to sit and talk with her some more before deciding if I think she’s right for city council.”
Jason Mansur, like many of the petitioners, maintains his choice to sign.
“I don’t feel Mrs. Jones represents the good city of Pilot Point,” Mansur said. “I don’t know Mrs. Jones personally. I have nothing against her personally. To me this is about the city.”
He further gave a different perspective on term length, saying, “to me one more day wasn’t worth it,” and further said he expected there to be no election at all.
“If Mrs. Jones would have followed the procedure herself, she probably would have just stepped down,” Mansur said. “Unless she’s totally lost on what’s going on in Pilot Point, most people would step down.”
Mansur further commented on the petition process, saying the clarity quality of the charter following a filed petition could use revision, but that the actual petition process is as easy as it should be.
“I think if a city council member is doing their job, and the city is progressing, then why would anyone want to do a petition?” Mansur said. “I think it is just as easy as it needs to be.”
Stawski disagreed.
“I think something needs to change,” Stawski said. “When I first read the [amendment] where you change it from 25% of the people who voted to 25% of eligible voters, my gut reaction is ‘No, that’s not right,’ but after doing more research and seeing what a low voter turnout Pilot Point has, that’s not fair either.”
Mayor Elisa Beasley said the specific number of voters needed didn’t matter.
“We serve at the will of the people,” Beasley said. “If it’s 100 people or 1,000 people, if your community does not feel you’re doing the job that they want, they’re going to get the signatures needed regardless, and I feel they have a right to do that.”
Beasley remained the lone dissenting vote against the council’s actions regarding the petition until the vote for the settlement on Monday.
“I felt like the people needed to have their will and let it play out,” Beasley said. “This issue I have always felt and will continue to say was between Elizabeth and the 100-something people that signed that petition.”
When deciding to settle, she said, her vote reflected her desire to move on as a community.
“This thing has gone on three months, [and cost] tens of thousands of dollars,” Beasley said. “We have a community that’s broken, and we need to move forward, start to heal, and we need to be better.”
Several parties stated after experiencing the recall process, the charter was in need of revision regarding it.
“The Denton elections thing should have happened before it ever went to city council,” Mansur said, saying that level of verification should have occurred alongside the city secretary’s verification of names and addresses.
Lusk said the charter would benefit from more direction.
“If the charter gave more clear direction, it would be helpful,” Lusk said. “I don’t know legally what can and can’t [be in it]. I leave that to our city attorney and the charter commission to determine what that looks like.”
Beasley spoke similarly, though she said there are other more important holes to fill.
“Do I feel like the charter needs to be revised? Yeah, there are things we need to look at,” Beasley said. “There are changes that can be made. I don’t know if that’s one of the top priorities to be honest.”
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